Pyramid Night of Time streaming film “Genesis” streaming film “Genetics: Man the Creator” Unit V: Archaeology as a Time Machine; Cultural Evolution If Now You Grieve a Little The Robot’s Return of Light streaming film “Who Watches the Watchers” Unit VI: Colonial Exploration; Gender Issues The Native Problem Sarkanger The Clapping Hands of God Survival Ship Ej-Es
Because cultural practices change the environment, they also have the ability to change biological adaptive forces. Evolution and culture co-occur. They work together in unpredictable ways, often producing a large amount of rapid changes in a burst. This creates an analogy to purely biological evolution of organisms. As newly created niches in the environment are suddenly filled by different organisms, the pace of change slows, producing a relatively stable period. This process is has been called punctuated equilibrium. Change with humans not only involves extinction or, conversely, expansion. Changes in the social and biological world are heavily entangled with technology. The creation of the cellular phone, for example, has dramatically changed the frequency and ability for people to communicate with one another. While it may have been considered rude to talk on the telephone during a meal in the past, it is now common practice. Technology can do a number of things for communication, and thus for social organization. In Postsingular, for example, the ability to communicate and interact with people was drastically changed. The technologies involved in travel have the ability to shape social life… and if they are momentous enough, to encourage very rapid social change.
“They were too close to the door to close it” “The bandage was wound around the wound” “When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes” “The farm was used to produce produce” There are many reasons why the Native Americans were misunderstood. The first is biological: humans are born with the ability to produce and hear many more speech sounds than those that are used in their native language. After a certain age, children lose the ability to hear and produce sounds that are not used in their everyday speech. This is called Fossilizing, and it is why many people who learn second languages retain an odd accent. The human brain has developed two special areas that help people acquire the ability for verbal speech. These areas are usually located on the left side of the brain, and they are called the Broca and Wernicke areas for language. Wernicke’s language area allows people to put grammatical sentences together which convey meaning. The Broca area recognizes certain structural “rules” in a language. This area of the brain helps individuals identify when there is a hierarchy of phrase structure in a language -- basically, it allows you to be able to form complex sentences using elements like relative clauses. When an individual’s Broca’s area
Chad Oliver, “Far From This Earth” Volume 2 (NESFA, Framingham, 2003): If Now You Grieve a Little North Wind Pilgrimage Robert Nathan, The in “The Weans” (Random House, 1960) Elaine Radford, Breeding the Bald, Plastic-Working Ape at the Tau Ceti IV Planetary Zoo, in “The Journal of Irreproducible Results” (pp. 12-13, 2001) George R. R. Martin, Dark, Dark Were the Tunnels, in “A Song for Lya and Stories” (2001) L. Sprague de Camp, The Gnarly Man, in “The Gnarly Man” (Spectrum, 1939) Rudy Rucker, Postsingular, Asimov’s Science Fiction (September 2006) Shane Tourtellotte, String of Pearls, Analog (July/August 2006) Kress, Ej-Es, in “The Year’s Best Science Fiction Twenty First Annual Collection” Edited by Gardner Dozois (St. Martin’s, 2004) Robert Reed, of Time, in “The Year’s Best Science Fiction Twenty First Annual Collection” Edited by Gardner Dozois (St. Martin’s, 2004) Terry Bisson, Scout’s Honor, in “The Year’s Best Science Fiction Twenty Second Annual Collection” Edited by Gardner Dozois (St. Martin’s, 2005) Stephen Baxter, Mayflower II, in “The Year’s Best Science Fiction Twenty Second Annual Collection” Edited by Gardner Dozois (St. Martin’s, 2005)
