Science and Science Fiction

Thanks again, everybody. This thread will quite literally form the basis of my presentation .

I've also reserved a copy of Snow Crash at the local library (been meaning to read it for a while), and this isn't the first time 'Firefly' has been recommended to me. So I'll be looking out for that now, too.

griffin729 wrote:

stumpmj wrote: I'll throw out the Looking glass series by John Ringo.

Ringo is good, but the hard science in the Looking Glass series is due to Travis S. Taylor. That's why all the sequels are credited as a full co-authorship. I still need to read some of Taylor's individual works.

Thanks for the recomendation. I'll add him to my list.

I found out you can download all of Ringo's books that have been in print more than two years for free from the publisher (legally). I've got a ton I'm running through.

If anyone wats more Sci-Fi books, you can download them for free from Baen at: http://www.webscription.net

I downloaded Microsoft's e-book viewer (also free) and I've been going to town the last couple of months.

Streetwiseguy wrote: I can't believe I'm the only guy to have seen "How William Shatner Changed the World" on, I think, Discovery channel. It follows the Star Trek/modern reality theme, and is very entertaining at the same time. Its nine bucks on Amazon right now.

Saw that too. Interesting show indicating we can make stuff we dream about.

"Any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic."

Arthur C. Clarke

Least I think that is how it goes.

Just finished reading this:

Infected: A Novel by Scott Sigler

F'in creeepy. All happens in Michigan too. Deals more with biology, chemistry, etc from a science perspective.

Here's a good book by Neal Stephenson. It might teach you a bit about chemistry, the ecology, and eco terrorists.

Griffin729 - seems that Scalzi is a cool guy. I wouldn't sharing a beer or 3 with him.

Check out this short story: The Machine Stops by E. M. Forester.

It was first published in1909 and it is scary how close he came to the Internet/social media stuff. He also talks about video conferencing and television.

Xceler8x wrote: Here's a good book by Neal Stephenson. It might teach you a bit about chemistry, the ecology, and eco terrorists.

Love Stephenson. Cryptonomicon, The Diamond Age, ... Snow Crash as others have pointed out. I need to go see what he has been up to lately - been a while since I've read anything of his.

Historical fiction, for a lack of any better description. You're going to be surprised. But Jack Shaftoe rocks.

Come on, car people... What about Knight Rider???

OK, so you can't turbo boost over the senile driver in the Buick ahead of you doing 20 under the limit. But check this out...

Digital dashboards. Many cars have at least partially digital gauges now.

Auto cruise. While cars aren't completely driving themselves yet, a few can park themselves, or maintain a set following distance from the car in front.

Electronic mapping and position locator. GPS is common now - and there's even a Knight Rider one available. For that matter, many cars have a TV screen for various uses.

Talking cars. Some versions of the 300ZX really ticked a lot of people off. "Your door is a jar..." No it's not - it's a door!!!

Bulletproof body panels, glass, and tires. Expensive and uncommon, but you don't have to drive a Brinks truck for that kind of security these days.

I could probably go on, but I haven't watched the show in a while and can't remember all the cool gadgets. I have wished for an ejection seat on occasion, but James Bond had one first.

WilD wrote: Michael Chrighton books. Many of his stories take a real science and push it over the edge. The best known example is Jurasic Park.

Definite truth! Read Prey for a really good "science" fiction. Sphere and Andromeda Strain are also really good for that.

4eyes wrote:

Jensenman wrote: Ever notice how much the Star Trek 'communicators' resemble a flip phone?

I still want mine to make that "finear" sound when I open it.

You ain't the only one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6n5jEFoVOM&feature=fvw

Seems you can download it as a ringtone too.

Thanks to this thread, I went and bought Snow Crash this afternoon.

akamcfly wrote: Thanks to this thread, I went and bought Snow Crash this afternoon.

The fight in the virtual bar (black sun?) is of my favorite scenes in all of scifi.

"Hiro doesn't have any zanshin at all."

WilD wrote: Michael Chrighton books. Many of his stories take a real science and push it over the edge. The best known example is Jurasic Park.

Yes, he does it a lot....a chapter or two of setup/premise, a chapter of science background (...that will transition to the scifi-fiction) and then the rest of the story. In Congo, he switches from fact to fiction in mid sentence. A llittle later, even uses footnotes to non-existant articles to make his fiction look better.

The only reason I was even able to spot the transition was that I was already kind of familiar with the science. (I took off a semester during my undergrad to do unpaid slave labor - i.e. an internship - with some animal language researchers.)

JoeyM wrote:

akamcfly wrote: Thanks to this thread, I went and bought Snow Crash this afternoon.

The fight in the virtual bar (black sun?) is of my favorite scenes in all of scifi. "Hiro didn't have zanshin...."

Hell, just the fact that the main character is called Hiro Protagonist rocks :D And the culmination of the fight against the rednecks - "the rest was just a chase scene". Awesome.

For the Stephenson fans, see if you can find a copy of The Big U. Not science fiction, really, but there's some in there. And it's a fun read, I can totally see it happening.

I go back and read all the Gibson novels once in a while not because of the content, but because of the quality of the writing. In my first fevered readings of Neuromancer I missed just how good he is at crafting a sentence, and he's only getting better. Although I do wonder if the current generation completely misunderstands that classic opening sentence:
"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."

These days, that would be bright blue!

Keith wrote: Although I do wonder if the current generation completely misunderstands that classic opening sentence: "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel." These days, that would be bright blue!

Stephenson has some lines like that, too, in Zodiac. When he talks about the human nose being a beautiful chemical sensor, the example he uses is the ability to smell the difference between leaded and unleaded gasoline in the exhaust of a car. At the time he wrote that, it was something everyone could relate to. Now, very few people can.

Likewise, he talks about cyclic organic compounds, comparing them to six pack rings.....and now, most people haven't seen six pack rings.