The existence of the Imaginary Structures factory was a thorn in the side of ImagCorp, which had parceled out licenses for the use of its intellectual property for close to two centuries. When Badiah Sinclair and the council decreed that the plant could reopen, alarm bells must have sounded at corporate headquarters.
It was telling, for example, that one of the invading force’s first actions had been to shut down the plant at Ganges Pass. It was not so much that people’s ability to purchase a shed or a home or a business building erected with imaginary power posed a threat to planetary security; it was the fact that this little company was using imaginary power without paying tribute to the barons of ImagCorp.
Whether an argument could be made that imaginary physics was now in the realm of public domain was irrelevant. One of the revenue streams to the company that pioneered imaginary physics was cut off. Long accustomed to having its licenses upheld and defended by the ruling government and its courts, ImagCorp exerted pressure on the independent state of Sirius 4.
When Sinclair said Imaginary Structures Inc. had a right to operate on his planet (“his” planet – another warning flag), ImagCorp responded by announcing that it would cease conducting business on Sirius 4. No new “legitimately licensed” product would be shipped here, and any license-holding entity that traded with Sirius 4 would be subject to losing its license.
To me the solution was self-evident: Encourage the freethinking entrepreneurs of Sirius 4 to fill in the market void, open facilities that manufactured meal machines and vehicles and all the other imaginary products upon which we had come to depend in our everyday lives.
To Badiah the solution was equally self-evident: “For our own protection,” he ordered that Imaginary Structures Inc. either negotiate an ImagCorp license or shut down its operation. To emphasize the point, he sent a contingent of troops to Ganges Pass.
The trickle of inquiries I was receiving about the nuts and bolts of noncooperation became a flood. Everything happened very quickly after that.
Entry 73
Showing posts with label imaginary physics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label imaginary physics. Show all posts
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Monday, October 8, 2012
Entry 69. The first imaginary revolution
The words – but not necessarily the people who spoke them – are immortalized.
Unlike “Watson, come here, I need you,” or “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” you’d have to look it up to learn that it was Sara Wilde and David Shorting who made the mental breakthrough that led to the foundation of imaginary physics.
They were working in a lab at the company that became ImagCorp, struggling to find a way to move starships faster than light so that you wouldn’t need intergenerational space arks to travel from Earth to far-distant stars.
Ironically, the genius moment came when Shorting said, “I give up.”
Yes – “I give up,” David said. “I can’t imagine a practical way to travel faster than light.”
And then came the spark.
“That's it – we need imagination!” Sara Wilde said – although few people recognize Sara Wilde as the name of the person who said those famous words. Even I had to look it up.
Because – as people had been saying for centuries – the power of the imagination is unlimited. The key was developing an engine that tapped that power. Once that mental barrier was passed, it did not take very long for them to build that engine fueled by computers with imagination.
“The power of the imagination is unlimited” became the first and central tenet of imaginary physics. And unlimited it is. It’s not just the once-unimaginable reality of traveling between stars in a matter of hours (or days, at least) – imaginary power allows us to perform an incredible variety of operations.
But we can’t conjure something from nothing – meal machines, for example, need a wad of ImagPro protein supplement to create a meal. Hence the second tenet: Matter still can’t be created or destroyed.
And despite what Einstein said, time doesn’t accelerate or decelerate at faster-than-light speeds, and despite what a multitude of writers speculated, you can’t move forward or backward through time because all that really exists is this moment. Thus the third tenet of imaginary physics: What’s done is done.
Although it does indeed have those limitations at least, imaginary power is what enabled us to settle and develop Sirius 4 in a matter of decades. It’s what made this life, and this story, possible.
Entry 70
Unlike “Watson, come here, I need you,” or “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” you’d have to look it up to learn that it was Sara Wilde and David Shorting who made the mental breakthrough that led to the foundation of imaginary physics.
They were working in a lab at the company that became ImagCorp, struggling to find a way to move starships faster than light so that you wouldn’t need intergenerational space arks to travel from Earth to far-distant stars.
Ironically, the genius moment came when Shorting said, “I give up.”
Yes – “I give up,” David said. “I can’t imagine a practical way to travel faster than light.”
And then came the spark.
“That's it – we need imagination!” Sara Wilde said – although few people recognize Sara Wilde as the name of the person who said those famous words. Even I had to look it up.
