Comments on: Living in a Science Fiction World #1 http://jameswharris.wordpress.com/2008/01/04/living-in-a-science-fiction-world-1/ Things I want to remember - James Wallace Harris Sat, 19 Jul 2008 10:24:46 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=MU By: Carl V. http://jameswharris.wordpress.com/2008/01/04/living-in-a-science-fiction-world-1/#comment-559 Carl V. Fri, 25 Jan 2008 01:32:49 +0000 http://jameswharris.wordpress.com/2008/01/04/living-in-a-science-fiction-world-1/#comment-559 I was born in '68, but so much of what you said rings true with my own life. Thankfully I had an older uncle to feed my burgeoning science fiction addiction when I was a child. Although he was more than generous with the use of his books, a great deal of his time talking to me was reading me 'naughty' passages out of books and generally just trying to be the 'cool' older uncle. It hasn't been until the last 3 or 4 years that I have had a core group of friends around me that not only are avid readers, but are avid science fiction readers. Despite the joy I get discussing sci fi online and reading and writing about it online, nothing can replace the thrill of being face-to-face with someone talking science fiction. I was born in ‘68, but so much of what you said rings true with my own life. Thankfully I had an older uncle to feed my burgeoning science fiction addiction when I was a child. Although he was more than generous with the use of his books, a great deal of his time talking to me was reading me ‘naughty’ passages out of books and generally just trying to be the ‘cool’ older uncle. It hasn’t been until the last 3 or 4 years that I have had a core group of friends around me that not only are avid readers, but are avid science fiction readers. Despite the joy I get discussing sci fi online and reading and writing about it online, nothing can replace the thrill of being face-to-face with someone talking science fiction.

]]> By: Mary Lynn Johnson http://jameswharris.wordpress.com/2008/01/04/living-in-a-science-fiction-world-1/#comment-505 Mary Lynn Johnson Thu, 10 Jan 2008 21:41:07 +0000 http://jameswharris.wordpress.com/2008/01/04/living-in-a-science-fiction-world-1/#comment-505 Oh boy, there are some memories in this missive for sure! I have the dubious honor of remembering all of it, but you could've touched on so much more. Like color TV not coming along until the middle 60's, right at the beginning of a show that changed the world as well as our perceptions of science fiction: Star Trek. I remember those black and white days very well and would use my little cassette recorder to tape the audio tracks of the series. That way I could listen to them as often as I liked. SF TV changed how fans communicated in a big way once we started to band together and fight the networks for what we wanted to see. Shortly after cancellation of Star Trek, I did the conventions, to which I was introduced by a fellow fan. I did as many in a year as I could afford, and many I couldn't. From there I got a second-hand mimeo and did fanzines, and the dreaded collation death march around the kitchen table. I was introduced to Unix when fans were battling it out over the phone lines playing an ascii version of a Star Trek game. It was insanely slow but it was the only game online then. Just a couple of years after that, the World Wide Web was commissioned between three physics labs so that they could share data between them more efficiently. Most of us on the outside though, were confined to BBS activity. My sister met her husband through a BBS. BBSes weren't around long before word got out that limited access to the ultra-exclusive Web was being made available through some of the labs who wanted to make a little extra cash. A year or so passed and then the Web suddenly broke wide open and anyone could sign up and log on. In those days, modems were slow and there were NO ADS OR SPAM OR EVEN PORN out there. Hard to imagine eh? I still remember the first spam I got and how enraged I was that there was little I could do to stop it. I did however write a really nasty letter to the spammer. Back then, you could do that without risk of much reprisal. I've been on the Net consistantly since those days and I've seen the net grow exponentially. Ten years ago, I did a Google search on my maiden name. It turned up about 2500 hits. Not impossible to visit them all I thought. That same search, done just a moment ago, has turned up 98,000 hits. Yeow. And it's still growing at that ferocious rate, as more discover the usefulness of being able to create ever changing and ever more sophisticated ways to keep intough with your friends and family, including (but not limited to) creating a fantasy character for yourself and meeting up with friends and family in an online environment for an afternoon of bashing virtual baddies entirely on screen. Man. Such a long way from Ascii Star Trek. From forums, to blogs, to newsgroups, to mailing lists, to YouTube, Photobucket, and Flickr. LiveJournals, FaceBook, Second Life and so forth and so on encourage us to create circles of friends and interact with others in new and heretofore unimagined ways. And even though I comfortably fit in an old fogey armchair I can kibitz from, I also have a mouse on my end table and a nice large monitor for my fading eyesight. My mom-in-law used to wonder how we all managed to stay in touch all through the years. Mom, you were born just one genereation too soon to get on the band wagon. Thank goodness I have a firm grip myself. Who wants to go back to communicating by beating on logs? Thanks for a real mem-dump! Mary Lynn - Remembers using a "portable" that could be called that ONLY because it had a handle on it. Danged heavy thing.... Oh boy, there are some memories in this missive for sure! I have the dubious honor of remembering all of it, but you could’ve touched on so much more. Like color TV not coming along until the middle 60’s, right at the beginning of a show that changed the world as well as our perceptions of science fiction: Star Trek. I remember those black and white days very well and would use my little cassette recorder to tape the audio tracks of the series. That way I could listen to them as often as I liked. SF TV changed how fans communicated in a big way once we started to band together and fight the networks for what we wanted to see. Shortly after cancellation of Star Trek, I did the conventions, to which I was introduced by a fellow fan. I did as many in a year as I could afford, and many I couldn’t. From there I got a second-hand mimeo and did fanzines, and the dreaded collation death march around the kitchen table. I was introduced to Unix when fans were battling it out over the phone lines playing an ascii version of a Star Trek game. It was insanely slow but it was the only game online then. Just a couple of years after that, the World Wide Web was commissioned between three physics labs so that they could share data between them more efficiently. Most of us on the outside though, were confined to BBS activity. My sister met her husband through a BBS. BBSes weren’t around long before word got out that limited access to the ultra-exclusive Web was being made available through some of the labs who wanted to make a little extra cash. A year or so passed and then the Web suddenly broke wide open and anyone could sign up and log on. In those days, modems were slow and there were NO ADS OR SPAM OR EVEN PORN out there. Hard to imagine eh? I still remember the first spam I got and how enraged I was that there was little I could do to stop it. I did however write a really nasty letter to the spammer. Back then, you could do that without risk of much reprisal. I’ve been on the Net consistantly since those days and I’ve seen the net grow exponentially. Ten years ago, I did a Google search on my maiden name. It turned up about 2500 hits. Not impossible to visit them all I thought. That same search, done just a moment ago, has turned up 98,000 hits. Yeow. And it’s still growing at that ferocious rate, as more discover the usefulness of being able to create ever changing and ever more sophisticated ways to keep intough with your friends and family, including (but not limited to) creating a fantasy character for yourself and meeting up with friends and family in an online environment for an afternoon of bashing virtual baddies entirely on screen. Man. Such a long way from Ascii Star Trek. From forums, to blogs, to newsgroups, to mailing lists, to YouTube, Photobucket, and Flickr. LiveJournals, FaceBook, Second Life and so forth and so on encourage us to create circles of friends and interact with others in new and heretofore unimagined ways.

