Impressions of Novacon 42

'Sup? Back and ready to get going.

Music: La Isla Bonita performed by Alizee

Back late yesterday from Novacon 42. My third Novacon in the five years I've been in England and a relaxing, enjoyable experience.

The Novacons are run by the Birmingham SF group and are held each November in Nottingham. They are small affairs with a single stream of discussions that combine literature, science and, what else?, beer. There's also a deal room and an art show, and a few off-stream events.

As one might expect at a smaller con, Novacon has a bit of a clichy feel to it. Many of the attendees are long time SF con-goers and have known each other for sometime. But that's not to say they aren't friendly, and I had a number of enjoyable discussions over the weekend.

Other than the program, however, my principle focus at Novacon is the art show, which was ably run this year, as with most others, by Serena Culfeather and her husband John. Unlike Eastercon, Novacon is short and sweet, lasting essentially one full day plus bits on either site. The art is shown for one full day with an auction at noon on the Sunday.

I missed Novacon last year, as I was recovering from ACL surgery, but this year I brought a suitcase of stuff down, including canvas prints, framed prints, acrylic pictures, snow globes and a mug with heat-sensitive colouring (when filled with hot water, a picture shows on the outside). While I had hoped some of the acrylic desk pictures might sell (but didn't) I was none-the-less pleasantly surprised with the outcome of the auction, which saw the sale of one canvas (Urban Future: Aliens), one framed picture (Gaia), a snowglobe (Gaia), and the mug (The Devil's in the Details).

The result, after what must have been some interesting bidding, was my best showing since I started selling my art. I understand a big part of that was due to the Ternents, who bought several of my pieces, and I'd like to thank them deeply for their support.

So ends Novacon 42 and it's already time to start planning for next year and Eastercon 64. It's right next door in Bradford, so I have no excuse not to exhibit there. And, as always, I've been inspired to get my online art prescence properly sorted out. Again. But this time I'll do it. Really.

Insight and longevity.

Novacon Weekend!

'Sup? Packin' and cleanin', packin' and cleanin'

Music: Somebody that I used to Troll - SC2 parody of Gotye's song, by SanchoPandaSC

Just packing for Novacon 42: Don't Panic! Yeah, sci-fi fans are so predictable. It's this weekend at the Park Hill Inn in Nottingham. If you're in the area, drop in and say hi. The guest of honour is Jaine Fenn, whom I did an interview with for Utility Fog Press a few years ago. Wow, time really does fly.

And yet, regarding life and cons, I've found a strange temporal dichotomy in my life. While the days seem shorter and time is passing faster, the space between cons somehow seems longer?! I don't really know what to make of that except, perhaps, that I'm distracted by 'real life' more than I've been in the past, and it's consuming much more of my thoughts.

Anyway, this con is a short one, at only about 2 days, as compared to the four days of Eastercon. I'll have some artwork up as usual, although also as usual, I'll be attending the panel discussions and milling about rather than standing dutifully by my display. I'm trying out a few new products and we'll see how they go over. I also have another couple of art product ideas in the pipeline that I couldn't get ready in time. Hint: T-shirt designs and laptop covers for a few.

I'll likely be getting more serious with my CafePress account for these items, but I'll post a note here when I they're ready.

So for now, just packing, getting the art and laptop ready for travel, cleaning the house so the missus doesn't have to worry about it this weekend. The usual pre-travel checklist. Have a good weekend everyone.

Insight and longevity.

An Open Letter to Big Biz re:Galactic Economies

'Sup? Packing and stuff

Music: Live to Win by Paul Stanley

Dear Big Biz,

How you doing? Pretty good I think, despite the global economy. Don't worry, I'm not hear to rant, and I'm not here to talk politics or ideologies. I'm here to talk money.

By now there's little doubt that consumerism is where it's at. Not only is it useful for distracting the third estate, but it's also the easiest, and least violent, road to power. Well, generally less violent, but I promised I wouldn't be distracted by politics. But the thing is, while you've amassed power here on Earth, you've surely realized that is peanuts to the kind of wealth and power that resides 'out there'. Yep. I mean in space.

But I know you don't believe me, or you'd already be out there, so here me out.

Yes, many a sci-fi writer has tried, in vain, to convince you that just mining the asteroids itself would be a more worthwhile venture than anything possible on Earth alone. You haven't listened to them, so I don't expect you to listen to me. Instead, I'll appeal to your megalomania.

And let's face it, you all have that in spades. The reason for getting wealthy in the first place may be personal, but sooner or later everyone with power begins to think of building their dynasty. So I'm coming at you from right between your legs. Yep, you're offspring, you're little tykes, you're sperm and eggs that will ensure your immortality in the history books.

So the first thing to realize is that all you've amassed, all you've built could be lost at the drop of a hat. That is,, a mile wide, rocky hat crashing into us from space. Sad isn't it, that one tiny huck of debris could instantly vapourize all your hard work, all your future? And there's one on the way that has better odds of hitting Earth than you do of winning the lottery.

Or maybe some psychologically-challeged genius invents a [enter your worst fear here] and wipes out most/all of the human race. That's also a very real possibility, especially as technology advances and more and more hi-tech reaches the hands of the average person. As likely as not, this could also happen in the current century.

So, reason number one to go into space: survival. To let the dynasty live on. If the eggs are in different baskets, they can't be destroyed by one careless act.

Admittedly, you must have heard that reason and have already made your decision whether or not to believe/worry about it. Most likely you've decided it's all a bunch of hoo-ha, being as I haven't heard of any deep-crust shelters or space arks under construction. So, I've got another reason that will appeal to your patriotic zeal and desire for control. Oh yea, and untold wealth. And as far as we know, it's ours for the taking. What we don't know is how long that will last.

Just think of it. Earth is one tiny planet circling one pretty insignificant star. Our galaxy is 100,000 light years across with several hundred-million stars. Circling each star, on average, there are likely to be several planets based on what we've been finding in the last few decades. To date, of course, we know of precisely one intelligent species. Us.

So, assuming that's all there is at the moment, there's no hurry. Except for one thing.

We don't know if we're alone.

There could be numerous intelligent lifeforms in our own galaxy that we simply haven't had time to detect. Consider that SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, has been searching the skies for around 50 years with no success. In real terms, that means they've been able to detect radio waves that were no more than 50 light years away when SETI started. I remind you that the galaxy is 100,000 light years across and we are 20,000 light years from the closest edge--and therefore, obviously, about 80,000 light years from the other edge.

In other words, we've barely scratched the surface of the search.

Now, it's true that if a space-faring civilization existed 100,000 years ago we could be detecting them. If they haven't died out. Or moved on. Or learned how to hide their transmissions. But it's not unreasonable to think that intelligence takes time to evolve, and thus they may have reached civilization on a time scale very close to ours. Or perhaps even a little bit after us.

