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Into Darkness (novelette)
"Into Darkness" is a science-fiction novelette by Australian writer Greg Egan, first published in ''Asimov's Science Fiction'' in January 1992. The novelette was included in the collections ''Axiomatic'' in 1995 and '' The Best of Greg Egan'' in 2019. Plot A strange wormhole is randomly jumping around on the surface of the Earth, but seems to be drawn to crowded areas. No reason for its sudden appearance is known, but some assume it to be an experiment by aliens from the future to get into the past with both ends of the wormhole accidentally collapsing towards their common barycenter in spacetime. The wormhole is composed of two shells, the outer with a radius of one kilometer being called "The Intake" and the inner one with a radius of two hundred meters being called "The Core". Going over "The Intake" forces macroscopic objects like people (with microscopic expections like the flow of blood possible) to only travel further towards "The Core", which allows to leave the wormhole. E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greg Egan
Greg Egan (born 20 August 1961) is an Australian science fiction writer and mathematician, best known for his works of hard science fiction. Egan has won multiple awards including the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, the Hugo Award, and the Locus Award. Life and work Egan holds a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from the University of Western Australia. He published his first work in 1983. He specialises in hard science fiction stories with mathematical and quantum ontology themes, including the nature of consciousness. Other themes include genetics, simulated reality, posthumanism, mind uploading, sexuality, artificial intelligence, and the superiority of rational naturalism to religion. He often deals with complex technical material, like new physics and epistemology. He is a Hugo Award winner (with eight other works shortlisted for the Hugos) and has also won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. His early stories feature strong ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asimov's Science Fiction
''Asimov's Science Fiction'' is an American science fiction magazine edited by Sheila Williams and published by Dell Magazines, which is owned by Penny Press. It was launched as a quarterly by Davis Publications in 1977, after obtaining Isaac Asimov's consent for the use of his name. It was originally titled ''Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine'', and was quickly successful, reaching a circulation of over 100,000 within a year, and switching to monthly publication within a couple of years. George H. Scithers, the first editor, published many new writers who went on to be successful in the genre. Scithers favored traditional stories without sex or obscenity; along with frequent humorous stories, this gave ''Asimov's'' a reputation for printing juvenile fiction, despite its success. Asimov was not part of the editorial team, but wrote editorials for the magazine. Scithers was fired in 1982, and his replacement, Kathleen Moloney, only lasted a year. Shawna McCarthy too ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Periodical
Periodical literature (singularly called a periodical publication or simply a periodical) consists of Publication, published works that appear in new releases on a regular schedule (''issues'' or ''numbers'', often numerically divided into annual ''volumes''). The most familiar example of periodical literature is the newspaper, but the magazine and the academic journal are also periodicals, as are some modern websites, e-journals, and other Electronic publishing, electronic-only publications produced recurrently on a schedule. Periodical publications cover a wide variety of topics, from academic, technical, and trade, to general-interest subjects such as leisure and entertainment. Article (publishing), Articles within a periodical are usually organized around a single main subject or theme and include a title, date of publication, author(s), and brief summary of the article. A periodical typically contains an editorial section that comments on subjects of interest to its readers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Science Fiction
Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space exploration, time travel, Parallel universes in fiction, parallel universes, and extraterrestrials in fiction, extraterrestrial life. The genre often explores human responses to the consequences of projected or imagined scientific advances. Science fiction is related to fantasy (together abbreviated wikt:SF&F, SF&F), Horror fiction, horror, and superhero fiction, and it contains many #Subgenres, subgenres. The genre's precise Definitions of science fiction, definition has long been disputed among authors, critics, scholars, and readers. Major subgenres include hard science fiction, ''hard'' science fiction, which emphasizes scientific accuracy, and soft science fiction, ''soft'' science fiction, which focuses on social sciences. Other no ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Axiomatic (Egan Book)
''Axiomatic'' () is a 1995 collection of short science fiction stories by Greg Egan. The stories all delve into different aspects of self and identity. ''The Guardian'' described it as "Wonderful mind-expanding stuff, and well-written too." Neural mods Several ''Axiomatic'' stories involve "neural mods", usually presented as small tubes containing powder inhaled through the nose, which alter the brains of their users in highly specific ways with advanced nanotechnology. In the collection's eponymous story "Axiomatic", the protagonist enters a store selling mods not only for every variety of psychedelic experiences, but for altering one's personality traits, sexual orientation, and even religion. The protagonist seeks a custom-made mod that will suspend his moral convictions long enough for him to murder his wife's killer. In " The Walk", an executioner offers his victim a mod that will cause him to accept the executioner's personal philosophy, and thus help him cope with his d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Best Of Greg Egan
''The Best of Greg Egan'' is a collection of science fiction stories by Australian writer Greg Egan, published by Subterranean Press in 2019. The collection contains 20 stories which were published in a variety of original publications. It is also accompanied by an Afterword from the author. Contents * "Learning to Be Me" * "Axiomatic" * " Appropriate Love" * " Into Darkness" * "Unstable Orbits in the Space of Lies" * "Closer" * "Chaff" * " Luminous" * "Silver Fire" * " Reasons to be Cheerful" * "Oceanic" * "Oracle" * "Singleton" * "Dark Integers" * " Crystal Nights" * " Zero for Conduct" * "Bit Players" * "Uncanny Valley" * "3-adica" * "Instantiation" * "Afterword" Critical reception Writing in ''Locus Magazine'' reviewer Russell Letson noted Egan's statement in his Afterword that the stories here concern "the struggle to come to terms with what it will mean when our growing ability to scrutinize and manipulate the physical world reaches the point where it encompasses the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wormhole