Because – as people had been saying for centuries – the power of the imagination is unlimited. The key was developing an engine that tapped that power. Once that mental barrier was passed, it did not take very long for them to build that engine fueled by computers with imagination.
“The power of the imagination is unlimited” became the first and central tenet of imaginary physics. And unlimited it is. It’s not just the once-unimaginable reality of traveling between stars in a matter of hours (or days, at least) – imaginary power allows us to perform an incredible variety of operations.
But we can’t conjure something from nothing – meal machines, for example, need a wad of ImagPro protein supplement to create a meal. Hence the second tenet: Matter still can’t be created or destroyed.
And despite what Einstein said, time doesn’t accelerate or decelerate at faster-than-light speeds, and despite what a multitude of writers speculated, you can’t move forward or backward through time because all that really exists is this moment. Thus the third tenet of imaginary physics: What’s done is done.
Although it does indeed have those limitations at least, imaginary power is what enabled us to settle and develop Sirius 4 in a matter of decades. It’s what made this life, and this story, possible.
Entry 70
Monday, June 25, 2012
Entry 19. Basics of imaginary physics
EDITOR’S NOTE: Several readers have asked what the heck is this “imaginary physics” stuff. It certainly would help to provide at least a brief overview of the scientific breakthrough that made the colonization of Sirius 4 possible, by reducing the trip to one measured in years to one measured in hours. To provide a handy primer in imaginary physics, here is an excerpt from the novel The Imaginary Bomb, in which (as usually happens) foolish humans decide to explore what kind of bomb might be made using the seemingly limitless power of the imagination.
It goes back to the old days when scientists were trying to develop a way to go faster than the speed of light, seeing as otherwise most of the universe was years and even centuries away.
They tried for years without success until the historic day when someone in R&D at what is now ImagCorp threw up his or her hands and said. “This is nuts. I can’t imagine how we’re going to achieve faster than light speed.” And the proverbial light bulb went off. Imagination was the key!
They reasoned out the first tenet of imaginary physics: The power of the imagination is unlimited. Therefore, an engine powered by the imagination theoretically could travel at unlimited speeds. The trick was developing a computer with an imagination to power the engine, but once that was accomplished, the galaxy opened up.
“ID 1.97” refers to the setting on the ImagDrive that enabled the Betsy Ross to travel at 1.97 times the speed of imagination. I know, I know, if the power of imagination is unlimited, how can you go twice as fast? Wouldn’t that be infinity times two? Well, yes and no. Imaginary engines, in theory, could get you somewhere in the blink of an eye. The problem with moving at an unlimited speed is that old devil, friction. Once you exceed lightspeed, those slow-pokey little light particles pull against your vehicle just like air does; the early ImagDrive ships came close to burning up the same way satellites burn up in the atmosphere. So “ID 1.00” isn’t really the speed of imagination — it’s the safest maximum speed of the first ships equipped with the ImagDrive. Nowadays, of course, technology has advanced, so Bob and Pete’s ship can go at ID 1.97, and actually a little faster than that.
As for the Betsy Ross itself, remember those silly-looking rocket ships that Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers would use to cruise around in the old movie serials? Who would have thought that those low-budget specials would perfectly approximate the shape you need to slice efficiently through the milky atmosphere of lightspeed-plus? Fortunately for everyone’s nerves, however, they don’t resemble the movie versions to the point where they buzz like a mosquito on steroids or emit sparks and smoke out the exhaust pipe. They just rush through space at twice the speed of imagination, looking pretty peculiar but doing the job, quietly and without fanfare.
As long as this is a story about the power of imagination, I’m letting you decide what color Bob and Pete’s hair and eyes are, or how tall they are, or the shape of their chins. Otherwise, you’ll have to wait for the movie — and even then it’ll be the casting director’s opinion of what these guys should look like.
Now, about tenets 2 and 3 of imaginary physics. When they tried to make machines that created food and other stuff using imaginary power, they discovered they couldn’t do it unless they first provided the device with some raw materials. They couldn’t just “imagine” food out of nothing; hence tenet number 2: “Matter still can’t be created or destroyed.” Newton had things pretty much figured out.
