The Three "Questions" Of Science Fiction

There is a great deal of misunderstanding about what that particular branch of literature called Science Fiction actually consists of. Is it space-ships and monsters? Time machines? Galactic empires? Well, its all of those things, and often none of them.

Science Fiction, broadly speaking, is story-telling that deals with the impact of organized knowledge on human beings. Usually, this means technology, and the way it changes usand reveals about us. After all, most technology is an extension of our senses, attributes and desires: computers are brains, cell-phones are voices and ears, cars are legs, planes are the dream of flight.

Many classic S.F. films and books take place in worlds identical to ours, except for the creation of some new device, or the appearance of a new life-form. Others take place in worlds so apparently foreign that only the most dedicated and experienced reader can understand what is going on!

But at the core, according to science fiction Grandmaster Robert Heinlein, there are three questions or musings most often asked or explored in any work with the Science Fiction label. Those three are:

1) What if?
2) If Only
3) If This Goes On

These three overlap considerably, but the first, What If?, is the most essential. What If the Martians attacked? What If eternal life was available at a price? What If we knew an asteroid would hit Earth in a year?

The second adds a bit of longing to the equation. If Only President Kennedy hadnt been assassinated is the kind of question that leads to sociological and historical speculation, or the Alternate History branch of S.F. which has become tremendously popular in the last decade. If Only the gene for generosity (or anger, or bigotry) could be mapped If Only we could selectively prune bad memories

There is an emotional quality to the If Only questions, and they often speak to a sense of missed opportunity, roads not taken.

The third question, If This Goes On is tailor-made for cautionary tales. If we continue to pollute the environment If one party continues to dominate American politics If more women enter the management class If the space program continues to Privatize If human beings become better at modifying their physical characteristics

These questions are starting places for speculation. While it is easy to use any of them for trivial or absurd (and entertaining!) questions like What if a 300-foot radioactive lizard attacked Tokyo? they can also address profound issues, as in how would humanity change if we gained incontrovertible proof of intelligent alien life?

By concentrating on the question, or proposition, at the core of your story, it becomes easier to keep it from becoming a CGI-fest. Ask yourself how YOU would react to a given situation. How your family would reactyou know them well. Then friends. Political adversaries. Other nations, and people of other groups. Dig into the meat of it. Study history, and begin to grasp the way societies change in response to technology, for instance the Automobile, or Printing Press, or Computer.

The more deeply you delve, the more likely you will be to create a unique question with unique answers. Then people your world with breathing, believable characters responding as intelligent, feeling people have since the beginning of time. Your work will blossom and reach new levels

Even if it IS about a 300-foot radioactive lizard!

NY Times Bestseller Steven Barnes has lectured on creativity and storytelling from Mensa to the Smithsonian Institute. Learn more about his exclusive Lifewriting system at: http://www.lifewriting.biz and http://www.lifewrite.com

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In this article UNIX is explained along with 10 good habits that the user should incorporate in order to improve his/her UNIX command line efficiency. We'll try to highlight step-by-step through several good, but often neglected, techniques for command-line operations and also learn about common errors and the ways to overcome them.

Beginning:

It is often seen that when one is using a system he/she tends to fall into set usage patterns. This leads to development of habit of doing things in improper way. In order to overcome these problems the best way is to carefully pick up good habits that offset them.

The following are the 10 UNIX command-line habits worth picking up -- good habits that helps one break many common usage foibles and makes one more productive at the command line in the process:

One must try to inculcate these 10 good habits.

1. One should make directory trees in a simple filch: It is really quite simple and faster to use the -p option to mkdir and to make all parent directories along with their children in a single command. However the administrators often ignore this option that are even familiar with this. Thus one should keep this point in mind.

2. One should change the path but not the archive: One can use this option in order to make entire complex directory trees, which are great to use inside scripts; not just simple hierarchies.

3. One should combine his/her commands with control operators: One should define complex directory trees with single command only.

4. One should use escape sequences in order to manage inputs, which are long enough.

5. One should group his/her commands together in a list.

6. One should use xargs outside of find.

7. One should quote variables with great caution.

8. One should use backslash for long input.

9. One should match certain fields in output and not just lines.

10. One should know when grep should do the counting and when it should come aside.

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