For my next dive into science fiction, I chose to read Spin by Robert Charles Wilson. Spin was published in 2005 and is the opening of a three part book series that includes Axis and Vortex.
The premise behind Spin is very intriguing. The earth has been placed in a “spin membrane” which slows time down for the inhabitants of earth while the universe continues to age naturally. On the surface, this seems like a story line that would be hard to develop, but Wilson does a great job of stretching your imagination to grasp the ramifications of a universe that ages faster than earth as well the possibilities it presents.
The primary character in the book is Tyler Dupree, who, when the book opens, is struggling through some sort of illness which Wilson chooses not to explain. Through the liberal use of flashbacks, it becomes apparent why Tyler is sick and how he fell ill. Wilson also uses the flashbacks to explain how and why the “spin membrane” was put around the earth. To divulge any more would spoil the book as it is full of plot twists that keep you guessing as to how the present relates to the past.
I wouldn’t put the book into my must read category, but I found it very entertaining. It’s a fun recreational read that will keep your imagination engaged while Wilson explores deeper issues around human nature, particularly around issues such as greed, power and religion. As mentioned at the top, there are two follow on books, Axis and Vortex, that expand upon the original story, but I got my fill with Spin and intend to pass on the sequels for the time being.
I recently came across an article on the Blackstone Blog titled Blackstone’s Byron Wien Discusses Lessons Learned in His First 80 Years. There are 20 lessons in total, some which are obvious, some which are good rules to live by, and others which are personal observations and opinions. I highly recommend that you read the article as there are takeaways for people of all ages. Anyway, the article got me to thinking about my philosophy towards aging.
I’ve been lucky enough to know a few octogenarians and nonagenarians. From my observations and interactions with them, I’ve come away convinced that age is a state of mind. Those who choose to stay active and have a positive outlook on life live a far better quality of life than those who have chosen to give up. There are four key items, in order of importance, that I’ve noticed these “old-timers” do that I’ve tried to integrate into my lifestyle:
Stay physically active
In a book titled “Younger Next Year“, internist Dr. Henry Lodge explains how the body is designed to destroy itself. When one is young, the signals to build and regenerate the body are strong and occur naturally, but they weaken with age. Through his research, Dr. Lodge has found that regular physical activity helps alert the body to rebuild itself. Therefore, it becomes more important to stay physically active as you age to counteract the weakening of your body’s natural regeneration signals. I don’t know how accurate the theory is, but it certainly make sense to me.
Stay mentally active
Your mind is no different than the muscles in your body. It needs exercise in order to stay sharp. A number of Mr. Wien’s lessons are directly related to staying mentally active, such as his suggestions to read regularly, to travel extensively, and to look for ways to do your job better every year.
Stay socially active
Like it or not, humans are pack animals. We require social interaction and membership in group(s) in order to maintain our mental health. Think about it. If you’re like me, the best times in your life have always be with groups of people – typically family, friends or both.
Everything in moderation
What you put into your body is important, really important. You become what you eat, so if you are always filling your body with junk, well, your body will turn into junk. Now, I’m not saying that you should avoid all junk foods, sweets, red meat, or alcohol, but I am a firm believer in moderation. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying an occasional treat, just try to avoid over indulging.
Will following these four principles allow you to live forever? No. Unfortunately, we aren’t designed to live forever, and I haven’t been around anyone who has. The idea here isn’t to figure out how to live forever, but how maintain a reasonable quality of life as we age.
Will following these four principles guarantee good health? No. There are no guarantees in life, particularly when it comes to your health. It all comes down to one variable that none of us control, our genetic code. The genes we are born with have a large influence over our health. So even if you were to live the perfect life, bad genes could still cause you to suffer health issues. However, doing these four things will give you the best chance to overcome any health issues, or at least make them more bearable.
My philosophy on aging is to stay physically active, stay mentally active, stay socially active, practice moderation, and incorporate lessons learned from elders around me, including some of the 20 from Mr. Wien so I can live a more fruitful, productive and enjoyable life.
Since I was so blown away after reading Brave New World, I was inspired to read the Ray Bradbury classic, Fahrenheit 451. Much like Brave New World and 1984, Fahrenheit 451 is about the effects of government control and censorship on society.
The story focuses on Montag – a fireman whose main focus isn’t to fight fires, but to start them. In order to control information and its dissemination, the government has banned books. Anyone found in possession of them is subject to having their house burned to the ground by the fire department.
