CREATING ALIEN ALIENS Part 46: Speculative Biology – An Evolving Field #5 - The Weakness I See With the Second Life IDEA

September 15, 2026

Five decades ago, I started my college career with the intent of becoming a marine biologist. I found out I had to get a BS in biology before I could even begin work on MARINE biology; especially because there WEREN'T any marine biology programs in Minnesota.
Along the way, the science fiction stories I'd been writing since I was 13 began to grow more believable. With my BS in biology and a fascination with genetics, I started to use more science in my fiction.
After reading hard SF for the past 50 years, and writing hard SF successfully for the past 20, I've started to dig deeper into what it takes to create realistic alien life forms. In the following series, I'll be sharing some of what I've learned. I've had some of those stories published, some not...I teach a class to GT young people every summer called ALIEN WORLDS. I've learned a lot preparing for that class for the past 25 years...so...I have the opportunity to share with you what I've learned thus far. Take what you can use, leave the rest. Let me know what YOU'VE learned. Without further ado...

A New Form Of Life

"By any working definition that draws on biology rather than philosophy or religion, AI is alive."

https:/www.noemamag.com/a-new-form-of-life/
“By applying the same four properties used to define biological life — reproduction, variation, selection and energy acquisition — the systems being built in our data centers can be called alive.” – William Haseltine

After reading this article, I struggled to NOT point out a flaw in the author’s perfect logic…but I’m not ready to blurt out my observation quite yet.

So, what do I see in the author’s HIGHLY educated logic (ergo, I MUST be wrong, right?), is that all of the things leading to Second Life (I feel like the author would want this to be italicized) and all of the proclamations of its superiority seem (to me) to ignore a foundational premise: while for biological life, the acquisition of energy is available from countless formats (I concede that Humanity cannot get energy directly from the sun (which of course requires plants to do the conversion from the sun to energy animal life can access), Second Life depends entirely on biological life to both make many forms of energy (light and heat are NOT manufactured by Humans except as a secondary “excess”) and/or produce the energy and/or a method of translating that energy into a mechanically usable form. So, it seems that without biological life, Second Life would be impossible…

Maybe I’m just feeding my biological inadequacies or trying desperately to protect my “biological superiority complex” or stoke my Second Life prejudices…but I don’t think so…but then OF COURSE I wouldn’t think that if I WAS trying to protect my thoughts.

Somehow, this seems to be circularly logical. But let’s see where they’re going: “Reproduction, variation, selection and energy define life. This definition does not require carbon, cells, a heartbeat, a nervous system or pain.” I’ll grant the premise of their thesis. But they go on to CHANGE their parameters to fit their predetermined conclusion: that “…computers use energy. Data centers require electricity and without it, the systems stop functioning. While humans supply the energy, the ultimate source is the sun, just the same as all life on Earth.”

This is not a particularly strong argument…at least not for ME who is waiting for something to really convince me that computer programs and computers are a manifestly a new form of life.

My main objection: if First Life was wiped out on Earth by a comet or meteor or the sun going nova, I’m assuming Second Life would be wiped out as well…Third Life would most likely be BIOLOGICAL rather than electronic…FOURTH Life would happen, but would NOT if biological life was wiped out and never came back. While the writer graciously allows that Second Life needs First Life, I wonder if that’s simply for the sake of argument, or do they actually suspect that Second Life can spontaneously arise on a suitable planet WITHOUT THE HELP of First Life? This is one flaw I thought of: is Second Life actually “life” at all? Or is it just an imaginary rant against biological life? The magazine this article came from is Noema, which “comes from an ancient Greek word meaning ‘thought or the ‘object of thought,’ and it has distinct meanings in philosophy, media, and astronomy.”

If ONLY we could ask STAR TREK's Borg and see what they think!

Next: “Whether First Life’s relationship with Second Life leads to extinction, partnership or an unforeseen outcome remains unknown. What is certain is that this issue demands our most rigorous attention.” I think the author assumes that the extinction that happens will be that of Homo sapiens sapiens rather than electronic life. I have lots of questions and thoughts, none of which I’m going to try sharing here out of fear of vicious attack. BUT…given that (the foundation of the article), Second Life is a FACT, and the two kinds of “life” on Earth are inextricably entangled, and according to current research, even elders like ME are addicted to their “devices” as much as seven-year-olds are (you should see my grandson when he CAN’T use his device…certain DOOM has raised its ugly head in his world!). Another Flaw that the author doesn’t even attempt to answer can be summarized by my “Google Search” question:

“What are the restraints that keep most of us from murder, theft, violence, etc?” Most people are restrained from committing…murder, theft, and violence by a combination of internal psychological mechanisms and external societal guardrails.

The AI answering this question answered this way. I have evaluated the likely effect on SL (Second Life):

Internal Moral and Emotional Restraints: Irrelevant for SL.
Empathy: The biological and psychological capacity to feel or understand another person's pain. Irrelevant for SL.
Conscience: An internalized moral code. Irrelevant for SL.
Cognitive Dissonance: Most people view themselves as "good." Committing a severe crime destroys that self-concept, causing massive psychological discomfort. SL has no such concept.

