The photos will be forthcoming soon.
Since yesterday afternoon I have not been feeling so well, but I'm ok now and I've just eaten breakfast (at 4pm...). It's that darned stomach again. So, apart from a brisk walk I took last night during an hour of respite, I am not going anywhere today. Plus, the black clouds are rolling in right now and there is a severe weather alert for the NYC area...[ADD: the storm was very heavy, and we had a strike right here, I guess outside the house or so. It sounded like a giant firecracker, there was a great flash, the TV and my laptop flickered off then on again, and I lost internet...as much lightning as I've seen, I've never been so near to a strike!]
Anyway, perhaps as a result of the 8 antacids (!) I took yesterday evening, I had the longest and most amazing dream.
It was like one of those apocalyptic movies. I dreamed that everyone on earth underwent this subtle transformation but for a few minutes it did nearly turn into a zombie nightmare. A group of us including me had holed ourselves up in a kitchen in the back of a big house during the transition. It must have taken longer than a few days and less than a few weeks, as we had enough food in stock to survive.
There were some moments when the creepy changelings outside nearly discovered us through the rather shoddy door. But we were alright, and when we thought it was over, they sent me out as a scout with my cell phone.
I emerged into a peaceful world where everything looked perfect. It was as though the planet had been transformed into a utopia - a sunshine and picket fence, colorful flowers and white linen trousers type of world. People were cheerfully getting along and helping each other just as they should. Sitting at outdoor cafes and laughing; strolling along in cosy banter. Considering how it all began, this scared me a bit, but I didn't feel threatened and I blended in because everyone else looked normal again, just a bit more shiny than I.
The only thing that scared me a bit was that when I opened my phone (I don't even like flip phones!) to report back to the group, every voice fell silent and every head in the vicinity immediately turned in my direction. Had they detected my signal? Then I realized I hadn't seen a single cell phone since starting out, and THEN I realized everyone was tuned into a single consciousness that had become aware of me and my "pre-change" technology. I wondered how I was still receiving cell phone service if it was not needed on this new earth. I searched for a quiet area to speak, but at this point I was probably beginning to be stealthily pursued or something, the stranger in their midst.
I woke up, drifted back to sleep, and there were a few more imaginings of this sort, but I didn't go in deep. As I slowly returned to consciousness I wondered to myself why my group had fought back and not let ourselves become a part of that utopia. Probably because it was just not natural to the human condition, or probably because there was an undiscovered dark side.
As I started this post I suddenly realized where the inspiration for the dream originated: Invasion by Robin Cook - even though I read that book over a month ago and haven't even thought of it since. It starts with tiny alien discs that fall to earth. Everyone who picks one up is injected, falls ill with a short flu, and emerges from it the next day a better, healthier, hypersensitive, superstrong, more robust and cheerful version of themselves .... well you will just have to read the book or Google it yourself, but it gets creepier after that. I won't be blamed for dropping all the spoilers for you.
Showing posts with label sci-fi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sci-fi. Show all posts
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Monday, January 28, 2008
The Butterfly Effect
Thanks to the shingles I am out of commission, apparently all week - that is what my boss expects. And this morning my consultant at the agency warned me I could be out for up to 3 weeks. No way! I was hoping to be able to wear something more formal than pyjamas by the end of this week! But I don't know, some of it is right along the bra line. Evil. And water on the skin? Forget it.
I am unable to go to a friend's birthday this weekend. I'm not contagious, but I don't want anyone to worry.
Well, the throbbing, pinching pain is mostly gone this evening, but there is a rawness, and the itching is becoming much more intense; there was even a little spreading yesterday, but it's definitely slowed down. It is easy to keep my hands off, but compression and warmth help, and when my hand is there compressing, the temptation to maybe scratch round the edges of the gauze and tape is sometimes too much...then there is a sort of stupid lingering pain under the whole area.
Oh! Must take my midnight dose. High dosage tablets, five per day for a week (probably because it's so poorly absorbed by the body). It's not hard to forget when you have something so pervasive. I almost watch the clock.
This thing is so wicked...more so than the original chicken pox. If you've had that then you must try to avoid developing shingles, ok? Which means, keep down your stress levels and keep up your immunity.
