Panel Notes: Science
Contents:
Biological or Mechanical Future?
Planet Building from the Core Up
Life on a Space Station: Physical Aspects
Technology and Disability in Science Fiction
Recycling Universes (WindyCon 2003)
Original idea of closed universe required certain amount of mass to recycle: ours doesn’t have enough (even with dark matter?)
Two years ago, a new theory of a recycling universe came out involving string theory and extra dimensions on “compactified” level
Periodic boundary condition—particles have to have right wavelength to go around the loop—may explain why particles have the properties they do
All four forces can be explained this way by including enough dimensions
Some particles are confined to certain dimensions or “branes”
Alternative to Big Bang Theory: two branes, one with negative energy, clap, dump energy, and separate—causes brane to expand and form universe
Doesn’t require a singularity at the beginning of the universe
Dark energy resides in extradimensional space between branes
Matter in other branes may be dark matter
Time runs backward in the other brane
As universe ages, black holes evaporated via Hawking radiation, other matter degrades to electrons, positrons, and light (in old view of universe)
With brane theory, the two universes are pulled back together and the laws of physics change (the forces have different strengths) – life would cease to exist
The branes clap again, and the universe starts over
Currently, we can’t test to determine if Big Bang theory or clapping brane theory is correct—brane joins the BB theory very early
BB predicts formation of gravity ways—one way to distinguish the two theories
Force strength—strong force, weak force, electromagnetic, gravity
Why is gravity so weak? Some people think gravity spreads out in extra dimensions we can’t detect it
Simulated sound of first 700,000 years of universe—sounds like an airplane flying overhead, frequencies get lower, cosmic background radiation sounds like rain falling overhead
Warp Drives and Wormholes (WindyCon 2003)
General relativity contains the structure of wormholes in its mathematics
Can you send messages faster than light (or backwards in time)?
Wormholes dynamically unstable (considered that way for 20 years)
Carl Sagan and Contact –Wheeler and Morris discovered a way to stabilize wormhole (negative energy in mouth of wormhole—Casmir (sp?) plates can be used to create negative energy—need planet-sized amount of energy
Can use wormhole as time machine—one end fixed in space, the other moved relativistically so time slows down
Can FTL (faster than light) really be done?
Quantum entanglement—change to one particle instantaneously affects another one that it was once connected with, no matter how far apart they are
Quantum nonlocality—entanglements can even reach backwards in time
Everhart’s Theorem proves that you can’t send information this way
Linearity—Two separated pieces can’t have “crosstalk” between them
Is there a small amount of nonlinearity present in quantum mechanics?
(If there is, it might allow communication of information)
Can send messages between one alternate universe and another (or between past and future)
Might be nonlinearity at subatomic level
Need to consider fundamental questions of physics
For example, why do objects have inertia?
Could the Big Bang have been caused by something that happened after it? (eg, backward causality)
There could be other undiscovered forces that makes the laws of physics that we know
Can laws of physics (eg, gravity) have changed over the age of the universe?
No fifth force of physics
Two things in universe: mind and information
Physics can’t address theory of mind
Collapse waveforms by making definite measurement (involves mind)
Big problems get solved by introduction of new idea
Any new information about wormholes?
Black holes have “arrow of time” built into them
Can you make black hole and white hole at same time?
Metric created in which space is destroyed in front of a spaceship and destroyed behind it in bubble—allows FTL (faster than light)—no acceleration or time dilation in middle of “bubble”
Unable to navigate from within bubble (no communication or causality outside of bubble)
Two theories that seem contradictory may be mathematically equivalent
How do universes form?
Can universes be black holes?
