Lost in Space (well on the Moon at least)

I've had one of those days. A day where you start reading about the biology of Star Trek» and by the end are poring over transcripts of Astronauts lost on the moon». Too bad those astronauts didn't have this Google Moon Map» showing exactly where they were.

Here are some of the highlights from my trip across the web this morning.

Making Aliens: The Repercussions of Planetary Settlement»

Seven ways to control the Galaxy with self-replicating probes»

The Physics of Extraterrestrial Civilizations»

How did that trip bring me to the Moon and a couple of astronauts arguing over a map?
That's where the story idea exists.

Story ideas can be found anywhere, and often by combining different ideas. Just reading and letting your unconscious mind guide you across the web can be a great way to find inspiration.



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Ohhhhh GodHood

The Singularity» is coming. Seriously, any day now :). And Vernor Vinge is discussing it over at h+ magazine.

I've been waiting for the singularity for almost 20 years. Pretty much since the first time I was hospitalized. To some people the singularity means enhanced cognition, or free energy. Both wonderful things that will change the world, but to me it means Immortality. That's right I am not a fan of death. Nope, I don't like it at all.

When I was younger I was faced with a fairly scary disease. Death and Pain were suddenly much larger figures in my life than they should be for any child. It was in speculative fiction that I found escape from those terrors. In the stories I read science had conquered disease. Wonderful technologies like cloned organs, or medical nanobots worked miracles on a regular basis. These weren't wishes granted by a genie, or gifts from capricious gods, but the end result of steady scientific progress. This was something I could grab onto, something I could understand and relate to the reality I lived in.

We aren't growing new organs yet, though with stem cells we're close. We also don't have the medical nanobots. But there are many complex surgical procedures that are now done through an incision the size of an inch. I have one of those one inch scars. Had that surgery been done 10 years earlier the scar would have stretched all the way across my belly. In another 20 years perhaps that surgery will not even be necessary.

Over at SciFi Scanner is an article talking about some interesting experiments with Junk DNA». This is unused DNA that's in our genome, left over from the ancestors of humanity. It's similar to legacy code in a computer program that's been commented out, it's still there, just not used. Some of that legacy code when activated (uncommented) could potentially allow for things like an immunity to the HIV virus, or even other 'abilities' that lay in our evolutionary past.

The ability I'd like to see be (re)activated is regeneration. Yup the holy grail of immortality. It's in our genetic past somewhere, only at some point our primitive mammalian ancestors stopped regenerating. Instead they switched to growing scar tissue. Scars are great for mammals that have to run and hide and heal quickly, but that isn't the world humanity lives in. The evolutionary reasons for abandoning regeneration in favour of scars no longer apply to us. Yes, I dare to disagree with Mother Nature.

This is the singularity for me: The moment that we take control of our own evolution and design. When it's no longer just a random collection of genes that decides who is healthy and who is sick, that decides who lives or who dies. This is the future I still dream of.



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The Future is ?

Yesterday I talked about the future of the writing industry. So today it seems appropriate to talk about the future described by the writing industry. Over at Locus Online is an interesting piece titled: Pitfalls of Prophecy: Why Science Fiction So Often Fails to Predict the Future by Gary Westfahl. It's an interesting read that looks at some of the basic fallacies often made when predicting the future. I would like to note that it's not only Science Fiction authors that fall into these traps, plenty others predict the future and get it wrong. We just seem to expect the SciFi doods to get it right, perhaps unfairly.

Seriously, Science Fiction is about story telling, and while science has a role in shaping a plausible scenario, few stories can stand alone with just science. It's in the human interactions that Science Fiction excels. In the relationships and decisions that are shaped and forced by the backdrop of the (science) fictional reality. This is why I use the term Speculative Fiction. It frees me from having to defend the science (real or imaginary) in my stories.

The reality is that most of the best science fiction ever written has zero chance of ever being plausible. Hyperdrive? Alien Warfare? Robots using Humans as Batteries? If you look at the science behind those ideas it doesn't make sense. I don't know if there are aliens out there, but it really doesn't matter because the science is pretty clear on extra solar travel. It's SLOW. Lightspeed is a great speed limit, but it's also irrelevant. The energy requirements alone to bring a manned vessel to a fraction of the speed of light (1 or 2 percent) are high enough as to render it effectively impossible. So science tells us that we aren't going anywhere, and it's unlikely we're going to meet others along the way. The human battery thing just falls because it's a dumb idea, you don't really need to understand science to get that one. But Hyperdrive and Aliens and Human Batteries all make great backdrops to compelling stories.

Here is a great Mind Meld from SF Signal that looks at the predictions from Science Fiction and what has occurred and what has not. As with all Mind Melds a lot of the value is in the discussion by the participating authors as they present their own take on the question. James Gunn, Adam Roberts, and others being some of the participants.


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Writing Wiki Wednesday: wikEd

So you want to build a Writing Wiki? You may have seen my previous post on the matter:
'Bricked Laptops and Data Backup'. There I discuss the value of the Writing Wiki and why I started one.
To sum:
The entire setup fits on a USB drive, is portable, and designed to be run through any web browser, thanks to the Modular Webserver System, MoWeS for short, from CH Software.
You can track anything you write and link it all together using Wikilinks. Wikilinks and wikitext are the code that determines how a wikipage (or article) will appear. Wikitext is analogous to HTML only much simpler to write, and sometimes much more powerful. Mediawiki Software is built on a database, this allows for dynamic generation of pages based on the content of that database.
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One example of that would be the Category tag for content, and the ability for content to be associated with multiple categories. Some of my categories are: Ideas, Research, Story, Work In Progress, Submitted, etc. To include an article in a specific category just put [[Category:Story]] *change 'Story' to any Category name - into the wiki page's code. I actually use Templates with pretty graphics that automagically put my documents into the right category, but that's for another day. In the meantime Categories are the easiest way to keep track of Wiki Pages as you create them. Each Category will have it's own page that tracks all articles associated with it, this page is dynamically generated everytime you go to it, and always up to date. I find categories very useful for quick access to documents.

