|
-
Hivemind social net
-
News
- Features
- Blogs
- Events
Calendar
- Editorials
- Monthly
Zine
- Offworld
Report
- Our Daily
RSS Feed
- Google Toolbar scifi
- Movie/TV
Reviews
> Recent movies
> Movies by year
> Movies by title
- Book
Reviews
> Recent books
> Books by year
> Books by title
- Home
- Worlds
- Biography
- Bibliography
- Appearances
- Reviews
- Blog
- Community
- Press
- Links
Become
an Advertiser
- Web
Site Directory
- Search
the Net
- StephenHunt.net
- WoodenRocket.com
- Check
your E-mail
- Non Sci-Fi
News
|
Travelling at the speed of Net
01/11/2006 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
Speed is relative to everything else, says Geoff. Nothing is ever stationary. Although what we see depends a lot on how far it has to travel to get to you. That's not to say there aren't absolutes. Take the speed of light. If it travelled instantaneously we'd see the night sky in a different light...literally. Hello everyone
Speed is relative to everything else. Nothing is ever stationary. Although what we see depends a lot on how far it has to travel to get to you. That's not to say there aren't absolutes. Take the speed of light. If it travelled instantaneously we'd see the night sky in a different light...literally. Everything would be in the now. Not like we see things currently, where astral events have happened many millennia into the past. We would never be able to determine the creation of the universe. Quite what other effects that would have can be left to your imagination, especially as this being a monthly editorial and only want to scratch the surface here. The essential point though is without a measurement of speed, everything is in the here and now and the only bottleneck is in the response times to events.
It would also be highly confusing even if some SF writer created a reality based around the idea. I mean, we'd never know if, say a comet was approaching the Earth simply because we would have nothing to scale distance for its approach as the light of the object would be in relative time, its tail missing until it swung away from the sun and we wouldn't be able to gauge how long before it got here. It would just be there. Einstein's most famous law, E=mc2, would never be able to work simply because we would be unable to scale velocity out there because 'c', the speed of light, would be negligible. I'm already having some of you pulling your hair out with this observation. It deserves to be attacked for flaws, not to mention good and bad points. It'll give you something to ponder and debate in these cold dark nights.
This is very effective for galactic distances but closer to home, like on the planet itself, how far would things be different? Looking around you, probably pretty much the same as it is now unless physical objects were affected in some way. Saying that, the interval between a lightning strike and thunderclap would be much longer than we have now. The biggest change would be for communications devices. It would make something like our current laser and broadband seem painfully slow and I haven't even touched on any other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum but would it change our life that greatly? That is assuming such a change happened now or we evolved in such a reality. Would we be as fast as this form of reality or have to bear in mind the chemical reactions that make you what you are going to always be slow in comparison so won't know any difference.
Now, how would this affect the world?? The most obvious one, as mentioned above, is it would be impossible to examine the origins of the universe. It might make communication to the stars easier though. No more waiting for galactic messages to get here and other species might be eager to talk assuming there are some out there born in the past couple millennia.
There's still speculation on how it would affect everything. If you were brought up in such a reality then this would be normality. You certainly wouldn't be able to compare it to our reality. Would evolution and biology be anything like our own or just more accelerated.
As with all Science Fiction premises, all it takes is to change one basic thing and then see how it affects the rest of reality or rather the immediate reality around you. It makes for endless speculation and provocative thinking. Look what happened when 2-D beings were discussed finding a 3-D world. From their POV, the universe just got bigger but still flat. After all, they would still have no perception of height and falling off ceilings. It would only be bottleneck organics that would be the defining light (sic) of the world and the buck or at least what is seen stop with them.
To make sense of it all needs some sort of comparison to our current reality so the two ends can be joined. If nothing else, it makes it easier to visualise. Creating worlds takes a bold step like this to see things in a different light rather than the perpetual humanoid-based realities we see a lot of in SF. Not that that is bad. After all, who are you going to relate to? The alien methane breather or someone that has something in common with us? Whether you want it or not, metaphor now ends up playing a part.
A slight digression. The subject is speed and with it time. They go hand in hand in conventional reality and yet on a personal scale, things move a lot faster these days. It gives a basis for comparison to understand how such a reality could work. Which is the whole point often neglected in building Science Fiction realities.
In the old days, you would send a letter or order something by standard post (I hate calling it snail mail...when was the last time you saw a snail posting a letter much less deliver one?) would take a couple weeks. These days, sending a message over the Internet and you can get answers the same hour if not the next day, assuming some of you are like me and like to write replies off-line. Ordering things over the Net might not always come the next day but it's far faster than it ever used to be. The new generations coming up are never going to experience this as all they'll ever know is ordering off the Net. The most important thing they'll learn is how to shop around to get the best deals. The world has got suddenly faster with a whole different level of closeness that isn't dependent on going anywhere. The only people in the near future likely to have anything like close contact are the people in the warehouses. How soon will there be a diversification and having a warehouse near you to visit. Even physical reality is changing around us.
No matter how fast the Internet is, its speed is dependent entirely on the person sending or receiving the messages and how fast they can reply. 'Fast' becomes an immaterial concept. Such messages can be fuelled by emotion or delayed for rationality. I doubt if that will ever change. Well, not unless we have links directly into our heads and then ponder on how many rash decisions you make a day that you wish you'd never said being passed down the line. Maybe its just as well that we users are the defining level for speed and we're not really adapted to a lift when speed is negligible. Today, we email people whom we'd probably have never met in real life. Should communications really go up exponentially then we'd never be able to move for messages we'd be getting in and that has to be a frightening thought. Would it make life more interesting or missed for answering all the email?