If universes form from black holes, and if black holes are formed from stars, then universes that create a lot of stars will form more daughter universes—allows for evolution of universes and their laws
Intelligent life may also figure out how to create other universes
The Well-Rounded Large Planet (WindyCon 2003)
Early SF (and Star Trek and Star Wars) showed planets as a single type of climate (eg, desert planet, water planet) and one or two stereotyped cultures
Norton was one of the first to show women in SF and to use differences in cultures to enrich a story
Current trend is to get past stereotypes and add diversity to story
Even in very small cultures, there can still be differences in religions, economics, etc.—sources of conflicts
Most people tend to identify with people they see as like themselves
May be easier for minority to write about majority than vice versa (oppressed group has greater need to understand majority)
Easier to write about monoculture than to include diversity
Worlds aren’t one thing—parts of world will be more or less hospitable to life
Can only scratch surface of culture in story or novel
Mix up characters—don’t make them all white men (unless you have a reason to give your characters a common trait)
Look at how characteristics affect characters—eg., a Jewish man may oppose a German
People write what they know (eg., young writers write about teenagers, older ones may include other generations)
Parent-child conflict in background (and sibling rivalry) included in LOTR (Lord of the Rings)
Books are much longer now than they were 30 years ago (reflects a paper shortage in WWII)
US is an insular country
Communication has made it harder to look at other people as “nonpeople”
Pulp writers were generally bad ones and required a stronger hand from editor
Net has made it harder to be insular
Can’t make aliens too “alien,” otherwise we can’t understand them
Aliens may be interpreted by other humans
Setting should have something to do with what happens in story
Life-supporting worlds tend to be diverse
Biological or Mechanical Future? (WindyCon 2003)
Future will be both biological and mechanical
RFID—technology (chip) that can be placed on goods for warranty
May also be used for implants (lowjack—can track location)
Future includes cloned organs from stem cells (no ethical problems, since they don’t come from fetuses or clones)—will probably replace mechanical parts
We live in a science fiction world
We may neither know or care if something is biological
Biological things can take care of themselves (to a point), but mechanical things require maintenance
Any biological intervention can have a lethal effect on someone
May also depend on politics
Monkeys have learn to use thought to move mechanical arm (gained “third” mechanical arm)
People who are rich enough may be able to have themselves augmented (possibly as early as 2010-2020)
May create gap between rich and poor (also depends on if the health system can provide it)
Who will volunteer for experimentation, particularly for genetic engineering of unborn children?
People will fix their DNA and optimize it
Everything will become the parents’ choice—can choose from catalog
Planet Building from the Core Up (WindyCon 2003)
Use basic facts and common sense: Water flows downhill, mountains come in ranges, inland seas need outlet, (Caspian Sea—water evaporates, leaving behind very salty water), Jupiter’s moons don’t line up and cause earthquakes on Ganymede
Need to consider implications of settings
Planet should have good magnetic core to block out solar particles (?)
Consider size—gravity constant
Distance from sun–how much sunlight falls on planet
Composition—affected by asteroid and comet impacts (metals, ices)
Rotation rate—length of day
Is our planet anomalous? (Has more heavy metals than expected)
If water is deep enough on a planet that keeps one side to its sun, it won’t freeze on the cold side
People’s cultures will be controlled by biological factors
Over 100 planetary systems known that don’t fit the Earth panel (more like Jupiter)
(Our sampling system is biased towards finding planets big enough to cause wobble in sun’s movement)
Is science fiction a genre of setting?
Mountains can provide a wide range of climates (tropical to artic)
Plate tectonics necessary for making quartz (so need plate tectonics to create white sandy beaches)
Twins: Natural Clones? (WindyCon 2003)
Twins correlate in many ways
Many traits are about 50% genetic, including intelligence, tendency of smoking (and which brand)
Twins about 0.0033% of population
Some people think twins are interchangeable
People view clones as unnatural and evil
Twins can also be quite different from each other (could depend on experiences before birth, such as having different placentas or ammoniatic sacs)
Other sets of twins develop complementary personalities
Can be independent when separate, but can develop gestalt personality when together
May develop unique language when very young
May be mirror twins, with different handedness, different hair whorls, and mirror features
Twins have similar but not identical fingerprints and retinal prints
Left-handed twins are often the second-born (possible link to oxygen deprivation?)
On cold worlds, liquid ammonia might substitute for water
Aliens would breathe methane? give off solid water as waste
Would aliens notice or want to interact with humans?
