13 June 2009: Liberation Square

[13:30] Jago Constantine: Hi, Athena
[13:30] Athena Maeterlinck: hello
[13:31] Jago Constantine: cool avatar!
[13:31] Athena Maeterlinck: Thanks
[13:31] Jago Constantine: Are you here for the science fiction discussion?
[13:31] Athena Maeterlinck: Aye a little early I know
[13:32] Jago Constantine: it's upstairs at 2pm :)
[13:33] Athena Maeterlinck: Great rocketship
[13:33] Jago Constantine: yeah it's fun :) / Would you like an invitation for our group?
[13:34] Athena Maeterlinck: No room in groups I'm afraid
[13:35] Jago Constantine: Ok, well we have meetings each week same time and are in search
[13:35] Jago Constantine: Hi, Zobeid!
[13:35] Zobeid Zuma: hello
[13:36] Athena Maeterlinck: Hello Zobeid
[13:36] Jago Constantine: It's a little early yet, so I'm doing some things in IM :P
[13:36] Zobeid Zuma: okay
[13:39] Jago Constantine: lol athena
[13:39] Zobeid Zuma: SL locked up. . . again / It has been doing that often.
[13:39] Jago Constantine: it seems better for me the last few months
[13:39] Zobeid Zuma: BRB. . .
[13:39] Jago Constantine: ok
[13:42] Jago Constantine: Sorry if the chairs don't work for you, Athena :P
[13:42] Athena Maeterlinck: Meh its pretty normal with atiny av
[13:43] Jago Constantine: It's a cool skybox :)
[13:44] Athena Maeterlinck: Apparently so
[13:44] Zobeid Zuma: now that's better. . . I hope :/
[13:44] Jago Constantine: WB Zobeid, nice outfit :)
[13:45] Zobeid Zuma: thankee!
[13:45] Athena Maeterlinck: What was wrong before?
[13:46] Zobeid Zuma: oh, nothing important. . . / let's hope trying to sit down doesn't crash me again. . .
[13:46] Jago Constantine: hehe
[13:46] Zobeid Zuma: I think it works this time. :)
[13:47] Jago Constantine: Would you like a group invite, Zobeid?
[13:47] Zobeid Zuma: What group?
[13:47] Jago Constantine: Science Fiction Discussion :)
[13:47] Zobeid Zuma: sure why not?
[13:48] Jago Constantine: Hi, Arii!
[13:48] Arii Arida: hello :))
[13:48] Jago Constantine: I like the key :)
[13:49] Arii Arida: thanks...it's kookey..and has no particular use,lol
[13:49] Jago Constantine: ok so it won't wind down at all :P
[13:49] Arii Arida: ya..it will....but nothing happens
[13:49] Jago Constantine: hehe / try sitting on that athena
[13:50] Arii Arida: whats the athena?
[13:50] Arii Arida: ahhhhhh
[13:50] Jago Constantine: i meant the pose ball
[13:50] Athena Maeterlinck: oh
[13:50] Jago Constantine: the one near the book on the ground
[13:51] Arii Arida: I think for tinies...it wont work
[13:51] Jago Constantine: not the book itself, the ball is above it / its kind of transparent
[13:52] Athena Maeterlinck: Well pobably not if it mattered I'd just switch avvies
[13:52] Jago Constantine: heh oh well
[13:52] Arii Arida: love the rotating globe
[13:53] Jago Constantine: thanks it's a star emitter :P
[13:53] Arii Arida: I'm pulling my cam back.......Very nice
[13:53] Jago Constantine: wow athena!
[13:54] Arii Arida: we dont have a planatarium where I live...would br lovely if we did
[13:55] Jago Constantine: they're wonderful things :) / brb making a cup of tea
[13:57] Eddi Haskell: hai
[13:57] Zobeid Zuma: howdy
[13:57] Arii Arida: sorry....I changed the channel...me and my button pressing...lolz
[13:58] Athena Maeterlinck: Heelo there
[13:58] Eddi Haskell: im in chatanooga tenessee now. this place is science fiction
[13:58] Eddi Haskell: i cant beleive how slow everyone is.
[13:59] Eddi Haskell: jago will tell me to be nice in an im soon
[13:59] Arii Arida: be genuin.....
