I was excited to come across an article at io9 that referred to a zombie survival Google map, called the Map of the Dead. It's awesome. Enter your postal code, and it'll show you your immediate neighbourhood, showing medical locations, food and drinks, cemeteries, police, military, et cetera. It shows gun shops too, but that's not a big thing in Toronto.
But I'd probably be screwed in the event of zombies. Middle of large city, no real outdoors skills, wouldn't know how to handle gun or crossbow even if I had one, don't know how to break into anywhere. Still fun to think about sometimes!
10 April 2012
5 April 2012
Science Fiction Surprise
Here's something I didn't expect before his death... Ray Bradbury finally allowed Fahrenheit 451 to be published as an ebook. He has traditionally been anti-internet, and specifically against ebooks.
Somewhat related is the subject matter of Fahrenheit 451. Most people who read it think that the main theme is censorship, and it's not difficult to see why. But it's not. And you know why I know it's not? Because Bradbury, the author himself, insists that it is not. Rather, it is on how television and other mass media is in conflict with written literature, and is a danger to reading. And how technology can break down communication between people.
And while I think that's a little harsh on technology (after all, reading books at the table or with family also gets in the way of talking with each other), I do consider it when you see a table of people together at a pub or restaurant, and most, if not all, are busy texting or whatever on their smartphones.
Somewhat related is the subject matter of Fahrenheit 451. Most people who read it think that the main theme is censorship, and it's not difficult to see why. But it's not. And you know why I know it's not? Because Bradbury, the author himself, insists that it is not. Rather, it is on how television and other mass media is in conflict with written literature, and is a danger to reading. And how technology can break down communication between people.
And while I think that's a little harsh on technology (after all, reading books at the table or with family also gets in the way of talking with each other), I do consider it when you see a table of people together at a pub or restaurant, and most, if not all, are busy texting or whatever on their smartphones.
3 April 2012
Post-Apocalyptic Fiction
I've been on an old sci-fi kick, stuff from the 60s and earlier. In reading The Pocket Book of Science Fiction, (published in early 1943), I came across "By the Waters of Babylon," by Stephen Vincent Benét. (Excitingly, the book itself is in near-perfect condition. As a 69-year old paperback. My used book store rocks hard.) Among the better and more engaging post nuclear war disasters I've read. But wait... 1943. And the author actually published it in 1937 before it was included in this anthology. Before the war. Before the Manhattan Project was started. No, the atom bomb was not mentioned specifically, but it felt so much like that was the disaster that I didn't even question it.
Some of the beneficial technology, I can see scientists specifically working towards duplicating the ideal described. The end of civilisation as we know it? I'd like to think that that wasn't a specific goal, at least not to the point of attempting to emulate an awesome story. It's creepy that I at first assumed it was from my 1950s or 1960s literature, before checking the copyright page.
Some of the beneficial technology, I can see scientists specifically working towards duplicating the ideal described. The end of civilisation as we know it? I'd like to think that that wasn't a specific goal, at least not to the point of attempting to emulate an awesome story. It's creepy that I at first assumed it was from my 1950s or 1960s literature, before checking the copyright page.
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