HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: bjgaed@bb1t.monsanto.com
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: Terminology
Date: 2 Sep 92 06:38:55 CST
Organization: Monsanto Company, St. Louis, MO

In article <BtwI74.2L4@brunel.ac.uk>, Robert.Turner@brunel.ac.uk (Robert Turner) writes:

> Right then, a question for all you 'cyberpunk' (and similar) fans out
> there. We have:
> 
> Hardware	Machinery
> Software	Programs
> Wetware		Biological Software
> 
> Are there any other ?ware items around the fictional universe that I
> have missed?  Is there a term for optical machines? Am I going mad?

Firmware        ROM, PROM, EPROM, etc.


"Sloppy Disk"           Biological Software  (From Paul Preuss, _Human 
                                              Error_)

"Daddies"          Data Addition Modules
"Moddies"          Personality Modules (From George Alec Effinger)

(I know these aren't -ware, but they are some of my favorite sf terms.)


--Electric Monk            (Bruce Gaede); 
                            e-mail: bjgaed@ccmail.monsanto.com

"...and then time started seriously to pass."
--Douglas Adams, _Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency_
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
From: williams@herky.cs.uiowa.edu (Kent Williams)
Subject: SNOW CRASH by Neal Stephenson
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 13:32:50 GMT
Organization: University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA

If you're into the c'punk thing, "SNOW CRASH" slays.  It's a sort of a
mystery shoot-em-up in real and virtual reality, and pushes some of
the same buttons as Gibson's stuff, but the characters aren't as
obsessed with their own coolness.
From: weemba@sagi.wistar.upenn.edu (Matthew P Wiener)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: Wolvertons "On My Way to Paradise
Date: 25 Aug 92 17:51:51 GMT
Article-I.D.: netnews.86986
Reply-To: weemba@sagi.wistar.upenn.edu (Matthew P Wiener)
Organization: The Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology
In-reply-to: djdaneh@pbhyc.PacBell.COM (Dan'l DanehyOakes)

In article <1992Aug25.155814.18752@pbhyc.PacBell.COM>, djdaneh@pbhyc (Dan'l DanehyOakes) writes:
>(Seriously:  OMWtP is a damn good book.  I refrained from reviewing it when
>it came out because I'd just praised David Zindell's NEVERNESS -- also a damn
>good book -- and didn't want to be accused of puffing for WotF winners' books.)

Personally, I've avoided reading WotF winners.
-- 
-Matthew P Wiener (weemba@sagi.wistar.upenn.edu)
From: eliz@ai.mit.edu (Elizabeth Willey)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: SNOW CRASH by Neal Stephenson
Date: 1 Sep 92 22:01:11 GMT
Organization: MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory

Kent Williams writes:

   If you're into the c'punk thing, "SNOW CRASH" slays.  It's a sort of a
   mystery shoot-em-up in real and virtual reality, and pushes some of
   the same buttons as Gibson's stuff, but the characters aren't as
   obsessed with their own coolness.

Unless I'm utterly mistaken, this Neal Stephenson has two previous
books, _The Big U_ and _Zodiac_.  _Zodiac_ should still be widely
available.  After reading it, Boston Harbor (and particularly Fort
Point Channel) just don't look the same.  Outstanding eco-terrorism;
not for the faint of conviction.  _The Big U_ stands for University;
it's a campus comedy.


Elizabeth Willey
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
From: elwin@gamma.phys.clemson.edu (Lawrence E. Brown)
Subject: Re: Tarot sf and fantasy
Reply-To: elwin@gamma.phys.clemson.edu (Lawrence E. Brown)
Organization: Clemson University
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1992 16:52:34 GMT


In article <1992Aug24.191913.27191@csus.edu>, arthurc@sfsuvax1.sfsu.edu (Arthur Chandler) writes:
>Can anyone here help me out?  I'm looking for science fiction and/or
>fantasy books based on the Tarot cards.  What I'm looking for is not
>just a casual reference or a scene, but books whose structure is based
>on the Tarot.

Charles Williams (a friend and fellow "Inklings" club member of
C.S. Lewis) wrote a pretty good fantasy (with Christian
overtones) called _The Greater Trumps_.  