Einstein, on the other hand, was a little off with his idea that time slows down if you travel faster than light. The first people who traveled using the ImagDrive expected to come home after a 30-day trip to a changed world years and years into the future; what they really came home to was parents angry and hurt because they hadn’t called for a month. Nor could you travel backwards in time; hence tenet number 3: “What’s done is done.”
Entry 20. Breaking the cycle
It goes back to the old days when scientists were trying to develop a way to go faster than the speed of light, seeing as otherwise most of the universe was years and even centuries away.
They tried for years without success until the historic day when someone in R&D at what is now ImagCorp threw up his or her hands and said. “This is nuts. I can’t imagine how we’re going to achieve faster than light speed.” And the proverbial light bulb went off. Imagination was the key!
They reasoned out the first tenet of imaginary physics: The power of the imagination is unlimited. Therefore, an engine powered by the imagination theoretically could travel at unlimited speeds. The trick was developing a computer with an imagination to power the engine, but once that was accomplished, the galaxy opened up.
“ID 1.97” refers to the setting on the ImagDrive that enabled the Betsy Ross to travel at 1.97 times the speed of imagination. I know, I know, if the power of imagination is unlimited, how can you go twice as fast? Wouldn’t that be infinity times two? Well, yes and no. Imaginary engines, in theory, could get you somewhere in the blink of an eye. The problem with moving at an unlimited speed is that old devil, friction. Once you exceed lightspeed, those slow-pokey little light particles pull against your vehicle just like air does; the early ImagDrive ships came close to burning up the same way satellites burn up in the atmosphere. So “ID 1.00” isn’t really the speed of imagination — it’s the safest maximum speed of the first ships equipped with the ImagDrive. Nowadays, of course, technology has advanced, so Bob and Pete’s ship can go at ID 1.97, and actually a little faster than that.
As for the Betsy Ross itself, remember those silly-looking rocket ships that Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers would use to cruise around in the old movie serials? Who would have thought that those low-budget specials would perfectly approximate the shape you need to slice efficiently through the milky atmosphere of lightspeed-plus? Fortunately for everyone’s nerves, however, they don’t resemble the movie versions to the point where they buzz like a mosquito on steroids or emit sparks and smoke out the exhaust pipe. They just rush through space at twice the speed of imagination, looking pretty peculiar but doing the job, quietly and without fanfare.
As long as this is a story about the power of imagination, I’m letting you decide what color Bob and Pete’s hair and eyes are, or how tall they are, or the shape of their chins. Otherwise, you’ll have to wait for the movie — and even then it’ll be the casting director’s opinion of what these guys should look like.
Now, about tenets 2 and 3 of imaginary physics. When they tried to make machines that created food and other stuff using imaginary power, they discovered they couldn’t do it unless they first provided the device with some raw materials. They couldn’t just “imagine” food out of nothing; hence tenet number 2: “Matter still can’t be created or destroyed.” Newton had things pretty much figured out.
Einstein, on the other hand, was a little off with his idea that time slows down if you travel faster than light. The first people who traveled using the ImagDrive expected to come home after a 30-day trip to a changed world years and years into the future; what they really came home to was parents angry and hurt because they hadn’t called for a month. Nor could you travel backwards in time; hence tenet number 3: “What’s done is done.”
Entry 20. Breaking the cycle
Friday, June 15, 2012
Entry 9. Tenets
As long as we’re getting the basics out of the way, let’s talk about my Tenets of Common Wealth. Truth be known, I based them on the Tenets of Imaginary Physics – three short statements that sum up all you need to know about the way the universe works.
1. The power of the imagination is unlimited.
2. Matter still can’t be created or destroyed.
3. What’s done is done.
In my studies of history and nonviolent cooperation, I boiled down my philosophy into three short statements that sum up all you need to know about a successful peace. To make the analogy downright obvious, I named them the Tenets of Common Wealth.
1. Love your neighbor as yourself.
2. Interact with love — not force or violence.
3. Give more than you receive.
We’ll get into more detail as we go along, but everything I have said and done, and everything that led to this experiment that became the Commonwealth of Sirius 4, pretty much boils down to those three tenets.
Entry 10
1. The power of the imagination is unlimited.
2. Matter still can’t be created or destroyed.
3. What’s done is done.
In my studies of history and nonviolent cooperation, I boiled down my philosophy into three short statements that sum up all you need to know about a successful peace. To make the analogy downright obvious, I named them the Tenets of Common Wealth.