So they could be out there, at a similar stage of development to us. Do you really want them to take control of space first? Think what that could mean.

1. Their galactic empire grows first.
2. They take control of unique resources, allowing them to grow further and faster.
3. Their empire dominates the galaxy.

Now, maybe that doesn't sound bad to you. After all, they could be friendly. Everything might work out well... despite numerous examples in human history to the contrary.

But I know you. And I know you would not be happy with this situation. And I know why.

Because you wouldn't control the economy.

Yes, that's right. Whoever gets out there first, whoever gets their empire built first, sets the rules. And that includes the economic rules. Humans would instantly become second-class citizens in the galaxy, having to live in a system created by real aliens--not the kind you pretend to dislike while secretly hiring to avoid paying employee taxes. No, these are honest to goodness, bonafide, don't think like humans, may not particularly like humans, aliens. Only we'd be the ones asking for crap jobs to live in their rich civilization.

So, Big Biz, as I know you're all about controlling power, why aren't you creating space programs, and encouraging research into extraterrestrial colonization. Because if they beat you to it, you'll never regain that lost power.

Best wishes,

Edwin H Rydberg

P.S. Insight and longevity

Images from the Scrapbook

'Sup? Another rainy, dreary day in Isles

Music: You Should Be Dancing by the Bee Gees

 I've been on a bit of a political rampage lately, so I thought I'd get real now and calm things down a little.

I recently found myself looking through backup directories for some images, and found a number of ideas and partially finished drafts that I'll likely not go back to. So I thought I'd share a few here. In some cases I never finished them because of software upgrades. For example, when I went from Daz3D v2 to v3, there were problems reading the files. I've now discovered that the latest update of version 3 seems to have fixed that, so perhaps I will go back to a few (so I won't show those here).

Slow Burn - EHRydberg

 Slow Burn is a fairly early image I did combining models from Daz3D with landscaping and other models from Bryce. It was meant to have a book cover feel set around a story idea I'd had.

I've always liked the way the image turned out, but if I could find the original files, I'd like to remove the shadow under the big ship and possilby make a better divide between the people and ships so that it would more easily fit into a book cover format.

Tunnel - EHRydberg

Called 'Tunnel' for lack of a better title, this image was done by playing with primitives and texture/lighting in Bryce. The idea was a tunnel between times or dimensions, the close on being primitive, the distant more advanced. I developed this image further, but thanks for various moves and computer crashes, I can't find any of the other images.

Beach Memories - EHRydberg

Hellsing - EHRydberg

 Beach memories and Hellsing were both done primarily in Daz3D as simple model-centric images. Further postprocessing with Gimp made them what they are today.

With Beach Memories I've just played with the photo filter, which adds the specific border and a sepia colour filter to give it that aged-photo look.

Hellsing was a bit boring until I used the radial blur to give the appearance of action. I'm not entire I've used the optimal setting as looking at parts of the image almost give me a headache! Regardless, the blurred version is far more dramatic than the original.

The oval lighting was most easily achieved in Daz3d using a spotlight, although I suppose a similar affect could be achieved with a mask in Gimp.

Mutant Spider Woman - EHRydberg

 Mutant Spider Woman. The title kind of says it all. This creation was made around an idea for part of my Gateway story series where one colony of human have landed on a particularly mutagenic planet and changed into spider-like people over several hundred years. There's more to it than that, by why spoil the story for you?

The Daz3D image was created using several Victoria models overlapped and then turning off visualization of all but their legs. I'm quite happy at how the model turned out, but I haven't had call to use it in any further images as of yet. Although now that I've dug it out again, maybe I'll play some more.

Spygirl - EHRydberg

 Spygirl is another portrait experiment made a rendered entirely in Daz3D. My main interest was in seeing if I could get some dramatic light and shadow. I used a single spotlight and played with the positioning until there was just a bit of back lighting and it worked fairly well. If I was to do this again, I would probably use multiple spotlights with some set not to cast shadow, just to get more control over the model's front.

Underwater Search - EHRydberg

This was early attempt at an underwater scene in Bryce. I'm quite happy at how the light and colour turned out, although I didn't develop the image any further.

The water effect can essentially be achieved in multiple ways with Bryce. The easiest and cheapes on the renderer is just putting  a coloured plane in front of the camera. The other is to use a water-textured volume. I think in this experiment I actually did the latter, which is a very demanding render. I haven't played too much more with water scenes, as my main interests lay elsewhere at the moment, but I still think to return to it again sometime as water pieces do have an attractive, eerie quality to them.

Insight and longevity

'Persecuted' is an Overused Word in Modern Times

'Sup? Hoping hurricane Sandy loses steam before reaching Canada

Music: Eyes Wide Open by Gotye

These days it seems everyone feel persecuted, even those who have no reason to. Or perhaps the word has just become overused and people have forgotten what it really means. After all, how can someone belonging to a group with over a billion members worldwide, who controls the dominant Western governments, still feel they're being persecuted? Is it because they no longer have the freedom to excercise the bigotted parts of their beliefs?

While there are numerous examples of this in recent times, I'm specifically referring to the following article where a Christian couple who run a B&B refused full and equal service to a gay couple.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/oct/18/bnp-nick-griffin-address-gay-couple

They owners recently lost the court case against them and they are quoted as saying:

"Naturally, my husband and I are disappointed to have lost the case and to have been ordered to pay £3,600 in damages for injury to feelings. We have the option to appeal, and we will give that serious consideration. We believe a person should be free to act upon their sincere beliefs about marriage under their own roof without living in fear of the law. Equality laws have gone too far when they start to intrude into a family home."

There are so many things wrong with their statement that's it's hard to begin. So consider this: a hypothetical religion that preaches hatred against some group--say, the elderly. Should its members then be allowed to discriminate because their religion says they can? Of course not. They must still act within the dictates of the society they live it. This is the fundamental reason we have separation of church and state in modern western countries--so that all members of the state are respected by the laws, and not just those people who subscribe to a specific theistic belief system


I do admit to being torn about this story in one regard. It's hard not to feel that businesses should be allowed to deal with whomever they want and live or die by their racist, bigotted views. After all, should people not vote with their wallets? Well, no. Businesses should not be above the law that the rest of us are subject to, nor should they be allowed to set public policy, which is exactly what would happen if they could choose which part of society they sell to.

And make no mistake, despite their claims otherwise, this couple are running a business. I think we all realize that's what a Bed and Breakfast is. So, for many reasons, to allow this couple to cry foul on ground of freedom of religion is ludicrous at best, and harmful to society at its worst.

Insight and longevity.

Of Traitors and Religion

 'Sup? RSI's galore. Why does this body of mine lock up so fast?

Music:  Skyfall by Adele

I had a strange thought today. Hard to put it away, however, especially given my sci-fi bent, so I figured I put it down here.

Eseentially, the question is this:

Could those who worship a God be considered traitors to humanity?

