Science vs. Fiction

Fiction writing is very similar to science in one central way: You need to create a narrative that allows the facts to be exposed.

The Forgotten

Doug Glanville wrote an annoying article about how hard it is being a 38-year-old millionaire and here's what people (including I) had to say about it.

Space Taxi: Diary of a Long-Haul Tanker

At the bottom of the ocean, thermophilic bacteria have evolved to take nourishment from heat coming through cracks in the earth’s crust. Though similar in most respects to other bacteria, these thermophiles have the unique ability to harness this heat energy. Through natural selection, generation by generation, their species has adapted to take advantage of unseen power radiated from below the ocean floor. Organs that once digested physical nourishment have slowly mutated to perform this dual purpose.

If string theory is correct, space contains many more dimensions than the four that we can perceive. Imagine that some vastly intelligent being lives right next door to us along one of these unseen dimensions. Could he be sending information to us in some manner not easily measured by modern technology? He may even be looking forward along our “temporal” dimension and sending us clues.

Neuroscience is in its infancy. We’ve hardly even guessed at the function of vast portions human brain; much less the selective pressures and adaptations that carved it. Could we be evolving to better receive these signals? Even inchoate, such an ability would certainly confer a selective advantage. Could this vastly complex organ be only part thinking machine and part … antenna?

I doubt it, but my passengers are pretty fired-up about the idea. That’s why they’ve hired me to .. blah blah blah blah blah blah … etc.

The Problem With "The Reader"

Though obviously not a comedy, The Reader has the same that problem that all romantic comedies (except this one) have. In order to enjoy the movie (in order for the movie not to be a complete boring waste of time) you have to care about something that I can't possibly imagine caring about. In the case of the romantic comedy, it's whether the girl and the douchebag get together. In the case of The Reader it's what happens to the illiterate murdering Nazi pedophile. She gets 20 years in jail even though she wasn't *really* the boss (just a murdering Nazi pedophile)? She figures out how to read? Who the fuck cares? She doesn't seem to figure out that child molesting or the holocaust were bad things.

ask mefi doesn't know funny

I feel like this is one of the funniest things I've ever written and it didn't get favorited once. Why do I care? I don't know but I do.

Why do people all hope we'll find extraterrestrial intelligence? I don't know that either. It's illogical.