American science fiction writer, journalist, and scientist
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We also each rank our top three first contact books at the end of the episode.This episode is sponsored by The Pythagorean by Alexander Morpheigh, which is available in print or kindle edition here.Join the Hugonauts book club on discord!Or you can watch the episode on YouTube if you prefer videoAll the books in the episode (with YT links to those we've got full episodes on, or search for them in your podcast app): Contact by Carl SaganEnder's Game by Orson Scott CardThe Sparrow by Mary Doria RussellThe Forever War by Joe HaldemanEmbassytown by China MiévilleRoadside Picnic by the Strugatsky BrothersThe War of the Worlds by H.G. WellsBlindsight by Peter WattsThe Expanse by James S.A. CoreyThe Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuinRendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. ClarkeThe Mote in God's Eye by Jerry Pournelle and Larry NivenSolaris by Stanislaw LemThe Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu
The Legacy of Heorot by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Steven Barnes, is Tony's pick this time around, a book that is also on Tom's list. We had very different experiences, revisiting this old friend! TTYpodcast.comThumbingthroughyesterday.com#larryniven #jerrypournelle #stevenbarnes #nivenpournellebarnes #thelegacyofheorot #grendel #samlon #beowulf #thumbingthroughyesterday #podcast #books #scifi #scifibooks
In this week's episode, we wrap up the November Writing Challenge by taking a look back at the Five Iron Laws Of Storytelling, which have often been discussed on this show before. Be sure to get your free copy of STORYTELLING: HOW TO WRITE A NOVEL at my Payhip store. The book will remain free until December 9th: https://payhip.com/b/JPDoT TRANSCRIPT Note: Spoiler alert at 3:35. Please check this section of the podcast before proceeding if you are concerned about spoilers for several older television shows, movies, video games, and books. 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 229 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is November 26th, 2024, and today we are wrapping up our November Writing Challenge with a look back at The Five Iron Laws of Storytelling. You may note that I am recording this a bit earlier than I usually do, but that is because I want to take a couple days off for Thanksgiving. To celebrate the end of our November Writing Challenge and to congratulate you all for listening to these shows, I am giving away free copies of my nonfiction book, Storytelling: How to Write a Novel on my Payhip Store. The link will be in the show notes, and if you follow that link, you can get a free copy of Storytelling: How to Write a Novel from my Payhip Store until December 9th. So follow that link in the show notes to my Payhip store and you can get a free copy of Storytelling: How to Write a Novel until December 9th. Before we get to our main topic, let's have a look at my current writing projects. My main project right now is Orc Hoard, the fourth book in the Rivah Half-Elven series, and that puts me at 55,000 words into it and that puts me on chapter 11 of 18. So I think the final draft will be around 85,000 words or so, which will make it the longest book in the series to date. And if all goes well, I very, very, very much want to have that out before Christmas. I'm also about 4,000 words into Shield of Deception, which will be the fourth book in my Shield War series and if all goes well, I am hoping that will be the first book I publish in 2025. In audiobook news, the audiobook of Cloak of Spears, as excellent narrated by Hollis McCarthy, is now available at all the usual ebook stores. I will include a short preview of the audiobook of Cloak of Spears at the end of this episode, so you can listen to that then. And that is where I'm at with my current writing projects as we wrap up November and head into December. 00:01:57 Main Topic: The Five Iron Laws of Storytelling So now let's go right into our main topic, The Five Iron Laws of Storytelling. I figured this would be a good main topic to wrap up our November Writing Challenge with as it is a good reminder and a good summation of many of the things we talked about in the past month. The Five Iron Laws of Storytelling is a concept I first talked about on my website like 10 years ago now. The name Iron Law is sort of a tongue in cheek joke because I got the idea from a science fiction author Jerry Pournelle, who termed what he called Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy, where describing that after a certain amount of time, a bureaucracy will cease to attend to the function to which it was created and instead devote its attention to sustaining and perpetuating the bureaucracy. And I'm sure we can all think of examples of that, so that's where I took the name from, but it's not so much Iron Laws as these are useful principles to guide you while you are writing a fictional story, whether it's a short story, a screenplay, or a novel. I would say it's fair to argue that storytelling does have some laws you can follow (or at least if you don't like the term laws, best practices) and a writer will ignore those best practices to his peril. When people get ticked off about the ending of a story like the ending of The Sopranos or the ending to Stephen King's Dark Tower series, if they simply don't like a novel or a TV show, it's usually because the writer ignored one of more of these Iron Laws that we're going to talk about. These then are what I believe to be The Five Iron Laws of Storytelling. When discussing them, I will cite five examples that I think to be excellent examples of the craft of storytelling: the movie the King's Speech, the movie Wreck-It Ralph, the movie Gravity, the novel Pride and Prejudice, and the TV series Breaking Bad. I should note that I did not personally care for Breaking Bad because it was too nihilistic for my taste, but nonetheless, it was an excellently crafted example of a well-written story. I'll also cite four things I believe to be examples of bad storytelling: the final two volumes of Stephen King's Dark Tower series, the Dragon Age 2 computer game, the original ending of the Mass Effect 3 computer game, and the ending of the Sopranos TV series. So note that there will be spoilers for all of these shows, films, books, and games. Now onto the five laws. #1: The protagonist must have a problem that results in a conflict because if there is no problem, there is no story. Conflict and problems are engines that drive the story. A happy life with minimal conflicts and problems might be the ideal that we all want in real life, but it does make for an exceedingly dull story. The main character of his story needs to have a problem that results in some kind of conflict. Note that this conflict doesn't necessarily have to have an actual villain, it just needs a problem to solve. The movie The King's Speech doesn't have a villain (though the future and former King Edward VII is kind of a jerk) but instead revolves around George VI's efforts to deal with his speech impediment. Gravity likewise has no villain but centers around Dr. Stone's efforts to survive in the harsh environment of space. So the protagonist must have a problem. The story is about how he or she deals with said problem, which leads us on to number two. #2: The protagonist's problem and conflict must be consequential to the protagonist and have real stakes for the protagonist. The problem has to be serious because if it is not, there are no real stakes, the reader will get bored and cease to care about the character. The worst of all worlds is an unlikeable character with a trivial problem. Walter White in Breaking Bad is a thoroughly unlikable character, but he becomes sympathetic to the audience because of the nature of his problem. He's dying of cancer and so he turns to meth production to ensure his family's security after his death. Walter's problem, of course, has very real stakes, his own mortality and his family's future, but the stakes need not be life and death, but nonetheless, they need to be emotionally serious and significant to the protagonist. In the King's Speech, at no point in the movie is George VI in any kind of physical danger. He is wealthy and respected, his wife and children love him, and he does not have the self-destructive impulses and nature of his brother. Nevertheless, his problem is real. It is emotionally painful and opposes a risk to both himself and his sense of duty to the monarchy and the country. Likewise, Elizabeth Bennett in Pride and Prejudice is in no physical danger throughout the book. Nonetheless, the stakes of her problem and her feelings for Mr. Darcy are consequential. If she does not secure a good marriage when her father dies, there is a very real possibility she'll be impoverished. Or if she marries an unsuitable man like Mr. Wickham, her life will be miserable. So while a young woman dealing with her feelings seems like a trivial problem, it will nonetheless have potentially dire consequences for Elizabeth and her family if she chooses wrongly. Physical danger is likewise an easy way to introduce high stakes to a story. In Gravity, Dr. Stone faces constant risk of death in a variety of agonizing ways due to the harsh nature of space. Wreck-It Ralph faces the prospect of non-existence if he dies outside his game. In Breaking Bad, other than the inevitable death from cancer, Walter White faces increasingly high odds of getting shot in the head by his business partners and customers, since crystal meth is clearly not a business for conservative-minded investors. Regardless of the nature of the problem and the conflict, it must be consequential and carry high risks and dangers for the protagonist. That said, the problem must be something the protagonist can conceivably deal with. Too vague of a problem or too powerful of a problem, and the story goes off the rails. When I'm recording this in November of 2024, it's a few months since the fourth Dragon Age video game came out, and if you look at the internet at all, there are of course frequent debates about which Dragon Age game was the best and which one was the worst. But in my opinion, Dragon Age 2 is the weakest of them because it runs smack dab into the problem we've been talking about. The central conflict in the game was strife between the mages and the Templars who are supposed to police the mages. The Templars claim that the mages are demon worshiping abominations while the mages claim that Templars are arbitrary and brutal. As it turns out both sides are right, regardless of which faction the protagonist chooses to aid, making the conflict of Dragon Age 2 to be human nature/social injustice. Regardless, it's not a problem that can be resolved within the game and in the ending, the Templars and the mages go to war no matter what decisions the player actually makes, so I'm afraid that the story falls flat. #3: The protagonist must take action and struggle to resolve his or her conflict and problem. A common failure in storytelling is a protagonist who has a serious problem but does nothing about it. We've all read stories with a passive protagonist, or even worse, a protagonist who does nothing but whine about his difficulties or thinks that by feeling bad about his or her problems, they will somehow magically get better. Worst of all is when a protagonist does nothing but whine or complain for two hours or 300 pages and somehow does solve all of his or her problems. This is apparently a common problem in the genre of romance novels. The opposite of this problem is the boring invincible hero. This is common in science fiction or fantasy series where towards the end of the series, the hero is so powerful that he or she can defeat all his problems using magic or a blast from a particle cannon. Struggle is necessary for a story. If the protagonist does not struggle, the story will probably be boring. No, the protagonist has to take action, actual active action to resolve the problem, but he or she must struggle while doing so. In Breaking Bad, Walter White sets out to solve his family's impending financial ruin by brewing up some crystal meth for sale. In Wreck-it Ralph, Ralph wants respect from the other denizens of his game, so he jumps to another game to win a medal and therefore prestige. In Gravity, Dr. Stone struggles to stay alive the entire time in the face of the indifferent hostility of outer space to human life. If these characters did nothing to surmount their problems, we would have boring stories. #4: The protagonist must face challenges and setbacks and his or her efforts to resolve the problem that may even backfire. This is a good antidote to the boring invincible hero problem we just mentioned. Think of this as the unexpected complications ensue rule. You see this all the time in real life, it matters both serious and trivial. Like say you need to mail your rent check but you're out of stamps, so you drive to the post office, but there's an accident in the intersection and you have to take a different route. As you take a different route, your car breaks down. All these new problems need to be dealt with and you still have to mail the check. We've all had days like that, and fictional protagonists should be no different in the pursuit of their goals. Additionally, it's possible for a protagonist to inadvertently make things worse through his or her actions. Like in Wreck-It Ralph, Ralph sets off for his medal of heroism, but in doing so, accidentally puts his own game out of order and inadvertently unleashes the virus like cy-bugs in the Sugar Rush game. Walter White in Breaking Bad is a textbook example of this. In the course of attempting to solve his problems, he makes a number of extremely bad decisions that estrange him from his family and sent his business partners gunning for his head. In the King's Speech, George VI gives up in despair believing he'll never overcome his speech impediment. In Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth torpedoes her relationship with Mr. Darcy because of her misunderstanding of his motives. And if you've seen Gravity, you know that Dr. Stone's situation frequently goes from bad to worse. #5: The ending must provide satisfactory emotional resolution to the problems raised in the story. Of all the Five Iron Laws of Storytelling, this one is undeniably the most important. Screw this one up and readers will be ticked and talk about on the Internet for years. Whatever crisis comes up in the story, whatever conflict or difficulties, it must be resolved in an emotionally satisfying manner by the end of the story. It can be a happy ending or a sad ending or a mixture of the two, but it must be emotionally satisfying. Let's look at some bad examples first. Stephen King is an excellent writer. If you've read his book 11/22/63, you know that's a great book. But when he's written as much as he has, not everything is going to be good, of course. And Stephen King's The Dark Tower series is a good example of a weak ending. After 22 years and seven books, the protagonist Roland learns that he has repeated his quest to the Dark Tower over and over again for thousands of years, forgetting every time, which makes everything that happened in the previous seven books utterly meaningless since the events happened before and will happen again. Therefore, there is no emotional resolution to the story or Roland's quest for the Dark Tower. The computer game Mass Effect 3 is another example of how not to end a story. In the case of Mass Effect 3, the original ending is simply too abbreviated. Commander Shepherd sacrifices himself or herself. A weird light shoots out of the Citadel. The Normandy crash lands on an alien planet, and that's it. Considering the hundreds of hours of gameplay involved and the intricate network of emotional relationships between Shepherd's companion and the dozens of subplots over the three games, the ending was too short to provide adequate emotional resolution. It felt a bit like a cop out as if the writers had simply said, okay, we're done, stop here, and had given up before attempting the necessary ending. The ending of Dragon Age: Origins by contrast was an excellent example of a well done ending. The ending of the Sopranos is an even more extreme version of this. Infamously, the series simply ends with a cut to black in the middle of Tony Soprano and his family eating dinner. Many viewers thought their televisions had failed. This is the ultimate example of a story of failing to provide emotional resolution. The final episode does not even attempt to do so. I suspect these problems arise when a writer tries to be realistic, which is what happens when a writer mistakes verisimilitude (a story feeling realistic) for realism. A story requires suspension of disbelief and attempting phony realism can cause the story to break down. But let's move from the negative to the positive and look at some good examples of endings. The ending of Breaking Bad was well executed, since it resolved the story's emotional conflicts. Walter White does not escape punishment for as many crimes since he's shot to death in the end. Additionally, he dies in the act of resolving some of the conflicts that he helped create. His meth empire has been taken over by his enemies and his former partner has been forced to prepare meth for them. Walter tries to provide for his family, free his partner, and defeat his rivals and dies at the end, killed not by his cancer, but by finally facing the consequences of his many bad decisions. Note that this is by no means a happy ending, but it is a satisfying ending, which is more important. The King's Speech ends well, with George VI addressing the nation over the radio without melting down due to his speech impediment, simultaneously resolving the conflicts over his stammer and his fear of accepting his duties as king. This is an ambivalently happy ending. George VI has overcome his conflicts, but the viewers know that the United Kingdom is about to go through World War II and George himself will die prematurely of lung cancer and heart disease in 1952. Nevertheless, the conflicts within the story have been resolved. Wreck-It Ralph has a more straightforwardly happy ending. Every single conflict raised within the story is resolved. Ralph accepts his role as villain in the game, realizing he is a vital part of the team. He gains the respect of his neighbors, and the villainous King Candy and the cy-bugs are defeated. Additionally, even when the side conflicts are resolved: Fix It Felix marries Sergeant Calhoun, King Candy's malevolent influence over the racing game has ended, and the homeless video game characters are able to set up inside Ralph's game. To sum up, stories have a sort of irresistible logic to them. Much like a properly balanced equation. a writer should set out to create a story that follows this logic, which will result in a far more enjoyable experience for the reader. So that is it for this week. Thank you for listening to The Pulp Writer Show. I hope you found the show useful. A reminder that you can listen to all the back episodes at https://thepulpwritershow.com. If you enjoyed the podcast, please leave your review on your podcasting platform of choice. Stay safe and stay healthy and see you all next week. Don't forget to get your free book copy of Storytelling, how to Write a Novel from my Payhip store.
