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FYI, Analog wrote a 3 part series of this back in the 80's, it had a title of corporate warfare I think.

but it's exactly that. 1 subsidiary installs the bug into the chip, another outfit installs the software that will trigger the chip to behave as coded, and another does the hack at the terminal to start the entire process of getting access into the systems.

update, it might be august 1977's story cold cash war ... wow, I never new I read so many of these http://www.analogsf.com/about-...

Hugo award winner:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cookie_Monster_(novella)

Most of it is available here:

http://www.analogsf.com/0310/cookie.shtml

Analog: Science Fiction and Fact

http://www.analogsf.com/0409/altview2.shtml

"In Bohr’s words: ". . . we are presented with a choice of either tracing the path of the particle, or observing interference effects . . . we have to do with a typical example of how the complementary phenomena appear under mutually exclusive experimental arrangements." In the context of a two-slit welcher weg (which-way) experiment, the Principle of Complementarity dictates "the observation of an interference pattern and the acquisition of which-way information are mutually exclusive.""

There, concise statement of something that would falsify the Copenhagen and Many Worlds hypotheses of quantum mechanics. Perhaps not particularly informative without some background, but a *clear* citation of what observation would mean that the hypothesis is wrong.

Now, please, your turn - what observations could possibly shake your faith?

Interstellar Internet: http://www.analogsf.com/0607/interstellar.aspx - "One of the most original, believable, thoroughly thought-out, and utterly fascinating visions ever of what interstellar contact might really be like." â" Stanley Schmidt, Editor of Analog magazine

"One thing led to another ⦠soon I was pondering a comm network that functioned across the light-years. And, we homo saps being a tad competitiveâ"about interstellar cyber attacks..... Herewith, a few of Lernerâ(TM)s Laws for Artificially Intelligent Trade Agents:

1. Agents run only inside mutually agreed upon containment: the sandbox. The sandbox protects: - a. The secrets of the agent from the locals. - b. The local infosphere from the agent.
2. Sandbox code is fully disclosed and fully agreed upon across the interstellar community. (ETsâ"one more argument for open source software!)
3. Access to/from the interior of a sandbox is only by messages.
4. An agent, its software entirely proprietary to its patron species, is transmitted encrypted across interstellar space. - a. It unwraps itself inside a sandbox provided by the host species. - b. It self-destructs, its secrets undisclosed, if the purported sandbox deviates in any way from expectations.
5. Trade waresâ"intellectual propertyâ"travel encrypted between solar systems, and are unwrapped in secrecy by the sequestered AI agent. Goods are sold (or not) and bought (or not) as the agent negotiates within its authorized-from-home parameters.
6. Agents buy and sell information using the host speciesâ(TM) banking system. Credits not spent locally may be transmitted, securely encrypted, between solar systems."

>>>If they can make it less effort to stream or download than it is to pirate

Perhaps, but I still prefer to own games. That way I can convert them back to cash when finished with them. As example: I bought Final Fantasy 13 for $45 sale price, beat it, and then sold to to some guy on ebay for $53.

Made a nice profit. That happens with most of my games where I sell them for a few dollars more than I originally paid, so overall I am making money by owning (versus a $5 rental which I never get back).

On the other hand I might end-up like this guy, and
just go back to rentals: "Author Falls in Love with E-reader"
http://www.analogsf.com/2011_04/altview.shtml

Buying Final Fantasy 13 for $45 sale price, beating it, and then selling to to some guy on ebay for $53..... or renting it from netflix - I mean Onlive.

I think I'll continue buying-and-selling games. Nice idea though. Maybe someday I'll actually go back to renting movies/games like I did in the days of A-to-Z Video (they loaned-out Betamax, VHS, NES). But for now I like physically owning the item, so I have something of value to convert back to cash.

Of course I might end-up like this guy:
"Author Falls in Love with E-reader"
http://www.analogsf.com/2011_04/altview.shtml

The difference doesn't exist. Science fiction is fantasy

Absolutely wrong, at least for connoisseurs. "Hard" science fiction, or SF for short, is very different from fantasy.

