10 April 2010

[13:45] Kghia Gherardi: Hi Jago
[13:45] Kghia Gherardi: Hi Fleche
[13:45] Fleche Xeno: hey
[13:46] Jago Constantine: hi, folks :)
[13:46] Kghia Gherardi: Jago, is this a podcast today or a what are you reading discussion?
[13:46] Jago Constantine: what are you reading :)
[13:47] Fleche Xeno: hey
[13:47] Simeon Bookmite: hi Jago
[13:48] Quin Jules: mind if I join you guys?
[13:48] Eddi Haskell: you can join us
[13:48] Jago Constantine: Come join us Quin :)
[13:48] Quin Jules: thanks :)
[13:48] Eddi Haskell: this is a science fiction discussion group!
[13:49] Kghia Gherardi: notices sent
[13:49] Jago Constantine: brb just getting a cup of tea / thanks kghia !
[13:49] Fleche Xeno: before we start, can I tap everyone's brain/
[13:49] Kghia Gherardi: Hi Eddi
[13:49] Kghia Gherardi: Welcome, Quinn
[13:49] Eddi Haskell: hi KG
[13:49] Kghia Gherardi: Sure
[13:49] Fleche Xeno: I'm looking for books/stories
[13:49] Fleche Xeno: that deals with first encoutner
[13:49] Fleche Xeno: on earth
[13:49] Quin Jules: hey
[13:49] Fleche Xeno: like alien visiting earth
[13:50] Fleche Xeno: the only tying sticks in my mind is the miniseries V
[13:50] Fleche Xeno: and I want something more interesting than that.
[13:50] Quin Jules: Some of Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles stories are pretty good for that kind of feel.
[13:50] Quin Jules: it's sort of opposite, but the feeling's the same
[13:50] Simeon Bookmite: footfall is one
[13:50] Simeon Bookmite: but it did not impress
[13:51] Fleche Xeno: anyone recent works on that kidna of general
[13:51] Fleche Xeno: I know calculating god had the briefst mention
[13:51] Fleche Xeno: but it was more about the idea of a god head
[13:51] Kghia Gherardi: Hi Judi. Welcome
[13:51] Kghia Gherardi: Any of Tobias Buckell's work, Si?
[13:51] Kghia Gherardi: Welcome, Everly
[13:51] Everly Porterfield: thank you
[13:51] Simeon Bookmite: no
[13:51] Jago Constantine: ok back
[13:51] Kghia Gherardi: We are talking science fiction in the back room
[13:51] Everly Porterfield: waiting for rez..
[13:52] Simeon Bookmite: the wirld war series by turtledove
[13:52] Simeon Bookmite: second world war with aliens
[13:52] Simeon Bookmite: world war
[13:52] Quin Jules: huh. sounds interesting.
[13:52] Jago Constantine: ok thanks for coming everyone
[13:52] Judi Newall: Oops sorry thought I'd rezzed all
[13:52] Fleche Xeno: thanks simeon
[13:53] Jago Constantine: For anyone who hasn't been to one of these meetings before / we go round the group and take turns discussing what we've read last in sci fi
[13:53] Everly Porterfield: /me nods.
[13:53] Quin Jules: sounds like fun. :)
[13:53] Jago Constantine: its been a while since we had one of these meetings - / we've been listening to podcast stories a lot lol
[13:54] Simeon Bookmite: so we should all have read something
[13:54] Eddi Haskell: i love thoese stories
[13:54] Jago Constantine: yes lol / ok I'll begin
[13:54] Everly Porterfield: /me smiles, listens
[13:54] Jago Constantine: the last sci fi I read was Alastair Reynolds' Redemption Ark
[13:54] Everly Porterfield: new book?
[13:54] Jago Constantine: it's from his revelation space series - from 2002 / so not new
[13:55] Everly Porterfield: /me nods.
[13:55] Jago Constantine: I've just been going back through the series
[13:55] Everly Porterfield: premise?
[13:55] Jago Constantine: The revelation space books are a hard sci fi space opera / so no FTL travel / the human race is spread across a few dozen light years / about 600 years in the future
[13:56] Everly Porterfield: /me listens.
[13:56] Eddi Haskell: yah
[13:56] Jago Constantine: there seem to be a few main factions ... in this book we see a lot of the Conjoiners
[13:56] Kghia Gherardi: Hi Roy. Welcome.
[13:56] Roy Smashcan: Hiya
[13:56] Jago Constantine: who are into enhanced intellect and are almost an incipient group mind / they're having a war with another group, the demarchists, but it turns out that they're only going through the motions in the war / and preparing to face a greater threat
[13:57] Eddi Haskell: what is a demarchist just a name?
[13:57] Jago Constantine: Demarchy is a political concept / in which, I think, people are hooked into the political process in their mind
[13:57] Everly Porterfield: /me nods.
[13:57] Jago Constantine: and vote on issues all the time / it's a kind of direct democracy
[13:58] Everly Porterfield: /me nods.
[13:58] Jago Constantine: without elected representatives I think
[13:58] Roy Smashcan: A more efficient Switzerland?
[13:58] Everly Porterfield: /me grins.
[13:58] Jago Constantine: lol
[13:58] Eddi Haskell: Demarchy (or lottocracy) is a form of democracy in which the state is governed by randomly selected decision makers who have been selected by sortition (lot).
[13:58] Quin Jules: lol
[13:58] Fleche Xeno: so a mob-rule? emergent consensus model?
[13:58] Everly Porterfield: with a hive mind
[13:58] Quin Jules: huh
[13:58] Jago Constantine: well the demarchists in the novel don't seem to have elected representatives / and they're not a hive mind like the conjoiners seem to be becoming
[13:59] Everly Porterfield: ah, had that backwards
[13:59] Fleche Xeno: so it's people voting on issues on a contonla basis, high end electronic democracy?
