Wish I Could Travel back to the Beginning of the Year

The Time Machine was an incredible and foundational piece of literature that brought a lot of firsts to the table when it came to SciFi, most prominently, the concept of the Time Machine.  That's right, the thing after which the very book is named is both a primary plot device and the first instance of such a fictional gadget ever being written.  Get ready for a story that heavily involves and alludes to the severity of socioeconomic inequality through evolution written by a socialist in the 19th century. 

In summary, a no-name intellectual invents a time machine and attempts to convince a group of his fellow chaps, one of which is our narrator, all to not so much of an avail.  Regardless a couple of people show up later to see the debut of his time machine, only for him to show up unfashionably and just generally unfashionable, sporting tattered clothing and several injuries.  Turns out he's been time traveling!  After our Traveller gets cleaned up and enthusiastically wines and dines, everyone gathers around him to hear his story, and he warns them not to interrupt.  From then on, our narrator writes down what the Traveller says word for word, forcing a change in perspective.  The Traveller then describes how a test run of his went drastically wrong, going forward all the way to the year of 802,701.  There he meets the Eloi, a benign but stupid race of small, childlike, frugivorous humans, and his machine gets stolen by their carnivorous, smart, white-furred and ape like counterparts, the Morlock.  Stranded in the past and slowly trying to figure out his situation, our Traveller befriends an Eloi named Weena, who joins him on most of his endeavors despite being blissfully unaware of what's going on.  The Traveller travels about the immediate area, learning and speculating a bunch of things about the state of the world, like how the dynamic between the Morlock and Eloi is akin to that of herdsman and cattle, and he infers that this is the result of heavy handed capitalism that segregated the upper and lower classes from each other in the past.  The Traveler becomes resolved to retrieve his time machine from the Morlock, so he ventured off with Weena only to discover an old museum with just the supplies he needs for his conquest.  While heading back to the first town I which he arrived, the Traveller and Weena are forced to make camp due to sheer exhaustion, which is a bit of a problem considering the ever present threat of the nocturnal Morlock.  Despite setting fire to several bushes be setting up a fire of his own, the Morlock persist in their pursuit of him and Weena as soon as his fire goes out. Weena dies an unspecific death, the Traveller bludgeons plenty of Morlock to death, only for others to be so blinded and terrified of the Traveller's spreading bushfire that they accidentally throw themselves into it in a panic.  The Traveller heads to go get his time machine, which the Morlocks try to use as bait (keyword: try), and successfully travels out of that disturbing era.  He winds up going forward for a while, witnessing the gradual desolation of Earth up until a pout 30 million years in the future.  He then comes back to the present, passes out on a work bench, come downstairs to meet his dinner guests, and we cut back to the Traveller and his guests in the smoking room.  No one really believes him aside from the narrator, despite him showing things like flower Weena put in his pocket or the actual, worse for the wear Time machine.  Everyone departs, but our narrator visits the next day, hoping for some answers to the inane story.  The Traveller ask for him to wait a modest thirty minutes so that the Traveler can go back to the future for proof, only to disappear for three years and counting.

That's quite a lot, right?  It's actually a rather quick read, as I got through it I'm about six hours with a nap somewhere in between.  While Wells was the first to introduce the concept of the Time machine and time travel, this was actually his second book to utilize (and popularize) it, the concept actually first appearing in his short story 'The Chronic Argonauts'.  After that, his writing career took off successfully.  

A lot of his books are written highlighting central underlying beliefs of his, those in The Time Machine being ones that covertly chastise the evils of capitalism via the state of the Eloi and Morlock future, where humanity has undergone divergent evolution that resulted in the presence of the dumb and beautiful upper dwellers and the smart, dexterous and ugly under dwellers.  The Traveller infers that they came about as a result of the poorer class working in an underground industry to supplement the upperclass who were privileged enough to live on the surface in luxury, over time this dynamic leading to the species that are the Morlock and Eloi respectively.  Despite the Eloi being the descendants of the upperclass, the Traveller notes how the dynamics have changed, where I read of slaving for their leisure, the Morlock raise them for consumption, providing necessities like clothing and sandals and allowing them to grow.  The Traveller empathizes more with the plight of the Eloi, because as dumb as they are, their forms are visibly identifiable as human.  Other than all this, suggestions of the political kind are less prevalent throughout the book. 

