"Re: The Strangest Numbers in String Theory
The article was intriguing, but John Huerta’s thesis with all the details looked a bit scary, or at least the kind of thing I’d need to spend six months on to really understand.
Here’s a naive question. The article seemed to imply that you might be able to construct an interaction Lagrangian between fermions and bosons in Riemannian 4-dimensional space by treating both as quaternions, and just multiplying them in the quaternionic way. But don’t you need a scalar for the Lagrangian?"
5 out of 5
http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/category/2011/08/the_strangest_numbers_in_strin.html
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Monday, June 20, 2011
The Clockwork Rocket 1 - Greg Egan
"“But how does that change things?” Yalda wondered. “If I see red light and violet light at the same time . . . then the slower, red light must have left the sun earlier.”
“Right. So how does that affect what you see?”
Yalda struggled to picture it. “Where the sun is in the sky depends on which way the world is facing when the light arrives, not when it left. The red light left earlier, but that makes no difference – we just see whatever reaches us at the time we're looking. So we see all the sun's colours in the same place, not spread out in a trail.”
Vito's rear eyes widened with approval. “That wasn't too difficult, was it?”
Yalda was encouraged, but she was still far from confident that everything made sense. “And the stars? Why are they so different?”
“The stars are really moving,” Vito reminded her. “Not just rising and setting with the turning of the world. Between the time when the red light we're seeing now left a star, and the time when the violet light we're seeing now followed it, the star will have moved far enough for us to see the different colours coming from different directions. When we look at the sun, the violet light and the red light follow the same road, even though the red light begins the journey earlier. When we look at a star, the violet light's coming to us from a different place, along a different path than the red.”
Yalda turned this over in her mind. “If the stars are really moving,” she said, “then why don't we see them move?” The coloured worms were all pinned to the rigid black sky, sharing, but never exceeding, the illusory motion that came from the world's shifting gaze. Why didn't they advance along their own trails, wriggling out of their constellations into fresh new patterns every night?"
4 out of 5
http://www.gregegan.net/ORTHOGONAL/E1/ClockworkRocketExcerpt.html
“Right. So how does that affect what you see?”
Yalda struggled to picture it. “Where the sun is in the sky depends on which way the world is facing when the light arrives, not when it left. The red light left earlier, but that makes no difference – we just see whatever reaches us at the time we're looking. So we see all the sun's colours in the same place, not spread out in a trail.”
Vito's rear eyes widened with approval. “That wasn't too difficult, was it?”
Yalda was encouraged, but she was still far from confident that everything made sense. “And the stars? Why are they so different?”
“The stars are really moving,” Vito reminded her. “Not just rising and setting with the turning of the world. Between the time when the red light we're seeing now left a star, and the time when the violet light we're seeing now followed it, the star will have moved far enough for us to see the different colours coming from different directions. When we look at the sun, the violet light and the red light follow the same road, even though the red light begins the journey earlier. When we look at a star, the violet light's coming to us from a different place, along a different path than the red.”
Yalda turned this over in her mind. “If the stars are really moving,” she said, “then why don't we see them move?” The coloured worms were all pinned to the rigid black sky, sharing, but never exceeding, the illusory motion that came from the world's shifting gaze. Why didn't they advance along their own trails, wriggling out of their constellations into fresh new patterns every night?"
4 out of 5
http://www.gregegan.net/ORTHOGONAL/E1/ClockworkRocketExcerpt.html
Friday, May 27, 2011
The Science of the Story An Interview With - Greg Egan
" You are currently in the middle of writing the Orthogonal trilogy. What prompted you to begin such a project and what do you hope to gain from such an endeavor?
A few years ago I started thinking about what it might be like to live in a universe that was different from our own in one very simple but profound way: instead of having a fourth dimension, time, that was set apart from the three dimensions of space, you had four dimensions that were completely interchangeable. In this universe, at the deepest level, "the future" and "the past" would be directions no different from "north" and "south" — and just as those compass points take their meaning from a particular object, the Earth, whose axis could as easily be pointing any way at all in space, in this hypothetical universe "the future" and "the past" would always be the future and past of a particular physical object, such as a cluster of stars and planets, rather than a property of the universe itself.
Of course the instinctive response to this is to say that without time, nothing can change, so nothing can happen — the whole universe will be a kind of frozen snapshot. But that turns out not to be true at all. In such a universe, you can still have a "history" laid out across space that, from the inside, would look very much like the passage of time appears to us.
Now, if you make that one simple change, what follows? What would the physics and the chemistry be like, in this new framework? Before I started writing I put a lot of work into fleshing out those details, so I could predict exactly how light would behave, how matter would behave, and what kinds of technology would or wouldn't be possible. The result is a combination of novelty and consistency that really appeals to me: there are a lot of very strange aspects to this universe, but they're not just an arbitrary collection of weird phenomena, they all flow directly from a single premise. "
4 out of 5
http://www.diamondbookdistributors.com/default.asp?t=1&m=1&c=53&s=656&ai=108976
A few years ago I started thinking about what it might be like to live in a universe that was different from our own in one very simple but profound way: instead of having a fourth dimension, time, that was set apart from the three dimensions of space, you had four dimensions that were completely interchangeable. In this universe, at the deepest level, "the future" and "the past" would be directions no different from "north" and "south" — and just as those compass points take their meaning from a particular object, the Earth, whose axis could as easily be pointing any way at all in space, in this hypothetical universe "the future" and "the past" would always be the future and past of a particular physical object, such as a cluster of stars and planets, rather than a property of the universe itself.
Of course the instinctive response to this is to say that without time, nothing can change, so nothing can happen — the whole universe will be a kind of frozen snapshot. But that turns out not to be true at all. In such a universe, you can still have a "history" laid out across space that, from the inside, would look very much like the passage of time appears to us.
Now, if you make that one simple change, what follows? What would the physics and the chemistry be like, in this new framework? Before I started writing I put a lot of work into fleshing out those details, so I could predict exactly how light would behave, how matter would behave, and what kinds of technology would or wouldn't be possible. The result is a combination of novelty and consistency that really appeals to me: there are a lot of very strange aspects to this universe, but they're not just an arbitrary collection of weird phenomena, they all flow directly from a single premise. "
4 out of 5
http://www.diamondbookdistributors.com/default.asp?t=1&m=1&c=53&s=656&ai=108976
Monday, May 9, 2011
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Forget the true shape of the planet: The Anarchic Spaces of Greg Egan’s Distress - Brian Greenspan
"“‘Forget the true shape of the planet’: The Anarchic Spaces of Greg Egan’s Distress,” in Jennifer Rutherford and Barbara Holloway (eds.)"
Unseen.
http://www1.carleton.ca/fass/news/2010-fass-publications-and-awards/
Unseen.
http://www1.carleton.ca/fass/news/2010-fass-publications-and-awards/
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Border Guards - Tomasz Jedrzejowski
"Illustration for Greg Egan's story "Border guards"
Nowa Fantastyka 10/2007"
4 out of 5
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Oracle - Greg Egan
Novella
Number of words : 18000
Percent of complex words : 12.1
Average syllables per word : 1.5
Average words per sentence : 19.7
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 12.7
Flesch : 58.0
Flesch-Kincaid : 10.1
PEOPLE
Robert Stoney
A professor of mathematics.
Peter Quint
A spook, and one of Stoney's captors.
Franza Kafka
Not a Commie, and a writer.
Arthur
Stoney's boyfriend at the time of his trouble.
Mr Wills
A detective at the Manchester CID.
Guy Burgess
A corrupted English spy.
Hermann Weyl
A mathematician.
Chris
A friend at school Stoney was in love with who died of bovine tuberculosis.
Eddington
A physicist.
Hardy
A mathematician.
Newton
A scientist.
Helen
A time travelling multiverse shifting android.
Ealing
A movie director.
Everett
Had a time travel theory that was right.
Feynman
A physicist.
Yang
A physicist.
John Hamilton
Professor of Mediaeval and Renaissance English at Magdalene College, Cambridge. Also an author of religious defenses and children's fantasies.
Elizabeth Anscombe
A philosopher and winner of a debate with Hamilton.
Aquinas to Wittgenstein
Philosophers.
William Hamilton
John's brother.
Malcolm Muggeridge
Another mathematician that did war work.
Nevill Mott
Made the superconducting alloys for the imager.
Rosalind Franklin
From Birkbeck, helped perfect the fabrication process for the computing circuits.
William Blake
A poet.
Joyce Hamilton
John's dying wife.
Helen of Troy
Ancient beauty.
Huysmans
Basically just a very dim Catholic.
Luke
Assistant and an affair of Stoney's.
Wagner
A composer.
Michael Polanyi
An academic philosopher who agrees to moderate the debate.
Kurt Godel
Austrian mathematician.
Aristotle
Ancient philosopher.
Hamilton's young friend
Has a PhD in algebraic geometry from Cambridge.
H.G. Wells
An author.
Milton, Dante, John the Divine
Writers.
PLACES
Sherborne
A public school he went to.
Thames
A river in England.
Westminster Abbey
A church in England.
Saint Paul's Cathedral
A big church in England.
Cavendish Laboratory
Where Stoney works at Cambridge. A mid-Victorian building.
Cairo
City in Egypt.
Bogota
City in Colombia.
London
Capital of England.
Calcutta
City in India.
Manchester
City in England.
Boston
USA city.
Auschwitz
A nazi concentration camp.
Madras
City in India.
Shepherd's Bush
Where the BBC studios are located.
Guy's Hospital
Stoney knows an oncologist there.
ORGANISATIONS
CID
Police detectives.
Trinity College
Part of Cambridge University.
MI6
English international espionage agency.
Socratic Club
A society that holds debates at Oxford University.
BBC
British Broadcasting Corporation.
Oxford University
In England.
Cambridge University
In England.
TECHNOLOGY
Mark I
A computer.
Spin resonance imager
Used to see inside the human body.
MEDIA
Yang and Mills in '54
A paper that generalised Maxwell's equations for electromagnetism to apply to the strong nuclear force.
Physical Review
A physics journal.
Kingdom of Nescia
Children's fantasies by John Hamilton.
Signs and Wonders
Anti-materialism tract by John Hamilton.
The Broken Planet
Anti-science book by John Hamilton.
Faustus
Devil-dealing character.
Letters from a Demon
Satirical newspaper column by John Hamilton.
Cedric Duffy
A John Hamilton character.
Pendragon
Mythical Arthurian leader.
Tower of Babel
Mythical ancient structure.
Mythopoesis
Essay by Tollers.
Can A Machine Think?
A BBC debate between Stoney and Hamilton.
The Seat of Oak
One of Hamilton's Nescia books.
CONCEPTS
Baudot Code
A character set for telegraphy.
Mercury
Roman deity.
Pan
Woodland deity.
Incompleteness Theorem
Postulated by Kurt Godel.
The Goldbach conjecture
One of the oldest unsolved problems in number theory and in all of mathematics. Every even integer greater than 2 can be expressed as the sum of two primes.
Fermat's Last Theorem
About positive integer algebra.
Oracle
A machine that could solve the halting problem.
ANIMALS
Pekinese
A created dog breed.
Hamsters
Small rodents that will fuck anything.
PLOT
Robert Stoney is a professor of mathematics and of interest to MI6 because of the work he could do. He is also exploited by some dodgy spooks because he is gay, and in this decade that is something that can be used against you.
They actually take him to try and torture it out of him at one stage, locking him in a cramped cage. Amazingly, he is rescued by a woman who is a time traveller. Even more than that, an android and a multiversal troubleshooter. Helen stays with him for some time, and they discuss the problems of trying to change the past, and the differing branches. They can't change big things, but certainly can affect minor elements. So they bedevil the spook Quint that tortured Stoney, driving him towards breakdown.
This soon leads him to success as she can point out some shortcuts in research to come up with some technology like a resonance imager, or medical breakthroughs, even if it is not his field.
Others wonder why he is so successful all of a sudden, and he attracks the interest of a religious conservative and anti-science and anti-materialist author John Hamilton. They end up debating on the BBC, which goes ok. Helen accompanies Stoney and Hamilton has a 'young adviser'. Hamilton's wife Joyce is dying of bone cancer, but he thinks Stoney is of the devil and refuses any help.
Something Helen tells John can be accomplished with timeline tricks is a solution to the halting problem, of being able to tell if a computer program will work or not because you can use an infinite number of paths to interrogate it. To be able to solve the halting problem would give you an Oracle machine, as Stoney calls it.
At the end, after his wife has died he is visited by a version of himself from another timeline, which rather freaks him out. He still refuses to accept technological assitance towards his happiness, however and will not go with his visiting self.
4 out of 5
http://www.gregegan.net/MISC/ORACLE/Oracle.html
Number of words : 18000
Percent of complex words : 12.1
Average syllables per word : 1.5
Average words per sentence : 19.7
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 12.7
Flesch : 58.0
Flesch-Kincaid : 10.1
PEOPLE
Robert Stoney
A professor of mathematics.
Peter Quint
A spook, and one of Stoney's captors.
Franza Kafka
Not a Commie, and a writer.