The answer depends on what you deem the nature of God to be and, to a lesser extent, what his/her/its motives are.

For example, if you believe God to be the anthropormorphism of nature then, of course, there is no issue. God is essentially a metaphor and a metaphor can't, in and of itself, harm anyone.

But most people, and especially most church/mosque/synagogue goers, tend to believe God is a real, actual, physical--albeit intangible, invisible--being. They have to, otherwise what purpose is there to frequent a place who's sole existence is for the worship of such a being? And they believe it with their heart despite generally not thinking through the following questions:

Where does God live? What are his affiliations?

As a physical being, the answer in our hearts is not satisfactory as that's essentially another metaphor, like saying Elvis resides in our hearts. A more telling answer is everywhere, so let's think on that.

Everywhere essentially implies the entire universe, or Earth and everywhere else. Although this would be incredibly challenging for any organic being, dependent on the true nature of the universe of course, it could be possible for an immensely old machine. But that's irrelevant. The real issue here is that more of God is out there than is here on Earth, simply by scale and vastness of the universe. That is, there is no reason to consider that God has any particular loyalty or affiliation to Earth.

I am, of course, making the assumption that the bible maybe inspired by, or even written by, God, but there is no reason to believe it is the absolute truth of life and everything [see my last post An Open Letter to Christians].

So, God is not a human, and resides mostly in the wider universe or elsewhere, and we have no evidence to believe that He has put any particular stock in the future well-being of humanity. In fact, even the bible suggests that He has been particularly kind to us in the past. So, whether by track record, or logical extrapolation, we conclude that, at best, God would be indifferent to our plight, and could, given provokation, be hostile.

Why Support/Worship God?

Given that we know very little of His motives, His whereabouts, or even His nature, why do so many humans worship Him?

Some will suggest it's love. Thank you for creating us and everything else and all that. And for some people this is probably true. For many others the answer is fear. The fear of God's wrathful vengeance, the fear of eternal damnation in the afterlife, or the fear that he will wipe out humanity. In other words these people want to be on the winning side when God comes down hard on us.

Think on that for a minute. These people willing side with a foreign power against their own.

Now if, for example, I replace 'humanity' with 'American' and 'God' with 'North Korea' then most people will immediately see that an American siding wth North Korea to bring about the destruction of the US is a traitor to America. So why is it when we see a fundamentalist gleefully proseletizing about God wiping out humanity, we just grin and ignore it? Well, my own view is that most people, religious or otherwise, don't really believe in God as an actual being, they just think they do. But that's for another post.

Traitors then?

So I propose that, in many cases, religious fundamentalists could easily be considered traitors to humanity. Of course, following that reasoning, those who love and worship God to court His favour would be considered patriots, with the following caveat. A superior power may rule for a time, and courting favour for survival is a fine and useful end when necessary, but it does a great disservice to your species if you begin to believe the rhetoric and forget that you too can achieve great things.


Also please remember that this has just been a thought experiment. I find it interesting to follow to conclusion some of these ideas and who knows, they may find their way into a future novel. But for now...

Insight and longevity.

An open letter to Christians

'Sup? Late again.

Music: Son of Sam by Shinedown

First off, this is not a rant.

And I'm not dissing Christianity or any other religion.

I'm also not trying to convert anyone to anything. Nor am I going to present you with numerous scientific facts to contradict the bible or any other religious text. Those are games for university kids and I've had enough of those discussions to know that faith can't be swayed by such things.

Instead, I only propose a few family-oriented questions/thoughts to ponder--after all, we're all in the family of God, are we not? These are mostly aimed at fundamentalists, those who take the bible as literal truth and who think we should spend our entire existence in worship, although all are welcome to read and think on them.

On Eternal Servitude and Leaving the Earthly Nest:

Do you think God, as a parent, would want us to remain forever in His home, always kowtowing, running to Him whenever there's a storm, or would He want us to grow up sometime, moving out into the universe on our own and eventually speaking to Him as equals?

Which would you want for your own children? Personally I would hope that I've done a good enough job raising my daughter that she's capable of, and not afraid to, go out into the world on her own.

The Bible Literally. Are You Sure It's the Whole Truth and Nothing But the Truth?

 If we were as children to God, then would it be realistic for Him to reveal all truths in the bible if He didn't think we were ready to understand?

People of the biblical era had no way of comprehending even the basics of what we now take for granted, how could they possibly understand fundamental truths of the universe. Do you, as a parent, teach your children everything you know, as you now understand it? Of course not, they wouldn't understand without greater knowledge and experience. Instead, you teach them partial truths, or stories that describe the general idea of the truth, but aren't necessarily true themselves. Believing the literal truth of the bible is like growing up never realizing that Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy aren't real.

My child, for example, watches the kids' show Octonauts. It features a group of intelligent animals that speak to each other and learn about/help other sea creatures. It's a fun show that teaches her something about the ocean and its animals. But of course as she grows older she's realized that it's not real, that animals don't actually talk like that. So the show serves a valuable purpose, and teaches useful lessons, without being the literal truth.


That's all.  For me, those two considerations, using our own family experiences, are enough to strongly suggest that even if the bible is written by God, it in no way need embody the literal truth of the world or creation. Moreover, I see no reason that a loving God would want us to worship Him forever, and not venture out into the universe to make our own way, possible meeting Him as equals at some point.

Insight and longevity.

Warning: Tongue in Cheek Reviewers on Amazon

'Sup? Just caught a cold from the little one. My throat is on fire :(

Playing on My Life's Soundtrack:  Major by The Asteroids Galaxy Tour

Okay, so in the world of the internet it's a well-known rule that you can't take everything you read at face value. At least it should be (and it should be the first question on any future tests for licensing internet users). But I have the sneaking suspicion that most people don't follow that rule much when it comes to product review sites.

When visiting, for example, Amazon, all but the newest products have consumer ratings, presumably by people who have used the product. They are there to gauge customer satisfaction and to allow the potential buyer to guage what the product might be like without actually seeing it in the real. There are some interesting and often useful comments for most products. If I'm looking to buy something off Amazon I'll often read a selection of the 5star, 3star and 1star reviews to get a well-rounded feel for the product. But how often do we just look at the star rating and say 'oh, 4.5 stars, that must be pretty good?', and go no further. Or we see that the 5stars heavily outweight the other ratings so figure it must be good? Often, I suspect.

But are all the reviews real?

Those of you who know me, know I'm a bit of a gamer. Specifically, I enjoy Starcraft II, action-RPGs and MMOs. I also enjoy watching some of the popular gaming channels on Youtube. Today, I was checking out Jeff (MaximusBlack) of the Canadian duo LifesaglitchTV (LAGTV) as he played through a Street Cleaning simulator (yes, that's correct) developed by Astragon and published by Excalibur Publishing. Here's the video if you're interested (warning, some bad language).