[13:59] Jago Constantine: thats right
[13:59] Fleche Xeno: i've seen that in a few stories
[13:59] Everly Porterfield: Not sure I have...
[13:59] Jago Constantine: in other books its explored a bit more
[13:59] Simeon Bookmite: what is the greater risk?
[13:59] Fleche Xeno: please continue
[13:59] Jago Constantine: for instance it seems that some people have more weight given to their votes / if they consistently make what turns out to be the best decision in retrospect / as determined by computers / AIs
[14:00] Everly Porterfield: oh..hm.
[14:00] Jago Constantine: so one quasi-mythical person has a vote worth 4 votes :P
[14:00] Fleche Xeno: so democracy as a test bed that evolves into an expert-influenced model?
[14:01] Jago Constantine: yes ... well I imagine that a lot of people wouldn't know much about the issues they're voting on
[14:01] Everly Porterfield: so, it's a sci-fi book that makes a political statement.
[14:01] Jago Constantine: that's really just background in this book
[14:01] Everly Porterfield: /me nods.
[14:01] Jago Constantine: its mostly about the threat of the Inhibitors, and the response to it
[14:01] Roy Smashcan: Ah, which book is this?
[14:01] Jago Constantine: Redemption Ark by Alastair Reynolds
[14:01] Roy Smashcan: Ok, thanks
[14:02] Jago Constantine: as I said the Inhibitors are berserker probes / machines that want to destroy intelligent life / they turn up in sci fi now and then / Reynold's interesting take / on the subject is that they are not simply destroying civilizations / for the sake of it, but only doing it as a temporary measure until after / a great catastrophe 3 billion years in the future
[14:03] Everly Porterfield: /me nods.
[14:03] Jago Constantine: after that their job will be done and life can flourish / of course that's no comfort for humans right now lol
[14:04] Quin Jules: lol one would imagine not
[14:04] Everly Porterfield: /me grins.
[14:04] Jago Constantine: anyway, it's an enjoyable book - one of the better ones in the series I think
[14:04] Everly Porterfield: /me smiles.
[14:04] Jago Constantine: because of the revelations about the inhibitors, and seeing them in action when they reach the first solar system in human space
[14:05] Eddi Haskell: what is human space or am i being bart simpson today again
[14:05] Jago Constantine: the novels are quite dark and gritty if you like that kind of sci fi / that is the part of the galaxy where humans are :)
[14:05] Eddi Haskell: ah
[14:05] Simeon Bookmite: hi Bart
[14:05] Jago Constantine: lol / ok that's my reading / Eddi - did you read anything?
[14:05] Everly Porterfield: thanks Jago
[14:05] Eddi Haskell: yes
[14:05] Eddi Haskell: I have been reading alot of alternative history
[14:05] Eddi Haskell: but i cannot figure somethinng out
[14:05] Eddi Haskell: and i am wriging my own now
[14:06] Eddi Haskell: writing
[14:06] Jago Constantine: cool
[14:06] Eddi Haskell: can i ask the group a question?
[14:06] Jago Constantine: sure!
[14:06] Eddi Haskell: in alternative history
[14:06] Everly Porterfield: /me listens.
[14:06] Eddi Haskell: and i cannot remember the exact name it was a footnote
[14:06] Eddi Haskell: there are two schools of thought
[14:06] Eddi Haskell: 1.
[14:06] Eddi Haskell: if in the past events changed
[14:06] Eddi Haskell: such as in britain in May 1940 when Churchill took over as Prime Minister from Chamberlain
[14:06] Eddi Haskell: it almost went to Lord Halifax who was ready to cut a deal with the Germans for peace
[14:06] Eddi Haskell: right
[14:07] Eddi Haskell: if THAT happened one school of thought holds that the future would be very different
[14:07] Eddi Haskell: a second school of thought holds
[14:07] Eddi Haskell: that at some point, if an event in the past changed
[14:07] Eddi Haskell: everything would turn out to be the same in the end at nth point of time
[14:07] Eddi Haskell: what are they talking about?
[14:07] Everly Porterfield: course correcting
[14:07] Eddi Haskell: how can someone say that
[14:07] Eddi Haskell: can you explain to me
[14:07] Quin Jules: I think it has to do with how influential the event is.
[14:07] Jago Constantine: well they're talking about how determined history is
[14:08] Everly Porterfield: nod
[14:08] Fleche Xeno: I think we need to make a distinction between needing to change some historilca precedent
[14:08] Jago Constantine: predetermined
[14:08] Eddi Haskell: only God can do that right
[14:08] Fleche Xeno: to use the alternate historical as a background
[14:08] Fleche Xeno: vs. examinigng history
[14:08] Eddi Haskell: yeah
[14:08] Fleche Xeno: by changing causal points
[14:08] Fleche Xeno: to create potential historical narrative
[14:08] Fleche Xeno: I think there' is the great confusion
[14:08] Jago Constantine: Well in a materialistic universe things are theoretically determined by the previous physical states / (barring quantum effects)
[14:08] Kghia Gherardi: Hi Eppie
[14:08] Simeon Bookmite: they say that economic abd social pressures have more influence than indivuals
[14:08] Eddi Haskell: hi eppie!
[14:08] Fleche Xeno: One book I recommend is Focult's Pendalum
[14:09] Fleche Xeno: it's a great novel
[14:09] Everly Porterfield: and we do not know what things are happening behind the scenes.
[14:09] Eddi Haskell: oh great
[14:09] Everly Porterfield: love that book
[14:09] Fleche Xeno: about how our mind can reinteerpte history
[14:09] Fleche Xeno: and how conspiracy theory are created, not ot crate alternate universe
[14:09] Fleche Xeno: but to undermine our understanding of the commonly agreed upon causes.