Vince Cate, The Critical Connection In my last interview, I talked with the creator of SIO2PC, which let Atari users use a DOS computer as its disk drive and printer. This interview is with the creator a product which - six years earlier - let Atari users use a CP/M computer as its disk drive and printer (and keyboard.) Vince Cate owned a company called USS Enterprises, with just one product: The Critical Connection. Critical Connection was a combination of a specialized cable and software for connecting an Atari 8-bit to a computer running CP/M. The long cable had an SIO plug on one end and a 25-pin serial plug on the other, and some chips in the middle, allowing the Atari and CP/M box to communicate at 19,200 bps. The Critical Connection was released in 1983, six years before SIO2PC. They shared many similar features: with it you could: use an entire CP/M floppy disk as an emulated 600K Atari disk drive, create 92KB CP/M disk files which emulated Atari 90KB disks, and print from the Atari to the CP/M computer's printer. The CP/M machine even acted as a print spooler. You could also use the CP/M machine's keyboard to type on the Atari. Vince needed to create a file format to store virtual floppy disks on the CP/M machine: the filename extension was .ATR. I don't know positively, but I'm pretty sure it's a different file format from the well-known .ATR format that Nick Kennedy created for SIO2PC six years later... just similar functionality given similar names. Nick Kennedy told me that he had never heard of The Critical Connection. Here's what Jerry Pournelle wrote about Critical Connection in the September 1983 issue of Byte magazine: "Vincent Cate continues to improve his Critical Connection. This gadget makes an Atari think a CP/M computer system is a set of disks. The only requirement is that your CP/M system have an RS-232C serial port operating at 19,200 bps. Given that, you needn't buy disks for an Atari; by using The Critical Connection, you can make the Atari believe you have four disks. The really nice part is that you can use 8-inch as well as 5 1/4 -inch disks. Cate's new software package has automatic installation for a number of CP/M systems, including Kaypro, North Star, Sanyo, CCS, Heath/Zenith, and Morrow. ... Cate's documentation is improved, but it's not what I'd call good. Still, you can puzzle it out, and if you don't want to invest a lot in an Atari system but still want to use disks with it, Cate's Critical Connection is the way to go." This interview took place on November 20, 2024. Video version of this interview on YouTube Vince's web site Vince in Wikipedia Critical Connection review in ANALOG magazine 1986-02 CC version 1 in Antic XL version in Antic In Byte 1983-09 In Dr. Dobbs Journal 1983-09 Critical Connection at AtariMania ANTIC Interview 444 - Nick Kennedy, SIO2PC and ATR Support Kay's interviews on Patreon
Host a Podcast and Be a Podcast Guest!John Kremer: Every author should have a podcast. I still believe that. I've been promoting it for a long, long time.I still really believe that because I think podcasting is one of the most powerful tools you have for getting the word out about yourself.The neat thing in today's world, it's easy to create a combined audio-video podcast that you can syndicate on 40 or 50 platforms.Judith Briles: How many people come in and start a podcast with absolutely amazing intentions? Kind of like when people are going to do a blog and then within six months the blog is dead. Is there any stats on the startup for podcasts that start petering out?John Kremer: I don't know of any specific stats, but I do know from my own anecdotal experience that probably 80 or 90% of podcasters give up on their podcasts within six months. It becomes too much work. It's too hard. It's every week. But the thing is, you don't always have to do a podcast that's going to be a forever podcast. You could do a limited edition 10-episode podcast.Some of the most popular podcasts in the world are limited podcasts. They cover a true crime case, and then once you're done covering it, the podcast is done. But the podcast lives on in all the podcast syndication sites. It lives on in Audible. It lives on in Amazon. It lives on in lots of places.Judith Briles: Some of the news shows I'll pick up once in a while, they have both the ongoing, like in perpetuity, like ours has been, and we're seven years old now. But they also have limited edition episodes, almost like a serial book and then it's over. And then maybe they'll come back again when they have a new serial to start up.John Kremer: Even a limited podcast series still gives you the benefits of a podcast, especially the power of syndication.One of the incredibly powerful things about podcasts is that it puts you on 30, 40, or even 50 of the major websites on the Internet, including Apple, Amazon, Audible, Google Play, Spotify, Pandora, and more!You know the power of a podcast because you built up a listenership for your podcast, and you've had millions and millions of listens and possibly views because I know you also put it up on YouTube.Podcasts not only allow you to syndicate it to all these powerful websites, but it also gives you the opportunity to exchange views and podcast episodes with other podcasters.Ask key influencers and authors this question: I'd love to interview you for my podcast, but I would really like it if you would also interview me for your podcast. I think we have complimentary audiences that would like to hear both of us talk on each other's podcasts.The Book of the Month ClubJohn Kremer: I'm going to talk about the Book of the Month Club. Now, this isn't the old line Book of the Month Club, which died a sad death.Judith Briles: So, how do we create our own Book of the Month Club?John Kremer: I met somebody once at one of your seminars, and I'm still trying to track down his name now because I seem to have misplaced it in my move to Arizona.But he offered a book of the month club. He was a business speaker and consultant to corporations. What he did is he wrote 12 short books. I'm talking about short books, 96 to 128 pages, somewhere in there.Then whenever he'd go out and speak or whenever he attended a convention, whenever he met somebody that might be a potential client or customer or speaking agent, he added them to his book of the month club.Once a month, he mailed out real books to his prospect list, a list of about 500 potential customers. He kept adding people to the list as he spoke in different venues and met people on planes, in hotels, or at convention sites.His book of the month bluc not only justified him printing hundreds or thousands of copies of his books but it also impacted his speaking engagements and his corporate consultations.From a business standpoint, his book of the month club made perfect sense for him because he picked up all kinds of coaching clients, speaking engagements, and corporate programs that he would do.To be successful with such a club, first you have to write 12 books. And you can't produce junk. You have to produce real content worth reading, something that would showcase your experience and help to sell people on other products and services you have to offer.The neat thing is that at the end of every book, of course, he included a pitch for his coaching and his speaking and his corporate programs.His book of the month club was designed for a business audience. But the thing is, novelists, memoir writers, cookbook authors, and other writers could release five to 10 pages per week instead of releasing a book a month.One chapter per month, a recipe per week, something like that. They could email it out. Or they could podcast out episodes. They could even do YouTube videos.I just ran across an old friend of mine, Peggy Glenn, who's now doing videos under the name Grandma Potty Mouth where she shares fun recipes. She's a little spicy in her videos. They're entertaining and fun. She obviously enjoys it. And she actually got a book deal with a New York publisher to publish a cookbook.It wouldn't be that hard for any author, regardless of what kind of book they're writing, to offer a book of the month club or pages per week club or something like that.As you share, be sure to collect listener email address so you can email out the episodes or posts or videos to your list.It means that you don't have to invent new content for your email every week. You can simply be podcasting a book. Or email out a book a few pages at a time.The classic case of this is the novel, The Martian, which the author originally released as a series of blog posts. The story became so popular that Andy Weir ended up self-publishing his book before he got a contract offer from a major publisher to publish the book. Of course, it got made into a movie. He ended up making millions of dollars on what began as a simple blog.Judith Briles: Many authors sell their ebooks on Amazon, but they don't go any further.John Kremer: The neat thing is now with Amazon Kindle, you can do a paperback and a hardcover as well. And they actually encourage you to do those now. And an audio, an AI-generated audio that's actually not bad.Give Away Your BookJudith Briles: Yeah, it really can make a powerful difference to have different versions of your book.Authors are too often afraid to give away their book. I really think it's important to get rid of that mindset because I think in some ways giving away pieces of your book.John Kremer: For novelists, I recommend giving away your first book because I know you got three more books in you. I don't know any novelist other than Harper Lee and Margaret Mitchell that don't have a dozen novels in their heart and soul.One of the best ways to market the second novel is to give the first novel away.Offer the 1st Book in a Series to Sell the 2nd BookJudith Briles: Here's a little trick I found when I've been in bookstores. I have a historical fantasy fiction book called The Secret Journey. Book two is The Secret Hamlet and book three, The Secret Rise.When people meet you for the first time, they usually want to start with book one. If they like it, they'll come back to the trough. I typically tell a bookstore to order 20 to 25 copies of my book. I've learned to ask booksellers to order 20 to 25 of the 1st novel in a series and a dozen of the 2nd novel.In one instance, I asked readers, “How would you like to read book one for free if you buy book two?” That got their attention.So I said, “Do you ever read e-books? Are you on Amazon's Kindle? Let me sign book two for you and you can go up on Kindle Unlimited and download book one for free.” Within five minutes, I sold another five books of book two.Reach Out to InfluencersJohn Kremer: The first step to marketing your books is to reach out to influencers in your topic area.Judith Briles:; How do we find the influencers?John Kremer: It should be easy for you to find influencers in your topic area. If you don't know who they are, you're probably not writing on the right topic— because you should be a fan of that topic if you're writing in it.For example, I think it's terrible to write science fiction if you've never read science fiction. It's terrible to write a business book if you don't read business books.That's a crucial element in researching your audience, researching your topic, and making your book 10 times better.Work with Your CompetitorsJudith Briles: Many times I talk with authors and I ask them, who are their competitors? One author told me, “Well, I don't have any competitors.”I said, what BS? She just looked at me startled.That is total BS. We all have competitors. Ask yourself, what are the names of authors who are comparable to what you write? Or, who is competing for your services? Who is competing for your wisdom? Who's out there trying to get people to buy their books that have storylines in your genre? Those are your competitors.So I don't actually call them competitors. I call them friends or potential friends. And they can become friends, right?John Kremer: Back when I started out, Dan Poynter had written The Self-Publishing Manual. We partnered together, and he sold thousands of copies of my 1001 Ways to Market Your Books. And I sold thousands of copies of his self-publishing manual. I did the same for Tom and Marilyn Ross with their Complete Guide to Self-Publishing.I didn't see them as competitors at all. I saw them as people who were offering great content, and I could sell their content. So one of the first things you should do is ask your competitors is: “Can I sell your books?”Via the Amazon affiliate program, you can easily sell competitor or compatible books.You can also publish a catalog that you send out to customers when they order your books direct from you. That's how I created my first catalog. If you create a catalog to send out to customers who order your book direct from you, you can generate lots of extra orders. With my catalog, I ended up selling thousands of other authors' books that I stocked in-house.Potential competitors should be cooperating with each other. One of the best things that writers can do is work together with other people writing similar books to reach out to their audiences and expand each author's audience.The Audience as Super FansJudith Briles: You're talking about the audience as super fans. Who are these unique animals out there? Number one, they're mostly women, but they devour anything in the genre because they're always on the prowl looking for new things. So, why not create a cooperative collective of other authors like you?Or you can create a collection of related author books on Amazon and collect referral fees for encouraging such sales.Earlier when we were talking about the Book-of-the-Month Club, we both said we miss them because they were curating books. And there's still room for curators.John Kremer: I could see you doing a science fiction podcast that interviews your favorite SF authors and promotes their books. Any author can do that.When authors tell me that they can't think of anything to podcast about, I'm going, duh. All you have to do is interview people. Just interview your favorite authors.If you started interviewing a few famous authors, you can also start to become famous by associating and interviewing those celebrated authors. You start to become well-known. Their audience starts to seek you out because they say, wow, this person seems to know what they're talking about.Back in the day, I would have loved to interview Isaac Asimov or Jerry Pournelle or other science fiction authors. I went to a couple of world science fiction conventions and actually got to sit down with some authors and talk to them. In today's world you could easily go to the next world science fiction convention and record a whole year's worth of podcasts.And that's just the first half hour of the podcast. Listen in for even more great ideas!Book Marketing Success is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.ResourcesThe I-Don't-Have-Any-Time Hour-a-Day Book Marketing Plan: https://bookmarketingbestsellers.com/the-i-dont-have-any-time-hour-a-day-book-marketing-plan51 Ways to Help a Book Author You Love: https://bookmarketingbestsellers.com/36-ways-to-help-a-book-author-you-loveThe Ultimate Guide to Social Media Hashtags for Book Authors (439 author hashtags): https://bookmarketingbestsellers.com/423-social-media-hashtags-for-book-authorsBook Marketing Success is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bookmarketing.substack.com/subscribe
Larry Niven og Jerry Pournelle fortæller i The Mote in God's Eye en opfindsom historie om mødet mellem menneskeheden og en udenjordisk civilisation. Romanen, fra 1974, er både en old school first contact-historie og et forsøg på filosofisk undersøgelse af konsekvenserne af mødet med det radikalt fremmede. Et møde med "Moties" Romanen foregår i år 3017 i et fremtidigt menneskeligt imperium kaldet "Det Andet Imperium af Mennesket". Historien begynder, da en ekspedition ledet af Kaptajn Lord Roderick Blaine opdager et fremmed rumskib nær New Caledonia-stjernesystemet. Det fremmede fartøj viser sig at indeholde et enkelt væsen fra en hidtil ukendt alien-race. Denne race bliver senere kendt som Motierne på grund af deres hjemstjernes placering i forhold til en tåge, der ligner et støvkorn i Guds øje. Det bliver afsættet for en videnskabelig og militær ekspedition til Mote Prime systemet og mødet med Motierne. Biologisk specialisering Motierne er teknologisk avancerede, men meget forskellige fra menneskene. De er inddelt i forskellige racer, der er fysisk og mentalt tilpassede til specialiserede roller, som de udfylder med enorm effektivitet. En motie ingeniør kan reparere en fremtids-ipad med hænderne og deres forhandlere/ambassadører kan lære sprog lynhurtigt, og næsten læse tanker. Efterhånden opdager menneskene, at Motierne skjuler vigtige oplysninger om deres historie og biologi. Det afsløres, at Motierne er fanget i en cyklus af vækst, overpopulation, krig og sammenbrud på grund af deres ukontrollerede reproduktion; en ukontrolleret reproduktion, som vil overvælde menneskeheden, skulle Motierne slippe ud fra deres stjernesystem og sprede sig til resten af galaksen. Frygten for det ukendte The Mote in God's Eye er lige dele military scifi og old school first contact. Romanens styrke ligger i dens spekulationer om, hvad der sker, når to radikalt forskellige kulturer mødes. Når den er bedst fascineres man af at opleve menneskeheden gennem Motiernes øjne. Når den er svag, skyldes det, at verdensopbygningen, særligt på Mote Prime, ikke virker særlig troværdig og gennemtænkt. Jens og Anders har SCIFI Snakket The Mote in God's Eye. Shownotes til The Mote in God's Eye Intro og siden sidst Anders Har set Dark Matter – stadig underholdende og superflot Fik endelig set Silo færdig i forberedelse til kommende sæson 2, men synes nok stadig den er lidt træg… Fik læst Quantum Magician af Derek Künsken færdig, og må indrømme at jeg småløb gennem anden halvdel. Måske var det bare mig, men jeg kunne ikke holde overblik i det komplicerede heist-plot, og var inderligt ligeglad med karaktererne… Har læst Ann Leckies Translation State Har læst Marie-Helene Bertino's Beautyland (sær men cool bog, der handler om en pige/kvinde som måske er alien, måske “bare” autist…) Har læst Some Desperate Glory af Emili Tesh (military YA-scifi med multiverser og moralske dilemmaer) Har læst In Ascension af Martin MacInnes (samme vibes som Meg Howrey's Wanderers– fokus på drama omkring en tre-personers ekspedition i ultrahurtigt rumskib på vej ud af Solsystemet) Er gået igang med Sunny på ATV+ (men har foreløbig droppet den igen…) Keanu skriver bog med Mieville?! https://www.wired.com/story/china-mieville-writes-a-secret-novel-with-the-internets-boyfriend-keanu-reeves/ Jens Læst dispossesed af Ursula K. Le Guin. Mind. Blown! - Meget meget interessant bog om anarkisme/sociale og samfund (odonians) og hvordan det føles, hvis man er vokset op i et stærkt idealistisk samfund, og køber totalt ind på principperne om total frihed og anarki. Samtidig følger vi Chevek, som er fysiker og forsker i temporal teori (noget som kan bruges til at FTL) - han ender med at skabe det der “Ansible” device som også refereres i Left Hand. Den er del af samme bogserie. Hainish cycle. Adrian tchaikovsky - Service Model. Nyeste bog fra juni 2024. Når vi har overladt alt til robotter og det så begynder at gå ...
