The Collision of Andromeda and the Milky Way

Video: Introverts vs. Extroverts

I am definitely an introvert.  No question about it.

A to Z 2014 Challenge Reflections

The month of April flew by, and it hardly seems like it should be time to write a reflections post already.  Yet here we are.

I successfully completed the A to Z Challenge on two blogs.  I've seen some people do it on 3, 4, or even more.  Seriously, I don't know how they pull that off.  Two blogs made it difficult enough, but I'm glad I did it.  I was also a minion in Alex J. Cavanaugh's Ninja Army, which added to the challenge.  At the end of the day, or the month to be exact, I feel like it was worth it.

My original goal was to complete all of my posts for this blog before the challenge began.  I didn't succeed, but I did have quite a few of them done, and that fact helped me keep up so I was able to post each day without a problem.  I also finally reached the 100 follower milestone, and I was happy about that accomplishment.

I'm grateful to the readers who took the time to leave thoughtful and thought-provoking comments.  I hoped that my posts would inspire people to consider the questions posed to us by science fiction, and I think that happened.  I made some great friends through this challenge, and I'll always be grateful for that.

As a minion, I visited plenty of blogs, though with so many participants, there are many that I haven't met yet.  I hope I can spend some time over the following year going through the list and seeing what my fellow bloggers have to offer.

The 2014 A to Z Challenge was a great experience.  As of now, I plan to participate again next year.

Z is for ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha

Since this is the last post for the A to Z Challenge, I wanted to keep this post short and sweet.

In the universe of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha is the name of the galactic sector in which Earth is located.  This is a designation given by outsiders.  The entry in the Guide regarding Earth is also written by an outsider, and it consists of one word: Harmless.  Ford Prefect tries to make Arthur Dent, who as an Earthling is disgruntled by this lackluster entry, unsuccessfully tries to comfort him by saying the new edition will have an expanded entry.  Earth will soon be described as “mostly harmless.”

In encountering this interaction, I have a few thoughts.  Douglas Adams, brilliant as he was, couldn’t provide a true outsider’s perspective.  After all, he was a human being, at least insofar as he could tell.  He simply poked fun at a world of which he was inextricably a part.  How might an actual alien species describe our world and the people in it?  Would we seem impossibly strange to them?  Quaint?  Disgustingly violent?  What other outsider's perspectives have you seen in science fiction?  What might be the value in attempting to view our culture from an outsider’s perspective?

Y is for Youth

Within the field of medicine, many have been working tirelessly to extend our lives and improve our health.  I discussed this in my post for I where I dealt with the concept of immortality.  When humans envision living forever, they typically envision themselves living out that forever in a youthful, healthy body.  Perhaps why there have been so many stories that focus on the mythical fountain of youth.  It sounds pretty enticing, at least on the face of it.  Take a drink of this water, and you will stop aging.  Frozen in time in the physical sense, you get to live on in the world, experiencing all it has to offer.

“Youth is wasted on the young.” –George Bernard Shaw

“In youth we learn; in age we understand.” –Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach

These quotes make it easy to see one of the ways that eternal youth appeals to us.  We cherish the wisdom that comes with age, but we lament the loss of the strength, endurance, and beauty that goes hand-in-hand with youth.  If we can gain eternal youth, we could have wisdom along with the benefits of youth.

There are problems with eternal youth, though.  When those around you age and die, it’s hard to form lasting relationships with people, either because of jealousy on their part, or fear of losing them on your own.  Your immortality sets you apart, leaving you separate from humanity.  In the film The Man From Earth, a man in modern times reveals that he was born as a caveman, and through some fluke of genetics, has been able to live for more than 14,000 years.  He stopped aging in his mid-thirties, and while he has had injury and illness befall him, he has always healed and continued on with his life.  Unfortunately, the fact that he no longer aged made him an object of fear for many, who assumed it had to be due to some kind of evil influence.  He started moving from place to place, staying for only about 10 years in each location before moving on.  In the film, he decides to tell his colleagues the truth about himself, reactions range from fascination to outrage.  Some parts of this film may be considered controversial for some, and the fact that it is all dialogue mean that it isn’t for everyone, but I thought it was an intriguing movie.  If one of your friends revealed that they were immortal, how would you react?  Would you doubt them, would you envy them, or would you want to try to understand?