[13:59] Eddi Haskell: lol
[13:59] Athena Maeterlinck: Slow
[13:59] Athena Maeterlinck: ?
[13:59] Eddi Haskell: well they take their time doing things
[13:59] Eddi Haskell: this is the deep south in the US, im visiting here
[14:00] Eddi Haskell: i love sl . this to me is reality. the situation outside is what is strange.
[14:00] Jago Constantine: ok i'm back :) / welcome avex
[14:00] Eddi Haskell: good you dont have to see what I said
[14:00] Jago Constantine: hey eddi babe
[14:00] Arii Arida: well...I find here..paople are really free to be themselves..........
[14:00] Jago Constantine: lol
[14:00] Eddi Haskell: hey jago
[14:00] Eddi Haskell: yes
[14:01] Athena Maeterlinck: Nah this place is warped
[14:01] Arii Arida: freaky and deaky
[14:01] Eddi Haskell: well so am I / so it works
[14:01] Athena Maeterlinck: Were all completely nuts
[14:01] Eddi Haskell: i am for sure
[14:01] Arii Arida: to a degree yes...
[14:01] Arii Arida: some more than others
[14:01] Jago Constantine: ok i think it's time to start :)
[14:02] Jago Constantine: basically, we go round the group and talk about the last book we each read
[14:02] Arii Arida: cool
[14:03] Jago Constantine: I've been away for a few weeks so I read a few
[14:03] Jago Constantine: The best one was Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow
[14:03] Arii Arida: why did you like it?
[14:03] Jago Constantine: it's very topical / about the surveilance society we're creating / how it can be used by the authorities to take away our freedoms
[14:04] Arii Arida: scary
[14:04] Jago Constantine: and how it can be subverted and fought by the community
[14:04] Jago Constantine: basically it's about a kid in san francisco
[14:04] Jago Constantine: he's a hacker but not a bad guy
[14:05] Jago Constantine: so there's a terrorist attack in the city and he's arrested for being on the street
[14:05] Jago Constantine: sort of arbitrarily ... he's eventually released, but the experience makes him notice
[14:06] Jago Constantine: how people are willingly surrendering freedoms for security
[14:06] Jago Constantine: the title obviously is a reference to Big Brother from 1984
[14:06] Arii Arida: I think in this society.....people born into it....they dont notice as much
[14:07] Jago Constantine: I often read about how the UK is the most videod society in the world / hey melch, good to see you again
[14:07] Melch Savon: Afternoon all
[14:07] Melch Savon: Yeah -- been on vacation, no SL
[14:07] Arii Arida: Hi Melch :)
[14:07] Jago Constantine: I'm just talking about Cory Doctorow's Little Brother
[14:07] Eddi Haskell: hi melch!
[14:07] Jago Constantine: I really liked it
[14:08] Melch Savon: Really!
[14:08] Jago Constantine: yes :P
[14:08] Jago Constantine: Doctorow is the guy behind the site Boing Boing
[14:08] Jago Constantine: he's also a technolibertarian if that's the right word
[14:08] Melch Savon: Also, I believe, a native of my fair city :)
[14:08] Jago Constantine: he worked for the electronic frontier foundation / Which gets a plug in the book :)
[14:09] Zobeid Zuma: That reminds me, I need to join EFF.
[14:09] Melch Savon: The idea is an encrypted sub-section of the net used to organize against a police state, right?
[14:09] Jago Constantine: That reminds me, I bet the book is available online for free, knowing Doctorow
[14:09] Zobeid Zuma: Arisia, hii! :)
[14:09] Jago Constantine: http://craphound.com/littlebrother/download/
[14:09] Jago Constantine: there it is lol
[14:09] Melch Savon: I do read his blog occasionally
[14:09] Jago Constantine: I bought it :P / Hi, Arisia :)
[14:10] Arisia Vita: Hi everyone
[14:10] Melch Savon: Hey Arisia
[14:10] Eddi Haskell: hi arisia
[14:10] Eddi Haskell: does eveyrone have sound?
[14:10] Arii Arida: Hi Arisia :)
[14:10] Arii Arida: yup
[14:10] Jago Constantine: Yes melch, that's the idea
[14:10] Melch Savon: Yes - starting now
[14:11] Zobeid Zuma: starting what?
