tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1484180326012950400.post8256975091678123277..comments2024-03-27T23:55:17.673-07:00Comments on Flogging Babel: Does It Sound Crazy? No? Then It's Not . . .Michael Swanwickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18389836784776252022noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1484180326012950400.post-70826574230689885602010-04-13T20:59:53.535-07:002010-04-13T20:59:53.535-07:00I don't really get skipping the other parts of...I don't really get skipping the other parts of China either; it seems to me that China is really fascinating because of its strange mix of the very old and the very new. Even Hong Kong is really about this crazy mix of skyscrapers and Buddhist temples. Not to mention that everyone in the coastal industrial cities is max. two or three generations removed from lives that Westerner's would have expected only to find in the ancient past.<br /><br />But then, I lived in China awhile, so I have a different perspective on the place generally.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05005355896652998236noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1484180326012950400.post-39641003070234511322010-04-13T18:13:48.605-07:002010-04-13T18:13:48.605-07:00I think I've hopscotched over MAKERS while wor...I think I've hopscotched over MAKERS while working on this novel. Though I did hear Cory read from his next novel -- the one he spent a couple of months in China researching.<br /><br />Specifically, he spent time in the coastal industrial cities and entirely ignored all the antiquities and natural splendors of China.<br /><br />I understand the appeal of the modern in China -- I was strangely entranced by it myself. But skipping all the rest? He's a better man than I am, and he has my admiration. I mean that without a scintilla of irony.Michael Swanwickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18389836784776252022noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1484180326012950400.post-26367652212867195552010-04-12T17:15:29.929-07:002010-04-12T17:15:29.929-07:00"There's a big difference between 'So..."There's a big difference between 'Someday there will be cars' and 'Cars will someday be different.'"<br /><br />I completely agree with that. And I think it's a really good argument for why it's better long-term to tell stories that don't rely on the technology itself to be the only science fictional element; sf with a social element tends to hold up as sf for much longer.<br /><br />By the way, I doubt we'll be looking at much in the way of synthetic diamond in the future; it's much easier to make blocks of carbon nanotubes, that are by and large stronger than diamond (which has to be far too perfect in consistency to be as strong). But the basic idea of rapid fabrication is good, though I think people would do better to focus on the implications of running off your own copies of computers and flash memory from a later-gen fabricator, rather than looking at construction materials alone. <br /><br />Have you looked at Makers, by Cory Doctorow? It's a really good book about what near-future rapid fabrication could do to a Greater Depression-enveloped world.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05005355896652998236noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1484180326012950400.post-28300232532078082702010-04-12T16:53:37.631-07:002010-04-12T16:53:37.631-07:00Pebble Texture, that is exactly what I was looking...Pebble Texture, that is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you.<br /><br />I know that Bruce thinks of himself more as a conduit of ideas than a source of them . . . but maybe that's what science fiction writers have always been.<br /><br />Rich, I'm not saying that existing technologies aren't fodder for science fiction but that they're no longer science fiction per se. There's a big difference between "Someday there will be cars" and "Cars will someday be different."<br /><br />David, thank you for that info. I have to agree with you on the fabber front. My father was an engineer and he encouraged all his children to wait a generation, for the prices to go down.<br /><br />That said, I had to work through the possibilities before deciding that I didn't have the time to make enough worthwhile things to justify buying the fabber. Alas.Michael Swanwickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18389836784776252022noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1484180326012950400.post-70093789116621092882010-04-12T15:57:34.951-07:002010-04-12T15:57:34.951-07:00This is the Sterling flash fiction you're look...This is the Sterling flash fiction you're looking for:<br /><br />http://www.iconeye.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4276:bruce-sterling-the-hypersurface-of-this-decade<br /><br />"molten plastic as solid, durable, slightly warped and drippy consumer objects"Pebble Texturehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00535414719494851784noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1484180326012950400.post-80028546337003969312010-04-12T13:56:32.763-07:002010-04-12T13:56:32.763-07:00I disagree about your definition of prototyped tec...I disagree about your definition of prototyped tech as no longer being fodder for science fiction. If through a story you can discuss the possible future ramifications of technologies (whether in process or not), then aren't those stories at least somewhat science fictional? Although I must admit there's a certain crucial bit of the Sense of Wonder for me that's missing when I read a story about a technology that has become real - but is that maybe the fantasy of the science fiction that's gone missing? But all that said, I still prefer the kind of crazy sf to the very reasonable stuff; maybe it's the fantasy in the sf that really captures me . . ..Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05005355896652998236noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1484180326012950400.post-26965889817446822682010-04-12T12:18:37.863-07:002010-04-12T12:18:37.863-07:00If I recall correctly _Heavy Weather_ (1994) promi...If I recall correctly _Heavy Weather_ (1994) prominently featured diamonds as a building/engineering material. I seem to recall that the cheapo mass-produced ceramic machetes that can chop up cop cars from _Islands in the Net_ involved synth diamond, but maybe I am mistaken about that. Anyway, I doubt he was the first to use this, but he is a prominent writer who features synth diamond prominently in some of his writings.David Stonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09983230505509685792noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1484180326012950400.post-45464588465200816912010-04-12T11:32:10.108-07:002010-04-12T11:32:10.108-07:00I've beeen trying to find that flash fiction B...I've beeen trying to find that flash fiction Bruce did very recently about a guy whose girlfriend clears out, taking everything with her, so he rents a fabber, buys several large spools of plastic wire, downloads freeware designs from the web,and makes a new set of furniture. He made it sound convincing that you might be able to achieve an IKEA level of comfort that way. But I can't seem to recall where I read it.<br /><br />Is Bruce behind the synthetic diamond thing too? I know that Neil Stephenson got a book out of it. A good notion. MAYbe possible.Michael Swanwickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18389836784776252022noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1484180326012950400.post-53966401196464623742010-04-12T08:34:20.979-07:002010-04-12T08:34:20.979-07:00The fabber thing sounds cool but... the fact is, I...The fabber thing sounds cool but... the fact is, I have too many plastic thingamajigs already. I would rather have a small number of tools made from steel or some other durable material. I guess that if I were a hobbyist or something this would be the coolest thing since pocket calculators, but as it is I am not sure what I'd use it for. No doubt those guys are thinking of things for me to use it for as we speak.<br /><br /><br />Otherwise, I'll just wait a decade or two until the fabbers can make stuff out of synthetic diamond, something else that Mr. Sterling has predicted!David Stonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09983230505509685792noreply@blogger.com