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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 9/07/90 -- Vol. 9, No. 10
MEETINGS UPCOMING:
Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are on Wednesdays at noon.
LZ meetings are in LZ 2R-158. MT meetings are in the cafeteria.
_D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C
09/12 LZ: STAR MAKER by Olaf Stapledon (Formative Influences)
10/03 LZ: MICROMEGAS by Voltaire (Philosophy)
10/24 LZ: THE WORM OUROBOROS by E. R. Eddison (Classic Horror)
11/07 MT: WANDERING STARS ed. by Jack Dann (Jewish Science Fiction)
11/14 LZ: WAR WITH THE NEWTS by Karel Capek (Foreign SF)
_D_A_T_E _E_X_T_E_R_N_A_L _M_E_E_T_I_N_G_S/_C_O_N_V_E_N_T_I_O_N_S/_E_T_C.
09/08 NJSFS: New Jersey Science Fiction Society: TBA
(phone 201-432-5965 for details) (Saturday)
09/15 SFABC: Science Fiction Association of Bergen County: TBA
(phone 201-933-2724 for details) (Saturday)
HO Chair: John Jetzt HO 1E-525 834-1563 hocpa!jetzt
LZ Chair: Rob Mitchell LZ 1B-306 576-6106 mtuxo!jrrt
MT Chair: Mark Leeper MT 3D-441 957-5619 mtgzx!leeper
HO Librarian: Tim Schroeder HO 3E-301 949-4488 hotld!tps
LZ Librarian: Lance Larsen LZ 3L-312 576-3346 mtunq!lfl
MT Librarian: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-329 957-2070 mtgzy!ecl
Factotum: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-329 957-2070 mtgzy!ecl
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.
1. Of the book to be discussed in Lincroft next week, Mark says
this:
One of the most unique and original minds in science fiction was
W. Olaf Stapledon. Writing in (probable) ignorance that there even
was such a thing as science fiction, he wrote essay-like novels
about the future of humanity and of the universe with vaulting
imagination. Galaxies really are like grains of sand (to
paraphrase Brian Aldiss) in Stapledon's novels. Stapledon wrote
about what happens to a civilization over a billion years the way
other authors write about a single character in an afternoon. _L_a_s_t
_a_n_d _F_i_r_s_t _M_e_n is his future history of mankind over the next two
THE MT VOID Page 2
billion years. _S_t_a_r_m_a_k_e_r is written on a scale that beggers even
_L_a_s_t _a_n_d _F_i_r_s_t _M_e_n. A traveler in both time and space surveys
nothing less than all life in the universe over all of time. The
civilizations of an entire galaxy can be reduced to a minor
character. Yet Stapledon finds universal principles that apply as
if he is talking about countries in Europe. _S_t_a_r_m_a_k_e_r is both
exhilarating and intelligent.
2. FUTUREWATCH:
Right here in the science fiction notice we can see in microcosm
the sort of revolution that is taking hold of computing in general.
We offer the MT VOID in two flavors. You can get it either on-line
or you can get a paper copy. Now if the trend toward the paperless
office were real, you would think people would flock to getting the
on-line version, but that is really not the case. People seem to
sense that the right version of the notice is on sheets of paper.
And why? Because they know intuitively that the on-line version is
one more step removed from what computing is _r_e_a_l_l_y all about. And
what is that? I think we all know. Computing is about boxes of
cards. And many leading computer scientists now say they knew it
all along.
It is true that the television generation had its temporary
flirtation with cathode-ray tube representations of card images.
(and after all, what is a disk file but a television representation
of a stack of cards?) But secretly in the back rooms of America's
major universities and research companies, top computer scientists
are returning to the safe, dependable, reassuring technology of
punched cards and keypunches.
The keypunches of the future, of course, will not be the clunkers
many of us are used to, but sleek, ecology-minded, steam-driven
keypunches that do not rely on electrical power. Dr. Melodij
Ardenelesti of Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, told our reporter
that every developer at Murray Hill could be serviced by steam-
driven keypunches powered by only five of the powerful new two-
story boilers placed in strategic locations around the building.
