JOURNAL ENTRY #65
May 17, 2010
Maureen and I are just back from the Cape, where we watched the first space launch that either of us has seen. More or less. We were on I95 when it happened, and I’ve learned that isn’t an ideal location, especially when the launch isn’t directly ahead, as I’d expected, but is in fact at a ninety-degree angle out the driver’s window. In any case, it was a spectacular show. And of course there was an added wistfulness with the sense that the program is winding down.
In (I believe) 1959, when the first call for astronauts went out, I was in the Navy. I’d already applied for flight training and been rejected because my color vision is goofy. I’m not color blind, but I have my own personal spectrum. Nevertheless, I thought about applying for the program just so I could say that I had. It was, I thought, as close as I could ever hope to get to a Moon flight.
I should add, by the way, that Maureen and I were NASA guests a couple of years ago. The flight got postponed several times and we never got to see the liftoff. But I can remember looking up at the Saturn rocket, closer than I’d ever been, and thinking how high it was, how I wouldn’t even want to go up and sit in the shuttle, let alone be on board when they fire the thing off. This from a guy who got upset when he was told he’d never get to land a jet on a carrier deck. Amazing how we change over the years.
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Now we wonder where the space program is headed. I’ve no problem with private industry taking it over, except that I can’t see where we save any money. The government is still going to be paying the bill. Who would have believed, when the early missions went to the Moon, that we would be at this point in 2010? What happened to Jupiter?
We’re paying the price for wasting money through corrupt politicians and pointless wars. I can imagine George Washington’s reaction when, on a visit back, he learns that we’ve been bogged down in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for years. In Afghanistan because we screwed up when we had Osama trapped and let him get clear. In Iraq for a reason that I’m still not able to guess. So much for conservative values.
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We were in Florida to attend the Nebula weekend, which was taking place in Cocoa Beach. The winners:
Short story: “Spar,” Kij Johnson
Novelette: “Sinner, Baker,Fabulist,Priest; "Red Mask, BlackMask, "Gentleman, Beast " Eugie Foster
Novella: “The Women of Nell Gwynne’s,” Kage Baker
Novel: The Windup Girl, Paolo Bacigalupi
Joe Haldeman was named a Damon Knight Grand Master.
I’ve known Joe and his lovely wife Gay for more years than I care to count. He is a Vietnam veteran, and was wounded in action. He has a Bachelor‘s degree in astronomy, and a master‘s in creative writing, which he currently teaches at MIT. He’s won five Hugos, five Nebulas, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. And a host of others.
He has a wide range of interests. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn he’s also a golf pro and a chess master. Joe is quietly unassuming, but his achievements tend to make the rest of us suspect that we’ve spent too much time hanging out somewhere. I should add that I’ve never known anyone I’d rather have at my back.
He would tell you that much of the credit belongs to Gay. There’s undoubtedly a lot of truth to that. The lesson to be taken from their experience: Marry the right person.
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John Adams will be launching Lightspeed, an online magazine, June 1. (www.lightspeed.com) It will carry stories by Vylar Kaftan, David Barr Kirtley, and Carrie Vaughn. Meanwhile, I’ll be revealing the truth behind a massive coverup in “The Cassandra Effect.” The first humans to land on the Moon were not riding on Apollo XI.
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One of the advantages of the annual Nebula Awards is that you get a chance to spend time with people you don’t see often. This weekend, they included Stan Schmidt, Bud Sparhawk, Sheila Williams, Susan Allison, Steven Silver, and Jeff Carver, and Ben Bova. The last flight of the Atlantis hung over the proceedings, and we found ourselves talking about story ideas (as writers inevitably do). The idea that kept surfacing: A story about a person who watches the last shuttle flight.
Another item in the news lately: Today’s kids will, according to researchers, be the first U.S. generation with a shorter life expectancy than their parents. Are we going backward? What do you think?
If you reply, but do not want your name used, please tell me.
Below are responses to the issue of how we would expect the American public to react if we received a bona fide signal from outer space:
Bearing in mind that some people believe the moon landings to be a fake I suspect that any signal would be greeted with a mix of awe, disbelief or worse total apathy.
After a few weeks in the news it becomes a minor headline behind the latest Brad & Ang report, the next big thing on you tube and another 'is Osama Bin Laden really dead' article.
Speaking of you tube how ironic would it be if hidden amongst all the dross was a genuine signal in video form that was just presumed to be fake.
