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MIT Communications Forum: The Craft of Writing Science Fiction with Joe Haldeman

Posted on November 17th, 2006 by GregPC.
Categories: Technology, Misc.

Last night’s Communication Forum was different than the ones I’ve attended in the past. Where those had had a number of panelists talking about a specific topic, this one featured only one person talking about a very broad theme.

Joe Haldeman is a professor of writing at MIT and is a four-time Nebula winner. His novels include The Forever War, Old Twentieth and Camouflage. The evening was moderated by Henry Jenkins, head of the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program.

Haldeman started by reading several selections from his upcoming novel, “The Accidental Time Machine,” a story set in and around MIT over the course of shifting time. Based on what he read last night it should be great.

Jenkins asked about the story’s representation of MIT and Haldeman said that he enjoyed the opportunity to think about and research the history of the school. Even at the start, he found it was very forward-looking – yet cautions it the way it watched out for the conservative sensibilities of the time. Toward the end of “The Accidental Time Machine”, the protagonist finds himself on the early campus of MIT - a man with no history but a man who knows (but won’t reveal) the future. Haldeman enjoyed the opportunity to explore the issues presented by this scenario.

The conversation turned next to an interesting feature of speculative fiction: not only are the stories about science, they are also about scientists. Haldeman, who has been around scientists since he was an undergrad, says they are misrepresented in fiction – and he has tried to make his scientists realistic and bases them on people that he has known. “A great thing about being a novelist,” he said, “is that anybody who’s ever done anything bad to you, you can get back at them sooner or later.”

The work of doing science, he continued, required tremendous intellectual discipline – without the ability to explain or share what you do with anyone not involved with your specific field. If you want to write a realistic science fiction story, you need to recognize that science is extremely compartmentalized.

In the early days on science fiction, Jenkins noted, the scientist was often portrayed as a lone tinker or inventor. Now the scientist is represented in a corporate environment or research institution. He wondered how this changed the types of stories the science fiction tells. Haldeman suggested that one needs to rethink the satisfaction of science. One of the reasons he left science was the realization that he wouldn’t ever be that lone hero of astrophysics and that his attraction to science was “aesthetic rather than intellectual.”

One of the ideas behind hard science fiction – beginning with Hugo Gernsback – is that it be used to popularize science and be a means to educate people. Gernsback’s idea was that there should be a literary form to make scientific ideas accessible to ordinary people. He went so far as to consider printing all of the scientific facts in a story in italics but he realized that there was a value in the speculative aspect of science fiction.

Gernsback was an interesting figure, according to Haldeman, because he believed that the only value of science fiction was in turning young people into scientists or engineers. Unfortunately, Gernsback couldn’t tell good writing from bad - demonstrating the paradox that something can be good science fiction but terrible writing. “The thing about science fiction,” said Haldeman, “is that it’s a form of writing; but it’s also a way of looking at things, it’s a mode of thought.”

Jenkins asked Haldeman to share some of his memories of some of the pioneer of science fiction. He talked about Jack Williamson (who died only a few days before the Forum) and Edmund Hamilton; and about Williamson and Hamilton traveling down the Mississippi together in the 1920s and the conversations they must have had, and about Hamilton’s huge imagination and about Williamson being just one of a kind. Haldeman told of visiting Williamson at his home in New Mexico and of a conversation they had about gravitational lensing in globular clusters and its implications for planetary formation. “Jack knew exactly what I was talking about,” he said, “We’d read the same articles – he was a science fiction writer. There are a lot of people writing science fiction now, that wouldn’t know a carbonaceous chondrite asteroid from their ass.”

This led into a discussion of the science fiction writer as a consumer of scientific research.

Haldeman felt that it isn’t so much reading the research as it is observation. He reads New Scientist and Scientific American and related a story. A few days ago, returning home on the T from teaching, he was reading the latest New Scientist. There was an article about Wendy Mao and her team of researchers who’d compressed water under thousands of atmospheres of pressure for six hours and then bombarded it with x rays. The result was an alloy of metallic hydrogen and oxygen. “Oh,” he remembered thinking, “we never came up with that.”

“Can you believe this shit?,” he said. “Because this is the way I did chemistry in junior high school. I can imagine them now: ‘well, we’ve got this thing, why don’t we put water in it and crush it down with diamond pressure, and then, while we’ve got it that way, lets just put x rays on it for six hours and see what the fuck happens’.”

Jenkins wanted to know what type of responses this article triggered for Haldeman as a writer. His immediate response, he said, to the article was social – just imagining her and her gang thinking about and conducting this experiment. He described his efforts at imagining a new kind of alien and how he was inspired by plastination exhibit at the Boston Museum of Science to consider a life form that exists on a radically different timescale than our own. [Haldeman requested that the details not be shared as it may be included in an upcoming novel.]

Haldeman recently wrote a piece for the Comparative Media Studies newsletter about the mission of science fiction at a time when science itself is under attack and Jenkins asked that he share that vision. “Religion is out of hand on a lot of different levels and science fiction is a tool against religion. Science fiction is a tool for rationalism,” he said. “Things like faith-based initiatives work really well – 9/11 was a faith-based initiative and that changed all of American life.”

The discussion had been focused on the scientific part of science fiction, but now things turned to the literary issues. Jenkins brought up the complaint that science fiction often lacks strong characterization and other literary niceties. Herdeman pointed out that most of his fiction is character based because he writes things that he would like to read. He believes that the best science fiction needs to do a good job on both the science and the fiction.

Jenkins asked Herdeman to talk about what he has learned from other writers - and particularly Hemingway, of whom is is a big fan. Hemingway, Herdeman explained, hated science fiction. He’s read all of the legitimate Hemingway and listen to and presented papers on him as well. He believes that all writer should be fascinated with another writer to help them develop a filter.

“It’s like in optics,” Herdeman explained, “you can have limited band pass filters, it can tell you a lot about something that you’re looking at. You get a hydrogen three filter and look at a cloud of gas out in the middle of the constellation Cygnus and you see a thing that nobody could see without the filter. And then you take the filter away and see what everybody else is seeing.” When he reads something like Faulkner, Herdeman is able to apply his Hemingway limited band pass filter to imagine how Hemingway would have written the passage. “The thing that makes reading and writing infinitely fascinating is this idea that everybody brings his own set of filters to every situation.”

Herdeman went on to relate an experience he’d had that helped him to understand filters and point of view. When he was in the fifth grade, someone published a 3D comic book. The entire story took place in a saloon and featured an outlaw causing trouble who was eventually killed by the sheriff. The story was first told from the sheriff’s point of view, and then from the outlaw’s and then from people simply in the bar. When he finished the comic he suddenly understood that there were billions of ways to tell a story.

Given his role as teacher of writing at MIT, Jenkins wondered about the challenges of getting scientists to write science fiction. The first issue he raised was their timidity – the fact that fledgling scientists tend to be cautious. Another issue is that at MIT, the people taking the course don’t want to be writers and so sometimes they are not terribly concerned with things like style or the quality of their writing.

The conversation next moved to the theme of war, how it is portrayed in fiction and how Herdeman as both a writer and a veteran has approached the topic. “If you’ve been a soldier, writing about war is the first natural thing to do.” Like most vets, his first novel was a war novel. He’s written some since, considered others and may well write more in the future. “I was a soldier for one year – exactly 365 days – 40 years ago – and much of it is still right there all the time.”

Herdeman’s war writing has led to comparisons to Robert Heinlein and some have pointed to “The Forever War” as an answer to “Starship Troopers.” The two were of different generations, different wars (Heinlein fought in WWII) and different points of view – but they had a begrudging respect for one another.

Asked about “Enders Game,” Herdeman agreed that it was the logical for it to be grouped with the other two. “I’d love to see a 3D mapping of the various ideas in the three books. If anyone wants an easy Masters thesis there you go.” Herdeman sees Orson Scott Card as as far from a soldier as you could get but here he’s written a novel with war on a massive scale. “He’s a fine guy but he’s got his limited band pass and I’ve got my limited band pass and never the two shall meet.”

Technorati Tags: Joe Herdeman, science fiction, MIT, Communications Forum, Henry Jenkins, Hugo Gernsback, Jack Williamson, Edmund Hamilton, Robert Heinlein, Orson Scott Card, The Forever Wars, Starship Troopers, Enders Game, Wendy Mao

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Historical Google Earth

Posted on November 16th, 2006 by GregPC.
Categories: Technology.