**********
On to better things. I saw a movie the other night that we might enjoy discussing.
It's The Butterfly Effect.
First off, I am no fan of Ashton Kutcher. No, not even that, he's not even an issue. The actors in a movie don't influence whether I watch it or not, I'm not critical in that way. (I don't like Cameron Diaz but have watched There's Something About Mary twice.) But I must say, young Mr Kutcher did a good job in this.
It was a fascinating premise and one that obviously interests me as a psychology grad and a lover of some things sci-fi.
A psychology student called Evan (Kutcher) with a troubled childhood finds a way of travelling back in time and into the body of his childhood to certain events in his life via his journal entries. In this way, he is world-wise enough to tweak the main events that influence his life in order to improve the long-term outcome. After each episode he returns to the present but often with drastic changes, and he must undergo a fit during which his memories are rewritten and he suffers some hemorrhaging. However, each attempt is detrimental to his life and the lives of the people who are closest to him.
Depending on which event he tries to control, the outcomes are wildly varying and he goes further back each time to find the root problem.
The final solution means he must return to a day when he says something that turns the love of his life, Kayleigh, away from him forever. And only then do their lives take a normal path. Of all the variables, it had to be her.
Finally, Evan finds himself at the college dorm, roommates with the friend Kenny who in all other scenarios had been tied to a bed in a mental hospital, but who is now studying architecture. He experiences the hemorrhage...Kenny asks if he needs to see a doctor...he insists everything will be alright now, then asks "How's Kayleigh?"
And Kenny says, "Who's she?"
Sad, but triumphant, ending.
Some years later, working in NYC, Evan passes Kayleigh on the street. They glance at each other the way you do when you get the feeling you've seen someone somewhere before, except he knows who she is. She then looks back at him but keeps walking. Then he looks back too, but shakes his head and keeps going. He has chosen to keep the solution uncompromised.
I hope you find the time to watch it.
**********
Oh my gosh!! 'Tis getting worse. Please tell me not to scratch it!!!
I am unable to go to a friend's birthday this weekend. I'm not contagious, but I don't want anyone to worry.
Well, the throbbing, pinching pain is mostly gone this evening, but there is a rawness, and the itching is becoming much more intense; there was even a little spreading yesterday, but it's definitely slowed down. It is easy to keep my hands off, but compression and warmth help, and when my hand is there compressing, the temptation to maybe scratch round the edges of the gauze and tape is sometimes too much...then there is a sort of stupid lingering pain under the whole area.
Oh! Must take my midnight dose. High dosage tablets, five per day for a week (probably because it's so poorly absorbed by the body). It's not hard to forget when you have something so pervasive. I almost watch the clock.
This thing is so wicked...more so than the original chicken pox. If you've had that then you must try to avoid developing shingles, ok? Which means, keep down your stress levels and keep up your immunity.
**********
On to better things. I saw a movie the other night that we might enjoy discussing.
It's The Butterfly Effect.
First off, I am no fan of Ashton Kutcher. No, not even that, he's not even an issue. The actors in a movie don't influence whether I watch it or not, I'm not critical in that way. (I don't like Cameron Diaz but have watched There's Something About Mary twice.) But I must say, young Mr Kutcher did a good job in this.
It was a fascinating premise and one that obviously interests me as a psychology grad and a lover of some things sci-fi.
A psychology student called Evan (Kutcher) with a troubled childhood finds a way of travelling back in time and into the body of his childhood to certain events in his life via his journal entries. In this way, he is world-wise enough to tweak the main events that influence his life in order to improve the long-term outcome. After each episode he returns to the present but often with drastic changes, and he must undergo a fit during which his memories are rewritten and he suffers some hemorrhaging. However, each attempt is detrimental to his life and the lives of the people who are closest to him.
Depending on which event he tries to control, the outcomes are wildly varying and he goes further back each time to find the root problem.
The final solution means he must return to a day when he says something that turns the love of his life, Kayleigh, away from him forever. And only then do their lives take a normal path. Of all the variables, it had to be her.
