THE MT VOID
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
09/25/09 -- Vol. 28, No. 13, Whole Number 1564

 C3PO: Mark Leeper, mleeper@optonline.net
 R2D2: Evelyn Leeper, eleeper@optonline.net
All material is copyrighted by author unless otherwise noted.
All comments sent will be assumed authorized for inclusion
unless otherwise noted.

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Topics:
        Acknowledgement (comments by Mark R. Leeper)        
        Political Question (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
        Little Bitty, Simple Numbers (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
        Great Books of the Western World (letter of comment
                by Kip Williams)
        Anticipation Con Suite (letters of comment by Dan Kimmel,
                David Goldfarb, and Morris Keesan)
        Anticipation Masquerade (letter of comment by Jo Paltin)
        Speed of Light (letter of comment by Paul S. R. Chisholm)
        Thunderstorms on Saturn (letters of comment by Sam Long and
                Morris Keesan)
        Genes and Altruism (letter of comment by Morris Keesan)
        This Week's Reading (READING THE OED, MAD PROFESSOR, and         
                alphabetical order) (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)

==================================================================

TOPIC: Acknowledgement (comments by Mark R. Leeper)

This week's MT VOID is brought to you by the Pre-Owned-Humvee
Owners Exchange.  Buy a used Humvee today.  It's not a car; it's a
defense system.  [-mrl]

==================================================================


TOPIC: Political Question (comments by Mark R. Leeper)

Question: What date was Rep. Joe Wilson born?

Answer: You-lie 31, 1947

[-mrl]

==================================================================


TOPIC: Little Bitty, Simple Numbers (comments by Mark R. Leeper)

I was reading an article that talked about vacuum energy.  This is
the energy in space that is independent of any matter.  How empty
space can hold energy I will not go into here (because I just
started this article and already I am in way over my head).  But
the book I was reading suggests that it is on the order of 10^112
ergs per cubic centimeter.  (Note: we use "^" to indicate an
exponent.)  That is a lot of energy considering it is stored in
nothing--literally nothing at all.  That is the theoretical
prediction.  The actual measured value is about 10^-8 ergs per
cubic centimeter.  (In the words of Lou Costello, "I don't even
know what I'm talking about.")  Anyway the author of the article
says predicted value is a big number.  (Now I know something of
what I am talking about.)  He is wrong.

Just on general principles, 10^112 is actually a very small number.
There are big numbers, but 10^112 is not one of them.  In general,
it is beyond the power of the human mind to conceive of a large
number.  We are just weak, tiny people, and we do not understand the
concept of large numbers.  For the purposes of this conversation I
will be talking only about non-negative numbers.  Well, based on
the problems I was given in mathematics class, 10^112 is certainly
large by comparison to most of the numbers I worked with.  But how
big are most numbers?  There are only a finite number of numbers
less than 10^112.  The ones larger go on and on.  There is no upper
bound on the integers.  I just have to increment that exponent by
one to get a number that is ten times as big.  10^113 is a whole
lot bigger than 10^112.  You can fit ten intervals of integers,
each one as big as the interval from 0 to 10^112 into the interval
from 0 to 10^113.

So how big is the average positive integer?  You cannot say,
because it is too big.  In fact, the average positive integer, if
we really could talk about such a thing, would be a lot like being
infinite itself.  Well, that is loose language.  In any case pick
any number you want.  There are integers up there that make it look
incredibly small.  Consider the largest number any human has ever
conceived up to... *now*!  Okay, take that and consider 10 raised
to that as a power.  Okay, the human race has just thought about a
much bigger number.  And I mean a whole *lot* bigger!  But that
number is still a whole lot smaller than some of the numbers out
there.  It is every much a part of the human condition--as much as
it is that we are mortal or that we are doomed to hear a lot of
Frank Sinatra music even though he is dead--that we have only
played with the numbers that are really near zero on the number
line.  We cannot conceive of a number that is not huddled in a
bunch very close to zero.

Even there we cannot conceive of all the numbers that are near
zero.  We just know about the really simple ones.  We talk just
about the ones that are easy to express.  Well, we know about a lot
of integers.  In fact, we know about a lot of fractions that we
call "rational" numbers.  (Even here "a lot" is not really a lot.
Most fractions we have never thought about.)  We know about some
irrational numbers.  We know about the square root of two.  Most of
us know about e and about pi.  We can express numbers arbitrarily
big (but not really big at all).  Some numbers we can express only
in words.  Like "the 248465489th decimal place of pi."  Some number
we can describe like "the largest real root of
(x^567)-(5*x^34)+237."  That is a name for a number.  And with
enough computing capability we could figure out an approximation of
what that number is.  But any number that we really know about we
could type out and describe in a finite string of characters.  That
means that only a finite set of numbers have ever been thought of
individually.  There are only a finite number of integers that have
ever occurred to us to think about.  That could be argued to be a
lot of numbers, but it is still finite.  There are more numbers in
the interval from 0 to 1/(10^112).  In fact, the set of numbers we
ever *could* have a name for may be infinite, but it is still no
more that the number of positive integers.  That means not just
that the vast, vast, vast majority of numbers have not been named,
but we could not express them even if we thought of them.  We do
not have tools to name them.  There is no way of expressing the
value of these numbers.

