SILICON SOAPWARE wafting your way along the slipstreams of the Info Highway from Bubbles = Tom Digby = bubbles@well.com http://www.well.com/~bubbles/ Issue #203 New Moon of July 1, 2011 Contents copyright 2011 by Thomas G. Digby, with a liberal definition of "fair use". In other words, feel free to quote excerpts elsewhere (with proper attribution), post the entire zine (verbatim, including this notice) on other boards that don't charge specifically for reading the zine, link my Web page, and so on, but if something from here forms a substantial part of something you make money from, it's only fair that I get a cut of the profits. Silicon Soapware is available via email with or without reader feedback. Details of how to sign up are at the end. ********************* This issue may be a little later than usual, because I was at a science fiction convention over the holiday weekend. This particular convention (Westercon) is held in a different location every year, and this year it happened to be local to me. My first science fiction convention, back in 1966, was also a Westercon. That one was in San Diego. Some aspects of conventions have changed since then, while others have stayed more or less the same. Westercons have gotten larger as the population has grown and science fiction has become more generally accepted. Although this one was smaller than some previous ones (I've heard attendance figures ranging from the mid 500's to almost 700), it was still several times what was considered "normal" (around 150 or so) when I first started attending. This growth has led to things like multiple programming tracks. There was a time when a convention would have only one thing going on at any one time. Now there are almost always several things competing for your attention. And the subject matter has grown to include new technologies such as computers, along with cultural changes in such fields as sexual and gender issues and new religious movements. What remains is that while some people come for the formal programming, others come for the people. It's still a place to renew old friendships and make new ones. ********************* Another idea President Obama and Congress will probably ignore: Instead of past Presidents and other patriotic heroes, print currency with pictures of villains, demons, zombies, etc., that people won't want to look at. They'll spend that money faster to get rid of it, which will boost the economy. ********************* One panel I was on at Westercon had to do with languages that might be used by beings on other planets. I wrote up some of my thoughts on the matter ahead of time. Even though the panel didn't get into all the areas I'd considered I still think my thoughts are worth sharing here. I was inspired by the seven-layer model of the OSI data transfer protocol. This is that thing you may have seen diagrams of with layers named "Physical Layer", "Data Link Layer", "Network Layer", and so on up through "Application Layer". It occurred to me that languages, human and otherwise, may have something loosely analogous to those layers. The functions of the layers may be different, and since we're talking about something that probably evolved naturally the layers may blur into one another. But even with this blurring the concept may be useful, even if only to help science fiction writers keep track of what possibilities they have or haven't been considering. For more or less natural languages used by various kinds of intelligent beings, I would start by defining two physical layers. The lower of the two would be the physical medium: Sound waves in air or other gases, sound waves in liquid, radio waves, subatomic particles, odors, or whatever. Above that would be the physical transmitter and receiver: Vocal cords, whistles, light-emitting organs of various types, and so on, along with the appropriate sensors. Note that these are distinct, but still related: Vocal cords, sirens, and whistles generate sound in different ways, but can all be constructed to work in the same atmosphere. Also, a given type of apparatus can sometimes be adapted to work in a different physical medium. But there are limits on what apparatus can be adapted to what physical medium. Se we have layers that are sort of distinct but not entirely separate. Next might be a modulation layer. If the information is carried by something like sound waves or radio waves, is it done by some form of amplitude or frequency modulation, digital bits, or something else? How important is the time domain relative to the frequency domain? If the signal is something else such as odors or images, this layer will be different but will still deal with the analogous questions. Above that might be phonemes, or something analogous to phonemes, leading on upward into morphemes or the equivalent, and then on to lexemes. Note that lexemes are more or less independent of the physical medium: Compare almost any spoken human language with the written equivalent. Marks on paper are not the same as vibrations in air, although they can carry the same message. So even when the layers blur into each other, there are limits on how blurry they usually get. Now that we're getting into the upper parts of the stack, we can begin to consider more abstract concepts such as how various languages deal with concepts of time, space, and being. But I'm running out of time and relevant expertise. Some other parting thoughts: Language is not always a one-dimensional stream. For example, compare just about any spoken human language (a more or less one-dimensional stream of sound waves in air) to written Chinese (a series of two- dimensional images). Or consider written English, where a one- dimensional stream of information is carried by relatively small and simple two-dimensional characters. Might these situations be analogous to the curled-up dimensions some physicists are proposing? There is room for further thought here, but I may not be the best person to think those thoughts. ********************* I think I need more stuff to write about. Maybe I'll get lucky and find some object lying in the street or somewhere and write about it. That doesn't seem to happen often, but perhaps it ought to. Or maybe someone will have a yard sale, selling things to write about. That leads me to wonder what if you buy something at such a sale and then don't write about it? Will the sellers get mad at you? What if it says, right there in the fine print on the receipt, that if you don't write about the thing you bought to write about, the sellers will get mad at you? And then if you go and write about how they're mad at you for not writing about that thing they sold you to write about, they'll be even madder. Eventually the stress of being mad at you for not writing about the thing you bought from them to write about and then writing about them being mad at you instead will take its toll in ulcers and heart attacks and such and they'll keel over dead, and it will all be your fault. Even if the local laws don't hold you liable, it will still be on your conscience. So if you don't want to be guilty of making people die from being mad at you, you should be sure to write about whatever it was you bought at the sale to write about. Or something like that. Maybe. Or maybe it isn't like that at all. Maybe they're sitting there laughing about how they put one over on you with that baloney about how they'll get so mad at you that they'll die from all the stress, and they'll laugh so hard at how they fooled you that they'll die laughing. At first glance you might be tempted to feel just as guilty because they're dead either way, but it could be argued that you need not feel guilty at all, because at least this way they died happy. But be that as it may, I don't think I'll be going into the business of selling things for people to write about. Too many people who go into that line of work end up dying on the job. ********************* According to my car radio, someone is selling action figures of that Congressman who recently got into a big scandal about emailing pictures of himself in his underwear to women. There are two versions, with the anatomically correct one costing ten dollars more than the other. That got me to wondering if bobble-head technology can be applied to that portion of the anatomy. It's more complicated than the head because the mass is sort of cantilevered out. But I think it can be done. The big question is whether it would sell. ********************* Nothing to Read The poetry reading is this Sunday, And I have nothing new to read. What shall I do? If this were a lively evening event At the bustling coffee place across the street I could conspire to have all my friends Order extra-loud espresso during my time slot, While at the same time I would move my lips silently, Pretending to be having trouble with the microphone So that no one would be able to tell That I had nothing new to read. But alas! This reading is on a quiet Sunday afternoon In the back room of a place That may not even offer espresso. And we will all be gathered in an intimate circle With no scapegoat microphone to help me hide My creative shortcomings. I could hope for help from above, Since we're under the approach path For a nearby air base, And some of those fighter planes are louder Than any espresso machine I've ever encountered. But that's not something I should really count on. Should I play a pity card? Problem is, I haven't been dealt one recently And I don't feel right lying about it, Even if lying won't get me sentenced to Devil's Island Or the chain gang Or even being made to write "I will not make up false excuses for not having a poem to read" A hundred times on the blackboard after school. I can be vague about the situation, Even to the point of winning some kind of award for vagueness. But I cannot outright lie. This is not the kind of thing I feel right lying about And these are not people I feel right lying to. So it looks like I'll just have to write up a full confession And read that. -- Thomas G. Digby Written 16:57 07/07/2011 Edited 22:54 07/07/2011 ********************* HOW TO GET SILICON SOAPWARE EMAILED TO YOU There are two email lists, one that allows reader comments and one that does not. 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