• Trying New Things

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    I had the opportunity to attend Planet Comicon in Kansas City this weekend, my first such event. For those who don’t know, these events sprang up in just the past ten to fifteen years, originally among people in the comic book industry. They now encompass every aspect of fantasy and science fiction including comic books, video games, movies and television shows.

    A lot of the participants spend days, weeks, or longer developing elaborate character costumes. Halloween taken to the max. I went primarily to see the costumes and to watch the competition. I didn’t expect to get much out of the panel presentations. Boy was I ever wrong.

    There were so many interesting presentations that I found it hard to find time to eat. Two of the sessions focused on the physics behind science fiction, what might work based on real science and what suppositions are pure baloney. Dr. Dan Claes, Department Chair & Professor, HEP Physics & Astronomy, University of Nebraska, gave an artful mathematical demonstration of the physics related to Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice.

    Many of the assumptions behind Superman’s original comic book incarnation are based on valid science. He could leap tall buildings (but not fly) and had superhuman strength. His abilities would be plausible, if highly improbable, based on the assumption that his species was born on a planet with radically higher gravity and a red sun that promoted a different cell structure. The modern versions of both heroes are beyond real science, however.

    Dr. Claes’s second lecture focused on the effects of radiation. Godzilla, giant ants, and other radiation-induced nasties—not plausible. Sorry monster movie buffs. The modern field of genetics offers many more possibilities. Spiderman on the other hand, might be plausible if there were other factors involved such as a rapidly-spreading radioactively altered virus that the spider transmitted.

    All science fiction revolves around stretching science to its limits and trying to project ourselves into a future we can’t see. One of the limits to interplanetary travel is the damaging effect of long-term exposure to cosmic radiation that astronauts would experience. We have nothing that will adequately shield them. So Star Trek—not possible at this point in time. But new elements are discovered or created from time to time, or we may discover a way to counteract the effects, so who knows.

    I am surprised and thrilled that Planet Comicon gave me many insights and inspirations for my future writing. Dr. Claes answered a major question I had for the book I am writing and seeing the alien creations of others helped me clarify how my own characters should look.

    It just goes to show that a writer never knows where he or she will find inspiration. Keep an open mind and keep on trying new things.


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  • Implementing The Prime Directive

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    It has often been said that “life imitates art.” That is no less true in science fiction than it is in any other form of art. Developments in science are often spurred by the creative mind of a Leonardo da Vinci, Jules Verne or Isaac Asimov.

    Star Trek introduced the concept of the “prime directive,” the rule that space-faring species were not allowed to interfere with the development of life on the planets they discovered. How close are we to encountering that reality? Closer than you might think.

    On May 10, a group of NASA scientists announced in The Astrophysical Journal that they have confirmed the existence of 2,325 planets beyond our solar system. Of those, 550 are earth-sized planets, and nine of those orbit their suns in the “habitable zone,” the distance that makes it plausible for them to contain liquid water, considered the most important element in the generation of life. And that’s just life as we know it (from earthsky.com, May 12, 2016). All of those were discovered by the Kepler telescope in one tiny area of the Milky Way.

    “I think we’re going to have strong indications of life beyond Earth within a decade, and I think we’re going to have definitive evidence within 20 to 30 years.” (NASA chief scientist Ellen Stofan, and quoted by Mike Wall, Senior Writer, Space.com.)

    We may not have to go beyond our own solar system. Mars has topographical features that hint that it had liquid water at some time in the past, or may have occasional flows from melting ice even now. Could there be surviving subterranean microbial life? At least two of the largest moons of Jupiter also have signs of water, and scientist are exploring the possibility that they might have liquid oceans below their icy surfaces.

    Scientists are beginning to debate the necessity for a “prime directive.” How should alien planets and alien life be treated? Do we have the right to terraform a habitable planet or moon, possibly destroying indigenous microbes? What if those microbes are the forerunners of sentient life? Given the deplorable job we’ve done of protecting and nurturing the wealth of resources on our own planet, do we have the right to muck up some other planet’s future?

    One of the aspects of science fiction I like best is it’s ability to force us to face moral issues that society would prefer to ignore. Star Trek challenged racial discrimination in several episodes. Now science fiction is forcing us to face the moral issue of how we should treat alien life, even microbial life. Time to implement the “prime directive” before it is too late.


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  • Learning To Fly Free

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    Quote of the day: Feeling a few butterflies is the beginning of any great new adventure. Matthew “Kaboomis’Loomis, author, buildyourownblog.com

    Welcome to my very first ever blog post! I have been planning this for probably five months or more, but taking the plunge and actually doing it terrified me. I created an entire shopping list of excuses for postponing creation of the blog, but underlying them all was fear.

    This week I took the first real step: I set an appointment with my son to help me set up the physical website. That gave me a deadline. I still almost chickened out. While he was sitting beside me waiting for me to tell him what I wanted, I went surfing, claiming I needed to know a little more about what was involved so I would be able to understand what he was recommending to me. In my Internet travels I came across Mr. Loomis’s site, where he leads you step by step through creating a blog. You actually create it as you go through his steps.

    I confess I only got through step 2 on his website, because I got excited and actually started! Of course, the first thing that happened was that I wanted a layout that was far more complex than the basic templates, so my son had to do quite a bit of work on it after all. But I took the plunge!

    We all deal with fear when starting on a new quest. But if you allow the fear to conquer you, you will never move forward, never accomplish anything. Failure is a step in learning. When I joined Mid South Writers Group nearly ten years ago, I really had no intention of writing a book. I was intrigued, though. A story had been floating around in my head for years before that, but putting it to paper? Probably not for me.

    Of course, my writers group had no intention of letting me off so easily. And so, soon I was writing it down. And learning the things I was doing wrong. But with work, failures turned into success, and now my first book is scheduled for publication early in 2017.

    So embrace the fear, stare it down, defeat it.


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