Reincarnations

[adelaidesean]

What would happen if reincarnation was real and didn't only go forwards? What do Feynman's time-travelling electron and the velocity of money have in common? One possible answer to both questions is in "The End of the World Begins at Home", which has been reprinted on-line in the e-anthology Journeys of the Mind, compiled by Sonny Whitelaw and published by Double Dragon. It's an odd piece for me, tapping into millennial fears and my half-hearted study of Economics almost twenty years ago. It was first published in Borderlands and I've always had a soft spot for it. I hope it'll be happy in its new home .

(And while on the subject of reprints, this time in translation, I'm pleased to report that The Resurrected Man and the Orphans trilogy have been picked up by Editions Bragelonne in France. This is great because I can actually read French. C'est fantastique!)

Comments

[redactormajor.livejournal.com]

Hi, Sean, is that a letter from you in this week's New Scientist?

[ladnews.livejournal.com]

Sure is. One of my favourite hobby horses, that. Here's the full text for anyone who might have missed it:

"The article on enhanced humans states that "death will never be optional" (13 May, p 35). Nonsense. It is simply an option most people choose not to exercise every day. It is also not legal to exercise it. Until the right to choose euthanasia - to end one's life gracefully - is accepted, the extension of human lifespan is a moral, social, medical and personal disaster waiting to happen.

"The right to live must be accompanied by the right to die when one chooses. I can think of nothing worse than being forced to live beyond my means, and I suspect that many of this generation's centenarians may be facing such a terrible fate right now."

[redactormajor.livejournal.com]

Personally, I dislike the idea of economic factors playing any role in life or death decisions ...

Anyway, someone at Fantasybookspot has reviewed Geodesica: Descent (http://www.fantasybookspot.com/node/1236).

I review for Fantasybookspot too, but I'm thinking of reviewing the Geodesica books for my site (http://www.xenoarchaeology.org).

[seanwilliams.livejournal.com]

Personally, I dislike the idea of economic factors playing any role in life or death decisions ...

By "means" I mean not just financial means, but social and psychological as well. Poor word choice on my part there.

Anyway, someone at Fantasybookspot has reviewed Geodesica: Descent.

Hey, thanks for that. I'm sad the reviewer didn't connect with the characters (particularly when their emotional experiences are so intimately related to mine) but pleased the rest of the books hit home.

Hey, love your site, Steve. I wanted to be an archeologist as a kid, and still intend to go on a dig one day. The opening of Al Reynold's REVELATION SPACE could've been written just for me, combining big spaceships with an excavation on an alien planet. Perfect.

[redactormajor.livejournal.com]

Heh ... Alice Gorman, an archaeologist from Adelaide, was just telling me that she'd corresponded with Reynolds about his depiction of archaeology ...

I know what you mean about spaceships and archaeology. Awesome.

The way I see it, we have more chance of coming across evidence of an vanished civilisation than an active one, because of

a) the lifespan of civilisations being slight compared to the age of the galaxy; and

b) the speed of light making interstellar communication asynchronous. Any message we receive is likely to be either a relic of an extinct civilisation, or an historical snapshot of an earlier stage in an existing civilisation