Why FreeBSD Continues to Innovate and Thrive, Why BSD, A BSD person tries Alpine Linux, This message does not exist, Demise of Nagle's algorithm, How Jerry Pournelle Got Kicked Off the ARPANET, and more NOTES This episode of BSDNow is brought to you by Tarsnap (https://www.tarsnap.com/bsdnow) and the BSDNow Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/bsdnow) Headlines Why FreeBSD Continues to Innovate and Thrive (https://freebsdfoundation.org/blog/why-freebsd-continues-to-innovate-and-thrive/) Why BSD (https://michal.sapka.me/bsd/why-bsd/) News Roundup A BSD person tries Alpine Linux (https://rubenerd.com/a-bsd-pserson-trying-alpine-linux/) This message does not exist (https://www.kmjn.org/notes/message_existence.html) Demise of Nagle's algorithm (RFC 896 - Congestion Control) predicted via sysctl (https://undeadly.org/cgi?action=article;sid=20240514075024) How Jerry Pournelle Got Kicked Off the ARPANET (https://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2013/07/how-jerry-pournelle-got-kicked-off-the-arpanet.html) Tarsnap This weeks episode of BSDNow was sponsored by our friends at Tarsnap, the only secure online backup you can trust your data to. Even paranoids need backups. Feedback/Questions Send questions, comments, show ideas/topics, or stories you want mentioned on the show to feedback@bsdnow.tv (mailto:feedback@bsdnow.tv) Join us and other BSD Fans in our BSD Now Telegram channel (https://t.me/bsdnow)
Space exploration, space opera, and space Jesuits! Support the network and gain access to over fifty bonus episodes by becoming a patron on Patreon. Want more science fiction in your life? Check out The Gene Wolfe Literary Podcast. Love Neil Gaiman? Join us on Hanging Out With the Dream King: A Neil Gaiman Podcast. Lovecraft? Poe? Check out Elder Sign: A Weird Fiction Podcast. Trekker? Join us on Lower Decks: A Star Trek Podcast. Want to know more about the Middle Ages? Subscribe to Agnus: The Late Antique, Medieval, and Byzantine Podcast.
Woops, getting this out a lil late. It's Escape from the Planet of the Apes by Jerry Pournelle!! No guest!! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/authorizedpod/support
Woops, getting this out a lil late. It's Escape from the Planet of the Apes by Jerry Pournelle!! No guest!! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/authorizedpod/support
Niven at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, 2007 Laurence van Cott Niven (/ˈnɪvən/; born April 30, 1938) is an American science fiction writer.[2] His 1970 novel Ringworld won the Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards. With Jerry Pournelle he wrote The Mote in God's Eye (1974) and Lucifer's Hammer (1977). The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America gave him the 2015 Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award.[3] His work is primarily hard science fiction, using big science concepts and theoretical physics. It also often includes elements of detective fiction and adventure stories. His fantasy includes the series The Magic Goes Away, works of rational fantasy dealing with magic as a non-renewable resource. Biography Niven was born in Los Angeles.[2] He is a great-grandson of Edward L. Doheny, an oil tycoon who drilled the first successful well in the Los Angeles City Oil Field in 1892, and also was subsequently implicated in the Teapot Dome scandal.[4] Niven briefly attended the California Institute of Technology[5] and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics (with a minor in psychology) from Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas in 1962. He also completed a year of graduate work in mathematics at the University of California, Los Angeles. On September 6, 1969, he married Marilyn Wisowaty, a science fiction and Regency literature fan. Work Niven is the author of numerous science fiction short stories and novels, beginning with his 1964 story "The Coldest Place". In this story, the coldest place concerned is the dark side of Mercury, which at the time the story was written was thought to be tidally locked with the Sun (it was found to rotate in a 2:3 resonance after Niven received payment for the story, but before it was published).[6] Algis Budrys said in 1968 that Niven becoming a top writer despite the New Wave was evidence that "trends are for second-raters".[7] In addition to the Nebula Award in 1970[8] and the Hugo and Locus awards in 1971[9] for Ringworld, Niven won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story for "Neutron Star" in 1967.[5] He won the same award in 1972, for "Inconstant Moon", and in 1975 for "The Hole Man". In 1976, he won the Hugo Award for Best Novelette for "The Borderland of Sol". Niven frequently collaborated with Jerry Pournelle; they wrote nine novels together, including The Mote in God's Eye, Lucifer's Hammer and Footfall. Niven at Stanford University in 2006 Niven has written scripts for two science fiction television series: the original Land of the Lost series and Star Trek: The Animated Series, for which he adapted his early story "The Soft Weapon." For The Outer Limits, his story "Inconstant Moon" was adapted into an episode of the same name by Brad Wright. Niven has also written for the DC Comics character Green Lantern, including in his stories hard science fiction concepts such as universal entropy and the redshift effect. Several of his stories predicted the black market in transplant organs ("organlegging"). Many of Niven's stories—sometimes called the Tales of Known Space[10]—take place in his Known Space universe, in which humanity shares the several habitable star systems nearest to the Sun with over a dozen alien species, including the aggressive feline Kzinti and the very intelligent but cowardly Pierson's Puppeteers, which are frequently central characters. The Ringworld series is part of the Tales of Known Space, and Niven has shared the setting with other writers since a 1988 anthology, The Man-Kzin Wars (Baen Books, jointly edited with Jerry Pournelle and Dean Ing).[10] There have been several volumes of short stories and novellas. Niven has also written a logical fantasy series The Magic Goes Away, which utilizes an exhaustible resource called mana to power a rule-based "technological" magic. The Draco Tavern series of short stories take place in a more light-hearted science fiction universe, and are told from the point of view of the proprietor of an omni-species bar. The whimsical Svetz series consists of a collection of short stories, The Flight of the Horse, and a novel, Rainbow Mars, which involve a nominal time machine sent back to retrieve long-extinct animals, but which travels, in fact, into alternative realities and brings back mythical creatures such as a roc and a unicorn. Much of his writing since the 1970s has been in collaboration, particularly with Jerry Pournelle and Steven Barnes, but also Brenda Cooper and Edward M. Lerner. One of Niven's best known humorous works is "Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex", in which he uses real-world physics to underline the difficulties of Superman and a human woman (Lois Lane or Lana Lang) mating.[11]
Niven at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, 2007 Laurence van Cott Niven (/ˈnɪvən/; born April 30, 1938) is an American science fiction writer.[2] His 1970 novel Ringworld won the Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards. With Jerry Pournelle he wrote The Mote in God's Eye (1974) and Lucifer's Hammer (1977). The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America gave him the 2015 Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award.[3] His work is primarily hard science fiction, using big science concepts and theoretical physics. It also often includes elements of detective fiction and adventure stories. His fantasy includes the series The Magic Goes Away, works of rational fantasy dealing with magic as a non-renewable resource. Biography Niven was born in Los Angeles.[2] He is a great-grandson of Edward L. Doheny, an oil tycoon who drilled the first successful well in the Los Angeles City Oil Field in 1892, and also was subsequently implicated in the Teapot Dome scandal.[4] Niven briefly attended the California Institute of Technology[5] and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics (with a minor in psychology) from Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas in 1962. He also completed a year of graduate work in mathematics at the University of California, Los Angeles. On September 6, 1969, he married Marilyn Wisowaty, a science fiction and Regency literature fan. Work Niven is the author of numerous science fiction short stories and novels, beginning with his 1964 story "The Coldest Place". In this story, the coldest place concerned is the dark side of Mercury, which at the time the story was written was thought to be tidally locked with the Sun (it was found to rotate in a 2:3 resonance after Niven received payment for the story, but before it was published).[6] Algis Budrys said in 1968 that Niven becoming a top writer despite the New Wave was evidence that "trends are for second-raters".[7] In addition to the Nebula Award in 1970[8] and the Hugo and Locus awards in 1971[9] for Ringworld, Niven won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story for "Neutron Star" in 1967.[5] He won the same award in 1972, for "Inconstant Moon", and in 1975 for "The Hole Man". In 1976, he won the Hugo Award for Best Novelette for "The Borderland of Sol". Niven frequently collaborated with Jerry Pournelle; they wrote nine novels together, including The Mote in God's Eye, Lucifer's Hammer and Footfall. Niven at Stanford University in 2006 Niven has written scripts for two science fiction television series: the original Land of the Lost series and Star Trek: The Animated Series, for which he adapted his early story "The Soft Weapon." For The Outer Limits, his story "Inconstant Moon" was adapted into an episode of the same name by Brad Wright. Niven has also written for the DC Comics character Green Lantern, including in his stories hard science fiction concepts such as universal entropy and the redshift effect. Several of his stories predicted the black market in transplant organs ("organlegging"). Many of Niven's stories—sometimes called the Tales of Known Space[10]—take place in his Known Space universe, in which humanity shares the several habitable star systems nearest to the Sun with over a dozen alien species, including the aggressive feline Kzinti and the very intelligent but cowardly Pierson's Puppeteers, which are frequently central characters.
