IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 223

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.

H Trope: uncontrollable plague kills men/women/kids/dogs/bugs

Current Event: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-01-07/india/30601741_1_multi-drug-resistant-tb-tb-patients-tb-germs

I was inspired to do a similar post several months ago (http://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2011/01/possibly-irritating-essay-christians.html) on this whole idea of surviving a world-wide plague. Lots and lots of YA lit has recently looked at the results of teens as the sole survivors of planetary plague:

GONE (series) by Michael Grant

SUDDEN INDEPENDENTS by Ted Hill

GALAHAD (series) by Dom Teska

UNDER THE NEVER SKY by Veronica Rossi

WORLD WAR Z by Max Brooks

ENCLAVE by Anne Aguirre

So what can you or I add to it?

How about this: Fereshteh (angel) Mazandarani has lived in the US her entire life – but has lived with her parents being harassed during the Iran Hostage Crisis from November 1979 through January 1981 – and long after; to experiencing fierce prejudice against herself when she was in fourth grade on September 11, 2001 – and long after. Dain Tungstenshin was born and raised in northern Maine and was completely unaware of the world growing up. Then he decided to City College in New York. Shaken to his core, he meets Fereshteh and even though she’s unlike anyone he’s ever met before, they become friends through a united devotion to their faiths.

Now the world is shaken by religious turmoil. Fanatics of every stripe have started to vie for supremacy. Even religions that once were seen as “peaceful” have resurrected their darkest sides. Buddhist terrorists hold thousands hostage in Australia during a soccer championship. Christian fundamentalists flood Indian subways with poison gas. Muslim fanatics use an ancient nuclear weapon to disintegrate Paris. Fringe groups of all religions battle in the streets of major cities. The governments of the world unite at the UN and declare that they have had enough and will force ALL religious sects into a single philosophy: the Unified Faith In Humanity.

This of course, forces the religions underground and finally to unite against the monstrous Apocalypse Demon. Sides are being chosen.

Fereshteh’s parents were gentle Muslims and her boyfriend Dain is a social justice aware Lutheran. Best  friends have begun to polarize as the world stumbles toward the End Times. When Fereshteh discovers an uncle of hers was a member of the Iranian Taliban early in the 21^st Century; and Dain that a distant relative was convicted and executed for shooting doctors who performed abortions…they find that they are marked by the hate mongers on BOTH sides of the conflict.

The newly minted Corps For A United Humanity approach them because they seem like ideal pawns in the new world order. The plan is to release a newly enhanced bubonic plague virus in Beijing, New Delhi and Los Angeles – and blame the fanatic terrorists for it.

Fereshteh and Dain, however have different plans when a REAL demon manifests before them. The Angel of Thaumaturg has a plan it thinks they can work together on that will counter the Demon of Apocalypse…

Names: ♀ Iran ; ♂ United States

Image:http://images.nymag.com/arts/cultureawards/2011/movies111212_contagion_560.jpg

WRITING ADVICE: What Went RIGHT With “Oath” (Stupefying Stories, 2013) Guy Stewart #23

In September of 2007, I started this blog with a bit of writing advice. A little over a year later, I discovered how little I knew about writing after hearing children’s writer, Lin Oliver speak at a convention hosted by the Minnesota Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. Since then, I have shared (with their permission) and applied the writing wisdom of Lin Oliver, Jack McDevitt, Nathan Bransford, Mike Duran, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, SL Veihl, Bruce Bethke, and Julie Czerneda. Together they write in genres broad and deep, and have acted as agents, editors, publishers, columnists, and teachers. Since then, I figured I’ve got enough publications now that I can share some of the things I did “right” and I’m busy sharing that with you.

While I don’t write full-time, nor do I make enough money with my writing to live off of it...neither do all of the professional writers above...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! Hemingway’s quote above will now remain unchanged as I work to increase my writing output and sales! As always, your comments are welcome!

If you’d like to read it, this story is still “up” at: http://www.stupefyingstoriesshowcase.com/0130826/0130826-40.html

The following is an abridged version of an essay the editor asked me to write to go with the story:

Worlds are supposed to be long-lasting, apparently eternal to those who live on them and even in fact whirling around their stars for a long, long time. This is what I’ve always wanted to do when writing science fiction: create long-lasting worlds so that I could return to them again and again.