To be a good predator, you must understand your prey
Do you need to be aggressive to become a dominant species, or simply reproduce very quickly?
Some species of bird and mammals go around in multispecies groups, with each species occupying a different niche
Current State of Science (WindyCon 2003)
Most scientists are scientific technicians (not studying truth/falsity of a specific hypothesis)
Major questions: origin of life, life on Mars, where did life originate?
If there was life on Mars, did it originate separately from us, or did life start on Mars and move to Earth?
Does all life have to be like that on Earth?
Need to send humans to Mars to answer some of these questions
What we don’t understand in physics:
Dark matter/dark energy—75% dark energy, only 5% of all matter is “normal”
Standard model of physics—where did variables come from?
Gamma ray bursts—where do they come from?
Cosmic rays—some have very high energy—why?
Solar neutrino—1/3 as many as expected—solved—mass change—neutrinos shift into different types with different interactions
Matter/antimatter asymmetry—slight excess of matter—how did that happen? Is there an antimatter globule over 100M parsecs away?
Arrow of time—why can you go from past to future, but not future to past? (law of causality)
New questions popping up all the time
Where will we get the energy we need in the future?
“Night sky” questions—why are we here?
Need to go to Mars
SETI—looking in wrong places?
Multiverse—how much can you change fundamental constants and still have life?
Scientific world asks narrow questions (insufficient funding and thinking about interdisciplinary questions)
Extend Hubble telescope’s mission as long as possible
Government funding plays a big role in what projects are worked on
Electron-positron colliders being proposed
Does scientific theory give scientists more control over natural world than others have?
Life on a Space Station: Physical Aspects (WindyCon 2003)
Space stations are space ships that don’t go anywhere
Don’t want to keep astronauts in zero-g all the time
Humans are needed on planets, not in space
Need closed life support system (currently only 9% closed)
NASA needs goal to go somewhere in order to accomplish something
Three different visions of space mission:
To go to Mars (most interesting planet)
To go to moon (close by, interesting science)
To go to asteroids (economic reasons)
Use material from moon or asteroids to keep cost down
Space debris is a major problem
Historical parallel—need superior military power, subdue, enslave, exploit, or usurp native life, then leave place in shambles after using up all the resources
SF paradigm tends to be more like Robinson Crusoe: marooned group on alien planet builds colony from “nuts and bolts”
Would small group have chance of surviving? Would need lot of resources to keep mortality rate low
Economics forbid mother planet from constantly supplying colony; would need to take seed, tools, livestock (frozen embryos), computer records to teach you how to make things/cannibalize ship
Like pioneers on to the New World
Need very skilled people who know survival skills
Need soil that Earth plants can grow in
Need engineers: bioengineers, geoengineers, etc.
Chances of finding Earth-like planet very low
Technology depends on other types of technology to work (e.g., source of power, spare parts), may have limited lifetime
Colonists will have to switch to different level of technology
Some technologies require lots of people in order to be made (e.g., it took 200 people to support one knight)
Will ecosystem adapt to human beings, or will it become parasitic?
Use prisoners, religious rejects, “crazed cult,” “adventurous challenge types,” (can only send few of these)
Children and grandchildren will have lower standard of living
Can generate power with hydroelectric, wind mills, etc.
Need women as child-bearers—women would have power, but would also put them in limited (traditional) role
Do you need men? Why not just take sperm?
SF writers focus more on creative/social aspect of colonies than how to create practical, viable colony (writers may also focus on creating new type of world/harsh world)
Colonists may have one idea for colony but change when they arrive at colony
Why do you want to start colony?