Finally, Evan finds himself at the college dorm, roommates with the friend Kenny who in all other scenarios had been tied to a bed in a mental hospital, but who is now studying architecture. He experiences the hemorrhage...Kenny asks if he needs to see a doctor...he insists everything will be alright now, then asks "How's Kayleigh?"
And Kenny says, "Who's she?"
Sad, but triumphant, ending.
Some years later, working in NYC, Evan passes Kayleigh on the street. They glance at each other the way you do when you get the feeling you've seen someone somewhere before, except he knows who she is. She then looks back at him but keeps walking. Then he looks back too, but shakes his head and keeps going. He has chosen to keep the solution uncompromised.
I hope you find the time to watch it.
**********
Oh my gosh!! 'Tis getting worse. Please tell me not to scratch it!!!
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Robomop
I watched I, Robot last night for about the third time. I've said it before, but I will say it again. I am intrigued by Sonny. I love the expression in his eyes, the vulnerability in his voice, and the way he makes us sympathise with him.
I also liked Teddy, the bear-bot in A.I.. But...they were not real...
Sony has discontinued its trainable robo-dog AIBO as well as the mini humanoid Qrio (cost: approx. $2500), and the Sega i-Dog (£12.99) is lame. Then there is the somewhat intelligent RoboSapiens (£200ish) by Wowee. But Asimo is pretty cool. You may have seen him in the last Honda ad. He's so adorable and seems so eager to please, you just want to bless his little rubber socks. And he looks like a wee little spaceman!
As long as they don't humanise them too much, I think robot helpers will be fine.
Check out the videos of what the lil' fellow can do, on the Honda Asimo website. He - I mean, it - can climb stairs, run fast and slow, run in a curve, sidestep, kick a ball, dance, recognise faces and simple gestures, walk backwards, respond to pressure by adjusting its stance, wait for someone to cross its path before continuing, hold a human hand and walk, carry a tray, push a cart...and it does have to learn these things on its own by making calculations and adapting.
**********
That wasn't what I really meant to blog about. Last week I had a joyful reunion with the writings of Michael Crichton. I read Timeline. It's sort of about quantum physics and time travel to the 14th century, only the developers in the book don't call it that because they say time travel, per se, is not possible. Instead, they talk about multiverses. More than one universe - I suppose what we know as parallel universes. So here is the question I scribbled on a scrap of paper in the Tube one morning:
If it is not time travel but MULTIVERSES, then how can the Professor travel to the 14th century AND leave a note that will be excavated in the 20th century to be found by his OWN team and not some other team in another multiverse - or not be found at all, if in one universe the site has not been discovered or is inactive?
Because the rep from the company that developed the quantum travel described it thus:
"...the universe we see...was just one of an infinite number of universes, existing side by side.
Each of these universes was constantly splitting, so there was a universe where Hitler lost the war, and another where he won; a universe where Kennedy died, and another where he lived."
Most of us have had that sort of conversation before - what if he did, what if he didn't - but it's the crossover here that confuses me. The Professor visiting in 1357 loses his glasses in the scriptorium and his colleague Kate in 1999 excavates them the day after he travelled there. The manuscript specialist finds a parchment note in his handwriting asking them for help, including the date and the solution to a code.
Fine, if it were mere time travel...but how can he be in another universe?
Another thing that was mentioned but not resolved was the fact that the time travellers are split at the home end, and they disappear, but it is not they but their counterparts from another universe that are reassembled at the destination - because in our universe they figured out how to transport them but not how to reassemble them, so our scientists are relying on those from another universe that have reassembly capability...body swap? So, where do our travellers go meantime, into the ether? And how come their counterparts know the same things as they do?
And if they compress not a person but the information equivalent of a person, as in a fax, then how does that person go and fight battles and draw blood on the other side?
This is making the idea of the Matrix sound simple. So, enough quantum mechanics for now because even the physicist Richard Feynman said in 1967: "Nobody understands quantum theory."
**********
Check out my new flipped hairstyle:
When I first cut it short 7 years ago, it was drastic. I never thought I could keep it at this moderate length and that it would still be (somewhat) controllable. But I did miss my curls and really needed to feel softer and more feminine, and wanted to see how far I could push it. I've been growing it since last autumn with only a couple of reshape trims since then.