However, what if all humans were suddenly blessed with eternal youth?  Birthrates would either need to decline significantly, or we would need to expand and colonize other worlds.  Would humans lose an appreciation for life, or would we embrace the benefits of a seemingly limitless lifespan and explore all the universe has to offer?

X is for Xeno-

The prefix xeno comes from the ancient Greek xénos.  Both refer to something that is foreign, and denotes a lack of familiarity.  When we are unfamiliar with something, it can often be strange, even frightening.  The word xenophobia denotes a fear of that which is alien.  This is a common fear, and makes sense given our history.  Humans form tight-knit communities as a means of self-preservation, but anyone coming in from the outside could conceivably pose a threat.  Luckily, we also have the ability to reason, so many of us do not let xenophobia get the best of us.  (Though, in my opinion, there are still far too many people who live with an unfounded fear of those who are different from them.)  Xenophilia, a term that one hears less often, refers to a love of that which is foreign.  As a science fiction geek, I may have a touch of Xenophilia, but that’s fine with me.

Science fiction, after all, deals in things that are alien.  This can mean the presence of an actual alien species, though it can simply be anything that is different.  In this day and age, one can be said to be xenophobic if they fear different human cultures, and we’re all part of the same species. 

There is plenty that anyone would recognize within science fiction.  Humanity is often at the forefront of science fiction stories, and we ride along as the humans in the story engage with whatever forces are threatening them or their way of life.  The presence of humanity gives the reader or viewer something with which they can relate.  It gives them a foothold so they can enjoy a story that is otherwise replete with the unfamiliar.  If everything were strange to the audience, most of them would likely feel alienated and unengaged.

Even things that we are relatively familiar to us can be something we see as “other” in a story.  Technology may advance to the point of feeling strange and threatening in a way we never expected.  People we know may be changed by an outside influence.  This influence can be alien in nature, or it can be a frightening disease that threatens humanity.

Do you have any experiences with xenophobia or xenophilia?  What kind of encounters with alienness do you find most frightening?  The most intriguing?  Why do you think we have both a natural fear and a natural curiosity about the unknown?  Which of those natural reactions to the unknown do you think should be embraced?  Or are both a good thing, as long as we use reason to guide us?

W is for Warfare

If there’s anything we’ve become better at over the course of human history, it’s waging war.  There was a time when we were limited to the use of bows and arrows, swords, or similar weapons.  The invention of the gun made it a bit easier to kill your enemy, but now we have nuclear weapons.  Such weapons of mass destruction can take out large numbers of people at a time, as well as devastate the ecology of the area.

It isn’t surprising that science fiction often shows us war in the future.  As much as I hope we eventually get past our tendency for destruction, it isn’t unrealistic to assume that warfare will continue to change as we advance technologically.

In Star Wars, The Empire constructs the Death Star, which is capable of destroying an entire planet without much problem.  Babylon 5 also shows that both the Vorlons and the Shadows have their own planet killers.  These aren’t the only examples of such technology being used.  Never mind the issue of how you’d begin to power such a device.  How can we ethically justify destroying an entire planet?  Would it ever be justifiable?  Does it depend upon the level of threat the inhabitants of that world pose to our own people?  How do we determine whether they are a big enough threat to justify resorting to such drastic means?

Babylon 5 also shows a kind of brutal planetary assault at the end of the Narn-Centauri war.  The Centauri used mass drivers to accelerate asteroids to hit the Narn home world.  Mass Drivers had been outlawed by every civilized planet, so this action stirred up a lot of controversy.  This assault killed millions of Narns, destroyed the Narn infrastructure, and wreaked havoc on the environment.  How does this compare to an action such as dropping an atomic bomb?  What use of weaponry is too barbaric?  Too widespread?

Warfare also includes gathering information.  We frequently encounter telepaths in science fiction, who could easily be used as intelligence operatives.  Would employing such a method be unethical, or could it be justified if doing so saves lives?  Is there a fundamental difference between searching someone’s desk for information vs. invading their mind?  They are both forms of intrusion, after all, though one seems a tad more personal than the other. 

Various forms of torture could also be used to extract information from people.  The use of torture is controversial as it is, but time will surely help us develop new and more effective means of extracting information from unwilling people.  In your mind, can torturing someone for information be justified under certain conditions, or is it always wrong?