Spam in SF
Chris
of one book where it has a small mention but it's used to help
characters contact one another.
cryptoguy
Are you referring to the Hormel processed meat product, or unsolicited
Internet advertising?
pt
Dimensional Traveler
Most of the stories that I remember mentioning spam or spam-like
substances seem to assume that spam filters and blockers were perfected.
Which makes one wonder why spam continues to be sent if it never
reaches a victim.
--
Murphy was an optimist.
Ted Nolan <tednolan>
Non-food spam plays a fairly major background role in the Major
Arianne Kedros books. Pretty much every part of space stations is
spam saturated, and you pay a premium for privacy.
Ted
--
------
columbiaclosings.com
What's not in Columbia anymore..
Ted Nolan <tednolan>
And in Pohl & Kronbluth's _The Space Merchants_, of course.
alie...@gmail.com
Nature's strew-a-zillion-seeds strategy; only a few may reach
fertile soil, but it's still a worthwhile investment especially in the
case of spam. Sending one copy is as "expensive" as sending a billion.
Mark L. Fergerson
D.F. Manno
<c2d3339e-34c5-4e3a...@g29g2000yqe.googlegroups.com>,
Chris <chris.li...@gmail.com> wrote:
David Langford's "New Hope for the Dead," originally appearing in
"Nature" in 2005. It can be read at:
<http://www.ansible.co.uk/writing/new_hope.html>
--
D.F. Manno | dfm...@mail.com
The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the
intelligent are full of doubt. (Bertrand Russell)
Mike Ash
<c2d3339e-34c5-4e3a...@g29g2000yqe.googlegroups.com>,
Chris <chris.li...@gmail.com> wrote:
Spam of a sort plays a big background role in Ken MacLeod's Engines of
Light trilogy. (Which I'm talking about a lot because I just read... but
people keep bringing up topics which it involves!)
Spoilers about how it's involved, because this is not revealed until
well through the second book, I think.
SPOILERS!
One of the lifeforms in that universe are asteroid colonies of trillions
of bacteria-sized entities which when put together form
super-intelligences, referred to in the story as "gods". These gods
communicate with low-intensity radio waves, and so they see the radio
activity of a high human civilization as spam. When it gets too bad,
they use their mastery of celestial mechanics to maneuver asteroids into
intersecting orbits to remove the problem. This is something I would
really love to be able to do to the people who spam me.
--
Mike Ash
Radio Free Earth
Broadcasting from our climate-controlled studios deep inside the Moon
Dorothy J Heydt
D.F. Manno <dfm...@mail.com> wrote:
>In article
><c2d3339e-34c5-4e3a...@g29g2000yqe.googlegroups.com>,
> Chris <chris.li...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Are there any stories in which spam plays a significant role? I know
>> of one book where it has a small mention but it's used to help
>> characters contact one another.
>
>David Langford's "New Hope for the Dead," originally appearing in
>"Nature" in 2005. It can be read at:
>
><http://www.ansible.co.uk/writing/new_hope.html>
I can think of two: Evelyn E. Smith's "Tea-Tray in the Sky," in
which it's against the law not to pay attention to the
omnipresent advertising, and Frederik Pohl's "The Tunnel Under
the World," in which a community is transformed into a perpetual
focus group. Sort of.
--
Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt at hotmail dot com
Should you wish to email me, you'd better use the hotmail edress.
Kithrup is getting too damn much spam, even with the sysop's filters.
Brian M. Scott
<chris.li...@gmail.com> wrote in
<news:c2d3339e-34c5-4e3a...@g29g2000yqe.googlegroups.com>
in rec.arts.sf.written:
> Are there any stories in which spam plays a significant
> role? I know of one book where it has a small mention but
> it's used to help characters contact one another.
If you include fantasy, there's Alma Alexander's
_Spellspam_, the middle volume of her Worldweavers trilogy,
in which spam plays a major role.
Brian
David DeLaney
>D.F. Manno <dfm...@mail.com> wrote:
>> Chris <chris.li...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Are there any stories in which spam plays a significant role? I know
>>> of one book where it has a small mention but it's used to help
>>> characters contact one another.
>>
>>David Langford's "New Hope for the Dead," originally appearing in
>>"Nature" in 2005. It can be read at:
>>
>><http://www.ansible.co.uk/writing/new_hope.html>
>
>I can think of two: Evelyn E. Smith's "Tea-Tray in the Sky," in
>which it's against the law not to pay attention to the
>omnipresent advertising, and Frederik Pohl's "The Tunnel Under
>the World," in which a community is transformed into a perpetual
>focus group. Sort of.