Overall,  it was a good book.  I've said it before, but now I really do understand how foundational it is.  The very beginning opens up with one of those zany scientific explanations that, while disproved by modern science, are neat and concise in theory.  It may not be some Red Mars level science spiel, but it still floats my boat.  The plot itself was pretty engaging and everything that was implied was easy enough to figure out without much difficulty. I'm glad I read it all to be honest, because it was a fun read, and like my last independent project over Ghost in the Shell, it was something my dad's wanted me to read for a long time.  I would definitely recommend the book if my plot summary has spoiled or dissuaded you enough.

This is Short like my Book

I don't have a lot to say today.  I'm reading the Time Machine by H.G. Wells, and we've already read a short section of it in class.  My dad has actually wanted me to read this book since I was 13, so for the second time, I'm coincidentally reading something he's wanted me to for a while.  

Again, not much here.  It's a pretty short book, so I'll just cover all of it in my next book.  You know the societal jazz and all that.  

Space Travel and Suffering

We've gotten to see and read a bunch of space travel focused sci-fi as of recent, which is always fun.  There's Firefly, which is more soft-core in my opinion, then Battlestar Galactica, which emphasizes pretty heavily the significance of 'jumping', and then we have the Vector Alphabet stories, which slings is from various perspectives of benign spacefaring civilizations.  All in all, it'd been a pretty fun six weeks in terms of the content for me, since I like seeing the social/governmental dynamics of people when high brow technology is a factor.  

As I've stated before, I didn't really care all to much for firefly, and while I really enjoyed Battlestar Galactica, I don't think I could actually get into it.  The short stories, however, required no such long term commitment for immersion, and covered a bunch of my interests in lighter manners (tech., aliens and alien interactions, etc.), all while being incredibly thought provoking and fun to subject to closer analysis despite it's length.  

Otherwise, the last few weeks have been pretty mellow, and I still haven't started my fan-fiction project because I can't decide what work we've looked that I want to focus on nor whether I'll write up a story or a few comics, so imminent suffering ahead. 

No Cowboy Hats for me Please

I've never sorted out how I feel about Western's, and while I'd prefer most things to it, I'm not sure if I dislike them as much as I'm neutral to them.  Firefly, strictly on a genre level, was a bit of a an enigma for me at first.  

Looking over it, I think I enjoyed the show as a whole, but when I stripped it apart, I didn't particularly care for the parts that were western, if not dislike them.  The sci-fi concept it rides on is fine and all, but too low-key for me, as I prefer more technology, science, and space with my stories (aliens too, but the first two attributes are the only necessary ones when it comes to my enjoyment, and anything else is a bonus).  I think the plots and actors sort of made up for it the first episode, which I guess rounds it's quality into a net plus sort of situation for me.  The morals in the show aren't all to subtle, in fact they some on pretty hard, but I don't hate that aspect of the show at all. While I'm not crazy about it, I can see how people might be. 

I don't have a lot more to go on.  Personally, I recently got back my motivation to do things I enjoy, like read, so I'll actually get to start reading sci-fi and other things completely unprompted!  It doesn't spud all too incredible, I know, but it's sort of a breakthrough for me, and I finally got to finish a book I started trying to read three years ago.   ALSO!  I'm very happy with the imminent failure of the Ghost in the Shell live-action movie!  It's been a pretty okay month!

Science? In my Sci-fi?

As someone who tends to enjoy a little more science with their sci-fi, Red Mars is another one of those books that fall into my alley.  I actually had some lower expectations for how much I'd like this book, because so few of them in sci-fi that feature only humans and/or human colonization, even if there is some in-depth theoretical science mush, tend to appeal to me.  I'm not actually done reading the book, but I can still gush about it a bit.  