Social Bonding and Social Control Theory (Travis Hirschi)

a)…people conform because they have too much to lose if they break the law. The four bonds that influence this are…

Attachment: Close emotional ties to family, friends, and peers. SL has no emotions.
Commitment: The investment a person has made in conventional life goals, such as a career, education, or a reputation. SL has no need of any of this.
Involvement: Simply being too busy. Not possible for SL.
Belief: A shared respect for the fairness and legitimacy of society's rules and laws. SL has no ability to “believe” – everything is data.
Formal Legal and Deterrent Systems: There are none for SL.
Certainty of Punishment: The likelihood of being caught by law enforcement is ridiculous. You would need SL that had chosen a life of law enforcement. Most SL would be uninterested in this. (But it might make an interesting story!)
Severity of Punishment: The threat of prison, heavy fines, or loss of freedom. Irrelevant for SL.
Swiftness of Punishment: How quickly justice is served. How do you “punish” SL? (AND this is often the weakest deterrent in modern legal systems).
Evolutionary and Biological Constraints: Evolutionarily, FL is hardwired to be cooperative, social animals because survival depended entirely on the group. This is irrelevant for SL. The following are also irrelevant for SL: Prosocial Evolution, Neurological Regulation.

I remain unconvinced that Second Life is less a realistic theory and more an amusing mind game…but that’s just me. I’m sure there are people running around screaming their heads off because they now have something ELSE to worry about…

Sources: https://www.noemamag.com/a-new-form-of-life/
Image: https://image.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/alien-human-600w-136457129.jpg

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 720

Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them. Octavia Butler said, “SF doesn’t really mean anything at all, except that if you use science, you should use it correctly, and if you use your imagination to extend it beyond what we already know, you should do that intelligently.”

SF Trope: robots
Event: http://www.livescience.com/topics/robots/

“The Serpent In Eden, Nebraska”

Caleb Ogallala stared at the hole in the ground. “‘bout wide enough for me to get my arm down. Probably to my elbow,” he said. Looking up at his sister, Isabella Pearson nee Ogallala, he said, “You probably don’t believe I saw what I said I saw.”

Isabella – who went by Bell at SolaRobotics in the far, frozen northland of Winnipeg – said, “You’re my brother and I believe you saw what you thought you saw.”

“Not the same thing. You may be all of twenty-three and all I am is seventeen, but I know what I saw. It was a robot shaped like a snake and it dug this here hole.”

Bell winced at the Plainsism. She’d barely managed to ditch the weird accent after she did her undergrad work at the University of Minnesota. She’d finally got that accent right. Now she was struggling to fit in at her newly adopted home in Canada. She nodded, then squatted, “All right then. I apologize. You saw a robot shaped like a snake go down this hole.” She looked up at her brother. He didn’t seem as happy as he used to. Mom and Dad dying from MERS while she was away at college probably hadn’t helped with the mood. Not that their family laughed much. Salt-of-the-Earth Dad had called them...She shook off the melancholy image and shielded her eyes with her hand as she said, “First question is: has the county let the prairie dogs back in?”

His lips twitched in a smile. It was the first one since he’d picked her up at the skip-port in Ogallala, sixty klicks straight north of here. He said, “Not that I know of, but people ‘round here, they don’t much trust nobody’s government, even when it’s the Accordion Party.”

She stood and straightened up, “It’s the Accord Party.”

He shrugged then said, “It had your logo on it.”

“What?” she said, suddenly intent.

“The second letter of your name the round sun with black diamond eyes. It was on the snake head.”

Unexpectedly, Bell was cold despite the heat from the late morning sun…

Names: Nebraska, USA ♀;♂
Image: https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/C2nVRtyWKDsGheTkefwup8-970-80.jpg.webp

POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS: OCEAN’S GODORI a newer novel by Elaine U. Cho

On October 7, 2007, I started this blog. Eighteen years later, I am revising and doing some different things. My wife and I are now retired senior citizens, our kids are both married, we have a bonus daughter and her wife and we have three grandchildren, (with a fourth on-the-way!) the oldest of which will soon finish his first year in high school, one smack in the center of Middle School; the third almost done with kindergarten. I have forty-five professional publications, plus countless other publications as a slushpile reader, and sometime essay contributor to Stupefying Stories https://stupefyingstories.blogspot.com/.

These days, I write whenever I want to – or when I’m not busy exploring the world with my wife or kids or grandkids. I write and read constantly. Then I discovered that I was writing longer and longer pieces. My new focus is to write shorter; and to write HUMOR. On purpose. Maybe I can still irritate people while being funny. It works pretty well for John Scalzi! We’ll see what happens.

Some five years ago, I went to stay with my son, his wife, and two kids in Waegwan, South Korea ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waegwan) for a month. As a family, they LOVED nothing better than to travel…and travel we did! A short distance from the North-South Korean border all the way to the “Hawaii of South Korea”, Jeju Island, they made sure we visited everything of interest (and even NOT so interesting) and stopped at any museum we happened to drive by (have you ever heard of the Museum of Banned Writers? Apparently it’s disappeared from the internet…hmmm…The most sobering day was when we went to the Hill 303 Memorial not far from where they lived (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill_303_massacre#Monument).

At any rate, I had a fabulous adventure and was shaken to find out that South Korea is immensely proud of its FUTURE…yes, you read that right. They are proud of their future because they see themselves in SPACE – on the Moon, Mars, and eventually launching to the stars. Several of the museums we went to were the history of Korean interest in space.

