Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Saturday, June 25, 2005
Del Rey Lagoon, looking north-northwest...ish.
Oh, and join my Google group to get updates in your email. If you like that sort of thing.
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/Joshuas-Brain-Dump-Mailing-List?hl=en
Thursday, June 23, 2005
Hmm...random photo time. This was taken sometime around 06-03-2005 at a nice little park on Lincoln Ave. About a 20 minute walk from the house, and well worth it. The local library is just next to the park, also. Enjoy.
Saturday, June 18, 2005
OK, I updated.
Look what I found under the Blogger.com options! Now all of my link-a-licious posts can have a quick and easy "link" field at the top. Just a single textbox I fill out, too. So...this counts as an update, right?
Saturday, June 11, 2005
I need to start getting paid by the word for this...
I just started re-reading Transmetropolitan today. For those not in the know, it is a graphic novel (the west’s answer to manga). Written by Warren Ellis, it focuses on the character of Spider Jerusalem, a rude, obscene, non-conformist journalist in a wild and super-futuristic Earth.
To give an idea of the tech level, included are stories involving: brain uploading, nano-swarm intelligences, static nanotech construction (build almost anything from almost anything), almost free power, crowded cities that show no signs of collapse – that in fact continue to grow, ubiquitous wireless networking, 2000 channel “basic TV” service, paid and free news services available everywhere, advertisements in the form of memetic “ad bombs” that force there way into your dreams. And that is just what I can remember in a couple of minutes after reading the first two volumes.
But get this: it was written in 1998. Yeah. So I guess not all of the wild stuff Ellis wrote looks quite as impossible as it once did. It looks to me like Ellis tried for the “upper curve” of Heinlein’s breakdown of “future history” trends (the one that shows exploding exponential growth). Heinlein himself claimed to use the middle curve most of the time (continued linear growth), but looking at his writings now, it looks a lot more like his lowest curve, or decreasing technological rates of change over time.
Reading Transmet now, though, it looks much more like a “middle curve” prediction set - almost within reach, and therefore most likely too conservative in nature. One thing that Heinlein emphasized was that, most likely, the real world’s technological development would be best represented by the exponential curve, not the more conservative ones. But most people can’t handle that kind of speculation.
Imagine trying to explain American Airlines to someone from the 1300s. Now imagine someone 40 years from now having the same problem explaining something as simple to them as a major airline. And you just can’t get it. Future shock is likely too conservative a term, also.
p.s.
I intentionally included no links this time. Just use Wikipedia and Google if you are actually interested. I used the correct terms (most of the time, I think) and they should be directly searchable. Oh, except for the hard-to-find Heinlein thing (unless you own the book) – that was from "Where to?", an essay collected in Expanded Universe.
Friday, June 10, 2005
This isn't a drug joke
I'll try to recover from my rant-filled angst (angst-filled rant?) with a cool link.
Every wonder what those floating things you sometimes see that look like bugs or threads crawling on your eyeballs are? Here is the explanation.
Thursday, June 09, 2005
Anyone got a time-machine and a notepad?
Wow. I just talked to my brother (chatted, IM-ed for all you pedantic freaks out there) and he mentioned meeting someone who knew me about 3 years ago. Someone I tutored in English at college and on whom I must have left an impression. Glad that I could make a difference and all. He wanted my brother to pass on best wishes, etc.