I love Google Earth and I love history so I REALLY the new historical map overlays.  There aren’t that many yet and most are of large geographical regions but the possibility is really exciting.  eWeek has a cool slideshow, check it out.

Technorati Tags: Google Earth, historical, maps, eweek

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Web Quattro Anyone?

Posted on November 15th, 2006 by GregPC.
Categories: Technology.

I’m going to get in touch with Schick today to see if I can’t borrow the name of their four blade razor to get it ready for when the time comes.  And it may be here soon.

Web 2.0, 3.0, X.O should focus on the IT green field by ZDNet’s Larry Dignan — Down a few pints of Web 2.0 dispatches, ponder The New York Times’ effort to coin Web 3.0 and you’re left with a nagging question: What parts of these aforementioned revolutions are going to affect the information technology department of the future? While folks hop on the Web-2.0-3.0-go-round, which was recapped here by Dan Farber, […]

Blog This: » Web 2.0, 3.0, X.O should focus on the IT green field | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com

Who knows what it will look like, or what super powers it will provide, but rest assured that Web Quattro will be here in due course and it will kick some serious ass.  I just want to be among the first to propose this new naming convention for the next generation Web(s).

Technorati Tags: Web 2.0, Web 3.0, Web Quattro, Schick, Quattro, Dan Farber, Larry Dignan, ZDNet, New York Times

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World Usability Day

Posted on November 14th, 2006 by GregPC.
Categories: Technology.

Today is World Usability Day and before I go on about it I need to say that I’ve done some pro bono work on the event. The goal is to promote the value of user-centered design and the belief that users have the right and responsibility to ask for things that work better. There are a hundreds of events happening today around the world. You can find more info here.

There are several events happening at the Museum of Science here in Boston. One of them is a walking tour focused on signage and if you’ve ever been to Boston you’ll know that good signs are not one of the things for which the city is known. Unfortunately, the weather is not too good so bring an umbrella.

They have also done several posters for the event that came out pretty well and demonstrate the benefit of usability in fun and accessible ways. This is my personal fave:

Be sure to check out what’s happening in your city and make yourself useful.

Technorati Tags: World Usability Day, Usability, ease-of-use, Boston, Museum of Science, signage

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MP3 = crime

Posted on November 13th, 2006 by GregPC.
Categories: Technology.

Thank goodness we have clear-thinking and straight-talking people like Universal CEO Doug Morris among us!   Otherwise I wouldn’t have known just how big a scumbag I am.  Here’s a priceless quote from Billboard:

“These devices are just repositories for stolen music, and they all know it,” UMG chairman/CEO Doug Morris says. “So it’s time to get paid for it.”

Red Hot Chili Peppers, QOTSA, T.I. Rock For Zune

What a tool.  I’ve spent hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars on music - either through direct purchases from the iTunes Music Store, by ripping MY CDs and even by transferring songs off of MY vinyl.  I also seek out free music from legitimate online sources like Amazon and further.net.

Perhaps, to fight that frustrated feeling caused by all of these illegal repositories, Mr. Morris should consider a suppository.  It might loosen him up a bit.

Technorati Tags: MP3, ipod, Zune, Doug Morris, Universal Music Group, Amazon, further.net, Billboard, CDs, albums, crime

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Kicking myself

Posted on November 10th, 2006 by GregPC.
Categories: Technology.

Sony’s long-awaited PlayStation 3 console goes on sale in Japan on 11 November. Hardcore fans of the game-playing gadget are already queuing outside stores for their chance to snap one of the 100,000 Sony has made available.

BBC NEWS | Technology | PlayStation 3 launch due in Japan

Sometimes I am so dumb I don’t know what to think.  I had amassed 250,000 miles on United and, like a fool, I used them to take my family to England last year.  I could have used them to fly to Japan to buy a new PS3.

Technorati Tags: PS3, United, Japan

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Milking Mu$ic

Posted on November 9th, 2006 by GregPC.
Categories: Technology.

What is it about the music industry?  Are the genetically predisposed to act like crapsacks at every opportunity?  Today’s New York Times reports that Universal is demanding a cut of all Zuni sales in order to make its content available to Microsoft (no stranger to questionable behavior themselves).