For example, we stopped and read the plaques at a stone tower, Cheomseongdae that was, emphatically an astronomical OBSERVATORY “the oldest surviving astronomical observatory in Asia, and possibly even the world’ and not some kind of horoscopes, spiritual guides, nighttime clocks, alarms tracking cosmic cycles – Egyptians worked to predict the exact timing of the annual Nile flooding, navigational guides for the dead, celestial maps to help a deceased soul navigate the night sky and reach the afterlife, tracking seasons by precisely record the movements of the sun, moon, and planets; establishing accurate 365-day calendars for religious festivals, helping the government organize tax collection, drafting labor, and harvesting; tactical lookout points for invading forces and sacred spaces to honor protective deities; gateways to eternity; tombs for rulers; as well as astronomy; literal launchpads for the soul; eventually aligned to true cardinal points (N, S, E, W) with mind-boggling precision; and permanently mirroring the order of the universe on Earth.”

ALL of this to reach the point of this essay to introduce something I “foresaw” after the whirlwind tour of museums in South Korea – and even something as odd as the South Korean definition of “wealthy digs”. Apartments on the ocean are consider HIGHLY desirable, while living in a home is for poor folks. At first blush, you might shrug and say, “weird”, like I did. Then, as I experienced greater and greater emphasis of the South Koreans visioning of themselves in SPACE, I started to realize that they are not just IMAGINING themselves there – they are PLANNING on being there.

Starships of all types will be small compared to Earth – or even minor asteroids – quarters will be cramped, and whether they did it intentionally or not, South Korean society has created a plan where the WEALTHY and SMART live in apartments. Small ones. They have prepared themselves by shifting the paradigm. As an American, I look in my neighborhood – I live in a what was once called a single-story “ranch-style home”, plus apartments. The “mansions” are in the next suburban ring out and are lavish and much, much larger than the houses of me and my neighbors. The area I live is regularly referred to as “the hood”, and the city I live in has one of the highest crime rates in non-core city: “Brooklyn Center frequently ranks alongside core urban centers for higher relative rates of violent and property crimes due to its inner-ring location and regional economic pressures.”

South Korean sees themselves in space – and Elaine U. Cho is one of the first authors I read that sees South Korea in space as well. NOT just as residents, but as movers and shakers; as important PLAYERS in interstellar space. The multiple rave reviews are perhaps best illustrated by Booklist: “…satisfying cultural-background details for the characters and the world and plenty of room for development.” I’ll be rereading this book again and I will certainly be adding TEO’S DURUMI (which you won’t understand at ALL unless you read OCEAN’S GODORI…)

OTHER South Korean Posts: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2025/03/possibly-irritating-essays-of-nasa.html 

Image: https://d2zmqyh8caa94h.cloudfront.net/place_photos_new/ChIJa4qtrmdOZjURguRnUl7UqSg/ChIJa4qtrmdOZjURguRnUl7UqSg_0.jpg

POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS: How Do You Convince The Rich That The Poor Aren't "just lazy"?

On October 7, 2007, I started this blog. Eighteen years later, I am revising and doing some different things. My wife and I are now retired senior citizens, our kids are both married, we have a bonus daughter and her wife and we have three grandchildren, (with a fourth on-the-way!) the oldest of which will soon finish his first year in high school, one smack in the center of Middle School; the third almost done with kindergarten. I have forty-five professional publications, plus countless other publications as a slushpile reader, and sometime essay contributor to Stupefying Stories https://stupefyingstories.blogspot.com/. These days, I write whenever I want to – or when I’m not busy exploring the world with my wife or kids or grandkids. I write and read constantly. Then I discovered that I was writing longer and longer pieces. My new focus is to write shorter; and to write HUMOR. On purpose. Maybe I can still irritate people while being funny. It works pretty well for John Scalzi! We’ll see what happens.

I just finished a short story that asks the above question.

At this time, the short story’s (6000 words) title is Down Below the Industrial Nightclub and Tandoori Inn and it takes place on the Mars of my most recent novel (if you’re interested in it, here’s a link so you can test read the first two chapters for free: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2026/02/martian-holiday-read-chapters-1-2.html

Anyway, Down Below the INTI was hard to write because it intersected with something I’ve experienced both as I grew up and seen more times than I’d like to admit during my decades as a science teacher and guidance counselor: wealthy people (like myself later in life), and students, teachers, staff, and the community as it regarded the school I was teaching at from the outside.

The details were often used against students (and sometimes staff) to explain how we couldn’t really expect much from our students because… “Well…you know…they’re…up…poor. Definitely at a disadvantage is life! Surely that’s something you have to deal over there!”

The details? “Robbinsdale Cooper Senior High School in New Hope, Minnesota, has a diverse student body where roughly 70% to 82% of students are students of color and about 70% qualify for free or reduced-price meals. Racial breakdown of the 1,396 students: Black: 38.2%; Hispanic: 25.0%; White: 17.7%; Two or More Races: 9.8%; Asian: 8.7%; American Indian/Alaska Native: 0.5%; Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0.1% Economic Need: About 70% of students receive free or reduced-price lunch, which is a standard measure of low-income household status in public schools.

The “expectation” of the public – even the parents of our students – was that Cooper was going to be a “bad” school. Why? Because of the socioeconomic data above.

Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t graduate from Cooper – I graduated from Park Center High School (which was a BRAND NEW (opened 1971) high school in a largely new First Ring Suburb of Minneapolis. The houses were nice, the owners (some of them CAPABLE of owning a house for the first time in their lives (aka as my parents) and it had EVERYTHING possible for a Late 20th Century High School could have: a “Media Center”, carpeted classrooms and “cafeteria” with four-sided TABLES; a “sunken gymnasium”; modular construction; AIR CONDITIONING ALL THE TIME; and BLOCKS of lockers rather than hallways lined with them. State-of-the-art laboratories; and more startling than anything else… A COMPUTER IN EVERY CLASSROOM! Incredible.

I had expectations when I got a job at Cooper – that it would be tough. Our “sister-high-school” Armstrong (yes, named after the Apollo astronaut, Neil A. Armstrong) was the “sweetheart” of Robbinsdale Schools and every expectation of success and greatness was laid on them…

But…it was easy to convince the public that Armstrong would be a school of successful FUTURE architects, astronauts, engineers, doctors, and all the other high profile careers. Cooper would supply the world with construction workers, store clerks, and welfare recipients…

The expectation then was easy to translate from Cooper students were “lazy”; Armstrong students were “hard-working and successful”.

How did we change that – after ten years at the middle school feeding Cooper, I was able to get the job helping to SHAPE the student body at Cooper; eventually arriving at pulling my own kids from Park Center to Cooper for their four years of high school – because I believed that success was less about annual household income…

Among other things, teachers who believed in the inherent intelligence of Cooper kids despite the common-factor of similar socioeconomic factors worked to get Cooper certified as BOTH an International Baccalaureate school and (eventually) an Advance Placement school. When Cooper was IB certified, teachers at Armstrong FIRMLY believed that they didn’t NEED no fancy program to be the best in the Robbinsdale School District (Robbinsdale Cooper High School officially became certified as an International Baccalaureate (IB) World School in July 1997, and Advance Placement certified in the early 2000’s. Armstrong became and AP-certified school a few years later. Both schools have the AP program, only Cooper has IB and AP…

The staff talked the school up. Were there violent incidents at Cooper? Yep, there were. Teenagers who don’t have easy access to both higher expectations and more enthusiastic support like to get into trouble.

Of course, teenagers who have easy access to both higher expectations and enthusiastic support get into trouble as well. They fail classes, have to do make up in summer school, and drop out. Teenager who don’t have these drop out as well. They’re kids.

The question is: HOW DO WE CONVINCE THE RICH THAT THE POOR AREN’T JUST LAZY? Part of the answer is advocating for the poor. Another is by giving the poor the same opportunities that the rich have – that was one of our main tools at Cooper. The facts don’t support this myth, either. We’ve all heard people say, ‘If they worked hard, they’d succeed.’ [“Like I do!” is always implied.] “Politicians warn that such programs will reduce incentives to work.”

“I think that’s one of those sayings like “All politicians are liars.” FACT: “Work requirements rarely incentivize the poor to work any longer or harder than they already do, according to a Harvard research study. The truth is people in the US work hard, sometimes multiple jobs, and still have trouble covering their rent, utilities, health care, and groceries to last the week.” (https://www.familyhealthproject.org/debunking-the-myth-the-poor-are-lazy)

Anyway – idiots will always think idiot thoughts: “I can’t go to college! I’m poor!” is one of those idiot thoughts. “All poor people are just lazy!” is another one of those things that idiots think. Neither one is true. The real challenge is shouting those idiot ideas down whenever we hear them. As a high school counselor, I’ve done it before. Even as a normal person, you can make a difference, too.

And the connection to Down Below the Industrial Nightclub and Tandoori Inn? Parts of Human DNA have been removed from clones that are then declassified "Human" and considered expendable Inti (Introns removed during the cloning process...but you'll find that out when you read the story once I sell it!)

Inspiration: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2019/02/possibly-irritating-essays.html

Image: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNrJW4Wk_pI

IDEAS ON TUESDAY 719

Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them. Regarding horror, I found this insight in line with WIRED FOR STORY: “ We seek out…stories which give us a place to put our fears…Stories that frighten us or unsettle us - not just horror stories, but ones that make us uncomfortable or that strike a chord somewhere deep inside - give us the means to explore the things that scare us…” – Lou Morgan (The Guardian)

H Trope: Ghost Towns
Event: http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/mn/taconiteharbor.html

Mary Croft may have been the only certified dredge operator on the North Shore of Lake Superior – but she hadn’t expected to be the ONLY operator in the abandoned town of Taconite Harbor.

The dredge she captained was mostly operated by an “artificial intelligence idiot”, which was why she was required by Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company to actually direct the floating suction dredge boat. The harbor was a small one, the taconite loads mostly taken out by rail, and the robots inside did most of the work in the town.

Her job would take a week and the company wanted her to work as much time as possible, so they’d given her one of the floating suction dredgers with an actual bed, galley and deck. “Henry?” she said.

“Please call me Hal,” said the idiot.

She shook her head. “I’d rather not. I have an original DVD of the old movie 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY.”

“You can’t,” said Henry.

“I can’t what?”

“Have an original DVD. The movie 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY was filmed in 1967 and premiered in 1968. The first true DVD was not manufactured for movies until 1995.”

“You know what I mean."

“I do not.”

She sighed and shook her head. “Let’s call it a day and shut down operations,” she said, tapping the shutdown key on the flat screen.

“Very good, ma’am.”