Arthur
Stoney's boyfriend at the time of his trouble.
Mr Wills
A detective at the Manchester CID.
Guy Burgess
A corrupted English spy.
Hermann Weyl
A mathematician.
Chris
A friend at school Stoney was in love with who died of bovine tuberculosis.
Eddington
A physicist.
Hardy
A mathematician.
Newton
A scientist.
Helen
A time travelling multiverse shifting android.
Ealing
A movie director.
Everett
Had a time travel theory that was right.
Feynman
A physicist.
Yang
A physicist.
John Hamilton
Professor of Mediaeval and Renaissance English at Magdalene College, Cambridge. Also an author of religious defenses and children's fantasies.
Elizabeth Anscombe
A philosopher and winner of a debate with Hamilton.
Aquinas to Wittgenstein
Philosophers.
William Hamilton
John's brother.
Malcolm Muggeridge
Another mathematician that did war work.
Nevill Mott
Made the superconducting alloys for the imager.
Rosalind Franklin
From Birkbeck, helped perfect the fabrication process for the computing circuits.
William Blake
A poet.
Joyce Hamilton
John's dying wife.
Helen of Troy
Ancient beauty.
Huysmans
Basically just a very dim Catholic.
Luke
Assistant and an affair of Stoney's.
Wagner
A composer.
Michael Polanyi
An academic philosopher who agrees to moderate the debate.
Kurt Godel
Austrian mathematician.
Aristotle
Ancient philosopher.
Hamilton's young friend
Has a PhD in algebraic geometry from Cambridge.
H.G. Wells
An author.
Milton, Dante, John the Divine
Writers.
PLACES
Sherborne
A public school he went to.
Thames
A river in England.
Westminster Abbey
A church in England.
Saint Paul's Cathedral
A big church in England.
Cavendish Laboratory
Where Stoney works at Cambridge. A mid-Victorian building.
Cairo
City in Egypt.
Bogota
City in Colombia.
London
Capital of England.
Calcutta
City in India.
Manchester
City in England.
Boston
USA city.
Auschwitz
A nazi concentration camp.
Madras
City in India.
Shepherd's Bush
Where the BBC studios are located.
Guy's Hospital
Stoney knows an oncologist there.
ORGANISATIONS
CID
Police detectives.
Trinity College
Part of Cambridge University.
MI6
English international espionage agency.
Socratic Club
A society that holds debates at Oxford University.
BBC
British Broadcasting Corporation.
Oxford University
In England.
Cambridge University
In England.
TECHNOLOGY
Mark I
A computer.
Spin resonance imager
Used to see inside the human body.
MEDIA
Yang and Mills in '54
A paper that generalised Maxwell's equations for electromagnetism to apply to the strong nuclear force.
Physical Review
A physics journal.
Kingdom of Nescia
Children's fantasies by John Hamilton.
Signs and Wonders
Anti-materialism tract by John Hamilton.
The Broken Planet
Anti-science book by John Hamilton.
Faustus
Devil-dealing character.
Letters from a Demon
Satirical newspaper column by John Hamilton.
Cedric Duffy
A John Hamilton character.
Pendragon
Mythical Arthurian leader.
Tower of Babel
Mythical ancient structure.
Mythopoesis
Essay by Tollers.
Can A Machine Think?
A BBC debate between Stoney and Hamilton.
The Seat of Oak
One of Hamilton's Nescia books.
CONCEPTS
Baudot Code
A character set for telegraphy.
Mercury
Roman deity.
Pan
Woodland deity.
Incompleteness Theorem
Postulated by Kurt Godel.
The Goldbach conjecture
One of the oldest unsolved problems in number theory and in all of mathematics. Every even integer greater than 2 can be expressed as the sum of two primes.
Fermat's Last Theorem
About positive integer algebra.
Oracle
A machine that could solve the halting problem.
ANIMALS
Pekinese
A created dog breed.
Hamsters
Small rodents that will fuck anything.
PLOT
Robert Stoney is a professor of mathematics and of interest to MI6 because of the work he could do. He is also exploited by some dodgy spooks because he is gay, and in this decade that is something that can be used against you.
They actually take him to try and torture it out of him at one stage, locking him in a cramped cage. Amazingly, he is rescued by a woman who is a time traveller. Even more than that, an android and a multiversal troubleshooter. Helen stays with him for some time, and they discuss the problems of trying to change the past, and the differing branches. They can't change big things, but certainly can affect minor elements. So they bedevil the spook Quint that tortured Stoney, driving him towards breakdown.
This soon leads him to success as she can point out some shortcuts in research to come up with some technology like a resonance imager, or medical breakthroughs, even if it is not his field.
Others wonder why he is so successful all of a sudden, and he attracks the interest of a religious conservative and anti-science and anti-materialist author John Hamilton. They end up debating on the BBC, which goes ok. Helen accompanies Stoney and Hamilton has a 'young adviser'. Hamilton's wife Joyce is dying of bone cancer, but he thinks Stoney is of the devil and refuses any help.
Something Helen tells John can be accomplished with timeline tricks is a solution to the halting problem, of being able to tell if a computer program will work or not because you can use an infinite number of paths to interrogate it. To be able to solve the halting problem would give you an Oracle machine, as Stoney calls it.
At the end, after his wife has died he is visited by a version of himself from another timeline, which rather freaks him out. He still refuses to accept technological assitance towards his happiness, however and will not go with his visiting self.
4 out of 5
http://www.gregegan.net/MISC/ORACLE/Oracle.html
The Goldbach conjecture : Oracle - Greg Egan
One of the oldest unsolved problems in number theory and in all of mathematics. Every even integer greater than 2 can be expressed as the sum of two primes.
3 out of 5
3 out of 5
Yang and Mills in '54 : Oracle - Greg Egan
A paper that generalised Maxwell's equations for electromagnetism to apply to the strong nuclear force.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Cavendish Laboratory : Oracle - Greg Egan
Where Stoney works at Cambridge. A mid-Victorian building.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Hamilton's young friend : Oracle - Greg Egan
Has a PhD in algebraic geometry from Cambridge.
3.5 out of 5
3.5 out of 5
Michael Polanyi : Oracle - Greg Egan
An academic philosopher who agrees to moderate the debate.
3 out of 5
3 out of 5
Rosalind Franklin : Oracle - Greg Egan
From Birkbeck, helped perfect the fabrication process for the computing circuits.
3 out of 5
3 out of 5
Elizabeth Anscombe : Oracle - Greg Egan
A philosopher and winner of a debate with Hamilton.
3 out of 5
3 out of 5
John Hamilton : Oracle - Greg Egan
Professor of Mediaeval and Renaissance English at Magdalene College, Cambridge. Also an author of religious defenses and children's fantasies.
3.5 out of 5
3.5 out of 5
Chris : Oracle - Greg Egan
A friend at school Stoney was in love with who died of bovine tuberculosis.
3 out of 5
3 out of 5
Monday, March 28, 2011
Only Connect - Greg Egan
Vignette
Number of words : 750
Percent of complex words : 18.1
Average syllables per word : 1.7
Average words per sentence : 28.9
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 18.8
Flesch : 31.3
Flesch-Kincaid : 16.1
PEOPLE
E.M. Forster
A writer.
Kusnanto Sarumpaet
Javanese mathematician. Author of six papers on general relativity and QGT. Found a simple dynamical law related to tetravelt graphs which always leads to the average valence stabilising at four.
Michael Faraday
A physicist who had a notion of lines of force running between electric charges.
Roger Penrose
A physicist and his spin networks are trivalent graphs with each edge labelled by a half integer, corresponding to a possible value of the spin of a quantum particle.
William Thomson
Had a theory of atoms as knotted vortex tubes.
Lee Smolin and Carlo Rovelli
1990s Physicists. discovered an analogous result in quantum gravity, where spin network states have a simple geometric interpretation.
John Baez and Fotini Markopoulou and José-Antonio Zapata
Did ground-breaking work on the possible dynamical laws for spin networks in the early 21st century.
CONCEPTS
Graph
A set of nodes and edges.
QGT
In Quantum Graph Theory, a quantum state describing both the geometry of space and all the matter fields present is built up from combinations of graphs.
Quantum Field Theory
A spin network embedded in a region of space can be used to assign an amplitude to every possible configuration of a field. The quantum states defined in this way consist of lines of flux running along the edges of the network.
Tetravalent graphs
With the four edges emerging from each node giving area to the faces of a “quantum tetrahedron”.
Polymer states
Possibility of open chains of dopant nodes.
TECHNOLOGY
Orbital Accelerator Facility
Currently being used to test for polymer states.
PLOT
The history of the physics and mathematics underpinning the developments of Quantum Graph Theory and Quantum Field Theory.
3.5 out of 5
Number of words : 750
Percent of complex words : 18.1
Average syllables per word : 1.7
Average words per sentence : 28.9
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 18.8
Flesch : 31.3
Flesch-Kincaid : 16.1
PEOPLE
E.M. Forster
A writer.
Kusnanto Sarumpaet
Javanese mathematician. Author of six papers on general relativity and QGT. Found a simple dynamical law related to tetravelt graphs which always leads to the average valence stabilising at four.
Michael Faraday
A physicist who had a notion of lines of force running between electric charges.
Roger Penrose
A physicist and his spin networks are trivalent graphs with each edge labelled by a half integer, corresponding to a possible value of the spin of a quantum particle.
William Thomson
Had a theory of atoms as knotted vortex tubes.
Lee Smolin and Carlo Rovelli
1990s Physicists. discovered an analogous result in quantum gravity, where spin network states have a simple geometric interpretation.
John Baez and Fotini Markopoulou and José-Antonio Zapata
Did ground-breaking work on the possible dynamical laws for spin networks in the early 21st century.
CONCEPTS
Graph
A set of nodes and edges.
QGT
In Quantum Graph Theory, a quantum state describing both the geometry of space and all the matter fields present is built up from combinations of graphs.
Quantum Field Theory
A spin network embedded in a region of space can be used to assign an amplitude to every possible configuration of a field. The quantum states defined in this way consist of lines of flux running along the edges of the network.
Tetravalent graphs
With the four edges emerging from each node giving area to the faces of a “quantum tetrahedron”.
Polymer states
Possibility of open chains of dopant nodes.
TECHNOLOGY
Orbital Accelerator Facility
Currently being used to test for polymer states.
PLOT
The history of the physics and mathematics underpinning the developments of Quantum Graph Theory and Quantum Field Theory.
3.5 out of 5
Orbital Accelerator Facility : Only Connect - Greg Egan
Currently being used to test for polymer states.
3 out of 5
3 out of 5
Tetravalent graphs : Only Connect - Greg Egan
With the four edges emerging from each node giving area to the faces of a “quantum tetrahedron”.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Quantum Field Theory : Only Connect - Greg Egan
A spin network embedded in a region of space can be used to assign an amplitude to every possible configuration of a field. The quantum states defined in this way consist of lines of flux running along the edges of the network.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
QGT : Only Connect - Greg Egan
In Quantum Graph Theory, a quantum state describing both the geometry of space and all the matter fields present is built up from combinations of graphs.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
John Baez and Fotini Markopoulou and José-Antonio Zapata : Only Connect - Greg Egan
Did ground-breaking work on the possible dynamical laws for spin networks in the early 21st century.
3.5 out of 5
3.5 out of 5
Lee Smolin and Carlo Rovelli : Only Connect - Greg Egan
1990s Physicists. discovered an analogous result in quantum gravity, where spin network states have a simple geometric interpretation.
3.5 out of 5
3.5 out of 5
William Thomson : Only Connect - Greg Egan
Had a theory of atoms as knotted vortex tubes.
3.5 out of 5
3.5 out of 5
Roger Penrose : Only Connect - Greg Egan
A physicist and his spin networks are trivalent graphs with each edge labelled by a half integer, corresponding to a possible value of the spin of a quantum particle.
3.5 out of 5
3.5 out of 5
Michael Faraday : Only Connect - Greg Egan
A physicist who had a notion of lines of force running between electric charges.
3.5 out of 5
3.5 out of 5
Kusnanto Sarumpaet : Only Connect - Greg Egan
Javanese mathematician. Author of six papers on general relativity and QGT. Found a simple dynamical law related to tetravelt graphs which always leads to the average valence stabilising at four.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Reification Highway - Greg Egan
Short Story
Number of words : 5200
Percent of complex words : 12.2
Average syllables per word : 1.6
Average words per sentence : 12.9
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 10.0
Flesch : 62.2
Flesch-Kincaid : 7.8
PEOPLE
Elena
A multiversal trader.
Khali
Elena's thirteen year old child.
Robert Chalmer
A multiversal trader who found a giant logic lode.
Turing
A computer programmer.
PLACES
Chalmer's Rock
Place where he previously scored big, twenty thousand light years from Earth, where Earth exists. Elena is obsessed with this across the multiverse.
