DaveW - > Highly recommend John Brunner's /The Sheep Look Up/ for fans of > ecological disaster. > > davew Well offered.
When I first read /Sheep/ (in the same era it was published?) it was too pessimistic for my young, naive, cynical but optimistic tastes. I was lead there by his Stand on Zanzibar (69), more for his stylistic approach of interleaving news headlines of over-the-top socio-environmental disasterlets with the everyday lives of day-after-tomorrow average peoples... than the apocalyptic import. In fact, Zanzibar represented such a long, slow slide/tumble/spinout compared to the threats of my childhood (nuclear war, asteroidal impact, burning rivers) that it fed (created?) my own morbid fascination with a future that (maybe) *I* could be flexible enough to navigate while the previous generation (elderBoomers and LostGen and GreatestGen) would fail or flail with those changes. Now, of course, I "am one" and doubt I will be flexible enough, though I might be lucky enough to die of something much more mundane than environmental/social collapse. I was not aware until just now (reading up on Brunner in Wikipedia) that /Zanzibar/, /Sheep/ and two others (/Jagged Orbit/, /Shockwave Rider/) constituted what came to be called his "/Club of Rome Quartet/" named after the very real Club of Rome <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Club_of_Rome>. Merle's 2019 meeting in Stockholm lead me to revisit the systems dynamic models that grew up out of Limits to Growth <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth> study commissioned by the Club of Rome. Much of Brunner's work now reads to me (or in reflection of my first read) like proto-cyberpunk. They were day-after-tomorrow (decade after next?) stories which have proven to have presaged a great deal of what in fact has come at us over the horizon. /Shockwave Rider/ really fit that niche for me and set me up to appreciate Gibson's work (e.g. /Neuromancer/Mona Lisa Overdrive/Johnny Mnemonic/, etc) when it was published in the early 80s. The /Infinitive of Go/ nicely tied multiverse conceptions into the then-rebudding (pun recognized?) field of bifurcation theory (coined by Poincare nearly 100 years previous). Brunner's relatively flat characters and pat plots convolved with his very astute scientific-technical-sociopolitical insights made him a bit of a hybrid or bridge creature between the classic golden agers and the modernist hard-sf writers. Like many things these days, I'm finding I appreciate him more and more through the lens-system of 50+ years of hindsight. I didn't invite the Rainbow Family to "camp on my lawn" this year, but I *am* a lot more sympathetic with that kind of energy than I (even) did when I was young enough to engage in that kind of freewheeling activity. I feel like Dave and I have bent this thread all the way back around the Nick's original "Psychonauts"? It's spirals all the way down? - Steve > > > On Fri, Aug 6, 2021, at 8:28 PM, Steve Smith wrote: >> >> ... unbending the psychonaut thread >> >>> And something will have to power the artificial magnetosphere after >>> the teraforming.. >> >> ... as I understand it, Mars lost it's magnetosphere a (long) while >> back and nobody knows why (with the atmosphere and liquid water >> following, blown off into space by the solar wind). >> >> I think we should just wait another millisecond in our exponential >> technological growth curve and build a Stapledon Sphere >> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olaf_Stapledon> (more commonly >> referenced as a Dyson Sphere) instead. Stapledon's Golden Age era >> _/First and Last Men/_ presaged both terraforming and genetic >> engineering . >> >> Jack Williamson (whose horn I toot here often), another Golden Age >> author, wrote (in modernish times - 2001) the novel Terraforming >> Earth (he died at 98 in 2006). A good friend of mine (who >> introduced us) met Jack when he (my friend) was a pre-teen and kept >> in touch for the next 50+ years, gave him the title "Terraforming >> Terra" which Jack really liked but they both were ultimately >> overruled by his publisher. /Terraforming Terra /is much more >> poetic than /Terraforming Earth/, no? >> >> (speaking of Terraforming... Mars) I held off reading Kim Stanley >> Robinson's Red/Green/Blue Mars trilogy (ca early 90s) until Musk >> started being convincing (to me) that he might get a modest number of >> humans TO Mars in his (and my?) lifetime. I'm still an ffFFFing >> luddite about these things, but I also see an inevitable arc here. >> Robinson did a good job (I thought) of characterizing the >> sociopoliticalspiritual implications of all this. I forget how he >> solved the magnetosphere problem (or powered it). >> >> For anyone who thinks there are endogenous existential threats afoot >> (e.g. climate change) and also appreciates speculative fiction, I >> highly recommend Robinson's Ministry-for-the-Future >> <https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50998056-the-ministry-for-the-future> >> written/published before COVID but not by much. While it doesn't >> exhaustively discuss every sociopoliticaleconomictechnical response >> to a tumbled gyro of our noo-bio-cryo-sphere of a planet, it covers a >> lot very convincingly. I don't suggest any of his maunderings will >> come true or even have more than passing resemblance to the future we >> are stumbling into in the next few decades, but it was satisfying to >> read someone who has clearly researched the hell out of the stuff >> coming at us like a swarm of bugs hitting our windshield (while we >> proudly outdrive our headlights). >> >>> >>>> On Aug 6, 2021, at 4:52 PM, Steve Smith <sasm...@swcp.com> >>>> <mailto:sasm...@swcp.com> wrote: >>>> >>>> Marcus Daniels wrote: >>>> >>>>> Don't forget about Mars! >>>> >>>> LANL physicist Steve Howe was a proponent of plowsharing Rover >>>> <https://www.lanl.gov/science/NSS/issue1_2011/story4full.shtml> >>>> into a nuclear rocket for Mars with the argument that the radiation >>>> exposure to astronauts by the drive was less than the extra time >>>> spent outside the earth's magnetic field (charged-particle shield) >>>> in the cosmic/solar radiation flux. >>>> >>>> He went on to promoting antimatter (anti-protons) instead: >>>> >>>> >>>> https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2020/06/steven-howe-breakthroughs-for-antimatter-production-and-storage.html >>>> <https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2020/06/steven-howe-breakthroughs-for-antimatter-production-and-storage.html> >>>> >>>> Oh yeh, and he's the first person I know to have self-published >>>> (science) fiction through Amazon (before Doug Roberts even). >>>> >>>> He used to carry a briefcase full of copies on his work-travels to >>>> sell on the plane and/or restock the rack at the ABQ Sunport. I >>>> Just checked his Amazon page and it seems he's continued to riff: >>>> >>>> Steven-Howe >>>> >>>> <https://www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/entity/author/B005L9MAL2?