[14:09] Fleche Xeno: and ,thsu, shift our mind about how we preceive theworld.
[14:09] Everly Porterfield: hm
[14:10] Fleche Xeno: a conspraicy theory doesn't change the historicla fact
[14:10] Fleche Xeno: but links them with an alternative causal theory
[14:10] Fleche Xeno: while an alternate history changesthe hoistorical facts
[14:10] Fleche Xeno: to play with ideology
[14:10] Eddi Haskell: i can understand what you are saying
[14:10] Eddi Haskell: i get it i think
[14:10] Jago Constantine: anyway basically Eddi / I think both schools of thought are correct at different times / individual changes can have great consequences / or not
[14:11] Fleche Xeno: conspiracy theory is psychology. alternate history is mix some whale bones with t-rex bones
[14:11] Quin Jules: depending on what other events hinge on those
[14:11] Fleche Xeno: and create a new creature.
[14:11] Jago Constantine: say if hitler had died in WWII
[14:11] Everly Porterfield: or maybe someone is writing history and we'll never know it because we're only the characters in the book
[14:11] Jago Constantine: WWI I mean
[14:11] Fleche Xeno: with conspiracy theory, you only swtich the bons around. but you can't take any away.
[14:11] Jago Constantine: the stage was set for fascism to arise in europe perhaps / so maybe there would have been a war similar to WWII
[14:11] Everly Porterfield: /me nods.
[14:11] Quin Jules: but perhaps not on the level of WWII
[14:11] Roy Smashcan: Maybe we're all just characters on the screen in some online game O_o
[14:11] Everly Porterfield: /me grins.
[14:12] Fleche Xeno: one book I recomend on alterate history, The Polish Policemen's Union, by michael chabon
[14:12] Eddi Haskell: roy i have often thought that
[14:12] Jago Constantine: say maybe the communists would have taken over in Germany instead
[14:12] Fleche Xeno: it's an alterant history
[14:12] Simeon Bookmite: New ideas that gain influence have more effect than an individual character i think.
[14:12] Quin Jules: lol We're all a massly huge game of the Sims God is playing right now
[14:12] Fleche Xeno: but the alt hist is background.
[14:12] Jago Constantine: well that might be a big change now lol
[14:12] Eddi Haskell: yiddish i think it is
[14:12] Jago Constantine: yes, yiddish :)
[14:12] Fleche Xeno: yes, yiddish
[14:12] Fleche Xeno: I was reading about wiki entry on wwii book you gusy mentioned
[14:12] Fleche Xeno: and got piroski on my mind
[14:12] Fleche Xeno: the chabon book is a great example of alternate history as backgournd
[14:13] Roy Smashcan: The Chabon book was a Hugo winner in 2008.
[14:13] Eddi Haskell: yah
[14:13] Fleche Xeno: chabon used alternate history to create a society that is in transiotn
[14:13] Fleche Xeno: its' like chinatown, the movie, using the owen vallye water theft, as backgrond
[14:13] Fleche Xeno: but it makes the plot more interesting
[14:13] Everly Porterfield: /me nods...although none of that is familiar.
[14:13] Jago Constantine: ok Eddi did we answer your question?
[14:13] Fleche Xeno: I think a true alterante history book is
[14:13] Fleche Xeno: Pride and Prejudice, with zombies.
[14:13] Eddi Haskell: well , the question cannot be answered but you explained it well! thanks!
[14:13] Quin Jules: lol!
[14:13] Simeon Bookmite: alternate history should cast a differnt light on our present
[14:13] Judi Newall: Sorry, major crash, I'll try again to make another meeting! Excuse me pls
[14:13] Fleche Xeno: there, the alternate history is central to the story.
[14:14] Everly Porterfield: /me grins.
[14:14] Jago Constantine: bye judi!
[14:14] Everly Porterfield: bye judi
[14:14] Simeon Bookmite: bye
[14:14] Quin Jules: bye judi! hope your computer behaves!
[14:14] Jago Constantine: kghia - have you been reading any sci fi?
[14:14] Eddi Haskell: I have all these notes and I will be writing a story that I will ditribute
[14:14] Eddi Haskell: i love to write
[14:14] Kghia Gherardi: I haven't. Just following the conversation today
[14:14] Jago Constantine: ok cool ... simeon?
[14:14] Quin Jules: e-high five to fellow writer!
[14:14] Eddi Haskell: lol
[14:14] Eddi Haskell: historians seem to thing
[14:14] Eddi Haskell: the emman telegram
[14:14] Eddi Haskell: i think it is called that
[14:14] Simeon Bookmite: I read Sly Mongoose by Tobaias Buckell
[14:14] Eddi Haskell: which caused the franco prussian war
[14:15] Eddi Haskell: is crucial sorry simone
[14:15] Jago Constantine: how was it?
[14:15] Everly Porterfield: Sly Mongoose, I've not heard of that either.
[14:15] Everly Porterfield: /me listens
[14:15] Simeon Bookmite: very good
[14:15] Everly Porterfield: /me nods...
[14:16] Simeon Bookmite: it is set on floating citys above a planet similar to venus
[14:16] Simeon Bookmite: one of the power groups sounds very similar to your Demarchists
[14:16] Jago Constantine: cool / hehe
[14:17] Everly Porterfield: so many sci-fi books are really political in nature I think. I wonder if that's really true of MOST books.
[14:17] Everly Porterfield: (in some way or another)
[14:17] Jago Constantine: well humans are political animals :P
[14:17] Everly Porterfield: /me nods.
[14:17] Quin Jules: true that. :)
[14:18] Simeon Bookmite: It is very much space opera
[14:38] Simeon Bookmite: and the best thing I have read by Buckell
[14:38] Jago Constantine: is it his latest book?
