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Hi all, Another week has passed without me overindulging in writing. Everything in moderation they say. Well at least with writing I seem to be getting that right. Characters with Disabilities in Science Fiction. I wrote an article for Divine online magazine about characters with disabilities in science fiction. Before I started doing some research I was scratching my head a bit to think of such characters. In the end I discovered/remembered plenty of paraplegics, vision impaired and those with artificial limbs. Not so many hearing impaired and characters with intellectual disabilities. When I wrote the article, word constraints had me cutting out a number of examples. My article is much more than just a list. It questions the use of technology in relation to characters with disabilities, and I comment on the future of characters with disabilities in science fiction. Turing Evolved. I finished reading David Kitson’s excellent self-published e...

Turing Evolved by David Kitson My rating: 4 of 5 stars A really good read. Full of fresh ideas about artificial intelligence. The central theme is about attempts to create an artificial entity that has free will and makes its own decisions to the benefit of humanity. The plot revolves around a man who is thrown out of the military after reporting a his comrades for their terrible actions during a virtual simulation. He was a symbiotic pilot of robotic weapons called Demons. He then gets a job helping people come out of long stays in virtual worlds. He meets and falls for an artificial guardian of mankind called an Angel. The Angel, Rachel, falls in love with him, but Jonathon has trouble with the idea of love between human and machine. The Angels are built by one of his long-term virtual world extractees, Peter. Meanwhile his ex-comrades try to extract revenge on Jonathon. There is a lot going on in the plot, but all of it revolves around what it is to be human. There is ...

Hi all, I have been busy researching an article I am writing about characters with disabilities in science fiction. At first I thought there were very few such characters in science fiction, but just thinking about the subject has prodded my memory. How could I have forgotten John Varley’s brilliant story Persistence of Vision ? It is about a commune set up by the deaf and blind. And then there is The Day of the Triffids.   I then recalled a story where an avid reader discovers an intact library after a nuclear war. But then his thick glasses are broken. It turned out to be a Twilight Zone episode. I am still searching for the name and author of a novella I read years ago where people with disabilities are forced into specially constructed tanks to fight wars. They are viewed as dispensable. I think it was written by an Australian.  My research reminded me that Darth Vader had his arms and legs amputated and replaced with artificial limbs. His ...

Hi all, It has been a couple of weeks since my last post. I’ve been having a break from all things writing, giving the brain a rest from what has been a stressful year. I watched a lot of science fiction over the past week and a bit, including the last few episodes of the excellent British apocalyptic series Survivors . I also watched the last half dozen episodes of series three of Fringe – very good too, leaving the series in an very interesting position. The last couple of episodes of series four of Doctor Who were only so so. I suppose Doctor Who survived Peter Davidson, I hope it can survive Matt Smith. But then again, I think it has more to do with the absence of writer/producer Russell T Davies. Speaking of Russell T Davies, the new series of Torchwood , Miracle Day , is fantastic, full of suspense and wit. Two episodes in and we still don’t know why everyone has stopped dying. My bet is on aliens. The third episode of Falling Skies was only average. It looks...

Hi all, I am feeling a bit more awake and alive this week. Last week I was recovering from having some teeth removed. I really did not expect to be so weak and giddy. But my hairdresser who is about to have all four wisdom teeth out said she had scheduled two weeks off work to recover. New Article for Divine Magazine In between sleeping up to twelve hours a night, I managed to research and write an article on recycling televisions. It seemed the right time to write it too with a lot of things happening with recycling electronic waste. On Thursday the Victoria government announced a new scheme. I did a lot more research for this article than other articles due to me knowing nothing about the subject. Part of the research included ringing the director of the Product Stewardship Association. My brain haze had me losing my train of thought during the interview. He helpfully asked me to email him questions, but then didn’t get back to me. Just as well one of ...