When the internet finally gets a voice of it’s own,
you can bet it'll sound exactly like Majel Barrett.
Or Stephen Hawking. Or, in some homes, Peter
Tuddenham.
Now, I'm not talking about AI here.
What I mean is, when we have voice control and
read-to-me text-to-speech programs running in as many computers as we
now have modems, we'll all get to pick the voice our own computers use
to talk back to us. When its become comon and normal to give voice
commands and recieve audible replies from the computer, we will have
customized voices to pick from. Backing Majel's voice as one of the
options is a sure bet. The Trek franchise is not going to miss the boat
on that one. Brent Spiner would be another good bet, too. There'll be a
C3PO voice, with optional R2D2 sound effects- you know there will. The
BBC will licence the voices of K-9, Zen, Orac, and Slave. That's
another sure bet. Maybe some of the voices of the Drs. Who, Daleks,
various companions, and others as well. Sean Connery is also a sure
bet. As is Christopher Lee- and the Hitchhiker's Guide voice, and
Marvin the Paranoid Android, and Xena, and Foghorn Leghorn, and Jonny
Quest... I'm sure that people will soon want their computers to read
text to them, and give vocal responses to voice commands.
The voices we each pick for our computers will also
become social cues. Girls will start checking out the guy's choice in
computer voices as clues into the guy's personality. This will be
useless- Single guys will probably opt for their computer responding to
them in sexy female voices. Hmm, perhaps we should omit the word
"single" in that last sentence. I think that "probably" can stay,
though.
I don't know what guys will start looking for in the
ladies' choice in computer voices. (An "I Dream of Genie" computer
persona would be a sure-fire danger flag to all sexual orientations. I
think that anyone who wants their computer to call them "master" is
potentially dangerous, LOL!) But I'd tend to think that most women
would opt for having their computers talk to them in their personal
heart-throb's voices, too.
I'm already saving up for the Jessica Rabbit voice,
myself... Just as an option. I figure the Majel voice will come
standard on most computers by then. I also want a Dean Martin voice.
That one would come in handy for chatrooms. ("Hey Pal, someone wants to
send you a private message. You wanna accept it, or should I tell them
you just stepped out for a drink?") This could revolutionize chatrooms
again. And not only by letting your computer give you vocal responses
for it's own alerts and popups. Just think of being able to pick the
voice your nickname will sound like when it comes out of the other
people's computer speakers. Hmmm... On second thought, chatters will
probably opt for some variety of teleconferencing instead. A mix of
text chat, speech-to-text chat, text-to-speech chat, live vocal chat,
and video. I see the sales of great big computer monitors going up. Got
to have more room for all those little windows... OK, I'm rambling
again.
Alright, I admit that this will be a few years from
now, but it will come. We ought to start making a list of the voices we
want and let the programmers get started on it early. No need to waste
time. Let's get in on the ground floor, here. Programmers, take note!
LOL! As if anyone ever listens to me!
And now, for something completely
different:
Re: using old designs in an emergency. (The “Rednecks
In Space” plan, LOL!)
"I say, if there is anything in orbit that can be used
as-is or for parts, let's utilize it! Surely it would be better in the
long run to save something, if only to have an existing framework to
hang upgrades upon."
"And shouldn't we launch one or more of the remaining
US space shuttles to leave in orbit as a working tugboat rather than
ground them and let them rust away? Can't we think of a safe way to
refuel them in orbit? I know that there are other problems with that
idea too, but I hate to see a perfectly good workhorse put out to
pasture. Surely there is a way to boost them out to higher and more
useful orbits? I know the next generation of
surface-to-orbit-to-surface craft is going to be a few years in the
future. I just hate wasting things."
I’ve talked about this a little bit in a previous
editorial, using space shuttles as the object of speculation. I’ve been
thinking about the matter some more and come to new speculations for
recycling our older tech for new uses. Like: Modify Mercury, Gemini,
and Apollo capsule designs into craft to use as lifeboats for the ISS.
Old designs, but updated and built using new materials and
developments.
Put ‘em on anything that’ll launch ‘em up there, and
dock them to the ISS at strategic locations. (I remember reading back
in the 1970s about a design for an Apollo capsule to be used as a
lifeboat, stripped of everything not needed for re-entry, that was able
to have 5 to 7 seats shoehorned into the basic capsule. That’s from
memory, so don’t be surprised if the number of passengers was actually
higher.) Then in case of emergencies we’d have a way to get everyone
off of the station safely. And for routine crew changes too, while the
shuttles are grounded. (OK, this would only be possible if we already
HAD some of these lifeboats built, I know.) Just send up the new crew
in the lifeboat, and bring the old crew back down.