 

--
Larry Brown                        "Philip K. Dick is dead, alas
elwin@gamma.phys.clemson.edu        Let's all queue up to kick God's ass"
Dept. of Physics and Astronomy      --Michael Bishop in _The Secret Ascension_
Clemson University                  

Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
From: karls@aurora.physics.utoronto.ca (Karl Schroeder)
Subject: Gormenghast
Keywords:  Mervyn Peake, Fantasy 
Organization: University of Toronto Physics/Astronomy/CITA
Distribution: na
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 15:06:22 GMT

I thought The Lord of the Rings was the greatest fantasy ever written
until I discovered the Gormenghast Trilogy by Mervyn Peake.  Anyone
else have this experience (maybe it's just me).  Both books are
encyclopedic fiction in which you can immerse yourself completely,
and there are plenty of scenes in both that I will never forget;
however, the scenes in LOTR that I remember, I remember as 'scenes',
whereas there are lots of events in Gormenghast I remember as though
I was there.
   That seems to be what separates good from great stories, for me.
Lately, it seems like Guy Gavriel Kay is the writer who elicits the
'I was there' reaction most in fantasy, at least among the people I
know.
From: dani@netcom.com (Dani Zweig)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: Vinge's singularity
Keywords: Malthus
Date: 26 Aug 92 21:59:24 GMT
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest)

karls@aurora.physics.utoronto.ca (Karl Schroeder):
>As far as I understand it, Vernor Vinge believes that at the present
>exponential rate of technological change, we will soon reach a
>'singularity' where the rate becomes effectively infinite.  Isn't
>this a bit like Malthus concluding...

No, you've misunderstood.  The key to Vinge's singularity is his
expectation that trends are leadeing to the development of superhuman 
intelligence, whether in AI form or through computer enhancement of human 
intelligence.  To use one of his analogies, you could bring Shakespeare
into the present and eventually get him to understand television, but
no amount of education or explanation will enable a goldfish to understand
television.  Similarly, he expects the changes which superhuman intelligence
will bring to be of a sort which humans are incapable, in principle, of
understanding.  This makes writing science fiction placed in the distant
future challenging.  Hence Vinge's Zones.

-----
Dani Zweig
dani@netcom.com

   The inability of snakes to count is actually a refusal, on their part,
    to appreciate the Cardinal Number system. -- "Actual Facts"
From: IOR@SLACVM.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU (Thomas Hyer)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Author Polls -- Harlan Ellison (REPOST)
Date: 2 Sep 92 15:47:31 GMT
Organization: Stanford Linear Accelerator Center

Welcome to the author polls.  This week's author is noted
winner-of-awards Harlan Ellison.

INTRO to AUTHOR POLLS  (skip if you've participated before):

   Since no two readers can generally be expected to agree
   about the quality of a given author, an overall poll
   like that used in rec.arts.movies would be useless
   except as an incendiary.  However, there is often good
   agreement about which books by a given author are most
   worthy: thus this poll.

IF YOU MISSED AN EARLIER POLL and want to contribute, please
   feel free to DO SO.

BALLOT FORMAT  (read this once):

   You have four votes, one each at +3, +2, +1, and -1. You
   may vote for a work of any length, though you may wish
   to restrict yourself to the form in which the author was
   most prolific.

SAMPLE BALLOT (just a reminder):

   + 3 <vote for at most one work>
   + 2 <vote for at most one work>
   + 1 <vote for at most one work>
   - 1 <vote for at most one work>

SEND BALLOTS TO THIS ADDRESS.  If you prefer multiple choice,
you can obtain fairly complete bibliographies by anonymous ftp
from gandalf.rutgers.edu, in /pub/sfl/authorlists.

LAST WEEK'S RESULTS (abridged):

Philip Jose Farmer
------------------
 To Your Scattered Bodies Go       +  24
 <Riverworld>                      +  10
 Unreasoning Mask                  +   9
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

PREVIOUS AUTHORS (for listings, EMail to this address):

Roger Zelazny
Larry Niven
C.J. Cherryh'
Jack Vance
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Silverberg
Isaac Asimov
Poul Anderson
Frederick Pohl
Gordon R. Dickson
Cordwainer Smith
Philip K. Dick
Samuel R. Delany
John Brunner
Orson Scott Card
Theodore Sturgeon
Stanislaw Lem
Ursula K. Le Guin
Clifford D. Simak
David Brin
Arthur C. Clarke
From: chuq@gallant.apple.com (Chuq Von Rospach)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: The "canon" of modern fantasy coming back into print?
Date: 27 Aug 92 16:56:43 GMT
Distribution: rec.arts.sf.written
Organization: I is a writur

ba@mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu (B.A. Davis-Howe) writes:
>chuq@Apple.COM (Chuq Von Rospach) writes:

>>tough in any event to keep it in print, thanks to Thor Power Tools vs. the
>>IRS.

