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 #124 New Moon of February 8, 2005 Contents copyright 2005 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. ********************* The winter holiday decorations are gone now, except for an occasional Santa or two looking increasingly lonely and forlorn, like a commuter who just missed the last train home. As I was taking a January evening walk down a dark street that a couple of weeks earlier had been ablaze with holiday lights, it occurred to me that this is when we in the Northern Hemisphere experience what the Season of Darkness is really like. We may claim to welcome the darkness in December, but we're actually defying it by stringing lights all over the place. Only when the lights and other decorations go back into storage do we really get to know the winter darkness. But now it's February and there are hints that the darkness is on its way out, even as some of the coldest days of winter are upon us. So even if our December holiday festivities couldn't hold off the darkness forever, they served to make it more bearable by reminding us of the eventual return of the light. ********************* In another forum someone was reminding us that the common feeling of light being "good" and "darkness" being bad was not shared by everyone. This person sees darkness as a kind of comforting womb-like refuge, with winter being a time for quiet thoughts and introspection leading to spiritual growth. And who am I to say he's wrong? There are times when darkness is needed, no matter what your feelings about it. You need darkness for showing movies or developing film, and when this country's birth is celebrated by fireworks at the height of the season of light, it is normally done during what few hours of night there still are at that time of year. To get much more personal, most of the inside of our eyes is dark, with only a little bit of carefully controlled light being allowed to enter through the pupil. If the retina were totally exposed to outside light, there would be no way to form images on it. Thus you need darkness to be able to make sense of the light. Thus we should remember to honor the darkness as well as the light, even as the light brings weather more suited to more types of outdoor activities and calms our fears of nocturnal predators and hidden anonymous evil. ********************* I found a note to myself in my shirt pocket: It says "Mother-in-law vs mother-in-chaos". It was just a thought that happened to come to me, so I wrote it down and then forgot about it until I found the slip of paper. Can I do anything with it, or is it just one of those strings of words that sounds interesting but doesn't really lead anywhere? I kind of suspect the latter, although I could be wrong. ********************* In addition to the usual early dusk and gloomy rain of this season, we've had one or two foggy mornings. That reminded me that Larry Niven once did a story where fog was caused by alternate timelines sort of merging, so it was hazy as to what was in which reality. His explanation of why fog wasn't just water droplets didn't really work for me, but it could be that most fog is just water droplets but every now and then there's one that's the alternate-timeline thing he proposed. Another related thought: If reality is shaped, at least to some degree, by the thoughts of the beings in it, then water-droplet fog could be one of the things that might help make timeline-merging fog possible. And maybe timeline mergers aren't all random. Perhaps there are wizards who can cross timelines, but their powers to do so are limited. It's much easier when there's fog in both the timeline they're in and the one they want to go to, because then reality isn't tied down as strongly at either end. They also need to avoid having others see them appear or disappear, but that sort of goes with not seeing much of either world during the transition. Of course fog isn't their only way of doing it. A really dark night would also work, if there are no lights close enough to be visible in any of the relevant timelines. Caves are also useful: Go into the cave in Timeline A, do the crossing-over spell, and come out into Timeline B. I also got to wondering whether the rise of computer databases will make it harder for magic-users from other timelines to enter this one, or at least to remain here and do anything non-trivial. It's getting more and more difficult to slip into most countries by unofficial routes and remain there for any significant length of time. Is this one more step toward banishing magic-users (and thus magic) from our world? Of course a multi-timeline secret society of magic-users that had been active here since before the advent of computers might have worked out solutions to the problem as it started to become apparent. They may have their own computers and other technological stuff, capable of creating authentic-looking passports and driver's licenses and such, and they may even be hooked into the various official systems so as to be able to modify the databases as needed. Who knows what the right combination of technology and magic can do? ********************* Did I mention the radio commercial I heard for some car that has a feature that warns the driver if the car starts to stray out of its lane? It's only a warning, and it only works in conditions of good visibility of the lane markers, but it's at least a small step in the direction of a self-driving car. Or so it seems to me. So was the recent story I read in one of the science fiction prozines that had something much closer to self-driving cars by about 2010 too optimistic? I kind of thought so when I read it, but on second thought it may not have been. Some technological advances have a way of sort of hiding in the woodwork, unnoticed by those not actually working on them, until they're ready to spring forth, more or less full-blown. Will the self-driving car be one of them? I've been told that self-driving cars will never be developed because too many people like driving manually and those people will somehow prevent the technology from coming into existence. But I suspect otherwise. If companies like UPS and FedEx can make profitable use of self-driving delivery trucks they'll buy them when they come on the market. And don't forget those with physical handicaps that prevent them from driving. Even if you consider only those people able to drive, not everybody will always want to. If, for example, it's late at night and you're sleepy or maybe you've had a few drinks, why not just lean back and close your eyes and let the car take care of itself? Past predictions in this area have tended to be too optimistic, perhaps because they underestimated the difficulty of the problem. But with the way computer technology is growing, I wouldn't be surprised at the technology more or less suddenly jumping out of the woodwork at us. ********************* At one point I started to mis-type "morning snack" as "morning snake", which the spelling checker wouldn't have caught. Do people have morning snakes and afternoon