While I was a tad weary about the plot going into it, I really like stories that involve Mars.  It was a plus that this book featured a ton of actual and fictional science.  I sort of love books that cover all corners when it comes to explaining how things happen and work, like what the four layers of the piezoelectric plastic do for the city in terms of generating electricity, insulation, and radiation protection.  Literally everything has a satisfying explanation, and I'm A-okay with fictional science that the reader can understand conceptually but isn't actually available or even relatively realistic in real life, like gravitational lifts or hard light weaponry in video games.  

I want to mention that every time a space elevator is mentioned or depicted in sci-fi, I'm instantly sold (until said fiction does something to lose my interest or respect).  And the explanation for the ship's functional and social inter-workings was great.  Everything about it was so well rounded that I might not have minded if the plot was blander, which thankfully, it isn't.  

This all mostly about my interest in the scientific aspects of the book, so I'll get more onto the social dynamics of the various groups, from the first hundred to the integrating population of the growing city, and so on.  There's a lot of good stuff here!

Star Trekking through the Hellscape of Writer's Apathy (AKA I still don't feel like writing a lot)

When it comes to Star Trek, I love the whole set up of the show where they embrace a new concept practically every episode, with a new adventure and story.  As zany as some episodes can get plot wise, the allusions to real world events or interesting tribulations in general are a lot of fun to engage in.  

The Darmok episode was a neat take on the differing grammar structures of an alien culture, and the difficulties of trying to communicate with a race that speaks in citation.  The episode Q, aside from introducing this omnipotent Q guy of unspecified origin, introduced an interesting (and incredibly pop-culture prolific) antagonist collection of species known as the Borg, that seek the universal assimilation of highly intelligent sapient life without know reason.  I personally love alien parasites, so the Borg were a fun topic of discussion. 

Again, I don't have a lot to say this time around, other than how much I enjoy Star Trek in execution, even if some episode are a tad too much for me.  Now to go subvert a trope. 

Slow Six-Weeks...

I'm not sure what to really talk about this time around.  Snow Crash was zany as heck, but it didn't really interest me that much.  Red Dwarf was actually sort of fun and engaging for it's variation on the inanity factor, but that was just a single introductory episode.  

Bloodchild was great, and I'm a fan of less humanoid aliens myself.  I tend to enjoy there being more major differences in physicality, society and culture when it comes to sentient aliens that humans interact with, so it was fun to read this and see as more and more things were revealed about the Tlic.  I actually understood and agreed with where Butler's explanations came from, coming to really love the concepts of her story.  

This is a pretty short post, but I can't wait to see some more Star Trek 

In a World Where Reggae e Saves the Day...

I've never titled anything on this blog so I'll start now

There's a LOT to be said about the intrigue of a cyberpunk setting that houses a cesspool of cultural amalgamation, especially with token icon occupations of said culture peppered throughout it.  Case is a computer "cowboy," Molly's an assassin, ninjas and mobs with ridiculous names are common place in a sanctioned black market city, and that's the tip of the iceberg in the material world.  I like the setting and some notions I'd formulated about it so much that for the first time in my life I won't focus on the AI's in an AI centric story. 

I said it briefly in class, but I want to clarify and expand my claims here as well.  A lot of times in futuristic sci-fi, it's pretty fair to assume that a lot of things and dynamics become antiquated, like how a lot of things are in Star Trek, so it's odd to have things like pay phones in the future.  Neuromancer goes, quite purposely so, above and beyond that in the most inane of ways.  There are major geographic shifts compared to the past (a.k.a our contemporary world or our world when the book was written), which isn't too insane, and there are still major, international wars, which is sadly not a surprise considering how things are going nowadays (a.k.a terrorist radicals, poorly handled asylum for immigrants resulting in mass death, general disagreement between powers, Trump, etc.).  These are the kinds of things that you'd sort of expect, along with the general advancement of technology, although perhaps not on the level of a matrix, construct personality AI's, so on and so forth.  It's odd, and for some like me somewhat invigorating, to see odd little anachronisms or eccentric things by today's standards as common place, like the absence of horses or the fact that throwing stars are a normalized weapon.