_A Fire Upon the Deep_, in a couple different ways. What was the Blight but
Killer Spam, after all? And the filtering out of the key insight...
Also, remember what the first shared value Virgil Samms (I think it was)
found with the Rigellians was...
Dave
--
\/David DeLaney posting from d...@vic.com "It's not the pot that grows the flower
It's not the clock that slows the hour The definition's plain for anyone to see
Love is all it takes to make a family" - R&P. VISUALIZE HAPPYNET VRbeable<BLINK>
http://www.vic.com/~dbd/ - net.legends FAQ & Magic / I WUV you in all CAPS! --K.
Peter Huebner
377994...@g29g2000yqe.googlegroups.com>, chris.li...@gmail.com
says...
>
> Are there any stories in which spam plays a significant role? I know
> of one book where it has a small mention but it's used to help
> characters contact one another.
I seem to recall a Heinlein novel where somebody opens a can of spam
while aboard a travelling spaceship, but I couldn't name it, sorry. Or
was that E.E.Smith? No, I think it was Heinlein.
-P.
Jack Bohn
Star Trek: Voyager, "11:59"
The story of one of Janeway's ancestors, she suggests e-mailing
the plight of a failing bookstore owner to every computer within
X miles of his store. This was broadcast -and the action takes
place- in 1999, so she really should know better, but it sounds
like she independently invents spam.
--
-Jack
garabik-ne...@kassiopeia.juls.savba.sk
In Kulhánek's Stroncium, there are commercial holographic emitters
everywhere - like, in your cup, to remind you to buy a new, better,
tasty brand of algae-produced coffee.
And there are also spam cans - containing algae and processed cockroaches,
since that is pretty much the only part of food chain that survived the
catastrophe. Apart from humans, that is. Remains of deceased humans are
sometimes processed for spam cans, too. Not to be eaten by living
humans, though.
--
-----------------------------------------------------------
| Radovan Garabík http://kassiopeia.juls.savba.sk/~garabik/ |
| __..--^^^--..__ garabik @ kassiopeia.juls.savba.sk |
-----------------------------------------------------------
Antivirus alert: file .signature infected by signature virus.
Hi! I'm a signature virus! Copy me into your signature file to help me spread!
tkma...@yahoo.co.uk
Charles Stross - "MAXO Signals"
<http://www.concatenation.org/futures/maxo_lo.pdf>
Spam of a very mundane variety, in an unusual situation.
--
"You know what the scientific method is: that's having your graduate
students do all the hard work for you."
- "Out, Wit!" by Howard L Myers
<http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2009/10/howard-l-myers-out-wit-short-story.html>
tkma...@yahoo.co.uk
This is the main idea in Henry Kuttner's "Year Day", only it's set in
New York city rather than on a space station.
<http://www.henrykuttner.bravehost.com/Kuttner,%20Henry%20-%20Year%20Day.html>
Walter Bushell
<a4245a3b-ede3-493d...@q2g2000pre.googlegroups.com>,
"nu...@bid.nes" <alie...@gmail.com> wrote:
If that one reaches an appropriate victim, some victims blow hundreds of
thousands of dollars.
--
A computer without Microsoft is like a chocolate cake without mustard.
art...@yahoo.com
> In article
> <c2d3339e-34c5-4e3a-9e90-377994130...@g29g2000yqe.googlegroups.com>,
>
> Chris <chris.linthomp...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Are there any stories in which spam plays a significant role? I know
> > of one book where it has a small mention but it's used to help
> > characters contact one another.
>
> David Langford's "New Hope for the Dead," originally appearing in
> "Nature" in 2005. It can be read at:
>
> <http://www.ansible.co.uk/writing/new_hope.html>
That's a great title for a story, it's too bad that Charles Willeford
came up with it beforehand. Willeford also wrote "The Shark Infested-
Custard"
Paul Ciszek
In article <MPG.25d6b5fef...@news.individual.net>,
THe only one set in the right time would have been "Rocket Ship
Galileo", so far as I know.
--
Please reply to: | "Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is
pciszek at panix dot com | indistinguishable from malice."
Autoreply is disabled |
netcat
@kassiopeia.juls.savba.sk says...
> Chris <chris.li...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Are there any stories in which spam plays a significant role? I know
> > of one book where it has a small mention but it's used to help
> > characters contact one another.
>
> tasty brand of algae-produced coffee.
> And there are also spam cans - containing algae and processed cockroaches,
> since that is pretty much the only part of food chain that survived the
> catastrophe. Apart from humans, that is. Remains of deceased humans are
> sometimes processed for spam cans, too. Not to be eaten by living
> humans, though.
