Photo by Judeus Samson (unsplash.com/@shotbyjudeus). Model/artist: Rio Sirah.
Today is Wednesday, so it’s time for our regular feature What is that? Here’s today’s term:
Cyborg – a cybernetic organism; a person or creature comprised of both mechanical and biological parts
Clynes and Kline coined the word “cyborg” to describe modifications to astronauts
Scientists Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline coined the term “cyborg,” which is merely a contraction of the words cybernetic organism. Cybernetics is a study comparing the human nervous system and systems that govern how machines operate.
Clynes and Kline created the word to use in scientific papers discussing how humans might one day be modified with machine or artificial parts so they could endure long travel times in space and survive the hardships of life in space. They even discussed how modifications might make it possible to live without breathing.
Cyberpunk explores future societies filled with cyborgs
One of the most famous cyborgs from cyberpunk is a woman named Molly Millions, a “razorgirl” mercenary. Author William Gibson created Molly in his 1981 short story “Johnny Mnemonic.” The short story was later the inspiration for the 1995 film of the same name starring Keanu Reeves.
Molly is a cyborg with eye implants and blades built into her fingers. Here is how Gibson describes her in his cyberpunk classic, Neuromancer. (By the way, she carries a gun Gibson calls a “fletcher” that shoots flechettes or darts.)
“He realized that the glasses were surgically inset, sealing her sockets. The silver lenses seemed to grow from smooth pale skin above her cheekbones, framed by dark hair cut in a rough shag. The fingers curled around the fletcher were slender, white, tipped with polished burgundy. The nails looked artificial.
. . . .
“She wore tight black gloveleather jeans and a bulky black jacket cut from some matte fabric that seemed to absorb light.”
. . . .
“She held out her hands, palms up, the white fingers slightly spread, and with a barely audible click, ten, double-edged, four centimeter scalpel blades slid from their housings beneath the burgundy nails.
“She smiled. The blades slowly withdrew.”
Photo by Valery Sysoev (unsplash.com/@valerysysoev).
Become a cyborg!
If you could be a cyborg, what three cybernetic features would you add to your own body?
Would you add brain power with faster computing speeds or massive memory?
Would you improve your strength, speed, or vision?
Would you add wings to fly? Some other upgrade to do what no human can?
Image: 2013 image of Comet Ison on its path towards the Sun. Source: NASA/MSFC/Aaron Kingery
Today is Wednesday, so it’s time for our regular feature What is that? Here’s today’s term:
Comet – an object orbiting the sun made of rock and ice that grows a “tail” of vapor and dust when it approaches the sun
Dirty Snowball
Comets are sometimes described as “dirty snowballs” because they are made of a mixture of both ice and rock and dust. They orbit the sun in an elongated, oval path that can take hundreds or even millions of years to complete. They may spend much of their time traveling through the Kuiper Belt, a region of space beyond Neptune, the furthest planet from our sun.
Flaming Tail
Comets are different from asteroids, which tend to be composed of rock and/or metals, because they contain large amounts of ice–frozen water and other frozen gases.
This image of Comet Ison, published in 2013, was made from combined photos taken through blue and red filters. Source: NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA).
“When frozen, they are the size of a small town. When a comet’s orbit brings it close to the Sun, it heats up and spews dust and gases into a giant glowing head larger than most planets,” according to NASA.
When a comet’s orbit brings it near to the Sun, the Sun’s warmth heats up the comet’s ice. The melted ice boils off and the comet’s ice, dust, and rock surface make a cloud around the comet. As the cloud trails behind the comet it leaves a wide path of particles millions of miles long. The sun lights up this tail, sometimes making it visible on Earth.
Parts of a comet
Source: NASA
Nucleus–the main body of the comet, which is made of frozen gases, rock and dust
Coma–the cloud of particles and gases that form around the comet nucleus when it is heated by the Sun
Head–when a comet is traveling near the sun, and a coma forms, the head is the nucleus and coma, which may be 600,000 miles (1 million kilometers) across. The head is a bright cloud of particles and gases lit by the sun.
Tail–when the comet is near the sun and the coma forms, the tail is the long trail of particles and gases left behind the head as it hurtles through space. Tails can stretch for millions of miles.
How many comets are there in our solar system?
Scientists estimate there are billions of comets orbiting the Sun in paths that pass far outside Neptune’s orbit. They travel in the far distant portions of our solar system called the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud.
Although scientists think there are billions of comets, we have only discovered and named less than 4,000 comets.
The European spacecraft Giotto took this photograph of the nucleus of Halley’s Comet in 1986. Image Credit: Halley Multicolor Camera Team, Giotto Project, ESA.
How are comets named?
A comet is usually named after the person that discovered it. Halley’s Comet, perhaps the most famous comet, is named after Edmond Halley, an English astronomer. He studied historical reports of other astronomers and suggested that reports of a comet appearing every 75 years might be the same comet. He predicted it would appear again in 1758. He was right and the comet was named after him. But he did not live long enough to see its return and his theory proven.
