It has been a while without a post here but new things are going up at The Old Dog Barks site all the time. Tomorrow I am going to post a new chapter of A Very Blue Moon over at the FutureVerse and I do have a little something for NSF today.
The hook for this occurred to me last night before falling asleep so I figured I better get it down quick like before a dream, I forget it. It follows directly after the end of the post below and that is where I will place it in the short story section of the FutureVerse, but as an edit and not a new story.
-
Doc Science Asks the Question
After the time machine guy left the bar I asked the Doc why that it being the case he knew so much about time machines and such, how come he didn’t go off and make himself rich? Like in the stock market or something, maybe betting on sporting events, picking lottery winners? There must be a thousand ways.
“Oh far more ways than that I assure you. But it just won’t work”
“For the Life of Riley then . . . Why not?”
“Because this is science we’re dealing with here and not magic! Not like those stories you write. You see to go back in time you pick up energy, a lot of energy, and have to give it all back when you return. To go forwards in time takes energy, more than we produce on the entire planet if we want to go further than a few seconds up-time. We would get it all back again when we returned to the past, but that doesn’t help if you don’t have enough to get moving in the first place.”
I had kind of skipped the second part of the explanation after the Doc mentioned the stories I write. Always good to find a reader and the Doc was the kind of reader I hoped that I appealed to.
“You’re not the only one that wonders why I write things the way I do. The guy that runs the servers on a couple of the web sites asked me the same thing, What I told him was this: that I am writing Space Opera, not trying to predict the future or even write the thing like I think it will turn out. Space Opera, pure, plain, and simple!”
“Look here Wes, I have some idea of the numbers of readers that follow your stories, and not to put too fine a point on it . . . no let’s just say you might could do better with a little more realism.”
“Easy for you to say!”
“Well yes it was,” and he took another swallow and called for another Blatz. “I can tell you from certainty that someday we are going to have computers smarter than we are, robots to take over all the things that we don’t want to do for our selves. After that why even illegal Mexicans are going to be redundant. Now there is something to write about.”
“No point in writing about robots Doc. Sure in the future we are going to have them and I figure not too much beyond that and we give them the vote and everything that goes with it. That’s the part that depresses me.”
“Okay,” the Doc said, looking like he regretted it or soon would. “Why does that depress you Wes?”
“Isn’t it obvious! They’re robots after all. Machines! With all the rights we have I know what will happen because who can stop them from making as many more robots and as fast as they want. And what happens next? Why they vote in the welfare state for the rest of the robots and then where does that leave us who are merely human?
“Really Wes, you worry too much. Any robot smart enough to vote will be smart enough not to fleece the geese that lay the golden eggs.”
“They’ll be smart alright, smart enough to know just how far to go. It’s gonna’ be just like Roman times, Bread and Circuits, and people getting the crumbs! Are you really going to want to welcome your Robot Overlords?”
Posted by - Wes June 4th, 2010 under Novel Ideas.
Comments: 2