TECHNOLOGY
Exoskin
A sophisticated thin bioelectronic spacesuit
Reified logic
Not made of atoms, has no nuclei. It experienced gravity, and electromagnetism -
allowing it to embed in ordinary matter and able to be handled-but it didn't feel the strong force, so neutrons passed right through it. Altered logic could undermine almost any law of physics - although most often, it was simply used to pump out a quantity of energy limited only by the ingenuity of the logic engineers.
Body Adaptation
Could recycle their own metabolites almost endlessly, phosphorylating ADP by an alternative pathway powered by alpha decay. Inside specialized liver cells, clusters of plutonium atoms were wrapped in giant multi-layered enzymes. which stole energy from the alpha particles in small enough increments to avoid being torn apart.
Portable surveying unit
Logs gravimetric data.
Nanoware replicators
Tiny self-building machines, useful for mining but can be dangerous.
Infrared spectroscopy probe
Used for determining the composition of materials.
VEHICLES
Stalker
Their ship.
PLOT
Elena and Khali are multiversal traders. Khali is her genetically enginereed child. They are enhanced humans. Through faster than light travel by ship and wormholes they move from universe to universe. Among other gear traded, Elena is obsessed with mining Reified Logic and a particular lode Robert Chalmer found. A rare substance that can be used to do almost anything, like provide huge amounts of power or actually change the laws of physics.
When in this universe they travel to this version of Chalmer's Rock, they find strangeness, possible nanotechnology and conditions that can make their actual ideas and logic reality. If everything can be a Thing, what about the primitive basal levels of their minds? They run. Khali is badly freaked out until Elena decks her so they can leave.
4 out of 5
Number of words : 5200
Percent of complex words : 12.2
Average syllables per word : 1.6
Average words per sentence : 12.9
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 10.0
Flesch : 62.2
Flesch-Kincaid : 7.8
PEOPLE
Elena
A multiversal trader.
Khali
Elena's thirteen year old child.
Robert Chalmer
A multiversal trader who found a giant logic lode.
Turing
A computer programmer.
PLACES
Chalmer's Rock
Place where he previously scored big, twenty thousand light years from Earth, where Earth exists. Elena is obsessed with this across the multiverse.
TECHNOLOGY
Exoskin
A sophisticated thin bioelectronic spacesuit
Reified logic
Not made of atoms, has no nuclei. It experienced gravity, and electromagnetism -
allowing it to embed in ordinary matter and able to be handled-but it didn't feel the strong force, so neutrons passed right through it. Altered logic could undermine almost any law of physics - although most often, it was simply used to pump out a quantity of energy limited only by the ingenuity of the logic engineers.
Body Adaptation
Could recycle their own metabolites almost endlessly, phosphorylating ADP by an alternative pathway powered by alpha decay. Inside specialized liver cells, clusters of plutonium atoms were wrapped in giant multi-layered enzymes. which stole energy from the alpha particles in small enough increments to avoid being torn apart.
Portable surveying unit
Logs gravimetric data.
Nanoware replicators
Tiny self-building machines, useful for mining but can be dangerous.
Infrared spectroscopy probe
Used for determining the composition of materials.
VEHICLES
Stalker
Their ship.
PLOT
Elena and Khali are multiversal traders. Khali is her genetically enginereed child. They are enhanced humans. Through faster than light travel by ship and wormholes they move from universe to universe. Among other gear traded, Elena is obsessed with mining Reified Logic and a particular lode Robert Chalmer found. A rare substance that can be used to do almost anything, like provide huge amounts of power or actually change the laws of physics.
When in this universe they travel to this version of Chalmer's Rock, they find strangeness, possible nanotechnology and conditions that can make their actual ideas and logic reality. If everything can be a Thing, what about the primitive basal levels of their minds? They run. Khali is badly freaked out until Elena decks her so they can leave.
4 out of 5
Infrared spectroscopy probe : Reification Highway - Greg Egan
Used for determining the composition of materials.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Nanoware replicators : Reification Highway - Greg Egan
Tiny self-building machines, useful for mining but can be dangerous.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Body Adaptation : Reification Highway - Greg Egan
Could recycle their own metabolites almost endlessly, phosphorylating ADP by an alternative pathway powered by alpha decay. Inside specialized liver cells, clusters of plutonium atoms were wrapped in giant multi-layered enzymes. which stole energy from the alpha particles in small enough increments to avoid being torn apart.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Reified logic : Reification Highway - Greg Egan
Not made of atoms, has no nuclei. It experienced gravity, and electromagnetism -
allowing it to embed in ordinary matter and able to be handled-but it didn't feel the strong force, so neutrons passed right through it. Altered logic could undermine almost any law of physics - although most often, it was simply used to pump out a quantity of energy limited only by the ingenuity of the logic engineers.
4 out of 5
allowing it to embed in ordinary matter and able to be handled-but it didn't feel the strong force, so neutrons passed right through it. Altered logic could undermine almost any law of physics - although most often, it was simply used to pump out a quantity of energy limited only by the ingenuity of the logic engineers.
4 out of 5
Chalmer's Rock : Reification Highway - Greg Egan
Place where he previously scored big, twenty thousand light years from Earth, where Earth exists. Elena is obsessed with this across the multiverse.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Robert Chalmer : Reification Highway - Greg Egan
A multiversal trader who found a giant logic lode.
3 out of 5
3 out of 5
The Moat - Greg Egan
Short Story
Number of words : 4200
Percent of complex words : 11.9
Average syllables per word : 1.5
Average words per sentence : 17.3
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 11.6
Flesch : 59.9
Flesch-Kincaid : 9.2
PEOPLE
Lawyer
Works at Matheson and Singh's on refugee work.
Ranjit
Brings a lot of work in to Matheson and Singh.
Jack Kelly
Fortress Australia guru.
Rachel
A forensic pathologist, his fiance.
Senator Margaret Allwick
Leader of the Green Alliance.
ORGANISATIONS
Fortress Australia
A racist group.
Matheson and Singh
His employer, a law firm who have refugee assistance as one of their specialties.
Law Society
Frowns on using AI to do legal work.
PLACES
Newtown
Suburb of Sydney.
Macquarie Street
In the Sydney CBD.
Berne
City in Switzerland.
TECHNOLOGY
LEX
Pseudo-intelligent software.
CONCEPTS
RFLP
Restriction fragment length polymorphisms – gene sequences.
Allwick Bill
The Senator's legislation, defeated.
PLOT
In an overpopulated and environmentally suffering Australia, racists groups and the Greens actually agree on something, refugees should be kept out. A bill is tabled to that effect.
A lawyer that works with a firm that does work for refugees has a fiance who is a forensic pathologist, and working on a rape case she has found something disturbing. Evidence of a person with different DNA. It would take wealthy to do something like this, but these people would be immune to viruses that attack normal humans. The implication being that this wealthy group could target the rest of humanity biologically via this method.
Later, the bill fails to pass, the leader of Fortress Australia is discredited as a criminal and no futher discoveries have been made by Rachel, but the disturbing possibility awaits.
4.5 out of 5
Number of words : 4200
Percent of complex words : 11.9
Average syllables per word : 1.5
Average words per sentence : 17.3
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 11.6
Flesch : 59.9
Flesch-Kincaid : 9.2
PEOPLE
Lawyer
Works at Matheson and Singh's on refugee work.
Ranjit
Brings a lot of work in to Matheson and Singh.
Jack Kelly
Fortress Australia guru.
Rachel
A forensic pathologist, his fiance.
Senator Margaret Allwick
Leader of the Green Alliance.
ORGANISATIONS
Fortress Australia
A racist group.
Matheson and Singh
His employer, a law firm who have refugee assistance as one of their specialties.
Law Society
Frowns on using AI to do legal work.
PLACES
Newtown
Suburb of Sydney.
Macquarie Street
In the Sydney CBD.
Berne
City in Switzerland.
TECHNOLOGY
LEX
Pseudo-intelligent software.
CONCEPTS
RFLP
Restriction fragment length polymorphisms – gene sequences.
Allwick Bill
The Senator's legislation, defeated.
PLOT
In an overpopulated and environmentally suffering Australia, racists groups and the Greens actually agree on something, refugees should be kept out. A bill is tabled to that effect.
A lawyer that works with a firm that does work for refugees has a fiance who is a forensic pathologist, and working on a rape case she has found something disturbing. Evidence of a person with different DNA. It would take wealthy to do something like this, but these people would be immune to viruses that attack normal humans. The implication being that this wealthy group could target the rest of humanity biologically via this method.
Later, the bill fails to pass, the leader of Fortress Australia is discredited as a criminal and no futher discoveries have been made by Rachel, but the disturbing possibility awaits.
4.5 out of 5
Matheson and Singh : The Moat - Greg Egan
His employer, a law firm who have refugee assistance as one of their specialties.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Beyond the Whistle Test - Greg Egan
Short Story
Number of words : 5500
Percent of complex words : 12.4
Average syllables per word : 1.5
Average words per sentence : 17.4
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 11.9
Flesch : 60.3
Flesch-Kincaid : 9.2
PEOPLE
John Halbright
Head of Applied Neural Mapping.
Michael Underwood
Creative music consultant to The Inspiration Factory. Has identified the neural pathways involved in the processing of music.
Bach, Beethoven and Mozart
Composers.
Magda
John's lover.
ORGANISATIONS
The Inspiration Factory
An advertising firm.
Hypersoft
A company ANM a commercial jingle for.
Millworth and Hobbs
A rural soft drink company and the first company to have an ANM tune ad campaign.
CONCEPTS
The Old Grey Whistle Test
Certain record companies in the sixties used to decide whether or not put out a song by using the janitor—usually an old man—and making him listen to it. If the rock and roll hating cleaner could whistle the melody after hearing it once, it was worth doing.
MEDIA
The Old Grey Whistle Test
A British tv show.
Anarchy in the UK
Sex Pistols song, also made into a horrible muzak version.
Song of the Siren
A Song by This Mortal Coil.
ANM tune #180
One of the songs by their neural pathway method.
ANM tune #164
A new version song that sold a lot of soft drink and distracted a lot of people.
The Hall of the Mountain King or The Ride of the Valkyries
Old compositions.
ANM tune #87
Another of their tunes.
PLOT
A company has developed a procedure to work out how the human nervous system processes music, using a sample of people to do so. This works really well, and a soft drink company that was in trouble and uses one of these jingles becomes flooded with orders. A consultant puts it to use in advertising campaigns.
The only problem is that people that hear this get so distracted it can be dangerous. It caused a pilot to crash a plane, killing several hundred people. It has also ruined the musical appreciation of the consultant protagonist. The sample they used was biased, so it is more likely to affect skilled technical people in a bad way. It puts Underwood in hospital, and they have to operate to remove the ability for music appreciation in the old way.
3.5 out of 5
Number of words : 5500
Percent of complex words : 12.4
Average syllables per word : 1.5
Average words per sentence : 17.4
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 11.9
Flesch : 60.3
Flesch-Kincaid : 9.2
PEOPLE
John Halbright
Head of Applied Neural Mapping.
Michael Underwood
Creative music consultant to The Inspiration Factory. Has identified the neural pathways involved in the processing of music.
Bach, Beethoven and Mozart
Composers.
Magda
John's lover.
ORGANISATIONS
The Inspiration Factory
An advertising firm.
Hypersoft
A company ANM a commercial jingle for.
Millworth and Hobbs
A rural soft drink company and the first company to have an ANM tune ad campaign.
CONCEPTS
The Old Grey Whistle Test
Certain record companies in the sixties used to decide whether or not put out a song by using the janitor—usually an old man—and making him listen to it. If the rock and roll hating cleaner could whistle the melody after hearing it once, it was worth doing.
MEDIA
The Old Grey Whistle Test
A British tv show.
Anarchy in the UK
Sex Pistols song, also made into a horrible muzak version.
Song of the Siren
A Song by This Mortal Coil.
ANM tune #180
One of the songs by their neural pathway method.
ANM tune #164
A new version song that sold a lot of soft drink and distracted a lot of people.
The Hall of the Mountain King or The Ride of the Valkyries
Old compositions.
ANM tune #87
Another of their tunes.
PLOT
A company has developed a procedure to work out how the human nervous system processes music, using a sample of people to do so. This works really well, and a soft drink company that was in trouble and uses one of these jingles becomes flooded with orders. A consultant puts it to use in advertising campaigns.
The only problem is that people that hear this get so distracted it can be dangerous. It caused a pilot to crash a plane, killing several hundred people. It has also ruined the musical appreciation of the consultant protagonist. The sample they used was biased, so it is more likely to affect skilled technical people in a bad way. It puts Underwood in hospital, and they have to operate to remove the ability for music appreciation in the old way.
3.5 out of 5
The Hall of the Mountain King or The Ride of the Valkyries : Beyond the Whistle Test - Greg Egan
Old compositions.