I've shown you this video primarily so you can get an idea for yourselves of what the game is like (I also think its very funny, but that could be me). Jeff mentioned that he paid $40CAD for this and I was so surprised I had to check it out.

Now, for anyone looking forward to playing this, it is actually available on Amazon for under £10. But what immediately struck me was the high star ratings for the game. Out of 27 reviews, there were twenty-four 5 stars. Yes, 24! Either there was something greatly missing from Jeff's video, or there was something weird going on with the reviews.

You may have guessed, it was the latter.

 Some of the shorter reviews read like the following:

Whackaday!

Don't buy this if you want to have a life for the next three weeks. The most addictive game on the market BAR NONE. Don't want to give too much away as the plot is scintillating from start to finish. At times, I forgot what was reality and what was simulator.

Mr. J. Proudfoot

I enjoyed this a lot, a great way to pass the time while I waited for my operation. I think games like this should be taken more seriously. Very good fun, my only concern was that they did not include Mercedes Benz Econic 1823LL CRC which is my favourite garbage truck.

D.C.Brown

This is certainly one of the most intense games I have played in quite a while. Not since my ZX81 and "text" adventures have I had so much fun. A mate of mine insists that "Bass Fishing" is better, I disagree ,the man is an idiot. My only small criticism is the lack of strategy guide, I would gladly pay £30+ if one is ever published. Although at least there is Wiki [...]

All of these gave 5-star ratings and are quite clearly tongue in cheek reviews. In fact, the gamer community has reacted with so much sarcasm that there is now a video extolling the 'wonders' of the game (btw it came to gamers' attention when it receive a very rare 'abysmal' rating from Gamespot).

I, personally, don't mind this. I think it's a very creative response by the gamer community. However, it's important to be aware that this exists and that not all reviews and ratings are realistic. Clearly, in the case of this game, unsuspecting parents could buy this game for Christmas and be very incredulous when their kid trades it to a 4-year old for a bag of M&Ms.

So consider yourself warned. Caveat emptor (but this time not from the sellers).

Incidentally, if you are actually interested in this type of game, Astragon has released over a dozen other simulators, ranging from Garden Simulator, Bus Simulator 2, and Pro Fishing, to Surgery Simulator. Have Fun!

Insight and longevity.

Do Supergirls Dream of Blue Spandex?

'SUP? Adjusting to a new schedule *again*

Playing on My Life's Soundtrack: Clockwork Angels by Rush

Here's the official reveal for my Rockethub project: Echoes of the Past, the first book in the Do Supergirls Dream of Blue Spandex?: Altered Destiny Trilogy. Check it out, there are some great rewards for funding, including collectors' edition signed hardback books and the option to create your own superhero for inclusion in the next book.

And also check supergirldreams.com or Destiny-City.com for the first chapter, background information on the story, a list of supporters, and how to acquire the book when it's released. More webpages will be released after each 25% of funding is reached.

Do Supergirls Dream of  Blue Spandex: Altered Destiny is a dramatic, romantic, sometimes comedic, superhero series that follows the adventures of three women in Destiny City (please note, there are adult relationship themes, so it's not for minors). Echoes of the Past, the first book of the trilogy, follows the exploits of Charlene Stanfeld, a.k.a. Starshine as she tries to stop a series of strange thefts, avoid unwanted advances from her boss, and resist the charms of hot villain she's been wrestling.

Yes, it's a bit of departure from my usual sci-fi, but not that far, after all, it is superheroes. However, more than the cliche hero/villains, the stories in Destiny City explore relationship themes in a superhero context, using this window of hyperbole to view common interpersonal conflicts more clearly. The nice thing about this vehicle is that it can lend itself to humour even while revealing truth.

I wrote the first draft several years ago and hadn't planned on doing anything further with it. But with everything happening lately I thought it would be best to pull out some of my older works, like Supergirls, for revision, rather than try and concentrate on finishing something new (although, of course, with my short attention span, I still have several stories in early writing / outlining stages--but that discussion is for another post). I've found that 'revision', in my case at least, typically mean reworking the entire story. However, I do believe my stories are better for the extra work.

If Echoes of the Past goes over well, I'll finish the trilogy and possibly write some other stories set in the same city (I already have a few ideas). And, of course, there's the web site to update, and the video trailer to make... best get back to work!

Insight and longevity.

Road to Publication - A New Gatekeeper

STATUS: sexy and I know it (lmao)

Music:  Mr. Saxobeat by Alexandra Stan

I think most serious amateur authors are quite aware of the publication options that currently exist, and what is required for each. I referring, of course, to: Traditional (agent/publisher), vanity (honest company with quality services), self (knowledge/time/printer/distribution hub). Both vanity and self-publishing have been altered greatly by the advent of the internet, as has traditional publishing primarily through the advent of the e-book. However, a new player has recently entered the game: crowdfunded publishers.

At this point many readers are saying crowdfunding's not new, kickstarter has been around for years and they are right. There have also been many notable success stories for writers on kickstarter. But kickstarter is not a publisher. They are a crowdfunding platform that allows authors to raise money for self-publishing, marketing and distribution. Now, however, one company has gone a step further.

Unbound.co.uk is a crowdfunding site specifically for authors. It's not completely open, like traditional crowdfunding sites, however (yes, I already dare use the phrase 'traditional crowdfunding'!). For example, authors don't just log-on and put up a project. They must pitch their book idea to the people at Unbound (electronically, but it's still pitching). If Unbound accepts the idea, they make a project for the author, complete with pre-set funder rewards.

Don't worry, crowdfunders will recognize some of these rewards as pretty standard for successful book funding: £10 gets an e-book, £30 gets a print hardback copy, £50 is a signed hardback copy. Higher rewards are interesting and require further commitment by the author: £150 invite to book's launch party (+book copies), £250 pub lunch with author (+book copies). The higher levels are also author-customized to some extent.

At first glance it looks just like an author-specific crowdfunding site. But once the realization comes that Unbound are the publishers and organize some of the other events, it quickly becomes apparent that they are, in fact, a new model of publisher. Essentially, they select a range of novels they are intersted in publishing then use public interest (voted for with £) to choose which books to actually produce.

I think this is a very interesting idea and is addressing the stagnant and celebrity-dominated nature of the current publishing industry and this can't be a bad thing. The only thing I would hope for at the moement would be more clarity for authors on their site. They give very little information regarding what happens after the book is written, i.e. how long are the print runs, how much royalty does the author make, who owns the rights, etc. If the print run is only for the number of funders, then the offer is not terribly good, unless there is some kind of after-publication deal or services.

I am in the process of trying to get more information from them and will post when some of the questions have been clarified. However, in general, I think this is a great, forward-thinking idea and I hope it works well.

Insight and longevity.

