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Ancient Engines
"Ancient Engines" is a science fiction short story by American writer Michael Swanwick, published in 1999. It was nominated for the 2000 Hugo Award for Best Short Story as well as the 1999 Nebula Award for Best Short Story. Plot summary The story begins when a drunken human insults a mech in a bar. The resulting fight nearly kills the human, who is saved only by the mech's kindness. As the mech starts to leave he is invited to sit and talk with an old man and his granddaughter. They have a discussion about what it would really take to build a machine that would last forever. See also * Long Now Foundation - The foundation has several ongoing projects, including a 10,000-year clock. References External links * 1999 short stories Short stories by Michael Swanwick Works originally published in Asimov's Science Fiction {{1990s-sf-story-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Swanwick
Michael Swanwick (born 18 November 1950) is an American fantasy and science fiction author who began publishing in the early 1980s. Writing career Swanwick's fiction writing began with short stories, starting in 1980 when he published "Ginungagap" in '' TriQuarterly'' and "The Feast of St. Janis" in ''New Dimensions 11''. Both stories were nominees for the Nebula Award for Best Short Story in 1981. His first novel was '' In the Drift'' (an Ace Special, 1985), a look at the results of a more catastrophic Three Mile Island incident, which expands on his earlier short story "Mummer's Kiss". This was followed in 1987 by '' Vacuum Flowers'', an adventurous tour of an inhabited Solar System, where the people of Earth have been subsumed by a cybernetic mass-mind. Some characters’ bodies contain multiple personalities, which can be recorded and edited (or damaged) as if they were wetware. In the 1990s, Swanwick moved towards the intersection between science fiction and fantasy and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
English Language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the island of Great Britain. Existing on a dialect continuum with Scots, and then closest related to the Low Saxon and Frisian languages, English is genealogically West Germanic. However, its vocabulary is also distinctively influenced by dialects of France (about 29% of Modern English words) and Latin (also about 29%), plus some grammar and a small amount of core vocabulary influenced by Old Norse (a North Germanic language). Speakers of English are called Anglophones. The earliest forms of English, collectively known as Old English, evolved from a group of West Germanic ( Ingvaeonic) dialects brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the 5th century and further mutated by Norse-speaking Viking settlers starting in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Science Fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imagination, imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, Parallel universes in fiction, parallel universes, extraterrestrials in fiction, extraterrestrial life, sentient artificial intelligence, cybernetics, certain forms of immortality (like mind uploading), and the technological singularity, singularity. Science fiction List of existing technologies predicted in science fiction, predicted several existing inventions, such as the atomic bomb, robots, and borazon, whose names entirely match their fictional predecessors. In addition, science fiction might serve as an outlet to facilitate future scientific and technological innovations. Science fiction can trace its roots to ancient mythology. It is also related to fantasy, Horror fiction, horror, and superhero fiction and contains many #Subgenres, sub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asimov's Science Fiction
''Asimov's Science Fiction'' is an American science fiction magazine which publishes science fiction and fantasy named after science fiction author Isaac Asimov. It is currently published by Penny Publications. From January 2017, the publication frequency is bimonthly (six issues per year). Circulation in 2012 was 22,593, as reported in the annual ''Locus Magazine survey. History ''Asimov's Science Fiction'' began life as the digest-sized ''Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine'' (or ''IASFM'' for short) in 1977. Joel Davis of Davis Publications approached Asimov to lend his name to a new science fiction magazine, after the fashion of ''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine'' or '' Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine''. Asimov refused to act as editor, but served instead as editorial director, writing editorials and replying to reader mail until his death in 1992. At Asimov's request George Scithers, the first editor, negotiated an acquisitions contract with the Science Fictio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Magazine
A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combination of the three. Definition In the technical sense a '' journal'' has continuous pagination throughout a volume. Thus '' Business Week'', which starts each issue anew with page one, is a magazine, but the ''Journal of Business Communication'', which continues the same sequence of pagination throughout the coterminous year, is a journal. Some professional or trade publications are also peer-reviewed, for example the '' Journal of Accountancy''. Non-peer-reviewed academic or professional publications are generally ''professional magazines''. That a publication calls itself a ''journal'' does not make it a journal in the technical sense; '' The Wall Street Journal'' is actually a newspaper. Etymology The word "magazine" derives from Arabi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Science Fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imagination, imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, Parallel universes in fiction, parallel universes, extraterrestrials in fiction, extraterrestrial life, sentient artificial intelligence, cybernetics, certain forms of immortality (like mind uploading), and the technological singularity, singularity. Science fiction List of existing technologies predicted in science fiction, predicted several existing inventions, such as the atomic bomb, robots, and borazon, whose names entirely match their fictional predecessors. In addition, science fiction might serve as an outlet to facilitate future scientific and technological innovations. Science fiction can trace its roots to ancient mythology. It is also related to fantasy, Horror fiction, horror, and superhero fiction and contains many #Subgenres, sub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Short Story