3 out of 5
3 out of 5
ANM tune #164 : Beyond the Whistle Test - Greg Egan
A new version song that sold a lot of soft drink and distracted a lot of people.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
ANM tune #180 : Beyond the Whistle Test - Greg Egan
One of the songs by their neural pathway method.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Anarchy in the UK : Beyond the Whistle Test - Greg Egan
Sex Pistols song, also made into a horrible muzak version.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
The Old Grey Whistle Test : Beyond the Whistle Test - Greg Egan
Certain record companies in the sixties used to decide whether or not put out a song by using the janitor—usually an old man—and making him listen to it. If the rock and roll hating cleaner could whistle the melody after hearing it once, it was worth doing.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Millworth and Hobbs : Beyond the Whistle Test - Greg Egan
A rural soft drink company and the first company to have an ANM tune ad campaign.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Michael Underwood : Beyond the Whistle Test - Greg Egan
Creative music consultant to The Inspiration Factory. Has identified the neural pathways involved in the processing of music.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Friday, March 25, 2011
Before - Greg Egan
Short Story
Number of words : 5400
Percent of complex words : 10.8
Average syllables per word : 1.5
Average words per sentence : 11.8
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 9.0
Flesch : 65.7
Flesch-Kincaid : 7.0
PEOPLE
Martin
A reporter on SciNet assignment at the Hotel Tereshkova.
Zoe
A medic at the Hotel Tereshkova. Has a brief affair with Martin and invites him on a callout.
Madame Mityashin
Hotel Tereshkova designer.
Rykov
Zoe's callout colleague.
Wittgenstein
A philosopher.
Franz
The OES team's liaision.
PLACES
Hotel Tereshkova
In orbit, the dome consists of two concentric plastic shells, with a metre of heavy water between them.
Sumatra
Part of Indonesia.
OMAF
The Orbital Monopole Accelerator Facility. Studies states before the Big Bang, currently. The accelerator itself is a wire-thin cylinder, 50x20 km. Arrays of solar panels distributed along the length feed power into the giant superconducting solenoids. The central cluster of detectors, is housed in a sphere about two hundred metres wide.
Sakharov
The OES has colleagues there.
Geneva
City in Switzerland.
VEHICLES
Orbital Transfer Bus
Moves people from one space facility to another. 15 metres long, 5 wide 1/3 of its length is fuel cells and ion drive.
CONCEPTS
New Standard Model
A theory of physics.
Femtoplasmas
Big Bang hot and small.
Four-space
In a sense, joined to the 'past side' of the Big Bang singularity. It can't be given time coordinates, so it can't belong to the 'history' of the universe.
MEDIA
Phase transition between Lorentzian and Positive Definite Metrics
A paper by one of the OMAF theoretician.
TECHNOLOGY
Monopole
A massive particle. The OMAF is using them for experimenting with in their accelerator.
Suit
Spacesuit that has partial sentience to help with operation and safety.
Hawking radiation
Given off when a micro black hole instantly decays.
ORGANISATIONS
SciNet
Martin's employer, a science media company.
OES
Orbital Emergency Service. Space paramedics.
PLOT
Martin is a journalist on a self-admitted junket to an orbital hotel to cover a conference. He meets an orbital paramedic and has a fling. Afterwards, he mentions that if she gets a callout to a job he could come along and cover it.
This eventuates, so he has to throw on his sentient spacesuit and get down to the Orbital Transfer Bus. The accident is at the OMAF. They discover it is not your garden variety accident. Whatever has happened with their monopole smashing accelerator has killed some people there, because it changed the local spacetime they eventually discover.
A scary situation, as they have to strain to avoid the same fate, and the conditions cut off communication with their base. And are they sure they are really going to get out?
4 out of 5
Number of words : 5400
Percent of complex words : 10.8
Average syllables per word : 1.5
Average words per sentence : 11.8
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 9.0
Flesch : 65.7
Flesch-Kincaid : 7.0
PEOPLE
Martin
A reporter on SciNet assignment at the Hotel Tereshkova.
Zoe
A medic at the Hotel Tereshkova. Has a brief affair with Martin and invites him on a callout.
Madame Mityashin
Hotel Tereshkova designer.
Rykov
Zoe's callout colleague.
Wittgenstein
A philosopher.
Franz
The OES team's liaision.
PLACES
Hotel Tereshkova
In orbit, the dome consists of two concentric plastic shells, with a metre of heavy water between them.
Sumatra
Part of Indonesia.
OMAF
The Orbital Monopole Accelerator Facility. Studies states before the Big Bang, currently. The accelerator itself is a wire-thin cylinder, 50x20 km. Arrays of solar panels distributed along the length feed power into the giant superconducting solenoids. The central cluster of detectors, is housed in a sphere about two hundred metres wide.
Sakharov
The OES has colleagues there.
Geneva
City in Switzerland.
VEHICLES
Orbital Transfer Bus
Moves people from one space facility to another. 15 metres long, 5 wide 1/3 of its length is fuel cells and ion drive.
CONCEPTS
New Standard Model
A theory of physics.
Femtoplasmas
Big Bang hot and small.
Four-space
In a sense, joined to the 'past side' of the Big Bang singularity. It can't be given time coordinates, so it can't belong to the 'history' of the universe.
MEDIA
Phase transition between Lorentzian and Positive Definite Metrics
A paper by one of the OMAF theoretician.
TECHNOLOGY
Monopole
A massive particle. The OMAF is using them for experimenting with in their accelerator.
Suit
Spacesuit that has partial sentience to help with operation and safety.
Hawking radiation
Given off when a micro black hole instantly decays.
ORGANISATIONS
SciNet
Martin's employer, a science media company.
OES
Orbital Emergency Service. Space paramedics.
PLOT
Martin is a journalist on a self-admitted junket to an orbital hotel to cover a conference. He meets an orbital paramedic and has a fling. Afterwards, he mentions that if she gets a callout to a job he could come along and cover it.
This eventuates, so he has to throw on his sentient spacesuit and get down to the Orbital Transfer Bus. The accident is at the OMAF. They discover it is not your garden variety accident. Whatever has happened with their monopole smashing accelerator has killed some people there, because it changed the local spacetime they eventually discover.
A scary situation, as they have to strain to avoid the same fate, and the conditions cut off communication with their base. And are they sure they are really going to get out?
4 out of 5
Hawking radiation : Before - Greg Egan
Given off when a micro black hole instantly decays.
3 out of 5
3 out of 5
Suit : Before - Greg Egan
Spacesuit that has partial sentience to help with operation and safety.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Monopole : Before - Greg Egan
A massive particle. The OMAF is using them for experimenting with in their accelerator.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Orbital Transfer Bus : Before - Greg Egan
Moves people from one space facility to another. 15 metres long, 5 wide 1/3 of its length is fuel cells and ion drive.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
OMAF : Before - Greg Egan
The Orbital Monopole Accelerator Facility. Studies states before the Big Bang, currently. The accelerator itself is a wire-thin cylinder, 50x20 km. Arrays of solar panels distributed along the length feed power into the giant superconducting solenoids. The central cluster of detectors, is housed in a sphere about two hundred metres wide.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Hotel Tereshkova : Before - Greg Egan
In orbit, the dome consists of two concentric plastic shells, with a metre of heavy water between them.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Zoe : Before - Greg Egan
A medic at the Hotel Tereshkova. Has a brief affair with Martin and invites him on a callout.
3.5 out of 5
3.5 out of 5
Oceanic - Greg Egan
Novella
Number of words : 20000
Percent of complex words : 9.5
Average syllables per word : 1.5
Average words per sentence : 14.1
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 9.4
Flesch : 66.6
Flesch-Kincaid : 7.5
PEOPLE
Martin
A young Covenant man that is religiously uncomfortable.
Daniel
Martin's brother.
Ma
Martin's mother.
Fa
Martin's father.
Carol
A Prayer Group leader.
Rachel and Bartholomew
A married couple.
Agnes
Daniel's wife.
Lena
Agnes' second cousin who has a brief relationship with Martin.
Diana
A boat breeder.
Barat
A Firmlander biologist and studier of native microfauna. Martin's academic mentor.
Celine
A fellow student, anthropologist and colleague.
David
A Freelander mathematician from the southern ocean.
Sophie
Daniel's daughter.
Carla Reggia
Author of "Euphoric Effects of Z/12/80 Excretions".
Custodians
Perform a religious ritual when a pool in a village has a zooamine bloom.
ORGANISATIONS
Deep Church
A religious denomination.
Transitional
A religious denomination.
Prayer Group
Daniel belongs to this.
Mitar University
Where Daniel studied.
PLACES
Covenant
The planet Martin lives on.
Monastery
Built from a ship hull.
Ferez
A coastal town on a river mouth.
Mitar
Town where Lena lives and the university is.
Ferez's Deep Church
A spaceship built of stone, glass, and wood where Daniel gets married.
Tia
A city of ten million people on the east coast.
CONCEPTS
Beatrice
Daughter of God. The Holy Jester.
Ecopoiesis
Transformation of the Covenant biosphere by the Angels when deciding to change from their previous posthuman forms.
Crossing
The trip to Covenant by the Angels.
Drowning
A religious baptism ceremony where the recipient must stay underwater for a considerable time.
Immaterial City
Ancient dwelling place.
Bridge
For Covenant people the penis is transferable after sex, from one partner to the other.
Angels
The original colonists. Apparently gave up immortality to produce the people and situation on Covenant now by devolution.
Benthic
Lowest level of a body of water.
Tau
Measure of time on Covenant.
Marni
Ocean god.
MEDIA
Scriptures
Religious texts of the Deep Church.
Beatrice Joining the Angels
A religious painting.
VEHICLES
Launch
Feeding on nutrients in the ocean, moving pumping water through channels in its skin, guided by both sunlight and Covenant's magnetic field.
RACES
Freelanders
Human inhabitants of Covenant, split by where they live.
Firmlanders
Other human inhabitants of Covenant, split by where they live.
ANIMALS
Zooyte
A native microfauna.
PLOT
Martin lives in a smaller town of Covenant, a settled colony of Earth now lower tech and devolved than when it began, having come through a history of strife and religious conflict. His family is still religious, and his brother has chosen a particularly backward hicksville religion the Deep Church, and talks him into undergoing the underwater religious rite.
Later, a sexual experience with a cousin of his sister-in-law's where the bridge of actual genital transfer happens shakes him as her worldview is radically different to his. She is not religious at all.
When he goes to university he studies microbiology and learns that an accident of the changes via ecopoeisis on this world left zoocytes with zooamines that can mess with brain chemistry when in the ocean. Leaving that Beatrice given religious feeling purely technical, even though it still happens. This causes some controversy and garners a fair amount of media attention for his team and from people that want to argue about it. There are still plent of fundamentalists.
At the end, in a small village a concentrated bloom of these happens periodically, and people gather to undergo a rite that leaves them with a religious high. His interruption and explanation of this to the credulous bumpkings is not overly well taken. He is left thinking all night sitting outside a church, pondering.
4 out of 5
http://www.gregegan.net/OCEANIC/Complete/Oceanic.html
Number of words : 20000
Percent of complex words : 9.5
Average syllables per word : 1.5
Average words per sentence : 14.1
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 9.4
Flesch : 66.6
Flesch-Kincaid : 7.5
PEOPLE
Martin
A young Covenant man that is religiously uncomfortable.
Daniel
Martin's brother.
Ma
Martin's mother.
Fa
Martin's father.
Carol
A Prayer Group leader.
Rachel and Bartholomew
A married couple.
Agnes
Daniel's wife.
Lena
Agnes' second cousin who has a brief relationship with Martin.
Diana
A boat breeder.
Barat
A Firmlander biologist and studier of native microfauna. Martin's academic mentor.
Celine
A fellow student, anthropologist and colleague.
David
A Freelander mathematician from the southern ocean.
Sophie
Daniel's daughter.
Carla Reggia
Author of "Euphoric Effects of Z/12/80 Excretions".
Custodians
Perform a religious ritual when a pool in a village has a zooamine bloom.
ORGANISATIONS
Deep Church
A religious denomination.
Transitional
A religious denomination.
Prayer Group
Daniel belongs to this.
Mitar University
Where Daniel studied.
PLACES
Covenant
The planet Martin lives on.
Monastery
Built from a ship hull.
Ferez
A coastal town on a river mouth.
Mitar
Town where Lena lives and the university is.
Ferez's Deep Church
A spaceship built of stone, glass, and wood where Daniel gets married.
Tia
A city of ten million people on the east coast.
CONCEPTS
Beatrice
Daughter of God. The Holy Jester.
Ecopoiesis
Transformation of the Covenant biosphere by the Angels when deciding to change from their previous posthuman forms.
Crossing
The trip to Covenant by the Angels.
Drowning
A religious baptism ceremony where the recipient must stay underwater for a considerable time.
Immaterial City
Ancient dwelling place.
Bridge
For Covenant people the penis is transferable after sex, from one partner to the other.
Angels
The original colonists. Apparently gave up immortality to produce the people and situation on Covenant now by devolution.
Benthic
Lowest level of a body of water.
Tau
Measure of time on Covenant.
Marni
Ocean god.
MEDIA
Scriptures
Religious texts of the Deep Church.
Beatrice Joining the Angels
A religious painting.
VEHICLES
Launch
Feeding on nutrients in the ocean, moving pumping water through channels in its skin, guided by both sunlight and Covenant's magnetic field.