A wormhole is a hypothetical structure that connects disparate points in spacetime. It can be visualized as a tunnel with two ends at separate points in spacetime (i.e., different locations, different points in time, or both). Wormholes are based on a special Solutions of the Einstein field equations, solution of the Einstein field equations. More precisely they are a transcendental bijection of the spacetime continuum, an Asymptote, asymptotic projection of the Calabi–Yau manifold manifesting itself in anti-de Sitter space. Wormholes are consistent with the General relativity, general theory of relativity, but whether they actually exist is unknown. Many physicists postulate that wormholes are merely projections of a Four-dimensional space, fourth spatial dimension, analogous to how a two-dimensional (2D) being could experience only part of a three-dimensional (3D) object. In 1995, Matt Visser suggested there may be many wormholes in the universe if cosmic strings with negat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barycenter (astronomy)
In astronomy, the barycenter (or barycentre; ) is the center of mass of two or more bodies that orbit one another and is the point about which the bodies orbit. A barycenter is a dynamical point, not a physical object. It is an important concept in fields such as astronomy and astrophysics. The distance from a body's center of mass to the barycenter can be calculated as a two-body problem. If one of the two orbiting bodies is much more massive than the other and the bodies are relatively close to one another, the barycenter will typically be located within the more massive object. In this case, rather than the two bodies appearing to orbit a point between them, the less massive body will appear to orbit about the more massive body, while the more massive body might be observed to wobble slightly. This is the case for the Earth–Moon system, whose barycenter is located on average from Earth's center, which is 74% of Earth's radius of . When the two bodies are of similar ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spacetime
In physics, spacetime, also called the space-time continuum, is a mathematical model that fuses the three dimensions of space and the one dimension of time into a single four-dimensional continuum. Spacetime diagrams are useful in visualizing and understanding relativistic effects, such as how different observers perceive ''where'' and ''when'' events occur. Until the turn of the 20th century, the assumption had been that the three-dimensional geometry of the universe (its description in terms of locations, shapes, distances, and directions) was distinct from time (the measurement of when events occur within the universe). However, space and time took on new meanings with the Lorentz transformation and special theory of relativity. In 1908, Hermann Minkowski presented a geometric interpretation of special relativity that fused time and the three spatial dimensions into a single four-dimensional continuum now known as Minkowski space. This interpretation proved vital t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Half-time
In several team sports, matches are played in two halves. Half-time (also written halftime or half time) is the name given to the interval between the two halves of the match. Typically, after half-time, teams swap ends of the field of play in order to reduce any advantage that may be gained from wind or a slope to the playing surface, for example. While it exists mainly to allow competitors to rest briefly and recover from the play of the first half, half-time also serves a number of other purposes. It also serves as an intermission for spectators, and, especially in North America, often features entertainment, such as cheerleading performances, tifos, performances by school marching bands (particularly in high school and collegiate sports in North America), or concerts featuring popular music acts (particularly in major events such as the Super Bowl). On games that are broadcast on television and radio, it also provides broadcasters with an opportunity to give a recap of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Locus (magazine)
''Locus: The Magazine of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Field'', founded in 1968, is an American magazine published monthly in Oakland, California. It is the news organ and trade journal for the English-language science fiction and fantasy fields. It also publishes comprehensive listings of all new books published in the genres (excluding self-published). The magazine also presents the annual Locus Awards. '' Locus Online'' was launched in April 1997, as a semi-autonomous web version of ''Locus Magazine''. History Charles N. Brown, Ed Meskys, and Dave Vanderwerf founded ''Locus'' in 1968 as a news fanzine to promote the (ultimately successful) bid to host the 1971 World Science Fiction Convention in Boston, Massachusetts. Originally intended to run only until the site-selection vote was taken at St. Louiscon, the 1969 Worldcon in St. Louis, Missouri, Brown decided to continue publishing ''Locus'' as a mimeographed general science fiction and fantasy newszine. ''Locus'' succ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Locus Award
The Locus Awards are an annual set of literary awards voted on by readers of the science fiction and fantasy magazine '' Locus'', a monthly magazine based in Oakland, California. The awards are presented at an annual banquet. Originally a poll of ''Locus'' subscribers only, voting is now open to anyone, but the votes of subscribers count twice as much as the votes of non-subscribers. The award was inaugurated in 1971, and was originally intended to provide suggestions and recommendations for the Hugo Awards. They have come to be considered a prestigious prize in science fiction, fantasy and horror literature. '' The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'' regards the Locus Awards as sharing the stature of the Hugo and Nebula Awards. Gardner Dozois holds the record for the most wins (43), while Neil Gaiman has won the most awards for works of fiction (18). Robert Silverberg has received the highest number of nominations (158). Frequently nominated As of the 2021 awards, the follo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
