Vaccinia Virus

In my last blog post I mentioned that the Exodemic novel uses smallpox as a plot element. It is possible that the smallpox virus originated from an African rodent virus that attained the ability to infect humans (see this article). As discussed by Hughes et al, the origin of Vaccinia Virus (the virus that was used to immunize people against lethal smallpox virus infection) remains a mystery. The mysterious origin of Vaccinia Virus is why I selected it as a plot device for inclusion in the science fiction novel Exodemic.

DNA viruses like Vaccinia are also good examples of nanoscale molecular devices and nanotechnology plays an important role in Exodemic. I imagine that Genesaunt technology allows for efficient introduction of DNA into human cells. Pox viruses are interesting in that they typically have a very limited host range. I imagined that the Genesaunts were able to engineer a pox virus for use in immunizing residents of the Moon against common infectious diseases on Earth. This was important so that Genesaunt agents (Observers) could work on Earth and not be killed or injured by diseases like smallpox.

Vaccinia virus has become a popular subject of research, both as a viral agent for vaccination and for other engineered uses such as targetted destruction of cancer cells. When I was writing Exodemic it was not hard to imagine that Genesaunts would make use of Vaccinia virus as a nanoscale device. Further, I could imagine that Vaccinia virus might have had some earlier human-like ape as its natural host. The Exodemic plot includes the idea that the Huaoshy have been taking apes off of Earth for millions of years.

Pox viruses have DNA coding for many proteins, and in Vaccinia about half the coded proteins seem important for the ability of the virus to replicate. Many of the other proteins might modulate the virulence of the virus and could be important for allowing Vaccinia to replicate inside human cells without causing human disease. This is the subject of on-going research (example). If we pretend that Vaccinia virus was genetically engineered by Genesaunts to safely infect humans, then we have to ask if there might be clues in the Vaccinia DNA sequence that can suggest evidence of that genetic engineering.

An important part of the Exodemic plot revolves around the need for the Genesaunts to eventually abandon their base on the Moon. When I wrote Exodemic I imagined that there would be a point in the technological development of human civilization on Earth at which it would become very difficult to hide the existence of a Genesaunt base under the surface of the Moon. We might be at that point now with the GRAIL mission searching for “masses hidden beneath the lunar surface”.

It would make more sense for the Genesaunts to use their nanite technology for observations of Earth, but it is more fun to have human Observers on Earth. While Genesaunts do not have access to the Huaoshy technology for faster-than-light travel, they do use an advanced technology for faster-than-light communication. There is no way for we Earthlings with our primitive technology to intercept or detect Genesaunt communications. Our SETI attempts to detect radio signals from distant worlds are doomed to failure because it is only primitives who try to use electromagnetic waves for interstellar communication.

Besides fun, there is another reason for having Human Observers on Earth. Although the Rules of Observation forbid interference by Observers in the natural course of development of human civilization on Earth, the Huaoshy really only care that Earthlings not become aware of how Genesaunts alter the course of human affairs on Earth. Having a few Observers on Earth is part of the system by which the Huaoshy influence the course of human civilization. The Overseers are allowed to believe that the Interventionists lack the ability to visit Earth without being detected by Observers. As long as the Interventionists are not too bold, the Overseers never catch on to their tricks (such as finding a way to provide the benefits of vaccination to Earthlings).

The intervention depicted in the prelude to Exodemic is designed to come after the Genesaunts have already decided to phase out their use of the secret base under the surface of the Moon. The preludes takes place in ancient Greece when it looks like Earthlings are on the path towards science and technology. But the crafty Interventionists allow the Overseers to notice that Greek science is leaping ahead because of Interventionist meddling. The Overseers put an end to Greek science and humanity needs another 2,000 years to reach the Industrial Age. During those 2,000 years the process of phasing out Moon Base slowly continues, and by the time that Kate Renshaw is taken off of Earth, Moon Base can no longer fully staff the Earth Observation Program. This helps the Interventionists make changes to Earthly civilization that go undetected (by Overseers) for several decades.

