Science Fiction
illconsidered | August 22, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 53
Table of Contents
Chapter 55
Chapter 54
Greenhouse, May 31, 2057
Things were not looking good. At UNGETF, we were all too aware of of the unfolding disasters. The storms and wildfires, the floods and droughts were bad enough, but food production was down again. The methane levels kept rising. Nothing we were doing seemed to have any effect.
I left the meeting with a heavy heart. As I headed for home, it was already hot. This was May. When spring starts in February, the season seems to go on forever. Calling April the cruellest month seemed…
milhayser | August 21, 2013For writer and director Neill Blomkamp, Elysium is round two of sci-fi feature as social allegory, following in the footsteps of 2009's District 9. Whereas District 9 paralleled the history of apartheid in South Africa, Elysium deals with issues of illegal immigration and social class, centered on everyone's favorite pre-apocalyptic wasteland, Los Angeles.
It's a pure joy to see L.A. extrapolated to a vibrant, populous, spray-painted pile of rubble in the year 2154, where even gringos like Matt Damon hablan español. This proletariat L.A., where ex-con Damon earns minimum wage building robot…
illconsidered | August 16, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 52
Table of Contents
Chapter 54
Chapter 53
Carillon, March 8, 2057
When I got home that afternoon I discovered that one of my new students had surreptitiously video logged me. Edie met me at the door with, "I watched your whole lecture today."
"What?"
"It's true. You're all over the forums. There have been thousands of downloads."
I shook my head a little dismayed.
"People want to know what's really going on and nobody believes the official reports."
Anna heard my voice and came running into the kitchen. I was hot and tired, so I dropped down…
illconsidered | August 8, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 51
Table of Contents
Chapter 53
Chapter 52
Ecology 550 - Group 5 Overview, March 8, 2057
Notes on a lecture.
Spring term was near the half way point and Ecology 550 was ahead of schedule. I had been fielding a lot of questions about Group 5, so I decided to do an overview lecture on the UNGETF groups and wind up with some details on Group 5.
I made a list to structure the class. I opened a screen with my padd and projected the list.
Group 1 - Reforestation, ongoing, effectiveness minimal.
Group 2 - Stratospheric sulphates, effective but…
illconsidered | August 1, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 50
Table of Contents
Chapter 52
Chapter 51
Soap, February 20, 2057
Anna came down the hall complaining. "Mommy, my tummy hurts." There were bubbles coming out of her mouth.
Edie took one look and yelled, "Luc, call an ambulance!"
I came out of the kitchen and saw Anna down on her hands and knees vomitting on the front room floor. There was a trail of liquid down the hall to the bathroom. Following the trail back, I found a shampoo bottle on the bathroom floor. It was about half full.
"Do you know how much was in this?"
"Oh my god!" exclaimed…
illconsidered | July 26, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 49
Table of Contents
Chapter 51
Chapter 50
Eco 110 - Carrying Capacity, January 15, 2057
Notes on a lecture
It was the first class of the term. I was purposefully late, because I wanted everyone to be present and impatient. I walked in, dropped my case on the wide black presentation desk and turned to face the old theatre style hall.
"Okay, here is the question: Are we collectively smarter than a vat of yeast?"
I let that sink in for a few seconds, then continued with:
"The topic for today is carrying capacity.
"Intuitively, the idea is how…
illconsidered | July 26, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 48
Table of Contents
Chapter 50
Chapter 49
Solstice, December 27, 2056
I have not been writing much, because I have been busy with the lichen. Annoyingly, the symbiotic signalling continues to elude me. A colleague at CCU collaborated with me on a paper. "An examination of the laboratory growth rates of the lichen eFontaine1" by Luc C. Fontaine and George R. Collins. eFontaine1 was the proper name, but we all called it eF1.
Last year by unspoken assent, Edie and I both more or less ignored xmas. This year Anna was old enough that she would…
illconsidered | July 20, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 47
Table of Contents
Chapter 49
Chapter 48
Edie's Questions , October 4, 2056
Since our talk about Neurolin last spring, Edie had applied herself to her distance courses and done well. She had stopped taking it when she finished the courses. Judging by the steady stream of customers who dropped around for fab created items, her basement business was thriving.
I mentioned it to her once. "I noticed you set up another fab," I said.
She nodded with a funny little smile. "Yeah, I've been busy," but no more was said.
Several times Edie ambushed me…
illconsidered | July 18, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 46
Table of Contents
Chapter 48
Chapter 47
Symbiosis, September 27, 2056
The next time I got into the lab, I started pulling apart lichen just to get a feel for the territory. Lichen is a symbiosis of an algae and a fungus. The fungus in the north is usually an ascomycetes. The algal component is usually a simple green algae, although occasionally a blue-green algae is found. A lot of work had been done on green algae earlier in the century while investigating their suitability for biofuel. It was the fungal component, the ascomycetes, which…
illconsidered | July 14, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 45
Table of Contents
Chapter 47
Chapter 46
Boo-Boo, August 26, 2056
I found myself becoming quite anthropological watching Anna learn to walk and talk over the summer. She is a curious and rambunctious child who is always getting into things we thought out of reach. If it isn't pots and pans, it is the media padd, old shoes -- you name it -- any damned thing we inadvertently leave open. I walked into the kitchen one day and Anna was sitting in the middle of the floor chewing on a mud-covered carrot she had pulled from a pile on the counter.…
illconsidered | June 21, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 44
Table of Contents
Chapter 46
Chapter 45
Daedalus, August 19, 2056
What is it that makes the PR efforts of the space industry always look so lame? Don't get me wrong. I love space. I think humans are bound to colonize the solar system sooner or later. As Tsiolkovsky said, "The earth is the cradle of mankind, but we cannot stay in the cradle forever." But I have yet to see a space agency that could sell their mother a ride to the corner, let alone to Pluto.
