Inertia: Enemy of progress

I was recently reminded about an experience I had as a teen: I went to an Earth Day show at the Mall in Washington, D.C. and, among many things I saw, I had a chance to examine no less than four fully electric automobiles, all endorsed by the U.S. Department of Energy, a few made by major auto manufacturers (GM was among them), and at least one of them expected to go to market within 5 years.

This was 1978 or so.

And I remember thinking how great that was, because it meant that by the year 2000—because, in 1978, 22 years into the future sounded serious enough to warrant the phrase “in the year 2000″—there would be multitudes of electric cars to choose from, and the country would be driving primarily electric vehicles by then.

Obviously, that didn’t happen.  And when you ask someone about why it didn’t, the answer is likely to involve some form of inertia.

Titanic: Emblematic of our life and fate

At this hundred year anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, programs about the doomed ship, passengers and crew abound.  One of the more interesting ones, to me, was the program by James Cameron, director of the 1997 film Titanic.  In his program, Titanic: The Final Word with James Cameron, he gathered numerous experts and carefully studied the latest information on the Titanic, examinations of the wreck and accounts from that fateful night, in order to try to correct some of the wrongs and misconceptions about how the ship went down.

Though the forensic investigation of the most infamous ship disaster in history is fascinating, I will not go into its detail here.  To my mind, the most valuable part of the program was the ending, and Cameron’s very appropriate last words.

Robots: The successors to vampires and zombies?

The concept of humanoid robots—men created from mechanical parts—is almost as old as Science Fiction itself.  They have taken on many representations, from clearly-assembled hunks of shiny metal and plastic, to creations that seem so close to human that they may have sprung from a womb as opposed to a workshop or assembly line… and everything in-between.  Some of these variations were chosen to emphasize some aspect of the story, such as their physical prowess, their strength, or their calculating skills.  Others have been created to be virtually indistinguishable from a man.  But they all have had one thing in common.

They were—and continue to be—impossible to create.

The hybrid and electric future is still “almost here”

Thanks to an accident last fall, my 2000 Hyundai Tiburon is probably not going to last until 2015 as originally planned.  So, I’ve started looking for the car to replace it… and at the moment, that car is the Toyota Prius C.

Concepts presented in Steven Lyle Jordan books

A recent customer asked me to list the significant science and engineering elements that have been featured in my novels.  The idea was that the list would give an idea about the kind of science I was interested in, and the general slant of my books.  This is not to suggest I “invented” all of these ideas myself; but some of them are unique and created by me, or independently of its use in other books.

Once I finished the list, I thought it was a pretty good list to share… so, here goes:

Solar Decathalon: Is the future of American housing in here?

The 2011 Solar Decathalon is on in Washington, D.C.  As in previous years, universities and governments from around the world have shown up in Washington to display energy-efficient home designs, supported by the companies that provide the technology for efficient homes, and demonstrating unique and clever ways of putting them all together.

As The Mirror Cracks: Superheroes you can believe in, and a worldwide threat to suit them

My latest re-release delves into one of my favorite subjects: Modern mythology, or, as they are more commonly referred to, Superheroes.  Having grown up around the many comic books and cartoons about the colorful exploits of these demigod-like characters, I’ve always fantasized about a world where superheroes could actually exist.  In As The Mirror Cracks, I’ve managed to create such a world, and it is totally believable… because it is, in fact, a virtual world that people in the real world can visit.

The story of As The Mirror Cracks centers around a fully-immersive virtual world called The Mirror, one that has become so widespread and popular that people from all over the world regularly spend time within its digital boundaries, working to earn money that can be spent in the real world, and (if they have enough money) customize their avatars, or in The Mirror’s case, “reflections,” to suit their tastes.  Many reflections are as hyper-real as they can be made, and some of them are superheroes.  Suddenly, we can become superheroes and save the day.

Back to the future for the U.S. space program

Looking at first glance like an Apollo spacecraft of old, the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft is a private industry ship, has visited space once, and is due on November 30 to launch again, then dock with the International Space Station (ISS) 9 days later.

After years of watching the more advanced-looking Space Transport System, or Space Shuttles, plying their winged bulk into orbit and back, this almost seems like a step backward in time; why do the newest spacecraft look like revamped 1970s models?  Are we flying Corvairs to space now?

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Space: America’s endemic problem

Last Friday, I watched online as the Space Shuttle Atlantis lifted off, on what would be its last mission, and the last time one of the Shuttle fleet would leave this planet, after 30 years of service to the nation.

I’m not melancholy about the end of the shuttle fleet; after 30 years, I’d say the fleet has performed wonderfully, with only 2 catastrophic failures out of 132 missions… and considering the hazardous job they do, blasting into space hitched to a set of separate boosters, maintaining flight status and performing complex duties for days, then gliding into a fiery re-entry, the fact that there have been so few mission failures is impressive.  Yes, the shuttles and their teams, in the air and on the ground, did their jobs well, and we should be proud of them.

I am, however, upset about the fact that we’ve always knows the shuttles had a limited lifespan, and that we’d have to replace them in time.  Yet, after years of studies, planning, designs and more designs, we have squandered our time and refused to fund the shuttle replacement program, even as we blew our nation’s money on oil wars and bank charity.