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<p>DaveW -</p>
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<div style="font-family:Arial;">Highly recommend John Brunner's <i>The
Sheep Look Up</i> for fans of ecological disaster.<br>
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<div style="font-family:Arial;">davew<br>
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Well offered. <br>
<p>When I first read <i>Sheep</i> (in the same era it was
published?) it was too pessimistic for my young, naive, cynical
but optimistic tastes. I was lead there by his Stand on Zanzibar
(69), more for his stylistic approach of interleaving news
headlines of over-the-top socio-environmental disasterlets with
the everyday lives of day-after-tomorrow average peoples... than
the apocalyptic import. <br>
</p>
<p> In fact, Zanzibar represented such a long, slow
slide/tumble/spinout compared to the threats of my childhood
(nuclear war, asteroidal impact, burning rivers) that it fed
(created?) my own morbid fascination with a future that (maybe)
*I* could be flexible enough to navigate while the previous
generation (elderBoomers and LostGen and GreatestGen) would fail
or flail with those changes. Now, of course, I "am one" and
doubt I will be flexible enough, though I might be lucky enough to
die of something much more mundane than environmental/social
collapse.<br>
</p>
<p>I was not aware until just now (reading up on Brunner in
Wikipedia) that <i>Zanzibar</i>, <i>Sheep</i> and two others (<i>Jagged
Orbit</i>, <i>Shockwave Rider</i>) constituted what came to be
called his "<i>Club of Rome Quartet</i>" named after the very real
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Club_of_Rome">Club of Rome</a>.
Merle's 2019 meeting in Stockholm lead me to revisit the systems
dynamic models that grew up out of <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth">Limits
to Growth</a> study commissioned by the Club of Rome. <br>
</p>
<p>Much of Brunner's work now reads to me (or in reflection of my
first read) like proto-cyberpunk. They were day-after-tomorrow
(decade after next?) stories which have proven to have presaged a
great deal of what in fact has come at us over the horizon. <i>Shockwave
Rider</i> really fit that niche for me and set me up to
appreciate Gibson's work (e.g. <i>Neuromancer/Mona Lisa
Overdrive/Johnny Mnemonic</i>, etc) when it was published in the
early 80s. <br>
</p>
<p>The <i>Infinitive of Go</i> nicely tied multiverse conceptions
into the then-rebudding (pun recognized?) field of bifurcation
theory (coined by Poincare nearly 100 years previous). Brunner's
relatively flat characters and pat plots convolved with his very
astute scientific-technical-sociopolitical insights made him a bit
of a hybrid or bridge creature between the classic golden agers
and the modernist hard-sf writers. <br>
</p>
<p>Like many things these days, I'm finding I appreciate him more
and more through the lens-system of 50+ years of hindsight. I
didn't invite the Rainbow Family to "camp on my lawn" this year,
but I *am* a lot more sympathetic with that kind of energy than I
(even) did when I was young enough to engage in that kind of
freewheeling activity. <br>
</p>
<p>I feel like Dave and I have bent this thread all the way back
around the Nick's original "Psychonauts"?</p>
<p>It's spirals all the way down?</p>
<p>- Steve<br>
</p>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:f6955be0-917e-4d7e-b859-fd20fa915678@www.fastmail.com">
<div style="font-family:Arial;"><br>
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<div style="font-family:Arial;"><br>
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<div>On Fri, Aug 6, 2021, at 8:28 PM, Steve Smith wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite" id="qt" style="">
<p>... unbending the psychonaut thread<br>
</p>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:BAFEC2EA-6F08-48CA-8168-7F8F34262271@snoutfarm.com">And
something will have to power the artificial magnetosphere
after the teraforming..<br>
</blockquote>
<p>... as I understand it, Mars lost it's magnetosphere a (long)
while back and nobody knows why (with the atmosphere and
liquid water following, blown off into space by the solar
wind). <br>
</p>
<p>I think we should just wait another millisecond in our
exponential technological growth curve and build a <a
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olaf_Stapledon"
moz-do-not-send="true">Stapledon Sphere</a> (more commonly
referenced as a Dyson Sphere) instead. Stapledon's Golden
Age era <u><i>First and Last Men</i></u> presaged both
terraforming and genetic engineering . <br>
</p>
<p>Jack Williamson (whose horn I toot here often), another
Golden Age author, wrote (in modernish times - 2001) the novel
Terraforming Earth (he died at 98 in 2006). A good friend of
mine (who introduced us) met Jack when he (my friend) was a
pre-teen and kept in touch for the next 50+ years, gave him
the title "Terraforming Terra" which Jack really liked but
they both were ultimately overruled by his publisher. <i>Terraforming
Terra </i>is much more poetic than <i>Terraforming Earth</i>,
no?<br>
</p>
<p>(speaking of Terraforming... Mars) I held off reading Kim
Stanley Robinson's Red/Green/Blue Mars trilogy (ca early 90s)
until Musk started being convincing (to me) that he might get
a modest number of humans TO Mars in his (and my?) lifetime.