[14:38] Everly Porterfield: I don't know much about sci-fi, what's space opera? that's the 2nd time I heard the phrase today.
[14:39] Jago Constantine: space opera is like ... star wars
[14:39] Simeon Bookmite: Pepper the guy who turns up in a lot of his stories
[14:39] Everly Porterfield: /me nods.
[14:39] Jago Constantine: its science fiction on a grand scale / with lots of dramatic storylines
[14:39] Everly Porterfield: oh...hm.
[14:39] Simeon Bookmite: and generally sjhoots all the badies while everyone else gets on with the plot
[14:40] Everly Porterfield: /me listens to Simeon.
[14:40] Simeon Bookmite: finds that he has to play the the politics game this time
[14:40] Simeon Bookmite: to become a Sly mongoose
[14:40] Everly Porterfield: /me smiles.
[14:40] Jago Constantine: heh
[14:41] Simeon Bookmite: some body has launched a bio weapon that turns people into group Minded Zombies
[14:41] Simeon Bookmite: at the planet
[14:42] Jago Constantine: wow
[14:42] Simeon Bookmite: Pepper has to get the oposition organised work out the real target.
[14:43] Everly Porterfield: Oh Dear, I'm sorry, but RL just called me up. Sorry to interrupt Simeon. Thank you for the talk Jago.
[14:43] Jago Constantine: no worries / come again next week!
[14:43] Simeon Bookmite: nice effects allways important in s space opera
[14:43] Jago Constantine: thanks simeon :) / Roy - have you read any sci fi lately?
[14:44] Simeon Bookmite: with good tech ideas not just ray guns and rockets
[14:44] Jago Constantine: oops sorry simeon I thought you were done lol
[14:44] Roy Smashcan: Hmm. Last book I got was The Trade of Queens by Charles Stross. It's the wrapup of his Merchant Princes series.
[14:44] Simeon Bookmite: sm now
[14:44] Jago Constantine: oh I didn't like that series :P / what did you think?
[14:45] Roy Smashcan: I quite like it - but I'm a fan of all his writing.
[14:45] Jago Constantine: this was a bit too fantasy for my liking
[14:45] Roy Smashcan: I liked the way he set up the whole medieval thing then ripped it apart.
[14:46] Jago Constantine: heh / that reminds me of the connecticut yankee in king Arthur's court
[14:46] Roy Smashcan: Well, I quite like fantasy - but there's too much "Extruded Fantasy Product" out there.
[14:46] Jago Constantine: true
[14:46] Quin Jules: No kidding.
[14:46] Jago Constantine: thanks roy
[14:46] Eddi Haskell: hey I got a bunch of speedos like that at junglewear
[14:46] Jago Constantine: Quin - what have you read lately
[14:47] Quin Jules: I think the last one I read was sort of scfi/horror
[14:47] Quin Jules: It was "I have no mouth and I must scream"
[14:47] Jago Constantine: oh nice
[14:47] Quin Jules: Bad reading for the middle of the night, let me tell you XD
[14:47] Jago Constantine: harlan ellison
[14:47] Quin Jules: I really enjoyed it.
[14:47] Jago Constantine: yes me too
[14:47] Quin Jules: I hadn't read much by him, but I really like that one.
[14:48] Jago Constantine: yeah Its one of my favourites of his
[14:48] Quin Jules: It's got such a great creepy ambiance. So good. :)
[14:48] Jago Constantine: basically its about an AI that wipes out the human race except for a few survivors / and lets see ... / I forget how it works
[14:49] Quin Jules: And the AI has worked it out so that he can keep them alive and tortured forever.
[14:49] Jago Constantine: is it insane because its stuck where it is? I forget
[14:49] Quin Jules: It was developed during the Cold War and got fed up with how ridiculous and illogical the humans were being.
[14:49] Fleche Xeno: sounds like Matrix with a BDSM bent.
[14:49] Jago Constantine: heh
[14:49] Quin Jules: So it took over all the other AI's like it and blew the planet and the human race to kingdom come save for five people.
[14:50] Quin Jules: lol!
[14:50] Eddi Haskell: i have to go see my mom she called me bye eveyrone see ya next week!
[14:50] Jago Constantine: cya eddi babe
[14:50] Quin Jules: bye!
[14:50] Quin Jules: :)
[14:50] Jago Constantine: thanks quin! / eppie - have you read any science fiction lately?
[14:50] Quin Jules: np. :)
[14:51] Eppie Shoreman: not lately
[14:51] Jago Constantine: thats ok :) / Fleche? / ok folks / I think its about time to finish up anyway :)
[14:53] Simeon Bookmite: uep iur hour ts up
[14:53] Fleche Xeno: yeah
[14:53] Fleche Xeno: sorry. :)
[14:53] Jago Constantine: thanks for coming!
[14:53] Fleche Xeno: just in middle of galileo's dream. :)
[14:53] Kghia Gherardi: he is such a clock watcher. :D
[14:53] Jago Constantine: next week we'll be listening to a podcast short story again / hehe I go to breakfast on sunday mornings :)
[14:53] Quin Jules: Is this every week around now?
[14:53] Jago Constantine: I'm in Australia / yes every week at 2pm saturday SL time
[14:53] Simeon Bookmite: yes an hour every week
[14:53] Quin Jules: cool! I think I'll make this a habit. :)
[14:53] Quin Jules: It was really nive talking to you guys.
[14:53] Quin Jules: *nice
[14:54] Jago Constantine: glad you liked it! / bye folks!
[14:54] Quin Jules: See you next week! :)
[14:54] Simeon Bookmite: yes!