Halley’s comet will not appear to us on Earth again until 2061.
Many comets now have the names of spacecraft in their names–names like Linea, Soho and Wise–because spacecraft (and their operators) are very good at finding comets.
Design your own comet!
Imagine you discovered a comet flying through space and it was named after you. What would it look like? What types of ices and rock would it be made of? How long would it take to orbit the Sun? What year would we see it next in Earth’s nighttime sky?
If you love Sci Fi, you probably love a good alien encounter. But do you love the aliens or love-to-hate the aliens?
Humans have difficulty connecting with aliens that are too, well, alien. The more human they seem, the better are able to connect with them. This should not be too surprising given that we humans are social animals that (generally) thrive with social interaction with other humans.
A “mugshot.” Photo by Joseph Gonzalez (unsplash.com/@miracletwentyone).
I even learned in journalism school that people enjoy seeing photographs of people more than anything else. We were taught to include photos of people to liven up dull newspaper pages. And if all you have is a “mug shot”–a photograph of a person’s face and (sometimes) shoulders–then use it! Readers are more likely to read a story that includes a photograph of a person’s face than a story with just a headline and text.
Photo by Garrett Jackson (unsplash.com/@jxnsartstudio).
Photo by Charles Deluvio (unsplash.com/@charlesdeluvio).
Babies? What’s so great about babies?
I have also read that humans are attracted to animals that superficially look like babies. (After all everyone loves babies, even though they are mostly useless!) That is supposed to explain the popularity of certain breeds of dogs and cats with large eyes and round faces. I don’t know if that’s true, but I do know that toy makers seem to make stuffed toy cats and dogs with bigger and rounder eyes every year. (That drives Mrs. C crazy. She finds “big-eyed” dolls to be creepy.)
Babies: Cute, adorable, mostly useless. Photo by Chayene Rafaela (unsplash.com/@chayene).
My Theory
So I’m proposing the theory that readers prefer creatures that approximate human appearance, habits and speech. Also, I think we will accept close cousins, that is, creatures that remind us of the class of mammals. So things that appear warm-blooded and covered in skin or fur; things that look like cute dogs or cats or Teddy bears. We also like these. It’s OK if they have six legs or six eyes. That’s the cool part that makes them alien; alien without being too alien.
Readers prefer creatures that approximate human appearance, habits and speech.
Photo by Francesco Ungaro (unsplash.com/@francesco_ungaro).
Reptile Men and Women
What about reptile men? Well, if they have two arms and two legs, that’s a good start. If they have a face with two eyes and a mouth, then that’s pretty humanlike, even if they have forked tongues and scales instead of skin. I still think they are more likely to be cast as baddies than good guys, especially in a movie. But in a book, if such a creature rescues a kitten (or a human child), I think we can all get on board with that. (Remember, kittens and babies are cute and people like them!)
What about reptile women? Well, generally, the same goes for reptile women as reptile men. But, well, guys–meaning readers who are human males–seem to like almost all alien women. Why? Well . . . why do sailors like mermaids? That’s a subject for another blog.
What about dragons?
I think we all have a challenge liking creatures that are more reptile, amphibian, or even possibly avian than human, especially the intelligent ones. Dragons may be the one exception. People do love dragons.
And, yes, there are plenty of dragons in Sci Fi. They are not only in fantasy. See Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern series. Grand Master McCaffrey excels in disproving my point and making large, intelligent reptiles–reptiles that look nothing like humans–very lovable. (Or is she the exception that proves the rule?)
What is the problem with aliens that are not humanlike?
I think there are a couple of things at work here. One is a natural fear of certain types of creatures found on Earth. So, for example, if we are familiar with certain dangerous animals, such as snakes and spiders, then I propose writers will have a hard time making likeable aliens that remind us of those creatures. And they make wonderful “bad guy” aliens.
Large boulder in Avebury, United Kingdom. Photo by Zoltan Tasi (unsplash.com/@zoltantasi).
The second is the challenge of making likable creatures that are so alien that readers have no way to connect to them. For example, consider a creature that looks like a large boulder. A creature that has a mouth but no eyes, ears or nose. A creature that thinks love and passion and excitement are all pointless. Does that sound appealing?
If an alien is not full of the same emotions and desires as humans, then it’s hard for us to connect.
A creature that has learned no form of communication other than to shove aside its brother as a signal that it is rolling too close. A creature that enjoys listening to the vibrations of the stars as music and is tickled by gravitational waves, so it has no further need for entertainment or socializing. If it is not interested in human pursuits, if an alien is not full of the same emotions and desires as humans, then it’s hard for us to connect. It’s hard for us to care.
So those are some of my theories. Do you agree? Do you have examples you like that prove or disprove this?