At the salon on Friday night, the stylist only chipped the weight off the back so she could work it. She styled it carefully with her fingers - no tools - and a hairdryer, working out the top, straightening the strands, pulling out the sides (which is where she utilised the natural fannish tendency of the left side, of which the right was easy to imitate). Still, that frontal wave refuses to go. It now insists on returning to a distinct curl. Ah well. C'est ma vie.
I also liked Teddy, the bear-bot in A.I.. But...they were not real...
Sony has discontinued its trainable robo-dog AIBO as well as the mini humanoid Qrio (cost: approx. $2500), and the Sega i-Dog (£12.99) is lame. Then there is the somewhat intelligent RoboSapiens (£200ish) by Wowee. But Asimo is pretty cool. You may have seen him in the last Honda ad. He's so adorable and seems so eager to please, you just want to bless his little rubber socks. And he looks like a wee little spaceman!
As long as they don't humanise them too much, I think robot helpers will be fine.
Check out the videos of what the lil' fellow can do, on the Honda Asimo website. He - I mean, it - can climb stairs, run fast and slow, run in a curve, sidestep, kick a ball, dance, recognise faces and simple gestures, walk backwards, respond to pressure by adjusting its stance, wait for someone to cross its path before continuing, hold a human hand and walk, carry a tray, push a cart...and it does have to learn these things on its own by making calculations and adapting.
**********
That wasn't what I really meant to blog about. Last week I had a joyful reunion with the writings of Michael Crichton. I read Timeline. It's sort of about quantum physics and time travel to the 14th century, only the developers in the book don't call it that because they say time travel, per se, is not possible. Instead, they talk about multiverses. More than one universe - I suppose what we know as parallel universes. So here is the question I scribbled on a scrap of paper in the Tube one morning:
If it is not time travel but MULTIVERSES, then how can the Professor travel to the 14th century AND leave a note that will be excavated in the 20th century to be found by his OWN team and not some other team in another multiverse - or not be found at all, if in one universe the site has not been discovered or is inactive?
Because the rep from the company that developed the quantum travel described it thus:
"...the universe we see...was just one of an infinite number of universes, existing side by side.
Each of these universes was constantly splitting, so there was a universe where Hitler lost the war, and another where he won; a universe where Kennedy died, and another where he lived."
Most of us have had that sort of conversation before - what if he did, what if he didn't - but it's the crossover here that confuses me. The Professor visiting in 1357 loses his glasses in the scriptorium and his colleague Kate in 1999 excavates them the day after he travelled there. The manuscript specialist finds a parchment note in his handwriting asking them for help, including the date and the solution to a code.
Fine, if it were mere time travel...but how can he be in another universe?
Another thing that was mentioned but not resolved was the fact that the time travellers are split at the home end, and they disappear, but it is not they but their counterparts from another universe that are reassembled at the destination - because in our universe they figured out how to transport them but not how to reassemble them, so our scientists are relying on those from another universe that have reassembly capability...body swap? So, where do our travellers go meantime, into the ether? And how come their counterparts know the same things as they do?
And if they compress not a person but the information equivalent of a person, as in a fax, then how does that person go and fight battles and draw blood on the other side?
This is making the idea of the Matrix sound simple. So, enough quantum mechanics for now because even the physicist Richard Feynman said in 1967: "Nobody understands quantum theory."
**********
Check out my new flipped hairstyle:
When I first cut it short 7 years ago, it was drastic. I never thought I could keep it at this moderate length and that it would still be (somewhat) controllable. But I did miss my curls and really needed to feel softer and more feminine, and wanted to see how far I could push it. I've been growing it since last autumn with only a couple of reshape trims since then.
At the salon on Friday night, the stylist only chipped the weight off the back so she could work it. She styled it carefully with her fingers - no tools - and a hairdryer, working out the top, straightening the strands, pulling out the sides (which is where she utilised the natural fannish tendency of the left side, of which the right was easy to imitate). Still, that frontal wave refuses to go. It now insists on returning to a distinct curl. Ah well. C'est ma vie.
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