Fantasist’s Scroll

Three-dimensional books. Cool.

There’s a project afoot that makes 3-d books a reality. It’s called Black Magic. So far, they’re still in the experimental stage, but it looks good. They’ve done a story about America’s Cup in 3-d and have a “simulation” that can be downloaded to a PC. The viewer itself seems to be a set of googles or eyepieces on a handle, not unlike the Victorian stereoscopic viewer. I guess everything old is new again. In any case, it seems like an interesting technology and I’ll be watching to see where, or if, it goes.

Desgined to kill it’s own kind…

According to this article on Wired News, two scientists have engineered a virus that attacks HIV and keeps it from becoming AIDS. It’s still in the test stages, but it works in a petri dish. Their next step is animal testing.
Apparently, they came up with this nasty, little bug, or anti-bug, with a computer simulation. Though, I have to admit, that seems like an enourmous simplification. Anyway, it’s an interesting development in science and medicine. Imagine a series of designer “killer” virii designed to hunt down other “bad” virii. Think of what that kind of technology could do in the Third World.
But, the scientists who came up with this have already thought of the potential down-side, too. Imagine what this technology would do for the military. Or, worse, terrorists. The implications are, well, terrifying.

On the bright side, though, think of all the science-fiction plots!

Have you ever wondered?

Well, wonder no more! Scientists at UCSC have run a computer simulation of just such an event. There’s a pretty big meteor that has a 0.3% chance of hitting the Earth in 2880, but, not wanting to wait until the last minute, these folks decided to see what would happen if it hits us. Or, rather, our distant relatives.
Well, it might not be the most pressing concern, but it does provide some fodder for fiction. After all, these scientists are answering questions that a science-fiction writer might ask if they were going to write about such an event. They even have a picture of it, which I’ve linked to locally here. View image

It’s really a very interesting possibility, to me. Would new islands be created in the blast crater afterward? How would the ocean life change in that area? Would we have to deal with the darkening skies and changing temperatures that killed the dinosaurs? What will the Earth be like, say, 20 years after the impact? All very interesting indeed. Make a good story, or novel, eh?

What goes into making a “realistic” world or game?

That’s an age old debate, actually. There are those who critisize Dungeons and Dragons for not being realistic enough, but, of course, the creators never really intended that it should be too terribly realistic. They were after smooth game play, which is what they got. Now, the current rules (3rd edition, as of this writing) are a better simulation of an imagined reality, but the game play suffers a bit for that realism. But, the more historically “pure” find that anything with that much magic in it can’t be very realistic at all.
There are alternatives to the standard Dungeons and Dragons, high-magic worlds, though. For one, there’s Columbia Games’ Hârn. And, the creator of Hârn, N. Robin Crosby, has written a nice introduction to that world. One thing I particularly like about his intro is that he reveals a certain amount of his methodology. (Readers can find that introduction here.)

Way back when I first found Hârn, it captured my imagination because it was a fully fleshed-out, authentic, working and coherent world. There really weren’t any other fantasy worlds designed for games that could say that. The closest thing would have been D&D’s Greyhawk, but even that left significant holes for the gamer to fill in on their own. For one thing, Hârn had a set of detailed, realistic-looking maps. It wasn’t done in a “arty” way, but more like a modern map might be drawn. And the “Hârndex” was a sort of Medieval Encyclopedia Brittanica. It had rough drawings that seemed authentically old and simple text. But, it was enough to ignite the imagination.
The other thing that impressed me so with Hârn was that the consequences were all pretty well thought out. In fact, that’s one of the reasons the designer gives for keeping magic fairly rare. Lots of magic being thrown around make it hard to work out all the potential consequences a society might experience. And, for me, it really added to the authenticity. The magic described in the text felt like Medieval magic. It was somewhat crude and mysterious and just a little bit random, too. It seemed to draw on ancient powers of the Earth that were frightening and dangerous. And, how else would that kind of culture, with a “realistic” education level, see magic? It would be a horribly frightening thing. Of course, so would a trip to the barber or the apothocary, but that’s in there, too.

Perhaps “realism” isn’t the right word. “Authenticity” describes it better. Hârn felt like a real place with real people because of the effort that the designer put into authenticity. Not only do the details work independantly, but all the parts fit into a complete, authenic whole. It’s that authenticity that made Hârn so interesting to me and keeps it in print and selling today.

In many ways, the details and authenticity of Hârn became the goal which I aspired to reach. Perhaps, one day, I will.