On Ansible Waldos

         On Ansible Waldos

 

          A “Waldo” is a telepresence robot. If you put on the gloves and goggles, then you see through the robot’s eyes, and move its grabbers. Waldos are used in glove boxes, as drones, and on submarines.

          The term “waldo” comes from a Robert Heinlein science-fiction story, named after a disabled man who used waldos to play an heroic role in a space emergency.

          I figure that waldos would be useful in low-earth orbit, or even in high-earth orbit. The limit is lunar waldos, for there is a three-second round-trip delay due to the lightspeed limit. On the Moon, waldos would be slow to respond; and since they’d need onboard processing, they’d have minds of their own. Slow, stubborn, and willful; so I propose to call them “moon mules”.

          Beyond the Moon, the lightspeed limit prevents telepresence. To transcend that limit, we’d need faster-than-light communication. That would be the “Ansible”, so named in Ursula K. Leguin’s science-fiction novels. Ansibles would provide instantaneous communication across interstellar distances.

          Make the gloves-and-goggles interface with the waldo via ansible; that is the “Ansible Waldo”. With it you can explore strange new worlds on distant stars, and do so from the comfort of your home planet.

          Interstellar probes carrying ansible waldos won’t need to carry air, water, food, or as much radiation shielding. Those ships would be faster and cheaper than any ship carrying humans.

           I imagine a sphere of human influence expanding at some fraction of the speed of light, as the ansible-waldo ships fly out; and once at their destination, that planet would be in instantaneous contact with Earth. One of the things that the ansible waldos would do is manufacture more ansible waldos. That way, ansible waldos would be disposable.

          All in all, I’d say that translight telepresence robots are the best spacesuits. By comparison, manned space flight is like packing ape meat into a tin can.

 

 

Rivendell on Trantor

       Rivendell on Trantor

 

            Call a settlement of limited size but of great duration a “Time colony”, or a “Rivendell”; and call a civilization of great size but of limited duration a “Space civilization”, or a “Trantor”. The names “Rivendell” and “Trantor” refer to, respectively, the Elvish town in J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy; and to the planet-spanning galactic capital city in Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation” trilogy .

            I propose this census:

            Rivendell: a million people, for a million generations.

            Trantor: a billion people, for a thousand generations.

            The first is a fair-sized colony, lasting for tens of megayears, a longish species lifetime. So this is a Local Range; the Home of a Kind. The second is a world civilization, lasting for tens of kiloyears, about the length of history. This is a World Culture with a History.

            Rivendell colonizes time, and Trantor colonizes space.

            To keep Rivendell fresh, let’s make it a college town, home of Rivendell University, in its new location. They had to leave the old place and build a new campus here, due to mega-volcano eruption. They’ve still settling in, it’s been only 1.7 million years. But despite Rivendell’s traditionalism, it manages to keep up with the times; for they accept students from all across space, especially Trantor. How’s that for a happening place?

            And as for Trantor… there is no boredom on Trantor, and no shortage of rebels. Trantor is always up to something big; a war, a revolution, a reformation, a renaissance; political decay, cultural flowering, religious crises and scientific breakthroughs; and whatever Trantor does, it does it.

            Trantor never sleeps. So of course people will want to go to Rivendell  just for a bit of rest. But sorry, no uninvited visitors.

            So which would you prefer? Rivendell or Trantor? Rivendell is at least a somewhat happening place; and Trantor has respectable longevity chops; and it’s a fair trade-off. The elvish city is to the techno-world as deep time is to history.

            I see an SF novel in this, with a single world inhabited by both a Trantor and a Rivendell. (Almost everywhere, from Trantor’s point of view; temporarily, from Rivendell’s.) To Trantor,  a thousand years is a long time; to Rivendell, a thousand people is a big crowd.

            Rivendell has changed locations several times, to keep up with the geography. There are abandoned fossil Rivendells, which other peoples dug up for treasure and technology; notably the precursors to the Trantor world-civilization. The word “Trantor”, to the Trantorians, means the name of their planet; and also mankind; and also ‘culture’, ‘peace’, ‘order’, and many other soothing ideals; with predictable tragicomic consequences.

            A spacelike civilization meets a timelike civilization; temporarily, locally; yet everyone in Trantor is affected by Rivendell, all over the planet; and Rivendell never forgot Trantor, even after mountains wore down.

            For one thing, they stole a lot of tech from each other. There may even be a tendency for Trantor to re-create another Rivendell, on a distant world; and a reciprocal tendency for Rivendell to recreate another Trantor, in the distant future.

            Rivendell’s rebels will leave, and will either vanish into obscurity, or find a Trantor to influence. Rivendell’s influence on galactic culture is slow but cumulative; a trickle of exiled geniuses; Trantor’s influence is all at once.

            Perhaps a rebel Rivendellian will leave, mix with Trantor society, collect a cadre of likeminded malcontents, and then leave for a distant world, to found New Rivendell. (Where they will offer modern boredom!)

            Trantor’s rebels will go out, in waves after waves, each to form their own utopian Rivendells. Some of those Rivendells will remain static until they go extinct, others will mutate into new Trantors.

            Rivendell is to Trantor as spore is to redwood.

Juno 3Z5

             Juno 3Z5

 

I speculate that eventually some corporation shall appoint a sex-doll robot, programmed with an Ai, as its CEO. This will attain a simulation of full personhood from three simulated one-third-personhoods.

Of course the resulting entity will land smack in the middle of the Uncanny Valley, and not seem even slightly human. It would be an 'alien', in Campbell's sense: a being that thinks as well as a human but not like a human.

I think this would make an astounding science fiction trope. I offer it for free.

