Let's Get Glowing

image courtesy of telegraph.co.uk

Bioluminescence. Insects and mushrooms and other creatures filled with glowing fluid. There are biological explanations for this, but what if there are other reasons? Perhaps the creatures that glow are more heavenly than others? They are a light to the animals and insects who walk in the darkness.

When I lived in Guelph many moons ago, the firefly population of the forests there were abnormally high. As we drank our beers and walked through the forest paths under the full moon, hundreds of fireflies would explode out of the grass and bushes, creating a green star-field around us as we carried onward. 

We would go into the forest on purpose to enter this sight. Weekend after weekend we went, and weekend after weekend we were greeted by our hypnotic friends.

The fireflies seemed like more than just chemicals as they covered the area with their mysterious airborne glow; appearing, disappearing, then reappearing in a perfect rhythm. There was an aesthetic reason for their existence, a purpose of beauty and sight. They commanded us to step into their star-field, beckoned us onward with their magnetic pull. They were shooting stars in slow motion, illuminating the darkness of Ontario.

Way down on the forest floor, does the insect seek the cover of a glowing mushroom? Do they feel better under the warm glow of its greenish hum? Do the creatures of the forest avoid eating the mushrooms because of their glow? Are animals susceptible to enjoying their beauty?

I imagine a colony of tiny critters, awaiting the sun to set, so they can embark on their journey to the glow-shrooms. Under its canopy of green light, they partake in their holy rituals, which they do to ensure that the sun rises on the following morning. The fireflies perch themselves upon the top of the mushrooms and defend the ritual of the critters from the dark smelly insects; the shit-eaters and the rot-munchers. They fight a localized battle for the light and the dark. The moon watches and waits—she cheers for the critters in their fight against the darkness. She wants the return of the sun, too.

But maybe that just happens in myths and animated children’s films.

Maybe the glow is just a glow; a mating display, a type of camouflage, a misdirection? Maybe the glow is just chemicals, and nothing more? Either way, beauty exists where it is perceived. And more importantly, beauty exists where we decide to put it.

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Christopher Sire

Christopher is a second year Professional Writing student at Algonquin College who specializes in fantasy and science fiction. He avoids TV like the plague; he sings and plays guitar in his spare time.

Warning: Your Game Avatar Just Became Sentient

Image courtesy of www.iqvis.com

What would happen if a video game character became sentient?

How would it view humanity? Would it be able to comprehend our world, even if a detailed explanation were provided to it? How would it react if it was granted access to a web camera to view the real world?

I have always thought that the character would probably think they were crazy if a human were to transmit a voice and explain what the human world is. Since a video game character is completely locked within a computer generated world, the concept of anything being outside of their world may appear as ridiculous and confusing. Much the same as the very thought that humans have sometimes: is there anything outside of our universe?

Just like if God Itself were to whisper into one of our ears and tell us that there is so much beyond our universe, we would probably think we were crazy and seek medical help immediately.

The character in the video game world would probably be confused and have a huge amount of questions for us: why am I here? Where does my universe exist? How did you make the universe? How long will my universe exist? The questions would be endless in the same way as if God spoke to a human.

What questions would you ask God (if there were such an entity)?

If the entire population of the video game world became sentient, then the situation would become even more interesting. If a human transmitted a message to only one character (providing the game characters were programmed to understand English—or any other language) how would the character’s story be viewed by its friends? Would the character seem like one of the “crazy prophets” that have been encountered in our own world?

Hearing voices from far away has been a problem for humanity for as long as can be remembered. Mental illnesses have been shown to be the cause of auditory and visual hallucinations. I wonder, of what would the sentient game character be accused?

Would they be accused of lying? Would they be accused of mental health problems? Would they be accused of attempting to manipulate their friends? These sound like the familiar things that those in our own world are accused of when they “hear the voice of God”.

I wonder if the characters would gather together and protest against the human voice and demand a perfect way of life to be programmed into the machine. Perhaps they would all stop working and doing other programmed tasks (depending on each of their roles within the video game like blacksmith, mechanic, soldier, etc) and demand that all life be perfect within their world.

How would the characters view the concept of their world being powered by electricity? Would they be able to comprehend something that is so near to them? Electricity could safely be considered the “fabric of their reality” and as we humans have a difficult time understanding the atoms and quarks (and potential superstrings) that make up our own world, solar system, galaxy, and universe. Perhaps they too would not be able to comprehend the nature of their own electric reality.

I have asked more questions than I have answered.

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Christopher Sire

Christopher is a second year Professional Writing student at Algonquin College who specializes in fantasy and science fiction. He sings and plays guitar in his spare time.

The Problems With Transporters

Image courtesy of manic-expression.com

As a lifelong Star Trek fan, I have always wondered how the problems with transporter technology were handled. Since transporters do not exist, the problems I have with them are more philosophical than scientific; although the engineering problems connected to them would be the first challenges with their construction. For example, how do we build one? Is it possible to do so? Are they even theoretically possible? 

I have always wondered how the brain is broken down and reconstructed upon transport. I have always thought that if the brain were “pulled apart” into subatomic particles, would the person not be considered dead? How would the brain be reconstructed? Wouldn’t a small amount of misplaced neurons result in a possible alteration of the person’s personality, brain functioning, etc?

Would there have to be some kind of artificially maintained communication between the cells of the body as they were “injected” through the subspace stream? How would this occur? What would the person experience upon being transported? Would they “go dark”, as if falling asleep? Would their vision fall apart as the transporter beam disassembled their entire being?

Once the brain was pulled apart, would not everything that makes the person human also be pulled apart? If the neural network were to be disassembled, even for an instant, would not all memories, learning, everything, be lost forever?

My theory on these odd questions would have to be the following: somehow, when the brain is deconstructed, there would have to be some information transfer between the atoms, molecules, and neurons of the brain in order to keep the person alive while retaining their personality, memories, and other mental qualities. Either that, or the transporter would have to keep a snapshot of the entire personality and experience profile of the person at molecular deconstruction, “re-injecting” this profile into the fully reassembled brain.

And where does the transporter keep a record of the human’s appearance? How would it reconstruct trillions of atoms, cells, and molecules? Would it rebuild them in the same way in which they came apart? I have often wondered how Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle related to transporter technology (even though, if I remember correctly, there was a mechanism present within the transporter to “compensate” for the problem of not knowing a particle’s position and velocity simultaneously, known as Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle).

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Christopher Sire

Christopher is a second year Professional Writing student at Algonquin College who specializes in fantasy and science fiction. He sings and plays guitar in his spare time.