[14:11] Jago Constantine: the protagonist uses a sort of free internet to fight the government
[14:11] Melch Savon: Sound. Does Doctorow explain why the net is not just shut off to encrypted packets?
[14:11] Jago Constantine: Why do you ask, Eddi?
[14:11] Eddi Haskell: i dont have sound
[14:11] Jago Constantine: I forget :P / I can hear the birds, I think the music is off
[14:12] Melch Savon: It always bothered me about that kind of plot.
[14:12] Eddi Haskell: ok ill put it on
[14:12] Jago Constantine: I turned it off lol
[14:12] Eddi Haskell: ok
[14:13] Jago Constantine: Eddi did you read any sci fi lately?
[14:13] Eddi Haskell: no but ive taken about 100 steampunk photos all over sl
[14:13] Jago Constantine: hehe cool
[14:13] Eddi Haskell: the next issue of VR Style is the steampunk issue
[14:13] Jago Constantine: There's so many nice steampunk builds in SL
[14:13] Eddi Haskell: yeah
[14:14] Jago Constantine: Ok then, Arii ... what did you read last?
[14:14] Arii Arida: well
[14:14] Arisia Vita: currently reading Singularity Sky
[14:14] Jago Constantine: Cool / Charles Stross
[14:14] Arii Arida: dont judge me but
[14:14] Arisia Vita: yes
[14:14] Arii Arida: I dont like romance and I dont like Vampire reads....but I got sucked into reading twilight,lol
[14:14] Jago Constantine: Sorry Arisia, I meanr Arii across from you :)
[14:15] Arisia Vita: oh, I loved Twilight
[14:15] Jago Constantine: hehe
[14:15] Arisia Vita: just finished the fourth book
[14:15] Jago Constantine: I haven't seen the movie or read the book yet
[14:15] Arii Arida: all my little neices and gorlfriends kept bugging me ...so I caved
[14:15] Arisia Vita: I liked Host too
[14:15] Jago Constantine: so what's it like? I imagine like buffy :P
[14:15] Arisia Vita: sort of a Beauty and the Beast story
[14:15] Arii Arida: it's basically a romance...with good vampires.lol
[14:16] Jago Constantine: I keep seeing people making jokes about the vampires being shiny
[14:16] Arii Arida: they did it well. though...made me fall in love with Edward the main character...
[14:16] Jago Constantine: what;s that about?
[14:16] Arii Arida: I wont go to the movie...so I don't know / but their skin sort of shines in the sun / like diamonds
[14:17] Jago Constantine: heh ok / so the sun doesn't kill them
[14:17] Arii Arida: no
[14:18] Jago Constantine: have you read anne rice's vampire books?
[14:18] Arii Arida: no....vampires..I just can't get into it
[14:18] Jago Constantine: that's the only vampire series I read really
[14:18] Arii Arida: perhaps I should try one
[14:18] Jago Constantine: actually there was one schlock horror series called Necroscope with some very weird vampires
[14:19] Arii Arida: what was weird about them?
[14:19] Zobeid Zuma: I've never seen the point of vampires. . . never understood why other people find them interesting, really.
[14:19] Jago Constantine: oh well they're from another planet and they're shapeshifters kind of
[14:19] Zobeid Zuma: Except for Count Orlock of course. He was really creepy!
[14:19] Jago Constantine: it's very lurid writing
[14:19] Jago Constantine: but it was interesting because the main character can speak to the dead (necroscope)
[14:20] Arii Arida: ohhhhhhh
[14:20] Jago Constantine: Brian Lumley was the author
[14:21] Jago Constantine: A friend who loves twilight asked me for a recommendation and I pointed her to anne rice
[14:21] Jago Constantine: Hi, Mike!
[14:21] Arisia Vita: Hi Mike
[14:22] Melch Savon waves at Mike
[14:22] Arii Arida: I need to go..so sorry....this has been pleasant :)
[14:22] Jago Constantine: Ok, so Arisia ... how was Singularity Sky
[14:22] Arisia Vita: Bye Arii
[14:22] Jago Constantine: thanks for coming Arii
[14:22] Melch Savon: Bye Arii
[14:22] Jago Constantine: See you next week maybe :)
[14:22] Arisia Vita: it's great so far, just about 1/4 through
[14:23] Jago Constantine: I sent you a group invite did you get it?