1. Love your neighbor as yourself.
2. Interact with love — not force or violence.
3. Give more than you receive.
We’ll get into more detail as we go along, but everything I have said and done, and everything that led to this experiment that became the Commonwealth of Sirius 4, pretty much boils down to those three tenets.
Entry 10
Friday, June 8, 2012
Entry 2
Two centuries ago as the applications of imaginary physics began to roll out, they called it "the imaginary revolution." From magic boxes that turned a small cube of protein into a complete, fully cooked meal to the "rocket" ships that carried people to the moon in 12 seconds, this was the stuff not just of science fiction but of dreams.
On Sirius 4, of course, we learned another sense of the term. My friend Badiah Sinclair, the reluctant leader of what has come to be known as the Imaginary Revolution, was and is a good man who believed in independence for our world. I don't believe most of the bureaucrats who attempted to control us from Earth were really tyrants; I think they simply tried to run things the way things had always been run.
But we Sirians had a different view – I almost said a "new" view, but that's not quite accurate. From the day the human species was born, and from the day each and every one of us was born, our instinct is for freedom and the desire to follow our dreams. In that way Sirians are not different at all, but coming from pioneer stock we were more insistent about following our instinct.
Badiah was right to lead us to throw off our shackles, but he made the same mistake so many revolutionaries have made through the centuries. Faced with an often-violent tyranny, he chose to meet force with force, to reward theft and blood with theft and blood.
I tried to convince him that violence only begets violence, and that using the means of our adversaries to accomplish our objectives would only infect his thinking. How many nights have I had trouble sleeping, wishing I had been more persuasive. I could have spared my childhood friend the pain of being as reviled as the Earth tyrants, more so because he was one of us.
It took barely a year after Sirius 4 secured our independence from Earth that the words of a very old song about revolution began to whisper in my subconsciousness. The song rings of a new constitution and a return to halcyon times "just like yesterday," but it concludes, "Meet the new boss: Same as the old boss."
I am getting ahead of myself, I suppose. This is certainly not beginning at the beginning. There are rules about storytelling and memoirs. On the other hand, a classic work of 20th-century Earth literature begins with a quote from a man named Juan Ramón Jiménez: "If they give you ruled paper, write the other way."
Still, there is one incident I should mention, which occurred when Badiah and I were 12 years old, that I should mention at the beginning. So much of what I believe goes back to what I learned the day I beat the stuffing out of my best friend.
Entry 3. The cookie fight
On Sirius 4, of course, we learned another sense of the term. My friend Badiah Sinclair, the reluctant leader of what has come to be known as the Imaginary Revolution, was and is a good man who believed in independence for our world. I don't believe most of the bureaucrats who attempted to control us from Earth were really tyrants; I think they simply tried to run things the way things had always been run.
But we Sirians had a different view – I almost said a "new" view, but that's not quite accurate. From the day the human species was born, and from the day each and every one of us was born, our instinct is for freedom and the desire to follow our dreams. In that way Sirians are not different at all, but coming from pioneer stock we were more insistent about following our instinct.
Badiah was right to lead us to throw off our shackles, but he made the same mistake so many revolutionaries have made through the centuries. Faced with an often-violent tyranny, he chose to meet force with force, to reward theft and blood with theft and blood.
I tried to convince him that violence only begets violence, and that using the means of our adversaries to accomplish our objectives would only infect his thinking. How many nights have I had trouble sleeping, wishing I had been more persuasive. I could have spared my childhood friend the pain of being as reviled as the Earth tyrants, more so because he was one of us.
It took barely a year after Sirius 4 secured our independence from Earth that the words of a very old song about revolution began to whisper in my subconsciousness. The song rings of a new constitution and a return to halcyon times "just like yesterday," but it concludes, "Meet the new boss: Same as the old boss."
I am getting ahead of myself, I suppose. This is certainly not beginning at the beginning. There are rules about storytelling and memoirs. On the other hand, a classic work of 20th-century Earth literature begins with a quote from a man named Juan Ramón Jiménez: "If they give you ruled paper, write the other way."
Still, there is one incident I should mention, which occurred when Badiah and I were 12 years old, that I should mention at the beginning. So much of what I believe goes back to what I learned the day I beat the stuffing out of my best friend.
Entry 3. The cookie fight
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