Or modify them further for use as workhorses in space.
Like the Larry Niven singleships that the Belters use in some of his
stories. Take something like a Gemini, and outfit it for a single
astronaut to use. Add on a “service module” a-la Apollo and you’d wind
up with a nice little runabout. Start launching up big sections of
space station or segments of big rocket stages and tugboat them to
Lunar orbit, or into a Lagrange point for assembly. Some of the Russian
capsule designs could be used too. And this could also mean a new use
for some of those old ICBMs that we want to disarm- free engines for
stuff. And new jobs for the people that will be needed to put all this
stuff together.
We HAD the technology. We can rebuilt it- some of it,
the really good bits -and put it to new uses. We can make it stronger,
faster, better... We’ve got lots of info and material to recycle. I do
realize that it sounds more like a plan to build dune buggies out of
old cars, but if it’ll get the human race out into the solar system
quicker, then let’s do it.
We’re going to need lots of edges and advantages to
retain our presence in space. I see where the next Chinese rocket will
have two astronauts aboard, and they also have both unmanned and manned
Lunar missions scheduled for further in the decade. China may colonize
the Moon and Mars before the US or Russia finally get serious about
people exploring space again. (Weeks after I wrote this, President Bush
announced a US return to the Moon. Could it be that we have the makings
of another Space Race here? If so, good- We can use whatever crowbar
that we can get to motivate the burrocrats -{ NOT a typo }- of various
nations to move towards the future.) I admit that there is an awsome
amount that we can learn with robotic probes. I’m all in favor of
continueing their use. But there is still the dream of many to actually
go there. To live on the Lunar colony, or an L-5, or on Mars, or out in
the asteroid belt, or even the outer system.
Some of us want to go. Right now- if possible. We’ve
been ready for years while we’ve waited for technology to catch up with
our dreams. Give us an engine that will get us there, a buggy to strap
it to, places we can trade at, a place to live, jobs, and millions of
people would leave Earth for the rest of the solar system. Today.
You’re sitting there reading this-- Wouldn’t you go? Right now?
We’ve been learning how to get into space for half a
century now. Let’s not forget that we can use everything we’ve learned
so far to go even further. We’ll have to use everything we can lay our
hands on if we’re ever going to get more space stations- and even
colonies -going. Or mining the asteroids for their wealth. Or setting
up new instruments to track comets and asteroids for possible threats.
Or planting colonies all over the solar system, or putting space
stations out where they’d make good waystations for long trips. Or
whatever. This is our future. How can we make it real as rapidly as
possible?
Colonies on other planets or the moons of other
planets would not only give humanity room to grow, but challenges to
learn from as well. Ditto with space stations in distant regions of the
solar system. I like to think of it as getting more eggs and lots of
different baskets. Right now, we’re doomed if anything catastrophic
happens to Earth. We need to spread out further, so one big rock
doesn’t take us all out at once. And we need to spread out soon, while
we still have a chance. Its only a matter of time before Earth catches
another cosmic Kung-Fu punch from some equally cosmic debris. And I
hate to have to be the one to point out that it won’t be those cute and
cuddly dinosaurs that get extincted this time. It’ll be you and me,
partner. Getting humans to live off of Earth and spreading them all
over the rest of the solar system is the only way to keep our species
safe from the next celestial smack-down.
And there will be a next one. Its only a matter of
time.
Of course, the swifter of those among you have already
noted that in my speculations I’m oversimplifying many, many real-world
problems that would actually take years of hard work to overcome. What
I’m really getting at in this editorial is that there are many
possibilities out there for “re-inventing what we’ve already invented”
that have yet to be explored-- while we wait for new space shuttle
designs to become real. We can’t abandon research into new vehicles,
but we can get a head-start by upgrading old ones in the interim.
Humanity needs to start exploring space more fully, right now!
Think of it as making use of modern reproductions of
grand old antiques if it helps clarify the concept for you. Like those
rebuilt Model T roadsters with modern, high-performance engines and
suspensions that you see on the highways sometimes. Or, to continue the
automobile analogy further, any of those classic automobile replica
kit-cars that can be seen on the roads today. Take what we’ve already
got and make it new again. Updated, upgraded, and accelerated!