Pet Peeves - No Dates

 STATUS: dog tired

Music: Gangnam Style

The modern internet has been around almost 20 years now. Recent statistics suggest there are 150,000 new URLs per day and 350,000,000 registered domains. In 2008 google indexed 1 trillion unique URLs. Viva the information age.

With the massive size and scope of the internet, any and all information can be found and the information content of the net makes an encyclopedia look like a kid's book. If I need to find anything, I run immediately to google. Medical, cooking, parenting, cars, gardening, anything you need to know about can be found on the net.

Of course, because anyone can post a website claiming anything, good search techniques and a discriminating mind must be used to discern which information to trust. And that brings me to my pet peeve. Because, in addition to learning how to separate the real from the deceptive or downright fraudulent, it's also important to realize that information expires.

It's obvious when you think about it, any kind of medical or scientific information will become outdated to a degree and will need updating regularly. This could be expecially problematic with regards to drugs or self-diagnoses (which is apparently becoming very common). Product information, especially on software (and definitely fan sites on games) need regular updating as products come and go and change so quickly in the modern world. So, part of good internet technique is checking the date on the information provided.

Unfortunately, it seems many sites do not realize the importance of dating their sites and end up doing a great disservice to their viewers by potentially providing out of date information. I've long since lost count of the number of times I've found a page with the information I wanted, only to be unable to find a date, and thus unable to just the validity of the information. In such cases, the page and all content on it become useless to me.

I can hope that, like record and movie companies using outdated financial models, this is just another sign of the times changing more rapidly than our thoughts. But I feel it's a potentially very dangerous one. Sure people digging up a chocolate chip cookie recipie from 10 years ago is not going to be a problem, but old exercise or diet information could be harmful and old drug information could be deadly.

So please, if you are a web master, ensure that all your pages, and all articles posted by contributors, have accurate dates included in the header. After all, the date is as important a piece of information when judging validity as the content.

Insight and longevity.

Something Old, Something New

STATUS: gettin' real

Music: Mr. Saxobeat by Alexandra Stan

Hi everyone, thought I'd bring this out now as I'm getting close to going forward with a old/new project. Without mentioning too much at the moment (more next week, when the next stage should be close to going live), I'll say that it's a fun story I did a number of years ago now. A bit of a divergence from my usual sci-fi, although not too much, I suppose, if you know me.

Regardless, since I've been having trouble getting serious and I've been wanted to get some projects that can/may bring some money, I decided to dust of some of the old stuff and revise it. In 2006-2007 I wrote three novel drafts: one original sci-fi which might be the project I work on after this one, one fan fiction of Unreal Tournament with original characters which is partially up on LsD, and this story.

Being as this novel is a bit of a different direction from my usual, I intend to self-publish under a pseudynom and have some fun with it. So I'm currently preparing a website and a video trailer, and I'm going to make a KickStarter, or more likely RocketHub (due to international restraints).

I'm a bit apprehensive about the crowd-funding of the book, but I want to try it out for a few reasons. First, I just want to see how it works and whether it might be useful for future projects. Second, and most importantly, since this story is setup as a trilogy, I want to gage whether there might be any interest for continuing the series or whether I should just put this one out and move on to something else.

So, that's about all for this rather cryptic post. If everything is ready by next week I'll have a more complete disclosure then. I promise.

Insight and longevity.

Supersized Sensationalism

STATUS: Under, in, and around the weather

Music: Heavy Fuel by Dire Straits

Sensationalist documentaries are all the thing these days and, like many people, I enjoy watching them. Michael Moore, of course, is the dominant producer in this field with Bowling for Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11, etc., but there are others, like Morgan Spurlock and his Supersize Me! documentary on fast food, that also catch the zeitgeist.

I enjoy watching these movies as much as the next person. They're slick, at least somewhat informative and they make you think. Although they don't always make people think as they should. Because these movies tend to reinforces the zeitgeist of their target audience, that same audience tends not to think much beyond what has been suggested in the movie.

Now, I'm not going to go political here, and explore Michael Moore's movies. That kind of discuss would be for another time and place (incidentally, I tend to support the ideas of his movies, even if/when I believe I can see the motivational logic of the other side). But I'd like to take a far simpler, and less controversial example. Namely, Supersize Me! by Morgan Spurlock.

In Supersize Me! Spurlock goes on a very sensationalized eating routine to explore the effects of eating fast food. He eats 3 meals a day (breakfast, lunch, dinner) at McDonalds. Rules are that all food he eats for the month must be sold at McDonalds, he must have everything on the menu over the course of the month, and he must supersize the meal if asked. Without going through the details, the results from this 5000 calories/day experiment were weight gane of 24.5 lbs in the month, increase body fat, and a host of related health issues. Definitely suggesting fast food is bad for you.

Only, does it?

I'm ashamed to say that I didn't really question this movie much until I watched a Penn & Teller's Bullshit episode on fast food recently. There was an especially interesting psychological experiment highlighting how people perceive food from fast food restaurants as worse than food from normal restaurants even, as in the example in their show, when the food is exactly the same (briefly: food from Taco Bell and KFC were passed off as food from a Bistro, people responded favourable to the 'Bistro' food, but not when they knew it was fast food).

So, returning to Supersize Me! I think Spurlock is addressing an important point. But I don't think it's the one he has intended. To me, the real point revolves around eating at restaurants in general and that we are very bad at estimating how much we're eating when we eat out. But to demonstrate this I'd like to see the full experiment completed. What's needed is 30 days eating only at a 'normal', non-fast food, non-specialist restaurant to compare to the results of eating at a fast food restaurant.

A restaurant that serves all three meals. Rules:

1) a 'non-specialist', middle-class family restaurant that serves a variety of food
2) 3 full meals a day from the restaurant for 30 days
3) only food from the restaurant is eaten for the month
4) if options are offered, they must be accepted (i.e. starters, desert, coffee, etc.)

My personal suspicions are that any person attempting this would gain a similar amount of weight and weight-related issues, just as with fast food. After all, 'good food' is often as caloric (or even more so) than fast food. And they're always getting you to buy starters or deserts (we rarely do, but they always ask). So I suspect Mr. Spurlock would be in for another unhealth month if he tried his experiment at a 'normal' restaurant.

And perhaps people would come to understand that the real reason not to eat fast food 3 times a day is that it's deceptively expensive! We believe it's cheap because we're constantly told that. But, while you might be able to feed a family of four with a fast food supper on $20 (if you get a meal deal), you could easily feed a normal family of four for an entire day on $20, all three meals. So the real problem with fast food is that people forget it's is eating at a restaurant. Most normal families would not eat at a restaurant for three meals a day. It would be too expensive. Same with fast food.

Insight and longevity

Hospital Joy this Week

STATUS: distracted by the olympics

Music:  I of Crimson Blood by Amorphis

This was another week of hospital visits, which always seem to take longer than expected (sometimes much longer). Tuesday it was an MRI visit that lasted 1.5 hours and, due to a bad lower back and sensitive feet, was agonizing for the last 10 minutes of the scan. The second trip was to see the consultant about the MRI results. This trip ended up lasting >3 hours, including an unexpected x-ray and some lost paperwork.