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

7 March 2009: Insilico (Blue Ant Bar)

[14:03] Jago Constantine: What was the last science fiction book you read, Eddi :)
[14:03] Eddi Haskell: i hve to think / not for a while / you should recommend some / probalby something by thomas pynchon / is there a sci fi group? / you should put me in ti
[14:04] Lewis Luminos accepted your inventory offer.
[14:04] Eddi Haskell: i want to read snow whatever
[14:04] Eddi Haskell: the vrr book
[14:05] Eddi Haskell: nope
[14:05] Eddi Haskell: i know which books i read
[14:05] Eddi Haskell: a big series
[14:05] Lewis Luminos: lm works :)
[14:05] Jago Constantine: Hi, Lewis :)
[14:05] Eddi Haskell: its about lizards
[14:05] Eddi Haskell: hi lewis
[14:05] Lewis Luminos: hi Eddi, Jago
[14:05] Jago Constantine: Lizards?
[14:05] Eddi Haskell: who change the outcome of world war 2 / hi lewis
[14:06] Jago Constantine: Oh by Harry Turtledove
[14:06] Eddi Haskell: yes
[14:06] Jago Constantine: Did you like the series?
[14:06] Eddi Haskell: world war
[14:06] Eddi Haskell: in up to volume 2.5
[14:06] Eddi Haskell: i need torfinish it
[14:06] Eddi Haskell: yes
[14:06] Eddi Haskell: i have all of them
[14:06] Jago Constantine: heh I didn't :P
[14:06] Eddi Haskell: yeah it is hard to read 2000 pages of one author
[14:07] Jago Constantine: lol yes / I don't like his books generally
[14:07] Lewis Luminos: (still can't see anyone yet)
[14:07] Eddi Haskell: it is very slow to rez
[14:07] Jago Constantine: Yeah but it's worth the wait lol
[14:07] Eddi Haskell: and slow to teleport here i crashed
[14:07] Jago Constantine: did you set your graphics low?
[14:07] Eddi Haskell: hi lewis
[14:07] Eddi Haskell: no
[14:07] Lewis Luminos: now I see you :)
[14:07] Eddi Haskell: they were on ultra
[14:07] Eddi Haskell: lol
[14:08] Jago Constantine: lol eddi / no wonder / Lewis this is my partner, Eddi / Eddi, Lewis is a regular for the group :)
[14:08] Eddi Haskell: hi lewis
[14:08] Lewis Luminos: hi Eddi.
[14:08] Eddi Haskell: nice to meet you
[14:08] Lewis Luminos doesnt usually dress like this
[14:08] Jago Constantine: How was your philosophy discussion group?
[14:08] Eddi Haskell: how do you usually dress
[14:09] Lewis Luminos: not too shabby. Actually had people turn up which surprised me
[14:09] Jago Constantine: Hi, Arch
[14:09] Jago Constantine: We're using the Blue Ant for a science fiction discussion, if you want to join us
[14:09] Lewis Luminos: usually just flanell and jeans :-D
[14:09] Eddi Haskell: yeah like me / hi arch
[14:09] Lewis Luminos: <= grungy old hippie

[14:10] Eddi Haskell: lol
[14:10] Jago Constantine: Well you look pretty cyberpunk today
[14:10] Jago Constantine: Heh
[14:10] Eddi Haskell: = space cadet
[14:10] Lewis Luminos: heh
[14:11] Jago Constantine: Anyway Eddi so you like Harry Turtledove and I don't :P
[14:11] Eddi Haskell: well its ok
[14:11] Eddi Haskell: i liked the scene where the lizards became sushi
[14:11] Jago Constantine: lol
[14:11] Eddi Haskell: lol
[14:11] Jago Constantine: Well I was going to read an anthology of short stories
[14:12] Eddi Haskell: which one
[14:12] Jago Constantine: but ended up reading Sidney's Comet by Brian Herbert / It was Galactic Dreamers, secondhand one I found
[14:12] Eddi Haskell: iven been reading alot of alterntative history but that it not necessarily science fiction
[14:13] Jago Constantine: I say it is :)
[14:13] Lewis Luminos: it can be
[14:13] Jago Constantine: What have you read?
[14:13] Jago Constantine: lately
[14:13] Eddi Haskell: a series of short essarys on alternative history but it is in the past
[14:13] Eddi Haskell: i dont know the author i read it last night
[14:14] Jago Constantine: Essays so not stories?
[14:14] Eddi Haskell: i want to read virtual reality alternative fiction / yes / science fiction / i should wirte a novel about my experiences here no one would beleive it
[14:14] Jago Constantine: lol
[14:14] Lewis Luminos: if I wrote about my experiences in SL no-one would want to read it
[14:14] Lewis Luminos: no-one wants to be that bored
[14:14] Jago Constantine: ha
[14:15] Jago Constantine: Are you having trouble sitting, lewis?
[14:15] Lewis Luminos: no but the seat made me sit with my back to you and it felt wrong
[14:15] Jago Constantine: there's a seat behind eddi that might suit / cool
[14:15] Lewis Luminos: ah thats better
[14:16] Jago Constantine: Anyway this book Sidney's Comet
[14:16] Eddi Haskell: the experiences that ibm has had here in sl would make for an interesting novel
[14:16] Eddi Haskell: yes
[14:16] Jago Constantine: it's by Brian Herbert, who is Frank Herbert's son
[14:16] Jago Constantine: who wrote Dune
[14:16] Lewis Luminos: does he show any influence?
