Steve, it is a Renesan course on Tue, September 7 and 14. I have read Jack Williamson, not all 90, and he would have been included in another course I proposed to Renesan on science fiction themes. Maybe in the future. davew
On Wed, Aug 9, 2017, at 09:57 AM, Steven A Smith wrote: > Dave - > Most excellent of you to do this, and what will be your venue for > this class?> Are you familiar with our own Jack Williamson[1]'s vague > parallel work > in his "Humanoids" which began in 1947 with the Novelette: "With > Folded Hands". I do not know if he ever acknowledged an influence in > this work from Asimov's introduction to the "three laws" in 1941? He > investigates the (unintended/unexpected catastrophic consequences of > something like the three laws on humanity, having the human spirit > "quelled" by being "niced" or "safed" near-to-death)> He claims to have > written this as a cathartic project to shake off > the existential angst/depression he felt from the (ab)use of atomic > weapons at the end of WWII. Jack was too old to serve in the military > when the war broke out (he was 36?), but instead volunteered to work > in the South Pacific as a civilian meteorologist. He had started his > career in Science Fiction before the term was fully adopted > (Scientific Romance and Scientifiction being precursors according to > Jack) with the publication of a short story "Metal Man" In Hugo > Gernsbach's *Amazing Stories *in 1928. Up until the end of WWII he > claims to have been somewhat of a techno-utopianist, believing that > advancing technology would (continue to ) simply advance the quality > of life of human beings (somewhat?) monotonically.> I hosted Jack at an > evening talk at LANL/Bradbury Science Museum in > 1998 during the Nebula Awards on the theme of how Science and Science > Fiction inform one another. Jack was 90 that year and had over 90 > published works at that time. His work was always somewhat in the > vein of Space Opera and his characters were generally quite two > dimensional and his gender politics typical of his generation of > science fictioneers, yet he was still loved by his community. His use > of this pulpy/pop medium as a way to investigate and discuss > fundamental aspects of human nature and many of the social or even > spiritual implications of the advance of technology was nevertheless > quite inspired (IMO).> He died in 2007 at the ripe young age of 98 and was > still producing > work nearly up to the day of his death. In 1998 when I first met him, > the OED was creating an appendix/section of "neologisms from science > fiction" and he was credited (informally?) with having the most > entries in the not-yet-published project. His most famous throwdown > in this category at the time was his "invention" of anti-matter, which > he called "contra-terrene" or more colloquially "seetee" (a > phoneticization of the contraction "CT")! He was also quite proud of > being interrogated by the FBI during the Manhattan project for having > written a story about Atomic Weapons... they wanted to assume he had > access to a security leak until he showed them a 1932(?) short story > on the same theme, making it clear that the ideas of nuclear fission > (fusion even?) as a weapon were not new (to him anyway)... that > apparently satisfied them and of course, he didn't appreciate the full > import of their interrogation until after the war.> Carry On! > - Steve > > On 8/9/17 9:05 AM, Prof David West wrote: >> For what its worth - I will be teaching a short class next month in >> Santa Fe, "Isaac Asimov and the Robots." Two points of coverage: 1) >> the robots themselves invent and follow a "Zeroth Law" that allows >> them to eliminate individual human beings with a result the exact >> opposite of Hawking et. al.'s fears that our creations will not love >> us; 2) how the actual evolution of robotics and AI (see Daniel >> Suarez'* Kill Decision* - autonomous swarming drones as tools of war >> and death to humans) diverged from the rosy naive 1950s view of the >> future that Asimov advanced.>> >> davew >> >> >> On Mon, Aug 7, 2017, at 09:54 PM, Carl Tollander wrote: >>> It seems to me that there are many here in the US who are not >>> entirely on board with Asimov's First Law of Robotics, at least >>> insofar as it may apply to themselves, so I suspect notions of >>> "reining it in" are probably not going to fly.>>> >>> >>> >>> >>> On Mon, Aug 7, 2017 at 1:57 AM, Alfredo Covaleda VĂ©lez >>> <alfr...@covaleda.co> wrote:>>>> Future will be quite interesting. How will >>> be the human being of >>>> the future? For sure not a human being in the way we know.>>>> >>>> http://m.eltiempo.com/tecnosfera/novedades-tecnologia/peligros-y-avances-de-la-inteligencia-artificial-para-los-humanos-117158>>>> >>>> >>>> ============================================================ >>>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >>>> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >>>> to unsubscribe >>>> http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com>>>> FRIAM-COMIC >>>> http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove >>> ============================================================ >>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >>> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >>> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com>>> >>> FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove >> >> >> >> ============================================================ FRIAM >> ============================================================ Applied >> ============================================================ Complex- >> ============================================================ ity >> ============================================================ Group >> ============================================================ listserv >> ============================================================ Meets >> ============================================================ Fridays >> ============================================================ 9a-11:30 >> ============================================================ at cafe >> ============================================================ at St. >> ============================================================ John's >> ============================================================ College >> ============================================================ to unsu- >> ============================================================ bscribe >> ============================================================ >> http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com >> ============================================================ FRIAM- >> ============================================================ COMIC >> ============================================================ >> http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ >> ============================================================ by Dr. >> ============================================================ Strange- >> ============================================================ love> > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove Links: 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Williamson
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove