Episode 0024: Hard Sci-Fi

After several dozen fruitless conversations with locals—most of whom have never heard of the Hoth system—I have come to the unfortunate conclusion that the Wampa ice creature does not make its home in the frozen Northern wasteland that is Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.¹ This is just one of many myths that a thirteen-hour journey to the aforementioned peninsula has dispelled.² My failure to find vast, wild herds of nomadic, bipedal reptomammals suited to be ridden as mounts over snow-covered plains is likewise disappointing, but for entirely different reasons.³

Meanwhile, back in an undisclosed location near Cleveland, Overlord Miller has been far from idle in my absence. I fully expect to find his new office chair behind my desk when I return, as he has been somewhat less than subtle with his hints that it lacks sufficient lumbar support and that the biometric security scanner “doesn’t like” his DNA.⁴ While not covertly rearranging office furniture, Overlord Miller has also managed to record a new podcast episode; one that features a guest who is neither a clone nor being “interviewed” against his will.⁵

Thomas “cmdln” Gideon hosts The Command Line , a podcast that—along with its accompanying blog—”explor[es] digital citizenry as a creator and consumer.” I take that first bit to mean we’ll all be rendered unto ones and zeroes before the interview is concluded, but I suppose it’s open to interpretation.

Promo: The Command Line, a podcast that is so two sentences ago.

Discussion: Technology in Science Fiction

• In the beginning there was Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley, considered by some to be the first science fiction novel. Man meddled with forces beyond his ken and hilarity ensued.
• Sometime after the beginning⁶ there was Little Brother by Cory Doctorow. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a link to Thomas’ interview with Cory so you didn’t have to search for it? Yes. It sure would.
• Sometime after the beginning but slightly before, concurrent with, and then after Little Brother (and Cory Doctorow) there was Charles Stross (Glasshouse, Accelerando). There was also Greg Egan (Diaspora, Permutation City). To add to the confusion, there was also Vernor Vinge (Rainbow’s End, “The Coming Technological Singularity“). They all wrote books. Coincidence? I think not.
• Oh, and Richard K. Morgan (Market Forces; the Takeshi Kovacs novels, beginning with Altered Carbon), William Gibson (regarded by many as the father of cyberpunk) and Neal Stephenson (Cryptonomicon, The Baroque Cycle, Anathem).
• SPOILER ALERT! Spoilers for Neal Stephenson’s Anathem begin at approximately 20:10 in this episode. The Anathem discussion concludes at approximately 29:00.

Musical Interlude: Horizontal Asymptote by Nicole Campbell [wikipedia] – “A song about a line’s struggle to get closer to a horizontal asymptote with a fear of intimacy.”

More Authors

• Isaac Asimov (The Foundation series)
• Arthur C. Clarke (Childhood’s End, 2001: A Space Odyssey)
• David Louis Edelman (Infoquake, MultiReal)
• Robert Heinlein (Starship Troopers, Stranger in a Strange Land)
• Alastair Reynolds (Revelation Space, House of Suns)
• Rudy Rucker (The Ware Tetralogy, Postsinguarlity)
• John Scalzi (Old Man’s War)
• Robert Silverberg (Invaders From Earth)
• Bruce Sterling (Schismatrix, The Difference Engine with William Gibson)
• David J. Williams (The Mirrored Heavens, The Burning Skies)
• Walter Jon Williams (Hardwired, The Praxis)

Etc.

• Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine.
• Personal Effects: Dark Art by J.C. Hutchins and Jordan Weisman

Lairkeeping

• Our theme music remains “Skullcrusher Mountain” by Jonathan Coulton, at least until the check bounces.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 42:17 — 38.7MB)

1. Christmas is ruined. [↩]
2. Another being that it is a frozen wasteland in June. Temperatures have averaged in the high seventies to low eighties over the past several days; not exactly the ideal place to hire sub-zero shock troops. [↩]
3. The Secret Lair’s 1st Annual Arctic Polo Tournament has been postponed indefinitely. [↩]
4. His neuroses gene is clearly not recessive. [↩]
5. It’s an interesting concept, but I can’t see us taking this approach too often. [↩]
6. At least 5,000 years. [↩]

Related posts:

1. Episode 0031: Free Content vs. Paying the Creator
2. Episode 0027: You’ve Got Your Fantasy in My Science Fiction!
3. Episode 0019: Slightly-Used Year Media Extravaganza
4. Episode 0025: I Need a (Super) Hero

1. 

   Cobalt says:

   June 29, 2009 at 10:28 am

   Just finished listening to this one, good discussion! You listed a great chunk of my favorite authors for sci-fi: Rucker, Stross, Doctorow, and Egan. To that I’d add Ian McDonald and Jeff Noon.
   Thanks for the spoiler warning for Anathema, too. That’s on /my/ giant-pile-to-read for sometime in the future. I remember enjoying Cryptonomicon, reading it right after it came out. Though it was during a summer I was doing hardly anything else, so I finished the entire book in a week! Somehow I don’t think I could do that with Anathema.

   Currently in audio I’m making my way through the Books of Ember, while in dead-tree I’m re-reading the Atrocity Archives, and need to pick up the second Laundry novel–so glad to hear there will be more of these coming soon!
2. 

   Kris says:

   July 21, 2009 at 10:07 am

   @Cobalt — I’ve been reading (okay, listening to) Neal Stephenson’s latest epic novel for nearly nine weeks now; if you can finish that monster in a week you’re a better man than me.