Truffle Media Update 0040 Show Notes: Art Bell Somewhere In Time - Jerry Pournelle Comets Colliding With Earth. Subscribe to the Truffle Media Update podcast series on iTunes: https://bit.ly/tmn-update-podcast
In this week's episode, we take a look at whether or not writers should stop writing because of the threat of generative AI programs. This week's coupon is for the audiobook of CLOAK OF ASHES as excellently narrated by Hollis McCarthy. You can get the audiobook of CLOAK OF ASHES for 75% off at my Payhip store with this coupon code: OCTASHES The coupon code is valid through November 18th, 2023, so if you find yourself wanting to get caught up before CLOAK OF EMBERS comes out soon, why not start with an audiobook? TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 173 of the Pulp Writer show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is October the 27th, 2023 and today we're going to talk about whether or not you should stop writing fiction because of the threat of generative AI. Before we get into that, we will have a Coupon of the Week and an update on my current writing projects. First up, Coupon of the Week. This week's coupon is for the audiobook of Cloak of Ashes, as excellently narrated by Hollis McCarthy. You can get the audio book of Cloak of Ashes for 75% off at my Payhip store with this coupon code: OCTASHES and again, that is OCTASHES and you can also see that in the show notes. This coupon code is valid through November 18th, 2023. So if you find yourself wanting to get caught up before Cloak of Embers comes out soon, why not start with an audiobook? That does seem thematically appropriate to go from Cloak of Ashes to Cloak of Embers, even though Cloak of Ashes will be book three of the series and Cloak of Embers will be book ten. As you might guess, my current writing project is still Cloak of Embers and as of this recording I'm about 68,000 words into it, though I really want to get to 70,000 by the time I am done working on it for the day. I've had two different 10,000 word days working on this book, which is a very good thing because it's going to be a long one. As I mentioned before, I'm 68,000 words into it and I'm not even at the halfway point of my outline yet and some of the previous chapters are so long, I'm going to have to split them up into smaller chapters. So I am confident in saying that while I don't know exactly how long Cloak of Embers is going to be, I am entirely certain that it's going to be the longest book I will write in 2023. For audiobooks, right now Brad Wills is recording Dragonskull: Wrath of the Warlock, and we are hoping to have that out by December or so. As for what I want to write once Cloak of Embers is done, I have not decided. I knew Cloak of Embers was going to be a long book. I didn't realize how long, so whatever I write next, it depends on how long it takes me to finish Cloak of Embers and how things look at that point in time, but I'm still hoping to have Cloak of Embers out in November, though it does look like there is a good possibility that the book might slip to December. 00:02:26 Main Topic: Should You Stop Creative Work Because of Generative AI? So on to our main topic this week. Should you stop writing or pursuing creative efforts because of generative AI? Without major spoilers, the chief villain of the new Mission Impossible movie from back in May was an evil artificial intelligence. That makes it timely to do another podcast episode about generative AI. I recently saw a long, somewhat maundering social media post arguing that since soon AI would advance to the point that it could spit out a fully completed novel at the press of a button, there was no point in attempting to write any longer. The post's author claimed it was a black pilled post, though my experience the term black pilled is usually Internet shorthand for “I will use my fears as an excuse to avoid action.” I also saw a New York Times article about a father worried about encouraging his son's creative interest because he feared that AI would soon replace all of that. So that leads to the question, should you stop writing fiction because of AI or engaging in any creative pursuit at all? Short answer, no. Get a hold of yourself. Maybe splash some cold water on your face. The longer, more elaborate answer: One, using fear of AI as a reason not to do something is excuse making. In fact, this is a formal logical fallacy known as the nirvana fallacy, which states that if conditions are not perfect or the outcome of an action is not perfect, then it is not worth doing. The usually cited example of this is that people wearing seatbelts can die in traffic accidents, therefore, seatbelts are not worth wearing. The counterpoint to this is that has been well proven that seat belts reduce fatality traffic fatalities and injuries and an improved but imperfect outcome is better than no improvement at all. Writers in general seem to be strongly prone to the nirvana fallacy. You will see many, many, many excuses for why writers do not want to write. Some of those excuses are, of course, perfectly valid, such as an illness, a life crisis like a death in the family, or a car accident, or something of that nature. But quite a few of those excuses boil down to the nirvana fallacy. Conditions are not perfect or the outcome will not be perfect, so therefore it is better not to start at all. Fear of AI is really the latest excuse to slot into the nirvana fallacy. Two: AI is worse than you think it is. It is regrettable that the various image generations and generators and large language models get saddled with the term AI because there's nothing terribly intelligent about them. They're basically fancy autocomplete, whether for pictures or for words. Granted, further refinements in the technology have made it into very super-duper fancy autocomplete, but there's still nothing particularly intelligent about it. AI is also a lot harder to use effectively than many people think. If you want to get a decent result out of an AI, you need to spend a lot of work refining the prompts. People can make some beautiful images in Midjourney, but for every beautiful image that comes out of Midjourney, there's like 40 billion terrible ones. Every really good image you see that was generated with an AI probably took like a 400 word prompt after several hundred iterations. Getting acceptable fiction out of a chatbot is so much work that it's easier simply to write it yourself. Ironically, if you want to fix it out of a chatbot, ask it about something factual. Also, whenever people try to rely on AI to do something important, bad things seem to happen. A nonprofit website devoted to treating eating disorders got rid of its volunteer counselors and replaced them with a chatbot, only for the chatbot to start dispensing bad diet advice. A couple of months ago, some lawyers in New York got in big trouble when they used ChatGPT for legal research, only for it to invent cases that had never happened. To be fair, the lawyer in question apparently failed to double check anything and ChatGPT repeatedly said in its answer it is a large language model and not a lawyer. As an amusing aside, the morning I wrote this paragraph, I got a text from a teacher I know complaining how much he hates ChatGPT. It's incredibly obvious when his students use ChatGPT to do their homework because the answers are so similar. As it turns out, ChatGPT isn't even good at cheating. The point is that whenever there are situations that involve personal or criminal liability, using AI is a very bad idea. Obviously, writing a is a much lower stakes endeavor, but that leads directly to our next point. Number three: you can't see in the future. Just because everyone says AI is the next big thing doesn't mean that it is. The problem with a lot of tech CEOs is that they all want to be Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs was unquestionably a major figure in tech history, but he has been mythologized. His keynote presentations were masterpieces of showmanship, which means that people remember his career that way, like Steve Jobs strode onto the stage, dramatically unveiled the transformative next big thing: The iPod, the iPad, the iPhone, changed the world, and made billions of dollars in front of an applauding crowd. To be fair, I typed this paragraph when I wrote it on a MacBook Air. But that overlooks the actual history, which is that Jobs failed at a whole lot of stuff. He got booted from Apple in the 1980s. His subsequent company, Next computer, didn't do all that great. And when Jobs returned to Apple in the late ‘90s, the company was in such dire straits that it needed a deal from Microsoft to stay afloat until the eMac and the iMac came along. The triumphant keynote phase of his career was in many ways his second act as an older, wiser man after a lot of setbacks and a lot of obsessive work went into all the Apple products mentioned above. The iPad and the iPhone in particular went through prototype after prototype and were the work of large and skilled teams of engineers. The trouble with remembering the mythology instead of the actual history behind Steve Jobs is that people tried to copy the mythology without doing the mountains of work that inspired the myth. These tech CEOs all want their products to be the next big thing, but the problem is that the product one, often isn't very good and is less of a product and more of an excuse to extract money from the customer and two, isn't actually all that useful. Like regardless of what one might think about an iPhone or an iPad, it cannot be denied that they are useful devices. I refused to use Apple devices at all in the 2000s because they are so expensive (a criticism that, in my opinion, remains valid), but in the mid 2010s, a combination of job changes (since I'd suddenly become responsible for a lot of Mac computers after a layoff) and just the sheer usefulness of many Apple devices meant that I started using them. I still have an iPod Touch I use when I go running or when I do outdoor work, and since Apple doesn't manufacture iPod Touches anymore, I will be sad when it finally dies. By contrast, a lot of new products aren't that good or that useful. The CEO has forgot that to extract money from the customer, you actually have to provide value in exchange. An iPad is expensive, but it does provide value. NFTs are a good example of this phenomenon of failing to add value for the customer. For a while, all the big brains in social media were convinced that NFTs are going to be the next big thing. The idea was that NFTs would create digital collectibles and artificial scarcity. People talked endlessly about minting their NFTs and how this was going to revolutionize online commerce. But I think it is safe to say that outside of a few niches, NFTs have been soundly rejected by the general public. They don't add value. If you buy, for example, a collectible Boba Fett figure, it is a physical object that you own, and if anyone takes it without your permission, you can charge them with theft. By contrast, if you buy an NFT for a JPEG of Boba Fett artwork, you have an entry on a blockchain and there's nothing to stop people from copying the JPEG of Boba Fett. What's the point of the NFT, then? Even if you don't keep the Boba Fett figure in its packaging and give it to a child as a toy, it still provides value in the form of entertaining the kid. Cryptocurrency was another next big thing for a while. Some people were sure that crypto was going to end central banks and government issued fiat currency. Of course, while there are many legitimate criticisms to be made of central banks and fiat currency, it turns out they do a good job of slowing down a lot of the scams that infested the crypto space. The late, great science fiction author Jerry Pournelle used to say that unregulated capitalism inevitably led to the sale of human flesh in the market, and crypto seems to have proven that unregulated securities trading leads inevitably to FTX and crypto marketplace collapses. The Metaverse is a much more expensive version of this. Mark Zuckerberg, worried about the future of Facebook, decided to pivot to his virtual reality Metaverse. Likely, Mr. Zuckerberg thought that the rise in remote work during the peak of the pandemic would permanently change social dynamics and Facebook, if it acted right now, could be to virtual reality what Microsoft was to the personal computer and Google was to search engines. Facebook changed its names to Meta and burned a lot of money trying to develop the Metaverse. However, this plan had two major flaws. One, while some people preferred the new social arrangements during COVID, a vastly larger majority hated it and wanted things is to go back to normal as soon as possible and two, Meta spent like $15 billion to build the Metaverse, but ended up with the worst version of Second Life that required very expensive virtual reality goggles. Meta ended up wiping out like 2/3 of its company value. So while right now generative AI might be the next big thing, but as the examples above show, this might not last. Number four, public derision. Generative AI could also be following a similar track as NFTs and cryptocurrencies: an initial surge of enthusiasm followed by widespread disdain and mockery and retreat to smaller niche. For a while, several big gaming companies were very excited about NFTs and a smaller number were interested in cryptocurrency. They would roll neatly into the growth of microtransactions which the gaming industry really loves, like you could buy a new skin or avatar for your character, and you'll also get an NFT is saying that you had #359 out of 5000, that kind of thing. Digital collectibles, as mentioned above, except the backlash was immense and people widely mocked every effort by game companies to insert NFTs into their product. It's an act too much of previous extract money efforts like microtransactions and lootboxes. Cryptocurrency likewise experienced an increasing level of public disdain. See how crypto bros have been mocked after the collapse of FTX and other large crypto companies. Generative AI is very popular in some quarters but is beginning to experience a growing level of public disdain as well. One recent example was fantasy author Mark Lawrence's self-publishing contest. An AI designed cover won the competition and the outrage was high enough that Mister Lawrence cancelled the cover competition in future years. To be fair, part of the problem was that the artist lied about using the AI on his application form. The Marvel show Secret Invasion used a bunch of AI generated images for its title sequences, and there was a backlash against that. Various professional organizations have come out against generative AI, and apparently one of the key points in the Hollywood writer's strike and the ongoing actor's strike is restrictions on AI, though one of the sticking points here is less about AI and more about using AI to enable irrational greed. It seems like these studios want to be able to use an individual actor's likeness in AI generation forever without payment. It's too soon to say how it will turn out, but it appears that a significant portion of public opinion is on the side of the actors on this. It probably helps that the CEOs of major media companies invariably managed to come across as cartoon villains. David Zaslav of Warner Discovery seems like he's there just to loot the company as efficiently as possible. And Bob Iger of Disney is currently dealing with all the very expensive mistakes he made during his previous tenure as CEO. So if these guys are excited about AI, why should anyone else think it's a good idea? So it's possible that the public derision against AI might push into niche uses, which would be bad news for the companies that spent billions on it. I've found that people in general are not that upset about using AI to get out of unpleasant tasks like writing cover letters or answering emails, but if they are consuming media for entertainment, then they get very annoyed if AI was used and it's gotten to the point where “it seems like an AI created it” has become an insult in negative reviews of various programs. Number five: synthesis. Despite all that I just said about cryptocurrency and NFTs, generative AI is objectively more useful than NFTs and less likely to use all of the money than crypto, though it might handle on the same low level risk of being sued if you use Midjourney for commercial purposes. I mean, most kids who are cheating on their homework, if they had thought about it a little more, rewritten, ChatGPT's response just a little bit, maybe throw in a couple of typos, they probably would have gotten away with it. To use a less unethical example, imagine you're applying for jobs and you crank out thirty different customized cover letters. You can spend all day sweating over a handcrafted letter that some HR drone will go in set for a second before throwing away, or you can use ChatGPT to generate them. There are lots of tedious documents which no one enjoys writing, but are necessary parts of daily life and something like ChatGPT is ideal for them or for that matter, specialized chat bots, ones are specifically designed to rate marketing copy and nothing else. AI Audio will probably end up at a point where it's simply another feature integrated into e-readers. Hit play and an AI voice will read in an accent of your choice while the human narrated version will be a premium product. I think that generative AI will probably settle into a halfway point between AI will transform everything hype and AI will destroy civilization doomer-ism. That's how these things usually go. A new idea comes along: thesis. A backlash to it arrives: antithesis. After some struggle, they settle into a halfway point: synthesis. Then it becomes just another tool. Photoshop and Adobe offers some evidence for this position. Adobe has been integrating its Firefly generative AI stuff into Photoshop with the generative fill tool. If you know anything about Adobe, you know that they are as corporate and litigious as it gets. The company isn't exactly into taking big, bold swings with its products. They've been incrementally updating Photoshop and the other Creative Suite products forever. So if Adobe feels safe integrating generative AI into its products, it's probably not going anywhere for a while. But here's the important point. On social media, you see a lot of impressive images generated with generative fill in Adobe and Photoshop, but if you try it yourself, 99% of what it generates is not very good. Refinement, iterations, and testing are vital. If AI doesn't go away, I think that's where it's going, providing the raw materials for further refinement and improvement. Six: conclusion. As you might guess from the tone of my podcast episodes on the subject, I don't like generative AI very much, and I don't think it adds very much of value, though this might be just my overall grumpiness. If overreacting legislation came along that crippled AI research, I don't personally think much of value would be lost. No one can see the future, as many examples above demonstrate. But overall, I think generative AI is going to be just another tool and one that will require practice to effectively use, actually will probably require more practice to effectively use than people think. Stopping writing or preventing a child from engaging in creative pursuits is a bit like stopping carpentry because someone invented the electric saw and think about how many people you see every day, who obviously don't think things through at all. Encouraging the child in creative pursuits will definitely serve him or her well later in life, regardless of the actual career. So that's it for this week. Thanks for listening to The Pulp Writer Show. I hope you found the show useful. A reminder that you can listen to all the back episodes on https://thepulpwritershow.com. If you enjoyed the podcast, please leave a review on your podcasting platform of choice. Stay safe and stay healthy and see you all next week.
