Asimov was a pioneer. Without him, we wouldn't have any of the authors you mention. I'm a huge Iain M. Banks fan. I've read all his sci-fi stuff, and a couple of his non-sci-fi novels. I particular like his Culture series. I might have read one or two Alastair Reynolds books, but I can't remember. And I've never heard of Charles Stross. Great books - especially the first series. The only problem is that they are a bit long-winded. And old Peter seems a little bit obsessed with sex. Everybody in the Night's Dawn series seems to have sex all the time. And they all have the same carefree attitude to sex, too.
km, Hmm maybe so. I work with our new flag-ship NEOVIEW systems designed for the BI (Business Intelligence) space. I guess our lead customer is Wal-Mart where we now provide their Enterprise Data Warehouse needs. We are also replacing the some 700 datamart internal HP systems with a couple of centralized NEOVIEW systems, typically 256 processor systems. I'd be curious to see to what degree BI and Knowledge Management are similar, KM is not a term we use. If it is multi-terrabyte or multi-petabyte databases with a need for a massively parrallel SQL query engine, then we may have something for you.
Excellent books. Then avoid his "Misspent Youth" lead-in novel to the Commonwealth series Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
True enough, true enough. Although, I've got to say that I would add Bradbury. Yep. I just picked up "Dark Matter". Ahh. Stross is amazing. On a whim I took a chance and picked up "Singularity Sky", and devoured it. Fabulous (very) hard core SciFi from a Scottish author. (Why is it I wonder, that all the really good contemporary SciFI authors are British??) Interestingly, Stross also writes some contemporary setting quasi-SciFi as well, though it's a mixture of hacking/Cthulu bizzarro science... Check out "The Atrocity Archives". lol Too true.
The changing nature of science fiction I knew I should have transcribed the essay .... I have to look around for it, but I have a short anthology of five Soviet science fiction stories compiled and presented by Asimov, ca. 1962: The introduction is by Asimov, and covers a theory of the evolution of American science fiction in three stages between 1926 and the book's publication. While confessing broad ignorance about the state of Soviet science fiction, Asimov proposes that the genre had not passed beyond the comparable American second stage (ca. 1938-50) in which the nature of the stories had passed from being adventure-dominant to technically-dominant. He doubted the third stage, the sociologically-dominant, would occur in the Soviet Union, since the nature of the Communist revolution and the patriotic demands of Soviet culture seemed to discourage speculation about alternate cultural forms. (#1922979/282) That's all I ever wrote about that essay, unfortunately. It's a fine one, and could explain some of what you're referring to about current science fiction, which seems to be a blend—perhaps an evolution—of the prior stages. Of course, SciFi Network productions like Savage Planet don't help the situation any.
"breakthroughs in science". http://www.archive.org/details/breakthroughsins002019mb "introducing science". http://www.archive.org/details/introducingscien002581mbp "only a trillion". http://www.archive.org/details/onlyatrillion017765mbp all written by asimov and available for free.
fuck fantasy fuck the elves and trolls and other misshapen beasts goddamn medieval crap fuck tolkien fuck the magic amulets fuck em all
"Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today—but the core of science fiction, its essence, the concepts around which it revolves, have become crucial to our salvation, if we are to be saved at all." --Asimov I think the quote is true insofar as it relates to a certain kind of science fiction, to which Asimov aspired. The core of Foundation is really about how much or how little we are willing to cede our destiny to technocrats. Even today, suppose the government needs to make a decision on whether a new design for a nuclear power plant is safe. I guarantee in that event you will have wackos show up on both sides of the issue that do not have the requisite scientific and engineering backgrounds to evaluate the risks objectively. The solution in Foundation was to cede the universe to the scientists, and to have a backup set of scientists working to correct the first set. That is not our system, and there is a lot to despise about it on a philosophical level. Yet, still, is the only alternative to turn things over tho the ill-informed and watch as they let things spiral out of control even worse? For me, that was the interesting part of the Foundation novels.
They're waiting until they have a Moon or Mars Base before they start using the names Asimov and Clarke, maybe...has anyone read the book 'Tall they were, with golden eyes'? I can't remember who wrote that--I think it may've been Ray Bradbury.
True, I've just checked the wiki article on Bradbury; man, that guy's prolific with stories. Actually, I didn't realise he was still alive.Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
