Quicksilver

I’ve just finished Quicksilver, Book 1 of Neal Stephenson’s The Baroque Cycle. This requires clarification. I have not finished the collection which was published as Quicksilver that contains three novels (Quicksilver, The King of the Vagabonds, and Odalisque) but only the first of these three.

Thus far it would appear that The Baroque Cycle is significantly less action packed than most of Stephenson’s work, including the interminably long Anathem. This is in no way a criticism of Stephenson, from my perspective. Perhaps this is largely my opinion only because the first of Stephenson’s books I ever read was Snow Crash, which has very little to do with anything else he has written. It was originally intended to be a graphic novel and it reads like one, only with words. I’ve misplaced or loaned out my copy and will soon endeavor to replace it, probably digitally. This will further mix my collection of Stephenson- I own Crytonomicon in paperback, have only borrowed the hard cover Anathem from the library (and since returned it upon finishing) and will have the entire Baroque Cycle on Kindle shortly.

Back to the book; with Stephenson a lack of action is perfectly acceptable for the regions in which he most excels involve character and world building. Mostly world building, because his characters evolve believably largely as a consequence of this. One thing many other readers don’t much like about Stephenson is his tendency to explain things. When you finish Cryptonomicon, you will have learned a surprising amount about basic cryptography. Having finished only the first book of the Baroque Cycle, I already know far more about the Baroque period in Europe than I did before.
If textbooks were written like this we would not have nearly so much trouble with reluctant students. I have always believed that historical fiction and period fiction ought to play a larger role in the teaching of history than they do. Ah well.
Now, I have a good deal of writing and other work I must do before continuing with The Baroque Cycle, but there was one notable weakness in the work. The main character is a Puritan most of the time, but I don’t believe it. When we first meet him he’s an atheist, but most of the story takes place while he’s a Puritan, but while I can’t pin down why, I don’t buy it. He doesn’t seem to think Puritanically. Sure, he is appropriately guilty (usually) when he thinks particularly un-Puritanically, but the point remains. He seems to occupy the same middle ground as the majority of humanity.
Perhaps this says something about the point Stephenson would like to make about Puritans, but I still believe a more demonstrable change should have taken place over time. How, I don’t know. Stephenson’s plenty impressive enough as it is, I leave it up to his fantastic skills.

Idea #11: Believe in Me

Creatures which exist only so long as you believe in them, drawing parallels to how someone’s nature can change based on what you believe of their actions (was Robin Hood greedy or philanthropic?). I’m not sure whether or not this should be tied in with traditional notions and legends of the Fae- I’d almost rather not, for although that might be a fantastic source of material it would draw uncomfortably close to the god question. It might be preferable to have it be an imaginary friend of sorts.
These are decisions that I will make on some other date, if at all.

Idea #10: Godfather

After several years of fruitless struggle trying to squeeze a child from her husband’s loins, a woman turns to an old friend for help. First she manages to get her husband, who wants a child approximately as much as she does, to consent. More difficult, however, is acquiring the agreement of her friend, a perpetual bachelor and professor of law at some New England institution of good repute. He insists upon hammering out some sort of informal contract.

“I’ve always intended to be the godfather of your children, but now I doubt it would be a good idea. How much contact would you wish me to have with the child? Equally important, will you tell the child who the real father is? I would hate to make a habit of avoiding your home and company, but if you wish it for the child’s sake, it is a sacrifice I can bear.”

The mother thinks that, though typical of her friend, this sort of over thinking is absurd. “Of course you can still be a godfather. Who else would I choose?”

“But how often should I see the child? Too much interaction might cause the poor thing to become suspicious. There’s also your marriage to think of.”

“You leave worrying about my marriage to me. In any case, you’re the last person on earth any knowing person would ever suspect a woman of having an affair with. You can see the child exactly as much or as little as you want to. I leave that entirely up to you.”

Etc.

Nevertheless, the professor insists upon artificial insemination. The child is born the usual way, and the new godfather visits often and plays a crucial role in the boy’s education. Eventually he acquires a position at a nearby university so that he can be closer to his godchild. This creates stress upon the parent’s marriage, which the godfather tries to alleviate, but his primary concern is the child.

You can see where this story might go. In truth I see it as being but one part of some sort of epic centered around the child. Any ideas along that train of thought from here on out will be labeled ‘Metafiction.’ My thoughts for the story as a whole are that for some reason or another, various people who knew the child throughout his life will tell parts of the story within a framework story which occurs when the child is an adult and has been imprisoned for some sort of mass murder committed while trying to rid the world of a genetically based or sexually transmitted disease. (possibly HIV/AIDS) Or maybe something else terrible, because what the terrible thing he does isn’t the point: the point is that he does it because he believes it will better mankind and the world as a whole. So maybe he could be an eco-terrorist, but that’s not what I’ve been thinking thus far.

Idea #9: Flawed Premise

Alert: Really broad idea.

I want a character who in some way devotes his life to making himself unassailable, invincible. This could be a fantasy ‘invulnerable’ or a real world case have having garnered wealth and favors enough that you can get away with murder. The goal is accomplished, but then the character falls. Why does the character fall? Because he’s done. Finished. It’s like reaching the end of the Internet. There’s nothing to do after that point, so he just collapses inwardly. His only goal was to make himself invincible, and in doing so he killed himself.

Metaphorically, I think. Obviously I’m still trying to wrap my brain around this one.