I also think that we are living in a science-fictional century, with brilliant special effects, some interesting ideas, and idiot plotting. The sex-doll AI robot CEO combines these features, so I speculate that it will come to be.

It will, of course, speak wooden dialog.

Zurn, Tork and Bobrick Explained

       Zurn, Tork and Bobrick Explained

 

          One BayCon, at the Santa Clara Hyatt Regency, I was in the men’s-room on the first floor. I noticed that all the urinal plumbing bore a corporate logo: ZURN. I thought, “Zurn?!”; then I turned to wash my hands. The towel dispensers had a corporate logo: TORK. And the hot-air hand-dryers bore the name BOBRICK.

Zurn? Tork? Bobrick? Corporate names are weird for some reason; they have a dream-like quality. This, at a science-fiction convention, invited appropriation by imagination. I figured that Zurn has got to be an evil interstellar emperor, and Bobrick the Earthling adventurer who overthrew him, but I wasn’t sure about Tork. Was he Zurn’s minion, or Bobrick’s sidekick?

          Puzzled by this, I proceeded towards the science-fiction convention’s Info desk. Before reaching the escalators, I met a fellow conventioneer; a tall fellow wearing a fez. I told him about Zurn, Bobrick and Tork, and asked about Tork. He said, “I could tell you, but then I’d have to wipe your memory.” I replied, “Maybe we’ve had this conversation before.”

          I went up the escalator, to the science-fiction con’s Info desk. I told them about Zurn, Bobrick and Tork, and asked about Tork. They handled this absurd question with aplomb, and between them and me, we figured out that Tork started out as one of Zurn’s minions, but ended up as Bobrick’s sidekick.

          Later I met the fez fan again. I said, “Your attempts to suppress the truth have failed.” Then I told  him about Tork’s switching sides.

          And that is how much sense corporate names make.

Stalked by a Bot

Stalked by a Bot

 

 

 

The phone rang. I picked up on the third ring and said, “Hello, who is there?”

A robot voice said, “Good-bye.”

 

Several days later, the phone rang, I picked up on the third ring, “Hello, who is there?”

A robot voice said, “I’m sorry, that is not a valid extension.”

 

After that I picked up on the third ring every time, in the hope of getting a third creepy robot. Finally: Ring, ring, ring, I pick up, “Hello, who is there?”

Silence.

 

And that’s a trifecta! Have I been rejected by a bot?

Rivendell on Trantor

        Rivendell on Trantor

 

             Call a settlement of limited size but of great duration a “Time colony”, or a “Rivendell”; and call a civilization of great size but of limited duration a “Space civilization”, or a “Trantor”. The names “Rivendell” and “Trantor” refer to, respectively, the Elvish town in J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy; and to the planet-spanning galactic capital city in Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation” trilogy .

             I propose this census:

             Rivendell: a million people, for a million generations.

            Trantor: a billion people, for a thousand generations.

             The first is a fair-sized colony, lasting for tens of megayears, a

longish species lifetime. So this is a Local Range; the Home of a Kind.

The second is a world civilization, lasting for tens of kiloyears,

about the length of history. This is a World Culture with a History.

             Rivendell colonizes time, and Trantor colonizes space.

             To keep Rivendell fresh, let’s make it a college town, home of Rivendell University, in its new location. They had to leave the old place and build a new campus here, due to mega-volcano eruption. They’ve still settling in, it’s been only 1.7 million years. But despite Rivendell’s traditionalism, it manages to keep up with the times; for they accept students from all across space, especially Trantor. How’s that for a happening place?

             And as for Trantor… there is no boredom on Trantor, and no shortage of rebels. Trantor is always up to something big; a war, a revolution, a reformation, a renaissance; political decay, cultural flowering, religious crises and scientific breakthroughs; and whatever Trantor does, it does it.

             Trantor never sleeps. So of course people will want to go to Rivendell  just for a bit of rest. But sorry, no uninvited visitors.

             So which would you prefer? Rivendell or Trantor? Rivendell is at least a somewhat happening place; and Trantor has respectable longevity chops; and it’s a fair trade-off. The elvish city is to the techno-world as deep time is to history.

             I see an SF novel in this, with a single world inhabited by both a Trantor and a Rivendell. (Almost everywhere, from Trantor’s point of view; temporarily, from Rivendell’s.) To Trantor,  a thousand years is a long time; to Rivendell, a thousand people is a big crowd.

             Rivendell has changed locations several times, to keep up with the geography. There are abandoned fossil Rivendells, which other peoples dug up for treasure and technology; notably the precursors to the Trantor world-civilization. The word “Trantor”, to the Trantorians, means the name of their planet; and also mankind; and also ‘culture’, ‘peace’, ‘order’, and many other soothing ideals; with predictable tragicomic consequences.

             A spacelike civilization meets a timelike civilization; temporarily, locally; yet everyone in Trantor is affected by Rivendell, all over the planet; and Rivendell never forgot Trantor, even after mountains wore down.

             For one thing, they stole a lot of tech from each other. There may even be a tendency for Trantor to re-create another Rivendell, on a distant world; and a reciprocal tendency for Rivendell to recreate another Trantor, in the distant future.

             Rivendell’s rebels will leave, and will either vanish into obscurity, or find a Trantor to influence. Rivendell’s influence on galactic culture is slow but cumulative; a trickle of exiled geniuses; Trantor’s influence is all at once.

             Perhaps a rebel Rivendellian will leave, mix with Trantor society,

collect a cadre of likeminded malcontents, and then leave for a distant

world, to found New Rivendell. (Where they will offer modern boredom!)

             Trantor’s rebels will go out, in waves after waves, each to form their own utopian Rivendells. Some of those Rivendells will remain static until they go extinct, others will mutate into new Trantors.

             Rivendell is to Trantor as spore is to redwood.