So most positive numbers are larger than the human mind can
conceive.  We have just been playing with the *tiniest* of numbers
and then just the ones that are *really*, *really* easy to express.
When you play with numbers you are always just at the beginning and
dealing with only the very simplest and tiniest of numbers.  We
play with the simple numbers because the big ones are just beyond
our comprehension.  [-mrl]

==================================================================


TOPIC: Great Books of the Western World (letter of comment by Kip
Williams)

In response to Evelyn's comments on the Great Books of the Western
World in the 09/11/09 issue of the MT VOID, Kip Williams writes,
"Fortunately, I never had to buy the "great books" set as a set.  A
book shop in Hampton, VA, was selling individual volumes for $5
each, and I got the DON QUIXOTE because the slim hardcover was less
cumbersome than a three-inch thick paperback.  Personally,
two-column text is a little easier on my eyes sometimes because I
don't have to scan so far over.  YMMV."  [-kw]

==================================================================


TOPIC: Anticipation Con Suite (letters of comment by Dan Kimmel,
David Goldfarb, and Morris Keesan)

In response to Evelyn's comment in the 09/18/09 issue of the MT
VOID that she had been told the con suite at Anticipation was open
only at night, Dan Kimmel writes, "It was in fact open all day.  I
had breakfast there several times."  [-dk]

David Goldfarb writes, "Since I was staying in the Delta, I had
more opportunity to stop by the Anticipation con suite than you,
and it was in fact always open when I did.  Whoever told you it was
only open in the evening was (at best) mistaken."  [-dg]

And Morris Keesan writes, "And while Evelyn may have "heard that
... the [Anticipation] Con Suite ... was open only in the
evenings," she heard an untrue rumor.  The Con Suite was open in
the mornings and afternoons, and had breakfast and lunch foods."
[-mk]

Evelyn responds, "Well, I guess this proves one should not believe
everything one hears."  [-ecl]

==================================================================


TOPIC: Anticipation Masquerade (letter of comment by Jo Paltin)

In response to Evelyn's comments on the Anticipation Masquerade in
the 09/18/09 issue of the MT VOID, Jo Paltin writes:

Regarding your comments about the Anticipation Masquerade:  First,
I agree with you that the flat seating at the Masquerade and Hugo
awards is a definite weakness of every Worldcon that uses such a
venue.  Further, the videography was rather amateurish in that the
French-speaking co-host did not receive proper lighting and was
usually shown in the dark, as contrasted to the English-speaking
host.  Enough said.

Since you did not attend the Masquerade, and relied on the
apparently sour opinions of others, I'd like to offer the following
counter-review:  I attended and found the Masquerade to be of high
quality, if somewhat smaller than other recent Worldcons'
masquerades.  The children were bought on stage en masse and they
had the opportunity to show off, get applause, and walk off--all
within two minutes.  A better win-win solution would be difficult
to devise.  I applaud the organizers for setting up the "Kamikaze
Kids" children's costuming event earlier that day to help kids
dress for the Masquerade; I participated with my daughter and we
received very useful tips that I intend to re-use in the future.  I
must add that the various costumers we met could not have been
kinder and more forthcoming--a relative rarity in my experience.

The Masquerade adults provided high quality and fun costuming.
There was a lot of creativity on stage.  This included both design
(see the Charlie Brown/Peanuts-inspired scene that comprised two
people) and scenario (see the warning to male game designers or the
Klingon Batman).  There was no lack of humor; there was no more
than one embarrassing costume (there really should be a weight
limit for bare-midriff costumers); and the logistics associated
with the presentations (i.e., audio & stage lights) went smoothly
by and large.  I cannot speak with authority about the prizes,
because I did not stay for that portion of the program.  I'm pretty
sure they were not as extensive as all that, because my daughter's
favorites did not win, so it was a contest after all.  So, unlike
your sources, I'd say that the Masquerade was a success and far
better than many other Worldcons could muster.  I'm looking forward
to the next one.  [-jp]

==================================================================


TOPIC: Speed of Light (letter of comment by Paul S. R. Chisholm)

In response to Ian Gahan's comments on the speed of light in the
09/18/09 issue of the MT VOID ("surely it is possible to travel
faster than the speed of light, even in the same medium"), Paul
Chisholm writes:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherenkov_radiation

Hope I'm not the millionth person to point this out.  [-psrc]

Mark replies:

This is a good point.  I was not aware of it.  The article says,
"Cherenkov radiation... is electromagnetic radiation emitted when a
charged particle (such as an electron) passes through an insulator
at a constant speed greater than the speed of light in that
medium."  So when you are not talking about vacuum as the medium,
strange things are possible.