By whom, then? Pet cockroaches?
rgds,
netcat
Dave Hansen
Two random stories that popped into my head:
Frederik Pohl's "Gateway", though I'm not sure it qualifies as spam,
since the material appears on bulletin boards put in place on the
space station for that purpose. Also not sure just how important it
is to the plot, though I think it adds a lot of atmosphere to the
story.
Richard Morgan's "Altered Carbon", again, though, not sure it
qualifies as spam, since it's not sent through a network, but rather
imposed on your person when you walk within close proximity to the
advertising, umm, equipment. Also plays a relatively minor part in
the story. Quite vivid, however.
Regards,
-=Dave
J.J. O'Shea
(in article
<c2d3339e-34c5-4e3a...@g29g2000yqe.googlegroups.com>):
> Are there any stories in which spam plays a significant role? I know
> of one book where it has a small mention but it's used to help
> characters contact one another.
In one of Weber & Ringo's 'March' stories, the Heroes have to get a message
to specific people without it being detected as a message by the Bad Guys, so
they format it as spam and send it to _everybody_. (Not without lots of angst
about how terrible it is to have to use spam.)
--
email to oshea dot j dot j at gmail dot com.
Joseph Nebus
>In article <7t1mau...@mid.individual.net>,
>Ted Nolan <tednolan> <tednolan> wrote:
>>Non-food spam plays a fairly major background role in the Major
>>Arianne Kedros books. Pretty much every part of space stations is
>>spam saturated, and you pay a premium for privacy.
>And in Pohl & Kronbluth's _The Space Merchants_, of course.
The abundance of examples of our spam-laden future leaves me
to wonder about stories where advertising, as a cultural force, has
a peak age which may stretch across centuries but ultimately becomes
one of those things which don't matter much anymore. I recall it
being mentioned in Asimov's _The End of Eternity_ that the 20th/21st
Century was the high point for advertising as a genre, as anyone who
has read a 19th Century advertisement would agree, but there must be
other stories where the admen have become as much a part of society
as professional poets [1][2] or herring-callers are.
[1] One of those little moments of ingeniously-explaining-it-
all which struck me in _The Space Merchants_ was the declaration that
people who had actual poetic talent anymore went into advertising,
where they could use similar skills of bringing out emotions through
the clever use of words but also earn enough money to eat. Pohl and
Kornbluth were writing in what may have been a peak era in the United
States for advertisements that employed poetry; compare most any
commercial jingle of 1950 to the Just Old Enough Pop Song sampled for
a modern commercial.
It does leave me wondering, now that commercials are mostly
cuts of multiple people reading a sentence, reading a sentence, reading
a sentence three words at a time, at a time, at a time, or else people
being haunted by floating three-dimensional text letters, where do the
poets go for work?
[2] Hm. Future profession: the nation's Advertiser Laureate?
--
Joseph Nebus
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Derek Lyons
> [1] One of those little moments of ingeniously-explaining-it-
>all which struck me in _The Space Merchants_ was the declaration that
>people who had actual poetic talent anymore went into advertising,
>where they could use similar skills of bringing out emotions through
>the clever use of words but also earn enough money to eat. Pohl and
>Kornbluth were writing in what may have been a peak era in the United
>States for advertisements that employed poetry; compare most any
>commercial jingle of 1950 to the Just Old Enough Pop Song sampled for
>a modern commercial.
[disclaimer: in my experience]
Given that there are no lack of jingles and commercials that aren't
sampled Just Old Enough Pop Songs...
> It does leave me wondering, now that commercials are mostly
>cuts of multiple people reading a sentence, reading a sentence, reading
>a sentence three words at a time, at a time, at a time, or else people
>being haunted by floating three-dimensional text letters, where do the
>poets go for work?
Again, given that the majority of commercials aren't what you
describe...
D.
--
Touch-twice life. Eat. Drink. Laugh.
http://derekl1963.livejournal.com/
-Resolved: To be more temperate in my postings.
Oct 5th, 2004 JDL
Derek Lyons
>
>In article <MPG.25d6b5fef...@news.individual.net>,
>Peter Huebner <no....@this.address> wrote:
>>In article <c2d3339e-34c5-4e3a-9e90-
>>377994...@g29g2000yqe.googlegroups.com>, chris.li...@gmail.com
>>says...
>>>
>>> Are there any stories in which spam plays a significant role? I know
>>> of one book where it has a small mention but it's used to help
>>> characters contact one another.