In other stories that I have written after Exodemic, particularly Cellular Civilization, I imagine that the Observers have automated nanotechnology for detecting unusual DNA sequences on Earth and the Overseers routinely use that technology to detect genetic monkey business perpetrated by Interventionists. In Exodemic, the Interventionists are given advanced technology that allows them to elude most of the Earth Observation tools that the Overseers rely upon. For 2,000 years the Interventionists do not do much on Earth and the Overseers become lulled into a false sense of security: they let their guard down.

Overseers are part biological and partially nanorobotic artificial life forms. A typical tour of duty for an Overseer is about 1,000 years. By the time that Interventionists use Kate Renshaw as their agent, there are no active Overseers with experience intercepting Interventionist missions on Earth. The Overseers are something like the Keystone Kops of Exodemic: they remind me of the Kzin or the Klingons, always taking themselves too seriously and always being defeated. In essence, the Overseers function to prevent bumbling alterations of human civilization by soft-hearted Observers who might grow too attached to their Earthling friends. The Overseers are told that their main function is to thwart Genesaunt Interventionists, but in reality the Interventionists are always given (by the Huaoshy) slightly more advanced nanotechnology and space ships that allow them to run circles around the poor Overseers.

The image to the right is a cover from a Dean Ing novel set in the context of Niven’s Man-Kzin wars. Niven imagined that Kzin females were little more than baby factories. In Exodemic, all the Observers are male and all the Overseers are female. The excuse provided for this is that the Rules of Observation call for no chance that Genesaunts on Earth might exchange genes with humans on Earth. The sperm of Observer males cannot fertilize the eggs of women on Earth. Before humans became the Observers on Earth, the humanoid ancestors of the Overseers functioned as Observers. When modern humans took over the job of on-Earth Observation, the Overseers depicted in Exodemic were already present as part of Genesaunt civilization: they were humanoid/nanobot hybrids that cannot interbreed with humans, although when they interact with humans they morph so as to take on human body form. The Overseers sometimes have to bully and intimidate Observers, so they routinely take on the form of human females and revel in the process of humiliating any Observers who get out of line and violate the Rules of Observation. Sometimes Overseers can impersonate an Earthling and trick an Observer into revealing the fact that he is a violator of the Rules of Observation.

The Overseers view themselves as vastly superior to humans and have a chronic problem of being bored with the mundane tasks that they typically perform on a daily basis. The Overseers have long ago abandoned sexual reproduction. They reproduce synthetically by a sophisticated engineering process that involves cleansing chromosomes of genetic defects and updating their nanorobotic components to the latest software versions. The biological core of an Overseer develops into little more than a nervous system, a minimal digestive system and a kidney. The rest of an Overseer body is composed of nanites. The Overseer nervous system does have an advanced chemosensory system and an artificially engineered chemosynthetic organ. Overseers can manufacture a large number of potent pheromones which they use as a major foundation for the complex dynamics of Overseer social interactions. Humans stationed at the Observer Base under the surface of the Moon know nothing about Overseer sociology, but there is considerable speculation.

For some stories set in the Exodemic Fictional Universe I have fun imagining that humans have receptors that respond to some of the Overseer pheromones. Usually the Overseers manipulate the behavior of humans by invading their bodies with nanorobotic probes. However, in some cases it is fun to depict Overseers as having the ability to manipulate human emotions with the help of pheromones. In Exodemic there is a funny scene during which an Overseer is trying to obtain important information from Judy Renshaw. They end up in bed together on a cold English night and Judy, confused by the effects of unseen nanites and pheromones later feels that she was unfairly taken advantage of. Overseers find humans repulsive, but they are willing to take on human form in order to do their police work.