Comets - Jerry Pournelle
“Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.” -Eric Hoffer “The drive to reopen schools is rooted in racism, sexism, and misogyny” -Chicago teacher's union "If you were sitting here in Manhattan back in 2007, or in San Francisco, and you told me the average rent would double in the next sixteen years, I would say that's completely impossible. People would just move..." -Peter Thiel “In any bureaucracy, the people devoted to the benefit of the bureaucracy itself always get in control and those dedicated to the goals that the bureaucracy is supposed to accomplish have less and less influence, and sometimes are eliminated entirely.” -Jerry Pournelle
In 1983, President Ronald Reagan stood before the American public and promised to put lasers in space. The Strategic Defense Initiative was meant to be the ultimate bulwark against communist intercontinental ballistic missile. It didn't work.Deriseively called Star Wars, the system never worked. To this day, methods for shooting an ICBM out of the sky are shoddy at best and fantasy at worst. Joining us today is Joe Cirincione. In his own words on his substack at joecirincione.substack.com. He is a national security expert and author with 40 years of experience on these issues in Washington, D.C. and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and has held a number of prestigious roles in the nation's capitol.To see the clip of science fiction authors Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven talking about meeting with Reagan and “winnninng the Cold War with Star Wars” go here:https://youtu.be/i-lSr2ud8NcAngry Planet has a Substack! Join to get weekly insights into our angry planet and hear more conversations about a world in conflict.https://angryplanet.substack.com/subscribeYou can listen to Angry Planet on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play or follow our RSS directly. Our website is angryplanetpod.com. You can reach us on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/angryplanetpodcast/; and on Twitter: @angryplanetpod.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In this episode we discuss The Mote In God's Eye, by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. We do discuss all aspects of the plot of this book so read it before listening if you're concerned about spoilers, though If you haven't already read it you might want to listen to this first to find out if it's your kind of thing. Have feedback for us? Want to tell us we're a couple of idiots? Email us at rereaders@gmail.com and let us have it. Head over to rereaders.substack.com and sign up for our newsletter! We'll be using that to send out the chats we did as we reread The Lord of the Rings and who knows what else. Will we harvest your email addresses and sell them? Probably not, but if the Patreon doesn't work out anything is possible. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Julie wants to take Scott's phone apart. That's when Scott knows she's gone Crazy Eddie. Episode 301: The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.Download or listen via this link: |Episode #301| Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner Or subscribe via iTunes by clicking: |HERE|
The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle is a first-contact novel by two masters of scifi. There's a lot to appreciate when two such skilled authors collaborate! TTYpodcast.com Thumbingthroughyesterday.com
Truffle Media Update 0035 Show Notes: In this second part, science fiction writer and technology journalist, Jerry Pournelle, shares more insights and commentary on The TWiT network show Triangulation episode 95. This is part 2 of a 2 part series. Subscribe to the Truffle Media Update podcast series on iTunes: https://agtoday.us/tmn-update-podcast
Truffle Media Update 0034 Show Notes: Science fiction writer and technology journalist, Jerry Pournelle, shares insights and commentary on The TWiT network show Triangulation episode 90. This is part 1 of a 2 part series. Subscribe to the Truffle Media Update podcast series on iTunes: https://agtoday.us/tmn-update-podcast
As San Diego Comic Con 2022 approaches, David Avallone reads from Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's INFERNO, which connects the dots between fan conventions and eternal suffering. --Please leave us a rating on Apple Podcasts/iTunes!-- Website: pendantaudio.com Twitter: @pendantweb Facebook: facebook.com/pendantaudio Tumblr: pendantaudio.tumblr.com YouTube: youtube.com/pendantproductions
This week we go behind the curtain to look at the inner workings of a bona-fide modern classic. Our guest is Scott Hawkins, whose debut novel, The Library At Mount Char delighted genre fans back in 2015. Now, to commemorate its first UK publication, Scott joins me for a conversation about its many madcap secrets.We talk about everything from cosmic ethics to kidney stone – he gives us a little until-now-unknown backstory on some of the most mysterious characters, and I take umbrage at how awfully he treats the poor, poor pooches that guard his goddamned library!!This is a lovely conversation about the loveliest book you've ever read … that contains scenes of children being roasted alive.Enjoy!The Library At Mount Char was published in the UK on 10th May, by Titan BooksOther books mentioned in this episode include:We Are All Completely Fine (2014), by Daryl GregoryThe Stand: The Complete and Uncut Edition (1990), by Stephen KingTitus Groan: Book One of the Gormenghast Trilogy (1946), by Mervyn PeakeSharp Teeth (2007), by Toby BarlowRed Dragon (1981), by Thomas Harris. The Mote in God's Eye (1974), by Jerry Pournelle and Larry NivenThe Hunger (2018), by Alma KatsuIndifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party (2009), by Daniel James BrownSupport Talking Scared on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPodCome talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, and TikTok or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Download Novellic on Google Play or Apple Store.Support the show
Paul joins Ben this week to talk about a very expansive word… assorted nerd-geekery ensues on the subjects of telescopes, aliens, Star Wars, Dune, and other memorable science fiction media. They only scratch the surface of science fiction space games, but their favorites include a list of recognizable properties (to non-Norah's) and one forthcoming new Bethesda project that Paul hasn't heard of. 00:01:55 - Ben and Paul talk about painting… “does anybody know the difference?” 00:05:27 - What fascinates Paul about space? 00:08:37 - “Do you believe in aliens?” 00:11:13 - James E. Webb vs Edwin Hubble, and too many Hubbles 00:15:32 - Telescopes on the horizon, and planetariums 00:19:37 - Paul and Ben's thoughts on Astrology, “The Onion,” pizza, and Pluto 00:26:03 - Back to aliens, “storming” Area 51, and fueling creativity 00:29:00 - Paul punts E.T., thoughts on science fiction, and “Only a Sith deals in absolutes” 00:33:10 - Ben has questions for Paul about the Dune universe 00:38:16 - Ben talks about the movie Outland, and Paul talks about “2001: a Space Odyssey” 00:42:30 - Ben's Ridley Scott trivia, STNG, “The Expanse,” and science fiction books 00:45:55 - Paul talks about “The Three-Body Problem” by Liu Cixin 00:47:50 - “The Legacy of Heorot” by Jerry Pournelle, Larry Niven, and Steven Barnes 00:49:47 - Ben recommends “Jodorowsky's Dune” and “The Orville” 00:54:22 - “Star Wars: Squadrons,” “No Man's Sky,” “Destiny,” and “Anthem” 00:58:48 - Thoughts on development hype, game development today, and “Cyberpunk 2077” 01:04:37 - Ship combat vs exploration games, and Elite Dangerous 01:07:08 - The “Skyrim” in space game Paul hasn't heard about 01:09:30 - How console exclusives impact players and advancements in cross-play 01:12:21 - Reminiscing about video games, NASA tragedies, and landing the Space Shuttle 01:17:15 - Ben's Ferris Bueller's Day Off / Space Shuttle fun fact and “torso pants”
Hey all, We're back today with the second half of our livestream, “A Mote in the Mad King's Eye.” And yes, that is a nod to both the Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle work as well as the parable from which they derived. When we left the last time, it was on the note that a vizier (and perhaps wizard) gave to the king his most mad designs. And from there did the world break, for others to right. Though of course, and as always, things oft go awry. So join us today as we bring this little ‘what if…' unto ‘why…?' exercise to a close, and discover what this brave new world holds when even its villains outgrow their old life. We hope you enjoy. J --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/herebetygers/message
Kurz vor Weihnachten gibt es eine Spezialfolge in der Ruth, Evi und Florian ausführlich über Science Fiction reden. Wie sind sie zur Science Fiction gekommen und was war die ersten Bücher oder Filme, die sie gesehen und gelesen haben? Wie hat das ihren Weg in die Wissenschaft beeinflusst? Ist Rey über- und Leia unterschätzt worden? Darf der Doktor auch eine Frau sein? Und müssen die Ghost-Busters immer von Männern gespielt werden? Wir empfehlen unsere Lieblingsbücher und Serien; diskutieren über aktuelle und alte Filme und sind uns am Ende einig, dass man zu Silvester “Die Zeitmaschine” schauen muss. Viel Spaß!
Roland has feedback on the episodes Adjusting Your Future History on the Fly and Don't Abandon That Future History! Resources Mentioned The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle King David's Space Ship by Jerry Pournelle http://www.chronology.org/pournelle/ The post Feedback: Future Histories and Jerry Pournelle appeared first on The Every Day Novelist.
Anarcho-Tyranny, A Definition: Selective enforcement of laws, for the purpose of control. The term anarcho-tyranny was introduced by Samuel T. Francis in 1992. The National Review staff summarized the term in 2011 as "anarcho-tyranny describes that stage from governmental dysfunction in which the state is anarchically hopeless at coping with large matters but ruthlessly tyrannical in the enforcement of small ones." Francis described it as "the failure of the state to enforce the laws and, at the same time, the criminalization of the law-abiding and innocent”. “We refuse to control real criminals (that's the anarchy), so we control the innocent (that's the tyranny).” Samuel Francis Francis: The “criminalization of the law-abiding and innocent,” Francis expounded, is achieved in such a state through: “exorbitant taxation, bureaucratic regulation; the invasion of privacy, and the engineering of social institutions, such as the family and local schools; the imposition of thought control through ‘sensitivity training' and multiculturalist curricula; ‘hate crime' laws; gun-control laws that punish or disarm otherwise law-abiding citizens but have no impact on violent criminals who get guns illegally; and a vast labyrinth of other measures.” Jerry Pournelle provides his own variation on this theme: "We do not live by rule of law, because no one can possibly go a day without breaking one or another of the goofy laws that have been imposed on us over the years. No one even knows all the laws that apply to almost anything we do now. We live in a time of selective enforcement of law.” AT is where "government increasingly lets criminal and dependent elements dominate public life while directing the heavy hand of the State onto people who are basically peaceful” https://wirkman.com/2019/08/16/free-migration-is-not-on-the-table-anarcho-tyranny-is/ Decriminalization of non-European activities with the increasingly regulated or criminalization of European social activities. “The hallmark of authoritarian systems is the creation of innumerable, indecipherable laws. Such systems make everyone an un-indicted felon and allow for the exercise of arbitrary government power via selective prosecution.” Ayn Rand Examples: Certain violent groups are allowed to protest without masks during the lockdown. But poor, small business owners weren't allowed to open up to feed their family. People with particular political affiliations are allowed to destroy public property, but others are imprisoned even for speaking against the establishment. Elected officials and senators get to throw parties, but common people can't even attend funerals or religious places during COVID-19. Petty crimes of some people are punished disproportionately, but actual criminals are allowed to roam free. Invasion of personal rights through excess control or regulation. Censorship of free speech and press freedoms. Not to mention the media itself lying to people for biased propaganda. Public slander in the form of defamation, bullying, harassment or cancel culture for having a different opinion. Use of digital or tech devices to spy on people in order to collect their personal data. auto crime rises, law-abiding citizens need more insurance and must fight insurance claims, but criminals are not punished or restricted a Trump supporter was maced by Antifa protestors, who also threw rocks at his truck. The Trump supporter pulled a gun on them, and he was arrested by police, who had done nothing to prevent Antifa from attacking him. Kyle Rittenhouse defends himself from attackers. He is prosecuted. His assailants are not. He is attacked by the media, courts, politicans, state. His attackers are protected by the media, courts, politicians, state. Rittenhouse defends himself, powers that be attack him. Black nationalist guy plows car into parade of white children, media...
Roland has feedback on the Future History episode. Resources Mentioned Adjusting Your Future History On the Fly Feedback on Science Changing West of Honor, Jerry Pournelle's Future History, book 1 The post Feedback: Don't Abandon That Future History! appeared first on The Every Day Novelist.
Katherine goes full bundt, Mac & Kat enjoy a day out at NOFO, and Forsyth Co. education grinds to a halt for a practice test. We really like No Time to Die and Katherine says Lucifer's Hammer is a stupid title for a so-so book. Also, you are going to think we're getting paid to talk about Ari's Pre-Advent planner, but we're not. We just really like it. Movies, TV, & Podcasts: No Time to Die (In theaters) Books: Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle Other great stuff we like: Ari's Pre-Advent Planner maggieshouse.org Book Nook Publishing at Amazon Catholic Journeymen Mac's Online Woodcraft Store Willitsworks.com NerdyCatholicTees.com The Products we talk about Greg and Jennifer's Podcast Mac's book! Clueless in Galilee My author page at Amazon Please support us through Patreon Find us on our website Our libsyn page where you can find all our old episodes Theme song by Mary Bragg. Our other show: Spoiled! with Mac and Katherine
Nick and Single White Medusa talkCheck out Nick's book CTRL ALT Revolt!Christopher DiNote5.0 out of 5 stars This series is what Ready Player One could have been..Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2019Verified PurchaseIn other words, actually great. Nick Cole pulls off an incredible synthesis of pop culture, Hollyweird (likely from personal experience), California (likely also from personal experience), big tech, action, satire (sometimes just a little bit too on the nose, but his targets are well deserving of some mockery, they've gotten off too easy in the past), gamer culture (more 1990s than 80s, but lots of retro goodies for those of us of a certain age), Star Trek, and the Terminator.Speaking of those two, this is very much a full-blown Star Trek novel, in the same way that Galaxy Quest was a Star Trek movie - the best one), and a Terminator story (the best since Alex Ross had his crack at it years and years ago). My one quibble is the corporate rah-rah at the end which I think gives them a little too much credit, but it does set up the sequels very, very well with a bit of irony, whether that is intentional or not.I was also struck that there's more than a little bit of Jerry Pournelle's CoDominion in there too, especially the early days stories captured in High Justice. Cole also seems to have three permanent features in any of his books that makes me wonder if there isn't a "Dark Tower" -esque metastructure at work: zombies, Terminators, and the apocalypse. Over and over again. I can't figure out if he's writing the world's greatest "fix" fanfic series of all time, or if something deeper at play.Synthesized together like this, it attains a far greater depth and perspective, sans nihilism and fatalism, than RP1. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nickcole.substack.com/subscribe
Agradece a este podcast tantas horas de entretenimiento y disfruta de episodios exclusivos como éste. ¡Apóyale en iVoox! Decimotercera entrega de, la edición en podcast de Noticias21.com. Índice: Bienvenida e índice. Tormenta de noticias breves. Primer contacto: Entrevista a John Cramer sobre los viajes en el Tiempo (cedida amablemente por Alex Garcia, del programa "Boira", en Tarragona Radio). Primer contacto: Planetas extrasolares habitables. A través del espejo: Geronimo, el Apache. través del espejo: Holodomor, el genocidio ucraniano. Sección Beta: Tierras incógnitas. Sección Beta: Libro "Ruido de Pasos" de Larry Niven y Jerry Pournelle. Citas, despedida y cierre. ---- Twitter: @Ivan_Blanquer , @ccruells, @GreeJuan ---- Escucha el episodio completo en la app de iVoox, o descubre todo el catálogo de iVoox Originals
Sean Williams has been very successful with his story collaborations. He originally read an article on collaboration by Larry Niven who famously co-wrote with Jerry Pournelle. This interview takes what he learned from that essay and expands on that theme with his own experience. Sean also covers this subject in more detail in his article entitled "Making Collaboration Work for You or Co-Writing with Larry and Sean" published in Writers of the Future Volume 36. International bestselling author Sean Williams was a Writers of the Future winner in volume 23 and became a Contest judge in 2003. Aurealis has called him "the premier Australian speculative fiction writer of the age."
Martin Shoemaker is a winner published in volume 31, with his story "Unrefined," a sub-genre he refers to as Neo-Apollo, a concept based on the next era of space exploration after the Apollo generation where humanity is struggling to reach the stars. He now has well over 60 publications including 3 novels. "Today I am Carey" is a ground-breaking novel following his award-winning short story, "Today I am Paul." Martin was ready to give up writing several years ago on January 1. A reject came back on December 31, the day before his "deadline", so he still had one last day before officially giving up on writing. So he submitted the story to Writers of the Future and forgot about it. A few months later, he received a call that he was a finalist and that Jerry Pournelle really liked his story. So he continued writing and submitting and did not give up. He submitted 13-14 times before finally winning. Martin is incredibly enthusiastic to help others trying to break into the writing business, helping with the Writers of the Future Forum found at www.writersofthefuture.com. Martin is now Assistant Editor Galaxy's Edge Magazine and is able to pay it forward, providing an avenue for new writers to get a start. Discover Martin at shoemaker.space He can be reached at martin@TheUMLGuy.com
Larry discusses how to write hard science fiction and pitfalls to avoid based on what he learned in writing "Ring World." He does concede that readers will forgive a mistake if it's a really good story. We also discuss his laws of collaboration and what is important to make collaboration work, discussing writing with Jerry Pournelle. Larry also explains how he became an author and the two times he felt like a real writer. Discover the various works by Larry at www.larryniven.net
Larry discusses how to write hard science fiction and pitfalls to avoid based on what he learned in writing "Ring World." He does concede that readers will forgive a mistake if it's a really good story. We also discuss his laws of collaboration and what is important to make collaboration work, discussing writing with Jerry Pournelle. Larry also explains how he became an author and the two times he felt like a real writer. Discover the various works by Larry at www.larryniven.net
Larry discusses how to write hard science fiction and pitfalls to avoid based on what he learned in writing "Ring World." He does concede that readers will forgive a mistake if it's a really good story. We also discuss his laws of collaboration and what is important to make collaboration work, discussing writing with Jerry Pournelle. Larry also explains how he became an author and the two times he felt like a real writer. Discover the various works by Larry at www.larryniven.net
Today we review The Gripping Hand, which is by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. This is the second book in a series and if you want hear our review of the first, then listen to The Mote In God's Eye. This second book does have spoilers for the first book! We hope you enjoy!
In this episode we review the Mote In God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. If you like hard science fiction, you would love this book!
