Comments for GREGORY BENFORD

Comment on Knowable Aliens by bobsandiego

bobsandiego — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 18:18:26 +0000

Dr Benford:
I agree that it is curious that the inedible nature of the universe is generally ignored in SF. No matter how hard th SF, the biological consequences of seperate evolutionary paths seems to be generally ignored. I think it part the answer is two fold. 1) It is so much easier to assume plants and animals so much like our own that the world building becomes simplified when an author is already struggling with the physics, technology, and other changes he (or she) is postulating.
2) It solves a rather nasty ethical problem. As you pointed out is the alien eco-system truly is unable to support humans AND we want to spread out that means we must kill of that ecology and that is an unpleasant bridge too far for many people I think. So they ignore it with wishful, fantastic thinking. We debate at conventions the ethic os terraforming Mars if it only has microbes, iagamine the outcry at killing a vital and flurishing world.
In my unpublished — because it failed to achived the quality I desired — novel Cawdor dealt with this as an aspect making the human characters isolated. When you can’t eat the local plants and animals it really drives homw that you are the alien.

Comment on REMEMBERING SID by Marc Sher

Marc Sher — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 23:33:20 +0000

Greg—just saw this and hope it isn’t too many days old. I knew Sidney quite well. My favorite quote of his (and there are so many), paraphrasing Rochambeau, “QCD is the first theory to go from hypothesis to dogma without going through the intermediate stage of verification”. When a colleague mentioned that his thesis advisor was Geoff Chu, Sidney immediately replied “I didn’t know you were Chu-ish”.

I recall sitting at the Aspen Center with Sidney discussing vacuum decay. He made a particular argument (dealing with convexity issues); and I responded “But Sidney, if this argument is correct, real balls wouldn’t roll down real hills.”. He paused, said “excuse me”, and slowly walked the perimeter of the center, came back and completely shredded my argument. Great man….

Comment on REMEMBERING SID by Gregory Benford

Gregory Benford — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 23:29:09 +0000

Yes, kind indeed. His views on sf were perceptive and where needed, stiletto sharp.

Comment on REMEMBERING SID by Debbie Notkin

Debbie Notkin — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 07:30:50 +0000

Greg, I love this piece, and it brings Sid back to me very vividly.

The only thing I miss here is how kind Sid could be. I will never forget an afternoon at Marta’s when Sid and Diana came in; Sid was wearing a very posh embroidered smoking jacket.

Bob Silverberg said, “Sidney, how elegant!”

Sid put a possessive arm around his wife (like me, not a woman who would generally be described as elegant) and said, “Diana? Yes, she’s one of a kind!”

You could just see her swell with delight, and there was the extra fillip of seeing Bob look nonplussed.

Comment on TEACHING SF THROUGH PHYSICS…OR THE OTHER WAY AROUND by Gary Farber

Gary Farber — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 07:22:57 +0000

True enough!

Comment on REMEMBERING SID by Lizzy L

Lizzy L — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 21:25:46 +0000

Ah, this is lovely. Thank you, Greg. Somewhere, in a universe (I hope) not too far away, Sid & Terry Carr are hanging out in the con suite and planning the next party.

Comment on TEACHING SF THROUGH PHYSICS…OR THE OTHER WAY AROUND by Gregory Benford

Gregory Benford — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 18:52:40 +0000

Gary, that increases its use. Cold Eqs is the most discussed short story in sf history, and it helps ignite discussions, of whatever stripe.

Comment on The Brave New Whirl: E-publishing by Gary Farber

Gary Farber — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 18:47:54 +0000

"I met Claire Brailey, who then won a Hugo as best fanwriter." Claire Brialey.

Comment on TEACHING SF THROUGH PHYSICS…OR THE OTHER WAY AROUND by Gary Farber

Gary Farber — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 18:30:26 +0000

Greg, I wonder how much you've followed any of the, um, extremely vigorous debates, particularly online, particularly since the '90s, over The Cold Equations. It's rather a problematic story in several ways. Example argument.

Comment on TEACHING SF THROUGH PHYSICS…OR THE OTHER WAY AROUND by Gregory Benford

Gregory Benford — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 23:39:16 +0000

Ah, only a scientist would think learning modern physics was the easy part…