The ability of Overseers to take emotional and physical control over humans reminds me of The Man Trap (see image to the right), although Overseers have no telepathic abilities. In this Star Trek episode, an alien was able to appear to Dr. McCoy in the form a woman who he had previously know and the alien was able to make McCoy believe that the alien was a human woman. Similarly, Overseers can use their nanorobotic components to morph into the form of a human and they could probably do a fairly good job of impersonating a specific human.

In Exodemic, an Overseer meets Franny and suddenly realizes that Franny is probably the daughter of an Observer (Howard Miller). The Overseer needs a sample of Franny’s DNA. It takes little more than a moment of physical contact to obtain the DNA sample and within a few minutes the nanorobotic components of the Overseer’s body completely sequence Franny’s genome. Within the hour Franny is in outer space and starting her new life as a Genesaunt.

Collaboration: I wrote a “first draft” Exodemic several years ago. If you would like to dust the story off for some collaborative development and re-writing, let me know.

Images. Top: image from this article; pox viruses have surface proteins that are similar to those of icosahedral capsids. GRAIL image from NASA.

Singular Technological Advances

In my previous blog post I mentioned the idea that there might only ever be one technological civilization that invents faster-than-light (FTL) space travel.

Frankly, I know of no reason to think that faster-than-light travel is possible. I’m willing to read and write science fiction stories that include faster-than-light travel because such stories are fun. Faster-than-light space travel can be a useful plot device just to speed along a story. However, even if we assume that at some future time humans learn how to move at faster-than-light speeds, what if it takes us a million years before we figure out how to do it?

It has become popular in science fiction to explore singularianism, but I suspect that most enthusiasm for the idea that we are quickly approaching a technological singularity comes from physical scientists who mistakenly assume that Moore’s Law ensures that “superintelligent” artificial life forms are inevitable, and will soon be among us. For those who have been sucked into believing that a technological singularity is near, it must be a shock to see the suggestion that some technological advances might take millions of years to accomplish.

In “Why It Took So Long to Invent the Wheel“, Natalie Wolchover discusses evidence that is consistent with the idea that wheeled vehicles were only invented once.
Several serious challenges probably had to be solved by one talented ancient engineer including: 1) limiting friction at the axel-wheel interface and 2) having strong materials for wheels and axels and 3) having a way to efficiently power a wheeled vehicle. As soon as one genious produced a useful wheeled vehicle, the needed technological tricks probably spread so rapidly that nobody else ever had the chance to achieve a second independent invention of a wheeled vehicle.

Similarly, it might be the case that there was one technologically advanced civiliztion that long ago develped on a distant Earth-like planet and that civilization might have discovered how to travel through outer space at faster-than-light speeds. That cicilization might now be spreading from star to star (and galaxy to galaxy) and spreading its cultural influence to other less technologically advanced species.

If faster-than-light travel is possible, what might cause development of FTL travel to be such a difficult technological advance? Isaac Asimov had some fun with this topic in his fiction. In his time travel novel, The End of Eternity, Asimov imagined that human cicilization developed time travel and the mere existence of time travel technology made it impossible to invent faster-than-light travel. The basic idea was that humans used time travel to prevent technological risks such as use of nuclear power. In the absence of risky technologies like nuclear power, faster-than-light travel was never invented.

In his robot stories, Asimov played around with the idea that humans might first need to create artificial life forms, then the A.L. might be smart enough to invent faster-than-light space travel. Might the human mind be “cognitively closed” to certain types of technological advances?

In The Start of Eternity, I play around with the idea that time travel technology depends on development of “positronics” as an alternative to electronics.

I also have played around with the idea that the Huaoshy had to alter the physical laws of the universe in order to make it possible to have faster-than-light space travel. In the figure above, the diagram illustrates how the dimensional structure of the universe can be engineered so as to make FTL space travel possible. I imagined that faster-than-light space travel requires a non-natural type of matter, sedrons. By altering the physical laws of the universe, the Huaoshy are able to obtain a supply of sedrons. They can then change the physical laws of the universe one more time so as to prevent any other civilization from obtaining sedrons. Thus, the Huaoshy have a monopoly on sedrons and faster-than-light space travel.