“Oath” was the first story to grow from a seed planted by Bruce Bethke and Henry Vogel—though that wasn’t the title then—that eventually became a convoluted intertwining of multiple ideas, characters, and fictional events. It’s not the same story I wrote three years ago in response to their Friday Challenge in March of 2010.

From this challenge, I wrote the original story as my entry to a contest I lost—for very good reasons. “Oath” languished because I’d gotten another idea based in the same future. I abandoned “Oath”—I can’t even find a “Notes” file, so the fragment was obviously written on-the-fly—and wrote “Technopred” (April 2013, AURORA WOLF), a complete story, set in the same place as “Oath”. One of the comments on “Oath” was that “the setup leading to that ending needs considerably more work to support [it]...”

I dug deeper and built a more complete foundation. I had to understand the forces that had created the situation. I made it so that The Wilds came about as a result of the forced relocation of most of the world’s population to the Villages and the machines that were sent out to deconstruct and recycle every village, town and city identified as unneeded. I made the inhabitants of the Villages oblivious to the Wilds and the lands supporting them not in active ignorance, but because they no longer think of where their food comes from.

The background had finally grown big enough to contain “Oath”. It had spawned not only “Oath” and “Technopred”, but combined with an entirely different idea produced “Invoking Fire” (PERIHELION, June 2013 which I wrote about here – http://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2015/08/writing-advice-what-went-right-with_23.html). All of these led to a novel I’m in the middle of editing called OUT OF THE DEBTOR STARS; all this spilled out of the world-building that was sparked by Bruce and Henry’s Friday Challenge in March of 2010. I rewrote the fragment, placing it in the future history that had grown over the years, changed the title to the now more-appropriate “Oath,” and sent the short story to Stupefying Stories with deep sense of coming back home.

Years ago, I made a promise to myself that I would resist the urge to create disposable worlds where I’d write a single story to make a point, and then abandon it. “Oath,” seeded by an idea tossed out by Bruce and Henry and incorporating the DNA of another idea, has become a complex, rich, and deep world that I have started to feel very comfortable in. I expect there are many more stories in this place, and for that especially, I thank Bruce and Henry.

So what did I do right?

First, I rose to meet a challenge that gave parameters vague enough for me to do something original.

Second, I wrote and submitted a story – which lost the contest. But because I’d made a promise to myself to avoid disposable worlds...

I, Third, went back into the world and kept building.

Lastly, I persisted in sending the stories out. There are now three published stories in this place with more both on-the-way and in submission.

What do you think?

Image: http://static4.quoteswave.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/We-are-all-apprentices.jpg

NEW STORY UP AT PERIHELION SCIENCE FICTION!

I have a NEW STORY up now on PERIHELION SCIENCE FICTION! If you’d like to read it, click on the link below…

http://www.perihelionsf.com/1509/fiction_2.htm


OH! And this is the first time I've ever had an artist do an "interior" illustration for a story!

LOVE IN A TIME OF ALIEN INVASION -- Chapter 33

On Earth, there are three Triads intending to integrate not only the three peoples and stop the war that threatens to break loose and slaughter Humans and devastate their world.; but to stop the war that consumes Kiiote economy and Yown’Hoo moral fiber. The Braiders accidentally created a resonance wave that will destroy the Milky Way and the only way to stop it is for the Yown’Hoo-Kiiote-Human Triads to build a physical wall. The merger of Human-Kiiote-Yown’Hoo into a van der Walls Society may produce the Membrane to stop the wave.

The young experimental Triads are made up of the smallest primate tribe of Humans – Oscar and Kashayla; the smallest canine pack of Kiiote – six, pack leaders Qap and Xurf; and the smallest camelid herd of Yown’Hoo – a prime eleven, Dao-hi the Herd mother. On nursery farms and ranches away from the TC cities, Humans have tended young Yown’Hoo and Kiiote in secret for decades, allowing the two warring people to reproduce and grow far from their home worlds.

“We had nearly fallen into stagnation when we encountered the Kiiote.”

“And we into internecine war when we encountered the Yown’Hoo.”

 “Yown’Hoo and Kiiote have been defending themselves for a thousand revolutions of our Sun.”

 “Together, we might do something none of us alone might have done…a destiny that included Yown’Hoo, Kiiote, and Human.” (2/19/2015)

Lieutenant Commander Patrick Bakhsh (ret) – I’d started thinking of him as just “Retired” once he seemed to be on our side – looked over at me and said, “Did you ever hear the story of where you uncle came from?”