Then there are the people who exist in a world where all of these things and occupations are common place.  Clearly they wouldn't step back and realize how insane everything is.  A century or two in the future (being hopefully optimistic), people are going to look back and be astounded by the fact we didn't allow people to get married because they didn't meet a gender quota, where as of right now it's sadly a common thing that still exists.  Being a dude that occasionally hops into the digital realm to hijack and smuggle info or manage transactions is a revered and unquestioned occupation, same as a samurai with razors in their fingers or a construct with the brain scan imprint of a dead dude, yet for some reason we draw the line at semi-omniscient, 100% artificial made program that's sentient.  You can have an out of body experience in the matrix or when you literally put yourself in someone else's shoes/sensory input, but god-program level AI is too much.  The duality in Neuromancer, rather the consistent duality in the genre of cyberpunk in general, constantly baffles me, much to my enjoyment.  

Furthering the concept of the space elevator, I'd imagine something like an artificial ring in geosynchronous orbit around the Earth, with multiple elevators attached to it, all of which connect from major facilities/ countries/ports.  Of course this would mean that all the locations chosen would need to be directly under the ring and perpendicular relative to the point on the Earth's surface from where it's foundation is.  This would essentially necessitate careful planning and positioning of the ring in order for the most optimal orientation that hits as many major locations as possible to be achieved.  The ring itself wouldn't have to be ridiculously thick, as it would have a gigantic circumference.

I would pretty much consider the ring and elevators to be designated as one giant space station, almost entirely dedicated to the launch and reception )from either Earth or space) of equipment or vessels such as telescopes or ships respectively.  Basically, it would serve as an aid to research and space exploration.  I can easily foresee more nefarious uses and occupations/ monopolization occurring with respect to it, with major corporations, excessively rich individuals, [insert some other shady trope], etc., abusing it's detached location for schemes that you've probably seen in some form of media or another.   

While I don't actually think the earth has enough resources for such a thing to be plausible, and that this concept is waaaay too far off, not to mention zany, I think it's a fun addition to the space elevator, which is one concept I genuinely believe we will one day implement.  I'm not even sure how such a thing could be brought about discussing being built, let alone what people you'd need to propose this to.  Who knows though, after all, off-world mining could become a thing like in other staples of sci-fi such as 'Alien', and we could very well accumulate what we need by the time further implementation of things like the the space elevator come around.  Maybe far off in the future we'll have a World council that'll be in charge of approving or disapproving of such a thing (I mean probably not, considering how much so many people here irrationally hate each other).  Regardless, this idea would remain centuries off from now.  Honestly I just think it would be/look cool, and apparently I like Halo so much that even when I think of sci-fi things that have nothing to do with it, it still influences EVERYTHING I think about.  

The fact that well over half of the things I've discussed on this blog have to do with Artificial Intelligence and the various looks on AI morality should be enough to indicate that Bladerunner and this general unit are right up in my alley.  It's fair to say my enthusiasm is biased. 

Anyway, getting down to it, the central concept surrounding the attributes and applications of replicants, while left with room for speculation and further intrigue, was pulled off quite well.  The 'rouge AI' plot line, as a matter of self preservation or the protection of someone else, has always been a favorite of mine, and it's no different this time around for me.  As reprehensible as the replicants approaches were to getting what they wanted accomplished, it was a fine means of getting down to the nuance of their collective inter workings- why they seek what they do.   The fact the drive behind their motive to seek out a way to extend their lifespans-the fear of mortality-is so utterly human, and that's what I like to see.  You almost forget how many people were killed, regardless of their affiliations or relations of the main bunch of replicants.  

We get to the end of the narrative, and if you can look past the creepy way the romance between Rick and Rachael kicked off, him going the extra mile to take her somewhere safe so that her last bit of time is lived out in freedom is touching.  The phrase "It's too bad she won't live, but then again who does?" is absolutely one of my favorite quotes from not just this movie, but most of the movies I've ever seen.  And for the story to top off with the insinuation that Rick was a replicant himself was a neat final twist.  

There's a lot more for me to go on about, such as the various attributes and specifications amongst replicants (i.e. Nexus 6's v. Rick or Rachael), or the unique setting and differences that Bladerunner's dystopian world has compared to others, but since I feel as though we'll get to this stuff in class, I'll abstain for now.