The first science fiction story I ever read about the discovery of faster-than-light travel was The Skylark of Space. Ed Smith was a chemist who, like many physical scientists, had no trouble imagining the existence of “superintelligent” beings. While I’ve suggested the possibility that it might take a million years of effort for humans to discover how to travel at faster-than-light speeds, Smith imagined that, with a little luck, one chemist could crack the problem in an afternoon and soon be off cruising through the galaxies as easily as we now cruise through the oceans of Earth.

In his Lensman series, Smith imagined a 2,000,000,000 year-long process by which superintelligent beings would craft a new form of life that would have even greater super abilties than themselves. Happiliy for us, humans are these super-super beings. I’ve long been baffled by Smith’s fictional universe in which faster-than-light space travel can be invented by a single chemist in an afternoon but superintelligent beings (Arisians) require a 2,000,000,000 year-long breeding program to evolve a form of life that can improve upon their inferior grade of superintelligence, defeat the evil Eddorians and save the universe for GOOD(hurray!).

In the Lensman series, it is deceptively easy for Earthlings to “invent” faster-than-light space travel because the ancient Arisians (secretly) give the needed technology to humanity. Besides the 2,000,000,000 year-long breeding program, the other key “ingredient” needed to transform humans into super-super beings is the “Lens”. The “Lens” is a kind of “telepathy amplifier” that gives those who wear it almost magical communications abilities. The only woman to ever recieve a “Lens” from the Arisians (she is the end product of the 2,000,000,000 year-long breeding program) gives birth to children who spontaneously have telepathic ability, without needing a “Lens”. These “children of the lens” defeat the evil Eddorians and take over from the Arisians the task of protecting all that is GOOD in the universe (Ta-Da!).

Smith wrote down the plot for his Lensman saga in 1936. In 1936, people like Alan Turing were just starting towards the development of what would become electronic digital computers. By 1941 Isaac Asimov was writing stories about telepathic robots and it had become possible for science fiction authors to imagine how a artificial life forms might be created and (quickly) lead to a “technological sigularity” when artificial brains attained “superintelligence”. Rather than having to wait patiently through a 2,000,000,000 year-long breeding program, “artificial intelligence” provides a plot device that can rapidly yield superintelligence. Before the end of the 20th century, the idea of a “technological sigularity” lept from the pages of science fiction stories into works of purported non-fiction that predicted that the “technological sigularity” will be here really soon, now.

Science Fiction has been dominated by people with a background in physical science. I don’t ever want fussy science facts to get in the way of a good science fiction story, but I think we can make better science fiction stories by paying more attention to the facts of biology. If most science fiction fans beleive that by the middle of this century we will be uploading our minds into computers as easily as we now upload blog posts to Google’s servers, who am I to argue with such beliefs? However, I will take pleasure in those all-too-rare science fiction stories that pull the science fiction genre in new directions by incorporating realistic views of living organisms and, particularly, the nature of human minds.

Ever since 1818 the science fiction genre has been trapped under the spell that was cast by Mary Shelley. When I started writing my Exodemic stories I made the life and work of Mary Wollstonecraft an important element of the first story. The name “Exodemic” came from the idea that effective Smallpox vaccination only became possible because of a happy biological accident involving a visiting Observer from the Moon. A lucky genetic recombination event sets in motion a chain of events that significantly alters the development of human civilization…..leading to an alternative history of Earth with profound implications for how our species experiences First Contact and becomes integrated into the vast interstellar civilization of the Huaoshy.

Because of the “exodemic”, Mary Wollstonecraft lives a long and productive life and the influence of Mary Shelley is greatly reduced. In the alternative history of Earth, there is a profound shift of power from physical science towards biological science and we humans manage to better control the technological excesses arising from physical science. I’ll say more about Exodemic in my next blog post.