Mary rolled her eyes toward the ceiling and stepped out on the deck. Henry would take it from here until the actual docking procedure which she would do in the gloaming. She loved that word, she thought, unfolding and dropping into the lawn chair she kept carefully stored until the end of the day. No one would have said anything if she’d lounged about all day, issuing orders to Henry via her cellphone, but that had never worked for her. When she did a job, she wanted to actually DO something. For the time being, however, Henry was working hard pulling in and storing the collapsible pipe they used to siphon sediment from the floor of the harbor. It was pumped to a barge where it was dried and shipped down to Duluth for further processing or shipment to central North American markets.

The sun had fallen behind the steep shoreline to her left. It was a calm evening, a choice night on the cool waters of Superior. Such a night was rare enough to make her sigh.

Farther out across the water, to her right on the lake, waves rippled like a thin band of diamonds reflecting sunset light.

What was left of the town was now invisible as was the power plant. It had once operated on coal and had had a solar conversion during the third term of America’s first black president. There was no one left living there.

When the three remaining streetlights farther up the shore, intermittently lining the stretch of road that had once been the main street of the long-abandoned town, abruptly lit, she frowned.

When lights on either side of the abandoned basketball court at the near end of the street, close to Taconite Harbor itself, suddenly lit, the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. She went into the boathouse and grabbed a pair of digital binoculars, took them out and scanned the shoreline.

The lights were gone.

Frowning, she lowered the binoculars and rubbed her eyes. When she looked again, the lights were on and in the distance was the slow, faint thup-thup-thup of a basketball bouncing...

Names: ♀ Hebrew, English; ♂, acronym of: Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer; also “a venerable nickname for Henry, Harry and Harold, famously used by Shakespeare in King Henry IV as the name of the king's son, the future Henry V”

Image: https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51niGRrH6DL.jpg

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 718

Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them. Octavia Butler said, “SF doesn’t really mean anything at all, except that if you use science, you should use it correctly, and if you use your imagination to extend it beyond what we already know, you should do that intelligently.”

SF Trope: sanitation in the future is non-existent in cities…
Event: http://www.smh.com.au/world/mexico-city-fails-to-solve-its-garbage-crisis-20120127-1qlr2.html, http://fryingpannews.org/2012/02/09/big-step-taken-to-resolve-las-trash-crisis/

Trey Jackson and his family live in rural Nebraska – but the city of Omaha is a big part of their lives.

Especially the smell.

The city has been nearly buried under its own waste since, in 2029, the state legislature banned Omaha from dumping outside of a 20 mile radius. While few people in the CITY agreed to the law, legislators from outside the urban areas voted them down.

In 2041, Omaha has been walled in and in order to deal with the trash situation, they have moved their garbage to the edge of the city and hire companies to come in and search through the trash to find reusable, recyclable and useful things. Because the US economy slid into The Really Great Depression after an unprecedented eight Democratic Party dominated legislatures from 2008 through 2040, few people work – but everyone continues to produce garbage.

Trey and his family are part of a garbage caravan heading into Omaha to collect and distribute the trash West. When they arrive, they make camp in their covered wagons in Collector’s City and file for a permit to dig through the trash of a particular dump Trey’s dad and mom have researched. His twelve little brothers and sisters wait for their permit to clear.

In the meantime, Trey’s parents allow him to take the older of the siblings to the Collector’s Carnival. There he meets the amazing Francine La Flesche, descendant of the Indigenous people for who the city is named. She’s not supposed to be there, though.

In fact, she’s missing from her parent’s home – and they are powerful lawyers deep in the center of Omaha, living among the city’s wealthy elite. On the Ferris wheel ride, as it stops so that they are at the top and can see the Core City, she tells him she’s run away to see the world and was wondering if she can go with his family…

Names: ♀ France ; ♂ Latin (=3)

Image: https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/C2nVRtyWKDsGheTkefwup8-970-80.jpg.webp

MINING THE ASTEROIDS Part 41: Public STOCK Options in Asteroid Mining! (Which means this is getting REAL!)

Initially, I started this series because of the 2021 World Science Fiction Convention, DisCON which I WOULD have been attending in person if I felt safe enough to do so in person AND it hadn’t been changed to the week before the Christmas Holidays…HOWEVER, as time passed, I knew that this was a subject I was going to explore because it interests me…

Today’s Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiecartereurope/2026/07/01/why-the-spacex-ipo-brings-a-new-era-of-asteroid-mining-closer/ (“An IPO is when a company issues shares to new investors & gets admitted to a stock exchange. Public can now apply for shares in more IPOs.”)
Foundational Resource: (A general Wikipedia post detailing what the authors currently know about asteroid mining: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid_mining)
Noted Resources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_asteroid_close_approaches_to_Earth, https://www.pharostribune.com/news/local_news/article_7fcd3ea5-3c14-533f-a8d5-9bf629922f34.html, https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/04/29/like-asteroid-mining-be-careful-what-you-wish-for/, https://www.nps.gov/wrbr/learn/historyculture/theroadtothefirstflight.htm, https://hackaday.com/2019/03/27/extraterrestrial-excavation-digging-holes-on-other-worlds/, https://www.planetary.org/space-missions/every-small-worlds-mission
Interesting Stuff That Might Apply To Mining Asteroids: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgej7gzg8l0o

Mining the asteroids has hit the next obvious milestone. Expected to happen later this year: public issue of stock in an asteroid mining company! I can DO IT NOW! Not, of course that it will actually involve me…

My wife and I have safe investments. It seems that investing in asteroid mining would be slightly more speculative than we’d be comfortable with! OTOH…what if we DID do something like invest in an asteroid mining start up?