RACES
Freelanders
Human inhabitants of Covenant, split by where they live.
Firmlanders
Other human inhabitants of Covenant, split by where they live.
ANIMALS
Zooyte
A native microfauna.
PLOT
Martin lives in a smaller town of Covenant, a settled colony of Earth now lower tech and devolved than when it began, having come through a history of strife and religious conflict. His family is still religious, and his brother has chosen a particularly backward hicksville religion the Deep Church, and talks him into undergoing the underwater religious rite.
Later, a sexual experience with a cousin of his sister-in-law's where the bridge of actual genital transfer happens shakes him as her worldview is radically different to his. She is not religious at all.
When he goes to university he studies microbiology and learns that an accident of the changes via ecopoeisis on this world left zoocytes with zooamines that can mess with brain chemistry when in the ocean. Leaving that Beatrice given religious feeling purely technical, even though it still happens. This causes some controversy and garners a fair amount of media attention for his team and from people that want to argue about it. There are still plent of fundamentalists.
At the end, in a small village a concentrated bloom of these happens periodically, and people gather to undergo a rite that leaves them with a religious high. His interruption and explanation of this to the credulous bumpkings is not overly well taken. He is left thinking all night sitting outside a church, pondering.
4 out of 5
http://www.gregegan.net/OCEANIC/Complete/Oceanic.html
Firmlanders : Oceanic - Greg Egan
Other human inhabitants of Covenant, split by where they live.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Freelanders : Oceanic - Greg Egan
Human inhabitants of Convenant, split by where they live.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Launch : Oceanic - Greg Egan
Feeding on nutrients in the ocean, moving pumping water through channels in its skin, guided by both sunlight and Covenant's magnetic field.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Angels : Oceanic - Greg Egan
The original colonists. Apparently gave up immortality to produce the people and situation on Covenant now by devolution.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Bridge : Oceanic - Greg Egan
For Covenant people the penis is transferable after sex, from one partner to the other.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Drowning : Oceanic - Greg Egan
A religious baptism ceremony where the recipient must stay underwater for a considerable time.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Ecopoiesis : Oceanic - Greg Egan
Transformation of the Covenant biosphere by the Angels when deciding to change from their previous posthuman forms.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Ferez's Deep Church : Oceanic - Greg Egan
A spaceship built of stone, glass, and wood where Daniel gets married.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Custodians : Oceanic - Greg Egan
Perform a religious ritual when a pool in a village has a zooamine bloom.
3 out of 5
3 out of 5
Barat : Oceanic - Greg Egan
A Firmlander biologist and studier of native microfauna. Martin's academic mentor.
3.5 out of 5
3.5 out of 5
Lena : Oceanic - Greg Egan
Agnes' second cousin who has a brief relationship with Martin.
3.5 out of 5
3.5 out of 5
Neighbourhood Watch - Greg Egan
Short Story
Number of words : 5900
Percent of complex words : 6.1
Average syllables per word : 1.4
Average words per sentence : 10.1
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 6.5
Flesch : 79.1
Flesch-Kincaid : 4.7
PEOPLE
Monster
Has a contract to protect the local neighbourhood, in return for certain killing ground rights.
David
Leader of the local kids.
Andrew
17, bored and prey out after curfew.
Mrs Bold
Chairman of the local Citizens Against Crime.
Mr Simmons
The local butcher.
Linda
A graffiti vandal.
Bruno
A young lawbreaker.
Pete
A bad boy, too.
Colin
Another bad boy.
Ned Kelly
A famous bushranger.
PLACES
Fall-out shelter
Where the monster resides.
PLOT
A local city area has done a deal with a monster. It is allowed to kill within certain guidelines of place and time if it keeps the area free of crime. It does so for awhile, but decides not to continue with the current contract. It takes care of three young punks out after curfew as part of this deal. It likes killing too much. It kills Mrs Bold, arranger of the contract.
One young boy David is not afraid of the monster like the others, even though he knows it wants to kill. He tells the monster that he dreamed that after he died the monster would die too. After the contract expires and the monster begins to consume him, the boy tells him one last thing - no-one else dreamed of your death, did they?
4 out of 5
Number of words : 5900
Percent of complex words : 6.1
Average syllables per word : 1.4
Average words per sentence : 10.1
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 6.5
Flesch : 79.1
Flesch-Kincaid : 4.7
PEOPLE
Monster
Has a contract to protect the local neighbourhood, in return for certain killing ground rights.
David
Leader of the local kids.
Andrew
17, bored and prey out after curfew.
Mrs Bold
Chairman of the local Citizens Against Crime.
Mr Simmons
The local butcher.
Linda
A graffiti vandal.
Bruno
A young lawbreaker.
Pete
A bad boy, too.
Colin
Another bad boy.
Ned Kelly
A famous bushranger.
PLACES
Fall-out shelter
Where the monster resides.
PLOT
A local city area has done a deal with a monster. It is allowed to kill within certain guidelines of place and time if it keeps the area free of crime. It does so for awhile, but decides not to continue with the current contract. It takes care of three young punks out after curfew as part of this deal. It likes killing too much. It kills Mrs Bold, arranger of the contract.
One young boy David is not afraid of the monster like the others, even though he knows it wants to kill. He tells the monster that he dreamed that after he died the monster would die too. After the contract expires and the monster begins to consume him, the boy tells him one last thing - no-one else dreamed of your death, did they?
4 out of 5
Mrs Bold : Neighbourhood Watch - Greg Egan
Chairman of the local Citizens Against Crime.
3.5 out of 5
3.5 out of 5
Monster : Neighbourhood Watch - Greg Egan
Has a contract to protect the local neighbourhood, in return for certain killing ground rights.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
The Aloof in Greg Egan's Incandescence - Peter Pakulski
A few notes on the timeline of their existence :-
3.5 out of 5
https://sites.google.com/site/ourenthusiasmsasham/media-consumption/thealoof
3.5 out of 5
https://sites.google.com/site/ourenthusiasmsasham/media-consumption/thealoof
The Moral Virologist - Greg Egan
Short Story
Number of words : 5800
Percent of complex words : 13.6
Average syllables per word : 1.6
Average words per sentence : 16.7
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 12.1
Flesch : 56.8
Flesch-Kincaid : 9.5
PEOPLE
Matthew Shawcross
A religious fundamentalist media baron.
John Shawcross
His son, a religious fundamentalist virus producer with a PhD in Molecular Biology.
Schrodinger
A physicist.
William Paley
A christian apologist.
Prostitute
Finds the law in Shawcross' work when he pays for her time.
PLACES
Atlanta
USA city, in Georgia.
Tokyo
Major population centre in Japan.
Beijing
Major population centre in China.
Seoul
Major population centre in South Korea.
Bangkok
Major population centre in Thailand.
Manila
Major population centre in the Phillipines.
Sydney
Major population centre in Australia.
New Delhi
Major population centre in India.
Cairo
Major population centre in Egypt.
London
Major city in England.
Dublin
Major city in Ireland.
Ontario
Province of Canada.
CONCEPTS
Paleontology
Discarded by Shawcross as a discipline in favour of Molecular Biology.
RNA
Ribonucleic acid. An essential building block of life.
TECHNOLOGY
SVA
Shawcross Virus A. Highly infectious, but utterly benign. It would reproduce within a variety of host cells in the skin and mucous membranes, without causing disruption to normal cellular functions. Its protein coat had been designed so that every exposed site mimicked some portion of a naturally occurring human protein; the immune system, being necessarily blind to these substances.
SVC
Shawcross Virus C. The second form of the Shawcross Virus. SVC would be able to survive only in blood, semen and vaginal fluids.
SVM
Shawcross Virus M. Upon reinfecting T-cells, SVC would be capable of making an "informed decision" as to what the next generation would be. Like SVA, it would create a genetic fingerprint of its host cell and compare this with its stored copy. If both were identical - proving that the customised strain had remained within the body in which it had begun - its daughters would be SVC. If the fingerprints failed to match, implying that the strain had now crossed into another person's body (and he two hosts were not of the same sex), the daughter virus would be a third variety, SVM, containing both fingerprints.
SVD
Shawcross Virus D. The fourth form. It could come from SVC directly, when the gender markers implied that a homosexual act had taken place, or from SVM, when the detection of a third genetic fingerprint suggested that the molecular marriage contract had been violated. SVD forced its host cells to secrete enzymes that catalysed the disintegration of vital proteins in blood vessel walls. Victims would undergo massive haemorrhaging all over their body.
ORGANISATIONS
Harvard
USA university in Boston.
PLOT
The son of a religious fundamentalist media baron is inspired by AIDs to invent a virus that can cause death after homosexual sex and after non-monogamous sex. He goes around the world to spread it.
He has a habit of paying prostitutes to resist temptation, and in this case does it to talk to one of them. She points out a flaw in his work. Babies are genetically different to both parents, so the virus will work on them. Mothers will only be able to breastfeed for a month until death.
He thinks of turning himself in and is briefly despondent, until realising he can work with this.
4 out of 5
http://eidolon.net/?story=The%20Moral%20Virologist&pagetitle=The+Moral+Virologist§ion=fiction
Number of words : 5800
Percent of complex words : 13.6
Average syllables per word : 1.6
Average words per sentence : 16.7
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 12.1
Flesch : 56.8
Flesch-Kincaid : 9.5
PEOPLE
Matthew Shawcross
A religious fundamentalist media baron.
John Shawcross
His son, a religious fundamentalist virus producer with a PhD in Molecular Biology.
Schrodinger
A physicist.
William Paley
A christian apologist.
Prostitute
Finds the law in Shawcross' work when he pays for her time.
PLACES
Atlanta
USA city, in Georgia.
Tokyo
Major population centre in Japan.
Beijing
Major population centre in China.
Seoul
Major population centre in South Korea.
Bangkok
Major population centre in Thailand.
Manila
Major population centre in the Phillipines.
Sydney
Major population centre in Australia.
New Delhi
Major population centre in India.
Cairo
Major population centre in Egypt.
London
Major city in England.
Dublin
Major city in Ireland.
Ontario
Province of Canada.
CONCEPTS
Paleontology
Discarded by Shawcross as a discipline in favour of Molecular Biology.
RNA
Ribonucleic acid. An essential building block of life.
TECHNOLOGY
SVA
Shawcross Virus A. Highly infectious, but utterly benign. It would reproduce within a variety of host cells in the skin and mucous membranes, without causing disruption to normal cellular functions. Its protein coat had been designed so that every exposed site mimicked some portion of a naturally occurring human protein; the immune system, being necessarily blind to these substances.
SVC
Shawcross Virus C. The second form of the Shawcross Virus. SVC would be able to survive only in blood, semen and vaginal fluids.
SVM
Shawcross Virus M. Upon reinfecting T-cells, SVC would be capable of making an "informed decision" as to what the next generation would be. Like SVA, it would create a genetic fingerprint of its host cell and compare this with its stored copy. If both were identical - proving that the customised strain had remained within the body in which it had begun - its daughters would be SVC. If the fingerprints failed to match, implying that the strain had now crossed into another person's body (and he two hosts were not of the same sex), the daughter virus would be a third variety, SVM, containing both fingerprints.
SVD
Shawcross Virus D. The fourth form. It could come from SVC directly, when the gender markers implied that a homosexual act had taken place, or from SVM, when the detection of a third genetic fingerprint suggested that the molecular marriage contract had been violated. SVD forced its host cells to secrete enzymes that catalysed the disintegration of vital proteins in blood vessel walls. Victims would undergo massive haemorrhaging all over their body.
ORGANISATIONS
Harvard
USA university in Boston.
PLOT
The son of a religious fundamentalist media baron is inspired by AIDs to invent a virus that can cause death after homosexual sex and after non-monogamous sex. He goes around the world to spread it.
He has a habit of paying prostitutes to resist temptation, and in this case does it to talk to one of them. She points out a flaw in his work. Babies are genetically different to both parents, so the virus will work on them. Mothers will only be able to breastfeed for a month until death.
He thinks of turning himself in and is briefly despondent, until realising he can work with this.
4 out of 5
http://eidolon.net/?story=The%20Moral%20Virologist&pagetitle=The+Moral+Virologist§ion=fiction
SVD : The Moral Virologist - Greg Egan
Shawcross Virus D. The fourth form. It could come from SVC directly, when the gender markers implied that a homosexual act had taken place, or from SVM, when the detection of a third genetic fingerprint suggested that the molecular marriage contract had been violated. SVD forced its host cells to secrete enzymes that catalysed the disintegration of vital proteins in blood vessel walls. Victims would undergo massive haemorrhaging all over their body.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
SVM : The Moral Virologist - Greg Egan
Shawcross Virus M. Upon reinfecting T-cells, SVC would be capable of making an "informed decision" as to what the next generation would be. Like SVA, it would create a genetic fingerprint of its host cell and compare this with its stored copy. If both were identical - proving that the customised strain had remained within the body in which it had begun - its daughters would be SVC. If the fingerprints failed to match, implying that the strain had now crossed into another person's body (and he two hosts were not of the same sex), the daughter virus would be a third variety, SVM, containing both fingerprints.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
SVC : The Moral Virologist - Greg Egan
Shawcross Virus C. The second form of the Shawcross Virus. SVC would be able to survive only in blood, semen and vaginal fluids.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
SVA : The Moral Virologist - Greg Egan
Shawcross Virus A. Highly infectious, but utterly benign. It would reproduce within a variety of host cells in the skin and mucous membranes, without causing disruption to normal cellular functions. Its protein coat had been designed so that every exposed site mimicked some portion of a naturally occurring human protein; the immune system, being necessarily blind to these substances.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
RNA : The Moral Virologist - Greg Egan
Ribonucleic acid. An essential building block of life.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Paleontology : The Moral Virologist - Greg Egan
Discarded by Shawcross as a discipline in favour of Molecular Biology.