I shrugged and said, “I think Dad said he grew up on the farm.”

Retired snorted then said, “The biological uncle may have, but the one you met was an android. He came from the Kiiote.”

There was an abrupt and stupefied silence. From all of us. Alien and Human alike. If Retired hadn’t taken over the van’s controls right then, I would have probably crashed us into a crumbled concrete island that rose up in the road just then. As it was, I said, “You just said I didn’t get drafted until I was five! How would you know when I saw my uncle?”

“Take it easy kid,” Retired said.

“I don’t have to take it easy! You’re not the boss of me! You just told me that Dad’s brother was a robot!”

“Not a robot. An android.”

“What the hell difference is there?”

“Robots look like machines, androids are robots that are created to be deceptively realistic. They’re constructed to be a living lie,” he paused. “So to speak.”

“How would you know my uncle was an android?”

“I didn’t until you asked about him. I hadn’t thought about the Farm for years.”

"It was just a farm!”

Suddenly the Yown’Hoo Herd mother, Dao-hi, said from the back, “It was not. It was a place Yown’Hoo might leave their young to be raised in safety from the depredations of the Kiiote.”

Qap snarled and snapped her jaw, “It was not Kiiote who trampled litters! It was a place where Kiiote pups could grow in peace in a time of war, safe from slobbering...”

Retired shouted, “Stop!” Silence fell again. Eventually he said, “On the farm, the Kiiote and the Yown’Hoo reached an agreement that none would kill the young. Earth was an ideal place for the aliens to grow...”

I couldn’t help it and said, “Wasn’t a bad place for us, either, seeing it was our home world.”

Retired snorted. “That, too, kid. This planet was good for all three of our peoples. It was your uncle’s farm gave us the idea to attempt the Triads in the first place. He was their biggest advocate, having a daughter grow up alongside the Kiiote and Yown’Hoo there.”

Even I could hear the downturn in his voice and said, “What happened?”

He sighed, “Plain and simple heart attack. He died out in the back forty once morning and we didn’t find him ‘til after sundown. Nothing we could do then,” he shot a glance over his shoulder, “Not even our highly advanced aliens could bring him back.”

We drove in silence and I took over. Pretty soon we were past even the few lights of the city. As the darkness grew, it became more than just an absence of light...

Image:

http://www.bydavvi.com/C1/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/nightDriving.jpg

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 222

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.

F Trope: a sorcerer who is dead but his “soul” lives on trapped somewhere

Current Event: http://www.alunajoy.com/2012-mar18.html

 Martin Jönsson stared at the blog and said, “You’ve read this stuff?” He scratched his scruffy blonde beard – little more than rough peach fuzz

Vukosova Gavrilović, long-time friends and NOT girlfriend, smirked. She learned the Swede phrase for her buddy’s newly sprouted beard was duniga skägg. She considered teasing him, but the look on her face warned her that he probably wasn’t in the mood tonight. Instead she said, “I read it. What about it?”

“It like, says that people can soak up ancient energy and transport it from place to place!”

Vukosova shook her head. Her friend was a philosophy major – she wished him luck in finding a job as something more than an intelligent garbage collector. She was a physics major, and if her freshman grades and undergrad presentation were any indication, she may have just written herself a ticket to the Cooperative Lunar Colony Fusion Research Center after she graduated. The CLCRFC – better known by its euphemistic name, The CooL Co. FuR Center and what NASA insisted on calling ClickerFick in its press releases – was every physicists dream. Nuclear fusion was a hop, skip and a jump away from becoming practical. All they needed to do was solve one or two containment issues...she yanked her attention back to Martin and said, “We’ve been soaking up energy and taking if from place to place since the evolution of the first life form.”

He finally looked up from the screen that showed some wackoid Egyptian goddess background overlain with a the foolish ranting of someone who was certain they’d been able to imbue and ancient Egyptian site with energy sucked up in their souls from Atlantis. He said, “This is amazing! It sounds like what you guys are doing in that science class you’re taking!”

She sighed and said, “It’s called Elementary Nuclear Fusion – and it doesn’t have anything to do with storing energy. It’s about creating energy.”

He frowned then said, “I had some science classes in high school...”

“That was last year, wasn’t it?”

“Hey! Just ‘cause I’m a prodigy doesn’t mean I don’t deserve respect!”

