At one point, maybe still, the largest mass shooting took place in Norway. Correct me if I'm wrong.
--- Frank C. Wimberly 140 Calle Ojo Feliz, Santa Fe, NM 87505 505 670-9918 Santa Fe, NM On Sun, Sep 3, 2023, 3:16 PM Jochen Fromm <j...@cas-group.net> wrote: > Well, I still believe there is a gun problem in the United States, yes. > Definitely. Just recently a police officer fatally shot a pregnant Black > woman in the parking lot of a grocery store in Ohio after she refused to > exit her car. And Ohio is not even a red state, right? It is also well > known that the US has substantially more mass shootings than other > countries. This is one reason why I do not want to travel to the USA at the > moment - South Africa also does not feel safe to me after various reports > in the last months about missing tourists. > > The other is the lack of good food. In Europe and Asia there is such a > variety of good restaurants and healthy food. In Germany and Great Britain > not so much, except in the larger cities, but in the Mediterranean > countries like Spain, Italy, Greece and Israel the food is awesome. In > South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam and Japan as well. > > -J. > > > -------- Original message -------- > From: Steve Smith <sasm...@swcp.com> > Date: 9/3/23 8:59 PM (GMT+01:00) > To: friam@redfish.com > Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Science Fiction Books > > Jochen - > > I thought of you more than few times on my long walkabout through > Red/Purple-state 'murrica... mostly your concerns a year or two ago about > traveling to the US "because gun violence". I was in the heart of "gun > country" through this trip and saw a few artifacts of that which would > naturally be *very* disturbing (methinks) to someone not already innured to > it... but not nearly as many as you might expect. On the other hand I just > saw a news item that Canada and many other first-world countries have in > place "travel warnings" for not the US proper, but many of the more > egregious "red states". I believe you may have already made your > 'murrican sojourn so the point may be moot... but I couldn't help thinking > "how would Jochen see this?" as I stumbled through a landscape of bison, > hay bales, corn fields, motorcycles, strip malls, and gun shows. > > I have read "Highway of Eternity" from Clifford D. Simak this weekend, one > of the books from the golden age of science fiction which is comparable to > "The city and the Stars" from Arthur C. Clarke and "The end of eternity" > from Isaac Asimov. Both belong to my favorite books. Modern authors don't > write like this anymore. Their books are often gloomy and depressive, and > do not span millions of years. What is your favorite science fiction book? > Will the AI breakthrough in large language models lead to more optimistic > science fiction books again? > > Back on topic: I grew up on a lot of "Golden Age" works/authors which > includes Simak/Clarke/Asimov of course. I would claim that this time was > naturally one of "Utopianism" that came with the rapid development of > industry/technology/science. I think the Dystopianism ramped up with > PostModernism and Cyberpunk. I'm a big fan of Cyberpunk (esp.. > Gibson/Sterling/Stephenson/Cadigan/etc.) and *some* post-Apocalyptic > works... now almost exclusively "CliFi" (Climate Fiction), but I get your > yearning for "the good ole days". I'd say Elon Musk grew up on "too much > Utopian SF" as well and (unlike me) hasn't outgrown it? > > My *favorite* golden-age author is Jack Williamson > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Williamson> who I've mentioned here > before and had the distinction of being somewhat elder when he published > his first work at age 20 (1928) in Hugo Gernsback's first-of-kind Amazing > Stories (1926). I feel like he hit his stride after WWII where he had > been a (civilian, not military due to age) Weatherman in the Pacific and > reacted to a dawning self-awareness of the flip side of techno-Utopianism > (exemplified by Hiroshima/Nagasaki)... His (re)entry into publication > after a long hiatus (during/after WWII) was With Folded Hands > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/With_Folded_Hands>, a reflective dystopian > view of techno-utopianism as well as work presaging Asimov's Robot series > as well as a plethora of concepts like > Borg/Cylon/Replicant/Terminators/Cybermen/Sentinels, etc... and of course > all of this was preceded by Lem's Trurl and Klapaucius (wizard-robot > constructors) and the Hebrew Golem (and Frankenstein's Monster and... and > and.) He wrote over 50 novels ultimately in his 98 year long life as well > as myriad short stories, novellas and a 3 year run of a comic strip (early > 50s)... He also penned a reflective autobiography late in life (70s) but > with nearly 20 years worth of career following that! He taught writing at > Eastern NM University well into his 90s as well. > > For the most part I'm thankful to be beyond the flat-character > cardboard-cutout, misogynistic, stoicly independent/capable (white-male) > hero-worship classic SF tropes but I hear your interest in more positive > grand narratives that the Golden Age also carried. For the seminal > Epoch-spanning humanity I offer Olaf Stapledon's "Last and First Men" > (1930) and "Starmaker" (1933). The former spans 2 billion years and 18 > human species... > > Robert Heinlein is the avowed Master of Human Chauvanistic > technoUtopian/Libertarian fantasies which even satisfies some of us > reformed/anti-Libertarians sometimes. Many of his more minor novels are a > fun romp in near-future techno-utopianism (e.g. Moon is a Harsh Mistress) > as well as epoch and dimensional spanning works such as *Time Enough for > Love *and *Job* (respectively). *Stranger in a Strange Land* stood up > well next to Herbert's *Dune* in the 60s to satisfy Hippies and > non-Hippies alike. > > Larry Niven's *Ringworld *series are pretty > far-flung/futuristic/optimistic epochal. He does post-Apocalyptic well too > (e.g. *FootFall*, *Mote in God's Eye*) > > I did enjoy Simak's work "back in the day" and his 1968 "So Bright the > Vision" gestured toward what ChatGPT is today. > > A.E. Van Vogt offers some great classics as well... *The Worlds of Null > A *and *Weapons Shops of Isher* stand out. > > Poul Anderson simultaneously created/celebrated and lampooned the > canonical pulp hero with his Nicholas van Rijn characters in a series of > works and his *PsychoTechnic League* is a Future History to rival > Asimov's *Foundation* series. > > I know you asked for "*A* favorite" but I'm not so good at narrowing such > things down... hope you made it through my romp of recommendations and at > least one is useful! If you lived closer (same continent?) I would > bequeath you a few boxes of pulp from that era <grin>... > > - Steve > -. --- - / ...- .- .-.. .. -.. / -- --- .-. ... . / -.-. --- -.. . > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom > https://bit.ly/virtualfriam > to (un)subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ > archives: 5/2017 thru present > https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/ > 1/2003 thru 6/2021 http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/ >
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