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Robert J Sawyer wrote an article (likely the one referenced in te summary) about this very topic, an interesting read. http://www.sfwriter.com/rmasil...

http://sfwriter.com/2008/12/25...

This type of tech is a central part of Robert J. Sawyer's sci-fi novel "The Terminal Experiment". Very good read, if a bit dated now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Terminal_Experiment
http://www.sfwriter.com/exte.htm

I rarely see him mentioned in lists like this, but he has won some awards.

His web site is: http://www.sfwriter.com/

Dude are you stoned? And are the mods smoking the good stuff too? Geez these kids today don't remember their history! For those that obviously have forgotten THIS is the kind of crap we USED to have. notice how its got 50 damned keyboard commands? Well guess what? they were ALL different on EVERY program! We used to have fricking cheat sheets taped up all over the damned place just to keep up with the crap!

You may not like MS Office, hell i personally hate that damned ribbon and kill that thing right off the bat, but whether you like them or not they have come a loooong way from the old days dude. Oh and while we old farts hate that damned ribbon my oldest started college and for the first time had to really use office with the school provided 2K10 and frankly he kicks a hell of a lot more ass on that thing than I do with the menus. for someone who has never used Office before that thing is uberfast and intuitive, we old farts just learned the positions. But while my docs are boring Times New Roman blandness he and his friends make docs that look as nice as books in the same time it takes me to remember where the sub menu I want is.

sound like someone read Robert J. Sawyer's Wake http://www.sfwriter.com/exw1.htm

"note the lack of "h" - Neandertal is a placename in Germany; the Neander Valley, and it is spelled that way"

The Neaderthal skeletons found in Neander Valley were discovered in 1856, before German spelling was regularized in 1901, and thus at the time it was spelled "Neanderthal." Since scientific names are "writ in stone" once they've been formalized the species is always going to be Homo neanderthalensis, or possibly Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, depending on the results of genetic studies.

Whether the spelling of the common name should be updated to match the current German spelling is debatable, but your insistence that it has to be without an 'h' is just plain wrong. Both spellings are accepted, though as Robert J. Sawyer notes in "Is it Neanderthal or Neandertal?" about other species with similar etymological problems, "those who favor the use of the spelling 'Neandertal man' are notably silent when the topic of Peking man comes up; there's no movement to change that name to 'Beijing man,' even though the city's name is always spelled Beijing in English these days."

Another question is how to pronounce either "Neanderthal" or "Neanderthalensis," with a 't' sound or a 'th' sound. Again it's a matter for debate and there's no "correct" answer, both pronunciations are accepted. The pronunciation in German is "tal" rather than "thal," no matter which way it's spelled, but that has little bearing on the English/American pronunciation. If it was always proper to use the pronunciation from the original language then, as Robert J. Sawyer pointed out in the above article, the only proper way to pronounce "Paris" would be the way the French do, "par-ee," and anyone who insisted on doing that all the time would not come across so well in America. Given how long English has been around and how many words it has adopted there are too many other examples of adapted spellings and pronunciations that are now considered proper English to count.

So you can call it whichever you want, but i am quite happy to spell it "Neanderthal" and pronounce it with the "h" sound because that sounds most natural to me, and no reference to current German spelling or pronunciation is a valid argument against me doing so.

They're not a game, just like Marget Atwood doesn't write science fiction

This is probably off topic, but you might be interested in the "Neanderthal Trilogy" by Robert J. Sawyer http://www.sfwriter.com/exho.htm

In it, he describes a parallel universe where the Neanderthal, not Humans, got the leg up on evolution with the humans dieing off. When a group of Neanderthal scientists accidentally create a dimensional bridge to a reality where Humans flourished, they are puzzled by our beliefs in "god" and the supernatural.

After some investigating they figure out our beliefs are caused by, what they term, the "god gene". Humans have it, Neanderthals don't. It causes all kinds of neat and interesting situations that I don't really want to spoil so I won't go into. Book series is good though, so I would definitely recommend checking it out.

There's even broach the subject of "curing" religion.

Robert Sawyer wrote a book based on the premise that Carinæ is about to light up and toast us.

Robert J. Sawyer dealt with this issue in his SF book Frameshift. An excellent read and I quite like his writing.

Flashforward, a novel by Robert J. Sawyer, begins with the initial LHC power-up at CERN. Recommended.