Exploit resources – but economics would make that implausible unless resource was light and valuable
Colony as waystation
Colony as “dumping ground” for people
Colony to save humanity (lifeboat)
Manifest destiny
Religious reason
Expulsion of undesirables
Adventure (but incompatible with settler mode)
Need human story behind colony
May send extended families
May go to colony to fulfill romantic ideal (go back to living like the ancestors)
Can “hookwink” people to get them to go
Would need interstellar society to justify a prison colony (otherwise a slow death for prisoners)
Economics of transporting people may make colonizing seem dubious
(need something to make it economically sensible)
Colonizing with a few thousand or even a million people won’t help overpopulation
Writer has to justify why the colony exists in the first place
(may create colony to further other concept)
Only allowed one major coincidence per story (or they all have to be linked)
More likely to Terraform planet than finding other Earth-like planet
(Terraforming would start in own solar system)
nanotechnology used like magic
Life terraformed Earth to add oxygen to atmosphere
Colony part of humans’ desire to live elsewhere
Desire to write about exotic environments
Can colonize “other timeline”
How would factors like season length, daylength, moon, etc, affect colony?
Colony development would be “speeded up” compared to our history
Could build colony in space (L5 system), but how would you put ecosystem inside?
Would colonize space to get to other planet
Probable that American military stations will be on moon, Mars, or in space in our lifetime
Space colony could be like generation ship
Would need to tap into natural resources (mine for metal, gather wood and fuel)
We’ve tapped all the easy supplies, may only get one chance to develop civilization (later ones wouldn’t be able to access supplies easily)
Corporations would obtain rights to planet, then send out prospectors (possibility for colony later)
Accidental colony—something started with different purpose evolves into ecology
Will need to mine asteroids for resources
Space elevators would make mining asteroids more feasible
Relations with “mother planet” would depend on how close planets are
People who move there will think of themselves as coming from Earth; the people who grew up there will think of it as their own place
People will have different references
Colonies are part of American mythos (so is American Revolution)
American and Soviet SF is similar to each other (both had revolutions)
Suggested books: The Mote in God’s Eye; A Case of Conscience; Conscience of the Beagle;
Keep “genetic library”
Where will we be in 2023? (WisCon 29—2005)
Will everyone have computers, or will some areas be left behind?
Overdue for flu pandemic
Environmental degradation?
Food shortage—eating off of stockpile
Need to reallocate resources and change human behavior
Politics—promise people social values for election, but remove social structures and economic support
Losing privacy
We have the technology to eliminate starvation, but it exists because of politics (N. Korea)
Demonstrations in South American countries (Americans aren’t)
10 years away from projected peak world population , but then population will level off
increasing education level of women decreases number of children they have
problems can be solved if people think about them carefully
may need to change crops to adjust to changing climate
need to deal with aging population
nature can throw disasters at us (volcano, tsunami) that may be local but have global effect
modern farming all about monocrops, but need to have variety of crops to keep environment healthy
can we change quickly enough?
Is it already too late?
The small things that could help us aren’t cost-effective
No future in space? (too expensive)
Will country shift to right?
Will women lose their rights?
Many of these problems (such as accuracy in voting) have been around for a very long time, and new technology can address these problems
History goes in cycles but gets better over time: we may be in the center of a trough
Do societies recognize the signs that collapse is imminent?
(can’t face situation, denial, turning to religion?)
need ability to laugh at yourself
Technology and Disability in Science Fiction (WisCon 30—2006)
How realistic are power devices for prostheses in SF? (not very)
What is a handicap?
You need different abilities in different circumstances
People still don’t let the blind do too much or try to hold them back
Science fiction provides readers with disabled characters
Can make up technology to compensate for characters’ handicap
Stories require a limitation to be overcome
Technology is more interesting when it has limitations or gives character nonnormal senses
Consider cost of technology and time required to adapt to technology (tech doesn’t always work the way they thought it would)
Economics and social consequences aren’t always considered
It will be a long time before we can “crack” the optic nerve
90% of prostheses are funded by military
Disabled characters leave Star Trek at the end of the episodes
We don’t know enough about nanotech to know what it’s capable of (more like magic at this stage, not ready in our lifetimes)
Lower-class people may sell themselves for body parts
Certain classes of disabled people (like the deaf) consider themselves superior to others because they use a different language and feel threatened by technology that compensates for the disability
Discriminating against the disabled via genetics can be a slippery slope (what then is a disability?)
An accident can happen to anyone
Copyright 2003-2006 Sandra M. Ulbrich