>>
>>I seem to recall a Heinlein novel where somebody opens a can of spam
>>while aboard a travelling spaceship, but I couldn't name it, sorry. Or
>>was that E.E.Smith? No, I think it was Heinlein.
>
>THe only one set in the right time would have been "Rocket Ship
>Galileo", so far as I know.
What do you mean by 'the right time'? Canned meat products predate
RAH himself, and decidely predate his writing career. I can't find
the date when the product-that-became-Spam was introduced, but the
name predates his writing career by two years and the product had been
on the market for some time.
Spam's cultural visibility has waxed and waned over the years, but I
can't think of any time from shortly after WWII down to today when the
[hypothetical] Average American would not have know what it is. I
suspect even Dorothy has heard of it.
Remus Shepherd
Not a book, but what came to mind for me was Futurama's Lightspeed Briefs
commercials. They were forced into Fry's dreams in one or two episodes.
... ...
Remus Shepherd <re...@panix.com>
Journal: http://www.livejournal.com/users/remus_shepherd/
Bo Lindbergh
Peter Huebner <no....@this.address> wrote:
Are you thinking of the bit in _Space Cadet_ where they sample the galley
of the many-decades-lost ship on Venus?
/Bo Lindbergh
JimboCat
> Dorothy J Heydt <djhe...@kithrup.com> wrote:
> >D.F. Manno <dfma...@mail.com> wrote:
> >> Chris <chris.linthomp...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >>> Are there any stories in which spam plays a significant role? I know
> >>> of one book where it has a small mention but it's used to help
> >>> characters contact one another.
>
> >>David Langford's "New Hope for the Dead," originally appearing in
> >>"Nature" in 2005. It can be read at:
>
> >><http://www.ansible.co.uk/writing/new_hope.html>
>
> >I can think of two: Evelyn E. Smith's "Tea-Tray in the Sky," in
> >which it's against the law not to pay attention to the
> >omnipresent advertising, and Frederik Pohl's "The Tunnel Under
> >the World," in which a community is transformed into a perpetual
> >focus group. Sort of.
>
> _A Fire Upon the Deep_, in a couple different ways. What was the Blight but
> Killer Spam, after all? And the filtering out of the key insight...
>
> Also, remember what the first shared value Virgil Samms (I think it was)
> found with the Rigellians was...
That was the first one I thought of, too, though I'm pretty sure it
was Kimball Kinnison. The funny ha-ha part about it was that they were
inside a Rigellian automobile at the time: no ability to see out or to
hear, but . . .
I guess the second is a YASID short: grandpa is arrested for not
paying attention to the spam and sentenced to re-education (i.e.
watching more spam). Read online in the last coupla years, but I have
no idea who/what/where.
Then there's /The Man Who Sold the Moon/ where the spam doesn't
actually materialize, but there's a threat to put a product logo on
the moon, big enough to be seen by everyone on the planet. Maybe that
doesn't qualify.
Hoyle's /A for Andromeda/ features something maybe more like malware
than spam-from-the-stars, I guess. I wonder if he was the first with
the idea? A scientist decodes a message from afar, implements the
blueprint, and destroys his work just in time because of oh, the
horror &ct.
And finally, a Brunner novel, /Shockwave Rider/. There is a technology
"war" between the spammers/advertisers and the noble heroic (if
illegal) hackers, who have developed a chip that detects television
commercials and gives you thirty seconds of blissful silence instead.
Bit-part in the novel, but an honorable mention anyway.
Jim Deutch (JimboCat)
--
"The most evil piece of hardware I ever saw was the screw-headed nail.
Just nail those door hinges into place, and the home-owner will have
the nice warm feeling that the builders did it properly and screwed
them in carefully and firmly." - Timo Nieminen
Mike Ash
<19086c1a-485f-4099...@j1g2000vbl.googlegroups.com>,
JimboCat <10313...@compuserve.com> wrote:
> I guess the second is a YASID short: grandpa is arrested for not
> paying attention to the spam and sentenced to re-education (i.e.
> watching more spam). Read online in the last coupla years, but I have
> no idea who/what/where.
This triggers a memory of another story (also don't remember what it was
called or who wrote it) wherein a career spammer is uploaded into some
sort of electronic afterlife. Of course, those computing cycles he's
taking up aren't free, so he must earn his keep... by going through
e-mails and separating out the advertisements from the legitimate
messages. To help him perform at peak accuracy, simple psychological
conditioning is used, with unpleasant sensations every time he gets one
wrong.