Montag has become disillusioned with the societal distractions his wife engages in, which involves heavy doses of television and drugs. He becomes fascinated with the people who hide and defend the books he is ordered to destroy. As such, he begins secretly hoarding books from the houses he is sent to destroy, and therein lies the main plot line of the story.
I’ll admit the story is a classic, but I found it a tough read. Unlike Brave New World, which I found captivating and intense, Fahrenheit 451 felt like it went on forever before getting to the point. In other words, it felt like some of the assigned reading from my high school English classes.
While I can’t recommend reading this book, there was a valuable takeaway for me. Towards the end, Montag is befriended by individuals who have been labeled outcasts for their love of books and knowledge. Montag is speaking with one of them, named Granger, who says:
“Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you’re there. It doesn’t matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that’s like you after you take your hands away. The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching, he said. The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime.”
So while I found Bradbury’s work disappointing on the whole, the message in it is profound. That message is not to accept what we are told is right or wrong, or what we should do, but to have the courage to create our own way. Or, in the words of Granger, one should be a gardener rather than a lawn-cutter. The gardener will be remembered, the lawn-cutter won’t.
There’s a lot of buzz these days about “wearable” technology. From things like Google Glass to smartwatches, they seem to be popping up everywhere. While wearables may be the future of technology, I’m not all that excited about them.
As tech pundit Robert Scoble, a Google Glass fanatic, has pointed out, there are a lot of conveniences a wearable offers. He talks about how easy it would be to buy things or get directions to a local coffee shop by just saying it. It all sounds great, but I think he and the other proponents are neglecting to point how selfish these devices are and what the cost is to those around them.
The ability of these devices to capture photos and videos without one’s knowledge or consent seems to be a really big issue that is not being addressed. With past technologies, society has implemented norms and laws regarding the capture and transmission on one’s recorded likeness or voice. For example, I’m not legally permitted to record a phone conversation without the other party’s consent. Even photos and videos are subject to privacy laws surrounding broadcast and retransmission.
To put it bluntly, I’m not comfortable with the proliferation of these devices before the moral, ethical and legal ramifications have been discussed, which it seems as though everyone wants to sweep under the rug. As another example, take a look at this article by Gizmodo author Leslie Horn who was at the Galaxy Gear smartwatch launch. She was able to take video and snap photos of someone without them noticing. Not only is it creepy, as she points out, but it seems invasive. At least if she was pointing her phone at them, they’d have some reason to believe that she was capturing my actions. With the watch, it can be done very discreetly.
On top of the privacy concerns, there’s also the whole government/NSA/PRISM monitoring debate. I’ve already written my piece on these programs, and these devices certainly aren’t going to allay my concerns about them. In fact, it only further fuels my concern as we head deeper into Brave New World territory where the government doesn’t have to develop the tools to monitor us, we’re happy to give up our freedoms away and do it to ourselves. I can already see the justification for future privacy invasion – “it’s not different than what people are already doing with Google Glass.” How convenient.
I guess my point is that just because we can doesn’t mean we should. Yes, a wearable computing device does have its uses. I can clearly see how it could be helpful in surgical applications, educational settings, or other industrial applications. However, that doesn’t mean that we should use it in social applications. I can easily see why most bars, nightclubs, and other social gathering areas would want to ban these devices. It would certainly curtail the mentality of “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas”.
I fear that we continue to create technologies that satisfy our own personal indulgences and make our lives more convenient at the expense of future generations. It makes me wonder whether our generation will be remembered as the one that created technology to improve our lives or to strip us of our humanity.
On my sci-fi reading binge over this year, Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card appeared on my Amazon suggested reading list. I’d heard about it through a number of sources as a classic science fiction book, saw that the movie was coming out this fall, and figured it was worth reading.
Fortunately, I was right.
Ender’s Game is classic science fiction. It’s set in a future where Earth has fended off an attack by aliens due to the heroic efforts of a battle commander named Mazer Rackham. In an effort to defeat the alien force, the Earth’s countries have formed an alliance to preemptively strike them. To achieve their objective, they’ve decided that training exceptionally bright children for battle are their best hope.