>Can you explain this to poor ignorant little me?  What are you referring to?

Oops. Sorry. ("warning! jargon alert! warning! jargon alert!")

A number of years ago, there was a fight in Tax Court that the IRS won that
ended up being known as the Thor Power Tools decision (named for the poor
schmucks that lost). Basically, it used to be that stuff sitting in a
warehouse didn't get taxed until it actually sold. The IRS decided it could
get even more money by taxing companies on the value of the inventory, even
though it was just sitting there collecting dust, since the inventory is in
effect an asset. 

That's a gross oversimplification, for which I apologize, but I don't have
the details handy. But the bottom line is that before Thor Power Tools,
publishers could print 50,000 copies of a book, ship 20,000 to stores and
the other 30,000 copies to a warehouse and only pay warehouse fees to keep
them around until needed.

Now, they not only have to pay to warehouse them, but everything kept in
inventory is also a potential tax liability -- even if the books are NEVER
sold, the publisher gets to pay taxes on them if they're in inventory on the
tax date. 

The end result: smaller print runs, so there isn't as much stock in the
warehouse to start. It's more expensive to warehouse stuff, so they're
less likely to keep copies around. Fewer printings and reprints,
because it's harder to justify the costs of printing/warehousing more
copies. And books get sent out of print faster, because it's cheaper
(in many cases) to pull the warehouse copies and destroy them than it
is to pay the taxes on them.

So your government's tax policy has had a significant effect on your ability
to read the books you want to read. This is one of the major reasons why the
backlists have dried up and the midlist is disappearing, because the tax
implications have made it really tough to justify keeping books in print
unless they're selling a reasonably large number of copies. 



-- 
Chuq "IMHO" Von Rospach, ESD Support & Training (DAL/AUX) =+= Member, SFWA
  chuq@apple.com | GEnie: MAC.BIGOT | ALink:CHUQ =+= Editor, OtherRealms
	A real SF writur with stories in ALTERNATE KENNEDYS and THE 
	  FURTHER ADVENTURES OF BATMAN, in better bookstores now!
Organization: Graduate School of Industrial Administr., Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written,rec.arts.sf.movies
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 15:41:35 -0400 
From: Bill Thomas <bt16+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: Bring the Science Fiction Channel to Colorado!

>No cable service in the Denver-Boulder area will be offering the Science
>Fiction Channel, as it turns out.  I would like to encourage SF lovers to
>write to their cable companies asking for this service.  I myself am trying
>to find out if I can get it from a microwave service-- any advice in this
>matter would be greatly appreciated.  (I live in Golden.)

I know this is a frequently asked question, but what's up with this
channel? Does it exist yet? The fact that it won't be carried in Denver
does not bode well, since the largest cable company, TCI, is based there
(and also is the cable company in Pittsburgh).


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bill Thomas
Carnegie Mellon University

Q. What is the mystery word in Steve Miller's The Joker, 'Some people
call me the space cowboy ... some people call me Maurice, cause I speak
of the [     ] of love?'
A. The word is 'pompetus.'
Q. What does pompetus mean?
A. It doesn't mean anything.  Steve made that word up.  That's why some
people call him the space cowboy.
(Source: Dave Barry.)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
From: steelem@rintintin.Colorado.EDU (STEELE MARK A)
Subject: Looking for a good SF novel
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Distribution: usa
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 17:49:18 GMT

I am looking for some advice on good SF novels... My tastes lean heavily
towards the SF of Robert Heinlien of the 50's.  I don't particularly care
for the SF/Fantasy stories that mix SF with D&D and huminoid reptiles 
as the main characters with name made up of symbols not found on most
keyboards :) 

If you have a recomendation, or know of a current list of my request
please let me know...