Robert J Sawyer used them in his last novel. He does quite a bit of research for his books, as do other sci fi authors.

Robert J Sawyer used them in his last novel. He does quite a bit of research for his books, as do other sci fi authors.

Robert J Sawyer used them in his last novel. He does quite a bit of research for his books, as do other sci fi authors.

I'm starting to feel like the right to privacy might be a red herring. The benefits of technology and a truely collaborative and just society might only be fully realized if we completely give up privacy... and that that might actually be a good thing. I know that I've read an essay or something about this before, but I can't find a link - anyone know who wrote about this or where I can find some references? (Actually, Robert J. Sawyer wrote a series of books where one of the societies is like this... but it's not what I'm thinking of.)

I am half-ashamed, half-impressed to say that this book, actually, although not entirely, converted me to the camp of "Intelligent Design".

Calculating God

Although, naturally, the aliens are pure speculative fiction, the things that the aliens and humans discuss are actually true, and the first half of this book, before the terrorists, is very well-designed, and converted me, an apathetic Deist, to someone who does not dismiss Intelligent Design, and actually argues it with his more "chemical chance" oriented friends.

Good book, highly recommended for ANYONE, even people who won't be swayed.

I seem to remember reading in the book that the decision for recreating Neanderthals actually started from the idea of using them for medical testing, as the Neanderthals are pretty close to human in regards to physiology...

Ah, here is the relevant passage:

'The Neanderthal experiment was conceived in order to create the euphemistically entitled "medical test vessels", living creatures that were as close as possible to humans without actually being human within the context of the law. The experiment was an unparalleled success - and failure. The Neanderthal was everything that could be hoped for. A close cousin but not human, physiologically almost identical - and legally with less rights than a dormouse. But sadly for Goliath, even the hardiest of medical technicians balked at experiments conducted upon intelligent and speaking entities, so the first batch of Neanderthals were trained instead as "expendable combat units", a project that was shelved as soon as the lack of aggressive instincts in the Neanderthals was noted. They were subsequently released into the community as cheap labour and became a celebrated tax write-off. It was Homo sapiens at his least sapient.'

Gerhard VON SQUID - Neanderthals Back after a Short Absence

From "Something Rotten" by Jasper Fforde. (Goliath being the megacorp that cloned the 'thals).

Also highly recommended is the "Neanderthal Parallax" trilogy by Robert J Sawyer (although it's pretty much straight scifi, not comedic like Fforde's books).

They're, like, the Oscars of sci-fi. They're pretty popular; last year, I went out to my local Chapters branch to pick up a copy of Robert J. Sawyer's "Homonids", a recent Hugo Award winner. It turns out that a few days prior, some nutter had been to every major Chapters location in the city and had bought out their entire stock of the book. As the clerk helping me out sighed, "The Hugo Awards make people do strange things."

"If you haven't read 1984 yet, do it now."

And for an interesting counterpoint, read Robert J. Sawyer's Hominids.

He writes of a society where everyone's every moment is recorded. The saving grace is that only the individual or a court can access the records. With the proper controls, such a record can be handy. Excellent book that leans to the left while at the same time challenging a lot of positions of those of us who lean left.

Surely someone else remembers the time when software which included an editor often came with the option to use "Wordstar keys" -- a lot of Borland stuff, for instance?

My personal favourite was WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS, but I wouldn't use it now -- it's nvi for me.

Also, here's a reference to Univac and its one vacuum tube.

If the /. folks get their panties in a knot over an ASIMOV reference, I don't know what this world has come to! Is slashdot now only for praising Apple and bashing Bill? Can't we get back to basics with geeky sci-fi references?

Did anyone else think of the embedded computers that monitor your day, described in Rob Sawyer's Neanderthal trilogy? They even mention the same application - remembering where you lost items...

Or the Hugo Award Winning Hominids , in which an alternate earth of Neanderthals all have "companions", which are monitoring devices implanted in the arms, among which record everything immediately around the person to save to a master server station in a highly secured area.

Robert J. Sawyer and other sci-fi authors claim WordStar for DOS is still the best.

Nice quoting.
Nicked from a previous discussion
Even then, half of that had been nicked from someone's article. Privacy: Who Needs It?

Betcha didn't think you'd get caught?

I've had similar experiences with Sayer.

I started of with Frameshift (hugo finalist). Which was rather confusing and pointless (or rather it had to may points for any of them to mean anything). Thinking that I might be missing something (with Sayer getting all those awards), I tried The Terminal Experiment (Nebula winner), which was even worse.

