JMS asks for research help

[Jan]

Found on the Moderated Newsgroup:

Title: from jms: research help
Author: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2008 23:00:36 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <[email protected]m>


I apologize for the cryptic nature of what follows, but in time this
will all be cleared up.

Starting mid-July into August and possibly September, I'm going to be
traveling quite a lot in researching a new movie project that I
cannot, for the moment, announce. (Not Lensman, this is a different
project, and I've already started on Lensman.) Suffice to say that
the research stage is going to be extensive in the extreme.

The main emphasis is on advanced technology. If someone who can do
the math were to look down the road a million years and see what
advances might be there, based on what we know now, what would that
look like? Advanced tech here covers warfare, living, toys,
environment, health, media, space travel, you name it. Everything
that a civilization a million years more advanced than we are might
use or encounter.

Secondarily to this would be information on planetary physics and
alien biology.

To that effect, my intent is to visit as many of the following places
as possible: NASA Florida, the Wright-Paterson Air Force Base High
Technology Labs, MIT, CalTech, and any other places that seem like
good prospects. (If there's anything missing from that list, feel
free to add it.) I'm going to listen, ask questions, and try to keep
up. And no, there's no money involved, though if anyone proves to be
insanely helpful, I can try to work out a consulting credit. No
promises.

The studio is going to help with some of the legwork here, they say
they can get me into Wright-Pat, but we'll see...even so, the ways of
studios grind very slowly. So I turn to you lot for assistance since
a number of you either are, or know someone who is, directly involved
with this stuff.

So...let the games begin.

jms

[circularREASON]

I should know about this stuff because my wife is always saying i'm on another planet.

[circularREASON]

Joking aside - WOW

[B5_Obsessed]

Jeez, everything's always a million years in the future with Joe.

[NotSoWize]

He does like big round numbers, doesn't he!

Wow, I wonder what this is about? One of the many things I like about JMS is how hard he tries to get "it" right. Whether the "it" is science, history, or whatever.

I hope we really are entering a second golden age of Straczynski!

[Talwyn]

I always thought he pretty much got it right in "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars" as to what we'd be like in a million years time, evoloved into beings of light with godlike powers [technology].
Trying to imagine what things will be like in a million years time is almost impossible though as at the moment, development in technology is on an expidential rate of increase. In other words we're seeing massive leaps ahead in computing power and other breakthroughs in a matter of years. It also invokes the Arthur C. Clake law of advanced technology which states: anything that is sufficiently advanced will be seen as magic. Thus I doubt anyone will be able to envisage/identify specfic advances or what things will look like in a million years hence.

However this is all moot.

What needs to happen is that we don't wipe ourselves out or blow ourselves back into a dark age due to wars over resources.
Sadly though, I don't feel very optimistic about the future for humanity.
I think the game "Fallout" is the most likely scenario/fate for us all for the 21st century - in other words, we're heading for a very grim time ahead.

A glimpse of the future

[circularREASON]

On a program called 'Space' with Sam Neill, A part of it went into explaining how our planet sits in an area where all is well, and life can flourish. However that band is moving outwards because the sun is getting hotter.

Now the timescale for this is obviously longer than the Million years JMS is talking about, but the planet is (so they say) getting warmer.

We are also using the planets resources at an alarming rate. Think of us as being like virus - we multiply exponentially and consume everything around us.

I think in 1 million years ( if we survive MANY wars) we may not have a choice to be here - we will be somewhere else or we will become extinct.

[WorkerCaste]

Of course, JMS doesn't need to accurately predict what the tech will be like in a million years, he merely needs to depict tech that people will accept as being a million years more advanced. The same thing that makes it hard for anyone to extrapolate that far into the future prevents audiences from accepting it when they see it. If they accurately predicted things, the audience would probably react negatively feeling that it was too wild or fantastic.

[circularREASON]

Would JMS be open to suggestions from B5 fans who are not rocket scientists?

[circularREASON]

Quote ''I apologize for the cryptic nature of what follows, but in time this
will all be cleared up. ''


Is JMS being cryptic? I'm sure he releases these little statements and then rubs his hands together and sniggers.

We are his cat toys.

[glindros]

Don't forget JMS doesn't read much if any here. Any good ideas connections or thoughts need to be posted to the newsgroup.

[Dan Dassow]

Caution on Story Ideas

Don't forget JMS doesn't read much if any here. Any good ideas connections or thoughts need to be posted to the newsgroup.

I believe JMS is more interested in points of contact and gaining access to certain people and facilities. I would offer the caution that those posting to RASTB5.mod should be careful not to post story ideas.

Dan Dassow

[Doom Shepherd]

Well, Wayne Barlowe already worked on Thirdspace, and after reading "Expedition," he's usually the first name that comes into my head when I hear "world-building."

And Dougal Dixon, but I think they're enemies or somesuch.

[frulad]

A million years is a mighty long time to try to extrapolate.

Recently I was sitting on a 1940s couch that had originally been in my grandfather's house working on my laptop when I was struck by a thought. As a kid (back in th 70s) I used to sit on that couch reading Asimov and Heinlein and I think my grandfather sort of looked down on what I was reading as just mindless fantasy. At the time, the computer that was now sitting on my lap would have taken up a substantial part of the room. That's just 30 years of progress.

Envisioning a million years into the future?

It seems like that's asking cro-magnon man to envision the theory of relativity or the internet.

Still, I'll be interested to see what JMS is up to...

[grumbler]

Agreed, frulad, but I think "a million years" is more a figure of speech than a statement of any kind of time line.

And Cro-Magnon man is a lot more recent than a million years (in fact, he is us!) so even your extreme analogy falls short of what JMS is putatively asking.

The advent of technology from the first farming implements to today has only taken about 25,000 years, and the rate of technological acceleration is such that probably 90% of the things we use to make out lives easier were developed in the last 150 years, 50% in the last 50 years, and so forth. What things will generally be like in 100 years is difficult to predict; in 1,000 years nearly impossible, and one million years absurdly impossible.

Surely JMS knows this and is thus using a figure of speech.