Sol Tax, Afterword: The Inception of Extraterrestrial Anthropology (pp. John Scalzi, “The Rough Guide to Sci-Fi Movies” (Rough Guides, 2005) VideoHound, “VideoHound’s Sci-Fi Experience: Your Quantum Guide to the Video Universe” (Visible Ink, 1997) Gary Gerani, “Top 100 Sci-Fi Movies” (Idea and Design 2011) Michael Lallory, “The Science Fiction Universe … and Beyond: SyFy Channel Book of Sci-Fi” (Universe, 2012) Robert Silverberg, “Science Fiction as Prophecy” (pp. ix to xviii in “Visions of Tomorrow: Science Fiction Predictions that Came True” Edited by Thomas A. Easton and Judith K. Dial; Skyhorse, 2010) John F. Moffitt, “Picturing Extraterrestrials: Alien Images in Modern Mass Culture” (Prometheus, 2003) Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart, “What Does a Martian Look Like? The Science of Extraterrestrial Life” (Wiley, 2002) Wayne Douglas Barlowe, Ian Summers and Beth Meacham, “Barlowe’s Guide to Extraterrestrials: Great Aliens from Science Fiction Literature” (Workman, 1979) Dougal Dixon, “After Man: A Zoology of the Future” (St. Martin’s, 1981) Dougal Dixon, “Man After Man: An Anthology of the Future” (St. Martin’s, 1990) Ray Villard and Lynette R. Cook, “Infinite Worlds: An Illustrated Voyage to Planets Beyond Our Sun” (University of California, 2005) Doug Chiang and Orson Scott Card, “Robota” (Chronicle, 2003)
Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Left Hand of Darkness” (probably the greatest of all): Ace Books, 1969 Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Word for World is Forest” (Berkley, 1972) And, …… just about any other Le Guin novels …… Octavia E. Butler, “Kindred” (Beacon, 1979) Michael Bishop, “Death and Designation among the Asadi” in “Transfigurations” (Berkley, New York, 1979) Joe Haldeman, “The Forever War” (Ballantine, 1974) Joan D. Vinge, “Tin Soldier” (Tor, New York, 1974) Sharlotte Donnelly, “Kasker” (Airleaf, 2005) Roger MacBride Allen, “Orphan of Creation” (Baen, 1988); a redo of Vercors’ “Ye Shall Know Them” and the template for Burt Reynolds’ movie “Skullduggery” Mary Doria Russell, “The Sparrow” (Fawcett, 1996) Mary Russell, “Children of God” (Fawcett, 1998) Robert A. Heinlein, “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” (Berkley [Putnam’s], 1963). Much more useful as a lesson in culture change than: Robert A. Heinlein, “Stranger in a Strange Land” (Ace Putnam, 1991) however avoid this uncut version like the plague -- Heinlein should have cut much more than the originally required 60,000 words ……
H. Beam Piper, Omnilingual, in “The World Turned Upside Down” edited by David Drake, Eric Flint and Jim Baen (Baen, 2004) Tom Purdom, Response from In “The Year’s Best Science Fiction Twenty Ninth Annual Collection” Edited by Gardner Dozois (St. Martin’s, 2012) Jane Lindskold, Small Heroes, in “First Contact” edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Larry Segriff (Daw, 1997) Rosemary Edghill, We Have Met the Enemy, in “First Contact” edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Larry Segriff (Daw, 1997) Robert Silverberg, Story, in “Futures from Nature: 100 Speculative Fictions” edited by Henry Gee (Tor, 2007) Frederik Pohl, Brain Drain, in “Futures from Nature: 100 Speculative Fictions” edited by Henry Gee (Tor, 2007) Stephen Baxter, Under Martian Ice, in “Futures from Nature: 100 Speculative Fictions” edited by Henry Gee (Tor, 2007) Chad Oliver, Ghost Town, in “Far From This Earth” Volume 2 (NESFA, Framingham, 2003) Robert Sheckley, Emissary from a Green and Yellow World, in “Uncanny Tales” (Five Star, Warerville, 2003) Stephen Baxter, Turing’s Apples, in “The Year’s Best Science Fiction Twenty Annual Collection” Edited by Gardner Dozois (St. Martin’s, 2009) Jasmes Van Pelt, The Long Way Home, in “The Year’s Best Science Fiction Twenty First Annual Collection” Edited by Gardner Dozois (St. Martin’s, 2004)
Star Trek Next Generation episodes: Darmok (linguistics) A Matter of + (culture shock) Genesis Unnatural Selection Who Watches the Watchers (religious revitalization) To The Year 2000 series: The Family: Lifestyles of the Future (features Margaret Mead)+ The Brain: Creating a Mental Elite (features Arthur C. Clarke) Genetics – Man the Creator Fashion: The Second Skin World of Future Shock (made in 1969, mind you) Origins (Neal de Grasse 2004 PBS series) episode: “Where are the Aliens?” National Geographic’s “Extraterrestrial” Stargate SG-1 (Season 7) episode “Enemy Mine” + Planet Earth episode: “Evolution’s Next Step” Third Rock from the Sun episodes: Dick Like Me (ethnicity) + Gobble Gobble (Thanksgiving ritual)