“You were a prodigy in acting, Martin! Now you couldn’t shake a stick at an T-comp without breaking into a cold sweat!”

He stood up abruptly, snapping the cover in his computer. “Shows how much you know! I’m gonna see if I can soak up some fusion energy from...from…”

She smirked and said, “Idfu – it’s on the east bank of the Nile in east central Egypt.”

He glared, “You think you know everything just because you’re a physics major! But there’s another world out there, too. One you can’t see! It inhabits the same realm as your gravitons.”
“Gravitons are real!” Vukosova exclaimed.

"Yeah? Show  me one!”

“Well, you can’t just open your eyes and see one! You need special equipment…”

“And then can you see one?”

“Well...not exactly. But we can see evidence that gives a strong indication of the properties and the effects of..."
“So your gravitons are as imaginary as my negative Atlantean energy.”

“They aren’t the same...”

Martin turned away and stalked out of the dining hall. He stopped just before he slammed the door and shouted, “We’ll see whose god is more powerful! The trapped sorcerers of Atlantis and Ancient Egypt or the trapped gravitons of the Unified Field Theory!”

She blinked in surprise as he finished his rant and stomped away. She muttered, “I didn’t know he knew anything about the Unified Field Theory!”

Names: ♀ Sweden; ♂ Serbia

Image:http://assets.inhabitat.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2011/11/Cold-Fusion-Rossi-1-537x392.jpg

Slice of PIE: The Disaster People Write About…because it’s STILL SO SCARY!

Using the panel discussions of the most recent World Science Fiction Convention in Spokane, August 2015, I will jump off, jump on, rail against, and shamelessly agree with the BRIEF DESCRIPTION given in the pdf copy of the Program Guide. This is event #2306 (page 50). The link is provided below…

Anatomy of a Pandemic: Pandemics make frequent appearances in SF. But do what we read in books or see on the screen anything like real pandemics? The world just experienced the Ebola pandemic. The panel will discuss how real pandemics are likely to play out, and how that compares with their depiction in fiction.

SF writers have used past pandemics as story background – as in Connie Willis’ DOOMSDAY BOOK and Michael Flynn’s EIFELHEIM – as well as future pandemics like Matheson’s I AM LEGEND (which, paradoxically reversed in the movie, is all about the “zombies” fearing the uninfected) and the pre-story for the wildly popular YA MAZE RUNNER series called THE KILL ORDER.

With the Ebola epidemic in West Africa “safely” out of the news (NOT out of reality, unfortunately, as the disease continues to kill people, though at a substantially reduced rate...I am sure that’s a comfort to the families[http://apps.who.int/ebola/ebola-situation-reports]) and with the influenza season rapidly approaching in North America, there seems to be no real concern (http://www.who.int/influenza/surveillance_monitoring/updates/latest_update_GIP_surveillance/en/)

So why do we keep worrying at this whole pandemic story? It’s not like Modern Medicine can’t handle a little virus, right – kicked Ebola’s skriggly butt, didn’t we? Africa’s not only got a cure, they’ve got a vaccine, right? So writers like John Scalzi, in his book LOCK IN (book 1) are just whiling away the hours, trying to scare us like Stephen King did in THE STAND. There’s no real fear or nothing, right?

The staid ATLANTIC magazine brooks no hysteria, only calm, clear concern (http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/06/preventing-the-next-pandemic-ebola-spotlight-health-aspen-ideas-festival/397040/); while others like The Guardian hover on the verge of tabloid hysteria, making sure their quotes are framed in the most frightening way possible, “‘The virus is smarter than we are at this point. I don’t know of any disease that plagues us more. It’s very, very frustrating and a very inexact science,’ Robert Daum a Chicago doctor who heads the Food and Drug Administration advisory committee that makes the US recommendations, told The Post earlier this year, as the committee was about to meet to discuss strains to include in the coming season’s vaccines. ‘We do it with varying luck, and I think the luck is mostly the virus’ whim.’” (http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/aug/08/computer-model-predict-flu-outbreaks)

My opinion is that it will sneak up on us from nowhere, blindsiding society because of an extended incubation period, and sweep across the planet until a significant part of Humanity has died off...

I’d have loved to be in on this discussion – anyone out there hear what was said?

