"Your Stories" World of Evergreen Blog

President Obama, High-Speed Rails and a 2020 Vision inherent in "Evergreen: A Space-Time Odyssey" (Ziner, 2009)

Wednesday, June 24, 2009 at 2:44 AM | Posted by A.S. Ziner

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The birth of an AI (artificial intelligence) -based SkyTran takes place in Volume One of my supernatural, sci-fi trilogy titled Evergreen: A Space-Time Odyssey. In the second and third volumes, AiTOM (pronounced "Adam;" the first SkyTran created) takes on a persona of "his" own, addressing critical problems facing the citizens of Jaden and dealing with his own sense of humanity and mortality. Among the many future roles SkyTrans and their unique SkyCabs can perform in Jaden (and, perhaps, in our own cities) is to monitor, assess and quickly respond to human needs in everyday life: intra-city commerce and medical transport, school busing, policing and related emergency management control (to name a few) and inter-city transport of commerce and people. SkyTrans and their SkyCabs represent a unique AI-based network referred to as SkyRails in Evergreen.

How and where would a SkyRails network "fit" in places like Manhattan, Los Angeles or any city in between? Anyone who has visited Sydney Australia or other cities committed to the simplest of monorail paradigms (SkyRails' scope and impact on human communities is not so simple) knows how easily below- and above-ground rails can, in turn, be strategically enmeshed within a city, attached to point-and-entry buildings and embedded in a city's social and economic fabric. You, of course, remember the horrors of 911. SkyRails must be part of the external structure of the tallest skyscrapers (straight up, reverse, straight down) so unique emergency management SkyTrans and SkyCabs can quickly reach and retrieve people in large numbers and address fires and related threats that, at present, no fire department or EMS program can effectively reach. Moreover, under extreme weather conditions like Hurricane Katrina, all intra-city SkyRails networks would be transformed into people-movers to evacuate cities en mass (In Volume Two of Evergreen, such a problem-solving scenario will unfold).

What about Detroit and the automotive industry? The big three automotive manufacturers could shift a portion of their design, manufacturing and distribution energies to SkyRails and their specially designed SkyCabs. They did something similar (producing jeeps and half-tracks, for example) during WWII, didn't they? We needn't give up our roads and highways (though, eventually, I think most of us will). We just need to use our American ingenuity to provide safe, efficient and environmentally sound alternatives to such passe' 20th Century thought. This could also create job explosions in steel manufacturing and other areas related to the creation, distribution and installation of stem and leaf, multi-tier I-beams (also described in the story) used by SkyTrans and their SkyCabs.

Imagine having the option of driving onto a SkyRails platform in your home city, being secure in the comfort of your car within an autobay (one of many specially designed SkyCabs) and efficiently and quietly transported above and below ground to another distant city in minutes -- or across the country in a few hours (like air transportation). Of course, you could travel in the comfort of another specially designed SkyCab and leave your car at home. Then, on arrival, you drive (or walk) away from one of several "SkyRails Central" platforms and enter another SkyRail network solely designed for intra-city travel to shop, dine, etc. You travel three, four and even five stories above the city streets, quietly and seemlessly advancing alongside apartments and condos, hotels, businesses and corporate centers, with other SkyRail transports (such as EMS, police or a commercial payload) traveling above and below often in the opposite direction. At the evening's end, you return to your SkyCab autobay and safely travel home. Now imagine such arrangements within cities to be entirely free (paid through a unique federal-city-private sector partnership) and between cities to be based on a nomimal fee equivalent to less than the average per gallon cost of gas per trip.

Think of the advantages to this alternative to our reliance on cars, cabs and trucks as we move from point A to point B. Minimally, there would be significant reductions in foreign and domestic fuel dependencies, noise and air pollution, traffic-related deaths and automotive-related expenses. SkyRails' networks within cities would revolutionize human dependencies on present forms of institutional care (such as ambulances, busing, policing, emergency management and cabbing) since SkyCabs would be created -- and parallel rail systems implemented -- to address these human needs. Plus, people could always have a guaranteed safe ride home no matter where we are within and between cities.

It's more than noteworthy that, after President Obama's recent European trip, national news covered how favorably impressed he was with the high-speed rail systems in place and how he plans to earmark non-trivial federal funds (tax dollars) toward research and development on similar technologies in the U.S. Speaking as an applied sociologist and evaluation researcher, in addition to authoring Evergreen, such an investment can only result in a win-win scenario for savvy automotive manufacturers, steel and peripheral industries related to SkyRails, and the majority of Americans and American businesses centered in urban, metropolitan areas (SMSAs and SCSAs). Concepts of "human networking," "service delivery" and "addressing civic needs" broaden significantly under a national SkyRails program. President Obama, are you listening?

This discussion touches on one of several underlying themes in my new novel Evergreen: A Space-Time Odyssey. Though I have written a supernatural, science fiction adventure about the tribulations of a far-away world, on closer inspection, there are dark parallels to our own world with solutions that might help us just the same.

I hope you enjoy the first leg of the journey (i.e., Volume One of Evergreen) as much as I did writing it!

Tune in. Take Part. Be Civil-Minded!

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What is the Purpose of the "Your Stories" Blog?

Tuesday, June 23, 2009 at 11:57 PM | Posted by A.S. Ziner

This blog is tied to my fictional novel Evergreen: A Space-Time Odyssey. It serves three broad purposes.

The first is therapeutic: To link elements of the story to personal experiences with incivility (i.e., to gather "data" in the form of stories). What have you or others close to you witnessed or directly experienced that generated the same kinds of reactions toward incivility you felt when reading Evergreen?

The second is instructional: To create opportunities for parents and teachers of 4th-12th graders to combine and integrate allegorical examples from Evergreen with personal accounts of incivility (such as those found in "Your Stories") into family and/or classroom dialogue. The goal is to explore and clarify one's values in a range of human settings and conditions and under various policy frameworks at the local, national and international levels (i.e., to connect the "data" or dots, including your own stories, to dominion). Such a pedagogy offers our children and their parents/teachers an updated model of social discourse on morality (secularly defined as "rules of action") based on an age-old one -- the parable.

The third, while admittedly quixotic, is clearly worthy of debate and blog: To create a catalyst to reshape dominion in our lives. The underlying axiom is that the human condition is a temporary social product, created and sustained by us through human arrangements and, therefore, is capable of being changed by us as well (i.e., to engage in a type of praxis to eliminate dominion whenever and wherever possible).

First and foremost, Evergreen is written as a compelling fantasy adventure for pure entertainment value. Naturally, I believe it has accomplished this objective. I encourage you to judge this claim for yourself. However, with regard to the matter of praxis, my work also is designed as a trilogy that slowly reveals a vision of future city life and our human potential in it. I have set the stage for such a futuristic vision in this first volume.

Tune in. Take part. Be civil-minded!

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"Fave" Excerpt #5: Syrus, the Pterodactyl-like Ruler of all winged carnivores, addressing his army before Gaia's lifeless cocoon.

at 2:02 AM | Posted by A.S. Ziner

Excerpt from “Battle Beneath Lake Augur" (Chapter 12)

"Bring me Gaia’s co-conspirators now!" orders Syrus. He jumps off the cold, motionless cocoon onto the sand and begins to pace back and forth before his troops. Many have managed to squeeze into a spot on the beach or crowd onto rocks and tree branches. Most hover or circle overhead in anticipation. Syrus takes a deep breath, raises his wings and exhales slowly. The legions that surround him lean in with their wings slightly raised, mesmerized by the image of evil their leader represents. Syrus turns to the chrysalis, scowls in disgust and quickly turns back to the mass of soldiers on the ground and in the air.

“Before all of you,” he bellows brazenly, “I want those winged tapestries to bear witness to the destruction of their leader and the end of their journey.”

Ojeda is the first to appear in the claws of the enemy. He is carried in by more than a dozen osprey and thrown face down onto the sand a short distance from the cocoon. It is evident from the amount of fluid that still trickles across his neck and back and soaks his colorful wings that he hasn’t been able to tend to the wounds inflicted earlier. For the moment, Ojeda is too worn down to wage any battle. He cannot even muster enough strength to stare Syrus in the eye and tell him what he thinks of his horrible war against Gaia and the despicable treatment of the Kwak’walans.

“I found this one among the group, too!” shouts a cherry-headed eagle in flight with Grog tightly clenched in his talons. The bird circles just above Syrus and drops Grog on his back next to Ojeda. His thorny legs thrash wildly in the air until he is able to gyrate, twist and flip onto his belly. The eagle circles once again and lands with one foot on the sand and the other across the large metallic grasshopper’s head and nape. With Grog’s face in the sand, he wisely shows no signs of resistance.

Ojeda turns his head toward Grog. “Are you alright?” he asks faintly.

Grog struggles to raise his mouth from the sand to reply. The eagle responds by adjusting his foot and clamping down even tighter. A sharp talon, still soiled with insect guts, slips into one of Grog’s sizable nostrils.

“Ugh,” he begins nasally, “Grog has seen better days.” The smell of the eagle’s foot forces him to gag and cough a few times. “It wouldn’t be so bad if Grog was in a foul mood, but Grog is okay,” he declares dispirited.

“Shut up, bug!” orders the brawny eagle. “Or I’ll dip you in chocolate and sell you to the natives.” Several soldiers in the vicinity overhear the comment and laugh out loud.

“Have you seen Merton?” whispers Grog at considerable risk. “He was next to Gaia when –” Grog gasps and stops short of completing his sentence. He’s breathless, his mouth wide open, as he watches Munyo, Tepetu and Kunziah thrown face down on the other side of Gaia’s cocoon. They too are pinned in the sand by dozens of birds of prey. Their moans reveal they have been treated about as well as Grog and Ojeda.

“No, I lost him in all the confusion,” he responds apologetically. From Ojeda’s location, he is unable to see his companions ushered in and tossed to the ground. But he can read the dire expression on Grog’s face. “Things don’t look so good, do they, pal?” he asks with as much energy as he can marshal.

Grog glances at Ojeda and the others nearby who struggle vainly to free themselves. He then sees Syrus raise his clawed wings to address his troops. “Grog thinks things just got worse,” he replies.

“Warriors and defenders of the forest throne,” declares Syrus pridefully before his army, “Gaia’s reign is over!” A thunder of cheers erupts around him. “This spineless freak of nature will now pay for the plague of death she wrought upon us yesterday in our own homeland! For taking the breath away from so many of our brothers and sisters, we’ll now return the favor.” Syrus stretches his neck and leers toward the shoreline. “Drown her in the lake!” he shouts, pointing to the water.

Amidst a savage spirit that escalates throughout the island and circles overhead, hundreds of birds rush to clutch or tear into Gaia in her cocoon. Dozens dive bomb from the sky, only to slam into those who get there first. Every unsavory specimen in Syrus’ army is represented in this horrid momentous event. With only minor difficulty, they lift the cocoon off the sand and into the air and carry it over the lake just beyond the shoreline.

SPLASH!

The heavy, blackened cocoon and its contents lurch forward and then wobble on the water’s surface as if a struggle is taking place inside. Within seconds water surges into its thoroughly punctured and partly shredded lining. The chrysalis teeters once and sinks just below the surface of the lake. Millions of bubbles rise like boiling water and soon disappear. Moments later the shoreline is calm. At once a roar from Syrus’ legions near and far signifies their approval.

SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH-SPLASH! SPLASH-SPLASH!

Bobbing in the water above Gaia’s shallow grave are several cleanly plucked falcons. They are pink, bumpy and stiff as a board. Most peculiar, however, is how they landed. They are on their backs, wings spread and feet raised like they were about to clutch something when they took their last breath. A look of shock remains with the featherless birds at the water’s surface; their eyes and mouths are wide open. The roar of Syrus’ troops dies down to an uncomfortable whisper.

“What are those?” exclaims Syrus, angered by the sudden interruption to his otherwise triumphant morning.

A smattering of blue, gray and white feathers begins to fall from above, gently rocking back and forth over the watery burial site and across the shoreline. Several find their way to the sandy area where Gaia formerly lay in stasis. This highly unusual event catches the attention not only of Syrus and many thousands of his troops, but of Grog and the four companion escorts, too.

“Find out who’s responsible, Taggart!” commands Syrus furiously. “Be absolutely sure!” A few stray feathers from the blue-headed falcons land on his outstretched, leathery wings and beak. “I want answers fast,” he states, shaking them off.

Taggart doesn’t budge. “Nothing born from among the creatures in this world can do that,” he replies somberly.

“What are you saying?” boils Syrus.

Taggart stares at the featherless troopers afloat. “It’s unnatural. I’ve seen this before. Only one time she left the feathers on and the other there were no traces of the bodies at all.” He turns to Syrus. “The creature that was brought here is responsible,” he says trembling. “It’s now somewhere among us and quite alive. Odds are it’s gonna love you for this.”

The strong current from Redwood Falls begins to draw the dead falcons away from the shoreline. Rage overcomes Syrus to the point where his lower jaw shakes and his eye twitches uncontrollably. Those around him back away and form a large perimeter. Once Syrus gains his composure, he turns to Taggart.

“Tell me you’re suggesting that the thing under the surface of this lake is not Gaia,” he states in a cold, gritty voice. “Go ahead, I dare you. Tell me.”

Taggart’s silence only heightens the ancient ruler’s rage.

“This is no game of chance,” Syrus declares, jabbing his winged claw in Taggart’s chest.

“Then there’s only one way to know for sure,” replies Taggart, now taking flight just out of Syrus’ reach.

“Yes,” says Syrus snidely. He turns to his troops. “Retrieve the remains from the water!” he orders. The thought of the next steps produces a rare smile and stifled laugh. “We’ll just have to open it up and peek inside.”

Hundreds of birds of prey dive into the cold water. A few seconds later the dark cocoon rises to the surface. Scores of birds seize parts of its waterlogged lining with their feet and beaks. Feverishly, they struggle to lift the dead weight out of the water, and sections peel right off in their claws and mouths. The largest birds, including eagles and hawks, maneuver underneath the cocoon to provide support and prevent it from slipping back into the lake. With much determination and persistence, the cocoon is raised from the water and slowly carried over the shoreline toward Syrus’ position. Birds on the sand beneath them wisely scatter just in case –

– R-R-R-RIP!

The underside lining of the water-drenched cocoon splits in two from the weight of its contents. Out from its bottom pour hundreds of silver-beaked blackbirds and a small number of osprey. They form a stiff, smelly, charcoal-black pile on the sand. With no further need to hold onto the cocoon’s lining, the birds let it drop onto the mound and watch it slide to rest at its base.

“Now we know what happened to our remaining recon squads,” states Taggart, hovering near Syrus and sensing danger.

Syrus gazes at the cocoon’s gruesome contents. Incensed at being outwitted by his nemesis, he lifts off the ground and points at each of Gaia’s companions. "We’ll see if your savior can ignore you now,” he says cold-heartedly. “Kill them!” shouts Syrus. “Kill them all!”

At once an intense acoustical pitch resonates throughout the underworld ...

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