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The human colony on the planet Argo has long explored and exploited the technology left behind by an extinct alien race. But then an archaeology team accidentally activates a terrible weapon...
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"Seldom does a storytelling talent come along as potent and fully mature as Mike Brotherton. His complex characters take you on a voyage that is both fiercely credible and astonishingly imaginative. This is Science Fiction."
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-- Locus Magazine"Star Dragon is steeped in cosmology, the physics of interstellar travel, exobiology, artificial intelligence, bioscience. Brotherton, author of many scientific articles in refereed journals, has written a dramatic, provocative, utterly convincing hard science sf novel that includes an ironic twist that fans will love."
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-- Publishers Weekly"Mike Brotherton, himself a trained astrophysicist, combines the technical acuity and ingenuity of Robert Forward with the ironic, postmodern stance and style of M. John Harrison. In this, his debut novel, those twin talents unite to produce a work that is involving on any number of levels. It's just about all you could ask for in a hardcore SF adventure."
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Where is the Food of the Future?
June 6th, 2010
Both science fiction fans and the general public complain about the failure of predictions of future technology. Where are the flying cars? Colonies on the moon? Jet packs? And food in pill form?
Well, the last one is probably the least plausible of the above, and it could be argued that we have the other technologies, or could have them, if the will and economics were there to support their development.
The food thing is one for which we seem to have gone BACKWARDS. Foods technology today has created overly processed stuff that is tasty, stuffed with calories, and making us FAT and UNHEALTHY. My time abroad, especially in countries like Brazil, is a constant reminder about how Americans in particular are fat and unhealthy. I myself am overweight, but let’s go for a ten-mile run and we can discuss the issue. I’ll get the weight back down, but boy, I have to exercise and watch my diet like a supermodel.
I suppose I know the answer, given a minimal insight into human nature, but why isn’t there Purina Human Chow?
We have well-balanced food for our pets and livestock, even if we don’t always feed it to them, including special blends for overweight animals, old animals, young animals, and they eat it. Male dogs seem to eat voraciously even if they’re not eating food. Cats are pickier, but they’ll eat the healthy stuff when they’re hungry.
Why not people? Why not something that will keep that fat-assed programmer in crunch time from packing on the pounds? Why is the most heavily pushed source of sustenance nutrient-free carbonated sugar water? Why is it is so damned hard to stay healthy eating at restaurants? We weren’t meant to have the sedentary jobs that are so common today, and it’s killing us.
For the science fiction fans, many of whom are “fan-sized” as I have seen more than one convention slyly acknowledge in their restaurant guide with respect to seating options (no booths please!), can’t we make some healthy People Chow and sell it as Soylent Green? How about some Logan Run style “protein from the sea?”
I’m afraid human nature is the real problem. We’re selfish gluttons for the most part, and we take care of our pets better than ourselves. We’re weak, pampered, self-indulgent. I know I am. Oh, I’m not terrible by most standards, but I could do better. I want to do better. I will do better.
Where’s the food of the future to help me out? I don’ need a pill, but something tasty, healthy, cheap, that fills all my nutritional needs, like we seem to manage for our dogs and cats, would help a lot. My palette is not sophisticated, and I can do any diet that is convenient and easy…and I’m sure we could afford to indulge once in a while if we started at a healthy body weight rather from inflated American bodies.
Again, where is the food of the future?
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I think one of the largest problems is that food has a very large psychological component. The nutrition community has a saying, “Do you eat to live or live to eat?” Meaning, “Is food just nutrition to you or is it something more.” The real-world analogy being grandma’s/mom’s cooking. Most of the people who study food are naturally live-to-eaters, so they have less of a vested interest in pillfood.
More physically, if I may state the obvious, calories require a certain amount of combustible mass and if you need a certain level of bulk, why not care about flavor?
Did you see the program that was on last night? Overweight Nation (I think that’s the name; I might be wrong). There is definitely a trend of change in how we eat and take care of ourselves, and some of that change is the result of schools and businesses. In fact, the interesting thing they found out was that businesses which paid to send their employees to $2500 health bootcamps ended up saving more money in healthcare expenses than it cost to pay for the trips. It was really fascinating, because so much of our healthcare expenses are very much a result of our we take care of our bodies.
Other things that exist and are growing more popular: a treadmill desk for those who sit all day. Apparently it works really well. I’d get one if I had the money…
So, things are definitely changing. I’m hoping such things catch on and change things for good, but we won’t know for a while…
On a side note: it’s Soylent Green. No “a.” I’m nitpicky 😛
And on an additional side note: I met a fellow at an academic conference a few months ago who mentioned a very interesting science conference where folks basically get together and create a realistic alien based on a set of parameters set at the start. I think it was called AI, but I could be wrong. I assume you’re familiar with it and I thought it was a really nifty idea. I’d love to do that some time, but I’m not a scientist…I used to want to be until I decided I really hate chemistry…
Soylent, yes, thanks! Don’t want to be getting the knock-off brand made of fat, unhealthy people…
Missed Overweight Nation, but it sounds like it got into my brain last night anyway.
As far as eat to live or live to eat…we’ll, I’d like it fine if I didn’t have to eat or shit and somehow had the energy just to keep going. Then I could treat eating as an artistic/entertainment experience. I mean, if I could spend my time in front of the TV only watching the best shows and movies of all time, and never have to see the same crap commercial a hundred times or endure a stupid sitcom with canned laughter because I’m too brain dead to do much else, sounds great!
I have complained for years that eating healthy is way more expensive. 2 liters of soda is .99 but a smaller bottle of juice (without added sugar) is about $3.50. And you can run into Burger King or McDonalds and get a burger quickly for about a buck. It’s fast and easy to eat while your driving. It’s way more difficult to get something good for you that fast. I get a lot of wierd looks when I order a burger with out the meat. It’s just a cheese sandwich…
I have told friends that taking meat out of your diet, even just for two meals a day, forces you to change your eating habits.
King Corn is an interesting documentary film you might enjoy. It has some scientific info about modern agriculture, corn in particular, and its negative health effects.
Fast food, a culture of eating out in restaurants that give large portions, working long hours and then eating a big dinner late at night, lack of exercise, etc etc also all contribute of course.
I don’t see this as a problem with a technological solution. The means to eat healthier are well known and quite doable; people simply choose to do otherwise.
Thanks for the suggestions, Russ.
And I’ll play cheeky monkey and say that your faith in technology is weak, young Skywalker.
To a great extent technology has caused the problem, in conjunction with business and our own natures.
I avoid cottonseed oil and high fructose corn syrup. I make a vegetarian casserole for the week because all those packaged vegetarian meals taste like what I think a sponge would taste like. But I get meat cravings or don’t always feel full from baked tofu and veggies. I’m trying to lose weight and have cut out the pasta and carbs so the meal is not very filling. I do have one bagel for breakfast though. I’ve only been able to maintain my weight because my only exercise is walking my dogs one hour a day. No cardio and I do have the time to do it. Just haven’t felt like it. I should though, even if it’s just a three minute cardio. I have free weights and a punching bag up.
Recently I did find a brand of vegetarian meals in a bag that actually look and taste like beef and chicken. Fried they even fooled my dogs. I’m not sure what will happen when I micro wave them. They smell like meat while cooking but have that strange engineered vegetarian food smell later.
Better than the fast food stuff though. My dogs, who eat everything won’t eat fish filets from the big chain. That’s scary.
The topic is interested and remarkable. It is really need to think about this matter. As we understand one think very clearly is health is wealth. If we didn’t get right food then how come except the right health. So friend we all have to think for this.Thanks for posting dear.