Bill Snyder
wrote:
>In article
><19086c1a-485f-4099...@j1g2000vbl.googlegroups.com>,
> JimboCat <10313...@compuserve.com> wrote:
>
>> I guess the second is a YASID short: grandpa is arrested for not
>> paying attention to the spam and sentenced to re-education (i.e.
>> watching more spam). Read online in the last coupla years, but I have
>> no idea who/what/where.
>
>This triggers a memory of another story (also don't remember what it was
>called or who wrote it) wherein a career spammer is uploaded into some
>sort of electronic afterlife. Of course, those computing cycles he's
>taking up aren't free, so he must earn his keep... by going through
>e-mails and separating out the advertisements from the legitimate
>messages. To help him perform at peak accuracy, simple psychological
>conditioning is used, with unpleasant sensations every time he gets one
>wrong.
Sounds like the Langford short-short that D. F. Manno just cited a
few messages upthread of yours.
--
Bill Snyder [This space unintentionally left blank]
Robert Carnegie
> Are there any stories in which spam plays a significant role? I know
> of one book where it has a small mention but it's used to help
> characters contact one another.
Several where messages from outer space are deceptive, although that
isn't quite what you asked for...
_The Ophiuchi Hotline_, _A for Andromeda_, and _The Terror Star_ by
Patrick Moore, I think, have humans receiving instructions to build
things... as does the backstory of Stephen Donaldson's "Gap Cycle"
books, I think, and then I don't think any of those is the one where a
space station is overrun with a reconstructed-from-alien-signal
disease that gives you a weird religion worshipping a kind of kangaroo
creature...
A throwaway remark in Warren Ellis's graphic novel series
_Transmetropolitan_ becomes a significant story element: in The City
that occupies the mid-west United States, infopollen is temporarily
legalised (for twenty minutes) for commercial messages despite the
danger to human health - and journalist protagonist Spider Jerusalem
gets a (unintentionally?) long-term terminal dose of it.
In another incident he watches TV all day and then gets commercials in
his dreams.
Then again, in the comic of _Futurama_ (some years later) Fry takes a
job acting in dream commercials. As usual, this lasts about twenty
pages.
The City also is so mentally challenging that when they unfreeze,
clone, and revive twentieth century corpsicles and turn them loose on
the streets, they usually turn insane, and part of that is media, and
part of that is advertising, or at least close to spam. There are
screens in sidewalks and they're showing the Jim Henson-style "Sex
Puppets" show. Then again, Judge Dredd's Mega-City One sees its own
citizens individually go homicidally mad from time to time with
"future shock", I think they're called futsies...
David DeLaney
>d...@gatekeeper.vic.com (David DeLaney) wrote:
>> Also, remember what the first shared value Virgil Samms (I think it was)
>> found with the Rigellians was...
>
>That was the first one I thought of, too, though I'm pretty sure it
>was Kimball Kinnison. The funny ha-ha part about it was that they were
>inside a Rigellian automobile at the time: no ability to see out or to
>hear, but . . .
I'd have to go look (or ask Sea Wasp), but Kimball had his own sense of
perception by then, didn't he? Virgil was making first contact, and seeing
if any Rigellians had what it took to _be_ Lensmen, and needed to find points
of commonality so he could try to partly understand them...
Hmmm. Moment. ...No, I only have Triplanetary from Gutenberg. (ooo, but
Gutenberg Australia has Stapledon...) But I was fairly sure it was the
first-contact time, not Kinnison's own first meeting later on.
>Hoyle's /A for Andromeda/ features something maybe more like malware
>than spam-from-the-stars, I guess. I wonder if he was the first with
>the idea? A scientist decodes a message from afar, implements the
>blueprint, and destroys his work just in time because of oh, the
>horror &ct.
I suppose _Macroscope_ fits too, then?
Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)
> JimboCat <10313...@compuserve.com> wrote:
>> d...@gatekeeper.vic.com (David DeLaney) wrote:
>>> Also, remember what the first shared value Virgil Samms (I think it was)
>>> found with the Rigellians was...
>> That was the first one I thought of, too, though I'm pretty sure it
>> was Kimball Kinnison. The funny ha-ha part about it was that they were
>> inside a Rigellian automobile at the time: no ability to see out or to
>> hear, but . . .
>
> I'd have to go look (or ask Sea Wasp), but Kimball had his own sense of
> perception by then, didn't he? Virgil was making first contact, and seeing
> if any Rigellians had what it took to _be_ Lensmen, and needed to find points
> of commonality so he could try to partly understand them...
It was Virgil Samms visiting Rigel and discovering that Rigellians,
like Humans, learned to "tune out" advertisements in their environment.
Kinnison wasn't born until generations later.