Both books suffer badly from Sayer inablility to stick with the topic or hold a logical plot together. His characters are annoying sons-of-hippies, who thinks unlike any real people. They mostly act like politically correct robots.

I'm never going to read another Sayer novel, no matter how may awards it gets.

I'm not sure about it and frankly I'm not going to spend the time checking on it, but I've this idea that all these awards corolate with him having been
President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc..

I'm not saying that there's a direct connecting, but he must have a lot of friends and be well connected. Probably a good guy to know and brown-nose, if you what a good quote on the back of your next novel...

I find it a bit sad that Sawyer's books have big blurb's trumpeting how he is Canada's answer to xxx. UK SF also seems to have had an inferiority complex up until recently with cover quotes of how author Y has revitilised UK SF.

I am very surprised that Australian SF book covers have not done the same over the past decade. We are usually quite noisy about promoting Aussieness, to our eternal detriment.

I enjoyed reading Sawyer's Calculating God, but after seeing his website sfwriter.com I'm quite put off by this guy's self-promotion.

Day of the Minotaur (1967)
Too Many Magicians (1967)
Goblin Reservation (1969)
Harpist in the Wind (1980)
Little, Big (1982)
Tea With the Black Dragon (1984)
Seventh Son (1988)
Red Prophet (1989)
Prentice Alvin (1990)
Towing Jehovah (1995)

By the way, Hominids is a dreadful book, and there's a coincidence in its win that Slashdot readers may not know about: the author couldn't possibly be more active in promoting himself as Canada's big-time SF writer, and all the Hugo voters this year were necessarily paid members of a convention taking place in Canada--in fact, Toronto where the winning author lives. Are Canadian SF fans really such parochial nationalist boosters that they would vote for a bad book just because it's Canadian? I wouldn't have thought so before yesterday.

You should read Hominids, The Scar, Bones of the Earth, Kiln People, and The Years of Rice and Salt if you'd like to judge for yourself. I'd have voted for any of them and even "no award" before I would have voted for Hominids.

If you don't like American Culture, then don't partake of it. Create your own. Enjoy your own.

Stop blaming America for your problems.

If it wasn't for libraries when I was younger, I probably wouldn't be buying any books today. Libraries are a bit like drug pushers, first few years are free but eventually you're going to want a book that is checked out by someone else and don't want to wait for it to come back. So you'll go and spend money buying it.

If it wasn't for libraries, very few people would learn to enjoy reading and the book industry would be screwed. The publishers should donate books to libraries to increase interest in their authors.

As a good example, I read a couple of books by Robert J. Sawyer from the library. I wouldn't have gone into a bookstore and bought them because I'd never heard of him before. I've since bought almost all of his books that are currently in print.

If you enjoy your research in the form of good hard science fiction, Robert J. Sawyer currently has a trilogy, with the second book just in bookstores, regarding an alternate world where Neanderthals survived while Humans died out, and includes details on privacy, quantum computing, and different extinction selections and how they affect the same world. Really interesting read.

Tonight on Studio2, a 3-member panel debated the virtues of the manned space program from a cost-benefit stance, from the human-wonder-fulfillment stance and the most interesting, from the "all of humanity's eggs in one basket stance".

SciFi author Robert J. Sawyer [link] explained that the space program is more than just about vanity, or the desire to prove worth. If it weren't for curiosity, none of us would have left Africa some 6-7 million years ago.

I believe the space program is necessary, because it allows us to test new technologies to their limits. Like pens that can write upside down...

I would also like to point out that NASA seems to be ignoring the first A. That's a great error in my eyes. Atmospheric transportation will always be more common than interstellar imo.

The final thing I have to add, is the fact that humanity will reach a population impasse. Even if (hopefully when) all of the world develops, and rates of population increase drop, consumption of natural resources will eventually deplete reserves. I believe space exploration is but one link in the chain that will lead us away from Earth, and towards a new home. Maybe one with track lighting?

Cory Doctorow (who just released a book, and a short story on salon)

Robert J. Sawyer - Link

Canadian author Robert J. Sawyer's work is pretty recent (maybe last 15 years, "golden fleece" is, as far as I know, his first novel, and it's from 1990). It's also very good, I've yet to read one of his books and not like it. This guy has such mastery of science, fiction and storytelling, you'd almost think scientific principles adapt themselves to better suit Robert's storylines, and not the other way around.