Universal, which releases recordings from acts like U2 and Jay-Z, said it would pay half of what it receives on the device to its artists. The company is expected to receive more than $1 for each $250 device, according to executives who were briefed on the pact. The deal represents a big departure from the standard set by Apple Computer, which pays record companies for songs sold through its iTunes service but does not give them a cut of the sales of its hugely successful iPod. Under the deal, Universal, the world’s largest music corporation, will receive a percentage of both download revenue and digital player sales when the Zune and its related service are introduced next week.

Microsoft Strikes Deal for Music - New York Times

Om Malik hit the nail on the head when he described this as a shakedown:

In this battle of the monopolists, Microsoft blinked and decided to pay up. (Would this have happened a few years ago, when Microsoft ruled the technology planet?) Remember how Jobs stood up to these music industry bullies. Today they are asking $1 a device; what is to stop them from asking for say $10 or $20 per device down the road. This shakedown should result in a serious investigation into the music industry cartel.

GigaOM » Microsoft, Zune & The Music Mafia

More than 40 years ago, the music industry got caught up in the Payola imbroglio, where they paid deejays to play specific songs by specific artists.  Now they are asking to be paid simply to give people the right to purchase and play their music.  Might there come a day when they’re going to ask for payment before people can mention the names of artists? the titles of songs? snippets of lyrics?  The industry continues to do as many boneheaded things as they can think of to make themselves and their product less appealing.

At the risk of violating someone’s copyright, “when will they ever learn, when will they every learn?”

Technorati Tags: New York Times, Om Malik, Universal, Microsoft, Payola, Zuni

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The effortless friendships of technology

Posted on November 6th, 2006 by GregPC.
Categories: Technology, Misc.

I remember once, when I was a kid in the sixth grade, my teacher asked in anyone wanted to participate in a pen-pal program. Being naturally curious my hand shot up. A few weeks later I received a letter and a small address label with the name and address of a girl my age in Nybro, Sweden.

Her name was Carina Karlsson and for a few years we exchanged letters and small gifts. Our notes to each other we filled with the mundane (yet terribly fascinating) details of our lives. She sent me a small painted horse, a wooden flagpole with a Swedish flag, a leather coin purse and a photograph.

I can’t recall what gifts I sent to her (although I do remember shopping for at least one) but I still have all three that she sent to me almost 30 years later. Our letters were special to me. First because I got so little mail, and second because this was a connection that without effort on both of our parts would never have happened.

I was reminded of Carina yesterday while reading John Schwartz’s story on “Friendbombing” in the New York Times.

But Facebook’s use of the word “friend” is a little troubling in a world where true friendship is hard to find and even harder to sustain. The idea of getting friends wholesale seems to be part of that element of the Internet that can render life virtual and a little pallid. In many ways, the Internet strengthens relationships by allowing easy communication over a distance. But without a human touch, it’s hard to keep the conversation going beyond niceties. Facebook seems to be saying: “Sure, we might be seeing less of our real friends face to face. But we’ll make it up with volume.”

A Son’s Revenge: ‘Friendbombing’ - Facebook.com - New York Times

Technology allows “friendships” to be made so easily and effortlessly that I wondered if pen-pals even exist anymore. My search for “pen pal” online returned things very different from what Sister Marie Roberta had trotted out when I was a kid.

Maybe it is the nature of the communication, or maybe it is the fact that I’m not 12, but few of my emails or IM exchanges carry the same weight those letters did when they arrived at my home from half a world away.

Technorati Tags: pen pals, Carina Karlsson, Nybro, Sweden, Facebook, Friendbombing, John Schwartz, New York Times

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Quest for Shuffle

Posted on November 2nd, 2006 by GregPC.
Categories: Technology.

The world’s smallest digital music player and just $79, the 1GB iPod shuffle lets you wear up to 240 songs(1) on your sleeve. Or your lapel. Or your belt. Clip on iPod shuffle and wear it as a badge of musical devotion.

Apple - iPod shuffle

Yesterday I flew from Boston to San Jose (via LA) and so had many hours to while away. I worked as long as my battery allowed and read but wished I had some music that didn’t depend on my laptop. Sitting on the plane, I decided that I would buy a Shuffle.

As is often the case with me, this idea became more and more fixed in my head until it became the sole focus of my activities for several hours. Here’s what happened:

After picking up my rental car (a minivan by the way) I headed to my hotel. En route I passed a Microcenter and thought that I might be able to find a Shuffle there. At the hotel, I checked in and got cleaned up. Should I go straight to Microcenter or go to the office first? I opted to be responsible and drove to the office. It was 4:30.