thanks,
Mark Steele
steelem@rintintin.colorado.edu
mas@rimmer.ngdc.noaa.gov
From: rod@cats.ucsc.edu (Rodrick Su)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: Continuing Time
Date: 27 Aug 1992 18:08:54 GMT
Organization: Tigana Restoration Inc.
NNTP-Posting-Host: am.ucsc.edu


In article <leggett.714932169@a-l3um6> leggett@a-l3um6.cern.ch (Charles Leggett ) writes:
>    One other possibility that no one else seems to have mentioned as to how
>Trent manages to walk through the wall. Remember that the whole foundation of
>the novels are "Continuing Time", where several of the characters are time
>travellers. As one poster recently mentioned, we don't know what all of Trent's
>talents are. Time travel could be one of them (I seem to recall that the 
>'Novembers' have the gene for time travel, and they are the descendents of
>Danielle (?)). So it is possible that at some point in the future he comes back


	Except that Trent and Denise are not related in any way except their
name.  Trent is also the only failed telepath from project Superman.  
 
-- 
[ Rodrick Su           ]-----------------------------------------------------] 
[----------------------[ A bomb lives only as it is falling.		     ] 
[ rod@cats.ucsc.edu    ]------------------------[ ``Use of Weapons''         ] 
[ rod@ucscb.ucsc.edu   ]------------------------[   Iain M. Banks            ]
From: dave@cs.arizona.edu (Dave Schaumann)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: Octavia Butler question
Date: 28 Aug 92 01:01:19 GMT
Reply-To: dave@cs.arizona.edu (Dave Schaumann)
Organization: University of Arizona

In article <1992Aug27.124214.28448@lambda.msfc.nasa.gov>, puckett@lambda (Jim Puckett) writes:
>
>Yes, another one of those 'What is the name of...'
>
>What is the name of the Octavia Butler sequel to _Dawn_?

_Adulthood Rites_, followed by _Imagio_.  The copyright in my copy of
_Imagio_ is 1989, so there might be additional books in the series by
now (its been a while, but as I recall, _Imagio_ didn't really wrap
things up... although it wouldn't be a totally unsatisfactory ending
to the series either...)

-- 
--- jumbo shrimp --- pretty ugly --- awfully nice --- constant change ---
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
From: bp494@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Dana Goldblatt)
Subject: Re: SNOW CRASH by Neal Stephenson
Reply-To: bp494@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Dana Goldblatt)
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 92 05:19:36 GMT


In a previous article, williams@herky.cs.uiowa.edu (Kent Williams) says:

>If you're into the c'punk thing, "SNOW CRASH" slays.  It's a sort of a
>mystery shoot-em-up in real and virtual reality, and pushes some of
>the same buttons as Gibson's stuff, but the characters aren't as
>obsessed with their own coolness.
>
>
Well, I liked Snow Crash, and I am even using stuff from it for
some rpg stuff, but your comment was way off base.  I have read it
twice, the second time out loud, and to be honest--there is not a 
single character in the book who is *not* obsessed with his or
her "own coolness"... Hiro is obsessed with his coolness to the point
of being proud of being the "best swordfighter in the world", buying
the coolest motorcycle and motorcycle duds, obsessing about being
a "really bad dude" until the title is taken away for good (that's 
a really funny section), etc.  Y.T. is obsessed with her coolness to
the extent that she hides her regular clothes and changes into her
jumpsuit in the bathroom.  Juanita is, Raven is, Ng is *literally*
obsessed with his own coolness as a Chill junkie, and E.T.C.!   
I could go on and ON.  You have to have read it to realize how 
incredibly obsessed with their own coolness these characters are.

The *author* isn't as obsessed with their coolness.  Or is more
separated from it as is usual in comedy.  Their obsession with their
own coolness is laughable, but it's very, very much a part of the book.

Not that I'm being critical, but you were so off base on this one.
-dana
From: bishop@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Bishop)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Robotech/Rifts story
Date: 3 Sep 92 05:00:26 GMT
Organization: Purdue University Computing Center


     I hope there is someone, anyone, out there who can help me.  I only recently began receiving e-mail, and chanced upon the story written about the Role Playing Game Systems ROBOTECH and RIFTS.  Unfortunately, I only received chapters 31 through ending.  If anyone has the first 30 chapters, I would deeply appreciate your e-mailing it to me.
                