Martin Shoemaker is a winner published in volume 31, with his story "Unrefined," a sub-genre he refers to as Neo-Apollo, a concept based on the next era of space exploration after the Apollo generation where humanity is struggling to reach the stars. He now has well over 60 publications including 3 novels. "Today I am Carey" is a ground-breaking novel following his award-winning short story, "Today I am Paul." Martin was ready to give up writing several years ago on January 1. A reject came back on December 31, the day before his "deadline", so he still had one last day before officially giving up on writing. So he submitted the story to Writers of the Future and forgot about it. A few months later, he received a call that he was a finalist and that Jerry Pournelle really liked his story. So he continued writing and submitting and did not give up. He submitted 13-14 times before finally winning. Martin is incredibly enthusiastic to help others trying to break into the writing business, helping with the Writers of the Future Forum found at www.writersofthefuture.com. Martin is now Assistant Editor Galaxy's Edge Magazine and is able to pay it forward, providing an avenue for new writers to get a start. Discover Martin at shoemaker.space He can be reached at martin@TheUMLGuy.com
ManSat Chairman Chris Stott returns to the Cold Star Project with host Jason Kanigan to talk further about satellite spectrum and space advocacy. Activist-authors Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, the economics of space, space scholarships and more are our topics. ManSat website: http://www.mansat.com/ SpaceIsle website: https://www.spaceisle.com/ SSPI website: https://www.sspi.org/ International Institute of Space Commerce website: https://iisc.im/ Geeks Without Frontiers website: http://geekswf.org/ Sign up for email notifications of new episodes: https://www.coldstartech.com/msb Talk to Cold Star: https://www.coldstartech.com/bookcall
David Weber and Phillip Pournelle discuss Mamelukes, by Jerry Pournelle. When the late, great Dr. Jerry Pournelle passed away, he left behind the nearly completed manuscript for science fiction novel Mamelukes. Now Pournelle's son, Phillip Pournelle, and Honor Harrington series creator David Weber have completed the book. This is an entry in Jerry Pournelle's legendary Janissaries series; and David Weber's Uncompromising Honor, Part 17.
David Weber and Phillip Pournelle discuss Mamelukes, by Jerry Pournelle. When the late, great Dr. Jerry Pournelle passed away, he left behind the nearly completed manuscript for science fiction novel Mamelukes. Now Pournelle's son, Phillip Pournelle, and Honor Harrington series creator David Weber have completed the book. This is an entry in Jerry Pournelle's legendary Janissaries series; and David Weber's Uncompromising Honor, Part 16.
David Weber and Phillip Pournelle discuss Mamelukes, by Jerry Pournelle. When the late, great Dr. Jerry Pournelle passed away, he left behind the nearly completed manuscript for science fiction novel Mamelukes. Now Pournelle's son, Phillip Pournelle, and Honor Harrington series creator David Weber have completed the book. This is an entry in Jerry Pournelle's legendary Jannis Janissaries series; and David Weber's Uncompromising Honor, Part 15.
Steven Barnes is an American science fiction, fantasy, and mystery writer. He has written novels, short fiction, screen plays for television, scripts for comic books, animation, newspaper copy, and magazine articles. Barnes has written several episodes of The Outer Limits and Baywatch. His "A Stitch In Time" episode of The Outer Limits won an Emmy Award. He has also written the episode "Brief Candle" for Stargate SG-1 and the Andromeda episode "The Sum of Its Parts". Barnes's first published piece of fiction, the 1979 novelette "The Locusts", was written with Larry Niven, and was a Hugo Award nominee. Barnes subsequently collaborated with Niven on several other books, including two books with both Niven and Jerry Pournelle. Together with his wife, Tananarive Due, and actor Blair Underwood, Barnes won the 2009 NAACP Image Award for outstanding Literary Work - Fiction for In the Night of the Heat: A Tennyson Hardwick Novel. Join the Thorne & Cross newsletter for updates, book deals, specials, exclusives, and upcoming guests on Thorne & Cross: Haunted Nights LIVE! by visiting Tamara and Alistair at their websites: alistaircross.com and tamarathorne.com This is a copyrighted, trademarked podcast owned solely by the Authors on the Air Global Radio, LLC.
Steven Barnes is an American science fiction, fantasy, and mystery writer. He has written novels, short fiction, screen plays for television, scripts for comic books, animation, newspaper copy, and magazine articles. Barnes has written several episodes of The Outer Limits and Baywatch. His "A Stitch In Time" episode of The Outer Limits won an Emmy Award. He has also written the episode "Brief Candle" for Stargate SG-1 and the Andromeda episode "The Sum of Its Parts". Barnes's first published piece of fiction, the 1979 novelette "The Locusts", was written with Larry Niven, and was a Hugo Award nominee. Barnes subsequently collaborated with Niven on several other books, including two books with both Niven and Jerry Pournelle. Together with his wife, Tananarive Due, and actor Blair Underwood, Barnes won the 2009 NAACP Image Award for outstanding Literary Work - Fiction for In the Night of the Heat: A Tennyson Hardwick Novel. Join the Thorne & Cross newsletter for updates, book deals, specials, exclusives, and upcoming guests on Thorne & Cross: Haunted Nights LIVE! by visiting Tamara and Alistair at their websites: alistaircross.com and tamarathorne.com This is a copyrighted, trademarked podcast owned solely by the Authors on the Air Global Radio, LLC.
¿Cuántas veces habremos escuchado eso de que el fin del mundo ya está aquí? Sí, tal vez sea inevitable para mucha gente en estos días hacer tal afirmación pero, el mundo sigue en pie, y sin alguna duda seguirá estándolo por mucho tiempo… Y es que, a pesar de la dureza de la situación que nos está tocando pasar, no faltarán agoreros que vayan mucho más allá. ¿Nos acompañáis por un viaje en el que varios autores ya imaginaron el fin del mundo? ¿Y si os decimos que no solo se quedan ahí? No os perdáis nuestro nuevo capítulo.
Sean Williams has been very successful with his story collaborations. He originally read an article on collaboration by Larry Niven who famously co-wrote with Jerry Pournelle. This interview takes what he learned from that essay and expands on that theme with his own experience. Sean also covers this subject in more detail in his article entitled "Making Collaboration Work for You or Co-Writing with Larry and Sean" published in Writers of the Future Volume 36. International bestselling author Sean Williams was a Writers of the Future winner in volume 23 and became a Contest judge in 2003. Aurealis has called him "the premier Australian speculative fiction writer of the age."
Eddie lived his life on the margins, made deals with the most dangerous of men with the best of intentions, and now Richard and Paige have been captured by his madness. The only bargaining chip Richard has is the technology Eddie died for. But where is it? What is it? Was he really making a bomb? Richard will put everything on the line to save his wife, his brother's best friend, and himself from Eddie's dire fate.
Richard, Paige, and Oscar are on the run, and their only hope is finding out what Eddie refused to sell his killers so they can use it to barter for their lives. But getting answers means diving into a world Richard swore he wanted no part of, and talking to Eddie's friends and co-conspirators who have no reason at all to help. Sometimes having a brilliant brother isn't all it's cracked up to be. SoundFX and Music Licensed from Pond5.com
Richard never wanted anything to do with Eddie's work while he was alive, but now that he's dead Richard feels compelled to heed his message from the grave. Who killed Eddie and why? Richard soon discovers a secret he doesn't understand that others will happily kill to know. SoundFX and Music Licensed from Pond5.com
Richard and Paige take up the threads of their old life only to find Eddie reaching out from the grave to solve a mystery. His message, and his unsettling gift, will change their lives forever. In this episode Paige begins to learn what made Richard and Eddie unique, and starts to uncover the tragedy that set them apart.
What can you do with crazy people except leave them behind and get on with your life? That's been Richard Copernicus Maxwell's solution for longer than he'd like to admit. But the past has a way of catching up with you, and in this episode Richard finds out that the family he discarded is about to become very much a part of his future.
Is anything worth fighting for? Anything worth dying for? Eddie Maxwell thinks so. He's the most unlikely terrorist you can imagine, but it turns out the technology he's engineered is a weapon that will turn the world upside down. Sadly for Eddie, there are folks who like the world the way it is, and they are happy to kill to keep it that way. SoundFX and Music Licensed from Pond5.com
Larry Niven and Steven Barnes discuss Starborn and Godsons by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Steven Barnes. This is a new entry in the legendary science fiction Heorot series, with previous entries The Legacy of Heorot and Beowulf's Children. This is the finale to the series. It was nearly complete when Dr. Jerry Pournelle passed away, and Niven and Barnes discuss the close collaboration they conducted with Pournelle over the years, and the characters and plot of this wonder-inducing hard science fiction novel that completes the series; and David Weber's Uncompromising Honor, Part 6.
John L. Carr, Alex Pournelle, and Phillip Pournelle in a roundtable discussion of The Best of Jerry Pournelle, edited by John L. Carr. Carr is the editor of the volume, and a long-time Pournelle associate. Alex and Phillip Pournelle are two of Jerry Pournelle's sons. They all talk about the life and work of the late grandmaster of science fiction and a new collection of his work. This is part two of two; and Son of the Black Sword by Larry Correia, Part 71.
John L. Carr, Alex Pournelle, and Phillip Pournelle in a roundtable discussion of The Best of Jerry Pournelle, edited by John L. Carr. Carr is the editor of the volume, and a long-time Pournelle associate. Alex and Phillip Pournelle are two of Jerry Pournelle's sons. They all talk about the life and work of the late grandmaster of science fiction and a new collection of his work. This is part one of two; and Son of the Black Sword by Larry Correia, Part 70.
The Separation of Society and State Ken's guest is missing in action, so the guest is Ken talking about some of the key concepts in his novel, Atlas Snubbed, a parody sequel to Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. For example, the Separation of Society and State as an effective governor on the runaway welfare state, voluntary business regulations as a more effective and cheaper solution, and a novel approach to the justice system: voluntary sentencing. What “sticks in Ken's craw” this week is fascism in Pennsylvania Guest Toastmaster Narrator: Eric Skoglund of the Drexel University Toastmasters Found in this episode: What's in the Mail Bag? xx:xx:xx-xx:xx:xx Medical Insurance (again) Casinos Free education (again) The Separation of Society and State 11:21 The welfare state is bankrupting Pennsylvania, consuming over 80% of the budget. Transition welfare programs out of the government and into a new organization, “Society” How would voluntary business regulations work? Voluntary courts with voluntary sentencing? What Sticks in Ken's Craw? Fascism in Pennsylvania 44:00 Definitions of fascism by Benito Mussolini, FDR, and George Orwell Two dimensional political spectrum: Left, Right, Libertarian, and Fascist Fascist organizations in Pennsylvania: cigarette sales, the Milk Marketing Board, and the Pennsylvania Bar Association, among others Lawyers poisoning the Pennsylvania Constitution in 21 different places! More Information: Guests: Pennsylvania Constitution: https://www.paconstitution.org/ Atlas Snubbed: http://AtlasSnubbed.com Pennsylvania Bar Association: https://www.pabar.org Fascism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitions_of_fascism Political Spectrum: https://www.theadvocates.org/ Higher Education, by Charles Sheffield and Jerry Pournelle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higher_Education_(novel) Commercials: Amendment 16: http://AmendmentSixteen.com Freedom Financial Tax: 866-401-1090 Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania: http://LpPa.org Iron Will Tattoo Club: https://ironwilltattoo.club Steven Werley Digital Marketing: https://www.stevenwerley.com Toastmasters International: http://toastmasters.org Wallace Automotive: https://www.wallaceautoservice.com
1996-05-10 - Coast to Coast AM with Art Bell - Jerry Pournelle - Comets
How useful is Jerry Pournelle's famous political chart?
Support this show and it's archives - join PatreonJoin me this week as I play a great interview never before played in public of a talk I did with three legends of science fiction: Jerry Pournelle, Greg Benford and Larry Niven way back on the 21st April 2013. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Our best moments of 2017. Silicon Valley's reaction to Trump's immigration ban. Snapchat's IPO makes one high school $24 million. The Dark Overlord. Is Zuck running for president? Google I/O highlights. Amazon buys Whole Foods. Travis Kalanick out as Uber CEO. Google's viral anti-diversity memo. Jerry Pournelle, 8/7/1933 - 9/8/2017. KFC follows 11 herbs and spices. iPhone X: best launch in history. Animoji karaoke. The life lessons from Grandpa that made Jeff Bezos the richest man in the world. Happy Holidays! Host: Leo Laporte Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech Bandwidth for This Week in Tech is provided by CacheFly. Sponsor: GoToWebinar.com/podcast
On this episode of Radio Free Acton, Caroline Roberts talks with Fr. Ben Johnson, Senior Editor at the Acton Institute on the pitfalls of sin taxes. Then, on the Econ Quiz segment, Caroline speaks to Anne Rathbone Bradley, Vice President of Economic Initiatives at the Institute for Faith, Work, and Economics and visiting professor at Georgetown University, about the impact of Amazon and whether or not it is a monopoly. On the Upstream segment, Caroline and Bruce Edward Walker talk about the life and work of the late science fiction writer Jerry Pournelle. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Focus on the bit wolf Our Guests+David Fisher+James PozenelShow Notes after the jumpGuest NotesDavid FisherShinobi 27 Games, publisher of such fine products as:Feast of the PreserverTrolls of MistwoodRevelation of MulmoAngels, Demons & Beings Between (in print!)James PozenelThese guys have a Kickstarter up for Angels, Demons & Beings Between: Volume II RIGHT EFFING NOW! (Until 10/26. After that, you're on your own.)Show NotesDrinkNutBandit, Oddside Ale, Grand Haven, MichiganMeester Quadrupel, Brouwerij De Meester, Kruune, Belgium (not Netherlands!)Founders Porter, Founders Brewery, Grand Rapids, MichiganUnfinished Business, Perrin Brewery, Grand Rapids, MichiganMalted Milk Ball Imperial Porter, Perrin Brewery, Grand Rapids, MichiganSpinBITWVLF's cover of Taylor Swift's "Remember Me"BITWVLF, "Ivory"Spaceslug, "Mountains & Reminiscence"Stoned Meadow of DoomHobbs & Friends of the OSRGuardians of the Galaxy soundtrack... you know how to find this.Hawk the Slayer soundtrackTalking Heads, "77"KuedoReadLarry Niven & Jerry Pournelle, Mote In God's EyeER Burroughs, Warlord of MarsNorman Bogner, SnowmanJeff Lindsay, Dexter novel seriesWS Burroughs, Naked LunchNK Jamisin, The Fifth SeasonRE Howard, A Devil In IronCA Smith, The Ultimate Weird Tales CollectionOliver Poetzsch, The Hangman's DaughterRunDonn's still running DCC, James is one of the players in that game. Running "The Emerald Enchanter."Adam is running DCC at work and just ran "The Portal Under the Stars." He recommends "The 13th Skull." He's also running Blades In The Dark still, the Murder Gangs of Ur-Hadad! He's also about to start running Uncharted Worlds (PbtA Hard Sci Fi). Vampire, The Dracula, The RPG is happening.David is also running DCC, mostly funnels for his family.James has a long-running lunchtime game running... you guessed it... DCC. He also plays in a game run by his kids and is playing "The Abbot In The Woods" with his kids and their cousins.Thanks for joining us for this episode of Drink Spin Run. If you like what you've heard, share us with your friends, leave us an iTunes review or send us an email at dsr@kickassistan.net. You can also support us at http://www.patreon.com/DSRCast. Our theme music was generously provided by the band Blue Snaggletooth (http://bluesnaggletooth.bandcamp.com). Once again, thanks for listening, you gorgeous listeners. Loading...