_encoding=UTF8&node=283155&offset=0&pageSize=12&searchAlias=stripbooks&sort=author-sidecar-rank&page=1&langFilter=default#formatSelectorHeader> >>>> >>>> His first book exposes his techno-libertarian tendencies. I just >>>> learned of the sequel(s). >>>> >>>> >>>>> -----Original Message----- >>>>> From: Friam <friam-boun...@redfish.com> >>>>> <mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com> On Behalf Of thompnicks...@gmail.com >>>>> <mailto:thompnicks...@gmail.com> >>>>> Sent: Friday, August 6, 2021 8:24 AM >>>>> To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group' >>>>> <friam@redfish.com> <mailto:friam@redfish.com> >>>>> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] for our psychonauts >>>>> >>>>> Reminds me of that period in which people were desperately looking for >>>>> something to do with nuclear explosives other than kill one another. >>>>> Like: "Let's blow a new hole in the Isthmus of Panama!" Project >>>>> Plowshares, it was called. >>>>> >>>>> Nick Thompson >>>>> thompnicks...@gmail.com <mailto:thompnicks...@gmail.com> >>>>> https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/ >>>>> <https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/> >>>>> >>>>> -----Original Message----- >>>>> From: Friam <friam-boun...@redfish.com> >>>>> <mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com> On Behalf Of u?l? ?>$ >>>>> Sent: Friday, August 6, 2021 10:57 AM >>>>> To: FriAM <friam@redfish.com> <mailto:friam@redfish.com> >>>>> Subject: [FRIAM] for our psychonauts >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> What Should We Make Of Sasha Chapin's Claim That Taking LSD Restored His >>>>> Sense Of Smell After COVID? >>>>> https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/what-should-we-make-of-sasha-chapins >>>>> >>>>> <https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/what-should-we-make-of-sasha-chapins> >>>>> >>>>> I haven't read it, yet. I'm hoping posting it here will remind me to >>>>> actually read it. >>>>> >>>>> -- >>>>> ☤>$ uǝlƃ >>>>> >>>>> - .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. . >>>>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >>>>> Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam un/subscribe >>>>> http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com >>>>> <http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com> >>>>> FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ >>>>> <http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/> >>>>> archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ >>>>> <http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> - .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. . >>>>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >>>>> Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam un/subscribe >>>>> http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com >>>>> <http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com> >>>>> FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ >>>>> <http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/> >>>>> archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ >>>>> <http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/> >>>>> - .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. . >>>>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >>>>> Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam >>>>> un/subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com >>>>> <http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com> >>>>> FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ >>>>> <http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/> >>>>> archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ >>>>> <http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/> >>>>> >>>>> >>>> - .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. . >>>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >>>> Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam >>>> un/subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com >>>> <http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com> >>>> FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ >>>> <http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/> >>>> archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ >>>> <http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/> >>> >>> - .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. . >>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >>> Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam >>> un/subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com >>> <http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com> >>> FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ >>> <http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/> >>> archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ >>> <http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/> >>> >> - .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. . >> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >> Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam >> <http://bit.ly/virtualfriam> >> un/subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com >> <http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com> >> FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ >> <http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/> >> archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ >> <http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/> >> > > > - .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. . > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam > un/subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ > archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/
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