A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest types of literature and has existed in the form of legends, Myth, mythic tales, Folklore genre, folk tales, fairy tales, tall tales, fables and anecdotes in various ancient communities around the world. The modern short story developed in the early 19th century. Definition The short story is a crafted form in its own right. Short stories make use of plot, resonance, and other dynamic components as in a novel, but typically to a lesser degree. While the short story is largely distinct from the novel or novella, novella/short novel, authors generally draw from a common pool of literary techniques. The short story is sometimes referred to as a genre. Determining what exactly defines a short story has been recurrently problematic. A classic de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hugo Award For Best Short Story
The Hugo Award for Best Short Story is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories published or translated into English during the previous calendar year. The short story award is available for works of fiction of fewer than 7,500 words; awards are also given out for pieces of longer lengths in the Hugo Award for Best Novelette, novelette, Hugo Award for Best Novella, novella, and Hugo Award for Best Novel, novel categories. The Hugo Awards have been described as "a fine showcase for speculative fiction" and "the best known literary award for science fiction writing". The Hugo Award for Best Short Story has been awarded annually since 1955, except in 1957. The award was titled "Best Short Fiction" rather than "Best Short Story" in 1960–1966. During this time no Novelette category was awarded and the Novella category had not yet been established; the award was defined only as a work "of less than novel length" that was not published as a stand ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nebula Award For Best Short Story
The Nebula Award for Best Short Story is a literary award assigned each year by Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) for science fiction or fantasy short stories. A work of fiction is defined by the organization as a short story if it is less than 7,500 words; awards are also given out for longer works in the categories of novel, novella, and novelette. To be eligible for Nebula Award consideration a short story must be published in English in the United States. Works published in English elsewhere in the world are also eligible provided they are released on either a website or in an electronic edition. The Nebula Award for Best Short Story has been awarded annually since 1966. The award has been described as one of "the most important of the American science fiction awards" and "the science-fiction and fantasy equivalent" of the Emmy Awards. Nebula Award nominees and winners are chosen by members of SFWA, though the authors of the nominees do not need to be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Long Now Foundation
The Long Now Foundation, established in 1996, is an American non-profit organization based in San Francisco that seeks to start and promote a long-term cultural institution. It aims to provide a counterpoint to what it views as today's "faster/cheaper" mindset and to promote "slower/better" thinking. The Long Now Foundation hopes to "creatively foster responsibility" in the framework of the next 10,000 years. In a manner somewhat similar to the Holocene calendar, the foundation uses 5-digit dates to address the Year 10,000 problem (e.g., by writing the current year "0" rather than ""). The organisation's logo is , a capital X with an overline, a representation of 10,000 in Roman numerals. Projects The foundation has several ongoing projects, including a 10,000-year clock known as the '' Clock of the Long Now'', the '' Rosetta Project'', the ''Long Bet Project'', the open source ''Timeline Tool'' (also known as Longviewer), the ''Long Server'' and a monthly seminar series. C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1999 Short Stories
File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Death and state funeral of King Hussein, funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major List of school shootings in the United States by death toll, school shootings in the United States; the Year 2000 problem ("Y2K"), perceived as a major concern in the lead-up to the year 2000; the Millennium Dome opens in London; online music downloading platform Napster is launched, soon a source of Online piracy, online piracy; NASA loses both the Mars Climate Orbiter and the Mars Polar Lander; a destroyed t-55, T-55 tank near Prizren during the Kosovo War., 300x300px, thumb rect 0 0 200 200 Death and state funeral of King Hussein rect 200 0 400 200 1999 İzmit earthquake rect 400 0 600 200 Columbine High School massacre rect 0 200 300 400 Kosovo War rect 300 200 600 400 Year 2000 problem rect 0 400 200 600 Mars ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Short Stories By Michael Swanwick
Short may refer to: Places * Short (crater), a lunar impact crater on the near side of the Moon * Short, Mississippi, an unincorporated community * Short, Oklahoma, a census-designated place People * Short (surname) * List of people known as the Short Arts, entertainment, and media * Short film, a cinema format (also called film short or short subject) * Short story, prose generally readable in one sitting * '' The Short-Timers'', a 1979 semi-autobiographical novel by Gustav Hasford, about military short-timers in Vietnam Brands and enterprises * Short Brothers, a British aerospace company * Short Brothers of Sunderland, former English shipbuilder Computing and technology * Short circuit, an accidental connection between two nodes of an electrical circuit * Short integer, a computer datatype Finance * Short (finance), stock-trading position * Short snorter, a banknote signed by fellow travelers, common during World War II Foodstuffs * Short pastry, one which is rich in butt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