Make the most of what we have at hand, while learning
how to make new tools. That’s the philosophy that built this little
civilization of ours. Use it up, wear it out, make it do, invent new
uses! Thinking caps on, people! There will be a pop quiz sometime
later-- and survival is a pass or fail subject. There are no second
chances.
Besides, getting off of Earth ought to be fun!
Don’t just dream it, be it.
Dan
I now return you to your regularly scheduled
reading...
I'd like to thank those of you who have sent e-mails or signed
into the Lettercol for your feedback. Keep those messages coming,
folks! Without those messages we will never know what we need to
improve upon. Hope you like the improvements so far!
Aphelion Staff:
Dan
Hollifield
Senior Editor, Publisher
Iain
Muir
Poetry/Filk Editor
Robert
Wynne
WebMaven
Cary
Semar
Short Story Editor
McCamy
Taylor
Assistant Short Story Editor
Jeffrey
Williams
Production Editor/Serials Editor
Ralph
Benedetto,
Jr.
Assistant Serials Editor
Roger Bennett
Editor Emeritus
Serialized Stories & Novellettes
The
Nord
By Cameron Neilson Dead or living, he was prepared for both, but the
truth was he
preferred the dead. Sure, the creatures were gruesome to look upon, and
often the mere smell of their steaming rotten bodies made him retch,
but
the dead couldn't pull a trigger.
The
Butterfly Collector
By Kenneth O'Brien Samuel Caburrosso spreads the word for his Church.
But The Word
has left him. Then, an old friend appears on the scene - with a secret
that will change Sam's life forever.
The
Followers of the Light
By Sonny Meadows When the prize possession of the Great Wyrm is
stolen
the world is sent into chaos. But the revenge of the
Wyrm is the least of the world's worries...
Remivores
By McCamy Taylor "I am not quite sure whether I am dreaming or
remembering, whether I have lived my life or dreamed it. Just as dreams
do, memory makes me profoundly aware of the unreality, the evanescence
of the world, a fleeting image in the moving water."
--Eugène Ionesco
Best of 2003: Forlorn
By Jeff Williams Kyle Halcyon, only scion of Ulysses and Lydia
Halcyon, boarded Starry Night at the Port of Stars, the last place on
the continent before land gave way to ocean. What awaited him was
beyond even his powers of imagination...
Questor Institute is a new, experimental technical
school where bright-but-poor high-school graduates on full scholarships
spend two years seeking to become wizards of Internet sorcery by
studying the science and philosophy of information retrieval from
textual databases such as the World Wide Web.
Best of 2003: That
Darn Squid God -- Sample Chapters!
By Nick Pollotta & James Clay
Stepping from a horse-drawn carriage into the thick mist, Professor
Felix Einstein paused on the sidewalk to briefly consult the small
glass
globe in his hand. Trapped in the middle of the crystalline sphere was
a mummified Egyptian tarantula that remained motionless under his hard
scrutiny, and the professor relaxed at the sign that there was no evil
magic in the immediate vicinity. At least, for the moment.
Look for an Aphelion Review of the complete novel, soon!
The
White Lady
By Darren Joy
A traditional, epic fantasy by a new contributor to Aphelion.
Doctor Kulik's Folly
By Colin Harvey Sometimes scientists, in their very efforts to avoid
contaminating
the experiment, make things even worse.
Fortune From Time
By David L. Erickson When Wayne teamed up with a time travelling
criminal, he quickly amassed a fortune. It all turned sour when he
caught a virus in the twenty-fifth century.
Dark Matters
By Robert Moriyama Al Majius new spell goes awry (again), sending him
and Githros on a perilous adventure (again).
Pixie Dusting
By Susan Buckner Pixie dusting is the last thing farmers do every
year before the snow falls. This story illustrates why it is so
important to get it done.
The Forty-Eighth Ronin
By Francis Eaden
When two legendary characters come face-to-face, there is hell to pay!
Elfenwurl
By Donald Sullivan Willy O'Toole's story ends not far from where it
begins, but oh what a ride!
Best of 2003: Redshift
Sue Sings the Blues
By Dan L. Hollifield "I sat stunned at the first sound of this woman's
voice. She was crying out her pain and loss for a lover long gone. Low,
husky, somehow seductive, but filled with pain. I took a quick gulp of
my drink as she began to sing..."
Best of 2003: Last
Man Standing
By L.G. Carrillo
Trevor finds himself far from home in a world left in ruins, perhaps
the Last Man Standing after a nuclear exchange involving the U.S.,
Korea, and China.
Best of 2003:
Four's a Crowd
By E.S. Strout When a crew of intrepid space explorers reach the
edge of the universe, they are amazed by what they find, but the real
surprise awaits them when they return.
Best of 2003: The Killer's Choice
By John Biggs Sometimes the only significance of a man's life
consists of one single act.
Best of 2003:
Saint Valentine's Day
By McCamy Taylor Marnie was born and trained to kill; a natural
warrior. When she rebelled, the authorities were determined to get her
back.
Best of 2003:
Chat Room
By Owen James Handford
We know that machine intelligence is impossible, don't we? After all, a
computer that complex would cover the entire planet!
Best of 2003: The
Treasure of Agrinothe
By Sharon Partington Brak of Calmor was the best thief in the Thirty
Kingdoms. How then, did he end up in the dungeons of Sgaithe? Easy...it
was all part of his master plan.
A Writer's Challenge 2 story.
Best
of 2003: Unsung
Heroes
By Mizu Ash He used to send out agents to adjust timelines, but
now he's retired and wants to check the impact he had made on the
probable histories of the human race.
The
Mare Inebrium Starter Kit.
--Updated 4/22/2002-- This is a link to all the background information for the
Mare
Inebrium stories so far.
This is a must read for all Mare Inebrium writers
and
fans!
Tales of the Mare
Inebrium
The banner above links to
all the Mare Inebrium Stories on one page!
The
Pollwatchers!
by Cary Semar Aphelion's Cary Semar turns his eye towards the
political scene in this new feature!
Dan Hollifield Reviews: The Monstrous Regiment
The newest Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett. A fun and thoughtful look at the military life on
the Discworld.
Dan Hollifield Reviews: "DreamQuest"
The new Fantasy novel by Bill Pottle A young boy's dream brings both power to him and a
new hope to the people of Daranor.
The Writing Process By Dan L. Hollifield
An article on the way I create my fiction, as well as proofread and
revise it for publication using the internet as a tool..
Double
Wide
by Jim Parnell The collected wisdom of Bubba WARNING: Contains Language.
Aphelion proudly presents the installments of Double Wide all on one
page of links. We wanted to make sure that the wit and wisdom of Bubba
wasn't lost for new readers, so we made a mini-archive list of just the
Double Wide features.
A Challenge to
Writers... --8\8\2000-- Not a contest, but a series of ideas to spark off a
story.
Challenge 1 is the paintings of Daniel Hannaquand, Challenge 2 is a
collection of narrative hooks composed by Dan Hollifield.
Aphelion Links
Page --3\01\2003--
Click here to see the Links Page. Our fellow E-zines, Astronomy,
research material, entertainment, and much, much more!
Aphelion IRC Chat --7\31\2003-- Information about an underused feature for Aphelion.
IRC Chat is a fun
way to talk to our readers, writers, staff members, and other
netizens. This link takes you to a basic intro and provides further
links to the IRC software that you can download for free. Look for
new updates as we refine this feature.
Aphelion JAVA
Chat --Repaired
3\25\2003-- For a quick look at the JAVA chat client, this link
launches a
new browser window that takes you to a Log-in form for a JAVA-based
chat in your browser window. No special programs are needed. This
will be a very simple, but passable IRC client, very no-frills.
This will also tell you if there's anyone else in the chatroom, by
the way.
Aphelion Banners
And banner artwork for links. If you want to link to Aphelion and want more than a
text link,
then this page is for you. Some of these banners are finished, but
most of them lack only my adding text to make them complete.
Unfinished banners can be completed and e-mailed to you within 8
days. The banner HTML code-- and image --can be e-mailed on
request, or can be more simply copied from the "View /
Page
Source" option in your web browser. Finished images can be copied
from the banner artwork page itself. An exchange of links or banner
links is always welcome. Link Swap E-mail should be sent to: Dan Hollifield
If you would like to receive notices from Aphelion when
this
page is updated, please join our new, revised, automatic mailing
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Send a message to majordomo@lists.america.net
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As always, this mailing list will only be used to notify you
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new issues and will never be given out to anyone else... 'cause I
hate spam as much as you do!
Instead of the back issues the banner below now takes you to
the Archives-where all our past stories are available for you to
read.
I've decided to ditch the back issues in favor of the
Archives.
The Archives are easier to use and can be indexed by author or
story title. Hopefully this will ease the task of finding a
favorite story. We may start a page of our past cover art, if there
is a call for it. Thanks for your readership for without you,
nothing we do has any meaning.
--1\03\2002-- Click here to
see the Links Page
