thoughts and opinions by author s. andrew swann
S Andrew Swann | April 18, 2008
Just saw an interesting post on The Feminist SF Blog that draws attention to one of those little cultural blind spots that are really useful in worldbuilding. You know, the kind of thing everyone takes for granted, so when they read about another culture (real or fictional) that does it differently they’re all like “whoa.” [...]
S Andrew Swann | April 11, 2008
You may have heard about the move Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed which apparently exposes the vast conspiracy of the scientific establishment to keep “Intelligent Design” from being taught in science classes alongside Evolution. This is sort of like the Yankees making a movie bemoaning the NFL’s conspiracy to keep them out of the Superbowl. They’re [...]
S Andrew Swann | January 18, 2008
Or a third of a trilogy. Final verbiage until editorial revisions kick in: 95,859. Since rewrites for me always go long, Prophets will probably be 100K words when it hits the shelves. I’ve retired the counter, and adjusted the word count for the trilogy as a whole so that Prophets is actually 1/3 of the [...]
S Andrew Swann | December 16, 2007
Now, some breaking news from those wacky Korean scientists: Of course, these genetically-engineered fluorescent cats were created to deal with the epidemic of fluorescent mice.
S Andrew Swann | November 21, 2007
Wo hoo! I won Scalzi’s LOLCreation contest with the following entry: If you’ve read my earlier post on Science Religion you probably know why, though I’m respectful of people’s belief systems, I find the concept behind the Creation Museum eminently mockable. Here’s the point: Faith = The belief in a spiritual or moral truth without [...]
S Andrew Swann | October 31, 2007
L. E. Modesitt, Jr. wrote a long post on his blog on why he believes the singularity won’t happen. [via SF Signal] According to Modesitt, it won’t happen because such visions are based on technology, not on humanity and they’re based on a western European/North American cultural chauvinism. He goes on to explain: One of [...]
S Andrew Swann | September 26, 2007
Ok, this BBC Story is scary and funny at the same time. Thousands of the amphibians have died in recent days in a pond in Hamburg’s Altona district, with their bodies swelling to bursting point. The toads’ entrails are propelled for up to a metre (3.2ft), in scenes that have been likened to science fiction. [...]
S Andrew Swann | March 14, 2007
The Union of Concerned Scientists has published a guide that serves as a good counterpoint to an earlier post of mine about the ugly interaction between politics and science. The only problem is that the examples are U.S.-centric and post-2001 so it’s a little lopsided (i.e. the current American bureaucracy is not the only one [...]
S Andrew Swann | February 5, 2007
I just got an e-mail from fellow Hamster Astrid remarking on my clipmarked post from Meme Therapy that I mentioned earlier. She brought up Immanuel Kant and the Categorical Imperative which is, in fact, a pretty good way of building a moral philosophy without recourse to God or religion. . . But, I thought I’d [...]
S Andrew Swann | January 26, 2007
Ok, I just heard the phrase “debate on global warming/climate change” one too many times. You have three guesses on exactly what pisses me off about that phrase. If you want a hint about what’s ticking me off, I’ll quote myself from my ScienceReligion post: “Science is observable fact. Period. End of sentence.” The only [...]
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