3 out of 5
3 out of 5
Prostitute : The Moral Virologist - Greg Egan
Finds the law in Shawcross' work when he pays for her time.
3.5 out of 5
3.5 out of 5
John Shawcross : The Moral Virologist - Greg Egan
His son, a religious fundamentalist virus producer with a PhD in Molecular Biology.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Matthew Shawcross : The Moral Virologist - Greg Egan
A religious fundamentalist media baron.
3 out of 5
3 out of 5
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Mitochondrial Eve - Greg Egan
Novelette
Number of words : 8900
Percent of complex words : 15.0
Average syllables per word : 1.6
Average words per sentence : 17.0
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 12.8
Flesch : 50.9
Flesch-Kincaid : 10.4
PEOPLE
Paul
A physicist and Lena's boyfriend.
Lena
A communications engineer.
Francis Bacon
A writer.
Cousin Andre
One of the Children of Eve, who tests Paul's ancestry.
William Sachs
The Children's West Pacific Research Director.
High Priest Church of the Sacred UFO
Thinks everyone is from the other inner planets, instead.
CONCEPTS
Ancestor Wars
Dispute between the Children of Eve and Sons of Adam and others over humanity's lines of descent.
Great Tree
Children of Eve description of the overall family history of humanity.
Mitochondrial Eve
Our hypothetical ten-thousand-times-great grandmother.
Mitochondria
There's DNA in the mitochondria, inherited from the mother alone. So it's easier to use mitochondrial DNA to trace your ancestry. Mitochondrial DNA came, not in paired chromosomes, but in tiny loops called plasmids. There were hundreds of plasmids in every cell, but they were all identical, and they all derived from the ovum alone. Mutations aside -- one every 4,000 years or so -- your mitochondrial DNA was exactly the same as that of your mother, your maternal grandmother, great-grandmother, and so on.
Paleogenetics
Study of the ancient human genome.
Out of Africa hypothesis
Theory of human migration, modern Homo sapiens had evolved from the earlier Homo erectus in one place only, and had then migrated throughout the world, out-competing and replacing the local Homo erectus everywhere they went.
Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen correlation
The entanglement of two microscopic particles into a single quantum system.
Y-chromosome Adam
In the cell divisions leading up to sperm production, most of the DNA of the Y chromosome underwent recombination with the X chromosome -- but part of it remained aloof, unscrambled, passed down the purely paternal line with the same fidelity as mitochondrial DNA passed from mother to daughter. In fact, with more fidelity: mutations in nuclear DNA were much less frequent, which made it a much less useful molecular clock.
ORGANISATIONS
Children of Eve
Believers in one mother for humanity, and setting aside differences. Put a lot of effort into researching and promoting this concept.
UNSW physics department
Where Paul works on his research.
Benetton
A clothing company.
Mambo
Surfing gear company.
World Palaeogenetics Forum
Tenth one is held at Cambridge.
Hammer Horror
Producer of horror movies.
PLACES
Sydney
Capital of NSW.
Sakti
City in India.
Ele'ele
City in Samoa.
Arnhem Land
Part of the Northern Territory.
Java
Part of Indonesia.
Lagos
Nigerian city.
London
Capital of England.
Cambridge
University town in England.
MEDIA
Wired
A tech magazine.
PLOT
The Children of Eve organisation wants to prove and convince people that modern humanity is descended from one African mother. Lena is a believer, and when her boyfriend Paul talks about his work they have the idea of using quantum physics to research the genetic bonds. They can get the Children to sponsor this long term project.
However, in opposition the Sons of Adam and others have begun working on the same thing as the Children of Eve previously, but via the history of the Y-chromosome.
Paul is forced to up the ante and takes his research further, interrelating a chunk of human genetic history. When he holds a press conference at an actual Conference on the topic, he announces his findings. They are all wrong, and humans could not be descended from any single person that recently. The Out of Africa theory is not borne out by the research. Only if you go as far back as Australopithecus, perhaps.
4 out of 5
Number of words : 8900
Percent of complex words : 15.0
Average syllables per word : 1.6
Average words per sentence : 17.0
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 12.8
Flesch : 50.9
Flesch-Kincaid : 10.4
PEOPLE
Paul
A physicist and Lena's boyfriend.
Lena
A communications engineer.
Francis Bacon
A writer.
Cousin Andre
One of the Children of Eve, who tests Paul's ancestry.
William Sachs
The Children's West Pacific Research Director.
High Priest Church of the Sacred UFO
Thinks everyone is from the other inner planets, instead.
CONCEPTS
Ancestor Wars
Dispute between the Children of Eve and Sons of Adam and others over humanity's lines of descent.
Great Tree
Children of Eve description of the overall family history of humanity.
Mitochondrial Eve
Our hypothetical ten-thousand-times-great grandmother.
Mitochondria
There's DNA in the mitochondria, inherited from the mother alone. So it's easier to use mitochondrial DNA to trace your ancestry. Mitochondrial DNA came, not in paired chromosomes, but in tiny loops called plasmids. There were hundreds of plasmids in every cell, but they were all identical, and they all derived from the ovum alone. Mutations aside -- one every 4,000 years or so -- your mitochondrial DNA was exactly the same as that of your mother, your maternal grandmother, great-grandmother, and so on.
Paleogenetics
Study of the ancient human genome.
Out of Africa hypothesis
Theory of human migration, modern Homo sapiens had evolved from the earlier Homo erectus in one place only, and had then migrated throughout the world, out-competing and replacing the local Homo erectus everywhere they went.
Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen correlation
The entanglement of two microscopic particles into a single quantum system.
Y-chromosome Adam
In the cell divisions leading up to sperm production, most of the DNA of the Y chromosome underwent recombination with the X chromosome -- but part of it remained aloof, unscrambled, passed down the purely paternal line with the same fidelity as mitochondrial DNA passed from mother to daughter. In fact, with more fidelity: mutations in nuclear DNA were much less frequent, which made it a much less useful molecular clock.
ORGANISATIONS
Children of Eve
Believers in one mother for humanity, and setting aside differences. Put a lot of effort into researching and promoting this concept.
UNSW physics department
Where Paul works on his research.
Benetton
A clothing company.
Mambo
Surfing gear company.
World Palaeogenetics Forum
Tenth one is held at Cambridge.
Hammer Horror
Producer of horror movies.
PLACES
Sydney
Capital of NSW.
Sakti
City in India.
Ele'ele
City in Samoa.
Arnhem Land
Part of the Northern Territory.
Java
Part of Indonesia.
Lagos
Nigerian city.
London
Capital of England.
Cambridge
University town in England.
MEDIA
Wired
A tech magazine.
PLOT
The Children of Eve organisation wants to prove and convince people that modern humanity is descended from one African mother. Lena is a believer, and when her boyfriend Paul talks about his work they have the idea of using quantum physics to research the genetic bonds. They can get the Children to sponsor this long term project.
However, in opposition the Sons of Adam and others have begun working on the same thing as the Children of Eve previously, but via the history of the Y-chromosome.
Paul is forced to up the ante and takes his research further, interrelating a chunk of human genetic history. When he holds a press conference at an actual Conference on the topic, he announces his findings. They are all wrong, and humans could not be descended from any single person that recently. The Out of Africa theory is not borne out by the research. Only if you go as far back as Australopithecus, perhaps.
4 out of 5
World Palaeogenetics Forum : Mitochondrial Eve - Greg Egan
Tenth one is held at Cambridge.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Children of Eve : Mitochondrial Eve - Greg Egan
Believers in one mother for humanity, and setting aside differences. Put a lot of effort into researching and promoting this concept.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Y-chromosome Adam : Mitochondrial Eve - Greg Egan
In the cell divisions leading up to sperm production, most of the DNA of the Y chromosome underwent recombination with the X chromosome -- but part of it remained aloof, unscrambled, passed down the purely paternal line with the same fidelity as mitochondrial DNA passed from mother to daughter. In fact, with more fidelity: mutations in nuclear DNA were much less frequent, which made it a much less useful molecular clock.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen correlation : Mitochondrial Eve - Greg Egan
The entanglement of two microscopic particles into a single quantum system.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Out of Africa hypothesis : Mitochondrial Eve - Greg Egan
Theory of human migration, modern Homo sapiens had evolved from the earlier Homo erectus in one place only, and had then migrated throughout the world, out-competing
and replacing the local Homo erectus everywhere they went.
4 out of 5
and replacing the local Homo erectus everywhere they went.
4 out of 5
Mitochondria : Mitochondrial Eve - Greg Egan
There's DNA in the mitochondria, inherited from the mother alone. So it's easier to use mitochondrial DNA to trace your ancestry. Mitochondrial DNA came, not in paired chromosomes, but in tiny loops called plasmids. There were hundreds of plasmids in every cell, but they were all identical, and they all derived from the ovum alone. Mutations aside -- one every 4,000 years or so -- your mitochondrial DNA was exactly the same as that of your mother, your maternal grandmother, great-grandmother, and so on.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Mitochondrial Eve : Mitochondrial Eve - Greg Egan
Our hypothetical ten-thousand-times-great grandmother.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Great Tree : Mitochondrial Eve - Greg Egan
Children of Eve description of the overall family history of humanity.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Ancestor Wars : Mitochondrial Eve - Greg Egan
Dispute between the Children of Eve and Sons of Adam and others over humanity's lines of descent.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
High Priest Church of the Sacred UFO : Mitochondrial Eve - Greg Egan
Thinks everyone is from the other inner planets, instead.
3 out of 5
3 out of 5
William Sach : Mitochondrial Eve - Greg Egans
The Children's West Pacific Research Director.
3 out of 5
3 out of 5
Cousin Andre : Mitochondrial Eve - Greg Egan
One of the Children of Eve, who tests Paul's ancestry.
3 out of 5
3 out of 5
Monday, March 21, 2011
Mister Volition - Greg Egan
Short Story
Number of words : 6300
Percent of complex words : 8.9
Average syllables per word : 1.5
Average words per sentence : 13.2
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 8.9
Flesch : 67.2
Flesch-Kincaid : 7.2
PEOPLE
Alex
A disturbed user of a new patch.
Tran
A tech guy and a fence.
Mira
Alex's girlfriend.
Nietzsche, Sartre and Camus
Philosophers.
TECHNOLOGY
Patch
A wearable or implantable technology that can provider a variety of functions, particularly biofeedback.
Recursive Visions Introscape 3000
A type of Patch, expensive.
Implant
Personal safety alarm body augmentation.
Blue Monday
Ane executive stress monitor.
PLACES
The Cross
Sydney's Red Light district.
Redfern
Suburb of Sydney.
ORGANISATIONS
Pandemonium
Maker of Recursive Visions Introscape 3000.
CONCEPTS
Ubermensch
German for a superman.
PLOT
A story of the philosophy of the mind. The protagonists mugs someone for their patch, a biofeedback monitor. It turns out to be a pretty new variety. It gives information to you directly via your senses. Alex stresses about his freedom. The patch breaks down his mental processes for him, showing that his mentality is just a system at work, and that he has no choice. So he sets out to see if he can kill someone, or has any free will left.
4 out of 5
Number of words : 6300
Percent of complex words : 8.9
Average syllables per word : 1.5
Average words per sentence : 13.2
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 8.9
Flesch : 67.2
Flesch-Kincaid : 7.2
PEOPLE
Alex
A disturbed user of a new patch.
Tran
A tech guy and a fence.
Mira
Alex's girlfriend.
Nietzsche, Sartre and Camus
Philosophers.
TECHNOLOGY
Patch
A wearable or implantable technology that can provider a variety of functions, particularly biofeedback.
Recursive Visions Introscape 3000
A type of Patch, expensive.
Implant
Personal safety alarm body augmentation.
Blue Monday
Ane executive stress monitor.
PLACES
The Cross
Sydney's Red Light district.
Redfern
Suburb of Sydney.
ORGANISATIONS
Pandemonium
Maker of Recursive Visions Introscape 3000.
CONCEPTS
Ubermensch
German for a superman.
PLOT
A story of the philosophy of the mind. The protagonists mugs someone for their patch, a biofeedback monitor. It turns out to be a pretty new variety. It gives information to you directly via your senses. Alex stresses about his freedom. The patch breaks down his mental processes for him, showing that his mentality is just a system at work, and that he has no choice. So he sets out to see if he can kill someone, or has any free will left.