And my thanks to David A. Hardy for arguing with me over the logic of no distance light
Thank you, take care, good night and be safe Geoff Willmetts
editor: SFCrowsnest.co.uk
Less Serious Thought and mostly cos we haven't done a Star Trek gag in ages and it being its 40th anniversary.
Look at the original Star Trek opening lines and then think of them based on today's falling writing standards and a possible re-write of the original series (which I hope is a bluff to keep everyone guessing), would we have had a semi-illiterate Kirk txting with Spock inspecting the logs correcting it to his own satisfaction?
Spc. Th fnl frntr. Ths r th vygs f th strshp Entrprs T sk t nw lf T bldly g whr n mn hs bn bfr. Hy pt vlcn fll n rst fr i Gods. It almost makes sense.
Imagine now if Kirk had dreadlocks!!! Let's just leave that thought. [Don't forget this is the future of texting!!! Any mis-spellings can only be that of the future, especially as I don't txt.]
Less Serious Thought Even If It Makes Good Sense: Isn't is about time that TV series 'Smallville' paying attention to early Superboy stories has Lana Lang become Insect Queen for an episode? Shame Clark never bumps into Mon-el or Ultra Boy...assuming you know your Superboy history.
A real Zen thought::Does the wearing of clothes associated with an interest make you more tribal belonging or decrease your individuality or non-conformity by showing you want to belong?
Another real Zen thought but this time for potential writers: If you can express an opinion independently of others and aren't likely to bend to the masses then you might show potential as a writer.
BOOK REVIEWS
PS Do you love Science Fiction, horror or fantasy books? Do you read? Able to string words into sentences? Then read on...you maybe what we need...
If you've survived this far in the editorial, let me reiterate something from the website newsletter and the above editorial. As you can see from the main page, we have one of the biggest SF/fantasy/horror monthly reviews columns on the Net. Our success has increased the number of books that comes in and our policy is to read everything before giving a review. You want the bottom line about what you're going to choose to read. We roadtest books so you have some idea of what you're letting yourself in for. That means we need people actually willing to read the book and tell others what they think in reviews. For that, we're always on the outlook for more reviewers. Do you think you have what it takes to review a book? It's a skill that can be easily mastered and we need a few more.
Apart from the ability to put words into sentences, you also need to know how to précis, do a little research on associated subjects and can express opinions constructively about the good and bad points about the books you read. We even let you choose from our pile of received books rather than foster something on you that you wouldn't normally read. You'll even get a little editorial help in how to write good copy and that can always lead to other things. I did say you have to love books and willing to read beyond your favourite authors, didn't I?
If you like reading books in the genre, can really think and show you can write a decent review and, most importantly, live in the British Isles (sorry, expense, time and distance travelled mostly prohibits elsewhere), then use the link below and see our requirements. We can't pay you but a review for the price and regular supply of new books, this has to be a good incentive.
We have one of the most popular and biggest SF review columns on the Net. Do you think you're up to writing a review? If you think you can, then you're really going to think you've landed your hands in the biscuit tin. It won't hurt to try and see if you have the right stuff. Look up the Review Guidelines:
WHAT WE LOOK FOR IN CONTRIBUTORS AND WRITING GENERALLY
PPS: For those keeping track, I'm still about 24 months (late November 2004) behind.
With going through the ebook samples, I have removed some who've gotten published elsewhere. Thank you for your patience but let me know if you've sold elsewhere so I can reduce my pile or if you've changed address, especially e-mail address. I can't give you my comments unless either is up to date. Currently, doing spot-checks to see if you're still there when I reach your sample in the pile is making it easier on my time and catching up on the slush pile.
This isn't much of a repeat, just to show you're not forgotten. Those sending in ebook samples, be prepared for a long wait and read the Guidelines with your mouse here: elsewhere on this website They are there to help you do some of the right things and reduce the number of times I'm repeating myself over silly grammatical errors and spelling mistakes that you shouldn't be making. It makes editing a lot easier if any editor has less work pointing out poor English which should have been sorted out in the first place and more focused on other areas of your work. As a writer, it is your command of the English language and its grammar that will show how serious you are about writing.
NOVEL-LENGTH AND OTHER WRITING
General advice for those who want to become writers of any sort: There's an old editorial adage, if you can't aim for perfection why should an editor nurse-maid you to that state? If you're a writer, then you should understand the words, sentences and grammar of the job you're supposed to be writing or are you considering it as mundane and boring as any other job to get right? Fall in love with making every sentence the best you're ever written, read up and understand the rules of grammar. Put the time in researching any subject you're using in the story. Be prepared to put a story away for a few weeks and go back to it for a self-edit. Even I do that. A lot of the time, errors will just stare you in the face when you didn't see them the first time round. Once you know where your weaknesses are, they can be sorted out and allow you to move a little higher up the ladder towards making your material look its best.
Look up the Common Problems Link with your mouse here:
SHORT STORY SLUSH PILE
Please don't confuse the above link with my short story slush pile which is kinda low at the moment. We're always willing to give short story writers a chance to be seen if they can withstand my scrutiny even if we can't pay for their efforts, your material will be seen by a lot of people. If you can get a short story written well then it'll make it easier to move up to novel length. Look up the Short Stories Link with your mouse here
FLASH OR ONE-PAGE FICTION
Don't forget also, we've got a teaching ground of one page stories, so check out the rules elsewhere on the website. Flash fiction stories link : with your mouse here.
|
|