Images. Top: from NASA. Egyptian chariot art. Lensman book cover. The end is near! Below: Cover of Exodemic.

Free Will

What makes us tick?

Nanites are one of the important plot devices and an imagined future technology in The Start of Eternity. The Huaoshy are aliens who wield advanced technology and they make use of nanoscopic devices that can invade a human brain and alter the function of neural networks.

The Huaoshy have long been visitors to Earth. In the distant past they evolved a human-like intelligence on their distant home world. The Huaoshy first visited Earth millions of years ago. They performed artificial selection on primates and designed humanity so that we humans have brains and behaviors that are similar to those of the Huaoshy. In short, the Huaoshy created us in their image.

This might all sound like a recipe for some rather standard alien invasion story with evil aliens using their advanced technology to enslave humanity, but the Huaoshy follow a set of rules that govern how they interact with other life forms. One of those rules says: It should APPEAR to every type of sentient being that they have self-determination and are not being controlled by more technologically advanced life forms. While they do follow this rule, the Huaoshy only feel obliged to make sure that we humans believe that we have free will and self-determination. For example, if a human somehow learned of the existence of the Huaoshy, they would not hesitate to use their nanite technology to erase the human’s memories and knowledge of the Huaoshy.

The skeptic might ask, assuming these circumstances, if we humans would actually have free will. Mikel G Roberts pondered the effects of allowing nanites into our bodies. “Would that make us lose our humanity? Lose our soul?“

In The Start of Eternity the Huaoshy are not interested in depriving humans of free will and self-determination. For the most part, the Huaoshy are content to have shaped our species…they are not interested in micro-managing our personal lives. Of course, given the advanced technological powers of the Huaoshy they sometimes can’t resist shaping the behavior of individual humans. Such is the plight of Gohrlay, the main character in The Start of Eternity.

Gohrlay comes dangerously close to discovering the fact that aliens shape and sculpt the course of human evolution. She finds evidence that the course of human evolution on Earth has not been natural, but she assumes that genetic alterations to Earthlings have been carried out by meddling humans who live on the Moon. Along the way, Gohrlay violates one of the central laws of her culture and she becomes a criminal. Having come too close to the truth, nanites are sent into her brain and many of her memories are suppressed. Gohrlay is aware that she has been punished and has lost important parts of her memories. She finds that she is no longer in complete command of her own behavior and that she can no longer discuss with her friends what has happened to her. She hates the fact that she has lost some memories and lost control of some of her thought processes.

Gohrlay’s fate might be viewed as a violation of the Huaoshy rule requiring that humans believe they have free will and self-determination. However, she blames fellow humans for her plight, so the meddling Huaoshy get off on a technicality. The fact that Gohrlay has lost precious memories and is no longer in complete control of her own behavior pushes her towards a critical decision. She agrees to participate in a dangerous experiment that will destroy her brain. I’ve blogged previously about Gohrlay’s decision to die. She would rather try to gain a chance at a second life through the experiment than continue living her mind-altered half-life as a punished criminal.

Even though Gohrlay has lost some of her memories and has been isolated from her friends, she still feels like she has free will. However, she wonders if along with her memories she lost some important part of herself that would not have allowed herself to volunteer for the experiment that will destroy her brain. She can’t help wondering if she is deluding herself into believing that her mind’s physical substrate will be scanned during the experiment and successfully converted into circuits that will produce a new synthetic copy of her mind.

Which is worse, losing your free will or fearing that you lost it?

Image Credits. The image at the top of this blog post was made using copyleft images by John A Beal, Nicolas Genin and Patrick J. Lynch and can be re-used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License

Listening to the universe

ALMA

A novel that had an important influence on me is An XT called Stanley. The key plot idea in An XT called Stanley is that a radio signal from another world is received and it allows people to make an artificial intelligence. Would it really be possible to understand a message from another world that explained how to make a computer that could think?