Now don't get me wrong, I think the British Nation Health Service (NHS) is great. Once you finally get to a doctor, they generally take great care to listen to you and explain their views (with the rare exception of the occassional GP). If I have any complaints, it's that the support staff often seem to be going through the motions.There are nurses who are very friendly and do their best to help in any way, and their are the type of nurses who make the news for such appallingly bad care that patients can suffer (in some cases, die).

Since coming to the UK, I've been intimately involved with the medical system. Not only is my wife a Consultant, but I had cancer 1.5 years ago, meaning regular visits to Leeds for blood marker surveillance, ACL surgery a year ago leading to regular physiotherapy at the Harrogate hospital, and lately investigations regarding foot pain. Our daughter was also born in England. So we've experienced a lot of the NHS.

In fact, I'm beginning to believe that the orthopaedic and fractures unit, at least, thinks I've been around too much. The last two times I've been there they've misplaced my paperwork leading to delays of over an hour. Imagine an consultant appointment at 9am where I don't leave the hospital until after 12! I've also experience delays of over 3 hours in my oncology visits on occassion.

This all sounds bad, of course, and can be very frustrating. However, I know that in Canada, which also has a national health care system, the waits can be just as long, if not longer. I remember waiting a long time in the A&E after tearing my ACL. Likewise, in Israel, with a hybrid public health care system (i.e. you're forced to buy private insurance), I had a long wait after I tore my meniscus. Worse still, because of my previous knee injury, the menisectomy wasn't covered under the insurance I had been forced to buy (and we were forced to go into their private system for the surgery because the waiting time was too long and I'd planned to be out of the country before the public system could fit me in).

So, all in all, while a lot of my recent life has revolved around hospital visits--the good, the bad, and the ugly--I remain convinced that the UK has one of the best health care systems in the world and, if I need any health care, I'd rather it be here.

Insight and longevity.

Crazies on YouTube

 STATUS: WTF

Music: Stop by Ghost K

One of the hazards of being online so much is that occassionally (or even more often) I come across a claim so demonstrably false as to be laughable. For some reason, these bother me a lot and I can't rest until I've made some comment demonstrating their ludicrousness. So it was that today I came across the Youtube video: The Book of Revelation Is Happening NOW! You Must See This! The 7 Trumpets Are Blowing!

Possibly against my better judgement, I'll embed it here so you can judge for yourself.

The claim in the video is clearly that events since the beginning of WWII correspond to 'the 7 trumpets' of the book of revelations. What I'm going to do here is show that, whether you believe in the book of revelations or not, the claims are ludicrous.

Here we go (blue times are the beginning of each section in the video).

1:00  Trumpet 1

[7] The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.

Beginning of WWII as the first trumpet: the video claims the war lasted exactly 7 years. The official dates for the war are Sept 1, 1939 to Aug 15, 1944 -- that's only 6 years. Yes, many events lead up to the war, but those could equally be claimed to have started as early as 1933, or even the end of WWI.

1:33  Trumpet 2

 [8] And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood;
[9] And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.

The second trumpet as the end of WWII: the nuclear bombs were not dropped into the sea, they were detonated in the sky over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Furthermore, as horrific as the destruction of the Japanese cities were, clearly 1/3 of all sea life did not die from it. So this claim is also demonstrably false.

2:04  Trumpet 3 (falling star that poisoned the waters)

[10] And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;

 Chernobyl? Where does the video creator get the idea that Chernobyl fell like a star from the sky? If anything, the disaster launched from the Earth into the sky, as the radiation spread. The actual text reads:

[11] And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.

'Bitter' not 'poison' because wormwood is the name of a bitter plant that grows in Eurasia.

2:54  Trumpets 4-5 (darkness for 5 months)
 This section is highly interpretive, manipulating segments of these passages to use as the video producer sees fit. The relevant section reads:

Rev.8

[12] And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.
[13] And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!

Rev.9

[1] And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
[2] And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
[3] And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.
[4] And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.
[5] And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.
[6] And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.
[7] And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.

A) The actual invasion of Kuwait by Iraq last 3 days (Aug. 2-4, 1990) not 5 months. Even considering the entire occupation, the invasion would be 8 months. Furthermore, the Americans began their attack in Feb. 1991 (not Jan.) and reinstated the Kuwaiti leader Mar 15, 1991. Five months doesn't enter into this conflict anywhere.


B) while 8 months might be a long time for the sky to be darkened (by smoke from the oil wells, although they weren't lit until near the end of the conflict), the darkness hardly affected the whole world (or even a large region of it). Keep in mind that the entire sky is dark in the Arctic for almost 6 months / year, every year.

C) I guess Apache attack helicopters could look like very large locusts from a certain angle. But, the quote I found in book of revelations, King James edition, says this:

And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.

 Which is significantly different from the video producer's version. The rest goes...

[8] And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.
[9] And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.
[10] And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.

in context, it seems a lot less like apaches are being described (hair of women?).

D) now it gets really crazy. Saddam wasn't the leader of the Apaches, George Bush Sr. was. Either way, the actual name of the leader in the King James version was Abaddon (Hebrew) or Apollyon (Greek). While 'Abaddon' is a form of the word for destruction, Saddam's name is Arabic and means 'One who confronts' or 'Powerful Commander'. Neither of these are necessarily synonymous with 'destroyer'.

5:34  Trumpet 6 (the four hoursemen)

[13] And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,
[14] Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.
[15] And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.
[16] And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.
[17] And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.
[18] By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.
[19] For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt.
[20] And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:
[21] Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.

The version of revelations above (King James) didn't say the horsemen would gather at the Euphrates, it said they were bound at the Euphrates, and would be released from their bonds there, presumably to go throughout the world and destroy (otherwise, how to kill so many people?)

[14] Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.

Furhermore:
A) who thinks tanks look like lions?
B) the producer seems to conveniently overlook the idea that there should be 200,000,000 soldiers just in the horsemen's army alone, and they killed 1/3 of men (not just combatants in the war).
C) either way, far less than 1/3 of soldiers were killed, especially on the Allies side, which should have been fighting against the horsemen's army, according to the video's producer.
D) once again, selective and incorrect interpretation of this passage:

[20] And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:
[21] Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.

Sorceries and fornication are only two of the listed sins. In addition, Revelations doesn't state 'sexual immorality', as suggested in the video, it say 'fornication'. i.e. all unmarried sex (to fundamentalists, this is the same, to most of us, there are very big difference). Likewise, 'sorceries' could very easily mean science and technology to someone 2000 years ago, as much as witchcraft.