SF is a genre written with a "what if" question. Suppose *one* and only one thing that's impossible today were possible, what then? Examples of authors in this genre are Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein and Arthur Clarke. There's very little true SF in movies and TV, it's too cerebral for visual consumption. A magazine that specializes in SF is Analog, published since 1930, when it was named "Astounding".

Fantasy is a genre where anything goes. You could say that SF and, as a matter of fact, all fiction is a sub-genre of fantasy. Star Trek and Star Wars are fantasy but not true SF, they have too many impossible things to qualify as true Science Fiction.

Is anyone writing SF like that these days? It seems to have stopped in the '70s or early '80s.

There are still tons of good "hard" science fiction writers out there working: Alastair Reynolds, Stephen Baxter, Greg Egan (to name a few). You'll still find plenty of hard science fiction in Asimov's, Analog, and Dozois's annual "Years Best Science Fiction" collection.

I recall a story in either Asimov's or Analog that posited this same idea. A single year extension and they discover ice on the lunar poles, then differences back home (Jerry Brown and Jesse Jackson as presidents) and a culmination with Walter Cronkite doing a live remote on the lunar surface to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the first landing. One of the underlying themes was people in that alternate future wishing history had taken a slightly different course and even more had been accomplished. Anyone else remember this story?

One of the better online SF communities is the venerable rec.arts.sf.written newsgroup (available here for the usenet-challenged), worth reading for an unusually high level of discussion (if you can ignore the usual sprinkling of spam). There are plenty of people there who'll make useful suggestions if you let them know what you like already.

Check out SF Site for tons of reviews, excerpts, and another forum.

I actually find Amazon quite useful for discovering new stuff (especially now they have excerpts from a fiar number of books). It doesn't need to be 'dicey and expensive' if you buy secondhand or discounted stocks from Amazon Marketplace traders with decent feedback (or similar small dealers that sell via ebay or AbeBooks ).

Why not subscribe to one of the major SF magazines like Interzone or Analog ?

You might like to have a look at "Slow Life", by Michael Swanwick.
http://www.analogsf.com/Hugos/slowlife.shtml

It's a nice sci-fi novelette (that won the Hugo in 2003) about life in the deep seas of Titan.
http://www.nicholaswhyte.info/sf/Hugo2003.htm
http://www.locusmag.com/SFAwards/Db/Hugo2003.html#nvt

"Is there life on Titan? Probably not. It's cold down there! 94 Kelvin is the same as -179 Celsius, or -290 Fahrenheit. And yet . . . life is persistent. It's been found in Antarctic ice and in boiling water in submarine volcanic vents. Which is why we'll be paying particular attention to exploring the depths of the ethane-methane sea. If life is anywhere to be found, that's where we'll find it."

What "rare"? This looks like clones of old science fiction magazine Analog/Astounding covers.

"Where do you get a laser that produces entangled pairs with the ability to separate the pairs into 2 coherent beams?"

That part is easy. A UV laser produces photons that when fired though a LiO3 crystal are split to provide two momentum correlated photons. This is routinely done in labs all round the world and specifically by Ms Dopfer for her Ph.D. back in 1998. Cramer is attempting to see if the pattern change she observed in her experiment will arise if you don't demand a coincidence between the arms.

Read:

http://www.analogsf.com/0612/altview.shtml

Now I have real problems with the causality violation part of his idea, but getting a spontaneous change in interference pattern would be really very interesting indeed.

"Where do you get a laser that produces entangled pairs with the ability to separate the pairs into 2 coherent beams?"

That part is easy. A UV laser produces photons that when fired though a LiO3 crystal are split to provide two momentum correlated photons. This is routinely done in labs all round the world and specifically by Ms Dopfer for her Ph.D. back in 1998. Cramer is attempting to see if the pattern change she observed in her experiment will arise if you don't demand a coincidence between the arms.