--
Sea Wasp
/^\
;;;
Live Journal: http://seawasp.livejournal.com
Dorothy J Heydt
And IIRC Kimball Kinnison didn't get perception till he got his
L2 training.
So even later.
D.F. Manno
Mike Ash <mi...@mikeash.com> wrote:
> JimboCat <10313...@compuserve.com> wrote:
>
> > I guess the second is a YASID short: grandpa is arrested for not
> > paying attention to the spam and sentenced to re-education (i.e.
> > watching more spam). Read online in the last coupla years, but I have
> > no idea who/what/where.
>
> This triggers a memory of another story (also don't remember what it was
> called or who wrote it) wherein a career spammer is uploaded into some
> sort of electronic afterlife. Of course, those computing cycles he's
> taking up aren't free, so he must earn his keep... by going through
> e-mails and separating out the advertisements from the legitimate
> messages. To help him perform at peak accuracy, simple psychological
> conditioning is used, with unpleasant sensations every time he gets one
> wrong.
That's David Langford's "New Hope for the Dead," previously mentioned.
--
D.F. Manno | dfm...@mail.com
The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the
intelligent are full of doubt. (Bertrand Russell)
Butch Malahide
> Are there any stories in which spam plays a significant role? I know
> of one book where it has a small mention but it's used to help
> characters contact one another.
_Canned Meat_ is the title of a science fiction novel by Richard E.
Geis which I haven't read.
Mike Ash
"D.F. Manno" <dfm...@mail.com> wrote:
> In article <mike-D0F091.1...@news.eternal-september.org>,
> Mike Ash <mi...@mikeash.com> wrote:
>
> > JimboCat <10313...@compuserve.com> wrote:
> >
> > > I guess the second is a YASID short: grandpa is arrested for not
> > > paying attention to the spam and sentenced to re-education (i.e.
> > > watching more spam). Read online in the last coupla years, but I have
> > > no idea who/what/where.
> >
> > This triggers a memory of another story (also don't remember what it was
> > called or who wrote it) wherein a career spammer is uploaded into some
> > sort of electronic afterlife. Of course, those computing cycles he's
> > taking up aren't free, so he must earn his keep... by going through
> > e-mails and separating out the advertisements from the legitimate
> > messages. To help him perform at peak accuracy, simple psychological
> > conditioning is used, with unpleasant sensations every time he gets one
> > wrong.
>
> That's David Langford's "New Hope for the Dead," previously mentioned.
Thanks. I guess I haven't been paying close enough attention. Can we
count this as a YASID whose response happened in negative time?
David DeLaney
And, specifically, given the Rigellian automobile part, Samms was piggybacking
on the Rigellian's sense of perception via Samms' Lens. Thus the discovery.
(Yes?)
garabik-ne...@kassiopeia.juls.savba.sk
> In article <hkgvrj$16k$1...@speranza.aioe.org>, garabik-news-2005-05
> @kassiopeia.juls.savba.sk says...
>> Remains of deceased humans are
>> sometimes processed for spam cans, too. Not to be eaten by living
>> humans, though.
>
> By whom, then? Pet cockroaches?
<spoiler alert, even if I do not expect anyone here to read Stroncium
anytime soon>
By dead humans - implanting a computer probe into frontal lobe
of a recently deceased, strong and otherwise healthy body is much
cheaper than to build a robot (but you have to feed the body).
And the supply of bodies replenishes itself steadily, you know,
given enough cockroaches and enough capital punishment :-)
Jerry Brown
<re...@panix.com> wrote:
>Chris <chris.li...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Are there any stories in which spam plays a significant role? I know
>> of one book where it has a small mention but it's used to help
>> characters contact one another.
>
> Not a book, but what came to mind for me was Futurama's Lightspeed Briefs
>commercials. They were forced into Fry's dreams in one or two episodes.
and Fry's comment on his first foray into the 31st century Internet,
"Oh my God, it's full of ads!".
This was the moment that convinced me that the writers really were
proper SF fans (there was a homage to Heinlein's Life Line in another
episode).
Jerry Brown
--
A cat may look at a king
(but probably won't bother)
Howard Brazee
<fred....@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Are there any stories in which spam plays a significant role? I know
>> of one book where it has a small mention but it's used to help
>> characters contact one another.
>
>_Canned Meat_ is the title of a science fiction novel by Richard E.
>Geis which I haven't read.
If I recall, it's more about sex than spam.
--
"In no part of the constitution is more wisdom to be found,
than in the clause which confides the question of war or peace
to the legislature, and not to the executive department."