[14:17] Jago Constantine: It's nothing like Dune, it's a satire
[14:17] Jago Constantine: or a parody
[14:17] Lewis Luminos: cool
[14:17] Jago Constantine: or silly / kind of funny / I'm enjoying it, basically in the future, the human race sends garbage into space
[14:18] Eddi Haskell: why is it funny
[14:18] Jago Constantine: then aliens send it all back at once in a huge asteroid, so we have to try and deflect it
[14:18] Jago Constantine: it's written humorously
[14:18] Eddi Haskell: lol
[14:18] Lewis Luminos: haha
[14:18] Eddi Haskell: i dont think people in new jersey wuold like it
[14:18] Eddi Haskell: cause they get all new yorks garbage
[14:18] Eddi Haskell: lol
[14:18] Jago Constantine: lol / In this future, everyone shares jobs / so a typing pool in an office have like a 50th of a job each and type different keys
[14:19] Eddi Haskell: lol
[14:20] Jago Constantine: it's pretty silly
[14:20] Jago Constantine: It was Brian Herbert's first book ... recently he's been writing new books in the Dune series
[14:20] Lewis Luminos: sounds like fun.
[14:20] Jago Constantine: they suck :P
[14:20] Eddi Haskell: lol
[14:20] Lewis Luminos: hmm someone else writing Dune stuff sounds less fun
[14:20] Jago Constantine: lol / yeah, he's basically capitalising on his father's work for cash / he co-writes with kevin anderson / their books are nowhere near as deep or detailed as the originals
[14:22] Lewis Luminos: theyre a hard act to follow
[14:22] Jago Constantine: yeah
[14:22] Lewis Luminos: phenomenal world-building there
[14:22] Eddi Haskell: most sequels are
[14:22] Jago Constantine: it's a shame because Brian Herbert clearly has a unique voice as an author, distinct from his father's
[14:22] Jago Constantine: as shown in this book and his other non-dune ones
[14:22] Lewis Luminos: maybe he should have stuck to writing comerdy
[14:23] Jago Constantine: yes he should have ... but they wouldn't sell as well / lol
[14:23] Eddi Haskell: there is nothing wrong with being an A plus writer of B material
[14:23] Lewis Luminos: Terry Pratchett did fine...
[14:23] Jago Constantine: I suspect that Kevin Anderson writes the new dune books and Brian Herbert puts the name herbert on the cover
[14:24] Jago Constantine: I loved terry pratchett for about the first dozen books
[14:24] Lewis Luminos: I actually never could get into them at all
[14:24] Jago Constantine: but he went downhill for a patch
[14:25] Eddi Haskell: can you guys give me someting to read
[14:25] Eddi Haskell: im serious
[14:25] Jago Constantine: when the books started being 'this one parodies opera', this one parodies rock, this one parodies australia
[14:25] Jago Constantine: a suggestion?
[14:25] Eddi Haskell: lol / yes
[14:25] Jago Constantine: Why not read Snow Crash you keep saying you want to
[14:25] Lewis Luminos: hmm, the last book I read that I really enjoyed was Perdido Street Station
[14:25] Lewis Luminos: oh yeah thats very good too
[14:26] Eddi Haskell: what is perfido about
[14:26] Lewis Luminos: a must-read if you want to read on Virtual Worlds
[14:26] Jago Constantine: Oh Lewis, next time we have a group excursion, there's a China Mieville-based sim we can visit
[14:26] Lewis Luminos: perdido, is a sort of steampunk city bug-hunt
[14:26] Lewis Luminos: ooh
[14:26] Lewis Luminos: :)
[14:26] Jago Constantine: It's based on The Scar actually lol / so you need to read that :P
[14:26] Lewis Luminos: I need to get a copy of that
[14:26] Lewis Luminos: yeah definitely
[14:27] Lewis Luminos: one to buy
[14:27] Arch Optera watches the humans chat as she idly lies there.
[14:27] Jago Constantine: the sim is a bunch of boats joined together
[14:27] Jago Constantine: Hi, Miroirs, thanks for coming :)
[14:27] Miroirs Hax: hello
[14:27] Jago Constantine: Slow rezzing here, set your graphics low for a bit
[14:27] Eddi Haskell: hi miroirs
[14:27] Lewis Luminos: hi Miroirs / so my latest book wasn't as good
[14:28] Jago Constantine: ok what was it again?
[14:28] Lewis Luminos: Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon
[14:28] Jago Constantine: oh thats right
[14:29] Lewis Luminos: supposedly a thriller but it wasnt very thrilling
[14:29] Jago Constantine: would you recommend her works?
[14:29] Lewis Luminos: I wouldnt reccomend this one unles you've got a particular interest in the topic
[14:29] Lewis Luminos: which in this case is autism and medical ethics
[14:29] Lewis Luminos: set in the near future
[14:29] Jago Constantine: hmm not really
[14:29] Eddi Haskell: i just read it
[14:29] Lewis Luminos: where they've inventd a cure for autism
[14:29] Eddi Haskell: the synposis
[14:29] Jago Constantine: though I liked The Curious Case of the Dog in the Night Time / Hey Miroirs, have you read any good books lately?
[14:30] Lewis Luminos: and its an exploration of whether it's right to make people have the treatment against their will
[14:30] Miroirs Hax: think i'm almost rezzed, woa, nice location!
[14:30] Jago Constantine: yes isn;t it cool :)
[14:31] Lewis Luminos: while at the same time convicted criminals get forced to have their brais altered, and it's practically the same thing
[14:31] Jago Constantine: This is our first meet where we visit a new location
[14:31] Lewis Luminos: *brains
[14:31] Arch Optera: Welcome to Insilico.