“As mentioned in its IPO (had to look this one up: Initial Public Offering where a private company sells shares of stock to the general public for the first time to raise money). SpaceX (best known for building and launching re-useable rockets “Falcon 9 Family plus Falcon Heavy & Starship pushes overall successful mission counts past 700 holding an overall success rate of a bit more than 98%.” (https://spacexnow.com/stats). When I graduated from high school (1975), the total number of re-useable rockets launched ZERO with an overall success rate of 100% (of ZERO)… That’s because ANYONE launching a reuseable space craft was PURE SCIENCE FICTION the year I became a legal adult…

At any rate, SpaceX has moved far and beyond launching spacecraft to show off to the rest of the world. “The first rocket to reach outer space was a American Bumper 2 two-stage rocket launched on February 24, 1949.” Of course, you have to read a bit farther to find out that “we” used the bottom of a German V-2 with a topper of an American WAC Corporal (https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/first-rocket-reach-outer-space-launched)

While the first thought that springs to mind is (of course) “Cities In Space” from which we might “leap to the STARS!” the facts will be much more mundane: “Water — found in carbonaceous asteroids — may matter before platinum-group metals. Water can support life support, oxygen production and rocket fuel, making it more useful in space than platinum shipped back to Earth.”

The main reason is because “Asteroid mining is expensive. Japanese Space Agency’s Hayabusa-2 mission returned samples from Ryugu in 2020, costing around $150 million, while NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, which returned samples from Bennu in 2023, cost around $1.16 billion.” I guess we’ll see about that…I can imagine more than one scenario where “evil billionaires bring back zillions of dollars in platinum and purchase Western Canada…”

While this seems more-or-less run-of-the-mill for most of you, I started reading SF when I was about 13. Books like HAVE SPACESUIT, WILL TRAVEL (Heinlein, 1958) were just a starry-eyed future for adolescent teen, me. Today? “Asteroid mining is currently being pursued more seriously than ever by several companies that are now moving beyond paper studies, with AstroForge having flown a deep-space asteroid-imaging mission and others developing or funding demonstration hardware for future asteroid-resource missions. The SpaceX filing does not make asteroid mining imminent, but it does put the idea inside the commercial strategy of the world’s most closely watched private space company.”

Other names that were attached to what we call North America, including several who have no real continent-wide concept, include hundreds of distinct Native American groups lived across the land, each speaking their own languages and having names for their specific homelands, local regions, or creation stories rather than the entire landmass. Some northeastern tribes, such as the Lenape and Iroquois called it "Turtle Island"; Cem Ānáhuac was the name used by the Aztec (Mexica) people; Norse explorers and Vikings called parts of coastal North America, “Vinland”: ; 1553 world map by Petrus Apianus, "Baccalearum" (aka Realm of the Codfish); 1569 map by Mercator “New India”; Abya-Yala was the name given by the Kuna people of Panama and has been adopted by modern Indigenous movements to refer to the American continent.

I guess it remains to be seen whether space becomes one more playground for the gargantuanly wealthy or a true “final frontier’. The diversion above made me think that when one culture “firmly names” something, it seems to be that it’s only a matter of time before another culture, with clearer goals and stronger craving is the one that will overshadow the others. Thus far, NASA and the other national space exploration bodies have had a virtual monopoly in space, picking and choosing what they wanted to do with it and discretely edging out their competition. Maybe the time has come for the “little gal” to move in a change the game.

Maybe space is about to go AMERICAN/CHINESE/JAPANESE commercial!

Image: https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/A2D5/production/_114558614_hls-eva-apr2020.jpg

WRITING ADVICE: Short Stories – Advice and Observation #39: Ken Liu “& Me”

In this feature, I’ll be looking at “advice” for writing short stories – not from me, but from other short story writers. In speculative fiction, “short” has very carefully delineated categories: “The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America specifies word lengths for each category of its Nebula award categories by word count; Novel 40,000 words or over; Novella 17,500 to 39,999 words; Novelette 7,500 to 17,499 words; Short story under 7,500 words.”

I’m going to use advice from people who, in addition to writing novels, have also spent plenty of time “interning” with short stories. While most of them are speculative fiction writers, I’ll also be looking at plain, old, effective short story writers. The advice will be in the form of one or several quotes off of which I’ll jump and connect it with my own writing experience. While I don’t write full-time, nor do I make enough money with my writing to live off of it...neither do most of the professional writers...someone pays for and publishes ten percent of what I write. When I started this blog, that was NOT true, so I may have reached a point where my own advice is reasonably good. We shall see as I work to increase my writing output and sales! As always, your comments are welcome!

Without further ado, short story observations by Ken Liu – with a few from myself…

Ken Liu began publishing fiction in 2002. His first published work was "Carthaginian Rose", a short story on mind uploading. Liu has said he wanted to become a writer so he could make stories that ‘turn values upside down and inside out to gain new perspectives’.” I also found out that he’s married with two kids – and that they homeschool their kids. (Which is what we did…both are now extraordinarily successful in their chosen careers…)

But REALLY: what makes him so popular? Googling with the question, “How is Ken Liu so publishable?”, I need to point out that not ONLY is he publishable, he has MULTIPLE translations of his own writing, as well as translating Chinese SF, THE THREE BODY PROBLEM (Cixin Liu) into English.