Read:

http://www.analogsf.com/0612/altview.shtml

Now I have real problems with the causality violation part of his idea, but getting a spontaneous change in interference pattern would be really very interesting indeed.

Actually no. This new experiment is VERY interesting. The new experiment proposed by John G. Cramer aims to test an idea that might allow quantum signaling.

See this:

http://www.analogsf.com/0612/altview.shtml

The idea is to see if an interference pattern will spontaneously change from a single slit to a double slit merely by moving the position of where entangled photons are destroyed.

I think there is a reasonable chance this will work. This is interesting as it in principle allows FTL communication.

After that his ideas get REALLY interesting.....

It's called an analog filter I think. http://www.analogsf.com/0704/issue_04.shtml
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The future of solar power: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

Here's Cramer's Alternative View column in Analog that goes into more detail:

http://www.analogsf.com/0612/altview.shtml

Cramer's no dummy, and the above article indicates that he believes that all of the "proofs" of the impossibility of sending signals had subtle flaws. Mind you, we've already seen that he doesn't expect this new experiment to work; it's just that nobody can figure out WHY it won't work.

http://www.analogsf.com/0610/altview.shtml
and particularly
http://www.analogsf.com/0612/altview.shtml

http://www.analogsf.com/0610/altview.shtml
and particularly
http://www.analogsf.com/0612/altview.shtml

Yes, that too. Certainly a much more likely cause than the "interdict theory", because if it takes thousands of years to reach a planet, law enforcement will not be a likely deterrent...

Still, it's a bit depressing to think that simple physics limitations will keep us bound to our planet forever. I prefer to think that, given a sufficiently advanced technology, speed of light will not limit us. Get close enough to light speed and any trip will take zero time for the traveler.

Even acceleration needs not be such a big limitation for us. There was a story in 1980 in Analog magazine by Charles Sheffield, "Moment of Inertia" with an idea for a starship that could reach high accelerations. It had a big disk of very dense matter, which had a surface gravitational acceleration of, let's say, 50 g. If the ship's cabin was near that disk, the whole system could be accelerated at 51 g with only one g felt in the cabin.

I prefer to think that the probability of evolving intelligent life is extremely small and we are the first intelligent species to ever evolve in our galaxy.

You might enjoy First Meetings In the Enderverse. My local (Charlottesville, VA) B&N had the hardcover in the bargain/clearance books area for ~$5. It consists of four novellas, at least two published previously in Analog SF Magazine, and the other two perhaps published elsewhere. Don't pay even full Amazon cover price for it, though. Check for a used or bargain bin-copy, or patronize your local library.

The main reason I think you might find it worthwhile is because it includes the original novella length version of Ender's Game... frankly, one I think is much more subtle and elegant than the novel. (I also picked it up because my copy of the original Analog Magazine is getting a little dog eared.)

I rather enjoyed "Ender's Shadow" as well — Card's second visit to the story of Ender's Game, from a different character perspective — but the Hegemon-related followups struck me as weaker, in much the same way that Speaker For the Dead struck me as weaker than Ender's Game. I would tend to agree that far too much of Card's work is not worth paying even new paperback prices for. Also, given his political stance on a number of issues, I prefer picking up his works in the clearance bin (for which sales authors usually get almost no royalties) or at the local library, rather than as new hardcovers.

I've been looking for a good magazine sci-fi fix ever since. This could be just what I've been looking for since I was a teenager, if they do it right.

Was there something wrong with Asimov's or Analog or Fantasy and Science Fiction? They've been publishing the whole time and helping to keep the short sf market alive.

Granted that of these only Analog publishes science fact articles as well, but if you subscribe to those three and add Scientific American you're covered.

I know it.

It's just meting out technology, at a rate primitive human minds can handle.

Not sure if this is exactly what you are looking for, but Analog and Asimov magazines feature short stories, but once or twice per year will serialize a novel. If you prefer mysteries, I imagine similar offerings are available for Ellery Queen and Hitchcock magazines.

There is a Fantasy magazine in the same format, but the name escapes me.

Analog Science Fiction & Fact runs 3 to 4 part serials pretty regularly. I don't know whether the sum of the parts would be the length of a full-blown novel, but it's something. It's a pretty effective gimmick to keep me subscribing, especially when they run a really good serial, like "Shootout at the Nokai Corral" by Rajnar Vajra.

Long term, large-scale space based solar might be viable, not necessarily using photovoltaics-- but we need a beanstalk first. Also, check out the fact article "Artificial Photosynthesis" in the current (Apr. 2005) issue of AnalogSF for a discussion of why photovoltaic may not be such an optimal solar solution. Biodiesel is a good idea, if the energy profit ratio can ever be made sane.

Dismissing wave power outright is excessive. It's certainly not a silver bullet, but some deployment might prove appropriate as part of a "diversified energy portfolio".

Support a heterogenous shopping environment where quality, service, support AND price all factors in the purchasing decision

Here's an interesting story about how one company managed to provide outstanding support for its products using a rather extreme form of outsourcing. Vernor Vinge recently won a Hugo award for this story.

http://www.analogsf.com/0406/cookiemonster.shtml

Yeah. Finally a topic where my sig fits :)

I think I am going to patent a method for inflicting virtual pain / beatings / torture / death on these future embedded personalities, because it will be the only way to keep the bastards in line.

Maybe not a good idea.

I highly recommend Natural History magazine if you are interested in biology, the environment, animals, genetics or evolution. I didn't even take any biology in college and I still find the articles fascinating (and so does my fiance).

I've subscribed to too many periodicals and eventually narrowed it down to Natural History and Analog. No news paper (local papers would be SF Chronical and SF Mercury News, neither are worth the paper they are printed on).

• Analog
• The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction

For anyone else who's curious, Analog has a pretty good story index which tells us that the story was by Tom Ligon and appeared on page 82 of the July 1996 issue.

My one suggestion to my family is a magazine subscription. Preferably Asimov's or Analog. Good stories, and updates monthly, and it doesn't cost much more than a book.

If you really want memory cards, power cells, and a backlight, you can get a subscription to Baen Books. Four books a month, and previews of their upcoming catalog. No DRM either: just open formats.

My family has given up on giving me books: I've usually already read anything they find...

The traditional Sci-Fi of rocket ships, blaster guns, and aliens may be on decline

Actually, all that stuff is *coming back* (if often with a postmodern, ironic slant): the most recent trend in SF (that I'm aware of) is the "new baroque space opera".

The original poster is *seriously* (as in, 30 years) behind the curve on SF - the move away from technology was in the 70s (the "New Wave"), then we had the 80s stylized technology ("Cyberpunk"), then the 90s with a lot of *great* work on the impact of technology on society, and now we're retooling the 50s-style space opera. (Which may indeed have a lot to do with the current doldrums in human space flight.)

The recent Tolkien-triggered interest in fantasy had zero impact on SF - the two fields are well enough decoupled from each other these days. SF is bigger, healthier, and better than ever before, if you know where to look. Some rough guidelines:

1) any SF made in Hollywood is utter crap. For Hollywood, SF = juvenile adventure stories. Ignore movies, ignore TV, ignore games, ignore movie, TV, and gaming tie-ins.

2) the primary form of SF is the *short story*, not the novel. Short stories are the ongoing dialogue of ideas between SF authors; novels are what they fluff their short stories up into when they need money to pay the bills. Read the short stories!

3) to read the current short stories, you subscribe to SF *magazines*, such as Interzone, Asimovs' SF, Analog, Fantasy & SF, to name but the largest.

4) to catch up on the last two decades, buy past editions of "The Year's Best SF" edited by Gardner Dozois. You'll have the best short stories and novellas of a year at an unbeatable price. Gardner knows the field like no one else.