In Duel in the Dark by Jay Allan, Captain Tyler Barron fought a desperate space battle at the edge of the Rim to protect the Confederation’s rear flank and now the great battleship, Dauntless, sits in Archellia’s base repair facility. In the sequel, Call to Arms, Capt. Barron needs the Dauntless ready for the front line in an all-out war with the totalitarian Union.
“Tyler Barron stood next to the clear hyper polycarbonate wall of the space station, looking out at his battleship. Dauntless firmly attached to the station by a series of massive docking cradles. He’d been her captain for over a year now, and he had led his ship in one of the most desperate and deadly battles imaginable, yet he realized now that he’d rarely seen her from the outside.
She was beautiful in her own way, almost symmetrical, but with just enough irregularity to give her charm.
Call to Arms by Jay Allan
“The battleship was almost four kilometers long, whitish-gray metal with huge structures projecting out on each side, her landing bays. She was beautiful in her own way, almost symmetrical, but with just enough irregularity to give her charm. At least in her devoted captain’s eyes. Especially now that her wounds had been healed–the outer ones, at least. There had been long gashes in Dauntless‘s hull when she’d arrived back at Archellia, and half her laser turrets had been blown to bits or melted down to slag.
“Barron could see small specks on her hull, barely visible from this distance. Suited technicians, he realized, working all along Dauntless‘s exterior. There were repair boats moving around her too, some of them hoppers carrying supplies, others work ships extending giant robotic arms to repair various damaged areas. Near the bow, two larger craft were easing a large turret into place, a replacement for one of Dauntless‘s destroyed second batteries.”
Choose your upgrades!
Capt. Barron gives the commander of the repair facility only two weeks to finish repairs. The Dauntless‘s own chief engineer, Commander Fritz, returns early from shore leave to speed up repairs. She only has time to choose three upgrades. What should they be?
Restore another main gun? The massive particle accelerators are highly advanced and have a long range, but they are also “temperamental and prone to break-down from even the slightest damage.”
Add another squadron of bombers to its onboard fleet of ships or opt for the lighter but faster fighters?
Some of Sci Fi’s most interesting aliens look like or share traits with Earth’s arthropods. Arthropods include insects (like, ants), centipedes and millipedes, arachnids (like, spiders) and crustaceans (like, crabs and lobsters). Think of the giant sandworms of Arrakis in Dune, the spider-like buggers of Ender’s Game, and the Bugs of Starship Troopers, which are very cool alien space bugs. All of these aliens are human-size or larger.
But on Earth, physics and genetic history have kept arthropods much smaller than humans. The largest arthropods alive are certain crabs and lobsters, and even the largest of these, the American Lobster, does not grow to 50 pounds. Yes, that’s big for a lobster, but not exactly the match of a human in a gladiator ring or in a space battle. It’s certainly not large enough to develop the large, complex brain needed for sentience.
Crayfish exoskeletons form natural armor. Photo by Anton Ahlberg (https://unsplash.com /@anton_ahlberg).
On Earth, arthropods developed exoskeletons (skeletons on their outsides), which provide great protection from enemies and allow the evolution of an amazing range of weapons and tools. Consider the giant claws of a crab or the sting of a scorpion. But exoskeletons restrict how large arthropods can afford to grow. Molting — the process of replacing an exoskeleton as the animal grows — takes longer the larger the animal grows. Some crabs take an entire month to climb out of their old skeleton and allow the new one to harden up. Exoskeletal legs are also basically tubes filled with muscle and tissue. If an arthropod grew to human size, the exoskeleton would not be strong enough to hold up the ‘pod’s weight. And the arthropod’s muscles would not be strong enough to move the exoskeleton around.
Arthropods also evolved in a way that their cells get oxygen through gills, their skin, or tubes in their bodies, called tracheae, that open directly to the outside air. Humans and other vertebrates have lungs and feed oxygen to the cells through the blood. As ‘pods grow larger, it becomes harder and harder to get enough oxygen through their skin or tracheae to every cell. A ‘pod as large as a human might easily suffocate.
As ‘pods grow larger, it becomes harder and harder to get enough oxygen to every cell.
But a ‘pod-like animal that evolved on another planet might not have those limits. For example, we can imagine an alien “Pod” that evolved from simpler ancestors with both an internal and external skeleton. Such creatures might have an internal skeleton in their arms and legs to support the weight of a large body. But with a partial exoskeleton, the Pod might have a natural helmet for its head, giant claws, or possibly a scorpionlike tail. With lungs instead of tracheae, the Pods could breathe like we do. Finally, on an alien world with different elements in the rocks and soil, the Pods might evolve with exoskeletons made from lighter, stronger materials that would allow them to grow mighty armor and still move quickly.
Could a Pod with giant, crablike claws evolve on some distant planet? Photo by Joshua Théophile (https://unsplash.com@nunchakouy).