And even though I comfortably fit in an old fogey armchair I can kibitz from, I also have a mouse on my end table and a nice large monitor for my fading eyesight.

My mom-in-law used to wonder how we all managed to stay in touch all through the years. Mom, you were born just one genereation too soon to get on the band wagon. Thank goodness I have a firm grip myself. Who wants to go back to communicating by beating on logs?

Thanks for a real mem-dump!

Mary Lynn
- Remembers using a “portable” that could be called that ONLY because it had a handle on it. Danged heavy thing….

]]> By: jameswharris http://jameswharris.wordpress.com/2008/01/04/living-in-a-science-fiction-world-1/#comment-486 jameswharris Sat, 05 Jan 2008 14:32:24 +0000 http://jameswharris.wordpress.com/2008/01/04/living-in-a-science-fiction-world-1/#comment-486 I wonder when the older pre-Internet world ended? A majority of people growing up in the 1980s, and many people from the 1990s did not own computers. Bill, when and where did you first hang out with SF fans? The 1970s was a great time for conventions and fandom. Computers probably have killed off the fanzine, and by the way, there were zillions of fanzines on topics other than SF, it was a great little art form. I think the social engineering aspects of the Internet hasn't even begun to start. The Internet is like the radio and automobile industry in the 1910s and 1920s, but it's making societal changes fast. BTW, a good book to read about how culture is changed by technology is Empire of the Air by Tom Lewis, it's about the history of early radio. It shows many parallels to changes made by computers and networking. Jim I wonder when the older pre-Internet world ended? A majority of people growing up in the 1980s, and many people from the 1990s did not own computers. Bill, when and where did you first hang out with SF fans? The 1970s was a great time for conventions and fandom. Computers probably have killed off the fanzine, and by the way, there were zillions of fanzines on topics other than SF, it was a great little art form.

I think the social engineering aspects of the Internet hasn’t even begun to start. The Internet is like the radio and automobile industry in the 1910s and 1920s, but it’s making societal changes fast. BTW, a good book to read about how culture is changed by technology is Empire of the Air by Tom Lewis, it’s about the history of early radio. It shows many parallels to changes made by computers and networking.

Jim

]]> By: Bill Bittner http://jameswharris.wordpress.com/2008/01/04/living-in-a-science-fiction-world-1/#comment-485 Bill Bittner Sat, 05 Jan 2008 14:12:32 +0000 http://jameswharris.wordpress.com/2008/01/04/living-in-a-science-fiction-world-1/#comment-485 Great article. Loved it. And even though I grew up in the seventies, you're article reminded me a lot of my childhood. Thanks for posting it. Great article. Loved it. And even though I grew up in the seventies, you’re article reminded me a lot of my childhood. Thanks for posting it.

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