I have yet to make friends with the "new baroque" style - my favorite stuff is the work speculating on the implications of the latest, cutting-edge science, and its impact on society. If you're not scared of plots pivoting on the finer points of quantum mechanics, biotechnology, and theory of computation, Greg Egan is the man here. His short stories are collected in "Axiomatic" and "Luminous".

I could go on now about all the wonderful *old* SF that people who never dug deeper than Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke are missing out on (ever heard of Tiptree?) but that's left as an exercise to the reader :-)

- nic

Disclaimer: I don't have time to read the mags, and am still working on last year's Dozois - so I'm about two years behind the curve myself.

If anyone's interested, Geoffrey's story is still up on the Analog website: Falling Onto Mars.

Alex.

Total agreement there....Analog has IMO some of the best science fiction available. You can see the table of contents and subscribe at http://www.analogsf.com/ I particularly recommend the probability zero section, and they're currently running an interesting novel entitled "Shootout at the Nokai Corral"

The really weird thing is, the Februrary issue of Analog has a story called "Distance" by Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff which deals with exactly this subject: an unexpected, unsolicited message from Pioneer 10. And the story must have been written at least six months ago, right?

Coincidence ...? You decide.

(Sorry, but since it's in the February (print) issue, it's not up on the web site yet. Go buy a copy and say Kaddish for a tree.)

Here is another article from John G. Cramer's Alternate View Articles in Analog Sci-Fi Magazine.

Professor Cramer is the real deal. A physics professor at Washington University who is also a sci-fi fan and writer. He is also an excellent pop-science writer who can get his point across without dumbing things down. Enjoy.

It was serialized in the Jan 2002 - Apr 2002 issues of Analog

Not a bad story, but I found it to be a bit too much "Humans Bad, Neanderthals Good" to really accept it. Basically, neanderthals have no Crime, Rape, Theft, Pollution, Overpopulation, and they have far more advanced in many physical sciences.

The sole good thing he had to say about Humans was we landed on the moon,and then he figured out a way to make us look bad over that.

Hopefully the future books become a little less one-sided

There are always new authors ready to step into the limelight. One just needs to look for them.

I get my fix here.

Goodbye Mr. Anderson, you will be missed - but your works will live on forever.

You might also want to look at this.
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No one expects the Spammish Repetition!

I don't know if they're still published, but much of my early sf reading was done from the excellent Hugo and Nebula award collections, which included everything _but_ the award-winning novels. They can be found collecting dust on the shelves of many libraries, and would give an sf newbie a good idea of which authors to pursue.

A subscription to the sf magazines Analog or Asimov's would be another great source for short stories.

Trudel did a much better job of presenting his case for Patent reform in the January 2000 issue of Analog Science Fiction & Fact. Unfortunately, the article is not posted online. Some of the main points I remember from the article are:

- The protections granted by the US Patent system was the Engine of Prosperity (the title of Trudel's book) that drove the explosion US industrial development in the last two centuries.

- The US Patent system, as defined in the Constitution, is the strongest and best patent system in the world. It was also the first.

- Japan successfully lobbied the US Congress to change US Patent law. The changes resulted in substantially weakening the international protective power of US patents.

- The Japanese lobbying effort started when one of the heads of a major keiretsu declared that US Patent protections were an unacceptable obstacle to Japanese competitiveness. He points out that this amounted to a systematic campaign by the Japanese to steal a fundamental constitutional right from the citizens of the US.

- Patent filings were once held unpublished until approved. Now they are openly accessable to competitors for 18 months. This allows competitors (foreign and domestic) to copy the design, sell it, and then defend themselves against patent suits by claiming "prior use".

- Originally, patents lasted for 17 years from issue. Now they are for 20 years after filing. Many patents take 10 or more years to be approved. The effective lifespan for a patent is now much shorter and in many cases is zero.


Caveat. I don't necessarily agree with Trudel, but he makes a strong case. I know a patent attorney for a major university. After I read the article, I asked her what we should do to reform the patent system. She said "Kill it."

IV

Don't forget Analog Science Fiction / Science Fact. An excellent magazine.