The Drunken Odyssey with John King: A Podcast About the Writing Life
On this week's show, I talk poetry with Brittany Perham! NOTES Check out my interview with Brittany Perham's chapbook collaborator, Kim Addonizio. RIP, Jerry Pournelle and J. P. Donleavy.
The Martin Studies International Network will help you study Westeros better, Scott Lynch gives hope for the next Locke Lamora book and sadly, we lose a great one in Jerry Pournelle,
This week we go Over the Top as we talk about Taps which somehow morphs to Over the Top, The beginning of the New D&D Season, Torgo Wants Shelf Porn, Con Man, IT breaks the Cinema, Cuphead controversy, More info on the Disney Streaming Service, Terminator 2 3D to close, Suicide Squad 2, Sheena to return, Abrams returns to Star Wars, Patty Jenkins smashes the ceiling, Len Wein, Xavier "X" Atencio, Jerry Pournelle, Drew Goddard leads X-Force, IT leads to Suffer The Children, the SFWA to give award for best game writing, Berger Books' opening salvo, and Andy... does Andy things. So work out that arm, it's time for a Geek Shock!
Pokemon Blue Nuzlocke Challenge 04. (Season -02 episode -10). New episode of the nuzlocke challenge is out! And this one's looong and zubatty... In the Daniel K Recommends segment I recommended checking out the book The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. And also The Consumption podcasts Pun Watch and Failure to Launch. search for them on your podcatcher of choice, or check out The Consumption's website: http://theconsumption.net/
Van moderates for and interviews the legendary Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle at DragonCon 2017 in front of a massive ballroom audience. Be a part of the White Rocket Entertainment family by becoming a patron of the shows: https://www.patreon.com/vanallenplexico Brought to you by White Rocket Entertainment.
The guys talk about what they think about revelations from the recently wrapped-up San Diego Comic-Con, as well as what they've been up to. Chris and Nathan saw Spider-Man Homecoming. Dallas watched Captain America: Civil War, and Suicide Squad. Chris took in Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, and enjoyed it a lot more than the average Rotten Tomatoes rater. Nathan has been painting board game pieces, and set the stage for a future episode. Ready Player One trailer - https://youtu.be/LiK2fhOY0nE Bright trailer - https://youtu.be/6EZCBSsBxko Stranger Things season 2 trailer - https://youtu.be/vgS2L7WPIO4 Marvel's The Defenders trailer - https://youtu.be/x-a5taIaS6E Adam Savage, Star Trek vs Star Wars - https://io9.gizmodo.com/adam-savage-turned-a-star-wars-vs-star-trek-debate-int-1797107746 Tony B Kim - https://twitter.com/crazy4comiccon Footfall, by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle - http://www.amazon.com/dp/0345323440/bigfatgeekpod-20 Michael Jackson's Thriller - https://youtu.be/sOnqjkJTMaA Vincent Price - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Price
1-årsjubileum och äntligen ännu en science fiction-special från Fulkultur-gänget, som den här gången tar sig an allt från Dyson-sfärer och Arthur C. Clarke till E.T och Alf. Fulladdat med tips, som vanligt! LÄNKLISTA Webhallenwww.webhallen.com Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (film, Gareth Edwards, 2016)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_One The Expanse (bokserie, James S.A. Corey, 2011-) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Expanse_(novel_series) Westworld (tv-serie, HBO, 2016-) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westworld_(TV_series) SETI (forskningsprojekt)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication_with_extraterrestrial_intelligence Contact (roman, Carl Sagan, 1985)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contact_(novel) Contact (film, Robert Zemeckis, 1997)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contact_(1997_American_film) Mars Attacks (film, Tim Burton, 1996)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Attacks! Farewell to the Master (novell, Harry Bates, 1940) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farewell_to_the_Master The Day the Earth Stood Still - Mannen från mars (film, Robert Wise, 1951) https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mannen_fr%C3%A5n_Mars The day the earth stood still (film, Scott Derrickson, 2008) https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_the_Earth_Stood_Still_(film,_2008) Drakes Ekvation (Frank Drake) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation Rymdhabitathttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_habitat KIC 8462852 (stjärna)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KIC_8462852 Kanalerna på Marshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martian_canal Megastructures bigger than worlds (artikel, M. Christian & A. Abrams, 2010)http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2010/12/megastructures-bigger-than-worlds.html The awesome power of science fiction's alien megastructures (artikel, Damien Walter, 2015)https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/nov/06/the-awesome-power-of-science-fictions-alien-megastructures Bigger than worlds (uppsats, Larry Niven, 1974)https://www.scribd.com/document/100964566/Larry-Niven-Bigger-Than-Worlds-v1-0-Italics Mass Effect (datorspel, Bioware, 2007)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_Effect_(video_game) Mass Effect 2 (datorspel, Bioware, 2011)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_Effect_2 Mass Effect 3 (datorspel, Bioware, 2012)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_Effect_3 V (tv-serie, Kenneth Johnson, 1983) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_(1983_miniseries) Dysonsfärerhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyson_sphere Rendezvous with Rama (roman, Arthur C Clarke, 1973)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendezvous_with_Rama Rama II (roman, Arthur C Clarke & Gentry Lee, 1989)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rama_II_(novel) The Garden of Rama (roman, Arthur C Clarke & Gentry Lee, 1991)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Garden_of_Rama Rama Revealed (roman, Arthur C Clarke & Gentry Lee, 1993)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Garden_of_Rama The Sentinel (novell, Arthur C Clarke, 1951) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sentinel_(short_story) 2001: A Space Odyssey (film, Stanley Kubrick, 1968)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001:_A_Space_Odyssey_(film) 2001: A Space Odyssey (roman, Arthur C Clarke, 1968)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001:_A_Space_Odyssey_(film) 2010: Odyssey Two (roman, Arthur C Clarke, 1982)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010:_Odyssey_Two 2010: The Year We Make Contact (film, Peter Hyams, 1984)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_(film) 2061: Odyssey Three (roman, Arthur C Clarke, 1987)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2061:_Odyssey_Three 3001: The Final Odyssey (roman, Arthur C Clarke, 1997)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3001:_The_Final_Odyssey Ringworld (roman, Larry Niven, 1970)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ringworld The Ringworld Engineers (roman, Larry Niven, 1980)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ringworld_Engineers The Ringworld Throne (roman, Larry Niven, 1996)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ringworld_Throne Ringworld´s Children (roman, Larry Niven, 2004)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ringworld%27s_Children The Mote in God’s Eye (bok, Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle, 1974) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mote_in_God%27s_Eye Liftarens guide till galaxen (roman, Douglas Adams, 1979)https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liftarens_guide_till_galaxen_(roman) Restaurangen vid slutet av universum (roman, Douglas Adams, 1980)https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restaurangen_vid_slutet_av_universum Livet, universum och allting (roman, Douglas Adams, 1982)https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livet,_universum_och_allting Ajöss och tack för fisken (roman, Douglas Adams, 1984)https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aj%C3%B6ss_och_tack_f%C3%B6r_fisken I stort sett menlös (roman, Douglas Adams, 1992)https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_stort_sett_menl%C3%B6s Fermis paradox (Enrico Fermi)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox Stiftelsen (roman, Isaac Asimov, 1951)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation_(Isaac_Asimov_novel) Stiftelsen och Imperiet (roman, Isaac Asimov, 1952)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation_and_Empire Den andra Stiftelsen (roman, Isaac Asimov, 1953)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Foundation E.T. the Extra-Terrestial (film, Stephen Spielberg, 1982) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.T._the_Extra-Terrestrial Närkontakt av Tredje Graden (Film, Stephen Speilberg, 1977) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close_Encounters_of_the_Third_Kind Gateway (roman, Frederik Pohl, 1977)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gateway_(novel) Beyond the Blue Event Horizon (roman, Frederik Pohl, 1980)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyond_the_Blue_Event_Horizon Heechee Rendezvous (roman, Frederik Pohl, 1984)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heechee_Rendezvous The Annals of the Heechee (roman, Frederik Pohl, 1987)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heechee The Forever War (bok, Joe Haldeman, 1974) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Forever_War The Ballad of Halo Jones (serie, Alan Moore, 1984) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ballad_of_Halo_Jones The Thing (film, John Carpenter, 1982) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(1982_film) Star Trek: First Contact (film, Jonathan Frakes, 1996) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_First_Contact E.T.: The Book of the Green Planet (bok, William Kotzwinkle, 1985) http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/225698.E_T_ ALF (tv-serie, NBC, 1986–1990) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ALF_(TV_series) Cloverfield (film, J.J. Abrams, 2008) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloverfield The Last Starfighter (Film, Nick Castle, 1984) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Starfighter Kenny Starfighter (tv-serie, Johan Rehborg, 1997) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenny_Starfighter Rymdfällan (roman, Monica Hughes, 1991)https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monica_Hughes Men in Black (film, Barry Sonnefeld, 1991)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men_in_Black_(film) Volrammos (sommarlovsprogram, SVT, 1992) https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volrammos Cozmoz (tv-serie, SVT, 1989) https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cozmoz Pax Jordiska Äventyr (SVT, 2012-) http://www.svtplay.se/pax-jordiska-aventyr Vid Vintergatans Slut (SVT, 2010) https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vid_Vintergatans_slut The Dig (datorspel, Lucasarts, 1995) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dig Kontrollen blinkar blå (musik, Adolphson-Falk, 1996) http://lyrics.wikia.com/wiki/Adolphson-Falk:Blinkar_Bl%C3%A5
Enter here all ye who abandon hope. I det här avsnittet av LÄS HÅRT! träder Johan och Magnus in i en värld där alver ägnar sig åt drag racing (eller snuff-filmer om de är onda), där "celtic folk rock" är det coolaste som finns, och där det är helt normalt för hjälten att gå runt i en "Battlestar galactica"-jacka. Ja, vi läser helt enkelt Lackeys & Dixons irländska älvor-fantasy "Born to run" från 1992. I nästa avsnitt – som kommer i början av december – läser vi en ny bok, nämligen zombiewestern "Punished book 1: Undead" av Jackson Lowry. Läs den du med! Andra saker som nämns Kiss ● 220 Volt ● "E.T." ● Kit.se ● En Bill och Ben-pocket ● Stephen King, "The Dark Tower: Wolves of the Calla" ● Hearthstone ● Battlefield 1 ● Bruce Springsteen, "Born to run" ● "Battlestar Galactica" ● Mercedes Lackey, "Valdemar"-serien ● Jerry Pournelle, "Invasion" ● Ian Flemming ● Jim Butcher, "Harry Dresden"-serien
For the 56th episode of Podcast at Ground Zero the topic will be Lucifer’s Hammer. Tonight we got Hammer Fever and we are going talk about the classic post-apocalyptic novel by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, first published in 1977. … Continue reading →
For the 56th episode of Podcast at Ground Zero the topic will be Lucifer’s Hammer. Tonight we got Hammer Fever and we are going talk about the classic post-apocalyptic novel by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, first published in 1977. … Continue reading →
¡Los extraterrestres regresan a Identidad Secreta! En esta ocasión hablaremos durante algo más de una hora del libro "Ruido de pasos" de Larry Niven y Jerry Pournelle así como de los cómics "Estela Plateada" de Stan Lee y John Buscema, "Ocean" de Warren Ellis y Chris Sprouse o el "Capitán Marvel" de Peter David.
The Busy Creator Podcast, episode 19 with Online Video Host & Producer Shannon Morse Shannon Morse (@Snubs) is a producer and host of several online video shows such as Tekzilla and Hak5. Following early training in theatrical performance and hotel/restaurant management, she transitioned into new media. Across her many projects, she's responsible for all research, writing, and production. Read more about Shannon on her site, snubsie.com In this episode, we discuss Shannon's origins in film/video production, the struggle of working for multiple employers with multiple studio workflows, and some of her outside (geeky) pursuits. 00:00 00:00 Show Notes & Links Tekzilla Hak5 TWiT Network, Before You Buy, Coding 101 Shannon worked at Domino's Pizza Producer duties include “making sure everyone is having a good day.” “The Producer Mentality”, not always a great thing Sheryl Sandberg and her problem with the word “bossy” “I don't like anything built on a base layer of chaos.” Shannon has a background in theatre and choir, rather than tv/media production “How the sausage gets made” aka “The recipe” for podcasting Ham Radio Prescott is obsessed with DIY Network and HGTV National Weather Service Garage/Hacker Mentality Shannon's dad was a nerd and early computer guy Star Trek X-Files Previous episode with Ashley Milne-Tyte BBC Radio 4 When Gmail is down The Slash Generation En-tre-pren-eur, hard for Shannon to pronounce Shannon is obsessed with Anime Sailor Moon Shannon is a coupon maven, who recently donated a cache of grooming products Hoarding, a pathology that might affect Prescott's parents Zombie Apocalypse planning Prescott created a “Lucifer's Hammer” wish list on Amazon Lucifer's Hammer by Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven Hurricane Sandy LED Candle 1Password episode of Mac Power Users On a call with the cable company Weddings are hard, even for producers Tools Google Apps Slate board Google Hangouts, for remote conversations Trello HTML format UpWrite Desk Keepass Lastpass 1Password for Mac and iOS info.xhead (RIP) from xhead software Wallet (RIP) after their founders were acqui-hired by Facebook Techniques Divide duties and responsibilities to prevent overlap, chaos Write as if you're speaking it. Practice until you get it. Record multiple takes into multiple cameras. Know yourself, and what type of employment best suits you. Habits Keep the editors in mind when shooting video. Think of other people when you're working. Make annotations and notes, even if they're only for yourself Record all your passwords and other info in a password manager; back up the data file to an external drive (don't trust the cloud only) Use 2-factor authentication for all your sites Wake up at a consistent time every morning Always have cereal! Dedicate certain days to specific aspects of your business, eg. recording day, editing day
The first full edition of Books Without Pictures is here, and with it Dan and Wendee debate the merits of Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's classic first-contact novel: The Mote in God's Eye! Blast Hardcheese and the He-Man Woman Haters' Club bring extreme diplomacy to the outer reaches of the galaxy! Is this the 25th greatest science fiction novel in history? Tune in to hear our hosts say "probably not." Note: Thank you to Preston Nelson for lending his dulcet tones to the proceedings.