He also touches topics ranging from paleontology to artificial intelligence, quantum computing, extraterrestrial races, time travel and genetics.

And, if that kind of thing interests you, he's also won the Nebula award and is a 6-time Hugo award finalist.

Finally, he's got a pretty complete website where you can see what this is all about.

No personal ties, I'm not his agent or anything. I just think his books are awesome.

I hope this isn't too off-topic. :) But hopefully I can recommend my own favorite (so far) Sawyer novel.

I've thoroughly enjoyed his Far-Seer , which retells the story of Galileo using another planet and society (intelligent dinosaurs, anyone?) to educate. While there are changes in the empirical evidence available, done to compensate for the radically-different setting, the issues presented are the same.

While I'm already familiar with Galileo's story from reading other accounts of his life, Far-Seer put it into a personal perspective. The wonder of discovery, the process of reasoning how the solar system actually worked (including building on what others had written before) and the shock of being put on trial by society for upsetting the prevailing, comfortable world-view -- they are all here. So, too, is the punishment (again, changed, though I will not spoil it here.)

The Church didn't apologize to Galileo for 300 years. Give that some thought ...

Check it out...lots of good information!

http://www.sfwriter.com/

ttyl
Farrell

To read more of Sawyer's stories and order autographed copies direct from him, visit:

http://www.sfwriter.com/

Best way to support an author is a direct sale. (:

The big problems with getting science fiction onto bestseller lists, except for top names like Crichton, is that publishers don't print enough to actually make a dent on the lists. According to Robert J. Sawyer, his initial harcover runs are still only a few thousand for North America (this includes Canada as well), while best sellers usually sell this many just in the first week at least just in the USA. Sawyer's won awards in four countries and is constantly active in science fiction with clinics and book tours, as well as being a former president of the SFWA, but because he's not only Canadian, but a science fiction author, he doesn't get the sales of anything that, say, Grisham or King would get.

And until there's a demonstration that books such as his are marketable in the same lists as King or Grisham books, they won't be printed in the numbers needed to get on those lists.

Well, one of the other nominees this year for the Hugo Novel was "Calculating God" by Robert J. Sawyer.

Aliens have come to Earth to speak to a paleontologist to find out about Earth's fossil records, to prove the existence of God, who has been present in sentient planets throughout the galaxy.

Pretty original. At least it's not another novel about dinos on an island.

Well, one of the other nominees this year for the Hugo Novel was "Calculating God" by Robert J. Sawyer.

Aliens have come to Earth to speak to a paleontologist to find out about Earth's fossil records, to prove the existence of God, who has been present in sentient planets throughout the galaxy.

Pretty original. At least it's not another novel about dinos on an island.

Here's my problem, if Expressive Speech is more protected than Functional Speech, what exactly is the difference? I've tried looking at it philosophically, and I get "All speech has both Expressive and Functional aspects to it, there is no pure speech". If there is a legal distiction, can someone (preferably a Lawyer, but not necessarily) please elaborate what it is?

Barring that, there are some programs that, in my opinion, just plain qualify as art. For example, in the 15th International Obfuscated C Code Contest, I'd put the programs Glicbawls (bmeyer.c) and TomX.

Glicbawls goes beyond compressing an image, it talks about ongoing research in the field, demonstrating a routine at the heart of the author's research. It has a clean interface which will do the right thing when confronted with a compressed or uncompressed file. It has a visual representation that is small and artistic. It is programming poetry, a statement about beauty.

Tomx is poetry as well, but poetry of a different kind. Rather than showing beauty, it talks of communication; "All language is fundamentally one". This is a truth we learn when learning to program, but we often forget it as we move into the real world from the abstract. TomX brings this truth into the real world for us to hold, touch, play with. It's even maintainable code (unlike most of the IOCCC entries), so it can grow.

Another example of the expressiveness of a program is in the metaphor it uses to interface with the user. Robert J. Sawyer (Author of Calculating God and Flash Fowrward) wrote an excellent article on the design of Wordstar, and how much more joyful it is for him to use, because of the design metaphor, than other designs that perform the same function.

The Museum of Modern Art has an entire department of Architecture and Design devoted to the art of things that many people think of as purely functional. While they do not yet include software, there is no denying that the software process has much in common with Architecture, Engineering and Design, and the same aesthetic and artistic choices get made during the process.

