Writing and focusing on the positive

I've been trying to participate in the Google+ hashtag movement #Saturdayscenes, in which writers post a scene (usually from a work in progress or a work they're trying to generate an interest in) and people have the opportunity to read them. I'm very excited about participating in this, but because of my lack of stamina it doesn't look like I'm going to have a scene ready every week. For me it might be every other week. In the interest of maintaining a positive attitude, though, I've decided to share what I did accomplish this week!

• Decided that my protagonist, Ariana, has a hammock in her lab, and the image of her lounging on it is quite striking (I'm so envious!)
• Drafted a very rough explanation of how a centrifuge works, as discussed by Ariana and her husband Dorian
• Attempted to predict where a new fraction containing nanomachines would show up in a centrifuged sample of blood
• Reviewed the limits of the features that can be resolved with light microscopy
• Looked up a history virology on Wikipedia
• Looked up tests for detecting the presence of proteins in a sample
• Decided that Dorian needs to have ∞% more bean bags launched at him

When I put it this way, I feel pretty good about myself and this story!

Cage on wheels

I was just reading this article which outlines what a liberating vehicle the bicycle was (I highly recommend it). That got me thinking about my story. I'm enjoying thinking about all the dark sides of technology in this world I'm creating, and it occurred to me that the fictional technology in my story could allow the invention of the bicycle to be bypassed, along with its liberating influences.

I haven't explicitly written about it here before, but the current state of technology in my story is based on substances that for now I'm going to call proteoids (I'm still trying to decide if that will be the final name for them, or if it will be something else). One of the applications of proteoids is the construction of highly efficient mechanical devices. Reading the bicycle article gave me an image of a vehicle that can translate the slightest movement of a person's body into motion, but instead of the rider masterfully straddling it like a bicycle, it surrounds the rider like a cage.

Oh, I wish I were better at drawing! The pictures in my head are so creepy!

What makes blood special?

It has become a pet peeve of mine whenever someone tries to come up with a science-fictiony explanation for why vampires exist in a story. It almost always ends up sounding really lame to anyone who has the slightest idea what blood is made of and how metabolism works. And yet, I feel the need to provide a science-fictiony explanation for why my protagonist becomes a vampire after being infected with nanodevices.

The difficulty is that blood is a fascinating, complex tissue, but I can't think of a single thing about it that's unique. It's high in iron, but so is muscle and so are some vegetables. It's rich in protein, but so is every living thing! It's full of immune cells, but so are lymph nodes and bone marrow. It contains a lot of heme groups, but so do the cytochromes, which are found in mitochondria, which are found in EVERY SINGLE CELL IN OUR BODIES!

To make things even more complicated, I want it to be necessary to ingest the blood. I don't want my protagonist to gain the same benefits from a blood transfusion. That eliminates hormones and other signaling molecules that float around in the blood. This train of thought makes me think that something produced in the digestion of blood allows her to function (more than function, in fact - I see her being enhanced by the experience). 

I shall have to ponder this further.

Vampires and werewolves as a feminist allegory

Both vampires and werewolves are the result of biological attacks on the population. The first attack produces vampires, who tend to be women. It initiates a debilitating illness that forces them into a position of weakness. Later it is discovered that they have access to considerable power in this state, but only by preying on other people and drinking their blood.

To combat this power the vampires have discovered, a second attack is launched to produce werewolves, who tend to be men. This biological agent increases physical strength, but also increases violent tendencies. It is hoped that the werewolves will subdue the vampires and bring about the state of affairs the architects of these attacks originally intended.

I'm not quite sure how this situation will be resolved (if it even will be). Maybe there will be an all-out battle. Maybe the vampires and werewolves will realized that they're both victims and start cooperating. We'll have to wait and see.

The face of entropic technology

I'm not usually a very visually-oriented person. For example, in my dreams I can usually remember events and the identities of the people involved, but I only rarely remember what everything looks like. I even identify people I don't know by what they do, i.e. The Wizard, The Person Who's Trying to Kill Me, The Person Who Herds the Sheep, you get the idea. My husband did the layout for this blog, because I didn't want to mess around with what it looked like. Right now is an exception, though, because as I think about this fictional field of entropic technology I would like to create, I envision it having a very distinct appearance.

To begin with, the stickler for scientific accuracy in my head will not let me write this post without stating that all existing technology makes use of entropy, because anything that would violate the Second Law of Thermodynamics doesn't happen, including the things humans want to make happen with technology. This hypothetical field I am trying to create is based on a certain focus of awareness. For example, an engineer in the field of electronics has a very firm grasp of the applications of electromagnetism. It occupies a central place in their awareness, and other fields of science are more peripheral. In fact, I once took a physics course in which an electrical engineering student kept asking why an electrical engineering student needed to study certain topics (I could rant A LOT about engineering students who don't want to learn physics ... maybe some other time). For an entropic engineer, thermodynamics would occupy that central position in their awareness.

Now that that's out of the way, back to what it looks like. It's a field of technology, so its appearance will need to reflect a human being's desire to direct a course of events. That's one of the cool things about electronics - all those cables and wires and linear components, you can almost see the channeling of human will right in front of you. I definitely want entropic technology to have components like that.

On the other hand, it's a field of technology based on entropy. It's the channeling of human will by hedging probabilities in their favor. It's going to be a little messy-looking. So, what do you get when human will interfaces with entropy? You get a pair of earbuds after you've left them in your pocket for a while. In fact, one of these days I would love to model the thermodynamics of earbuds in a person's pocket. Maybe I should add that to my repertoire of creative projects. That is the aesthetic I would like to build on.

So there you have it, ladies and gentlemen, the face of entropic technology: knotted-up earbuds!