[14:23] Eddi Haskell: bye Ari
[14:23] Jago Constantine: It wasn't my favourite stross novel
[14:23] Jago Constantine: but he fills it with a lot of cool ideas
[14:23] Arisia Vita: it's hard to write stories which occur after the singularity
[14:23] Jago Constantine: yeah, by definition it's almost not predictable :P
[14:23] Arisia Vita: right
[14:24] Mike111 Ewing: hello
[14:24] Jago Constantine: Hey mike welcome
[14:24] Jago Constantine: The way the meeting works is we go around and talk about what we read during the week
[14:25] Jago Constantine: it's like alcoholics anonymous for sci fi :P
[14:25] Jago Constantine: I only have a vague notion of how AA works lol
[14:25] Eddi Haskell: you have to admit you have a problem
[14:25] Eddi Haskell: and ask for help from a superior force
[14:25] Eddi Haskell: then you go to weekly meetings and become obnoxious
[14:25] Jago Constantine: ok well this is not like AA then :P
[14:26] Melch Savon: Hi, I'm Melch, and I don't have enough time to read all the good sci-fi out there
[14:26] Jago Constantine: except for going round the group :P
[14:26] Jago Constantine: Hi, Melch!
[14:26] Eddi Haskell: i went to a meeting of sarcastics anonymous once.
[14:26] Jago Constantine: :)
[14:26] Jago Constantine: lol
[14:26] Jago Constantine: So Zobeid, have you read anything good lately?
[14:27] Jago Constantine: heh
[14:27] Jago Constantine: ok Melch how about you?
[14:27] Zobeid Zuma: er?
[14:27] Jago Constantine: oh ok zz
[14:27] Jago Constantine: I thought you might be afk
[14:27] Zobeid Zuma: I read something old. . .
[14:28] Zobeid Zuma: A Barnstormer in Oz, by Phillip Jose Farmer!
[14:28] Jago Constantine: Wow, I remember that
[14:28] Melch Savon: Oh, what was that about? It sounds cool
[14:28] Jago Constantine: I got it from a 2nd hand store
[14:29] Zobeid Zuma: It's like a SF novel derived -- loosely -- from A Wonderful World of Oz.
[14:29] Jago Constantine: yeah it's kind of like a connecticut yankee in king arthur's court ... but in oz, right?
[14:30] Zobeid Zuma: The conceit is that Baum wrote his original book (the first one, not any of the sequels) based on an interview with the *real* Dorothy, who had inadvertently visited a parallel world.
[14:30] Melch Savon: Now that is an good premise
[14:30] Zobeid Zuma: And in this book, her son accidentally flies his biplane back to Oz and finds out the True Story of it all.
[14:30] Jago Constantine: yeah it's fun
[14:31] Jago Constantine: farmer writes a more adult style than baum :P
[14:31] Zobeid Zuma: But it's not a kid's story, and it's not fantasy. It's framed as real SF.
[14:31] Zobeid Zuma: Which means Farmer had to really stretch to come up with rational explanations for things.
[14:31] Jago Constantine: hehe
[14:32] Jago Constantine: it reminds me of tad williams' Otherland series
[14:32] Jago Constantine: in one of them the characters visit a version of Oz
[14:32] Zobeid Zuma: Something Farmer was well qualified to do, since he's written some really far-out SF. . .
[14:32] Jago Constantine: where the emerald city is a totalitarian state
[14:32] Zobeid Zuma: I kind of like the surreal, sort of trippy SF that came out of the 1970s. This I think is from 1983, but it really is that sort of style anyhow.
[14:33] Jago Constantine: yeah farmer is a pretty 70s author in his style
[14:33] Jago Constantine: You should read Mick Farren's DNA Cowboys series
[14:33] Zobeid Zuma: He's famous for the Riverworld series. . . which I personally wasn't crazy about. But he did The Stone God Awakens, which was another old favorite of mine.
[14:33] Jago Constantine: if you like surreal and trippy
[14:34] Jago Constantine: I liked the riverworld concept - all the human race being resurrected on a strange planet
[14:34] Zobeid Zuma: I'm not going to say Barnstormer is a *great* book, but it's a worthy experiment. Good for stretching the imagination a bit.
