And when Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept for there were no more worlds to conquer...
Thursday, June 30, 2016
TED Talk, Nick Bostrom on Existential Risk
Wednesday, June 22, 2016
Higher! (microstory)
Higher!
“I’m sorry Dr. Fiain, your funding from the High Ministry
has been denied. They think there is no
point to see what is on other side of the æther.”
“Well, I’ll have to find another way” replied Fiain to the
Official.
Fiain exited the room and walked to an awaiting
vehicle. He undocked and distractedly
punched the collective to rise. He rose
a little too quickly and was greeted by a holler “hey, you’re in my air-space
jerk!” He sheepishly slowed the ascent
and then redirected his ship toward Bubble 3258, where his abode was. Upon docking he was met by a young slender
figure who said “Sorry it didn’t go too well today at the Ministry.”
Taken aback Fiain said “I’m sorry, who are you?”
“Just call me Captain Veineas,” she replied.
Fiain: “How do you
know me? How do you know about my
project?”
V: “Other interests
within the Ministry have differing views on your project and have sent me to
help you to build a ship. I am part of
the ship-works research division.”
F: “Ok, but without
resources, we aren’t getting anywhere.”
V: “Well, a sponsor
in Bubble 9 has seen fit to give you anything you need for your project.”
F: “Bubble 9? That’s the head office of the æther-mining
authority. Why do they want to help
me? Well, nevermind, I suppose one can’t
be choosy in the matter, so let’s get started.”
Some time later:
F: “Did you check to
make sure the shell can take the pressure?”
V: “Yes, the ship
will work as expected.”
F: “We don’t know
what is on the other side so have to be ready for anything. Let’s start her up.”
Captain Veineas pushed the control lever to ‘ascend,’ the
craft shuddered slightly and the crew felt a light crush from the acceleration
upward.
V: “25km…40km…50km…”
F: “What the!,…the
æther is starting to fade!”
V: “65km…75km…100km”
F: “What is that?!”
V: “It appears to be
a large source of light.”
F: “But everywhere
else is black, uh, wait I see something, there are other tiny dots of light
everywhere. What are we looking at?”
V: “Not sure. We are beaming back the feed to scientists in
Bubble 9. They are conferring to propose
some hypotheses. One thinks the source
of light might be where all the light comes from to illumine our bubbles. They know that when we descend, the æther
gets darker and hotter to the point we can’t descend further. A few expeditions tried to go deeper but
never returned. Our feeds similarly just
stopped working, probably from the heat.”
F: “We can see
farther, the horizon looks curved, what does that mean?”
V: “Bubble 9 thinks
it may curve around back to itself”
Fiain: “Meaning?”
Veineas: “That we live on a spherical plane.”
Dr. Fiain and Captain Veineas sat looking out the window to
the puzzling scene before them.
-------------------
Romanov awoke to his alarm blaring ‘Yeah, baby, she's got it
I'm your Venus, I'm your fire at your desire.’
Always with an ironic sense of humor, he programmed his phone to alert
him of any new anomalies picked up by probe Venera-D. His older colleagues got a kick out of his
love of U.S. ‘80s music. ‘It must remind
them of the good ol’ days.’ thought Romanov.
He arrived at the Venera-D control mission and started looking at the
data feeds. He couldn't believe his
eyes. On the screen he saw pictures of a
strange alien craft rising out of the mists of Venus’ atmosphere. By his desk, he kept a bottle of wine he had
been saving for the right occasion.
“Well, might as well celebrate”, he said to no one in particular. Some had speculated that early Venus had
harbored life but had since been rendered lifeless due to its hellish
surface. He thought to himself, ‘Maybe
if the transformation were slow enough, then life might have adapted itself to
living not on the surface but to living in the thick atmosphere at more
hospitable heights.’ He drifted into
further thought humming some cheery 80s tune.
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