A Blessing to Mankind

This week we're looking at the impact of television on science fiction. To do this we want to look at two things, one being the social impact of television as a medium and another being science fiction on tv. Both offer interesting venues for discussion. Take a look at the embedded videos. The first being from the 1939 Worlds Fair where FDR was televised, the first president to appear on television. the second is Philo Farnsworth appearing on tv, and the final is a RCA History of Television. The RCA production naturally focuses on RCA!!!


Birth of Television at 1939 World Fair




RCA History of Television

Syd Mead, Still Designing The Future After 50 Years

Here is a cool story about Syd Mead.

Malthus

This seems appropriate given a viewing of Children of Men.

It's Not Rocket Science, or is it?

In the spirit of Cabal's speech at the end of the Things To Come:
Future NASA Rocket Unveiled, Designed to Reach Moon and Beyond.

To Infinity and Beyond...

Pulp

Several people have asked about a definition of pulp for our upcoming class. As with many pop culture phenomenon pulp can be an elusive concept, for our purposes we are going to at least start with a classic definition. Pulp fiction refers to the authors who wrote for inexpensive publications printed on cheap (pulp) paper. While we are specifically looking at science fiction, and even more specifically at Amazing Stories, pulp was not limited to sci fi. It might even be fair to say that pulp was better know for adventure stories and detective stories.

So if the cheap paper physically characterized pulp, what might be its characteristics as fiction. Pulp Fiction (not the movie) was often sensational, tantalizing, over the top, and generally considered low brow. While many writers who cut their teeth publishing in pulp magazines have gone on to gain respect (often after their death), at the time it was considered something of a literary ghetto.

For more, check out "What is Pulp Fiction" and the Wikipedia entry on Science Fiction Magazines has a list of sci fi pulps.

Super Earth

Using an exoplanet hunting telescope astronomers have discovered planets that could have life. Check out the story here. Extra credit to the first student who goes to a super-earth and makes first contact. Here is a link to a video.

Astronauts Needed

For those of you wanting to heed Oswald Cabal's call to conquer the stars, you may want to check out the story in the Washington Post, "NASA Needs More Astronauts, Report Says." Those of you not wanting to take the math necessary to be an astronaut, you might want to check out "Has the U.S. Lost the Will to Compete?" Then we can have the discussion about progress again.

And so we end an age....

This week we begin by going back to the future...

"We've nothing but the gas of peace...


The Shape of Things to Come


The Shape of Things to Come (Rock on!!)

The Cold Equation.

Stableford, in his essay “The Narrative Strategies of Science Fiction,” refers to a short story by Tom Godwin, "The Cold Equation." You can listen to the story here and you can read it here. The story isn't long and it helps you understand Stableford's essay. You can also find it on iTunes. It is less than 25 minutes. Also, the short story is something we've given short shift to in this class (pun intended).

The Girl with the Baboon Heart (days of miracle and wonder)

In our discussion of Frankenstein we entered into a general discussion of medicine, biology, and history.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Here is a story on the girl with the baboon heart (thanks to Dave Levine).

Paul Simon makes reference to it in his song The Boy in the Bubble (Graceland).