Well, yeah, but if you look at Richard Carrigan's paper, he does cite Hoyle & Elliot's novel *A for Andromeda* as a reference. He also cites a novel he co-authored with his wife Nancy in 1970 *The Siren Stars*, which has a similar premise (SETI signal turns out to have inimical influence on Earth scientists).
So he's not claiming it's an utterly original idea. Just that it might be time to consider its technical aspects.
sbennett (448295) says: Which of course leads to the corollary: "Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced."
Which, of course, is Gehm's Corollary to Clarke's Third Law, coined by Prof. Barry Gehm, now of Lyon College in Arkansas.
He is also the guy who said:
"Have you noticed that, when we were young, we were told that 'everybody else is doing it' was a really stupid reason to do something, but now it's the standard reason for picking a particular software package?"
> Is there anyone besides me who likes to travel > and look at engineering projects?
Frederik Pohl, the great science fiction writer, for one. He recently published a book called *Chasing Science* which is a guide for people like you (and me).
Fred describes himself as a "science fan" and he's fascinated with science and technology as spectator sports. He's visited labs, digs, observatories, volcanoes, museums, and historic sites. He also attends technical conferences. Good homework for a hard-SF writer, to be sure, but to Fred it's pure fun.
In the book Fred describes some possible destinations, tells a lot of his science-tourist stories, and provides lists of places to visit. It would be a great gift for a kid who's gobbled up books about his favorite science topics and wants to find ways to learn more.
By the way, I really liked the Stephenson article, too, but "hacker tourism" is scarcely new. Here's something I wrote when it was first published:
Slashdot Mirror
Well, yeah, but if you look at Richard Carrigan's paper, he does cite Hoyle & Elliot's novel *A for Andromeda* as a reference. He also cites a novel he co-authored with his wife Nancy in 1970 *The Siren Stars*, which has a similar premise (SETI signal turns out to have inimical influence on Earth scientists).
So he's not claiming it's an utterly original idea. Just that it might be time to consider its technical aspects.
Yes, he was really, really smart. Look him up.
With other sages of his time, he founded the Royal Society, without which there would be no NASA, and maybe no perpetual motion machines.
Yes, this John Wilkins is the very same guy. See more here.
(And he is a significant character in the novel Quicksilver.)
Yes, I understand. Happy to have you share it, especially if you spell our names right!
I'm going to start a rumor that Shoemaker-Levy 9 was a Tesla experiment gone horribly wrong.
sbennett (448295) says:
Which of course leads to the corollary: "Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced."
Which, of course, is Gehm's Corollary to Clarke's Third Law, coined by Prof. Barry Gehm, now of Lyon College in Arkansas.
He is also the guy who said:
"Have you noticed that, when we were young, we were told that 'everybody else is doing it' was a really stupid reason to do something, but now it's the standard reason for picking a particular software package?"
> Is there anyone besides me who likes to travel
3 19%40fnald.fnal.gov&oe=UTF-8&output=gplain
> and look at engineering projects?
Frederik Pohl, the great science fiction writer,
for one. He recently published a book called
*Chasing Science* which is a guide for people like
you (and me).
Fred describes himself as a "science fan" and
he's fascinated with science and technology
as spectator sports. He's visited labs, digs,
observatories, volcanoes, museums, and historic
sites. He also attends technical conferences.
Good homework for a hard-SF writer, to be sure,
but to Fred it's pure fun.
In the book Fred describes some possible
destinations, tells a lot of his science-tourist
stories, and provides lists of places to visit.
It would be a great gift for a kid who's gobbled
up books about his favorite science topics and
wants to find ways to learn more.
By the way, I really liked the Stephenson article,
too, but "hacker tourism" is scarcely new. Here's
something I wrote when it was first published:
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=1996Dec3.133
Summary: Charles Babbage did it, too.
Bill Higgins
Fermilab