[14:35] Jago Constantine: Ok, melch, your turn :)
[14:35] Melch Savon: A book called Web Mage.
[14:36] Jago Constantine: never heard of it :P
[14:36] Melch Savon: Cross sci-fi and urban fantasy. The premise is the Fates have updated everything to modern technology
[14:36] Jago Constantine: cool
[14:36] Melch Savon: One of their descendants is a hacker, and refuses to debug their doomsday program to remove free will from humanity
[14:37] Jago Constantine: lol
[14:37] Jago Constantine: so the fates want to remove free will?
[14:37] Melch Savon: They take badly to that, and on we go ... Discord, the Furies, and sundry notables appear
[14:37] Melch Savon: Trolls and Goblins are all computer programs
[14:37] Jago Constantine: oh of course
[14:37] Melch Savon: Sure -- they are about order -- Discord is about free will and chaos
[14:37] Melch Savon: It is a great premise from, I think, a good but growing author
[14:38] Jago Constantine: who is it by?
[14:38] Melch Savon: Ummm ... hold on a sec
[14:38] Melch Savon: Kelly McCullough
[14:38] Mike111 Ewing: do you guys think scifi stories with aliens have been over done or still lots of room for improvement?
[14:38] Jago Constantine: ok that rings a bell
[14:38] Melch Savon: No, every story is new with the authors personal spin
[14:38] Jago Constantine: oh I think there are still a lot of good alien concepts
[14:39] Jago Constantine: I loved the aliens from Blindsight
[14:39] Melch Savon: i am writing one about golems created in the lab -- golems are pretty much done, but I think my spin is unique
[14:39] Jago Constantine: what's your angle?
[14:39] Mike111 Ewing: cool.. heh
[14:40] Melch Savon: Imagine a heroin addict wakes up in a hospitall ... clean. No tracks even
[14:40] Melch Savon: The first guy he sees tells him he is part of a super soldier experiment, and has a radio controlled explosive laced to his spine
[14:41] Jago Constantine: lol
[14:41] Jago Constantine: cool
[14:41] Melch Savon: What they don't tell him is he isn't him -- he is a golem, made using Kabbalistic magic as much as science
[14:41] Eddi Haskell: wow the golem
[14:41] Jago Constantine: ok ... so he's a golem with a person's memories?
[14:42] Melch Savon: yeah
[14:42] Melch Savon: Then he is attacked, to everyone's surprise, by anothre golem left over from 1100 BC
[14:42] Melch Savon: From there escape; look for parents; find out truth; go home; see 'real' self through window. Close3.
[14:42] Jago Constantine: cool
[14:42] Eddi Haskell: and he thinks its his motherinlaw right?
[14:42] Melch Savon: Still outlining the scenes, may take a few months yet
[14:43] Jago Constantine: sounds cool
[14:43] Melch Savon: Ideas are never the problem -- time to execute on them is :)
[14:43] Melch Savon: This feels right though. It started off totally different, but the story didn't work that way
[14:44] Jago Constantine: My favourite golem book of recent years is The Narrows, by Alexander Irvine
[14:44] Melch Savon: Hmm, missed that on
[14:44] Jago Constantine: ok, it's about industrial golem making in america
[14:44] Eddi Haskell: my favorite golem book is called "the Vicepresidency of Dan Quayle"
[14:44] Jago Constantine: Detroit in WW2
[14:45] Jago Constantine: They make a golem production line in the Ford plant
[14:45] Eddi Haskell: really that sounds cool . the one in willow run
[14:45] Jago Constantine: it is a cool book
[14:45] Jago Constantine: so there are germans and imps trying to sabotage the effort :P
[14:46] Melch Savon adds to his reading list ... "The Narrows"
[14:46] Eddi Haskell: i want to red it but
[14:46] Jago Constantine: it's magical realism
[14:46] Eddi Haskell: what is an "imp?"
[14:46] Jago Constantine: like a gremlin
[14:46] Jago Constantine: hey sandoone, nice to see you again
[14:46] Eddi Haskell: hi sandoone
[14:46] Sandoone Loudwater: Nice to be back JC.
[14:46] Sandoone Loudwater: Hey EH.
[14:47] Jago Constantine: So, Mike, what have you read lately?