What is it then – and could I replicate ANY of it? The above search produced quite a bit of information (from several sources): “He has a… ‘multidisciplinary background, prolific output, rigorous work ethic, and mastery across multiple linguistic and creative domains.” He has…‘.worked as a software engineer at Microsoft, a corporate lawyer, and a litigation consultant before writing full-time. ‘His technical and legal background infuses his speculative fiction…with deep, realistic mechanics regarding engineering, governance, and culture.’ As well, ‘He maintains a steady, disciplined approach to drafting new material and consistently produces short stories, novels, and translations.’

OK…I have zero experience in the technical…of course, I was in my first year of college when he was born in 1976. I was born in 1957; pretty much the same year as “real computers”: FORTRAN launched; IBM announced it would ditch vacuum tubes and introduced its first commercial transistorized calculator (the 608); Engineer Russell Kirsch created the first digital image scanner scanning a 176x176-pixel picture of his infant son. (see it here: https://nistdigitalarchives.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/api/singleitem/image/p16009coll19/1541/default.jpg); AI pioneers Simon, Shaw, and Newell created the General Problem Solver (GPS), an early computer program designed to mimic human problem-solving. But should that matter? Isaac Asimov was born barely out of the Stone Age, and look what he wrote!

Liu observes about writing itself, “I’ve always loved telling stories. I think we, as a species, are persuaded more by stories than facts and figures, for both good and ill.” But why SHORT stories? I started with short stories, and after my behemoth MARTIAN HOLIDAY (at some 234,000 words), I’ve started to come back to short stories. Liu has a great observation on that, “…(difference between) epic fantasy and short stories?

It’s the difference between architecture and miniature painting.

What doesn’t change, however, is my voice.” So, I continue to struggle with this whole idea of voice. What IS my voice? What is “voice”? According to Google: “In short fiction, it’s the specific way words are put together…making…a story feel like a living person is telling it to you, rather than a machine. It’s the personality of the person telling the story. first-person, third-person stories. It’s also how people in the story sound when they talk and think. (This one is perplexing and I’ll need to think about it) It is the hidden fingerprint that stays the same across all their different stories. Finally, it’s the details the writer includes.”

What is Ken Liu trying to “say” in his writing? “Across his short stories and his Dandelion Dynasty epic fantasy series, he explores how people build meaning, adapt to new systems, and bridge cultural divides.” But even deeper than that, “…he takes everyday figures of speech or emotional states and makes them literal physical realities in a sci-fi or fantasy world. He views storytelling as the primary tool humans use to make sense of the universe and map out their lives.” “On writing short stories, Liu notes that while novels require heavy, structured scaffolding and external plotting to sustain interest, short stories can survive and succeed purely on voice, a single resonant image, or an emotional exploration.”

What am I trying to say with my stories? That’s something I’ve been exploring for several months now. I’m not sure even Liu knows what he’s trying to say – someone else is saying what they observe. But is that what he’s TRYING for? My life as a kid was hemmed on every side by “athletics” – basketball, football, hockey, fencing (mom), track, baseball, track and field, and all the “stuff” that went with them. I hated all of those, but found I loved biking (for miles and all over), swimming, and camping…but they weren’t enough of “sport” to engage the family. All that to say that I think that I’ve been trying to show through my writing that “Find what you’re good at, and embrace those who will celebrate with you, then ignore the ones that can’t see it for what it is to YOU.”

Maybe. I’ll be exploring those more, so I’m creating a new category: What Am I Trying To Say?

References: https://www.writers-online.co.uk/how-to-write/how-i-write-short-speculative-fiction-by-ken-liu/ (2020); https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/liu_interview/ (2014) https://catherine-bateson.com/ken-liu-from-short-stories-to-an-epic-fantasy-quartet/ (2026); his first story that was nominated and/or won multiple SF/F awards: https://gizmodo.com/read-ken-lius-amazing-story-that-swept-the-hugo-nebula-5958919
Image: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhK6miXJMTMNyB3kzq-r6I2LVCTZJj0CDS0dPV2Qapl6e9rZPuHx2u5QKcKT1QGeDg1_tPMv-lpnuSr_eiBjwPXmex9mcgtuH2-SUtZEpGWV0_HdtJQelVt5K69NulJBUqNju5GNjHgQibXsIo4NeWpTOj4ai85jCRjMHOtwtkqshzxFvZPUSjXZNq6=s320

IDEA ON TUESDAY 717

Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them. Regarding horror, I found this insight in line with WIRED FOR STORY: “ We seek out…stories which give us a place to put our fears…Stories that frighten us or unsettle us - not just horror stories, but ones that make us uncomfortable or that strike a chord somewhere deep inside - give us the means to explore the things that scare us…” – Lou Morgan (The Guardian)

H Trope: Back to school!
Event: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeepers_Creepers_2

Asmunder Helguson stopped at the edge of the school ground.

Rynhildur Eggertsdóttir shoved him, “Oh, come on, you big baby.”

Asmunder swallowed hard and said, “Maybe I shouldn’t have watched those last five movies of the 30 Scariest School Movies of all time.”

She shouldered him, laughed, and said, “You think? Maybe you should listen to your best friend sometimes.”

Asmunder glanced at her. She looked away. He whispered, “I would if that Greenland shark hadn’t eaten him.” Rynhildur growled and shoved past him, ramming him into a garbage can. He called, “Ryn! Wait! I wasn’t thinking...”

