Futurians Meeting 18 May 01

Next Meeting : The First Person in SF

News :

Ian Woolf : Series 7 playing at Dendy cinemas. This is a 
"Reality TV" program where the contestants kill each other, 
reminiscent of "Running Man", but where almost the whole movie
has the look and feel of an actual broadcast episode.

Ian said something about a Space Tourist, but I'm not sure on the
details.

Notes report of a helmet that lets you see God. This activates
part of the brain and 4/5 people feel a presence in the room.

David Brin thinks people will eventually learn how to zone themselves
out on endorphins, and it will be difficult to stop them. "Show me
your Zen liscence" was one suggestion.

David Bofinger : 35 today. Saw Andromeda at the Canberra Science
Fiction Convention, where it was not as bad as he would have
expected. 

Ted Scribner :  one of three organisers behind www.larryniven.org

Zara Baxter is chair of a Sydney Natcon bid, with suspicions that Chuck
Mc Kenzie and Edwina Harvey also involved.

Aurealis is for sale, at about $50 K. Atlantis games is closing, seems
there's been difficulties between the partners, not bankruptcy as
a result of lack of sales.

Topic : Archaeology (referred to as "AE")

Eldritch Ruins, HP Lovecraft. Noted that lots of Lovecraft stuff had
archaeology in it. In this case, it was frequently a horror awakened,
for example "word of plains". Other examples include "The Mummy", 
Space Vampires/Life Force by Colin Wilson, "Fire upon the deep" by
Vernor Vinge.

This contrasts with an artefact awakened, is in Raiders of the Lost
Ark, Relic Hunter, Stargate, 2001, Gateway & related Heechee stories 
by Pohl, Eon by Greg Bear (though this story is about an artefact from
the future).

Von Daniken's writings involved AE, not considered fiction as there was
no admission it was not true or no apparent attempt to deceive (its
truth value is a different matter, of course).  Gentle Giants of
Ganymede one such work.

A sought after variant was "The Procedural", where an archaeological dig
was performed methodically, similar to how a methodical police
investigation is detailed in a "Police Procedural". Examples were H. Beam
Piper's _Omnilingual_ and Jack McDevitt's _Ancient Shores_.

Earth/Moon is one setting for AE sf, where things from our local past are
uncovered. This contrasts with alien things being uncovered by people from
Earth, as in 

- Babylon 5/Thirdspace.
- Larry Niven, Rotating Cylinders & Global Causality Violations.
- Niven & Pournelle, The Mote in God's Eye.
- Arthur C. Clark, The Star, a notable story where a Jesuit priest
investigates the testament left to others by a society which knew
it was about to be obliterated by a supernova.

Aliens could also be looking for human artefacts. Randall Garrett, No
Connections in the Takeoff collection. Fritz Leiber, Later than you think.
Robert Silverberg, Across a million years.

Time Travel and AE : In a story by Arthur C.  Clark (?) excavations were
made of dinosaur footprints, eventually yielding the tyre tracks of a
jeep it was chasing.

Forerunners : in this sub-genre, a galactic race is presumed to have
been seeded by others, and the originators are sought out. David
Brin wrote Startide Rising, Piers Anthony the Cluster series, Andre
Norton "World that suits you". There's one called "Big Ancestor" or
something similar.

Lastly, one that I do not know how to categorise :
Jack L. Chalker - Well world.

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