Whenever most of us picture extra-terrestrial beings with the capabilities of visiting Earth from light-years away, it is assumed that all of their technology vastly exceeds that of our own. But what if only their space travel technology outdoes us and nothing else? Would that make the alien race stupid, or us stupid for not finding faster-than-light travel before such things as cell phones and machine guns?
Harry Turtledove asks this question in this spectacular short story that left me with so many questions about our own technology and evolution as humans. I found this gem in Orson Scott Card's anthology, "Masterpieces: The Best Science Fiction of the Century" but you can read it online here through pastebin.com.
Music video directed by Dawn Shadforth, 1998 Performed by Garbage
This music video for the band, Garbage, is a neato watch. Lead singer, Shirley Manson, plays a queen of a "peaceful people" who must defend them from evildoers (played by the rest of the band)--by dogfighting them in WWII-styled spaceplanes! Honestly, there's not much plot to decipher here but it's a really cool video!
I first saw this video when I was a young teenager and for some reason the air combat just fascinated me--and it still does. I don't think the song has anything to do with the story involved in the video, but I think the lyrics definitely add to the intensity in the combat. Also, although the video ends with "To be continued..." I'm pretty sure it was never continued.
Of course, you can watch this video right here in ScienceFictionLand (through YouTube).
An American computer company gets a strange request from a Tibetan monk to procure for a him a large number of computers. The monk says his monastery requires the computers to speed up the process of going through what he says are all 9,000,000,000 possible names of God--a process that would take thousands of years without the use of these computers (which would only require a couple of months). The two assistants that are sent to Tibet to help with the use of these computers become quite unnerved when they find out why the monks want to go through all these possibilities.
Strangely enough, I first came across this story as required reading when I was a student in a Catholic middle school. I was greatly intrigued. I pondered the dramatic ending for weeks to come as I waited for sleep to come at bedtime.
It's a really quick read and well worth the ten minutes or less it should take to complete. You can find it right here, online.
I found the photo of Yumbulagang Monastery (appropriately from Tibet) at "Within the Crainium". Its author, "joke du jour", said it reminded him of the monastery from this story and it really did to me, too. I mean look at this photo as you read the story, and all given details from the text seem completely accurate to those of the photo! Anyways, I hope you enjoy.
Well that about wraps it up for today's science fiction. I hope to keep these posts regular but, alas! Another semester of college is just around the corner. However, I will do my best to persevere, fellow Robo-Nerds.
What happens when we run out of fossil fuel energy? Well I guess there's always solar power if nothing else. But what happens when the Sun dies? Or when ALL of the suns die? Isaac Asimov (who may in fact be the best sci-fi writer of all time) has the characters in this short story asking the same question. For, as depressing as it sounds, the universe will one day end. Right? Fortunately, the characters in this book have Multivac, an all-knowing computer (like a less funny version of Deep Thought from "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"). Over a long span of time, several humans ask Multivac if there is any way to "reverse entropy" and stop the eventual fadeout of the universe. Is there an answer? You'll have to read the story to find out.
Luckily it's online right here and here, depending on which font and size you prefer.
I found this story through StumbleUpon. After scrolling through to get an idea of length (by the way it's not terribly long for a short story, but perhaps a bit for the inexperienced online reader) my eyes became intrigued by the breaks in the story and variation of character names. When I finally got to reading it I was blown away by Asimov's extremely far-reaching predictions and the believability that they held. A great read.
By the way the artwork above is by ~Dragonfly22 and was found on DeviantArt with the artist's explanation.
So somewhere in the not-too-distant future, a wealthy corporation has set up a mining facility on the Moon. Only one person is needed to operate it and they do so in 3-year stints. Our protagonist, Sam Bell has almost reached the end of his 3-year tour and he is incredibly anxious for his replacement to show up so he can go home and see his family.
Well, not only is he anxious, he is hallucinating. Three years in isolation will do that to someone who only has himself and a computer to talk to (he is unable to communicate live to anyone on Earth for reasons explained in the film). Anyways, Sam eventually meets his replacement (or does he?) and let's just say things don't work out as planned.
I didn't hear too much advertisement or talk about this movie when it came out, but I loved it. The story was classic sci-fi. No unnecessary action scenes or special effects, just a great story. It was well-casted, too. Sam Rockwell ("The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", "The Green Mile") plays the protagonist and creepmeister Kevin Spacey voices the paranoia-feeding computer, GERTY.
Oh yeah and it was written and directed by David Bowie's son. 'NUFF SAID.
Watch the entire movie for free through Crackle.com right here:
Three astronauts crash onto a desert-like planet and quickly realize their hope for survival is slim. As the trio's water supply diminishes, tensions rise to horrific consequences. Oh, and of course there is a crazy twist at the end.
I watched this classic "Twilight Zone" episode (Season 1, Ep. 15) a little while ago and it easily became one of my favorites. The twist at the end was actually used in a Futurama episode (I'm not going to mention which one so I don't spoil this awesome Rod Serling story). I highly suggest checking it out. It's only 24 minutes long and has been available on Netflix Instant at the date this was posted. Or watch it in three parts right here, through YouTube:
