tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post5138575868798676757..comments2023-11-22T01:14:54.298-08:00Comments on amor mundi: Googolectics: Navel Gazing... Without Limits! Dale Carricohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-15218998706976753832014-06-21T11:18:23.230-07:002014-06-21T11:18:23.230-07:00Femto! Atto! Zepto! Yocto!
Pico! Nano! Micro!...Femto! Atto! Zepto! Yocto!<br />Pico! Nano! Micro! Gonzo!<br /><br />Wikipedia sez:<br /><br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_infinitum<br />------------<br />The 17th century writer Jonathan Swift wrote lightheartedly the<br />idea of self-similarity in natural philosophy with the following<br />lines in his poem "On Poetry: A Rhapsody:<br /><br />...<br />"So nat'ralists observe, a flea<br />Hath smaller fleas that on him prey;<br />And these have smaller fleas to bite 'em.<br />And so proceeds Ad infinitum."<br />...<br />====<br /><br />I seem to recall that I encountered the above quote<br />(probably without attribution) from my 7th-grade science<br />teacher, but I may be confabulating that memory.<br />I didn't hear about Leibiz's notion of recursive self-similarity<br />until much later in life. ;-><br /><br />But not long before 7th grade (but where? Maybe it's mentioned<br />in Arthur C. Clarke's _Profiles of the Future_), I caught<br />wind of the out-of-date SF trope (popularized in<br />the days when the Bohr model of the<br />atom as a miniature solar system was new) that atoms were<br />**literally** miniature solar systems, with possibly inhabited<br />"planets" and all.<br /><br />Here's a bibliography:<br /><br />http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/tag.cgi?3849<br />-------------<br />Internet Speculative Fiction Database<br />Titles Marked With Tag: atom worlds<br /><br />1936 – He Who Shrank by Henry Hasse<br />1935 – The Cosmic Pantograph by Edmond Hamilton<br />1932 – The Seed of the Toc-Toc Birds by Francis Flagg<br />1931 – Awlo of Ulm by S. P. Meek<br />1931 – Beyond the Vanishing Point by Ray Cummings<br />1931 – Submicroscopic by S. P. Meek<br />1929 – In Two Worlds by Edward E. Chappelow<br />1928 – Out of the Sub-Universe by R. F. Starzl<br />====<br /><br />A summary of the last item (from _Science-fiction: The<br />Gernsback Years: A Complete Coverage of the Genre_<br />by Everett Franklin Bleiler, via Google Books):<br />-------------<br />STARZL, R[OMAN] F[REDERICK] (1899-1976)<br />U.S. (Iowa) journalist, writer, newspaper publisher.<br />Contributed twenty-odd science-fiction stories to<br />the pulps. These were literate, usually capable<br />action fiction with science-fiction trappings. . .<br />Starzl was also an important member of both the German<br />and American rocket societies. In later life interested<br />in right-wing politics. . .<br /><br />OUT OF THE SUB-UNIVERSE. _Amazing Stories Quarterly_,<br />Summer 1928. . .<br /><br />Professor Halley, who has been working with cosmic rays, has<br />discovered that certain harmonics of the rays can increase<br />of decrease size almost infinitely. He also also satisfied<br />himself that atomic structures parallel solar systems in<br />our universe. With his apparatus he has sent objects into<br />the atomic world and retrieved them, but has had no success<br />with living creatures. Hence (although the reader may find<br />the reasoning a little lopsided) it is agreed that the<br />professor's daughter Shirley and hear near-fiance, Hale,<br />should go down into the atomic world to explore. Halley intends<br />to retrieve them in a half-hour. At the appropriate time,<br />Halley throws the switch. He sees emerging up in size, not<br />Shirley and Hale, but about two hundred strangely-garbed<br />people. Still tiny, they address him in English, telling<br />him that they have maintained the temple of Halley's descendants<br />for about a million years. The professor overlooked the<br />fact that time would pass far more rapidly in the sub-universe<br />than in ours. . . [D]ifferential time. . . was anticipated<br />by G. Peyton Wertenbaker's "The Man from the Atom", where the<br />concept is very clearly stated. . .<br />====<br /><br />I seem to recall echoes of this trope floating around in the comic<br />books I read in the early 60's. Maybe DC Comics' "The Atom"<br />could do this sort of thing. I can't remember how he managed<br />the time differential. ;-><br />jimfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04975754342950063440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-77549161161404832282014-06-21T06:57:14.379-07:002014-06-21T06:57:14.379-07:00The writing style reads like a mix between Timecub...The writing style reads like a mix between Timecube and Star Trek:TNG scripts, where they let their advisors include random technoscience terms into gaps labeled [tech] to make it all sound more sciencey.Esebianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17352289295517890623noreply@blogger.com