Slashdot Mirror

cpu6502 writes "Robert Silverberg wrote a recent editorial about the dangers of robots and the legal consequences for their programmers and engineers: 'Consider malicious kids hacking into a house that uses a robot cleaning system and reprogramming the robot to smash dishes and break furniture. If the hackers are caught and sued, but turn out not to have any assets, isn't it likely that the lawyers will go after the programmer who designed it or the manufacturer who built it? In our society, the liability concept is upwardly mobile, searching always for the deepest pocket.'"

Lawrence Person writes "Another speculative fiction magazine folds: Realms of Fantasy is ceasing publication. This comes hot on the heels of the announcement that the venerable Fantasy and Science Fiction will be moving from a monthly to a bimonthly schedule, and underscores what a tough environment this is for science fiction and fantasy magazines, all of which have suffered declining circulation for quite some time. This is a real problem, since short fiction is generally where new writers cut their teeth, appearing in print alongside their more famous peers. Given that a one-year subscription costs less than the average video game, those with an interest in science fiction might want to consider buying subscriptions to Asimov's, Fantasy and Science Fiction, and Analog. (Those in the UK might want to add Interzone and/or Black Static and Postscripts as well.)"

tomhudson writes "While we bemoan the current oil crisis, I ran across an editorial that led me to research a more immediate threat. Ramped-up production of flat-panel displays means the material to make them will be 'extinct' by 2017. This goes for other electronics as well. Quoting: 'The element gallium is in very short supply and the world may well run out of it in just a few years. Indium is threatened too, says Armin Reller, a materials chemist at Germany's University of Augsburg. He estimates that our planet's stock of indium will last no more than another decade. All the hafnium will be gone by 2017 also, and another twenty years will see the extinction of zinc. Even copper is an endangered item, since worldwide demand for it is likely to exceed available supplies by the end of the present century.' More links at the journal entry."

Embedded Geek writes "The SFWA has announced the preliminary ballot for the 2003 Nebula awards. As has become standard over the past few years, the various magazines with short fiction nominees have placed the stories online to order to increase their exposure to voters (here and here for example). This year, the SFWA has helpfully linked all the online versions (as well as Amazon links for the novels and movies) on their ballot page. Those that aren't directly posted are available for free PDA download at fictionwise. Worth checking out, even if you aren't going to the banquet."

An anonymous reader writes "I'm surprised nobody mentioned this yet: a very interesting interview with author Charles Stross, whose current cycle of singularity-based stories Accelerando (featuring character Manfred Macx) is as tightly-packed with cutting-edge speculations as Bruce Sterling's work. An excerpt from the first of those stories is currently available on the Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine website."

Returning with another science fiction review, Duncan Lawie takes a look at Revelation Space. Written by Alastair Reynolds, this is the author's first book length effort - and it looks good. Revelation Space author Alastair Reynolds pages 470 publisher USA: To Be Published by Ace rating 8.5/10 reviewer Duncan Lawie ISBN 0575068760 summary Fiercely intelligent hard science fiction, bursting with ideas and rich with plot.

Alastair Reynolds is one of the breed of science fiction writers who is also a professional scientist. Originally from Wales, he has a PhD in astronomy from St Andrew's University in Scotland and lives in the Netherlands, where he works on scientific data analysis, primarily for the European Space Agency. He has taken the traditional route into publication through short story writing, having been published in magazines such as Interzone and Asimov's in recent years. Much of his work can be categorised as "radical hard science fiction", a style of writing which has helped revitalise the British science fiction scene. Revelation Space is his first novel.

As the book opens, Volyova is a senior officer on a lighthugger - several kilometres of malfunctioning, self-repairing starship capable of accelerating almost to the speed of light. She is experiencing a little local difficulty with her gunnery officer, who is trying to kill her. Khouri is a soldier who was frozen and shipped 20 light years away from her war and the only world she knew as a result of a clerical error. She has taken up assassination as an appropriate employment since she is "good with weapons". Sylveste is the leader of a scientific colony/expedition which has suffered rebellion and the departure of its only lighthugger. He is more interested in excavating the relics of an alien civilisation almost a million years dead.

These principal characters focus the large cast and the author's first objective is to get them all into the same time frame. This manipulation becomes apparent through the diverse range of settings and time periods in the early chapters - to the extent that it becomes a treatise on working within the boundaries that nature - or Einstein - has set. The complex machinations introduced set up the plot drivers for the book as a whole, though this does not mean that the story is simply revealed to the reader. Much of the intelligence of the novel is derived from the exposure of deeper plot motives as the book progresses. Some revelations are gently foreshadowed whilst others burst from the page. One of the central concerns of the book is the conundrum at the heart of the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence: if we are not alone, where is everybody else?

The story unfolds within a universe populated with enigmatic aliens, bizarre technology, conspiracies, death, world threatening weapons and post-human races. The definition of human has expanded away from the Homo sapiens norm, some becoming machine-human hybrids, others adapting to the new environments the galaxy has to offer. The technological background of the novel is creatively engineered and inventively described. This complex universe pervades the atmosphere of the book without Reynolds having to draw demonstrating the protagonists' limited views. Revelation Space develops as a product of interaction between characters and through increasing understanding of the external world and the history of the galaxy. Though the plot never begins to feel predictable, the central characters become increasingly well defined through development and disclosure. Reynolds' inventiveness combines with a fondness for science fiction tropes to produce a picture of a rich and true human universe five centuries hence.

Alastair Reynolds: home page