Sciency Words: Philosophical Zombie

November 1, 2013 ~ J.S. Pailly ~ Leave a comment

Science fiction uses scientific language as a form of artistic expression. With that in mind, today’s post is part of a series here on Planet Pailly called Sciency Words. Every Friday, I’ll bring you a new and interesting scientific word to help us all expand our scientific vocabulary. Today’s word is:

PHILOSOPHICAL ZOMBIE

Philosophical zombies, or P-zombies for short, have nothing to do with undead monsters hungering for “BRRAAAIINNS!!!” They’re part of a thought experiment in the field of psychology. Imagine a creature that is a perfect simulation of a human being. It looks human, it acts human, and it even thinks like a human, but it lacks that inner essence that all humans have, what some might call a soul. Would it be possible to distinguish between a real human and this simulation?

Another way to think about this is to simply ask where does the “soul” come from? If all the physical parts are put together correctly, does the soul emerge from this assemblage of matter, or does it come from someplace else? Someplace beyond our current understanding of science?

This theme comes up frequently in Science Fiction. Does Frankenstein’s monster have a soul? What about Commander Data from Star Trek or Jane from the Ender’s Game series? All of these characters are articulate, intelligent, and often emotional beings. They are all philosophical zombies.

In real life, there’s chatterbot, a computer program that you can have a conversation with. Supposedly, chatterbot is so good at small talk that most people can’t tell the difference between it and a real person. If technology like that continues to develop, one-day computer intelligence and human intelligence really will be indistinguishable. So if we get to that point, how will we know if computers have souls or not? This won’t be a “philosophical” question forever.

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Did you already know this word? If so, please share another sciency word in the comments below. That way, we can all keep expanding our sciency vocabularies together!

Sciency Words: Georgium Sidis

October 25, 2013October 25, 2013 ~ J.S. Pailly ~ Leave a comment

GEORGIUM SIDIS

In the late 18^th Century, Sir William Herschel discovered a new planet. Up until that point, everyone assumed there were only six planets in the Solar System. When asked what to name this planet, Herschel called it the Georgium Sidis, meaning “George’s Star,” in honor of his patron, King George III of England.
Uranus 2003
Fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately), this name didn’t stick. Non-English scientists were offended and didn’t want our seventh planet named after an English king, so they re-named it Uranus after the ancient Greek god of the sky. This choice has worked out great for most of the world, but not for those of us who speak English. For us, the planet Uranus has become the victim of far too many astronomy jokes.

Incidentally, I named a character in one of my Tomorrow News Network stories George Sidis in honor of Uranus’s original name. Sidis is a secondary antagonist in “Children of the Swarm,” and yes, I’d describe him as kind of an ass.

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Did you already know this word? If so, please share another sciency word in the comments below. That way, we can all keep expanding our sciency vocabularies together!

P.S.: There’s a brand new short story on the Tomorrow News Network website. 3,000 years into the future, the Earth Empire has a new secret weapon: the brain of Albert Einstein. Click here to start reading “Einstein’s Clone.”

Sciency Words: Syzygy

October 18, 2013 ~ J.S. Pailly ~ 4 Comments

SYZYGY

Syzygy: (noun) The word that proves that yes, “y” really is a sometimes vowel. Whenever three celestial bodies, like the Sun, the Moon, and the Earth, form a straight line, they are in a state of syzygy. This occurs whenever we have a solar or lunar eclipse, but it can happen in other circumstances as well. For example, if Venus, Mars, and Jupiter lined up perfectly, that would also be considered syzygy.

The word syzygy has a nice, exotic sound to it, which is appropriate for such a rare astronomical event. It’s unfortunate you don’t hear the word used more often whenever it actually occurs. In fact, the word is so obscure that I have never found a way to use it effectively. It’s almost impossible to make its meaning clear without explicitly giving the definition, which usually means it’s easier to just not use the word at all.

So I challenge you to find a way to fit this word into a story or a casual conversation. Bonus points to anyone who does it without having to explain what it means.

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Did you already know this word? If so, please share another sciency word in the comments below. That way, we can all keep expanding our sciency vocabularies together!