The first full edition of Books Without Pictures is here, and with it Dan and Wendee debate the merits of Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's classic first-contact novel: The Mote in God's Eye! Blast Hardcheese and the He-Man Woman Haters' Club bring extreme diplomacy to the outer reaches of the galaxy! Is this the 25th greatest science fiction novel in history? Tune in to hear our hosts say "probably not." Note: Thank you to Preston Nelson for lending his dulcet tones to the proceedings.
The first full edition of Books Without Pictures is here, and with it Dan and Wendee debate the merits of Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's classic first-contact novel: The Mote in God's Eye! Blast Hardcheese and the He-Man Woman Haters' Club bring extreme diplomacy to the outer reaches of the galaxy! Is this the 25th greatest science fiction novel in history? Tune in to hear our hosts say "probably not." Note: Thank you to Preston Nelson for lending his dulcet tones to the proceedings.
The first full edition of Books Without Pictures is here, and with it Dan and Wendee debate the merits of Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's classic first-contact novel: The Mote in God's Eye! Blast Hardcheese and the He-Man Woman Haters' Club bring extreme diplomacy to the outer reaches of the galaxy! Is this the 25th greatest science fiction novel in history? Tune in to hear our hosts say "probably not." Note: Thank you to Preston Nelson for lending his dulcet tones to the proceedings.
The first full edition of Books Without Pictures is here, and with it Dan and Wendee debate the merits of Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's classic first-contact novel: The Mote in God's Eye! Blast Hardcheese and the He-Man Woman Haters' Club bring extreme diplomacy to the outer reaches of the galaxy! Is this the 25th greatest science fiction novel in history? Tune in to hear our hosts say "probably not." Note: Thank you to Preston Nelson for lending his dulcet tones to the proceedings.
Show notes for Episode 3 – Recorded on 11/14/2012 What Are We Drinking? Niles - The Immortal IPA Wendell - Valhalla Red IPA Last Frequency The Walking Dead on AMC Revolution on NBC Lost Pages Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle The Movies Omega Man Encrypt Randomizer Take a listen to the episode to hear us find out live on air the next two movies we will be covering on episode 4! We hope you enjoyed the episode! We want to hear your feedback! Just click the Contact link at the top of the page and get a hold of us in whatever way you prefer. Send us your emails or voice-mail and hear it read or played on the air. To subscribe use the links to the right for iTunes, or use the RSS feed in your favorite pod-casting application. See you on the other side! Wendell The post DB3 – Omegacrypt appeared first on Dystopic Radio Network.
The Mote in God's Eye is a science fiction novel by American writers Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, first published in 1974. The story is set in the distant future of Pournelle's CoDominium universe, and charts the first contact between humanity and an alien species.The book describes a complex alien civilization, the Moties. The Moties are radically different (both physically and psychologically) from humanity in ways that become more clear over the course of the book. The human characters range from the typical hero-type in Captain Roderick Blaine to the much more ambiguous merchant prince and suspected traitor Horace Bury. The novel is an example of hard science fiction in that close attention is paid to scientific detail. - Wikipedia
Justin and Jason discuss Rob Walling's upcoming MicroConf, what Justin has learned from his outsourcing experiment, an update on Pluggio and it's revenue growth, why Justin uses Nozbe and how it's made him more productive, the kickoff of the Appignite beta test and how Jason plans on conducting it, how Neville fell of the TZ bandwagon and some ideas on how to get back him back on, methods of implementing full text search in MySQL, Jason's strategy for getting Jerry Pournelle and Elon Musk on the show, how Justin formatted his blog to work on mobile phones, Jason's latest idea for a TV show and where Jason and Justin rank on Google.
Edmund R. Schubert, Rich Sigfrit, Gail Z. Martin and one of ConCarolinas' venerable volunteers are today's featured guests.Topics: last week's relaunch of the redesigned Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show online magazine; the recent explosion in the popularity of online magazines; the few ways in which online magazines are actually better that paper magazines; and how Amazon is confusing the magazine publishers they hope will publish their magazines in electronic format on the Kindle. Also: how the Internet allows first-time authors to get the word out about their book; the importance of authors developing a relationship with their readers through social networks; and singing the praises of the iPad. As well as miscellaneous references to: The Rocky Horror Picture Show, A formal Steam Punk ball, and Klingon Karaoke.Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the June 30, 2010 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 43 minutes] Today's show was recorded in Charlotte NC, on June 5, 2010. This episode was recorded at, and is dedicated to, the science fiction and fantasy convention ConCarolinas (which this year had the honor of hosting Deep South Con and featured as Literary Guest of Honor, one of our past guests: Jerry Pournelle).Edmund R. Schubert is editor-in-chief of Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show (the poplar online magazine of science fiction and fantasy). Rich Sigfrit (widely known as Podcasting's Rich Sigfrit) is a pioneering podcaster, as well as talented voice actor and comedian. Gail Z. Martin is the author of The Chronicles of The Necromancer fantasy series of novels.
On episode #80 of the podcast This Week in Virology, Vincent, Alan, and Rich speak with Michael Bouchard about hepatitis B virus discovery, replication, and pathogenesis. Host links Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, Rich Condit, and Michael Bouchard Links for this episode: The enigmatic X gene of hepatitis B virus Tableau public (thanks Ricardo!) Molecular phylogeny of Archaea from soil (thanks Etienne!) Habitats of Archaea (thanks Cedric!) Timer remote controls (thanks Bill!) Letters read in episode 80 Weekly science picks: Rich PBS Frontline: The Vaccine War Alan Readability Vincent Starswarm by Jerry Pournelle
L’atmosfera festosa fa sbandare Tecnica Arcana verso pericolosi (ma non troppo) Off-Topic, ma come al solito c’è molto da discutere e i confini tecnologici non sempre si rivelano ben delineati. Nella (forse) ultima puntata del 2009 festeggeremo il ritorno su Twit di un Jerry Pournelle in splendida forma, e l’arrivo in Italia di X, ovvero … Leggi tutto "TAT 044 – Seasonal Off-Topics"
Jerry Pournelle (author, journalist, editor, technology columnist, and military textbook writer) is today's featured guest. (This is the third and final portion of his two-hour long interview.) Topics today include: Why political debates are not debates, why the U.S. electoral college was devised, and why the 1787 Congress was more successful by being a closed-door session. Comments on the Cray-1 supercomputer; the remarkable fact that Moore's Law has held so long and still seems to be going strong; and what he tried to accomplish in his long-running column in the iconic computer magazine Byte. His observation that today's computer hardware has become so powerful that our software has not kept up; and his feeling that, 'The next big step will be to make programming obsolete.' The possibility that electronic piracy is what's killing the publishing industry, and his ideas on the possibilities of an 'Enhanced Electronic Book.' The advantages of space-based solar energy compared to ground-based; and a few comments on Escape from Hell: his and Larry Niven's sequel to Inferno. Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the February 11, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 48 minutes] Doctor Jerry Pournelle has written more than thirty novels and at least thirteen books of non-fiction. More than a dozen of his novels, he coauthored with his friend Larry Niven, including The Mote in God's Eye, Lucifer's Hammer, Footfall, Inferno; and their new sequel to Inferno: Escape From Hell. Novels, however, have been only a portion of Jerry Pournelle's work. After serving in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, he acquired Master's degrees in both experimental statistics and systems engineering, and Doctorates in both psychology and political science. He co-wrote a military textbook called The Strategy of Technology which was required reading at West Point and the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. He helped to write a portion of Ronald Reagan's State of the Union Address concerning a missile defense system which the media at the time enjoyed making fun of and calling Star Wars, since they believed the technology needed to shoot down incoming missiles with our own missiles was impossible. He worked in operations research at Boeing, The Aerospace Corporation, and North American Rockwell Space Division. He was founding President of the Pepperdine Research Institute. He was campaign manager for Congressman Barry Goldwater, Jr., as well as for Mayor Sam Yorty. And he was a columnist for Byte Magazine beginning in 1982. News Item: A new university dedicated specifically to teaching about the technological singularity was announced on February 3, 2009. Singularity University will be housed at NASA's Ames base in California and will begin classes this summer. It is the brainchild of Ray Kurzweil and Peter Diamandis, and has the backing of NASA and Google.
Jerry Pournelle (author, journalist, editor, technology columnist, and military textbook writer) is today's featured guest. (This is the second portion of our two-hour interview. The third and final portion will be provided next week.) Topics today include: How he contributed to President Ronald Reagan's State of the Union Address in 1980, and became part of Reagan's group of advisers concerning the Strategic Defence Initiative (which Ted Kennedy, by the way, dubbed Star Wars because he did not believe it would ever be possible to shoot down an incoming missile with one of our own missiles). And how this lead directly to the Patriot Missile and other missiles which routinely do the impossible by routinely shooting down incoming missiles. Laser-based warfare: including one proposal that would turn Grand Coulee Dam into a space-based weapon of immense power and very nearly global reach. A weapon so powerful that only one would be needed in a war. Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy, which states that, 'In any bureaucracy, the people devoted to the benefit of the bureaucracy itself always get in control and those dedicated to the goals which the bureaucracy is supposed to accomplish have less and less influence, and sometimes are eliminated entirely.' Doctor Pournelle explains and gives examples. He also mentions working with: Buzz Aldrin, Robert Heinlein, Greg Bear, Jim Baen, Larry Niven, Poul Anderson, Ben Bova, and Dean Ing. He describes a fundamental problem he sees with today's space suits; and talks of Patton and MacArthur, military theory, teacher's unions, and NASA. Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the February 4, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 47 minutes] Doctor Jerry Pournelle has written more than thirty novels and at least thirteen books of non-fiction. More than a dozen of his novels, he coauthored with his friend Larry Niven, including The Mote in God's Eye, Lucifer's Hammer, Footfall, Inferno; and their new sequel to Inferno: Escape From Hell. Novels, however, have been only a portion of Jerry Pournelle's work. After serving in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, he acquired Master's degrees in both experimental statistics and systems engineering, and Doctorates in both psychology and political science. He co-wrote a military textbook called The Strategy of Technology which became required reading at West Point and the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. He worked in operations research at Boeing, The Aerospace Corporation, and North American Rockwell Space Division. He was founding President of the Pepperdine Research Institute. He was campaign manager for Congressman Barry Goldwater, Jr., as well as for Mayor Sam Yorty. And he was a columnist for Byte Magazine beginning in 1982. News Note: Last week, in the January 28 2009 episode of this show, Jerry Pournelle mentioned his battle with a brain tumor, described the annoyances of his radiation treatment, and reported that he is now cancer-free.
Jerry Pournelle (author, journalist, editor, technology columnist, and military textbook writer) is today's featured guest. Topics include: Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, Larry Niven and other authors he has been friends with; how the downfall of the Soviet Union was an engineered event, planned decades in advance, which worked exactly as planned (and specifically what that plan was); how he orchestrated the political campaigns of Barry Goldwater, Jr., and Sam Yorty; his friends and involvement in the Survivalist Movement, and his being editor of the magazine Survive which was closely allied with the magazine Soldier of Fortune; political stories from The Cold War and Mutual Assured Destruction; a few words about his and Larry Niven's new novel Escape from Hell; the difficulties of his chemotherapy; the good news that he is now cancer free. Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the January 28, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 65 minutes] Doctor Jerry Pournelle has written more than thirty novels and at least thirteen books of non-fiction. More than a dozen of his novels, he coauthored with his friend Larry Niven, including The Mote in God's Eye, Lucifer's Hammer, Footfall, Inferno; and their new sequel to Inferno: Escape Fom Hell. Novels, however, have been only a portion of Jerry Pournelle's work. After serving in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, he acquired Master's degrees in both experimental statistics and systems engineering, and Doctorates in both psychology and political science. He cowrote a military textbook called The Strategy of Technology which was required reading at West Point and the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. He helped to write a portion of Ronald Reagan's State of the Union Address concerning a missile defense system which the media at the time enjoyed making fun of and calling Star Wars, since they believed the technology needed to shoot down incoming missiles with our own missiles was impossible. He worked in operations research at Boeing, The Aerospace Corporation, and North American Rockwell Space Division. He was founding President of the Pepperdine Research Institute. And he was a columnist for Byte Magazine beginning in 1982.
Larry Niven, the award-winning author of Ringworld, The Mote In God's Eye, and many other hard science fiction novels, is our featured guest. He reveals that Robert A. Heinlein was the secret proofreader for his and Jerry Pournelle's novel The Mote In God's Eye. He describes Jerry Pournelle's personal edit war in Wikipedia, how they and other science fiction writers are helping the Department of Homeland Security, and his own work on Land of the Lost, The Outer Limits, and Star Trek the Animated Series. He also discusses illegal organ banks, room temperature superconductors, and agrees that there is a possibility that your host's personal theory may be correct concerning high-temperature lifeforms having evolved in the ocean of liquid iron surrounding the earth's core. Other topics include: nanotech molecule chain, how to move the earth, the Neanderthal Genome Project, human rights for AIs, the Wikipedia page concerning Jesus, exoplanets, the singularity, and the persistent rumors about a movie version of Ringworld. Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the September 24, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 74 minutes] Larry Niven's writing is primarily hard science fiction of an adventurous style which often involves large science concepts and theoretical physics. His fantasy includes The Magic Goes Away series which treats magic as a non-renewable resource. He has also written humorous stories; such as those collected in The Flight of the Horse. He has won the Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards.
Un’altra puntata dedicata alle vostre Mail! Prima parliamo un po’ di Google Chrome e della campagna pubblicitaria di Microsoft improvvisamente interrotta I vostri argomenti: – Jerry Pournelle è guarito, torniamo a parlare di Byte con i vostri ricordi – Linux Accessibile con Orca, guida passo-passo all’uso di Ubuntu con il supporto vocale. – Aggregatori per … Leggi tutto "TAT 034 – MailBox Overflow 002"
Guida all’ascolto per il pubblico italiano dei migliori podcast in lingua inglese a tema Linux e Open Source. Questo episodio è dedicato a Jerry Pournelle: tieni duro! Ascoltatelo discutere di diritti digitali e P2P su Twit 118 Armored Penguin FLOSS Weekly IT Conversations Linux Action Show LaGER Linux Outlaws Linux Reality Linux Games Podcast LugRadio … Leggi tutto "TA 025 – Linux Podcasts Listener’s Digest"
It’s been a long time coming but we’re finally presenting our interview with Balticon 41 Guests of Honor Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. They’re latest collaboration is Inferno. Mark J. Gross, author of The Sci-Fi Scene column in Autograph Collector, … Continued