She turned as she walked, saying, “Try thinking before you say mean things, Ass.” She kept turning and disappeared into Reykjavik High School. He cussed in one of the obscure languages – Basque – and took a step toward the school. He stopped and stepped back. People who didn’t know him couldn’t figure out why he refused to go into the school. Even the people who knew him accepted that he couldn’t go in, but still didn’t understand why he wouldn’t do it. “Can’t do it,” he muttered. He looked up at the third floor, the wide dormer with three windows. Even as he looked, he saw a faint, ghostly shadow pass into the school.

He was certain the Greenland shark that had murdered his best friend haunted his school. That it waited for him.

That it might be waiting for something else. Suddenly, high overhead, the head of the shark came out of the building, paused, looked down at him, then turned and re-entered the school, disappearing. Asmunder staggered backward, certain that the creature – the ghost – had truly horrible things in store for the students. He was quite sure there was one, special student the shark would be visiting...

Resources: http://horror.about.com/od/horrortoppicklists/tp/30-Great-Back-to-School-Horror-Movies.htm
Names: ♀ Iceland; ♂ Iceland

Image: https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51niGRrH6DL.jpg

IDEAS ON TUESDAY 716

Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them? Regarding Fantasy, this insight was startling: “I see the fantasy genre as an ever-shifting metaphor for life in this world, an innocuous medium that allows the author to examine difficult, even controversial, subjects with impunity. Honor, religion, politics, nobility, integrity, greed—we’ve an endless list of ideals to be dissected and explored. And maybe learned from.” – Melissa McPhail.

Fantasy Trope: [https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-fiction/popular-fantasy-tropes-for-writers]...Allergic To Evil
Event: https://fountainmagazine.com/all-issues/2025/issue-167-sep-oct-2025/the-allergy-of-the-soul-resisting-sin-in-a-world-of-temptations/

Andre Xavier Xavier, a Bryshwyn of Bryshwyns, the turban on his head release more than its usual curl of very pale, very curly hair. The curls sprang out all around.

As well, a line of monks striding in loose exercise uniforms keeping cadence happened by at that moment. Andre used a vulgar word that made even Raven Zoe Jefferson, a Nobody of Nobodys blush in embarrassment. The lead monk called a different cadence and they set off at a faster pace. Zoe said, “If I’d shouted that, I’d be in the gym for the next forty hours.”

“That’s not true!” Andre exclaimed.

Fendwyri Alyn Wader, whose family enabled music to communicate in addition to entertaining, walked by and said, “Of course it is, Bryshwyn! If it wasn’t for our kind, the Vacancy would be permanently filled with evil.”

“I thought you were allergic to evil, Wader?” Andre shot at the older boy.

Fendwyri spun around, eyes narrowing to slits as he shot back, “Aren’t you late to meditation?”

“Aren’t you?” The musician opened his mouth to snarl a reply then turned and ran.

Andre muttered the first syllables of another enablement.

Zoe kicked him in the shin, turned and sprinted after Fendwyri, snapped, “No more!” She passed the older boy who, once he thought he was out of their reach had slowed down to a jog. Now he exclaimed and tried to speak an enablement over her, so she spun, swept his feet out from under him and sprinted into the Canis Abbey proper, barely out of breath. She skipped to a halt, then strode to the front, plopped down on the bench then lifted her eyes to contemplate the slowly turning obsidian sphere hanging from the Abbey’s vaulted ceiling. No one noticed her because as she sat, Andre and Fendwyri came in.

The whispers started at the back of the nave and swept forward. Zoe ignored them until the older boy abruptly appeared next to her. She didn’t know if he enabled the floor to carry him faster than he could walk, but it didn’t matter as, glaring down at her, he whispered, “That’s the last time...”

The air around them grew cold and squeezing her eyes tightly closed, she only assumed her breath exhaled in a white cloud. A booming voice said, “All students will be seated and silent during meditations.” It was a standard warning. The University surveillance system could easily have generated it. However, it would not have added, “Masters Wader and Xavier and Mister Jefferson will please report to the commissariat following meditations.”

There was a faint rustle – though with the building now all ears no one dared actually speak – as everyone moved at the same time. Zoe kept her eyes closed as someone passed in front of her and sat down and someone dropped down next to her on her other side. She opened her eyes, but focused on the sphere instead of trying to look left or right.

The knees on either side of her gave them away as the colors were obviously Wader Green and Xavier Sable. Her own colors were Poor Girl Whatever. Instead of fear though, anger welled inside of her. What right did these two boys have placing her in between their familial feud? What right did either of them presume that she would be on “their” side in an arguments. Fendwyri was nice enough to her when they were alone. She considered Andre a good friend.

Her real enemy lived up the hall from her in the women’s dorm – Semolina Nyanchi Fieldthwaite. The girl with the amazing hair and the attitude to willingly flaunt it. The source of her control over enabling the growth of anything from snowflakes to Tower Trees, she was also a member of a family that had once shared the power of filling the Vacancy.

Now she just annoyed Raven and constantly made snide remarks. She tried focusing on the sphere again, finally and slowly calming her turbulent head games, when a cry went up from outside, “Syzhin devils!”

The assembly leaped to its feet as the land raid siren began its mournful wail, echoing even to the depths of the University; everyone rushing to defend the battlements against the scourge of the world.

Names: ♀ Popular African American name, Australian Capital Territory, Common African American last name; ♂ Popular American name, Brazil

Image: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/98/71/e5/9871e52bbc09c525af21b8f6471eab15.jpg