Idea #8: Root Recovery

In a Neuromancer-like future world, a novice programmer is given the root password on his family’s integrated home maintenance and personal computing system and given directions to organize, clean up, and archive all the folders on the system that find Saturday in order to earn his allowance.

Eager to get out of the house, he rushes through the task and accidentally deletes a directory containing the home’s temperature control system preferences. Worse yet, his father had custom configured the automated AC control (that process may have been the reason the son needed to ‘neaten up’ all the household files) in such a way that the AC automator reads ‘0′ when there is no preferences file to reference.

That may mean 0 Kelvin, 0 Celcius, or 0 Fahrenheit. I’m thinking Kelvin, just for kicks. Wouldn’t it make sense if everyone used the Kelvin temperature in the future?

In any case, the house is clearly incapable of lowering the internal temperature all the way to 0 degrees Kelvin, but it begins to do it’s darndest, calculating that it will reach that point in 120 years, but that it will have gotten half way to the appointed temperature in 4 hours and 53 minutes. I’ll come up with a more significant time later. I’m sure we can do something cool (buhdum-ch) with that. Actually, I just thought of it. I was only off by two minutes. It will have gotten half way to the appointed temperature in 4 hours and 51 minutes. Too bad I chose Kelvin over Fahrenheit. If it was Fahrenheit it would be getting to that temperature (rather than halfway) in that time.

Here’s where the Neuromancer bit comes in. Poor fool that he is, Kevin (that, I’ve decided, is the boy’s name) can’t figure out a way to recover the file through the command line interface of the administrative access panel. Frankly, neither could I. So, with the energy bill skyrocketing and unsure whether he’ll die of hypothermia before his parents get home or manage to solve the problem before either occurrence, he patches his VR gaming system into the administrative interface and jacks in to attempt to recover the data as his body temperature in the real world gradually lowers.

Downfall of Paranoia

I’ve just taken down the password protection on my short stories. I’ve noticed that the pages get hits- including ‘Written Ravings,’ which has instructions for requesting the password- but I would receive no password requests. Thus from now on my stories will have no password protection. I doubt anyone will steal them. If they do so without my permission, I will become a steaming pillar of flatulent rage.

Not a pleasant image. I don’t think I’ll ever type those particular words again. Ah well, you never know until you try.

Enjoy the stories, and feel free to give brutal criticisms.

Especially on ‘Friend for Hire.’ It really deserves them.

Idea #7: Friendly Neighborhood Mafia

A scientist has developed a revolutionary new energy efficient method of cleaning water on a large scale. (Through electrolysis, some of you might know where this idea originated.) However when he tries to sell the idea to the city legislature he (she?) gets shot down by nonsensical concerns “You want to electrocute our water?” and general lack of interest. The next day, however, he is contacted by a mafia representative who gives him a recommendation for repackaging his idea as part of a bundle being brought before the legislature by a contractor the very next day. “No strings attached.” Included in the deal is a job offer from the contractor with a fair wage a little below the industry average and a research budget a little above it. The two offers are separate and unconditional.

As the scientist has been working independently with very limited funds for some time, he decides to accept both.

A few interesting questions here. 1. When does he realize that the representative is a mafioso? Does the representative reveal that from the get-go? Does the scientist do a google search after the initial meeting?

The angle here is that the mafia has chosen to do genuine good for the community and the city, albeit through illegal means (the contractor is an obvious front, and bribes/kickbacks would be involved in getting the contractor’s proposal accepted). The scientist will decide that so long as he (she?) doesn’t directly participate in anything illegal, in other words just sticks to the science, there is no ethical dilemma.

But what about when the boss is under investigation and the new job is in peril?

Progress through Processors

Yesterday, TechWorthy posted about a fantastic opportunity for you to get involved with scientific research taking place around the globe- and all you need is a Facebook account and a minute to download a new application. You can choose from among several scientific endeavors to lend your computing power to, and there appears to be no downside. The program only uses processing capabilities that you aren’t accessing, and your own needs will always come first. The moment you need all of your computer’s power, you’ll have it- the processor sharing application will run quietly in the background, and you’ll never know that it’s there.

I would have downloaded it right away except for one concern: security. While I’m no IA expert, it seems to me that if another computer is being allowed to access my processing power, someone could easily conduct a man-in-the-middle type attack to take over my computer, and the post I’d read did little to address my worries.

This morning, however, I found an article on Wired.com which claims that Progress through Processors creates a folder on your computer which is incapable of accessing the rest of your hard drive, so all of your files are safe. Furthermore, there is a one way interaction: “No third party site contacts your computer. It’s only your computer that reaches out.”

I’m not entirely sure how that’s possible, but I’m willing to trust that until I learn anything to the contrary. I’ll begin donating my processing power tonight.

Idea #6: Doctor Recommended

A doctor of philosophy begins sponsoring medical products. It all begins with a stomach ache cure, and eventually ends with him sponsoring products for ethical reasons alone. Warning, this idea may have occured because I was reading Atlas Shrugged while I had (have) a stomach ache.

What Goes Around

From the NYTIMES article: As president, Mr. Clinton had sent Mr. Kim a letter of condolence on the death of his father, Kim Il-sung, according to a former official. For Mr. Kim, the former official said, freeing the women was a “reciprocal humanitarian gesture.”

I would never have expected any world leader, let alone a notorious dictator, to base a decision off of a letter on an irrelevant subject. This quote in the article makes it appear as though Kim released the hostages as a personal favor to Bill Clinton.

I suppose it only goes to show that you can never forget that all the monsters are human too.