Gahan said I was discussing the speed of light and you did not
complete the mantra with "in a vacuum".  Of course in the original
article when I said "the speed of light" that almost always means
"in a vacuum."  Negative five is *a* square root of 25, but *the*
square root of 25 is five.  *The* speed of light is 186,000 mps,
but there are lower figures that are also speeds of light in air,
water, or lime Jell-O.  [-mrl]

==================================================================


TOPIC: Thunderstorms on Saturn (letters of comment by Sam Long and
Morris Keesan)

In response to Mark's question about thunderstorms on Saturn in the
09/18/09 issue of the MT VOID, Sam Long writes:

Yes, the lightning on Saturn is giving rise to thunder, and if you
were there, floating around in Saturn's atmosphere, you could hear
it.  Sound is simply vibrations in air, and there need not be
anything around to hear the vibrations for such vibrations to be
sound.  This also is the answer to the question, "If a tree falls
in a forest..."

I believe there's also lightning on Jupiter (whose Great Red Spot
is, I understand, a storm--though perhaps not a lightning storm of
the sort on Saturn--that has lasted centuries) and (I think) Venus.

Meantime, keep those MT VOIDs coming; I enjoy them.

P.S.: I'm a meteorologist by trade (though a bureaucrat in
practice--my gravestone will say "In Memorandum" instead of "In
Memoriam").  Do forecasts count as science fiction?  Some people
might say so...,  Well, I think we are agreed that it would create
a disturbance in the atmosphere.  But whether in the atmosphere a
person could hear it is another matter.  I doubt that anyone could
ever be in a position to "hear" this atmospheric disturbance.  The
one can define sound to be that which is hearable or just as a
disturbance in the air.  They are slightly different, but either
works.  I guess deep-down I agree with you that the other
definition is a little anthropocentric.  [-sl]

Mark replies:

I would say that weather forecasts do not count as science fiction
by not being fiction.  Arthur C. Clarke wrote fiction about the
future and he also wrote essays about it.  But I think he
distinguished the two.  Again it comes down to definitions rather
than substance.  [-mrl]

And Morris Keesan writes:

Regarding the question of what the storm on Saturn is, I'm on the
side of those calling it "thunder".  If a tree falls where there's
no one to hear it, it makes a sound, which is the vibration of the
atmosphere (and it's arrogantly anthropocentric to imagine that
there's anywhere on Earth with trees growing where there are no
life forms with sound-sensitive organs, or that "sound" should be
defined as vibrations that humans can hear [just as discussions of
the Schrodinger's cat gedanken-experiment tend to forget about the
cat-as-observer]).  And, by the way, even though the word
"lightning" seems to be, per merriam-webster.com, derived "from
gerund of lightenen to lighten", I can't find any dictionary source
that gives "lightening" as an acceptable alternate spelling.  [-mk]

==================================================================


TOPIC: Genes and Altruism (letter of comment by Morris Keesan)

Anyone interested in possible genetic bases for empathy and
altruism should read Matt Ridley's book THE ORIGINS OF VIRTUE
(London, England: Viking, 1996.  ISBN 0-670-86357-2; also published
by Viking in New York, 1997, ISBN 0-670-87449-3 and in paperback by
Penguin, ISBN 0-140-26445-0 as THE ORIGINS OF VIRTUE: HUMAN
INSTINCTS AND THE EVOLUTION OF COOPERATION), in which he considers
ways in which altruistic behaviors could have evolved, and the
benefits to the groups in which the genes for those behaviors were
prevalent."  [-mk]

==================================================================

TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)

My first question about READING THE OED: ONE MAN, ONE YEAR, 21,730
PAGES by Ammon Shea (ISBN-13 978-0-399-53398-3) is, "Just what is
Shea living on while he does this?"  He apparently spent eight
hours a day on the reading, and there is no mention of even a
part-time job.  I suppose it could be that Shea's girlfriend was so
inspired by his project that she agreed to support him through it,
but I'm not putting money on it.

One problem with the book was that the parts about the reading of
the dictionary were fairly skimpy, so Shea needed to pad it out
with a sampling of words from the OED.  He has previously written
two books about obscure words, so it was an obvious thing to do,
but it makes this more just another book about obscure words and
less distinctive in its subject.  (The book is about half narrative
and half words.)

MAD PROFESSOR: THE UNCOLLECTED SHORT STORIES OF RUDY RUCKER by Rudy
Rucker (ISBN-13 978-1-56025-974-9, ISBN-10 1-56025-974-4) is a
collection of stories that are primarily centered on mathematics.
Several of the stories are co-authored with other science fiction
writers; all have notes about them by Rucker.  The mathematical
nature of the stories means they may have a narrower audience that
a more general science fiction story, but the mathematics are not
overly advanced.  One wonders if the subtitle is not a sly paradox:
having been collected in this volume, the stories are not longer
uncollected.  (Or the subtitle "The Previously Uncollected Stories
of Rudy Rucker" was just not as catchy.)

And a random thought: who invented alphabetical order?  This is not
the same as who invented alphabets, because one can have an
alphabet without a specific order to it, and one could have an
order without the notion of using that as a filing order.  (Many
early libraries had their books filed chronologically by when they
were acquired.)  [-ecl]

==================================================================

                                           Mark Leeper
 mleeper@optonline.net


            If it is the devil that tempts the young
            to enjoy themselves, is it not, perhaps,
            the same personage that persuades the old
            to condemn their enjoyment?
                                           -- Bertrand Russell