7:34 Trumpet 7
Not sure what to say for this one, as nothing's been stated. I guess the idea is that, if you believe the other 6 'trumpets', then you should be worried that the seventh will be blowing soon. However, since I've clearly shown the first six to be completely fabricated (and poorly), it appears we have nothing to worry about.

I always find it amusing that people believing this literally, feel they will be going to heaven. However, The Book of Revelations clearly states only 144,000 people get into heaven during the end days--out of almost 10 billion! That's less than 0.002% of all people on the planet.

Rev.14

[1] And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads.

 With over a billion Christians, and millions of fundamentalists world-wide, their chances seem about as good as mine.

Anyway, for your own studies, here is a link to the King James edition of The Book of Revelations that I used. Check the claims in the video against the real item for yourself.

Insight and longevity.

Extraterrestrials, Great Filters, and hope for the Future

STATUS: getting back to business

Music: Dreamline - Rush

Recently, I was reading Nick Bostrom's (Director, Future of Humanity Institute; Professor of Philosophy, University of Oxford) article: Where are They? Why I Hope the Search for Extraterrestrials Life Finds Nothing and I found myself questioning some of the assumptions. What better place to voice my own views than in my blog. So, here we go.

Dr. Bostrom's reasoning behind the title essentially breaks down into a discussion of what's referred to as 'the Great Filter' and it's affect on our future. A Great Filter, is a concept that describes an incredibly difficult stage in in a process that is effectively a roadblock to the vast majority of species passing through it. For example, a stage in the development of a galactic civilization--a highly improbably developmental stage, a natural disaster, or autogenocide--that has a very high probability of ending the existence of most species that pass through it (by majority, it's meant >99.9999% -- not precisely, but you get the idea).

Why do we need the idea of a Great Filter? Well, if there is no Great Filter then, with the vast number of planetary systems in the galaxy (not to mention the universe), and the long expanse of time, alien species--including the highly advanced--should be everywhere. But they're not. So why not? (This is known as the Fermi Paradox).

Dr. Bostrom offers several possible candidates for a Great Filter, most of which I agree with. He also catagorises them into Early Filters (in our past) and Late Filters (in our future).

Early Filters
1) development of life (early self-replicators) from inorganic material
2) evolution of eukaryotes from prokaryotes
3) evolution of multicellular life
4) evolution of sexual reproduction (I'm not sure this is a large evolutionary leap, even bacteria have sex)

Late Filters
1) natural disasters
2) technology-induced autogenocide (an existential catastrophe)

The relationship to alien bacteria comes when you think of the consequences of the Early vs. Late Great Filters in respect to finding life in the universe.

If the Great Filter is an early one, then we would expect there to be relatively little life in the universe. In fact, we would be a rare, or possibly the only, species lucky enough to have survived. In this case, our chance of finding other life 'out there' would be almost non-existent. However, our species should then have a future devoid of any extinction-level surprises.

If, however, the Great Filter is a late one, that is, still in our future, then we should expect to find simple life, and even up to our own tech-level, on other planets. In fact, on a great many planets. For astrobiologists this is a great scenario, but for our species, not so much. It would mean that we still have to face the Great Filter. Probably in our near future. And the odds of our survival as a species would be exceedingly low.

It's scary, but well-reasoned stuff and I'm not here to detract from the general idea. I did, however, want to offer a tempered alternative.

My own view of the development of life in general, and especially intelligent life (from the 1 data point we have) is that it proceeds through what I call an annealing process.

For clarification, to anneal is (the free dictionary):
1) to subject to a process of heating and slow cooling in order to toughen and reduce brittleness
2) to strengthen or harden

So I envision the road to intelligent life as a series of catastrophic shake-ups of the biosphere (heating=add energy) that allows the biosphere to 'cool' in a new direction, with the development of new species.

For example, normal evolutionary processes take care of the small details. Speciation occurs in conjunction with the basic geographical evolution of the planet, and the biosphere can, and will, bubble away happily for a eons as the species evolve down one path to fit the environment, eventually reaching a dynamic equilibrium with each other and the world. But in a single interation such as this, in a relatively unchanging system, the results are likely to tend to a local minimum (there will be many more local minima than the few global minima). Which is to say that life could get 'stuck' under certain conditions, and wouldn't evolve past a particular stage. Without a geological catastrophe, very little significant evolution would occur in that system.

But introduce a global ice age (snowball Earth? - 650 million years ago), or an asteroid collision (65 million years ago) and the existing species suddenly have dramatically new conditions to influence their evolution. They will evolve in new directions until another minimum is reached and another catastrophe necessary.

Each of these stages I consider to be a new annealling process. The original system is heated up, grossly disturbed, and will change until is settles down into a new minimum. So each time the annealing happens, there are massive changes to the remaining biosphere. Species die out, giving other species, like humans, a chance to evolve that they never would have otherwise had.

Maybe I'm just being pedantic but, to me, the idea of a single Great Filter seems to over simply the development of intelligence. It seems to suggest a fairly simple, straight path with probability roadblocks in the way:

prokaryote-->[%P]-->eukaryote-->[%P]-->multicellular-->[%P]-->animal-->[%P]-->human

But my own thoughts are that the process is more akin to a multidimensional evolutionary landscape where the system could very easily find itself 'stuck' in a local minima, unable to proceed further until a random, catastrophic variable is introduced.

(a) would represent the relatively straight path of each stage in the Great Filter idea, with the filter being either at the top or bottom of the developmental stage. Presumably there would be some kind of blockage at the bottom (b) is akin to an evolutionary landscape with many local minima. If the biosphere is represented as a ball rolling down the landscape, it could easily get stuck before reaching the bottom, requiring the system to be 'heated up' to get it moving again. This image is used only as an example of a process with multiple energy minima, and is from Protein aggregation in disease: a role for folding intermediates forming specific multimeric interations, Arthur Horwich, J Clin Invest. 2002; 110(9):1211-1232. Incidentally, the complexity of protein folding mimics the evolutionary landscape I'm intending to describe, even to the point where unfolded proteins require help to navigate the landscape and reach their folded states at the bottom.

With this in mind, a Great Filter need not take the form described by Bostrom, as an extinction-level road block, reducing the number of intelligent lifeforms by killing them all off. Instead, the entire process itself could be viewed as a Great Filter with many long stops along the way, where only those reaching the bottom achieve intelligence and then move out of their gravity well to bring civilization to the universe.

So, I think my real issue with Dr. Bostrom's reasoning is that he suggests finding life, even ancient, dead, single-celled life on Mars, means that intelligent life would necessarily fourish in the galaxy (and therefore the Great Filter is ahead of us). I don't believe these can be equated. Getting from self-replicators to humans is not just a straight march of low probably steps, but a series of evolutionary minima that an ecosystem can get permanently stuck in without efficacious, sometimes catastrophic, factors acting on it. This also suggests that catastrophes are not life-ending, but only life rearranging, and are a necessary part of biophere evolution (and a way for getting through the filter). It could perhaps also suggest that, given enough time and catastrophes, most ecosystems should evolve intelligence. But clearly many, if not most, ecosystems would require vast time frames (it would, however, be interesting to know whether our own pattern of global extinctions would mimic that of another intelligent species).