- James Madison
Melita Kennedy
> Are there any stories in which spam plays a significant role? I know
> of one book where it has a small mention but it's used to help
> characters contact one another.
Hilfy Chanur in C.J. Cherryh's Chanur's Legacy has to deal with a ton
of unwanted mail meant for her aunt Pyanfar.
Default User
> On Fri, 5 Feb 2010 18:28:24 +0000 (UTC), Remus Shepherd
> <re...@panix.com> wrote:
> > Not a book, but what came to mind for me was Futurama's
> > Lightspeed Briefs commercials. They were forced into Fry's dreams
> > in one or two episodes.
> This was the moment that convinced me that the writers really were
> proper SF fans (there was a homage to Heinlein's Life Line in another
> episode).
Speaking of the "lightspeed briefs", around the time of Futurama, I
bought new pack of Fruit of the Loom briefs. Instead of the old
colorfully stripe waistband, these had FTL written on them. That
immediately made me think, "faster than light". When I say the Futurama
episode, I wondered if that didn't happen for the writer as well.
Brian
--
Day 369 of the "no grouchy usenet posts" project
David DeLaney
>Speaking of the "lightspeed briefs", around the time of Futurama, I
>bought new pack of Fruit of the Loom briefs. Instead of the old
>colorfully stripe waistband, these had FTL written on them. That
>immediately made me think, "faster than light". When I say the Futurama
>episode, I wondered if that didn't happen for the writer as well.
Well, I certainly wasn't anticipating writing the sentence "I've owned FTL
underwear for a while now" to-day. But there it is.
Butch Malahide
>
> Hoyle's /A for Andromeda/ features something maybe more like malware
> than spam-from-the-stars, I guess. I wonder if he was the first with
> the idea? A scientist decodes a message from afar, implements the
> blueprint, and destroys his work just in time because of oh, the
> horror &ct.
Maybe Jack Williamson had that idea first, with his 1931 story "The
Doom from Planet 4"
http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?59093
which is now available as a Project Gutenberg etext:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/31168
SPOILERS: A scientist establishes communication with Mars using
flashes of light; starts building machines as directed by Martians,
starting with a super-radio and ending up with a robot, which takes
over and starts making more robots and weapons for the invasion.
Butch Malahide
> On Feb 5, 2:46 pm, JimboCat <103134.3...@compuserve.com> wrote:
> > Hoyle's /A for Andromeda/ features something maybe more like malware
> > than spam-from-the-stars, I guess. I wonder if he was the first with
> > the idea? A scientist decodes a message from afar, implements the
> > blueprint, and destroys his work just in time because of oh, the
> > horror &ct.
>
> Maybe Jack Williamson had that idea first, with his 1931 story "The
> Doom from Planet 4"
http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?59093
> which is now available as a Project Gutenberg etext, HERE IS THE URL I MEANT TO GIVE, SORRY ABOUT THAT:
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/31168
Robert Carnegie
> Default User <defaul...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> >Speaking of the "lightspeed briefs", around the time of Futurama, I
> >bought new pack of Fruit of the Loom briefs. Instead of the old
> >colorfully stripe waistband, these had FTL written on them. That
> >immediately made me think, "faster than light". When I say the Futurama
> >episode, I wondered if that didn't happen for the writer as well.
>
> Well, I certainly wasn't anticipating writing the sentence "I've owned FTL
> underwear for a while now" to-day. But there it is.
Did you experience a Lorentz transformation?
William December Starr
Peter Huebner <no....@this.address> said:
> I seem to recall a Heinlein novel where somebody opens a can of
> spam while aboard a travelling spaceship, but I couldn't name
> it, sorry. Or was that E.E.Smith? No, I think it was Heinlein.
Speaking of Heinlein, I think that in PODKAYNE OF MARS there was
mention of travel in a taxicab which included audiovisual
advertising aimed at the passengers. It couldn't be turned off,
but for a small "tip" the driver would drop the volume down to
inaudible levels.
-- wds
David DeLaney
IN MY PANTS!
... sorry, sorry, too much WoW trade chat.
Dave "it tickles" DeLaney
Michael Stemper
In _They Shall Have Stars_, there's a scene where advertising (e-tracts)
attacks the hire-car in which the protagonist and his date are heading
out to dinner.
--
Michael F. Stemper
#include <Standard_Disclaimer>
No, not "of land!"
Butch Malahide
> >> >Speaking of the "lightspeed briefs", around the time of Futurama, I
> >> >bought new pack of Fruit of the Loom briefs. Instead of the old
> >> >colorfully stripe waistband, these had FTL written on them. That
> >> >immediately made me think, "faster than light". When I say the Futurama
> >> >episode, I wondered if that didn't happen for the writer as well.
