All humans are vermin in the eyes of Morbo!
I can find no rational reason for aliens to invade the Earth.
If they need energy, water, metals or radioactives there are plenty in space to mined or harvested without dealing with pesky natives. If some super-civilization needed all the metals, silicates and carbon from our asteroid belt, they could just haul it all away without ever visiting the Earth and, we could do nothing to stop it. If they needed to enclose the Sun within a dyson sphere to harvest all the energy from it, they could do so and our technology would so primitive in comparison that we could do nothing to stop it. If they wanted to mine all the silicates and iron from the Earth, they'd just pulverize it into manageable pieces by slamming a few other planets or moons into it.
In any case they'd never have to set foot on the Earth at all.
The key thing to keep in mind here is the enormous differences technology. Science fiction is often wildly inaccurate on this score because they only posit differences of a few decades or centuries. It would not be like British maxim guns versus Zulu infantry.
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Posted by Pace Arko on April 3, 2008 at 8:25 PM | Comments (1)
My History with Gizmo Wristwatches
When I was in college back in the middle Eighties, I had a Casio calculator watch. This was the expensive apotheosis of nerdery back then. In the Eighties Japan was kicking everyone's ass in consumer electronics. At the time microchips had become so cheap that towards the end of the decade, they were giving away cheap watches in cereal boxes. Smart people in the wristwatch industry--that is to say, nobody in Switzerland or the US--realized that the only way to keep the prices up was to jam more functions in the box, thus the Casio C 80 calculator watch. Walking around with this thing strapped to my wrist made me feel like Mr. Spock or Dr. Who.
Anyway, fast forward to the beginning of the Twenty-first Century.
My Xonix wristwatch, which served me very well for more than four years partially broke several months ago. Actually it would have served even longer. It's just that I broke the stem for the analog watch when trying to replace its battery. I now have no way of setting the watch but, everything else still works--the digital recorder, the thumb drive, the ear buds, everything. In our diminished expectations of product quality in these modern times, I consider that pretty good endurance. But if the analog watch doesn't work, I just can't stand to wear it on my wrist. I'm keeping it as spare parts for a friend's Xonix watch of the same model.
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Posted by Pace Arko on February 23, 2008 at 3:51 PM
Hm, it's been a while since I've said anything
So I haven't wrote anything here for all of January and most of December. Actually I've been writing up tentative entries on the bus to and from work but nothing has jelled up into a good article to post here.
It's the digital equivalent of the horror of the blank page that all authors must face at some point. Sometimes something comes, sometimes it seems like it's all been said and said by people smarter than you.
One of the ways I think I can get around this problem is to talk about my hobbies. I have a game session coming up and that will give me a write up then. My gaming pals love my summaries of game sessions. But I could broaden this by talking about table-top role-playing games in general. (Sigh. I remember when just saying role-playing games was sufficient. But software has changed all this now.):
- I did start a couple of entries on the history of my role-playing campaign: Udra. I really should finish this up.
- I could make these histories very detailed or at least as detailed as my memory and 29 year old paper can allow for.
- I could talk about table-top RPGs in general. Commentaries of rules and variations. I've done a little of this already. For example I could talk about how to use computers to aid in bookkeeping and note-taking in game sessions. It would great to have a computerized miniatures map that would help everyone keep track of the physics. As a game master, I'd love to have this so I could concentrate on the descriptive stuff and mood.
Anyway, maybe some other subjects will come to me. I've been thinking about ways to force people to use encrypted mail and whether I want to sign up for EVDO service for example. Something will come.
Posted by Pace Arko on February 8, 2008 at 4:06 PM
Science articles I've read over the last month
Since at least Arthur C. Clarke's Against the Fall of Night the idea of mind taping has been knocking around in science fiction for decades. Some examples are William Gibson's Dixie Flatline and Frederik Pohl's heechee prayer fans. A particularly good portrayal of how this might be done is Rudy Rucker's Software. When roboticist Hans Moravec speculated how it might be done in his book Mind Children, some people began to take the idea seriously, giving the concept the rather inaccurate name of "mind downloading." (Which is silly because downloading and uploading merely mean to copy files to and from a local machine to machines on a network.)
So I've following developments in medical imaging technology closely for many years now.
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Posted by Pace Arko on December 12, 2007 at 7:17 AM
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar--
Nearly a month ago, my friend Victor bought and downloaded Portal, a first person action game that involves puzzles, the legacies of faceless defense corporations and bizarre physics. He invited me to try my hand at it.
The game very strongly reminded me of Paranoia, right down to the jumpsuits and manipulative, deranged robots. For me, this game was rather refreshing in that it wasn't your typical paintball session in software where those with the fastest hardware, the most practice, the least RSI and the fastest connections usually pulverize everyone else.
In games like that, I quickly degenerate into kamikaze mode simply because I can't stack up the patience to do them well. I'd have the wrists of an 80 year old if I did anyway. (On the other hand, people like to play me in first person shooters and melee combat games because they get a kick out of how I transform into this insanely giggling manic--ahem--I can be quite childish for a 44 year old guy.)
In Portal, sort of like Thief or Metal Gear (Although Metal Gear did have some incredibly frustrating button mash events that I almost gave up on.), you're given some tools and then you got to figure your way out the predicament you're in. Dangerous events are immediately fatal, thus more realistic, but at least no one is immediately trying to eat your brains or blow you to bits.
It turns out there are some other ways this game is subversive to the usual shoot 'em ups. I guess Joe McNeilly, the guy I just linked to, might be over-analysing things too much but I'm pretty sure the folks over at Valve Software did seriously consider at least some of these issues while designing the game. With Half-Life, Valve became known for trying to depart from cliche and keep the escapism on a vaguely cerebral level. Nice to see they are still doing that.
Posted by Pace Arko on December 11, 2007 at 7:19 AM
Circus of the Mighty Session Log
[Victor, Greg and Ralph in attendance on 11-18-2007 between 3:30PM until about 9:30PM. Greg was running Thalin and Chingara. Victor was running Mandark and Stirge. Ralph was running Dwalor and Telwyn. Hilda and Helga started off in Greg and Ralph's hands but when combat started, Victor was mostly calling the tactics. The Circus is currently in the City of Boha-Boha which is in the western end of the Twin Kingdoms of Taumau-Boha at the head of the Kalimara River.]
When we left the Circus they were making plans to capture, or at least defeat, Lord Alif.
Alif was an important man within the mysterious Leopard Cult. As the result of Thalin's scrying, Hilda's questioning of the two spies the Circus had captured and several other related facts, they learned that this mysterious cult of criminals, assassins and shapechangers was now after the Circus and was somehow in alliance with at least two of their old foes, Chebo and Marvek. Although the pattern of connections wasn't entirely clear yet, these cultists also were involved with the ancient evils of the Kosan and expunged history of the mysterious King in Yellow.
More importantly, as Thalin had long ago expected and had taken precautions against, the Circus was now being scryed on and their movements and activities followed.
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Posted by Pace Arko on November 25, 2007 at 12:23 AM | Comments (6)
Got the curry? Not to worry!
Yeah, I've ranted about this before. I think it bears repeating.
What is Thanksgiving for? Really?
If it's supposed to celebrate national identity, we've already got a zillion holidays for that, Veteran's Day and Independence Day for starts--and some that some of you out there wouldn't consider as days of national pride like MLK Day and Labor Day.
Is it really for gratitude?
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Posted by Pace Arko on November 21, 2007 at 12:57 AM | Comments (2)
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