I'm still an ffFFFing luddite about these things, but I also
see an inevitable arc here. Robinson did a good job (I
thought) of characterizing the sociopoliticalspiritual
implications of all this. I forget how he solved the
magnetosphere problem (or powered it).<br>
</p>
<p>For anyone who thinks there are endogenous existential
threats afoot (e.g. climate change) and also appreciates
speculative fiction, I highly recommend Robinson's <a
href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50998056-the-ministry-for-the-future"
moz-do-not-send="true">Ministry-for-the-Future</a>
written/published before COVID but not by much. While it
doesn't exhaustively discuss every
sociopoliticaleconomictechnical response to a tumbled gyro of
our noo-bio-cryo-sphere of a planet, it covers a lot very
convincingly. I don't suggest any of his maunderings will
come true or even have more than passing resemblance to the
future we are stumbling into in the next few decades, but it
was satisfying to read someone who has clearly researched the
hell out of the stuff coming at us like a swarm of bugs
hitting our windshield (while we proudly outdrive our
headlights).<br>
</p>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:BAFEC2EA-6F08-48CA-8168-7F8F34262271@snoutfarm.com">
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<div><br>
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<blockquote type="cite">
<div>On Aug 6, 2021, at 4:52 PM, Steve Smith <a
class="qt-moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"
href="mailto:sasmyth@swcp.com" moz-do-not-send="true"><sasmyth@swcp.com></a>
wrote:<br>
</div>
<div> <br>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">
<div> Marcus Daniels wrote:<br>
</div>
<div> <br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:BYAPR11MB3830966761AAA379FE0C0F76C5F39@BYAPR11MB3830.namprd11.prod.outlook.com">
<pre class="qt-moz-quote-pre">Don't forget about Mars!
</pre>
</blockquote>
<div><br>
</div>
<p>LANL physicist Steve Howe was a proponent of <a
href="https://www.lanl.gov/science/NSS/issue1_2011/story4full.shtml"
moz-do-not-send="true"> plowsharing Rover</a> into a
nuclear rocket for Mars with the argument that the
radiation exposure to astronauts by the drive was less
than the extra time spent outside the earth's magnetic
field (charged-particle shield) in the cosmic/solar
radiation flux.<br>
</p>
<p>He went on to promoting antimatter (anti-protons)
instead:<br>
</p>
<p> <a class="qt-moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2020/06/steven-howe-breakthroughs-for-antimatter-production-and-storage.html"
moz-do-not-send="true">
https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2020/06/steven-howe-breakthroughs-for-antimatter-production-and-storage.html</a><br>
</p>
<p>Oh yeh, and he's the first person I know to have
self-published (science) fiction through Amazon (before
Doug Roberts even). <br>
</p>
<p>He used to carry a briefcase full of copies on his
work-travels to sell on the plane and/or restock the
rack at the ABQ Sunport. I Just checked his Amazon
page and it seems he's continued to riff:<br>
</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a
href="https://www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/entity/author/B005L9MAL2?_encoding=UTF8&node=283155&offset=0&pageSize=12&searchAlias=stripbooks&sort=author-sidecar-rank&page=1&langFilter=default#formatSelectorHeader"
moz-do-not-send="true">Steven-Howe</a><br>
</p>
</blockquote>
<p>His first book exposes his techno-libertarian
tendencies. I just learned of the sequel(s).<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:BYAPR11MB3830966761AAA379FE0C0F76C5F39@BYAPR11MB3830.namprd11.prod.outlook.com">
<pre class="qt-moz-quote-pre">-----Original Message-----
From: Friam <a class="qt-moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:friam-bounces@redfish.com" moz-do-not-send="true"><friam-bounces@redfish.com></a> On Behalf Of <a class="qt-moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:thompnickson2@gmail.com" moz-do-not-send="true">thompnickson2@gmail.com</a>
Sent: Friday, August 6, 2021 8:24 AM
To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group' <a class="qt-moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:friam@redfish.com" moz-do-not-send="true"><friam@redfish.com></a>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] for our psychonauts
Reminds me of that period in which people were desperately looking for something to do with nuclear explosives other than kill one another. Like: "Let's blow a new hole in the Isthmus of Panama!" Project Plowshares, it was called.
Nick Thompson
<a class="qt-moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:ThompNickSon2@gmail.com" moz-do-not-send="true">ThompNickSon2@gmail.com</a>
<a class="qt-moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/" moz-do-not-send="true">https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/</a>
-----Original Message-----
From: Friam <a class="qt-moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:friam-bounces@redfish.com" moz-do-not-send="true"><friam-bounces@redfish.com></a> On Behalf Of u?l? ?>$
Sent: Friday, August 6, 2021 10:57 AM
To: FriAM <a class="qt-moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:friam@redfish.com" moz-do-not-send="true"><friam@redfish.com></a>
Subject: [FRIAM] for our psychonauts
What Should We Make Of Sasha Chapin's Claim That Taking LSD Restored His Sense Of Smell After COVID?
<a class="qt-moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/what-should-we-make-of-sasha-chapins" moz-do-not-send="true">https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/what-should-we-make-of-sasha-chapins</a>
I haven't read it, yet. I'm hoping posting it here will remind me to actually read it.
--
☤>$ uǝlƃ
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