A Seed Saver's Garden

[Zeedman]

beans in space, the new adventure, we're talking seed coats here... space suits for beans?

reminds me of some ancient books by Piers Anthony...

It reminds me of Frank R. Stockton. After all HE was the one who created the Cosmic Bean in his story "The Great Show in Kobol-Land."

Oh great, now I need to look for more books...

 

[Zeedman]

It's sort of the problem I always had with the Puritan work ethic. Working hard to earn as much money as possible is fine, but if YOU work your entire life without using it, and so does every one of your descendants, what's the point? Either you'll just have a ton of money sitting in the bank growing forever being used for nothing, or someone will eventually die without heirs and intestate and the government will get it all anyway (I'm cynical enough to believe we are not too far away from the day the government starts secretly sending out hitmen to bump off very rich heirs before they get a family or a will so they can get their estates. The chunk they get in taxes is nice, but I'm sure many would much rather always get the whole thing.)

Why should the govt go through all of the trouble of bumping you off, when they can just seize your retirement savings, under the guise of "protecting" your savings from the unpredictability of the stock market? That has been bandied about for years... and since it is the only large pool of money left for the govt to steal appropriate, a far more likely scenario.

Which is a comment I would only make in this thread by rationalizing that we are sowing ideas, which is after all gardening of a sort.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Why should the govt go through all of the trouble of bumping you off, when they can just seize your retirement savings, under the guise of "protecting" your savings from the unpredictability of the stock market? That has been bandied about for years... and since it is the only large pool of money left for the govt to steal appropriate, a far more likely scenario.

Which is a comment I would only make in this thread by rationalizing that we are sowing ideas, which is after all gardening of a sort.

Your estate is much more than your savings. That plan only lets them get the money you saved for your retirement. Mine means they also get all of your property and possessions, to use as they see fit. They get land without having to either buy it or pay your heirs under eminent domain. If you have any art or antiques they can take it and hand it over to a national museum without having to subsidize them to allow them to buy it. And, best off all, whatever you have that they DON'T need, they can sell or auction off to make more money, then bump off the next owner to get it back so they can sell it again for even more.

PEOPLE in this country may, as individuals, believe in capitalism, but any government, by definition, would like communism, where they own EVERYTHING and don't need to concern themselves with the opinions of anyone else, best. If those in power could figure out a way to exempt themselves from the confiscation and get away with it, they'd take everything from everyone without a moments thought, same as how, no matter how much everyone says they want democracy, if the alternative was they got to do whatever they wanted and everyone else had to obey THEM in all things, they'd go for that in a flash.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Oh great, now I need to look for more books...

You're in luck. It isn't a book, it's a short story, if a somewhat longish one (that's why I put in in quotes, instead of italics.) It's probably available for free online (after all it's over 100 year old by now, so long since in the public domain.)

 

[flowerbug]

Oh great, now I need to look for more books...

if you like space opera written by someone with a good imagination i'd suggest Alastair Reynolds (read his books in order of publication is always my suggestion for any new author), but he also writes other things, but i do like him a great deal.

the other author for a quicker read is Robert Forwards (the two Dragon's Egg books are my favorites of his). hard science fiction.

Adrian Tchaikovsky is another imaginative writer i like, his books about intelligent/sentient spiders are really interesting to me.

 

[Jack Holloway]

if you like space opera written by someone with a good imagination i'd suggest Alastair Reynolds (read his books in order of publication is always my suggestion for any new author), but he also writes other things, but i do like him a great deal.

the other author for a quicker read is Robert Forwards (the two Dragon's Egg books are my favorites of his). hard science fiction.

Adrian Tchaikovsky is another imaginative writer i like, his books about intelligent/sentient spiders are really interesting to me.

Well, if you like Space Operas then you need to read E.E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman series; Galactic Patrol, Gray Lensman, Second Stage Lensmen, and Children of the Lens. Later, Triplanetary and Galactic Patrol were added as books 1 & 2 of the series.

 

[heirloomgal]

All very interesting! I've never heard of any of these books! Clearly, you're all very well read!

I just googled 'space opera' to know just what that is, got it. This summer me and the kids put on War of the Worlds, the new one. Whoa. I couldn't finish it, and neither could my son. We got to the part where they are trying to jump onto some means of escape in a mass exodus (closer to the beginning) and that was it. Too, too, too scary in it's realism. They captured too well just how things would unfold if something like that happened. We do have The Time Machine on audiobook, but it hasn't caught anyone's interest, and The Invisible Man on the shelf but no takers yet.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Well, if you like Space Operas then you need to read E.E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman series; Galactic Patrol, Gray Lensman, Second Stage Lensmen, and Children of the Lens. Later, Triplanetary and Galactic Patrol were added as books 1 & 2 of the series.

Ted White's Sector General novels are pretty decent as well, if you like medical dramas. Sort of Star Trek meets General Hospital.

 

[Jack Holloway]

All very interesting! I've never heard of any of these books! Clearly, you're all very well read!

I just googled 'space opera' to know just what that is, got it. This summer me and the kids put on War of the Worlds, the new one. Whoa. I couldn't finish it, and neither could my son. We got to the part where they are trying to jump onto some means of escape in a mass exodus (closer to the beginning) and that was it. Too, too, too scary in it's realism. They captured too well just how things would unfold if something like that happened. We do have The Time Machine on audiobook, but it hasn't caught anyone's interest, and The Invisible Man on the shelf but no takers yet.

I don't know how old your kids are, but the Tiffany Aching books by Terry Pratchett are good YA fantasy books. Witches and Elfs and wolfs, oh my! Of course, Terry Pratchett's Disc World books are quite good too (Tiffany Aching books count as Disc World). But they aren't Space Operas, that is for sure.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I don't know how old your kids are, but the Tiffany Aching books by Terry Pratchett are good YA fantasy books. Witches and Elfs and wolfs, oh my! Of course, Terry Pratchett's Disc World books are quite good too (Tiffany Aching books count as Disc World). But they aren't Space Operas, that is for sure.

They don't, but The Dark Side of the Sun might.

As for it being a space opera, Great A'Tuin is in space, Ankh-Morpork has an opera, so what else do we need to qualify?

Oh I forgot a REAL Space Opera, Jack Vance's Tschai novels, City of the Chansh, Servants of the Wankh, The Dirdir, and The Pnume.