[14:32] Eddi Haskell: i like to photo here
[14:32] Jago Constantine: Basically Miroirs, we go through what we read last, then what we're going to read next at these meets :)
[14:32] Miroirs Hax: sounds nice, sorry for being late
[14:32] Lewis Luminos: I dont have anything else lined up yet, will have to see whats int he library on Monday
[14:33] Jago Constantine: no worries, Miroirs
[14:33] Lewis Luminos: unless I can buy a copy of Scar
[14:33] Jago Constantine: You could try it as an ebook / it might be online
[14:33] Lewis Luminos: trouble with that is I do all my reading while I'm commuting
[14:33] Jago Constantine: ah
[14:33] Lewis Luminos: and I dont have anything I can use to take an ebook with me
[14:33] Jago Constantine: I wish we had Kindles in australia / I use my pda sometimes
[14:34] Lewis Luminos: to be honest I prefer my books to be made of paper
[14:34] Jago Constantine: me too, but a lot of people say that then love kindles :P
[14:34] Eddi Haskell: xerox has has paper that can change text electronically for many years
[14:34] Eddi Haskell: it will come to the market soon
[14:35] Jago Constantine: cool / There is an ebook of The Scar available for the record :)
[14:35] Lewis Luminos: I'd like to have a pda that never runs out of battery, and is still easy to read when the sun;s shining on the screen
[14:35] Lewis Luminos: then I'll be happy :)
[14:35] Jago Constantine: heh
[14:36] Jago Constantine: Once I finish this Sidney's Comet book I will read the sequel The Garbage Chronicles :P
[14:36] Jago Constantine: I picked them both up at once
[14:37] Jago Constantine: Not sure what the sequel is about, apart from garbage again and the same characters
[14:38] Jago Constantine: Hey Miroirs, are you rezzed? Would you like to discuss a book or are you happy to listen :)
[14:39] Miroirs Hax: i've not been able to read any sci-fi lately, sadly, so i'll mostly listen if that's ok
[14:39] Jago Constantine: Sure
[14:39] Jago Constantine: Oh can I invite you to join our group?
[14:40] Eddi Haskell: invite me please
[14:40] Miroirs Hax: sure, thanks
[14:40] Jago Constantine: Great / I send out notices for our saturday meetings through it / also, if you want to discuss sci fi in chat, feel free to use group / So you all like the venue for this week's meeting?
[14:42] Lewis Luminos: it looks great
[14:42] Eddi Haskell: i do
[14:42] Jago Constantine: take some time to look around later it's worth it
[14:42] Miroirs Hax: yes, sure sets the mood, did you create this?
[14:42] Jago Constantine: oh no
[14:42] Jago Constantine: I just asked the creator if we could meet here
[14:42] Jago Constantine: it's a roleplay sim
[14:43] Jago Constantine: this bar is Out of Character
[14:43] Miroirs Hax: :)
[14:43] Jago Constantine: or its allowed here / This isn't book related, but I went to see The Watchmen yesterday :)
[14:44] Lewis Luminos: so did I :)
[14:44] Jago Constantine: I really liked it
[14:44] Eddi Haskell: is it good?
[14:44] Jago Constantine: It's kind of like Sin City
[14:44] Lewis Luminos: I... actually didn't, to be honest
[14:44] Jago Constantine: with superheroes
[14:44] Lewis Luminos: though I didnt like the book much either
[14:45] Jago Constantine: I never got a chance to read the comics
[14:45] Lewis Luminos: I'd hesitate to use the word "heroes" in there
[14:45] Jago Constantine: well yeah / the characters are all flawed
[14:45] Lewis Luminos: very much so
[14:45] Miroirs Hax: i've only just learned about the watchmen, i sure liked sin city though
[14:46] Lewis Luminos: If you like very, very dark, and very very gruesomely violent
[14:46] Jago Constantine: yes, this is just as stylised and violent
[14:46] Jago Constantine: its from the director of 300 I think
[14:46] Arch Optera: Frank Miller, yes.
[14:46] Lewis Luminos: then you'll like it
[14:46] Lewis Luminos: and you dont mind that the "heroes" are rapists and murderers
[14:47] Arch Optera: Don't mind me boys since we're ooc here I am just listening.
[14:47] Miroirs Hax: that's a lot of criticism in a recommendation Lewis :)
[14:47] Jago Constantine: I understand that it was kind of the point of the comic to try and depict the kind of people who might become masked vigilantes in RL
[14:47] Lewis Luminos: no I actually do think its a good film, just not my type of film
[14:47] Lewis Luminos: it was very true to the book, well-executed
[14:48] Jago Constantine: Feel free to comment, Arch :)
[14:48] Jago Constantine: Some criticism I heard was that it was too true to the books
[14:48] Lewis Luminos: could that even be a criticism?
[14:48] Lewis Luminos: heh
[14:49] Jago Constantine: well I read a quote once, a book is hundreds of pages
[14:49] Jago Constantine: a script is 40 pages
[14:49] Jago Constantine: you can't try to force everything in
[14:49] Arch Optera: I always like to see how they translate book to film, unfortunately sometimes they suck. But each director always has an interesting interperetation.
[14:49] Jago Constantine: Hi, Ji NI, thanks for coming
[14:49] Lewis Luminos: I'm not particularly squeamish but there were several scenes I just couldn't watch
[14:49] Ji Ni: hello :)
[14:50] Jago Constantine: there were times when I felt the movie was trying to fill in a lot of backstory
[14:50] Eddi Haskell: hi Ji Ni
[14:50] Miroirs Hax: hello
[14:50] Jago Constantine: I didn't mind that
[14:50] Lewis Luminos: the movie was easier to follow than the book
[14:50] Lewis Luminos: maybe it was dumbed down a bit
[14:50] Jago Constantine: We're talking about The Watchmen movie, Ji
[14:50] Jago Constantine: Definitely
[14:50] Lewis Luminos: or maybe I was too young when I read it
[14:51] Ji Ni: i havent seen it yet :(
[14:51] Jago Constantine: I think they wanted Terry Gilliam to film it at one stage, and he said it was unfilmable :P
[14:51] Lewis Luminos: probably was, then. Movie-making technology has come a long way since then
[14:52] Jago Constantine: no cgi :)
[14:52] Jago Constantine: yes, Terry Gilliam would have done it old school :)
[14:52] Eddi Haskell: with humour
[14:52] Jago Constantine: this had humour, as dark as Gilliams
[14:53] Jago Constantine: well darker maybe
[14:53] Jago Constantine: less absurd
[14:53] Jago Constantine: How are you going, Ji, rezzed?