                  Thanks,

                  --Bishop

##############################################################################

not knowing what else to say, SURRENDER DOROTHY!!!!!!!!!

##############################################################################
Xref: sparky rec.arts.sf.written:11478 rec.arts.sf.science:2659
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written,rec.arts.sf.science
From: mfriedma@uucp (Michael Friedman)
Subject: Re: Are the Moties us?
Organization: Oracle Corporation
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 00:54:38 GMT
X-Disclaimer: This message was written by an unauthenticated user
              at Oracle Corporation.  The opinions expressed are those
              of the user and not necessarily those of Oracle.

In article <1992Aug21.152355.11497@dg-rtp.dg.com> goudreau@batman.rtp.dg.com (Bob Goudreau) writes:
>In article <1992Aug20.165855.14308@oracle.us.oracle.com> mfriedma@uucp (Michael Friedman) writes:

>> >Overcrowding humans tends to lead to famine, pestilence and war, which
>> >lead to death; the Four Horsemen who keep us from covering the entire
>> >surface of the planet.  Our cycles are just less dramatic than the
>> >Moties'.

>> In other words, if you actually look at things, counting die offs as
>> well, the average person only had about 1 kid.  That's pretty much
>> what I was saying.

>Are you trying to pull a fast one on us, or what?  These notions
>that you are trying to equate are not even remotely similar. 

Actually, you are right.  I haven't been talking clearly and I haven't
been thinking clearly so I'm getting screwed.

Now, first off, let's remember that there is a certain similarity
between the strategy "Have 10 kids and have 8 die as babies" and "Have
2 kids."  If the die-offs primarily hit young children then this is
what we have.  If the die-offs were accross the board or concentrated
on adults then I'm wrong.

Second off, I still stand by the claim that more kids is a
better evolutionary strategy today than it was 500 years ago.  The
differences between this strategy and older strategies range from just
plain having more to not starving the young ones to feed the older
ones or vice versa as often had to be done in hungrier times.

-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am not an official Oracle spokesman.  I speak for myself and no one else.
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written,rec.arts.sf.science
From: jwtlai@jeeves.uwaterloo.ca (Jim W "GrimJim" Lai)
Subject: Re: Are the Moties us?
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 23:42:27 GMT

In article <FRANCIS.92Aug26125755@galois.dogwood.atl.ga.us> francis@dogwood.atl.ga.us (John Stracke) writes:
>In article <1992Aug26.120429.23652@cs.ruu.nl> rkunenbo@cs.ruu.nl (Ronald Kunenborg) writes:
>
>>In <1992Aug24.235820.16903@oracle.us.oracle.com> mfriedma@uucp (Michael Friedman) writes:
>>For evolutionary pressure to have any effect at all, the results of
>>this pressure must be codable - or all the pressure in the world
>>will be of no avail. So let's say there is such evolutionary pressure
>>towards WMK (which I deny as well). If you can't code it, it still 
>>won't have a noticeable effect on our population growth.
>
>OK, why do you think WMK is too complex to code? There's a *lot* of
>data in the genes, and we know it codes a good deal of really
>complicated stuff.  For example, there have been twin studies showing
>separated identicals winding up with extremely similar handwriting.
>This sounds totally ludicrous, but there it is.

Why should it be coded directly in the genes?  After all, we can observe
emergent properties in neural nets: e.g. behaviors which arise from a system
without being explicitly coded in a system.  Also, there is the complication of
the fetal environment during brain development: twin studies do not avoid this,
for both twins share that environment.

In fact, I found a reference that stated that human cloning was impossible.
I lost the reference in a move, but it had something to do with the expression
of genes during the initial stage of development.  It is for things such as
this that I dislike simplistic genetic models of human evolution, since we are
not simple genetically.

Now, perhaps there are several contributing factors to WMK, but it may be that
the linkage is too tenuous for a less-than-drastic alteration of coding to have
a major effect on the resulting psychology.  So even if it were coded, why
would it be easily changed or selected for by evolution?  In fact, it might
be a survival advantage to have it coded at a steady overall level but in a
manner resistant to change so that it would not be selected against by events
such as a prolonged famine.
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written