Resources: https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/pandemic

Program Book: http://sasquan.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/ConGuide.toupload.pdf

Image: http://a4.mzstatic.com/us/r30/Music/v4/5e/16/34/5e163440-1f88-baeb-1439-4198084f83e8/cover326x326.jpeg

MuseItYoung & MuseItYA: Heirs of the Shattered Spheres: Emerald of Earth

MuseItYoung & MuseItYA: Heirs of the Shattered Spheres: Emerald of Earth: We’re thrilled to announce Guy Stewart’s tween/YA sci-fi adventure… Emerald of Earth Book 1 in his Heirs of the Shattered Spheres series...

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 221

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.

 SF Trope: Humans are Something Special in the universe

Current Event: http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2010/08/15/interactive-infographic-of-the-worlds-best-countries.html

While this doesn’t rank HUMANS, it does rank COUNTRIES on Earth. What if there were a list like this of planets with intelligent civilizations – and Earth was last? It would explain The Fermi Paradox, wouldn’t it?

Fermi Paradox: “In an informal discussion in 1950, the physicist Enrico Fermi questioned why, if a multitude of advanced extraterrestrial civilizations exists in the Milky Way galaxy, evidence such as spacecraft or probes is not seen.” A clearer definition would be: “The apparent size and age of the universe suggest that many technologically advanced extraterrestrial civilizations ought to exist.

However, this hypothesis seems inconsistent with the lack of observational evidence to support it.”

So, here we go!

Bintou Kogda  and Ouedraogo Ye are both just eighteen and come from the country of Burkina Faso, which recently came through the Reorganization Wars that redrew the map of the African Continent. Their small country has encompassed the former nations of Ghana, Benin and Togo and because of the peaceful nature of its Reorganization, has risen to prominence.

Both are at Harvard in the United States, ostensibly to study law and nanotechnology under grant scholarships from their own government – and as part of a program the US has started to gain a foothold in the New Africa. They’ve never met – except formally at a reception welcoming all international students to Harvard.

While they love their fields of study, both are dissatisfied with the “boring life” they lead. When a small group of students begins to meet to discuss Extraterrestrial Intelligence, they both show…

“What are you doing here?” Bintou asked in French.

Ouedraogo replied in the same language, leaning closer to her than he’d ever done to a woman – excepting his mother and sisters – and said, “The same thing you’re doing here. I’m bored and this sounded exciting.”

Bintou leaned away. She’d managed to maintain her sense of modesty despite the crazy American obsession with sex. She shook her head. She should have known that Ouedraogo would want to embrace that insanity.

Even so, she bumped his shoulder as a young man stood at the front of the room and clapped his hands, saying, “Let’s get this gig hummin’!”

Bintou puzzled for a few moments. Though she spoke English as well as anyone who completed high school in Burkina Faso, American idioms still left her totally confused. Especially when they piled them on top of each other. She could only deduce that it meant “This meeting will now come to order!” because others started taking seats. No one sat in ordered rows, it was more like a vaguely circular blob.

After the chairs were done scraping across the floor, the young man said, “Hey! My name’s Edgar Bailey and I’ll be the moderator tonight for this first meeting of the ET Discussion Society. If you’d tell us your name before you speak, it’ll help us get to know each other. To start things off, I’d like to toss this out to the group.” The lights dimmed abruptly and a projector hanging from the ceiling flicked on, projecting a web article.

Ouedraogo groaned. Bintou had managed to sit across the group from him. She kept her dismay to herself.

Edgar stood on his tiptoes to locate the source of the groan. He snapped, “What’s wrong with this article?”

Ouedraogo stood up and replied in English. Bintou shook her head. It was unlikely that his heavily accented English would impress the people in this room as he said, “First of all, the article is almost twenty years out of date – the information is patently wrong...”

Edgar cut him off by saying, “The information is unimportant...”

Ouedraogo fired back, “It’s important to some of us! You’re perpetuating a stereotype!”

Bintou sighed. So much for keeping a low profile. She stood up and said, “What Ouedraogo is trying to say is that he and I are from Burkina Faso and this list places our former country at the very bottom as the worst country in the world from 2008 to 2009. Unflattering, to say the least. But what you’re implying by using this is that Earth has somehow gotten on the bottom of some interstellar ‘worst place to live’ list and that that’s the explanation of what puzzled Fermi and Hart?”