[14:53] Lewis Luminos: I thought some of the humour in Watchmen was inappropriate
[14:54] Jago Constantine: Can you say without spoiling which bits?
[14:54] Jago Constantine: without spoilers
[14:54] Lewis Luminos: hmm... choice of certain bits of soundtrack
[14:54] Ji Ni: meh, holy rez mania
[14:54] Lewis Luminos: making reference to other pop-culture icons...
[14:55] Jago Constantine: Hmm I can't figure the parts you mean lol
[14:55] Jago Constantine: Did you set your graphics low Ji?
[14:55] Lewis Luminos: Apocalypse Now
[14:55] Jago Constantine: oh yeah
[14:55] Ji Ni: mine are low as they can go, shitty puter though
[14:55] Jago Constantine: I liked that bit
[14:56] Jago Constantine: I thought it was just how a superhero would be used in RL
[14:56] Lewis Luminos: yeah I agree
[14:56] Jago Constantine: but the music subverted it
[14:57] Lewis Luminos: but there I was laughing at the music and watching that, and suddenly thought "why the hell am I laughing at this?"
[14:57] Jago Constantine: yeah it was conflicting
[14:57] Lewis Luminos: it felt wrong
[14:57] Jago Constantine: one of the parts I felt worst seeing was the kennedy assassination
[14:57] Lewis Luminos: oh god yeah
[14:58] Lewis Luminos: worst bit for me was the prison scene
[14:58] Lewis Luminos: the bit with the saw
[14:58] Eddi Haskell: your making me want to see it
[14:58] Jago Constantine: lol eddi
[14:58] Miroirs Hax: heh, same here
[14:58] Jago Constantine: well that was so over the top
[14:58] Jago Constantine: you should go!
[14:59] Eddi Haskell: i will
[14:59] Jago Constantine: Ji, would you like an invite to our group?
[14:59] Lewis Luminos: yeah. I didnt actually like it but I still think it was a good film
[14:59] Ji Ni: sure :)
[15:00] Jago Constantine: We
[15:00] Jago Constantine: re winding up now, so this will help you know where the next meet is
[15:00] Ji Ni: Will you put it into the Search events listing?
[15:00] Jago Constantine: It could be back at my and Eddi's land, or it could be at a China Mieville theme sim
[15:00] Jago Constantine: yes, I will
[15:01] Jago Constantine: so it will be easy to find
[15:01] spyVspy Aeon: hi there
[15:01] Ji Ni: ok, that is best, i only have 25 group slots :(
[15:01] Miroirs Hax: hello
[15:01] Jago Constantine: sure
[15:01] Jago Constantine: it's the only science fiction event I know :P
[15:01] Jago Constantine: Hi, spy
[15:01] Lewis Luminos: I'm nearly out of group slots too
[15:01] Eddi Haskell: well
[15:01] Eddi Haskell: i am going to put more inisilico photos up at my gallery
[15:02] Eddi Haskell: so you can see my photos
[15:02] Eddi Haskell: there is an inisilico photo from me in metaverse
[15:02] Miroirs Hax: nice to meet you, thanks for the event
[15:02] Eddi Haskell: the sl newspaper
[15:02] Ji Ni: Its a great topic, I luvz the scifi
[15:02] Jago Constantine: me too ... I'm surprised there weren't sci fi discussion groups already
[15:02] Jago Constantine: I had to make one :)
[15:03] Lewis Luminos: I'm glad you did, its fun
[15:03] Lewis Luminos: its also got me reading more :-D
[15:03] Ji Ni: ive seen the odd sci fi book discussed in general fantasy groups but ya, its good to see specifically sci fi
[15:03] spyVspy Aeon: :) scifi lover too
[15:04] Jago Constantine: I think our next meeting will be at my land like last week, and we'll do the excursion after that
[15:04] Jago Constantine: would you like a group invite, spy?
[15:04] Jago Constantine: We have sci fi discussion saturdays at 2
[15:04] spyVspy Aeon: yay sounds really cool
[15:04] spyVspy Aeon: need to know if I have time lol too much things to do
[15:05] Jago Constantine: Sure
[15:05] spyVspy Aeon: thnks
[15:05] spyVspy Aeon: right now doing a machinima
[15:05] Jago Constantine: any time you want
[15:05] Jago Constantine: You can also discuss sci fi in group chat
[15:05] spyVspy Aeon: :) I will need for the storyboards
[15:05] Lewis Luminos: Jago I gotta say I love that Tony-Stark style heart thing you're wearing there :)
[15:06] Jago Constantine: heh thanks I bought it in the mall here
[15:06] Saskia Bowie: Hello everyone
[15:06] Jago Constantine: Hi, Saskia :)
[15:06] Lewis Luminos: hi Saskia
[15:06] Eddi Haskell: hi saskia
[15:07] Jago Constantine: Ok, I might log and have breakfast :)
[15:07] Saskia Bowie: hmm, no rp?
[15:07] Astolio Krell: hello
[15:07] Jago Constantine: thanks for coming I will send a group notice with the next location
[15:07] Jago Constantine: we just had a sci fi discussion event
[15:08] Lewis Luminos: I have to go too
[15:08] Lewis Luminos: nice meeting you Eddi