[14:48] Jago Constantine: I should mention that Eddi and I are selling this block, so the next meeting will probably be somewhere else, maybe Insilico
[14:48] Jago Constantine: Mike might be afk
[14:48] Melch Savon: Love Insilico
[14:48] Eddi Haskell: btw we are having a cool yard sale downstairs
[14:48] Jago Constantine: hehe
[14:48] Eddi Haskell: you should check it out
[14:49] Jago Constantine: Sandoone, did you read any good sci fi in the last few weeks?
[14:49] Zobeid Zuma: aww. . . I like this place
[14:49] Jago Constantine: We might still have the island set up, it depends
[14:49] Sandoone Loudwater: Well, I've been thinking a lot about Mission to Marz, which I read a while ago.
[14:49] Eddi Haskell: well what about the rain room?
[14:49] Jago Constantine: good idea eddi
[14:49] Sandoone Loudwater: I read a bio of Von Braun and it's been filling my thoughts.
[14:50] Eddi Haskell: was he a nazi?
[14:50] Sandoone Loudwater: And head of Nasa...
[14:50] Eddi Haskell: really? wow
[14:50] Sandoone Loudwater: Ran the whole joint in Huntsville.
[14:50] Jago Constantine: I didn't know he was head of nasa cool
[14:50] Zobeid Zuma: That was the US Army's rocket program, wasn't it?
[14:51] Sandoone Loudwater: But back in the Weimar, he was like a rocketeer and was involved in their version of Monster Truck Rallies... Yup... the open air tests in the pacific, etc.
[14:51] Eddi Haskell: well after the war the americans would do anything to match the russians
[14:51] Arisia Vita: head of NASA or the Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville?
[14:52] Sandoone Loudwater: Well, they kept giving him second spots cuz the V2 program killed about 10000 people in Nederlands and London and 50000 in central Europe.
[14:52] Jago Constantine: I don't think he was actually head of nasa, I just googled it
[14:52] Sandoone Loudwater: Not head, he just lead on policy.
[14:52] Jago Constantine: but he was Deputy Associate Administrator for Planning at the end
[14:52] Arisia Vita: you are right though, he was big at Marshall
[14:52] Eddi Haskell: Von Braun worked on the American intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) program before joining NASA, where he served as director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and the chief architect of the Saturn V launch vehicle, the superbooster that propelled the Apollo spacecraft to the Moon.
[14:53] Sandoone Loudwater: His fiction book, Mission to marz...
[14:53] Sandoone Loudwater: That's the one that got me started.
[14:53] Zobeid Zuma: There's a story about how they were woring on the Atlas rocket and somebody wanted to use a pressurized tank as the body structure.
[14:53] Zobeid Zuma: Von Braun said no, no. . . You can't do that, it has no strength. It's just a thin sheet of metal.
[14:54] Zobeid Zuma: So they pressurized the tank and gave him a hammer, and he gave the side of the tank a good whack to show them how easily it would collapse. . .
[14:54] Zobeid Zuma: But the hammer bounced back and hit him in the forehead. :)
[14:54] Jago Constantine: lol
[14:54] Zobeid Zuma: So they went with the whole pressurized tank design after all.
[14:54] Sandoone Loudwater: Yea, he was really a PR guy and a rocket enthusiast, then an engineer, not really a scientist at all.
[14:55] Jago Constantine: interesting
[14:55] Jago Constantine: hey mike you back?
[14:55] Mike111 Ewing: yeah
[14:55] Jago Constantine: did you have anything to discuss? read a good book?
[14:56] Eddi Haskell: sounds like me
[14:56] Mike111 Ewing: i havnt been reading much scifi recently unless you concider history scifi.. lol
[14:56] Eddi Haskell: but ive been reading alternative history
[14:56] Jago Constantine: heh only alternate history, or space history :P
[14:57] Sandoone Loudwater: I love history, what are you reading, Mike?
[14:57] Zobeid Zuma: I like alt-history, time travel stuff.
[14:57] Mike111 Ewing: wasnt it in one of orwells books that said history is rewritten by the ruling party
[14:57] Jago Constantine: me too, except for harry turtledove, he stinks :(
[14:58] Zobeid Zuma: buh?
[14:58] Zobeid Zuma: My favorite of all time is Guns Of The South! :P
[14:58] Jago Constantine: yeah?