I worked for a few hours and then decided that I should check the store’s hours. Looking at the Web site I found that they only had the old Shuffles. No good. I next went to Best Buy and CompUSA. Now I learned that the Shuffle was only available for pre-order. Growing agitated I went to Apple’s Web site to make sure I wasn’t missing anything.

Next I went to Digg.com where I found unpacking photos posted. People were receiving Shuffles in the mail. Being in Apple’s backyard, I thought I’d check with a couple of local Apple stores. I called the one at the Valley Fair mall in Santa Clara. Yes, I was told, they had them there and they were opened until 9:30.

Confident that I would succeed, I relaxed, worked and had dinner. At 7:15 I left the office.

For the next half hour I tried to find my stupid rental minivan in the parking lot. I was starting to be mindful of the time. I set out with only a vague sense of where I was going. It was raining and traffic was light.

Forty five minutes later (following some directional confusion), I pulled into the Valley Fair parking lot. It was just about 9:00 - only 30 minutes until closing time. I found the Apple store and immediately saw a sign saying that the Shuffle would be available on November 3rd.

Confused, I asked an employee. Yes, that was the case, no Shuffles yet. But what about the fact that I’d been told that they were there? Someone made a mistake.

Disappointed, I went back to my hotel and drowned my sorrows in a Newcastle Brown Ale.

technorati tags:ipod, shuffle, Apple, Newcastle Brown Ale

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Throwback technology rocks

Posted on November 1st, 2006 by GregPC.
Categories: Technology.

I love technology. I’ve said it before and I know I’ll say it again; but I think tech is cool. Big tech stuff is great and all, but what I really like are the things that I can use every day to make my life easier and more enjoyable.

Let me list the technology I’ve used today (try this game yourself!):

• Blackberry - first checked at 5:00AM before leaving the house
• FastLane toll tag - on my way to the airport
• Digital camera - in the Mass Pike Tunnel. I was driving though the reopened tunnel as WBUR was doing a story on Bechtel and the tunnel collapse. I took pictures of the work but they were all blurry
• MacBook Pro - working/listening to music/surfing/writing at Logan, on the plane, at LAX, in my hotel room and in Weber Shandwick’s Sunnyvale office
• Cell phone - multiple times throughout the day
• Satellite radio - on my way to Logan and here in Santa Clara

That isn’t that much I guess, but that is only the stuff that I controlled. There was a whole bevy of technology that was there supporting my various comings and goings throughout the day.

But enough about all of this; what I was really thinking about was the gee-whiz technologies of yester-year. What prompted me was the man sitting next to me on the flight from Boston to LA. I noticed that he had a small October calendar affixed to his watchband.

I got these once as a kid. They’re made of metal with arms or wings that you bend around your watchband to keep them in place. A pretty simple idea and a piece of technology (after a fashion) that served a purpose.

I looked that his watch with its outdated calendar and thought about the fact that I so rarely wear watches anymore. I have several; the one that I love the most is a mechanical Waltham that my wife gave me as a wedding gift. It’s nearly 100 now, is sterling silver and has a porcelain face. I don’t wear it because I just use my phone instead. I miss wearing my watch and in situations like being on a plane it is a more useful timepiece.

(Mine looks like this but in silver and without the sweep second hand.)

On the subject of timepieces, another awesome throwback technology is a timepiece that my father gave me. It is portable pocket sundial that I’m sure in its day was the height of nerdly goodness:

When he first gave it to me I got all fired up about the types of technology a guy like me would have carried around with him to make his life easier and more enjoyable in the past. I grabbed a reproduction of a Sear catalog from the 1890s to look but didn’t find as much as I’d hoped. Knives were big, compasses too, but there wasn’t as much as I’d hoped. I need to continue my search (with any help others care to provide) for great technologies of the past.

In the meantime though, the three that came to mind today (all related to watches or time keeping for some reason) are still pretty cool and are a reminder that people have always sought new and innovative ways to improve their lives.

Technorati Tags: technology, blackberry, cell phone, MacBook, satellite radio, wristband calendar, wristwatch, pocket sundial, gadgets

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