--Ted Keen
If we actually hear an undeniably alien signal, I think the general
public will react in a wide variety of ways: from unbridled enthusiasm
to casual interest, disbelief and indifference. Unless the signal is
the first of many, I suspect most people would just absorb the news,
talk about it for a bit, and move on. A lot would depend on how much
information was in the signal and the specific nature of that
information. I think we could expect the news to quickly be absorbed
into popular culture and spit back out at us in everything from novels
to movies, TV shows, comics, and more. I thought it was fascinating
to see the way the alien "grays" gradually moved from the fringes of
UFO research into popular culture until, in the '90s, the iconic gray
head had become the equivalent of the yellow smiley face that was
ubiquitous in the '70s. You could buy gray stickers in gumball
machines (in fact, you still can)! I love the idea that if such beings
exist and actually represent mankind's contact with an alien species,
the defining reaction of humanity is to make them accessible and to
merchandise the heck out of them. That strikes me as a very human
response.
--Jim Nelson
After reading your parting thought about reaction to alien contact my mind ran over all the possible forms that could take. You have covered many in your books and short stories, except for the "alien ships appear in our skies" scenario. I really wonder what the reactions were during that Orson Wells "War of the Worlds" broadcast in the late '30s. The initial reactions to landings, before the fighting erupted. Might be a good clue to how we would react.
I thought of scenes where the lone driver encounters a space ship in the middle of nowhere, astronauts find an obelisk on the Moon, planet discovered with obvious cities, alien space ships invade our skies to the scenario you laid out and it came down to one thing, presentation. How is this information presented to the public, or is it surprised? X-Files, Roswell, and other various conspiracy theories show how information or disinformation can make the public completely unsure of what is real, and influence how we might respond. Look at how information was controlled in communist countries during the last half of the twentieth century. I will give three more examples that show how facts, theories and opinions can collide into a swirl of emotion and hate. Global warming, autism vs. immunizations and the big one, Religion.
Getting a breaking news report that a signal has been detected would be the single most important events in human history, since the invention of writing. The first question I would have is "How Far Away?" Thousands of light years away seems a safe distance and would hopefully provide an opportunity for the various human races, cultures and religions to come together as a real human race instead of the "Us and Them" differentiations which have sprung up and hampered any hope of actual peace on Earth. However, the closer they are to us the more wary I would be of actual "contact". We definitely fear the unknown, and based on our own history, we have good reason to worry. Rape of the New World could have a whole new meaning. This might be different in several hundred years when we don't (hopefully!) have all of our human eggs in one basket (Earth), we are pretty vulnerable on just one planet whose location is known. (This could be an interesting story idea. Ever read Gregory Benford's Galactic Center series?)
But getting a signal and decoding it are two very different things, then there is actual communication. I am a pessimist in the intelligent life debate. I have "Here Be Dragons" by David Koerner and Simon LeVay on my reading list, a book on "the scientific quest for extraterrestrial life".
I am sure there is life out there, somewhere, but making contact with other intelligent life, given the vast galactic distances involved, would seem to be nothing more than a passing wave in the darkness, but it would be thrilling none the less.
--Brian Robertson
Looking at how some people react, even before a signal is actually received, gives a pretty good indication of what will happen, only multiply it by 1000. We already have the National Equirer stories, the questionable talk shows, the cults, the merchandising, the movies, etc. With an real honest-to-goodness signal, well ..... I'll be in the basement, call me when it's safe to come out :) Religious organizations will certainly put in their take on the situation.
As for the general population, it depends on how close the signal is. If it's several light years away, it may give people food for thought, but generally they would go about their daily lives. Bills still have to be paid, the kids driven to soccer practice, etc.
If the signal were really close, I guess there wouldn't be much time too prepare, so I suspect the government would keep things as quiet as possible until they could figure out what was going on.
As an aside, I just watched "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" on the weekend. I first saw it when I was 8 years old or so. The part where the aliens are trying to take little Barry away and the mother is freaking out really scared me back then. Now, some 30-something years later, I still get the heeby-jeebies watching that part. I was burrowed so far under the blankets, just my eyes were peeping out. As much as I'd be excited/thrilled to find out about a signal in a generaly sense, I don't know that I'd like one of them try to find its way down my chimney.
--Bridget
You ask in your journal what the reaction of the General Public would be if we got "an undeniable indicator that there's someone out there." Well assuming the evidence is not a ship of somekind parked in orbit or coming at us, I suspect the general public reaction would be gee whiz, that's great, but how will that impact the Super Bowl?
--Mike Pratt
Perhaps my favorite scifi film of all time is Contact,partly because I think it is a wonderful story, and partly because I had the pleasure of Carl Sagan (and Frank Drake) as a professor at Cornell in the early 80s. I have always thought how well the story reflects how various groups would react: the military would be paranoid, the politicians would be indecisive and the kooks would congregate with tin-foil on their heads. I also think the majority of the general public would be unmoved - certainly less interested than they are with the infidelities of Tiger Woods or the antics of Lindsay Lohan.
--Simon Ellis
Thanks to all who responded.