Re-Read Ringworld Engineers

Published in 1979 to tie up the many, many loose ends from his 1970 novel Ringworld (mentioned earlier here), it holds up well, even better than the first one.  Might get around to the remaining two books in the series later this year, but I need a break from Niven stories for the moment.

Perhaps the most entertaining part of the book is the dedication in the front matter, where the author details all of the, um, help he had from True Fans (that last really needs the old html <blink> tag) in fleshing out the Ringworld itself.  Obsessive proofreading.  Design for a seafloor sediment recycling system.  Calculations for the minimum tensile strength of the underlying structural material.  MIT students chanting at a sci-fi convention about the inherent instability of solid rings orbiting stars.  Even Freeman Dyson(!!) got in on the letter writing.  In the end it was all too much for Niven, so he had to write this book.  Honestly, the first one is incomplete without this, so if you read the first, be prepared to dive into the second immediately.  Well, maybe sandwich Protector between reading the two, mostly for the break but also for some in-universe background.

Adventures planned, so onward with the day.

Another Little Rant About e-Bikes

And this time, it's  somebody else for a change!  Listen now and hate me later, but at least hear the mechanic speak (9 minutes).  Especially that part at the very end.  All brutal, but all true.

You can find my previous thoughts on the matter here and here.

Book Mention: Take Me to Your Leader

Continuing this week's alien theme, I finally finished reading through Neal deGrasse Tyson's latest book, Take Me to Your Leader last night.  It's a fun little romp through all of the pop culture, credible sworn testimony, conspiracy theories, and blurry pictures of the last eighty or so years, along with reasonable musings on the Fermi Paradox, what forms extraterrestrial life (and their perceptions and senses) might take, etc. etc.  With all that, we are left with one stark, undeniable observation:

There is not one whit of actual evidence of alien visitation.  No artifacts, no hard data, and, despite upwards of seven billion digital cameras on this planet, no unambiguous pictures.

With that uncomfortable truth in mind, the author plows forward with his usual good-natured skeptical, slightly sarcastic way, considering all sides of the issues and philosophical conundrums.  It is very clear that he's open to any evidence, even an outright personal abduction.  However, to date, there just isn't any there there, and he's quick to gently point this out.

Recommended, but only if you generally like this sort of thing.

Finally, if you do manage to get yourself abducted, please take Seth Shostak's advice and pocket an alien artifact on your way out the door/hatch/portal/whatever.  We've all had more than enough of heartfelt testimony on these matters.  It's time for a metamaterial multitool, or whatever else they're using these days.  Plonk it down on the table in front of skeptics, say a hearty "nyeh-nyeh-nyeh," donate it to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, write a bestseller, and enjoy the good life.

Call Went to Voicemail

This week's episode of Big Picture Science is titled Calling All Aliens, which is naturally enough, about recent SETI and METI efforts.  By chance, I was asked by a friend earlier this week about my opinion on the general topic.  The three thoughts I had on the matter were:

1. 
   Imagine our galaxy as a pizza – a really big pizza – one meter across and one centimeter thick.  Now imagine a bubble of space radiating out from Earth in this pizza-galaxy.  A bubble big enough for our first powerful radio signals to have reached another civilization, and for them to have sent a reply back.  At the one meter pizza scale, that bubble would be about the size of a sesame seed.  Would we really expect to have reached anyone in such a small sample?
2. More quantitatively, take a current credible guesstimate at Drake's Number – about 86,400 contactable civilizations in our galaxy.  Seems a little high in comparison with numbers I've previously seen, but let's roll with it.  Given the speed of light, expect about a 50-50 chance of that bubble in Item 1 to encompass another civilization in about 330 years.  What's more, these Drake Equation results are all over the place, and numbers as low as 100 are reasonable.  That puts the expected time to a 50-50 chance of contact out around 3200 years.  Frankly,* it's just too soon to reasonably expect any return replies.
3. However, we should still keep listening, especially given the continuing and amazing increases in signal processing power.  Don't let those two-way contact numbers in the previous item discourage you.  Unlikely as it seems, a random alien signal could come crashing in any given day – and we'd best be listening.
4. Finally, if aliens ever do find us, they'll probably view us about the same way we view the Sentinelese (see inset picture): present, but violent and not worth contacting.  Best left alone.

On that note, time for a bike ride.  Anyway, the above-linked podcast is well worth an hour's listen, and one of the more noteworthy recent episodes  at Big Picture Science.

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*10 Internet Points if you caught that one.

Monday, Monday

Made my "start of the month banking and supply run" to the nearest medium-sized city.  Yes, you read that correctly, "start of the month," and yes, this is the 17th.  It has been a month indeed thus far.  The digging out continues.

Worth Noting

This has been a remarkably unnoteworthy week, beyond a trip to Wakulla Springs and a side-trip to Bald Point State Park on the way home.  However, there is one weather condition worth noting and being thankful for:

Contrast this with a visit to Bald Point this time last year.  Somewhat alarming graphic, but there is a nice picture of  the beach if you scroll down.

Thought for This Morning

I have to get ready to teach a ham radio review course later this afternoon.  First though... you guessed it.