That’s where Ender, whose full name is Andrew Wiggins, enters into the plot. He is a highly intelligent child who has the stigma of being a “third”, meaning that his parents had him in violation of Earth’s two child policy. Besides being picked on by his older brother, he is also ostracized at school. His older sister tries to protect him, but after an altercation at his school, he is drafted into service by the International Fleet.
It is at this point where the action begins, and the story gets intense. I don’t want to spoil the plot, but I will tell you that Card does a great job of keeping you engaged throughout the book while using Ender’s teachers as well as his brother and sister to demonstrate the flaws and misgivings of our society and humanity in general.
I was captivated by the story and thoroughly enjoyed the book. So much so, that I’m not certain whether I’ll see the movie or not. The special effects look awesome, and they’ve certainly enlisted a great cast with Harrison Ford and Ben Kingsley, but I’m concerned how true they can stay to the story. For one thing, Ender starts the story as a six year old and is only ten during his time at Command School. I’m not sure the movie will be able to accurately portray his youth, which is an integral part of the overall story in my opinion.
By the way, Card continues the story of Ender in subsequent novels. I believe there are five in total. I’ve not decided whether I will continue onto the next book in the series. While I thoroughly enjoyed the first installment, it’s difficult for me to envision how Card can maintain the same action and intensity throughout the series given the outcome of the first.
Anyways, I would put Ender’s Game in the must read category and highly encourage anyone who is remotely interested in the movie to make sure they read the book first. It’s a great read and will let you experience the story the way Card intended it without any adaptations that may have been required to turn it into a feature film.
I still remember the night of October 14, 1992. I was volunteering for my Alma mater, Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute, at a college fair at Newbury Park High School. When I left to go the event, the Pirates has 1-0 lead over the Braves in Game 7 of the National League Championship Series.
Unlike today, where the internet and smartphones make it easy to check scores, I had no way of knowing what was going while I worked the event. As it turned out, the Pirates had extended their lead to 2-0 and were heading to the bottom of the ninth with a two run lead when I returned to my car for the short drive home.
I listened on the radio as the Braves inched closer. I remember pitcher Doug Drabek leaving in favor of closer Stan Belinda, who would be tasked with preserving the win with the bases loaded and nobody out. He got the first out on a sacrifice fly, walked the bases loaded, and then got a pop out to the infield for the second.
Bear in mind that this was the third consecutive year the Pirates made the NLCS, having lost to the Reds in 1990 in six games and to the Braves in 1991 in seven. The Pirates had a roster loaded with star players that included Barry Bonds, Andy Van Slyke, Jay Bell, Jose Lind, Mike Lavalliere, Doug Drabek, Randy Tomlin, Stan Belinda, Bob Walk (current Pirates color man), and Tim Wakefield, yes the knuckleballer Tim Wakefield who pitched with the Red Sox for what felt like forever. In Game 6, he pitched a complete game which the Pirates won easily, 13-4.
The Pirates had not been to the World Series since 1979 and were one out from returning when Francisco Cabrera stepped to the plate. I had just pulled my car into the driveway and didn’t want to miss anything by heading into the house, so I stayed in the car and listened on the radio.
After the season, the Pirates organization dismantled the team. I figured it would lead to a few years of rebuilding, but little did I know that it would last for the next 20 years. It was so bad, that seasons were usually over before the All-Star break or earlier, pretty much ending any hope of a winning season, let alone the playoffs. Worst of all, there never seemed to be any hope on the horizon due to the consistently questionable roster moves the Pirates made every year under the guise of saving money. They consistently signed marginal free agents to lucrative contracts, dealt away their best players to contenders at the trade deadline, and never seemed to have any talent moving through the farm system.
It was even more frustrating over the last 20 years to watch other small market teams have their day in the sun, whether it was Milwaukee, Tampa Bay, Cincinnati, or Minnesota. It was hard to believe that the Pirates couldn’t field a competitive team at some point over the course of two decades when so many other teams had been able to do it, even if it was for just one or two seasons.
Therefore, it’s with great relief that the Pirates have finally put an end to the losing. It’s made watching the scores and standings more interesting this summer with the only remaining question being how far the Pirates will go. Here’s hoping they make it all the way back to the World Series. It would be a great way to reward the city of Pittsburgh and its fans, and to help us all put the past 20 years behind us.
For my next dive into science fiction, I chose to read Spin by Robert Charles Wilson. Spin was published in 2005 and is the opening of a three part book series that includes Axis and Vortex.