Edgar blinked slowly, massively as Bintou sat down. A moment later, there was a crash as Ouedraogo knocked over his chair and stormed out of the room. Beside her, a young woman with wildly uncontrolled, curly red hair nudged her and said, “Nice going! I’m glad someone shut down the pompous windbag before he went on his superior rant about Fermi.” She snorted, “You even mentioned Hart. Edgar hates it when people know more than he does – and that they remain polite and pleasant while they’re telling him ‘what for’.” She raised an eyebrow and added, “You probably made his most-hated person list today!”

“I didn’t mean...” Bintou began.

“Don’t worry, you just made it on to about sixty people’s ‘OMG, I have absolutely GOT to get to know this woman!’ list. You’re certainly on mine. I’m Ginny Phleger. What are you doing after the meeting?”

Names: ♀ ; ♂ Both from Burkina Faso

Image: http://swittersb.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/off-limits1.jpg

POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS: Future Pharma – How will biotechnology and genome research revolutionize pharmaceuticals?

Using the panel discussions of the most recent World Science Fiction Convention in Spokane, August 2015, I will jump off, jump on, rail against, and shamelessly agree with the BRIEF DESCRIPTION given in the pdf copy of the Program Guide. This is event #2153. The link is provided below…

Future Pharma – How will biotechnology and genome research revolutionize pharmaceuticals? How can biotech be better integrated into fiction? This panel will help provide an understanding of the diversity of contemporary and theoretical pharmaceuticals and how biotechnological breakthroughs can help move a plot along. Heather Rose Jones (m), Peter Charron, Barry Gold

My first ever “published” science fiction story dealt with just this subject, back when I was a 9^th grader in 1971. I remember my incredible success with this story because a girl in my Journalism class got really excited as I described my story, about a man-on-the-run from the Galactic Drug Corporation. As I read, the character commented that the company provided the purest form of any drug you could want.

She looked up at me and said, “Where are they?”

As I recall, I just gave her a blank look...as a ninth grader I was about as “uncool” as you could possibly be: plaid, high-water slacks, bowl cut hair, hated blue jeans and pizza, read all the time...I had no idea what I was writing about, but I had somehow picked up on the prevailing culture enough to write the piece.

Since then, everyone I know has benefitted from biopharmacology: my wife takes human insulin produced by bacteria; my brother and father have stents in their hearts that had been coated with a substance that prevented the rejection of the foreign object; my brother-in-law who was born a hemophiliac, took freeze-dried Factor XIII in order to increase the clotting ability of his blood; I could go on, but there’s no reason to. The science fictional possibilities of pharmacology, biology, and biotech is undeniable.

I have a world where I’m exploring the possibilities right now. In my future, there are no aliens. There are also very few habitable planets (ever read the book, HABITABLE PLANETS FOR MAN? If you haven’t, here you go: http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/commercial_books/2007/RAND_CB179-1.pdf This book not only inspired me, it lit a fire under me that hasn’t ever gone out. I LOVE alien worlds, aliens, and everything else about SF!)

In my future, Humans are modified to fit environments and Humanity has split into two factions – the Empire of Man and the Confluence of Humanity. The Empire refuses to admit that anyone who is less than 65% Original Human DNA is Human. The Confluence embraces the modification of the Human genome to whatever lengths it takes to serve the rest of Humanity.

Obviously there will be conflict, and my focal point is in the clouds of the super-Jovian, puffy-Jupiter, named River. I’ve had two stories published in this world, “The Baptism of Johnny Ferocious”, “The Prince of Blood and Spit”, plus the as-yet-unscheduled, “Into The Deaths”. I imagine I’ll collect them altogether someday.

But back to the point of this essay, we will continue to expand our use of “manufactured” biotech products and will continually be faced with the problem of limits. At what point do we draw back?

Case to point is the refusal by parents of technology that would allow a deaf child to hear. The argument is that “deafness is not a handicap or a disease”. Deaf Australia puts it this way: “...a [cochlear] implant ‘implies that deaf people are ill or incomplete individuals, are lonely and unhappy, cannot communicate effectively with others and are all desperately searching for a cure for their condition. [This] demeans deaf people, belittles their culture and language and makes no acknowledgment of the diversity of lives deaf people lead, or their many achievements.’”

If this is already an issue, what does the future hold?

Resource: http://nad.org/

Program Book: http://sasquan.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/ConGuide.toupload.pdf

Image: http://www.thelivingmoon.com/41pegasus/04images/Critter/Jupiter_Hunter_02.png