Sciency Words: Entropy

October 11, 2013October 11, 2013 ~ J.S. Pailly ~ Leave a comment

Science fiction uses scientific language as a form of artistic expression. With that in mind, today’s post is part of a new series here on Planet Pailly called Sciency Words. Every Friday, I’ll bring you a new and interesting scientific word to help us all expand our scientific vocabulary. Today’s word is:

ENTROPY

Entropy: (noun) A measurement of the amount of disorder in a mechanical system. This word comes to us courtesy of the second law of thermodynamics, which tells us that the entropy of any closed system will always increase.

Entropy is a term just begging to be used in art or literature. It has so much potential in our post-modern world. Imagine talking about the entropy of society or of the modern family or of the American political system. In a million different ways, the world seems to be increasingly disordered, and as thermodynamics predicts the trend doesn’t seem reversible.

But the second law of thermodynamics is not as absolute as it sounds. There is a chance—a very, very small chance—that entropy can spontaneously decrease. So perhaps it can also be said, no matter how entropic our world may appear, that there is always a little bit of hope.

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Did you already know this word? If so, please share another sciency word in the comments below. That way, we can all keep expanding our sciency vocabularies together!

Technobabble

February 24, 2012 ~ J.S. Pailly ~ 2 Comments

Sciency words… this video has them.

Vampires in Space

July 26, 2011August 22, 2011 ~ J.S. Pailly ~ 2 Comments

Have you noticed the occasional astronomy references in the Twilight novels? They’re one of my favorite things about them. Even the titles (Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn) are related to astronomy terms, and the movie soundtracks include songs like “Supermassive Black Hole” and “Neutron Star Collision.”

I’ve often felt that, as a society increasingly dependent on science, scientific language should somehow seep into our literature. And not just science fiction literature. So in that spirit, here are some suggestions for future Twilight novels:

Twilight: Syzygy

“Oh Edward,” Bella said, “don’t you see? You, me, and Jacob… our lives are perfectly aligned, like three planets in a state of syzygy.”

Twilight: Perihelion

“Sometimes,” Edward admitted, “Bella does things that drive us apart, but I am like a planet and she is the sun, and no matter how far away my orbit takes me, I always turn back. I always return to be as close to her as possible, at the point of perihelion.”

Twilight: Oort Cloud

“Listen, bloodsucker,” Jacob snarled at Edward, “I don’t want to see you anywhere near Bella. You should be as far away as possible, like a comet in the Oort Cloud.”

Sciency Words

May 23, 2011May 23, 2011 ~ J.S. Pailly ~ Leave a comment

I don’t have any sciency words to share myself today, but I recently found another blog that does. This post, from a blog run by the Clarion Foundation, is about the various terms used to describe the parts of a spaceship. It’s a great resource for science fiction writers, and I have it saved as a favorite on my browser for easy future reference.

Click here.

Sciency Words #6

April 11, 2011April 11, 2011 ~ J.S. Pailly ~ Leave a comment

Aquaculture: Aquaculture is the practice of raising fish and other seafood in captivity, just as cows and chickens are raised in captivity on farms. Supposedly in the future we will depend on fish rather than land animals for our protein; it was even the subject of a book by Arthur C. Clark (better known for writing 2001: A Space Odyssey). But how healthy is farmed fish compared to other farmed animals, and how much do fish farms hurt the environment? It’s a relatively new industry, so regulations aren’t fully in place yet.

Links:

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

9 Facts on Aquaculture from the Huffington Post

The Deep Range by Arthur C. Clark.

Sciency Words #5

January 16, 2011 ~ J.S. Pailly ~ Leave a comment

Selenology is the study of the Moon. The word is derived from Selene, the ancient Greek goddess of the Moon. Even though the Moon is easily observed from Earth, even though humans have been there are returned, there is still a lot we don’t know.

Selenology will be the subject of my regular post on Wednesday.

Sciency Words #4

October 31, 2010 ~ J.S. Pailly ~ Leave a comment

Syzygy: a term describing three celestial bodies in perfect alignment. For example, when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are in a straight line, they are in syzygy. At times, other combinations of planets will be in syzygy. The challenge now is to find a way to use this word in a normal conversation.