4 out of 5
Recursive Visions Introscape 3000 : Mister Volition - Greg Egan
A type of Patch, expensive.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Patch : Mister Volition - Greg Egan
A wearable or implantable technology that can provider a variety of functions, particularly biofeedback.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Mind Vampires - Greg Egan
Short Story
Number of words : 2600
Percent of complex words : 8.4
Average syllables per word : 1.5
Average words per sentence : 14.1
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 9.0
Flesch : 69.5
Flesch-Kincaid : 7.8
PEOPLE
Vampire slayer
Disturbed dreamer. Called in by the Headmistress.
Headmistress
Calls him in when she begins menstruating again at 62. Bad things are about.
Jack Rice
School gardener's apprentice who disappeared, and also vampire.
Rice Brothers
Four of them, vampires.
Rice sisters
Three of them, all vampires.
Rice Parents
The usual two, but vampires.
PLACES
Connecticut
Part of New England.
TECHNOLOGY
Kinematograph
Device for projecting pictures.
PLOT
A disturbed man's fevered dreams of vampire hunting and is tormented by light projectors, or we hope so, as otherwise there are vampires feasting on a boarding school where he is called in as a vampire slayer. The gardener's apprentice, his four brothers, three sisters and parents are all vampires. Which is quite a lot for one school to deal with. The now menstruating again 62 year old headmistress that asked for help hangs herself as she couldn't cope, leaving one man alone against the mind vampires.
3.5 out of 5
Number of words : 2600
Percent of complex words : 8.4
Average syllables per word : 1.5
Average words per sentence : 14.1
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 9.0
Flesch : 69.5
Flesch-Kincaid : 7.8
PEOPLE
Vampire slayer
Disturbed dreamer. Called in by the Headmistress.
Headmistress
Calls him in when she begins menstruating again at 62. Bad things are about.
Jack Rice
School gardener's apprentice who disappeared, and also vampire.
Rice Brothers
Four of them, vampires.
Rice sisters
Three of them, all vampires.
Rice Parents
The usual two, but vampires.
PLACES
Connecticut
Part of New England.
TECHNOLOGY
Kinematograph
Device for projecting pictures.
PLOT
A disturbed man's fevered dreams of vampire hunting and is tormented by light projectors, or we hope so, as otherwise there are vampires feasting on a boarding school where he is called in as a vampire slayer. The gardener's apprentice, his four brothers, three sisters and parents are all vampires. Which is quite a lot for one school to deal with. The now menstruating again 62 year old headmistress that asked for help hangs herself as she couldn't cope, leaving one man alone against the mind vampires.
3.5 out of 5
Jack Rice : Mind Vampires - Greg Egan
School gardener's apprentice who disappeared, and also a vampire.
3.5 out of 5
3.5 out of 5
Headmistress : Mind Vampires - Greg Egan
Calls him in when she begins menstruating again at 62. Bad things are about.
3.5 out of 5
3.5 out of 5
Vampire slayer : Mind Vampires - Greg Egan
Disturbed dreamer. Called in by the Headmistress.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Friday, March 18, 2011
Lost Continent - Greg Egan
Novelette
Number of words : 10800
Percent of complex words : 8.3
Average syllables per word : 1.4
Average words per sentence : 13.5
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 8.7
Flesch : 72.0
Flesch-Kincaid : 6.6
PEOPLE
Ali
A young man in trouble in Khurosan. Ends up in another world as refugee inmate 3739.
Uncle
Ali's relative and guardian.s
Hassan
Ali's older brother, taken by the Scholars.
Father
Ali's parent had his throat cut by the Scholars.
Alex
A fellow inmate. Denisovich of the Desert.
Tran
A fellow inmate. The Rake.
Shahin
An Iranian fellow inmate.
Reza
A Persian translator.
Colonel Kurtz
Nickname for the previous Center Manager.
Rakesh
A Hindustani man.
Cheryl
A guard.
Mr James
A government official.
Ms Evans
A lawyer who assists refugees with the process.
Mr Cole
The replacement for Evans.
Parviz
Another interpreter.
Fernandez
A government interviewer.
Fahim
A fellow Khurosani inmate.
Daniel
An African inmate.
Ben
A local protester against the imprisonment of the refugees.
VEHICLES
Land Cruiser
A four wheel drive made by Toyota in this world.
ORGANISATIONS
Scholars
A Sunni group of armed raiders from another time.
PLACES
Khurosan
A war-torn nation where Ali comes from.
Hindustan
A nation in Ali's world.
CONCEPTS
Mosarfar-e-waqt
A local official in Ali's world, involved with brokering deals.
Stage One
First level of refugee processing.
Stage Two
Second level of refugee processing.
Pol-e-waqt
Bridge from the future to the past in Ali's world.
Form 866
Needed for stage one processing.
PLOT
Ali lives in a strife-ridden country: Khurosan. There is conflict between Sunni and Shi'a and also similar, but raiders from another time. A bridge between the past and future exists, and is guarded and access is brokered. The Scholars are a raider paramilitary group, who kill Ali's father and take his brother. As a result of a conflict he ends up going through another bridge, this one leading to our world. This bridge too is guarded, but Ali didn't realise that you could go to another world, as well as another time. The government in charge, which we assume is likely Australian, wants to rewrite the rules so that this gate is in no-man's land international territory, not local. Therefore the refugees will not be their responsibility.
Ali is in a detention camp along with many others. In Stage One processing no news or outside information at all is allowed, and they are only grudgingly informed of the process. He makes it to Stage Two, finally, but inconsistencies in his story leaves him denied freedom. Many people there have been imprisoned for years.
However, a group of protesters who do understand the law get to the camp, asking for ID numbers so they can help with their cases. Ali throws a stone with a piece of paper wrapped around it with his and a friend's info, before the protesters are forced to leave, and they are stopped.
3.5 out of 5
Number of words : 10800
Percent of complex words : 8.3
Average syllables per word : 1.4
Average words per sentence : 13.5
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 8.7
Flesch : 72.0
Flesch-Kincaid : 6.6
PEOPLE
Ali
A young man in trouble in Khurosan. Ends up in another world as refugee inmate 3739.
Uncle
Ali's relative and guardian.s
Hassan
Ali's older brother, taken by the Scholars.
Father
Ali's parent had his throat cut by the Scholars.
Alex
A fellow inmate. Denisovich of the Desert.
Tran
A fellow inmate. The Rake.
Shahin
An Iranian fellow inmate.
Reza
A Persian translator.
Colonel Kurtz
Nickname for the previous Center Manager.
Rakesh
A Hindustani man.
Cheryl
A guard.
Mr James
A government official.
Ms Evans
A lawyer who assists refugees with the process.
Mr Cole
The replacement for Evans.
Parviz
Another interpreter.
Fernandez
A government interviewer.
Fahim
A fellow Khurosani inmate.
Daniel
An African inmate.
Ben
A local protester against the imprisonment of the refugees.
VEHICLES
Land Cruiser
A four wheel drive made by Toyota in this world.
ORGANISATIONS
Scholars
A Sunni group of armed raiders from another time.
PLACES
Khurosan
A war-torn nation where Ali comes from.
Hindustan
A nation in Ali's world.
CONCEPTS
Mosarfar-e-waqt
A local official in Ali's world, involved with brokering deals.
Stage One
First level of refugee processing.
Stage Two
Second level of refugee processing.
Pol-e-waqt
Bridge from the future to the past in Ali's world.
Form 866
Needed for stage one processing.
PLOT
Ali lives in a strife-ridden country: Khurosan. There is conflict between Sunni and Shi'a and also similar, but raiders from another time. A bridge between the past and future exists, and is guarded and access is brokered. The Scholars are a raider paramilitary group, who kill Ali's father and take his brother. As a result of a conflict he ends up going through another bridge, this one leading to our world. This bridge too is guarded, but Ali didn't realise that you could go to another world, as well as another time. The government in charge, which we assume is likely Australian, wants to rewrite the rules so that this gate is in no-man's land international territory, not local. Therefore the refugees will not be their responsibility.
Ali is in a detention camp along with many others. In Stage One processing no news or outside information at all is allowed, and they are only grudgingly informed of the process. He makes it to Stage Two, finally, but inconsistencies in his story leaves him denied freedom. Many people there have been imprisoned for years.
However, a group of protesters who do understand the law get to the camp, asking for ID numbers so they can help with their cases. Ali throws a stone with a piece of paper wrapped around it with his and a friend's info, before the protesters are forced to leave, and they are stopped.
3.5 out of 5
Pol-e-waqt : Lost Continent - Greg Egan
Bridge from the future to the past in Ali's world.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Mosarfar-e-waqt : Lost Continent - Greg Egan
A local official in Ali's world, involved with brokering deals.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Land Cruiser : Lost Continent - Greg Egan
A four wheel drive made by Toyota in this world.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Ben : Lost Continent - Greg Egan
A local protester against the imprisonment of the refugees.
3 out of 5
3 out of 5
Ali : Lost Continent - Greg Egan
A young man in trouble in Khurosan. Ends up in another world as refugee inmate 3739.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Learning To Be Me - Greg Egan
Short Story
Number of words : 5900
Percent of complex words : 11.4
Average syllables per word : 1.6
Average words per sentence : 15.7
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 10.8
Flesch : 57.7
Flesch-Kincaid : 9.1
PEOPLE
Worrier
A man who stresses about the philosophy and reality of having his own brain and self replaced with the Jewel.
Eva
His first love and girlfriend at sixteen.
Plato and Descartes and Marx
Philosophers.
St. Augustine, Sartre, heard of Godel, Turing, Hamsun and Ki
More philosophers.
Daphne
His wife, a merchant banker.
Cathy
His lover.
TECHNOLOGY
Ndoli Device
The Jewel. A technology that replaces the human brain gradually enmeshing itself in childhood via nanotech surgical robots and teaching itself the brain functions of the person, so the brain can be replaced later in adulthood.
MEDIA
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
A movie.
PLOT
A man worries about his Ndoli Device process and if he will remain himself after the operation to insert it. His parents underdog the process and don't tell him and he doesn't notice. His wife and later lover do as well and seem no different. This causes even more stress when he is a rare case of the Teacher unit process failing. This causes him and the Jewel to get more out of synch - which means there will be a difference on switchover of that time period. Maybe this happens more than people know, and is covered up. His relationship with his former lover is discarded.
3.5 out of 5
Number of words : 5900
Percent of complex words : 11.4
Average syllables per word : 1.6
Average words per sentence : 15.7
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 10.8
Flesch : 57.7
Flesch-Kincaid : 9.1
PEOPLE
Worrier
A man who stresses about the philosophy and reality of having his own brain and self replaced with the Jewel.
Eva
His first love and girlfriend at sixteen.
Plato and Descartes and Marx
Philosophers.
St. Augustine, Sartre, heard of Godel, Turing, Hamsun and Ki
More philosophers.
Daphne
His wife, a merchant banker.
Cathy
His lover.
TECHNOLOGY
Ndoli Device
The Jewel. A technology that replaces the human brain gradually enmeshing itself in childhood via nanotech surgical robots and teaching itself the brain functions of the person, so the brain can be replaced later in adulthood.
MEDIA
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
A movie.
PLOT
A man worries about his Ndoli Device process and if he will remain himself after the operation to insert it. His parents underdog the process and don't tell him and he doesn't notice. His wife and later lover do as well and seem no different. This causes even more stress when he is a rare case of the Teacher unit process failing. This causes him and the Jewel to get more out of synch - which means there will be a difference on switchover of that time period. Maybe this happens more than people know, and is covered up. His relationship with his former lover is discarded.
3.5 out of 5
Ndoli Device : Learning To Be Me - Greg Egan
The Jewel. A technology that replaces the human brain gradually enmeshing itself in childhood via nanotech surgical robots and teaching itself the brain functions of the person, so the brain can be replaced later in adulthood.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
St. Augustine, Sartre, heard of Godel, Turing, Hamsun and Ki : Learning To Be Me - Greg Egan
More philosophers.
3 out of 5
3 out of 5
Worrier : Learning To Be Me - Greg Egan
A man who stresses about the philosophy and reality of having his own brain and self replaced with the Jewel.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
A Kidnapping - Greg Egan
Short Story
Number of words : 5800
Percent of complex words : 11.8
Average syllables per word : 1.5
Average words per sentence : 18.0
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 11.9
Flesch : 58.2
Flesch-Kincaid : 9.6
PEOPLE
David
A man whose wife refuses to be scanned so she can be uploaded on dying. Sells digital artworks.
Loraine
His wife. An artist who likes physical media.
Detective Nicholson
Works in the Communications Crime Division that David contacts.
MEDIA
Spectral Density
An animated abstract Kreyszig piece in the office.
TECHNOLOGY
Scanning
High-resolution imaging techniques used to generate a detailed map of a body down to the cellular level, including neurons in the brain. This can can them be uploaded on the physical body's death.
Coney Island
An environment for the scanned and resurrected. David's mother lives there.
Visual cortex taps
A body augmentation used for image copying and reproduction.