Carson Tyler Inc. announced the Daedalus Project with great fanfare when the five…
illconsidered | June 18, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 43
Table of Contents
Chapter 45
Chapter 44
An Unsettling Meeting, July 19, 2056
With the summer trimester, my schedule changed. Peter cut the UNGETF meetings down to once a month. I no longer had classes on Wednesday, the regular UNGETF meeting day. Usually I went in to work in the lab, but occasionally I stayed at home.
As I walked downtown to the meeting that day, the sun was burning hot. I was sweating within a block. It was uncomfortable and I was thirsty, but mainly I was troubled by my membrane design. My artificial biology project was…
illconsidered | June 7, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 42
Table of Contents
Chapter 44
Chapter 43
Group 5, July 12, 2056
No announcement of Group 5 commencement was made. I heard one day that a rocket had been launched from Whitesands. A week later there was another and I wondered. I remembered Rhamaposa's call in March. I checked UNGETF's Group 5 website and saw that launches had been happening for a month and a half. Project Daedalus was going ahead.
Group 5 was subdivided into four subgroups. At the heart of it was the L1 construction group. They were responsible for building the actual sun…
illconsidered | May 29, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 41
Table of Contents
Chapter 43
Chapter 42
The Daily Battle, July 7, 2056
Things were not looking good.
In the Arctic, there was no sign of the methane abating. In some places the water was milky, churning with the gases. Lightning triggered explosions were not unusual. The Group 6 cloud makers had some 150 ships sailing there. Precipitation patterns had changed, but there was no appreciable cooling. Anxiety levels were rising.
In the Antarctic the breakup of the Ronne ice sheet was continuing apace. A few more islands disappeared.
In Europe…
illconsidered | May 23, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 40
Table of Contents
Chapter 42
Chapter 41
Theft and Meditation, June 27, 2056
I was between classes in mid-afternoon when Edie phoned.
"Luc. There are men in the shed stealing things."
"Call the police."
"I did. There's no answer."
"What?"
"I tried to stop them, but..."
"Where are the police?"
"I don't know."
"Okay. Lock the door and stay in the house. I'll be right there." I knew she would probably be safe, because of the heavy metal door and frame.
"Good."
I hung up and called the police while I checked my schedule. I…
jdupuis | May 17, 2013I have to admit -- I've always been more of Star Trek fan rather than Star Wars. The Star Trek universe has always seemed more open, more diverse, with a lot more opportunities for telling different stories not just about the rebels versus the empire.
It seems that Neil deGrasse Tyson agrees.
"I'm old-school with the big traditional TV and movie series, so I'm old-school Star Trek. I'm partial to the old crew, Captain Kirk,"
*snip*
"I never got into Star Wars," Tyson said. "Maybe because they made no attempt to portray real physics. At all."
*snip*
"I like the double star sunset scene (on…
illconsidered | May 15, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 39
Table of Contents
Chapter 41
Chapter 40
Learning To Stand, June 17, 2056
The weeks ground by. The meetings, the lack of progress really grated. I wasn't doing well in my work. The damned membrane grew, but it kept wanting to curl up in tubes and I didn't know why. It had something to do with humidity.
At UNGETF, Group 7 was monitoring corporate activities, but it was soul destroying. Fifty low energy ships were now sailing around the Arctic making clouds to no noticeable effect. One hundred more were planned. They were retrofitting them at…
illconsidered | May 8, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 38
Table of Contents
Chapter 40
Chapter 39
A Walk in the Park, April 26, 2056
I got a bit of a surprise when I got home. Edie caught me just as I was entering and asked, "Do you think we are descending into a New Dark Age?"
My head was full of genomic patterns, molecular shapes and chemical cycles --- walking home I had been going over the design of my synthetic carbon eater --- and I was flummoxed. It was so out of the blue.
"I don't know. I haven't thought about it."
Edie wasn't about to be put off. "Well think about it. I'd like to discuss…
illconsidered | May 1, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 37
Table of Contents
Chapter 39
Artificial Biology, April 19, 2056
I was beginning to feel like things were slipping out of control. I don't know that they had ever been in control, but before Edie started Neurolin, before the Group 2 disaster and before Rhamaposa started talking about conventions of idiots, I had felt I had a handle on what was going on. Now I realized I was at a loss. What effect would the drug have on Edie? What good would the Group 6 cloud makers do? The Group 5 sun shade project was at best speculative. On top of which…
jdupuis | April 28, 2013hardly ever does The Globe and Mail books section every Saturday feature more than one, maybe two, books that I'm interested in. They're pretty heavy on the Canlit side, with a heavy helping of the kind of public affairs books that don't really do it for me. The mystery roundup feature is usually my best bet. Well this week there were three -- count'em three -- books that really piqued my interest. And a pretty diverse bunch too, one physics, one horror fiction and another environmental non-fiction featuring the kind of intersection between food, science and policy that I find so interesting…