Thoughts For Today

I just finished reading Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration Into The World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel by Michio Kaku. I am going to write a review of the book tomorrow. What this books really illustrates is that it is possible to live science fiction dreams of yesterday today. You don't have to be Zarkov from Flash Gordon to work with what was truly fantastic yesterday.

Increasingly what was considered science fiction yesterday is the work of today. Because of this, there is less science fiction being written today. It is often coming under new guises. William Gibson recently wrote a recent technothriller, Spook Country. Even things like Tom Clancy with his Ghost Recon books uses science fiction like technology.

Bruce Sterling wrote The Hacker Crackdown about Kevin Mitnick. He is famous for his cyberpunk science fiction novel, Schismatrix. Recently he wrote a pamphlet called Shaping Things about postmodern design.

Wil McCarthy even developed a product based on his wellstone or programmable matter called RavenBrick http://ravenbrick.com/ . Our world is changing so fast, that the science fiction of today is often becoming the product of tomorrow.

What seems impossible is often discussed openly. The idea of a faster than light drive may become an actuality. http://www.hpcc-space.de/publications/documents/aiaa2004-3700-a4.pdf . Why many people aren't writing it, is that they are creating it.

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Anyways, back to my thoughts on other things. I picked up a second book to read, Superclass The Global Power Elite and The World They Are Making by David Rothkopf. It looked rather interesting.

I am still #41 on the waiting list for Stardust the film. I have finished reading the book and am waiting for the dvd to come so I can watch it and review the book and film together. I have read five of the Mythopoeic Award books so I am well on the way to finishing the challenge.

I found an interesting title to look Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy by Eric G. Wilson. Garrison Keillor reviewed the title in the March 16, 2008 New York Times Book Review. Garrison Keillor with his Lake Wobegon radio show seemed to be an appropriate reviewer for the book.

I think it should be interesting hearing the author write about things like blues music, art, and poetry coming from a deeper more melancholic part of the human soul. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the copy we are supposed to own at our library. One of my colleagues also wants to read it.

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I went to my local library today and dropped off five books which needed returning. I also sat down and used the computers there for an hour. There is something almost voyeuristic about sitting in a public library and looking at entrecard and clicking little pictures.