To get started go to the CH Software page and follow their instructions, make sure to select the Mediawiki software and related packages. This can all be done with the free version of their software. CH Software has also packaged other interesting software (Moodle, Taskfreak, Joomla, Wordpress...) if you want to play around.

Now that you have your Writing Wiki, what do you do with it? Well lets start on tweaking it to make it more suitable for writing in. That's right, writing in. I don't open up a word processor to compose a new story or note. Instead I log on to my writing wiki and create a new page within it.

* If you have never used a wiki before I would suggest that you check out some of the excellent documentation on Wikimedia. In fact a great first project may be to build your own "Help Pages" within your wiki. I started that way, and as I make changes or add new functions to my wiki I create/update my help pages.


If you have edited any documents on your wiki by now you will have noticed the simple editing interface offered by the Mediawiki Software. What no 'find and replace'? How do I make a 'bulleted list'? Don't worry, there are ways to do pretty much anything in your wiki that you can do in a normal word processor. The first step is to get some more buttons to make editing easier.

Install WikEd, an externsion developed by Wikipedia User Cacycle. On the Installation Instructions Page there is a Section detailing how to install the full program onto your local wiki. This is the best way to install wikEd if you are like me and don't always write where you have an internet connection. The disadvantage is that once in a while you may have to update the wikEd software to keep up with bug fixes and features. How often is up too you as long as it works ;).

Now you have access to features like:

# Wikicode syntax highlighting
# Pasting, import, & conversion of formatted text from Word Processors and web pages
# Regular expression search and replace
# Edit preview and show changes on the same page without reloading
# Fullscreen editing mode
# Single-click fixing of common mistakes
# History for summary, search, and replace fields
# Jump to selected heading
# Type-ahead find
# Support for many languages
# Improved diff display
# Follow links and wiki-links (ctrl-click)

Missing, of course, is Spellcheck. There has been a lot of debate on how to implement something like spellcheck on a wiki. I personally sidestep the whole issue by putting the spellcheck in my browser. I run Firefox with the "Check my spelling as I type" option selected (Under Tools->Options->Advanced->General). I've also installed the Canadian English Dictionary add-on because I like 'u'. (not much of a joke I know)



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Bricked Laptops and Data Backup

So I consider myself an above average user of computers. I've grown up with them and worked in the industry doing some pretty advanced stuff. That's why I scoffed this morning when my wife said the laptop isn't powering on. Then I spent some time on it myself and the machine actually wouldn't turn on. It was dead, nothing more than a brick. After removing the battery, and unplugging it (on the theory that 'sleep' had become 'coma'), it still wouldn't turn on. At this point I considered smashing the laptop.

I should mention that I may have a rage issue early in the morning before coffee and of course the chronic pain doesn't help. After dealing with my personal issues I turned my attention back to the laptop. There are tricks and tactics that can be tried on a bricked machine, and I tried them. I also attempted to sacrifice one of my cats but they were too quick for me. So I settled on burning some incense and herbs and whispering sweet nothings into the built in mic.

My laptop eventually came back to the land of the living and I've addressed the bios and software issue that caused this. However this whole experience validates a project I started to prevent this kind of incident from wiping out my various files of stories and notes. Last year I created a Writing Wiki for myself. "What is a 'Writing Wiki'?" you ask. Well let me tell you my friend, (or frenemy, or neutral bystander), it's freedom. I built my wiki on the standard Mediawiki Software, the same software that powers Wikipedia. Only instead of my wiki being an encyclopedia, it's a collection of my work in writing.
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Wiki software is built on a database. Through the use of links and small snippets of code(wikitext) you can build and do pretty much anything a standard word processor can do: spell check, word count, publish to PDF and more. The more being the exciting part. I go to my wiki in my web browser and there is a webpage that keeps track of all the stories and ideas I'm working on. I can create project pages that link to my rough copies, my outlines, character notes and even responses from submissions. Built into the wiki engine is revision tracking, which adds another layer to editing. This means you can bring back that paragraph that you deleted last month, without looking for an old save of the file. I search my wiki much like any website, allowing me to quickly find something that I wrote quite a while ago, without having to remember filenames or folder locations. As well I have pages that track Writing Markets or contain Research that I've collected off the web or elsewhere.

I used Modular Webserver System, MoWeS for short, from CH Software to power my wiki. Using their software allows me to run the whole thing from a USB stick. Yes a USB stick, and when my laptop bricked this morning I had no worries about lost files, because I can plug that USB stick into pretty much any computer and voilà. I also backup the files from that USB stick onto the hard drive of my desktop, adding a layer of redundancy if I lose the stick.

I've done a number of things to set up my writing wiki by adding my own code to the pages or through the use of the many Extensions for MediaWiki. It's the kind of thing that organically grows to accommodate your needs as you work with it and play with it. To get started on building your own writing wiki check out MoWeS, it's free and comes with a reasonably up to date version of MediaWiki. A USB stick of 250mb is plenty of space to setup your wiki and play.

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