[14:59] Jago Constantine: I seem to like nazis win WW2 books ... my favourites are Fatherland and The Man in the High Castle
[14:59] Zobeid Zuma: It's the definitive alt-history/time-travel story.
[14:59] Melch Savon: Fatherland was good
[14:59] Arisia Vita: my favorite series led me to choose my first name...which I bet someone here can guess?
[15:00] Jago Constantine: umm ...
[15:00] Jago Constantine: lol
[15:00] Arisia Vita: considered the father of space opera
[15:00] Sandoone Loudwater: It's weird... if you think of nazis and soviets as kooky modernists, I guess we did just assimilate them in some ways.
[15:00] Arisia Vita: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lensman
[15:00] Jago Constantine: lol thanks
[15:01] Jago Constantine: I could never get into the lensmen books
[15:01] Zobeid Zuma: Oh, I remember Lensman. . . Though I thought Skylark of Space was better. :)
[15:01] Arisia Vita: I liked that too
[15:01] Zobeid Zuma: Yeah, I couldn't really get into them either.
[15:01] Zobeid Zuma: Also, Invaders From The Infinite is worth looking up.
[15:02] Arisia Vita: Asimov loved them, so I am in good company
[15:02] Jago Constantine: sandoone, have you read John Ralston Saul? Voltaire's Bastards?
[15:02] Sandoone Loudwater: thanks for the link though
[15:02] Zobeid Zuma: superscience book
[15:02] Sandoone Loudwater: Nope. But I will look them up, thanks.
[15:02] Jago Constantine: He said that communism and capitalism were two sides of the same coin
[15:02] Zobeid Zuma: atomic this, atomic that, heat rays, force rays, energy shields, etc., etc. :)
[15:02] Jago Constantine: from memory
[15:03] Jago Constantine: I like superscience ... John C Wright's golden age books :)
[15:03] Eddi Haskell: uh
[15:03] Sandoone Loudwater: What are some of the themes?
[15:03] Eddi Haskell: what is superscience?
[15:04] Jago Constantine: amazing far out science
[15:04] Jago Constantine: heh
[15:04] Jago Constantine: like hyperspace and forcefields
[15:05] Arisia Vita: is Star Trek superscience?
[15:05] Sandoone Loudwater: Or maybe meta science... like how there are patterns in the discourse.
[15:05] Eddi Haskell: science about science
[15:05] Sandoone Loudwater: ST is funny.
[15:05] Sandoone Loudwater: I met some UFS people lately.
[15:05] Zobeid Zuma: I'm not sure if I can come up with a concise definition of the supercience genre. . .
[15:05] Sandoone Loudwater: It's like a Role Play cult, like Gor or something.
[15:06] Sandoone Loudwater: Only ST.
[15:06] Jago Constantine: I consider it anything not just beyond our current ability, but that we can't really even begin to speculate about making
[15:06] Zobeid Zuma: But usually it involves some super-genius who invents galaxy-spanning, planet-crushing spaceships and has adventures with them.
[15:06] Zobeid Zuma: Skylark could be an example.
[15:06] Jago Constantine: Ok, I have to go grab breakfast
[15:06] Sandoone Loudwater: Oh, BTW did y'all trash the Accelerando guy in the meetings after?
[15:07] Arisia Vita: and I must take a break too
[15:07] Jago Constantine: heh I didn't go to his SL visit
[15:07] Arisia Vita: this has been fun...
[15:07] Jago Constantine: thanks for coming arisia, and everyone\
[15:07] Sandoone Loudwater: Been great AV.
[15:07] Jago Constantine: I'll send out a notice where the next meeting will be
[15:07] Sandoone Loudwater: I liked Mike's hair.
[15:07] Jago Constantine: probably in our other skybox
[15:07] Jago Constantine: heh
[15:07] Jago Constantine: in a friend's parcel
[15:08] Melch Savon: Nice to have seen you all again
[15:08] Jago Constantine: yes it's good to be back :)
[15:09] Sandoone Loudwater: Oh, it's stand up time.
[15:09] Jago Constantine: bye sandoone and zobeid!
[15:09] Sandoone Loudwater: TaTA JC.
[15:09] Eddi Haskell: bye eveyrone