A similar story was A for Andromeda where the alien-inspired computer was able to make an artificial human that was a puppet for the alien-inspired computer that wanted to a) take over the world or b) save humanity from destroying itself…dunno which… guess this confusion is what is known as “mixed reviews”…I never read the novel or saw the TV show. In either case, I like the idea of a kind of boot-strapping of technologies that would essentially allow an alien mind to reach Earth by way of a radio signal. Could such an alien-designed/human-built computer easily create a synthetic human and use it as a kind of alien puppet?

When Carl Sagan wrote his novel Contact he used the idea of a radio telescope receiving instructions for how to build a complex machine. In that case, the machine was a device that allowed travel between the stars. It would sure simplify interstellar travel if you could just send out coded messages and have assorted intelligent beings pick up the signal and then build nodes for the galactic transport system.

But how would even a devilishly clever alien make sure that a tribe of primates on a distant world could understand the instructions for how to build an advanced hunk of technology? Imagine sending instructions for how to make an iPhone back to the year 1850. In the Movie Contact, the alien message is at first indecipherable but then it is realized that the data files must be assembled in a three dimensional pattern….and….magically all becomes clear.

A similar “first contact” story is Robert J. Sawyer’s Factoring Humanity (I’ve never read it). If the aliens are so smart, why should they be satisfied to send us instructions for anything as mundane as an intelligent machine or a worm-hole generator? According to Kirkus Reviews, Sawyer’s signal from ET has instructions that explain to humans how to slip into the “fourth dimension” where it is possible to magically “plug into humanity’s collective unconscious, or overmind”.

Arthur Clarke pointed out that advanced technologies can seem like magic. Maybe Hoyle‘s Law should be: “If received by radio telescope, any advanced technology can be magically understood”.

If there were an extraterrestrial intelligence that wanted to establish communication with planets like Earth, would they be satisfied to simply send out radio messages? In The Start of Eternity, the alien Huaoshy have been around for about a billion years by the time when their spaceships finally reach Earth. The story is set in Isaac Asimov’s fictional Foundation Universe where faster-than-light space travel is possible. The Huaoshy have an ancient legend about the time before they learned how to travel between the stars. In those ancient times, they sent messages into outer space with instructions for how to build high-tech devices.

In the case of “The Saga of Uvadekoto”, the alien message does not arrive by anything as mundane as radio waves. There is an entire branch of physics (sedronic physics) that is unknown to our Earthly science. I felt the need to move beyond the standard model in order to make room for Asimov’s plot elements: time travel, hyperspace jump drives and telepathy. As depicted in “The Saga of Uvadekoto”, the recipients of the “sedronic signal” from the Huaoshy are not quite as primitive as we are. It is fun to imagine that, as proud as we are of our technology, we might even now be bathed in signals from extraterrestrial intelligences. We might lack the technology that is required to receive those messages. It might be the Huaoshy Law: beings that still only know about electromagnetism and not sedronics are unable to decode our messages anyhow, so we will only transmit sedronic signals.” So here we sit, listening to the universe and puzzling over the silence of the radio bands.

Speculative Science in Science Fiction

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

I’m comfortable with thinking about science fiction as a type of fantastic story in which we are not forced to deal with the supernatural. If a story says that something happened because of a magic spell then I’ll call that fantasy. However, I accept the idea that advanced science and technology can seem like magic.

Science fiction stories often include plot elements that seem magical and never get explained. For example, Asimov’s “positronic brain” sounds cool and Asimov never tried to explain how it works or how it might make telepathy possible. Science fiction writers need not explain their faster-than-light spaceship engines, how their time travel machines work or details about any imagined technology. However, sometimes it is fun to constrain the scientific account of an imagined scientific advance or technology. For example, if Asimov says that a positronic brain contains platinum, then we start to feel that he has not tried to slip something magical past us, the damned thing is a physical device, we just do not know the technical details.