snakes? They don't seem to in any culture I'm familiar with, but what of the ones I'm not familiar with? ********************* President Bush is asking Congress to overhaul the Social Security system in order to be in less danger of running out of money as people live longer and population growth slows. I don't know how valid the various arguments and counter-arguments are, but there's one other thing I think they should look at while they're at it: The Social Security number itself. The current nine-digit number only allows a little over three times as many combinations as the present US population. While that number may have seemed like a lot back when the system was first set up in pre-computer days with a population much smaller than we have today, it really isn't all that much. And that's not allowing for things like check digits to reduce the possibility of errors or fraudulent use of random numbers. Although they may be able to get around this by recycling numbers when people die, I don't think that's a good idea. So they should consider the possibility of using more digits, or mixing letters in with the numbers, or maybe both. They should then also pass a law against displaying the new SS numbers on ID cards, insurance documents, and the like. While it may still be OK for state governments and insurance companies and banks and such to use Social Security numbers (or some other Federally issued ID number) in their internal record-keeping, each such entity should use its own set of account numbers on their ID cards and routine correspondence. Thus someone who (for example) checks your medical insurance at an emergency room won't get the key to all your other records. Has there been much talk about changing this part of the Social Security system? If there has, I haven't heard it. ********************* Some time back I was out walking and noticed something lying in the gutter: Remains of a dead cell phone. There were pieces of the case, although I didn't notice any of the innards. Had someone else already grabbed them? And does that kind of debris have a story behind it? Did a connection get dropped once too often, leading to the phone's demise in a fit of the owner's rage? Did some user step out into traffic while not watching where they were going, with tragic results? Or was the phone just the innocent victim of the user's emotions after being the bearer of bad news such as a relationship breakup or a financial loss? It may in theory have been possible to find out, if I had taken the trouble to note where I saw it so I could to check police logs and such, but as a practical matter I'll probably never really know. But I can imagine. ********************* When I found those pieces of cell phone in the street I was reminded that when I was living in the Los Angeles area I would now and then find bits and pieces of boom boxes and/or CD players (I have enough of a technical background to recognize this kind of thing). I don't recall seeing as much of that up here in the Bay Area, although I did see the remains of one previous cell phone in a parking lot once. Are the demographics of people who lose electronic stuff in the street different between the Bay Area and Los Angeles, or does it vary by neighborhood? Was it significant that most of those Southern California finds were on streets with significant gang activity and prostitution and such? Would I find busted-up boom boxes along the streets of, for example, Oakland or downtown San Francisco, even if they aren't common in most of Silicon Valley? ********************* Mention of putting Social Security on an investment basis reminds me of a thought I had had earlier: Having the government buy stock in the largest corporations, and then using the voting power of those shares to cause the companies to act in more socially positive and responsible ways. These giant companies are in a sense almost as powerful as government agencies, so this would acknowledge that and bring them more directly into the chain of command. The main benefits of this would be in areas like the environment and product safety, along with more socially responsible marketing. The larger the company, the more of its stock the gov't would buy. The smallest ones would hardly be touched at all. This should make things easier for small businesses. I realize this isn't something our present Administration would want to get into, but the Democrats and the Greens and others currently not in power might want to be thinking about it for the future. ********************* Another train of thought reminds me that there are many people, even in Hollywood or Silicon Valley, who have never created any significant poetry or art or music or engineering designs. That to me is an almost incomprehensibly alien situation. What's it like? As I was looking through my poetry files I happened upon an old untitled piece that reflects the other side of the creativity coin, and is also relevant to the current political situation. I should probably title it, but I don't want to make a hurried decision on a title right now. ********************* Have you ever known the feeling of an artist who can not find an audience? Then imagine the earth spinning lonely through millions of years of Sunsets with no eye to appreciate the beauty, Summer rains with no young lovers to run through them laughing, And starry skies with no one gazing up in wonder Until at last Man came forth. But is the Happy Ending final? Or will a few centuries of madness bury all the beauty forever under grimy concrete tombstones? Or will a burst of even more violent madness leave the earth barren and empty to face another eternity of Sunsets with no eye to appreciate the beauty, Summer rains with no young lovers to run through them laughing, And starry skies with no one gazing up in wonder? -- Tom Digby Original undated, probably late 1960's or early 70's Entered 18:58 11/15/2002 ********************* HOW TO GET SILICON SOAPWARE EMAILED TO YOU If you're getting it via email and the Reply-to in the headers is ss_talk@bubbles.best.vwh.net you're getting the list version, and anything you send to that address will be posted. That's the one you want if you like conversation. There's usually a burst of activity after each issue, often dying down to almost nothing in between. Any post can spark a new flurry at any time. If there's no mention of "bubbles.best.vwh.net" in the headers, you're getting the BCC version. That's the one for those who want just Silicon Soapware with no banter. The zine content is the same for both. To get on the conversation-list version point your browser to http://bubbles.best.vwh.net/cgi-bin/mojo/mojo.cgi and select the ss_talk list. Enter your email address in the space provided and hit Signup. When you receive an email confirmation request go to the URL it will give you. (If you're already on the list and want to get off there will be an Unsubscribe URL at the bottom of each list posting you receive.) To get on or off the BCC list email me (bubbles@well.sf.ca.us or bubbles@well.com). I currently do that one manually. -- END --