First Planet

The first time I saw a planet and understood what it was I was profoundly intrigued. The planet was Jupiter and it was 1977 - the year both Voyager missions were launched.  Subsequently we have been spoilt with unbelievably beautiful and high resolution pictures of the planets in our solar system. We are also fortunate to reside in a planetary system of such incredible beauty. 

Things could have been worse like it was for the inhabitants of Krikkit, where (if you haven't already read Life, the Universe and Everything by Douglas Adams, you can see excerpts here):  "Due to the dust cloud, the sky above Krikkit was completely black, and thus the people of Krikkit led insular lives and never realised the existence of the Universe."  Once they broke through the cloud and "Upon first witnessing the glory and splendor of the Universe, they casually, whimsically, decided to destroy it, remarking, 'It'll have to go.'"

So much of what we rely on and what we believe is based on what we can see. 'Seeing is believing' the adage goes, but having stumbled onto the concept of baryonic, and non-baryonic matter recently and then seeing references to Stephen Baxter's Xeelee, who are described as "The Baryonic Lords" it has made me wonder what non-Baryonic life may look like and whether we would even know about it if it lived right under our noses.  

Trance

Music is an essential accompaniment to the creative process. So it is with pleasure that I discovered the following music: Orbita Solaris Summer Solstice, which I purchased online.  The orbiting planet art work is beautiful and inspires something intriguing, something dark and sinister, something worthy of being transfered to a novel someday. Inspiration lurks in the most unexpected places.

Gaijin

Image credit: www.orionsarm.com

Recently I read Stephen Baxter's "Space Manifold 2" published in 2000.  It's a good example of hard Sci-Fi, while not ruining the story by trying to explain how some of the technology works. The technology is there, it works but we don't know who built it or what technology it is based on. The rules of physics as we know them have not been broken; the speed of light is still absolutely relativistically impossible to exceed. The fact that humans can survive some of the transitions is questionable but that is where reality as we know it transforms into fiction, and this is the author's prerogative.

What I loved about Baxter's aliens, the Gaijin, was the fact that their level of existence and intelligence was so different to our established views of life. We should always be surprised, but to be surprised beyond our own expectations is a rare pleasure.  While studying systems theory I was intrigued by the simple concept that systems are made up of sub-systems that interact and build on each other to form new macro-scale structures, which form new systems. Systems of systems. The fractal nature of the universe. Baxter uses life lived at two different levels of time scales to differentiate between us and the Gaijin. He does the same for the Chaera on the opposite side of the spectrum.  He also addresses one of the most fundamental paradoxes of our time - Enrico Fermi's assertion that "If they existed, they would be here." He does it eloquently. He also uses several different vehicles of narrative packaging to complete the story. There is an Epilogue, and even an Afterword. In addressing the paradox he raises a disconcerting explanation that is frighteningly plausible and then gives us hope by discovering something ancient and astronomical in scale and ambition. In my experience the creative process is as much invention as discovery and I imagine that Stephen would have discovered this idea rather than having invented it.  I may be wrong, but maybe I'll have the privilege to ask him one day.  

Some of the concepts are beautiful: the Gaijin Flower Ships, and the blue light saddle points.  The imagination runs wild trying to picture these things.  Some people's imagination is more active than others and an author may struggle to get the balance right - saying just enough to get the most important concepts across, embellishing it with some tantalising imagery but not over doing the descriptions by being too prescriptive.  While I was looking for someone else's artistic view of the Flower Ships I stumbled upon the Orion Arm Universe Project, and the image above.  The project is a wonderful concept and already captures some of the things I have been wanting to do. Inspiration lurks in so many different places.    

Aliens come in all shapes and sizes, but my favourite by far so far has been Solaris.