I was recently looking at Frankenstein. Shelley wrote, “I see by your eagerness, and the wonder and hope which your eyes express, my friend, that you expect to be informed of the secret with which I am acquainted; that cannot be”. We were provided no details on how to create life, but Shelly went out of her way to indicate that there was a scientific way to animate non-living matter. When writing science fiction, is it best to simply avoid all detailed explanations of speculative science and technology?

Charlie Jane Anders seemed to advocate such a “less is more” approach for science fiction in the context of “the force” in Star Wars (see: The Real Problem With Midichlorians). However, I like some constraints on science fiction plot devices. Go ahead, mention that there is platinum in positronic brains, stress the importance of dilithiun crystals, mention the fact that Luke has many midichlorians and so can be expected to learn how to tap into “the force”. Such imagined technological details make the story richer and remind us that we are playing around inside a science fiction “what if” game, not a fantasy scenario. This is a matter of taste: some people would rather not hear about platinum, dilithium and midichlorians. I can live with variation in individual taste with respect to detail in stories that include speculative science.

While collaborating to write The Search for Kalid, I wanted to write about people who were coming to understand how telepathy is possible. I wanted there to be a speculative science account for how telepathy works. By imposing some constraints it becomes possible to make a richer story. I suppose that I was influenced in my thinking about telepathy by the idea of “midichlorians”. You could say that I took the seed idea, that of a small body component that is important for “mental powers”, and I ran with it. How might a biological structure (I called mine “telastids”) produce a form of communications signal that might be used for telepathy?

Diagram for the roll of telastids in telepathy.

This diagram (above) is meant to summarize key parts of a “science of telepathy”. Readers who are not interested in technical details can read The Search for Kalid without worrying about the technical details. If you have a taste for constraints and a few details concerning speculative science then those details are available for your enjoyment.

You might feel that “midichlorians” were “not an explanation you can build on“, but I don’t feel that way and I think the “telastids” are a fun direction in which to build. Science has a way of revealing that the universe is built on all sorts of things that might at first strike us as crazy or impossible. Funny how science can be dismissed as “hand waving” by people who do not want to hear the truth (example), usually people who imagine that a supernatural “explanation” is best. Sorry, but a supernatural “explanation” is the true hand waving. The speculative science “midichlorian” is the kind of plot element should be in a science fiction story.

Similarly, for The Start of Eternity I started with Asimov’s suggestion and invented a reason for using platinum in positronic circuits. My main motivation for including details concerning speculative science is that it helps me make richer imagined worlds where human actions are constrained in “logical” ways. Another motivation is that by including such details the characters in stories can be shown struggling to understand their world in the way that scientists and engineers do. I think it is great when science fiction stories include people who are making scientific discoveries and developing new technologies. In my mind, throwing in a few details makes for a more satisfying account of speculative science than Shelley’s “I could tell you the details, but I won’t” or Obi-Wan Kenobi’s techno babble account: “The force is an energy field.”

Charlie Jane Anders prefers the content-free (energy field) “explanation” of “the force” because it allows for the possibility that there is no science involved, it could be that “the force” is “mystical and soul-related”. Well, okay, if that floats your boat, but, um, there’s a reason why it is called science fiction. Anders claims that “midichlorians actually contradict” the original content-free explanation, but I do not see how. Midichlorians were an elaboration of the original idea, a way of linking “the force” to physical reality. Sure, that will offend you if you imagine that “the force” is non-physical magic, but that’s your problem, a problem that you created for yourself. I’m willing to follow Lucas in the direction he took the story rather than complain about it. I’m in the market for more platinum, midichlorians and telastids. I’m happy to find such details in my science fiction, particularly when they make clear that I did not fall into some fantasy story where supernatural forces “explain” things.