>
> >> Well, I certainly wasn't anticipating writing the sentence "I've owned FTL
> >> underwear for a while now" to-day. But there it is.
>
> >Did you experience a Lorentz transformation?
>
> IN MY PANTS!
You experienced time dilation and, uh, length contraction?
Par
> > >Did you experience a Lorentz transformation?
> >
> > IN MY PANTS!
>
> You experienced time dilation and, uh, length contraction?
And that's why she kept telling you to take it slow...
/Par
--
Par use...@hunter-gatherer.org
Oh, *practice*. I don't mind *practising*. So long as we don't have to do
it for real.
-- Terry Pratchett
David DeLaney
Eventually, yes.
Dave "your mileage may vary" DeLaney
Dimensional Traveler
I WAS IN THE POOL! IT WAS COLD!!
--
Murphy was an optimist.
JimboCat
> JimboCat <103134.3...@compuserve.com> wrote:
> >d...@gatekeeper.vic.com (David DeLaney) wrote:
> >> Also, remember what the first shared value Virgil Samms (I think it was)
> >> found with the Rigellians was...
>
> >That was the first one I thought of, too, though I'm pretty sure it
> >was Kimball Kinnison. The funny ha-ha part about it was that they were
> >inside a Rigellian automobile at the time: no ability to see out or to
> >hear, but . . .
>
> I'd have to go look (or ask Sea Wasp), but Kimball had his own sense of
> perception by then, didn't he? Virgil was making first contact, and seeing
> if any Rigellians had what it took to _be_ Lensmen, and needed to find points
> of commonality so he could try to partly understand them...
>
> Hmmm. Moment. ...No, I only have Triplanetary from Gutenberg. (ooo, but
> Gutenberg Australia has Stapledon...) But I was fairly sure it was the
> first-contact time, not Kinnison's own first meeting later on.
>
> >Hoyle's /A for Andromeda/ features something maybe more like malware
> >than spam-from-the-stars, I guess. I wonder if he was the first with
> >the idea? A scientist decodes a message from afar, implements the
> >blueprint, and destroys his work just in time because of oh, the
> >horror &ct.
>
> I suppose _Macroscope_ fits too, then?
DeathSpam! Yes: it's only a slight extension of the basic concept...
Jim Deutch (JimboCat)
--
"If we had a grammar checker that really worked, we could probably
eliminate all other kinds of spam filters." [Peter Moylan]
JimboCat
wrote:
> In article <hknqgj$l3...@panix1.panix.com>, wdst...@panix.com (William December Starr) writes:
>
> >In article <MPG.25d6b5fef83ce33c989...@news.individual.net>, Peter Huebner <no....@this.address> said:
> >> I seem to recall a Heinlein novel where somebody opens a can of
> >> spam while aboard a travelling spaceship, but I couldn't name
> >> it, sorry. Or was that E.E.Smith? No, I think it was Heinlein.
>
> >Speaking of Heinlein, I think that in PODKAYNE OF MARS there was
> >mention of travel in a taxicab which included audiovisual
> >advertising aimed at the passengers. It couldn't be turned off,
> >but for a small "tip" the driver would drop the volume down to
> >inaudible levels.
>
> In _They Shall Have Stars_, there's a scene where advertising (e-tracts)
> attacks the hire-car in which the protagonist and his date are heading
> out to dinner.
Ohh: "advertising attacks" rings a couple of bells!
Brin's second Uplift trilogy includes some adventures in "e-space",
where Ideas become reified and can actually attack you: a major
character barely survives such an attack.
The second bell I hear ringing would be a YASID if I could even
remember enough to make an ID possible... A Brin short, maybe?
Jim Deutch (JimboCat)
--
"Computer rules Earth. Abort, Retry, Fail?" [Jack Bohn]
Gerry Quinn
d...@gatekeeper.vic.com says...
> Default User <defaul...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> >Speaking of the "lightspeed briefs", around the time of Futurama, I
> >bought new pack of Fruit of the Loom briefs. Instead of the old
> >colorfully stripe waistband, these had FTL written on them. That
> >immediately made me think, "faster than light". When I say the Futurama
> >episode, I wondered if that didn't happen for the writer as well.
>
> Well, I certainly wasn't anticipating writing the sentence "I've owned FTL
> underwear for a while now" to-day. But there it is.
There was a young lady called Bright
Whose panties were faster than light
She pulled on her knicks
Each morning at six
And removed them the previous night!
- Gerry Quinn