Thus, without a snowball Earth (or some similar catastrophy) Earth may only be covered in bacteria or simply multicellular organisms. Without the asteriod 65 million years ago, dinosaurs might still rule the Earth. In both cases the great filter would be an 'Early' one, but the Earth would still be teeming with life. But none of it would be able to travel to the stars.

This could very well be the state of a great many planets. So, I for one, welcome any discovery of extraterrestrial life and I'm very hopeful of the future.

Insight and longevity

[stayed tuned for discussions of ways through a possible future filter]

The Road to Publication

STATUS: lethargy leave me!

Music: I'm Still Standing - Elton John 

I came to writing a bit late compared to many. I was working as a Biochemist after 12 years of university and a few post-doctoral posts, and I started writing because 1) I like creating stories, 2) I like books, and 3) I wanted to challenge myself, as I realized I had absolutely no idea how one went about producing a book. After a half-dozen years of concentrating on this new field (including starting a small press), it's very hard for me to remember what that was like.

Yet, having said that, I still find that the further I go into the field, the more I have to learn. Publishing some short fiction anthologies through Utility Fog Press was very valuable in teaching me some lessons on the editorial end of the business: why you don't submit in strange fonts and pink paper (it's happened), why you follow the submission guidelines to the letter--technical and genre--, and all the effort that goes into generating a quality book (cover image/design, front matter, interior layout, editing, copyediting, etc.). But there is so much more to learn when it comes to the authorial side.


Writing
When I began writing, I naively thought all their was to creating a story was to write. Don't get me wrong, writing is the main thing, and you can't produce a book if you don't write the story and many would-be authors fall down right at this stage.

Writing a story means learning both the technical craft of writing, and learning what makes a good story. Even more importantly, it encompasses the merging of those two. Because a good novel is more than the sum of it's parts. These two aspects must be woven together harmoniously, manipulating pace and theme, to generate the wonderous final product.

There are numerous good books out there that will teach you how to write well. And there are probably some good courses too. I tend to be of the group that favours self-teaching through writing books (pick authors or series that are respected) over the courses as my own experience tends to support the idea that courses tend to be 'feel-good' sessions that are primarily to take your money. Good things can come from courses and you may have other reasons for taking them also. For example, I wanted something to get me out of the house one day a week, and to meet other writers. A book could never do that. However, I feel that none of the recent university courses I've taken have justified their cost, from a learning viewpoint.

When I started, I understood it would not be easy to write a novel, but I had assumed that 'writing' as described above, was all that was needed.

Wrong.


Revision
Once I finished a few novels (the first year was stellar and I finished three novels in that period--and acquired numerous repetitive stress injuries which still plague me to this day), I realized there was another stage to the process of producing a novel. It quickly became clear that my stories needed to be reworked. I don't just mean edited, adverbs cut, and check for continuity. I mean settings realized more vividly, character relations fleshed out, themes woven into the story. In other words, a full revision.

I started this process thinking of it mostly as an edit. I soon realized it was much more daunting. In fact, it's pretty much another compete stage in the journey to publication and, arguably, almost and entirely new skill set (or so it feels at times). To be honest, I think I'm only starting to get to grips with this stage now (although I did only start about a year ago).

In many ways, revising a story can be the most difficult part. This is largely due to the question: where do I stop? As an editor, this is undoubtely easier to answer because you can see the story from the outside. But the author has all their plans and dreams for the story and may have trouble realizing them in the framework of what they've written. This is a problem I had with my first novel--which currently sits on the shelf after half of it was revised. And the decision must be made to accept the story that developed, rework it for years, or put it aside and start a new story. Which leads me to the next lesson...

Finishing
Regardless of what you decide to do with the story (accept, rework, put aside), it should always be finished. This doesn't mean reworking until it meets your ideal, because sometimes the story developed in a way in which that just won't happen. What it means is that you should finish each stage: writing, revising, polishing, so that the story could be sent off, if you desired.

It's important to realize that this is not just for tying up loose ends, or some other kind of bookkeeping or post-knotching, but rather, it's so you get into the habit of finishing projects.

Some professions have jobs that are quick and easily finished, and it doesn't even make sense to stop them partway in: clerical jobs, service jobs, dataentry, street-sweaping, financial advicing, post-delivery, you get the idea. Writing is not like that. It takes effort and desire to sit and write ever day, developing lives and stories and pushing through the clunky bits, and figuring out how a character does something and then writing it in a way that doesn't bore the reader. In addition, the story in a novel can be made to go on forever. Even when you decide to finish the story, revision can be done for years or even decades and the story still may not reach the desired peak.

Therefore, a writer must have the personal discipline to push through to the end of the story. And, they must be able to do this numerous times during revision. And, they must have the discpline to finally stop, at the end, when they are not capable of making the story any better.

To some this may sound trivial and if it is for you, than I envy you. Personally, I find this the most difficult part of the entire process.


Submitting
Even once the story is finished and polished, there is more to learn and many fall down at this stage, underestimating it's importance. Yes, I mean submitting to an agent. And yes, it is another important skill set for the modern writer.

Agents are the new gatekeepers, by which I mean that in the modern publishing world, no traditional publishers will accept unsolicited (i.e. not represented by an agent) manuscripts. I think it's important to realize that this new reality has not come into being just to make your life more difficult, but rather because there are so many would-be authors out there now that another level of screening is necessary. Enter the agent.

Aside: interestingly, in some places there are now book agents, which are professionals that sell your manuscript to agents. That's right, yet another gatekeeper in the making and possibly in ten years new authors will all have such book agents.

Submitting your manuscript to an agent reqires more writing: query letter, synopsis, summary. Each one has it's own style, is important in it's own way, and requires a particular skill to do well. Yet another thing to learn on the road to authorship.

Self Promotion
Finally, even when you succeed at all the previous stages, the modern author is now largely responsible for promotion. The big publishers just don't have the financial resources to push your book. Their responsibility largely ends at distribution. They get you in the door, you have to move the books off the shelves.

This means: building a web site, managing social networking like facebook and twitter, visiting conventions, book signings in bookstores... and finding time to write the next book. In addition, you'll likely have to do this around your day job, because modern authors generally don't earn enough to live off. Author is one of the few professions who's average salary hasn't increased appreciably in the last 30 years (and the current average is propped up by sales of celebrity books and the relatively few blockbusters).

So there you have it. Many of the big things I've learned about being an author and writing a novel over the last six years. And I'm sure there's much more to learn. But first I have to start getting the manuscripts out there. 'Finishing' is the keyword for this year. So watch this space.

Insight and longevity