I'll come back tomorrow and say more on a wider variety of topics, but the earliest Scottish Engineer reference I know of is from Kipling, who wrote about a Scottish engineer by the name of McAndrew in McAndrew's Hymn.
Lord, Thou hast made this world below the shadow of a dream, An', taught by time, I tak' it so - exceptin' always Steam. From coupler-flange to spindle-guide I see Thy Hand, O God - Predestination in the stride o' yon connectin'-rod.
I found the statement "During the heyday of industrialization, Scotland became preeminant in the field of engineering, and the social sciences were eclipsed by the physical sciences, exemplified by the physicists Lord Kelvin (William Thomson) and James Clark Maxwell." on a web search.
It makes me interested to read more--thanks to you guys for pointing out the RL reference. :)
Reading some of the articles about the CoDominium, the almost Victorian morals make a lot of sense. Basically, to promote stability over progress they've outlawed almost all scientific and political education unless you're in the proper social circle, and that's extended to the rest of society. So, they've socially taken a huge step backwards.
Though at least by Mote, they didn't seem to have their scientists in a box anymore? Horowitz doesn't always get his way but he certainly doesn't act oppressed.
Character vs ConceptlilisonnaJanuary 5 2010, 14:57:30 UTC
It's interesting to compare the older "classic" sci-fi books to the more modern ones. I'm currently in the middle of a just-released Mike Resnick book, and just finished Old Man's War. Both of those are all about the characters. There's some concept-related stuff in Old Man's War, but it's still about the main character and how he copes with that concept.
The introduction to the Cool Concept was good, and I also really liked the aliens, but I had to work to get to the Cool Concept part of the novel.
As for the "awfully prim" aspect, it's curious to see how close to the current norms sci-fi writers cast their future societies. Unless they author is really trying to do something Different with cultures, human society tends to appear static in future worlds. I stumbled over this somewhat with Mote, and it made the novel a little bit rough in patches where, 15 year ago, I don't think I noticed.
(also, the Track This feature is handy for these sorts of discussions.)
I'm particularly interested in the origins and development of the pseudo-Victorian future - it's used heavily in Eclipse, a lineage that probably goes more directly back to Dune and Warhammer 40K.
I found the text's brief explanation for why Imperial society, especially Trans-Coalsack society, became so conservative to be interesting, though I wish there had been more of it.
Aliens and us -
I think the most direct reason that the Fyunch(click)s went Crazy Eddie is indeed that they began to think too much like the humans. Pretty much all of the humans that we meet other than Kutuzov like the Moties and would keep looking for solutions to the problem that they ultimately present. I think they learned the wrong kind of hope, and it all went downhill from there.
Re: Character vs ConceptoutlawcoonJanuary 7 2010, 02:39:55 UTC
I could waste at least an hour following related links. I fled from SciFi writers have no sense of scale before it ate my whole night by following all the links. Damn thing is as addicting as Snopes or Wiki!
The Medival Stasis article is also interest in relation to Mote, though.
Actually, for Scottish engineers, I'd have to start with James Watt ("the steaming Scot"), and go through George Forbes and John Logie Baird. Scots were apparently noted for steam mechanical and early electromechanical engineering.
Hm. In a totally unrelated note, I should get a new icon for this interest. :)
Well, if you're going to talk about real people... ;)
I believe James Doohan, despite being able to do various accents(he was Canadian), suggested that his engineer character be Scottish because they had always produced the best engineers.
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Lord, Thou hast made this world below the shadow of a dream,
An', taught by time, I tak' it so - exceptin' always Steam.
From coupler-flange to spindle-guide I see Thy Hand, O God -
Predestination in the stride o' yon connectin'-rod.
Reply
It makes me interested to read more--thanks to you guys for pointing out the RL reference. :)
Reply
Reply
Reply
The introduction to the Cool Concept was good, and I also really liked the aliens, but I had to work to get to the Cool Concept part of the novel.
As for the "awfully prim" aspect, it's curious to see how close to the current norms sci-fi writers cast their future societies. Unless they author is really trying to do something Different with cultures, human society tends to appear static in future worlds. I stumbled over this somewhat with Mote, and it made the novel a little bit rough in patches where, 15 year ago, I don't think I noticed.
(also, the Track This feature is handy for these sorts of discussions.)
Reply
TV Tropes has the following to offer: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FeudalFuture
I'm particularly interested in the origins and development of the pseudo-Victorian future - it's used heavily in Eclipse, a lineage that probably goes more directly back to Dune and Warhammer 40K.
I found the text's brief explanation for why Imperial society, especially Trans-Coalsack society, became so conservative to be interesting, though I wish there had been more of it.
Aliens and us -
I think the most direct reason that the Fyunch(click)s went Crazy Eddie is indeed that they began to think too much like the humans. Pretty much all of the humans that we meet other than Kutuzov like the Moties and would keep looking for solutions to the problem that they ultimately present. I think they learned the wrong kind of hope, and it all went downhill from there.
Reply
The Medival Stasis article is also interest in relation to Mote, though.
Reply
Compelling, but it'll suck the time away before you manage to notice it's suddenly 2 am.
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Hm. In a totally unrelated note, I should get a new icon for this interest. :)
Reply
real people... ;)
I believe James Doohan, despite being able to do various accents(he was Canadian), suggested that his engineer character be Scottish because they had always produced the best engineers.
Reply
Reply
Reply
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