They can even be powered by burning printouts. The problems are
not insurmountable, Ardenelesti told us. "Input media may be only
the beginning. By the year 2035 entire computer centers may be
running on steam power. Among the advantages, steam computing
eliminates the need for expensive air conditioning. It is a well-
understood technology. In the future, powering up your PC at home
may be as simple as putting a tea kettle on the stove is today.
But first we need to get the keypunches working." Major
challenges? Most current steam keypunches cause the cards produced
to "wilt" and one site reports problems with mildew.
If, indeed, there is a marriage of the new steam computing
technology with a return to punched cards, there are many
advantages that have been cited:
THE MT VOID Page 3
- Card decks lead to better programming. Currently many
programmers write long, inefficient programs. A major cause
is that they just cannot get a very good feel for the size of
their programs when they see only a small piece at a time on a
CRT. Dealing with card decks helps keep a developer more "in
touch" with the program. It also contributes to physical
fitness.
- Card decks lend themselves very easily to multi-media
applications, as notes and comments may be hand-written on
computer cards.
- Card decks provide greater security and are much harder to
pirate than are disk files. A piece of foreign code such as a
worm or a virus is much harder to introduce since one must be
physically present to stuff it in a deck. Using different
colored cards, with the color of a deck chosen at random,
further frustrates would-be hackers.
- The safety of CRTs has been called into question in the last
few years, but card and paper technology have to date never
been questioned.
But leading computer scientists, off the record, list another
virtue that is harder to quantify. There is a certain tactile
pleasure in your hand a program, with its own characteristic weight
and heft based on the size of the program. As one IBM computer
scientist told us, "There was a need and this thing in my hand
fulfills that need. It is not made up of electron positions that
other equipment tells us about. It is here, self-contained in my
hand. It is a sort of existential satisfaction that was present in
earlier days of computing and we are looking forward to its
return." Several cutting-edge technology companies are betting
that feeling will become more common.
Mark Leeper
MT 3D-441 957-5619
...mtgzx!leeper
Fear of serious injury alone cannot justify oppression
of free speech and assembly. Men feared witches and
burnt women. It is the function of speech to free men
from the bondage of irrational fears.
-- Louis D. Brandeis
THE OXYGEN BARONS by Gregory Feeley
Ace, 1990, ISBN 0-441-64571-2, $3.95.
A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
Copyright 1990 Evelyn C. Leeper
If the subtitle to _T_h_e _S_e_c_r_e_t _A_s_c_e_n_s_i_o_n is "Philip K. Dick Is Dead,
Alas," then the subtitle to the Ace Science Fiction Specials should
probably be "Terry Carr Is Dead, Alas." Under his guidance, the
original series produced recognized classics too numerous to be listed
here; the current series showcased such works as _N_e_u_r_o_m_a_n_c_e_r and _G_r_e_e_n
_E_y_e_s. In contrast, of the 1975-1976 series, which was not edited by
him, the only memorable two are Lem's _T_h_e _I_n_v_i_n_c_i_b_l_e and Shaw's
_O_r_b_i_t_s_v_i_l_l_e. And now that the current series has passed from his hands,
the quality seems to have fallen off considerably. I have no desire to
be harsh on Damon Knight, who has taken on the unenviable task of
following Carr, but Knight's talents in editing seem to run to the
shorter works--his "Orbit" books are excellent--rather than to the
novel-length.
As you may have guessed from these prefatory comments, I did not
like _T_h_e _O_x_y_g_e_n _B_a_r_o_n_s. Perhaps more to the point in a review, I
thought it needed some editing--perhaps parts were deliberately obscure,
but I found myself frequently groping for something beyond the elements
of Heinlein and military action novel that formed the primary layer.
The basis for the plot--various groups struggling to control oxygen on
the moon--is not exactly new to science fiction, though the
nanotechological elements are of more recent vintage than, say, _T_h_e _M_o_o_n
_I_s _a _H_a_r_s_h _M_i_s_t_r_e_s_s
I can't be entirely negative on _T_h_e _O_x_y_g_e_n _B_a_r_o_n_s. It is the sort
of hard-science novel that many people seem to be crying for these days,
and for that reason many people will be drawn to it. It is not _b_a_d_l_y
written, and Feeley shows promise. I just wish it had had the benefit
of Carr's editing skills.