and now he's probably going to chastise you for spelling arse "arse" and not "ass".

really? where. I mean it sounds like an intriguing (but very expensive) idea, belonging to a class of ideas like "turning the rivers around", or digging a trench to Lake Eyre. The only difference is that this one might actually work.

It depends on your point of view and how strict you are about a genre.

If your a hard science purist, then nothing with psychic powers or faster-than-light travel will be science-fiction, because they depart from established science fact. If your looser with the definition, then you can include FTL on the basis of science that hasn't been invented yet, and psychic or mystical content on the basis of a stretching of science in the face of some logical framework that allows more subjective material to be studied.

In fact George Lucas moved Star Wars away from (at least) the mystical by inventing metaclorins and, in-effect, turning the force (which was mystical and sort of eastern) into a biomedical phenomenon (which is kinda western).

wow...so you're the next level. I just couldn't take Enterprise, it actually physically hurt.

There's a nerd vote? cool!

I can't say why everyone else is pessimistic, but my main reason for apprehension about the future is global climate change. I studied geology, and I know what wiped out large sections of the biosphere before. As I stated in another post, this prodigious release of CO2 into our atmosphere can have some pretty lasting effects. If you have a close look at the Permian Extinction and the Siberian Traps, you'll see a pretty frightening picture emerge, in which 90% to 95% of the biosphere was wiped out by little more than CO2.

I agree that this does not necessarily mean that humans will be wiped out, but things will be very miserable for a very long time.

That's certainly one possibility (one I feared for much of my childhood), but I now think global climate change is a bigger threat...let me explain.

Two of the largest mass extinctions in Earth's history can be largely attributed to CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere. I know people were talking about meteorites, particularly for the end of Cretaceous extinction, but most people now think that this was merely a contributor. The larger cause was probably the Deccan event. Marine sediments show a marked increase in black anoxic layers at this time, indicative of a sudden loss of oxygen at depth. The blackness is due to organic matter not breaking down as it usually does. The anoxic conditions come about largely because of an explosion in algal growth in the warmer seas. The seas were warmer because of a sixfold increase in CO2 in the atmosphere, CO2 ougassed from the Deccan volcanoes. Some 60% of the earth's biosphere was removed at this time. The Siberian event, occurring at the end of the Permian was even worse, some 90% of the biosphere was removed, anjd it took something like 20 million years to recover.

Like many here I don't necessarily think that humanity would be wiped out by a human-induced CO2 outgassing, but we'd definately be hit, really hard, and it would most certainly end western civillisation.

Some reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anoxic_event/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permian%E2%80%93Triassic_extinction_event/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous%E2%80%93Tertiary_extinction_event/

...and in thirty years everyone will be studying advertising, 'cause it pays better than science ever will.

hear, hear, as an Australian, I can say that even *we* have standards!

and if they get that, ask them if they'd like a bogwash

I was actually booked on a flight from Sydney Australia to Buenos Aires, Argentina, as part of a round the world ticket in 2003. The flight had a stopover in Los Angeles.

I had a large backpack and I was stopped by gate security and asked to unpack my bag. They spread out the bag's contents all over while asking me questions around my itinerary, the reasons I was visiting the United States, why I was not travelling at the same time as a friend of mine. In all they spent 2 hours drilling me on the same stuff over and over again. The questioning went on long enough that I missed my connecting flight. I would have to book another flight, meaning that I would have to stay in the United States longer, so this became another avenue of questions, such as why did I book two flights so close together. The answer was, of course, I didn't, my travel agent did.

Certainly the two to three hours of drilling was unpleasant, but what was really horrible was their tone, and how they more or less implied that I was a criminal and they would get me on something.

I am never going to the United States again, not even for a stopover.

They did support Labor in preference to Liberal, but I could hardly describe their support as rabid, more like highly qualified. I was bailed up by a green Left seller in the street, who informed me as part of an argument against voting Labor, that it was Labor that introduced mandatory detention as a response to the refugee influx. So yeah, they're not rabid believers of Rudd and co.

yeah close, in a kinda far away sense...(40 - 50 kly)

I don't think there's much to worry about in any near term. Firstly the hole is not drawing in much material, otherwise we'd have seen it already. In fact, it's hawking radiation probably exceeds the feed rate, so it's probably shrinking.

Actaully considering that the saecular language is called Fluccish, not English, and the continents are completely different (so very alternate geologic history), I'm surprised at how similar Fluccish is to English.

I too, loved the Baroque Cycle. In fact, I've re-read Quicksilver and The Confusion (I will make it back to System of the World, but I am up to page 700 of Anathem). As far as Anathem is concerned, I am one of the disappointed ones. I will go through to the end, because I want to see what happens, but its been more of a slog than the enjoyment I felt reading the Baroque Cycle. The problem I find with it is that it really does get bogged down. I find that theories are discussed, probably very realistically, which kinda destroys the pacing of the story. So I sorta feel like I'm not being drawn along in the story, but rather thinking "I just have to wade through this theoretical bit, beore I can find out whether Erasmus and Ala get back together again".