These are just some examples off the top of my head. I'd really like an answer to my first question tho.

----

Add on to that many people think their product is the most bloated, slow, and kludgy word processor on earth and you have even more reason to be angry.

Sounds like you and Robert Sawyer would get along well. ;) For myself, I believe all applications suck; some suck less than others, for various reasons. I use Word because it'll read most any file format going; the fact it does lots of nifty things is icing on the cake. As a Windows-based word processor, it's hard to beat. As a text editor, well... yeah. I stick with notepad, or better yet, joe. ;)

Many believe Microsoft to be engaged in similar practices.

Isn't that what the whole court case is about?
People have every right to be angry if they feel that MS products are kludgy, etcetc. However, that doesn't mean MS is wrong and should be punished. The problems with Windows et al are due more, IMO, to trying to support legacy code than to deliberate attempts to harm the consumers, using their (MS's) place in the market.

The other thing Katz brought up is the government has to prove that MS prevented Netscape from bringing things to market - personally, I don't believe they did.

Of *course* Microsoft is doing everything they can to solidify their position in the marketplace. Isn't that what capitalism is about? I could go on, but it would be somewhat offtopic and I'm at work anyway. ;)

...at least as far as WordStar is concerned: Some authors still prefer using WordStar for "serious" work. This essay, written by SF writer Robert J. Sawyer, gives a comprehensive history of WordStar.

Robert J. Sawyer's award-winning science fiction has garnered both popular and critical acclaim. The New York Times called Factoring Humanity "filled to bursting with ideas, characters, and incidents," while The Gainesville Sun said, "Sawyer is a brilliant stylist who depicts daily life events with a shattered worldview."

Sawyer now brings us Flashforward, the story of a world-shattering discovery at the CERN research facility in Switzerland. The research team of Lloyd Simcoe and Theo Procopides is using the particle accelerator at CERN in pursuit of the elusive Higgs Boson, a theoretical subatomic particle. But their experiment goes incredibly awry, and, for a few moments, the consciousness of the entire human race is thrown ahead by about twenty years.

While humanity must deal immediately with the destructive aftermath of the experiment -- thousands were injured and killed as every single person's body was left unconscious in the here-and-now -- the greater implications take longer to surface. People who had no vision of the future seek to learn how they will died, while others seek out future lovers.

Lloyd must deal with the guilt of accidentally causing the death of his fiancée's child, while Theo gets caught up in the search for his own murderer. As the implications truly hit home, the pressure to repeat the experiment builds. Everyone wants a glimpse of the future, a chance to flashforward to see their successes . . . or learn how to avoid their failures.

Robert J. Sawyer's award-winning science fiction has garnered both popular and critical acclaim. The New York Times called Factoring Humanity "filled to bursting with ideas, characters, and incidents," while The Gainesville Sun said, "Sawyer is a brilliant stylist who depicts daily life events with a shattered worldview."

Sawyer now brings us Flashforward, the story of a world-shattering discovery at the CERN research facility in Switzerland. The research team of Lloyd Simcoe and Theo Procopides is using the particle accelerator at CERN in pursuit of the elusive Higgs Boson, a theoretical subatomic particle. But their experiment goes incredibly awry, and, for a few moments, the consciousness of the entire human race is thrown ahead by about twenty years.

While humanity must deal immediately with the destructive aftermath of the experiment -- thousands were injured and killed as every single person's body was left unconscious in the here-and-now -- the greater implications take longer to surface. People who had no vision of the future seek to learn how they will died, while others seek out future lovers.

Lloyd must deal with the guilt of accidentally causing the death of his fiancée's child, while Theo gets caught up in the search for his own murderer. As the implications truly hit home, the pressure to repeat the experiment builds. Everyone wants a glimpse of the future, a chance to flashforward to see their successes . . . or learn how to avoid their failures.

...to the practical, for a moment.

For information about Robert Sawyer and his works, including samples (several short stories and selections from novels), visit his site.

I'd strongly recommend his work to anyone looking for intelligently written SF. He really seems to take the time to understand the science he writes about; a refreshing change from the usual treknology and handwaving.

I would have to say that Robert Sawyer's work is some of the best sci-fi I've come across recently. I've read everything up to this point, with the exception of Calculating God, which is on my short list at the moment.

I would also recommend:

• Golden Fleece
• Frameshift
• Starplex

Incidentally, his website is here.