CONCEPTS
Orbitals
Nations in space.
PLOT
David gets a phone call that his wife has been taken, and will be tortured if he doesn't pay up. However, he calls his wife who is at home and fine. They only have a computer simulation.
This works eventually on David after multiple attempts because his real wife refuses to have a scan done so she can live on after death, unlike his mother. So the only way David will be able to be with her after they die is via this illegal method. They agree to let him be with the simulation after he dies as long as he continues to cough up the big bucks over time.
4.5 out of 5
Number of words : 5800
Percent of complex words : 11.8
Average syllables per word : 1.5
Average words per sentence : 18.0
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 11.9
Flesch : 58.2
Flesch-Kincaid : 9.6
PEOPLE
David
A man whose wife refuses to be scanned so she can be uploaded on dying. Sells digital artworks.
Loraine
His wife. An artist who likes physical media.
Detective Nicholson
Works in the Communications Crime Division that David contacts.
MEDIA
Spectral Density
An animated abstract Kreyszig piece in the office.
TECHNOLOGY
Scanning
High-resolution imaging techniques used to generate a detailed map of a body down to the cellular level, including neurons in the brain. This can can them be uploaded on the physical body's death.
Coney Island
An environment for the scanned and resurrected. David's mother lives there.
Visual cortex taps
A body augmentation used for image copying and reproduction.
CONCEPTS
Orbitals
Nations in space.
PLOT
David gets a phone call that his wife has been taken, and will be tortured if he doesn't pay up. However, he calls his wife who is at home and fine. They only have a computer simulation.
This works eventually on David after multiple attempts because his real wife refuses to have a scan done so she can live on after death, unlike his mother. So the only way David will be able to be with her after they die is via this illegal method. They agree to let him be with the simulation after he dies as long as he continues to cough up the big bucks over time.
4.5 out of 5
Visual cortex taps : A Kidnapping - Greg Egan
A body augmentation used for image copying and reproduction.
3 out of 5
3 out of 5
Coney Island : A Kidnapping - Greg Egan
An environment for the scanned and resurrected. David's mother lives there.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Scanning : A Kidnapping - Greg Egan
High-resolution imaging techniques used to generate a detailed map of a body down to the cellular level, including neurons in the brain. This can can them be uploaded on the physical body's death.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Spectral Density : A Kidnapping - Greg Egan
An animated abstract Kreyszig piece in the office.
3.5 out of 5
3.5 out of 5
Detective Nicholson : A Kidnapping - Greg Egan
Works in the Communications Crime Division that David contacts.
3 out of 5
3 out of 5
David : A Kidnapping - Greg Egan
A man whose wife refuses to be scanned so she can be uploaded on dying. Sells digital artworks.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Into Darkness - Greg Egan
Novelette
Number of words : 7300
Percent of complex words : 9.6
Average syllables per word : 1.5
Average words per sentence : 16.8
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 10.5
Flesch : 62.4
Flesch-Kincaid : 8.7
PEOPLE
John Nately
High-school science teacher and on his eleventh call as a volunteer Intake Runner.
Angelo
John's driver this time.
Elaine
A fellow Runner and long-time acquaintance.
Dolores
A programmer who produces Intake software for Runners.
TECHNOLOGY
The Intake
A giant black dome, completely non-reflective, blotting out a great bite of the sky. Possibly a wormhole. Appears at random around the world for a few minutes. Inside, any movement which equates to travelling from the future into the past is forbidden. It destroys whatever was in its touchdown path when it leaves.
The Core
The inner part of The Intake. If you can reach here, you will generally be safe.
South Operations Centre
A couple of vans of tracking electronics on someone's lawn to monitor The Intake.
WEAPONS
Demolition Gun
Used by Runners in The Intake.
PLOT
The Intake is a suspected wormhole/hyperspace travelling artifact that haunts the author, appearing at random places and devastating the small area it affects and trapping people inside, many of whom die, some of them because they don't understand it.
It changes the underlying physics of the area which also means the processes of the human body. John is a fit Runner, able to venture inside The Intake and attempt to assist and rescue people, which he volunteers to do along with others.
On his eleventh run he manages to help a child although it turns out she was dying anyway, and a man who has lost his legs.
He meets Elaine at The Core. Their wait for The Intake to depart is longer than usual. Very rarely, it can last for many hours, dooming all those inside. It ends with Elaine snoozing on John's shoulder, as they wait and see if this time it is all over for them, or if it will go away shortly.
4.5 out of 5
Number of words : 7300
Percent of complex words : 9.6
Average syllables per word : 1.5
Average words per sentence : 16.8
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 10.5
Flesch : 62.4
Flesch-Kincaid : 8.7
PEOPLE
John Nately
High-school science teacher and on his eleventh call as a volunteer Intake Runner.
Angelo
John's driver this time.
Elaine
A fellow Runner and long-time acquaintance.
Dolores
A programmer who produces Intake software for Runners.
TECHNOLOGY
The Intake
A giant black dome, completely non-reflective, blotting out a great bite of the sky. Possibly a wormhole. Appears at random around the world for a few minutes. Inside, any movement which equates to travelling from the future into the past is forbidden. It destroys whatever was in its touchdown path when it leaves.
The Core
The inner part of The Intake. If you can reach here, you will generally be safe.
South Operations Centre
A couple of vans of tracking electronics on someone's lawn to monitor The Intake.
WEAPONS
Demolition Gun
Used by Runners in The Intake.
PLOT
The Intake is a suspected wormhole/hyperspace travelling artifact that haunts the author, appearing at random places and devastating the small area it affects and trapping people inside, many of whom die, some of them because they don't understand it.
It changes the underlying physics of the area which also means the processes of the human body. John is a fit Runner, able to venture inside The Intake and attempt to assist and rescue people, which he volunteers to do along with others.
On his eleventh run he manages to help a child although it turns out she was dying anyway, and a man who has lost his legs.
He meets Elaine at The Core. Their wait for The Intake to depart is longer than usual. Very rarely, it can last for many hours, dooming all those inside. It ends with Elaine snoozing on John's shoulder, as they wait and see if this time it is all over for them, or if it will go away shortly.
4.5 out of 5
South Operations Centre : Into Darkness - Greg Egan
A couple of vans of tracking electronics on someone's lawn to monitor The Intake.
3.5 out of 5
3.5 out of 5
The Core : Into Darkness - Greg Egan
The inner part of The Intake. If you can reach here, you will generally be safe.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
The Intake : Into Darkness - Greg Egan
A giant black dome, completely non-reflective, blotting out a great bite of the sky. Possibly a wormhole. Appears at random around the world for a few minutes. Inside, any movement which equates to travelling from the future into the past is forbidden.
It destroys whatever was in its touchdown path when it leaves.
4 out of 5
It destroys whatever was in its touchdown path when it leaves.
4 out of 5
Dolores : Into Darkness - Greg Egan
A programmer who produces Intake software for Runners.
3 out of 5
3 out of 5
John Nately : Into Darkness - Greg Egan
High-school science teacher and on his eleventh call as a volunteer Intake Runner.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Thursday, March 17, 2011
The Infinite Assassin - Greg Egan
Short Story
Number of words : 5900
Percent of complex words : 10.8
Average syllables per word : 1.5
Average words per sentence : 16.7
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 11.0
Flesch : 60.9
Flesch-Kincaid : 8.9
PEOPLE
Assassin
Tasked with eliminating the producers of S drug-induced whirlpool effects throughout universes.
Blue-haired woman
Offers the assassin assistance in this particular task and universe, but has other motives.
TECHNOLOGY
S
A reality altering drug. "S grants dreamers the power to live vicariously in any parallel world in which they have an alter ego — someone with whom they share enough brain physiology to maintain the parasitic resonance of the link... For one in a hundred thousand, though, dreams are only the beginning. During their third or fourth year on S, they start to move physically from world to world, as they strive to take the place of their chosen alter egos."
Tritium/phosphor
Type of light globe.
ORGANISATIONS
The Company
The assassin's employer.
CONCEPTS
The Whirlpool
Reality shift focus of increasing power caused by mutant S users.
Cantor dust
A fractal set, uncountably infinite, but with measure zero. Assassin is mapped into this by the locals.
Superspace
Higher levels of reality.
PLACES
Leightown
Site of a job for the assassin, and of a whirlpool cult.
Fifth floor Apartment 522
The assassin's S using target lives here.
MEDIA
Fat Single Mothers Must Die
A band.
PLOT
The assassin's job is to put down users of the drug S who develop reality altering superpowers and cause devastating whirlpools that can grow to affect all their infinite lives. These might harm rich people's existence, so he gets called in when wealthy areas are threatened. He has to do this across all the realities they might exist in, in a probabilistic fashion. Chosen as an extremely stable individual, his latest target has help. A whirpool cult there employs their ability to co-ordinate across infinite lives to negate the assassin's skills. This shakes his sense of identity, which he has to rethink at the end.
4.5 out of 5
Number of words : 5900
Percent of complex words : 10.8
Average syllables per word : 1.5
Average words per sentence : 16.7
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 11.0
Flesch : 60.9
Flesch-Kincaid : 8.9
PEOPLE
Assassin
Tasked with eliminating the producers of S drug-induced whirlpool effects throughout universes.
Blue-haired woman
Offers the assassin assistance in this particular task and universe, but has other motives.
TECHNOLOGY
S
A reality altering drug. "S grants dreamers the power to live vicariously in any parallel world in which they have an alter ego — someone with whom they share enough brain physiology to maintain the parasitic resonance of the link... For one in a hundred thousand, though, dreams are only the beginning. During their third or fourth year on S, they start to move physically from world to world, as they strive to take the place of their chosen alter egos."
Tritium/phosphor
Type of light globe.
ORGANISATIONS
The Company
The assassin's employer.
CONCEPTS
The Whirlpool
Reality shift focus of increasing power caused by mutant S users.
Cantor dust
A fractal set, uncountably infinite, but with measure zero. Assassin is mapped into this by the locals.
Superspace
Higher levels of reality.
PLACES
Leightown
Site of a job for the assassin, and of a whirlpool cult.
Fifth floor Apartment 522
The assassin's S using target lives here.
MEDIA
Fat Single Mothers Must Die
A band.
PLOT
The assassin's job is to put down users of the drug S who develop reality altering superpowers and cause devastating whirlpools that can grow to affect all their infinite lives. These might harm rich people's existence, so he gets called in when wealthy areas are threatened. He has to do this across all the realities they might exist in, in a probabilistic fashion. Chosen as an extremely stable individual, his latest target has help. A whirpool cult there employs their ability to co-ordinate across infinite lives to negate the assassin's skills. This shakes his sense of identity, which he has to rethink at the end.
4.5 out of 5
Fifth floor Apartment 522 : The Infinite Assassin - Greg Egan
The assassin's S using target lives here.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Leightown : The Infinite Assassin - Greg Egan
Site of a job for the assassin, and of a whirlpool cult.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Cantor dust : The Infinite Assassin - Greg Egan
A fractal set, uncountably infinite, but with measure zero. Assassin is mapped into this by the locals.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
The Whirlpool : The Infinite Assassin - Greg Egan
Reality shift focus of increasing power caused by mutant S users.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
S : The Infinite Assassin - Greg Egan
A reality altering drug. "S grants dreamers the power to live vicariously in any parallel world in which they have an alter ego — someone with whom they share enough brain physiology to maintain the parasitic resonance of the link... For one in a hundred thousand, though, dreams are only the beginning. During their third or fourth year on S, they start to move physically from world to world, as they strive to take the place of their chosen alter egos."
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Blue-haired woman : The Infinite Assassin - Greg Egan
Offers the assassin assistance in this particular task and universe, but has other motives.
3.5 out of 5
3.5 out of 5
Assassin : The Infinite Assassin - Greg Egan
Tasked with eliminating the producers of S drug-induced whirlpool effects throughout universes.
4 out of 5
4 out of 5
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Gollancz Ebooks - Greg Egan
With Teranesia, finally :-
Incandescence (eBook) December 2010 £7.99
Axiomatic (eBook) December 2010 £7.99
Quarantine (eBook) December 2010 £7.99
Diaspora (eBook) December 2010 £7.99
Distress (eBook) December 2010 £7.99
Luminous (eBook) December 2010 £7.99
Permutation City (eBook) December 2010 £7.99
Teranesia (eBook) December 2010 £7.99
Schild's Ladder (eBook) December 2010 £7.99
Zendegi (eBook) June 2010 £14.99
Oceanic (eBook) September 2009 £12.98
Incandescence (eBook) December 2010 £7.99
Axiomatic (eBook) December 2010 £7.99
Quarantine (eBook) December 2010 £7.99
Diaspora (eBook) December 2010 £7.99
Distress (eBook) December 2010 £7.99
Luminous (eBook) December 2010 £7.99
Permutation City (eBook) December 2010 £7.99
Teranesia (eBook) December 2010 £7.99
Schild's Ladder (eBook) December 2010 £7.99
Zendegi (eBook) June 2010 £14.99
Oceanic (eBook) September 2009 £12.98
Monday, January 31, 2011
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