My Alexander the Great Course has continued, and today the tapes discussed the Maccabeean revolt in 164 BC. I was astonished to learn that the Chanukah traditions and the Book of Maccabees only covered part of the story!
First, the basics. According to Jewish tradition and the Book of Maccabees, the evil Greek ruler Antiochus IV passed a decree preventing the Jews from practicing their traditions. Needless to say, the local religious community was not particular thrilled
about this. A family of religious brothers (the Maccabees) from the
from the small town of Modin organized a rebellion, killed Antiochus's general Nicanor, and
routed the Greek armies. They rededicated the Temple in Jerusalem (the Greeks had been
sacrificing pigs, worshiping Zeus, and doing other things which were contrary to Jewish
practice), and commemorated the event in the holiday of Chanukah. Everyone lived happily ever after. The tradition of giving gifts on Chanukah is derived from Christmas, and both holidays are likely derived from Saturnalia, a Roman winter solstice festival.
Here is what really happened, according to the Greek scholar on the tape.
Antiochus III, Antiochus IV's father, was actually a great friend of the Jews. He respected
the Jews' customs and reminded the Greeks not to desecrate the Temple. Antiochus was in
charge of the Seleucid Kingdom, one of the myriad kingdoms carved out of Alexander the
Great's conquests after Alexander's death. He considered Judea to be an autonomous,
relatively independent part of his kingdom.
That's when the Romans got involved.
The Romans started expanding into the eastern Mediterranean late in Antiochus III's
reign and defeated the Seleucids in battle. Antiochus III was forced to give up a large
chunk of his kingdom. Even worse, the Seleucid government was concerned that the
Romans would make an alliance with Ptolemaic Egypt, another Hellenistic kingdom.
Judea suddenly became a valuable buffer state between Egypt and Seleucia.
After Antiochus IV came to power, he took advantage of a minor ruling Egypt and tried to conquer the country. However, the Romans had become the power brokers of the region
by this point. A Roman soldier stepped in to protect Rome's possible ally and, quite simply,
bluffed Antiochus into stopping the invasion.
This left Antiochus in tough position. He had Rome on one side of his kingdom and Egypt on another. His eastern borders were also not particularly friendly. All Egypt needed to do to completely encircle Seleucia with a coalition of enemies was to take over Judea. Antiochus could not risk this, and as a result he determined to assume direct control over Judea. This would naturally
worsen Judeo-Seleucid relations, but Antiochus couldn't help it. He had no choice.
Antiochus realized that he would have to Hellenize Judea in order to maintain control over
the territory. This would help the Judean population assimilate into Seleucia and allow
the Greeks to establish a strong Greek government in the province. So, he started a major
Hellenization campaign, outlawing Jewish ritual and sacrificing pigs in the Temple.
The Hellenization campaign met with mixed reactions. Some people (including the
high priests of the Temple) took up Hellenistic culture enthusiastically. Other, more
traditional people, refused to go along with Antiochus's campaign.
As often the case with rural life, the people living in the Judean countryside were more traditional than those in the big cities. Most of the Greeks concentrated on the cities, and
as a result city dwellers were exposed to Hellenistic culture more often than country folk.
One day, a Greek came to the countryside town of Modin and urged Matthias, a prominent figure in the town, to adopt Greek customs. Matthias and his sons -- the future Maccabees -- refused. The issue should have ended there (the Greeks probably expected resistance).
However, at that point a townsman raced up to the Greeks' newly-erected altar to sacrifice
to the Greek gods. Matthias lost it and ran the townsman through (there is actually a
precedent for this in the Old Testament, where the zealot Phineas kills a community leader consorting with a non-Jewish woman in plain view of the community). Everything went
downhill from there and the revolt was on.
I won't go into the details of the revolt. Suffice it to say that guerrilla warfare is difficult
for any occupying power, and it was no different here. Eventually, the Maccabees win independence for Judea and rededicate the Temple. Obviously, the righteous have
triumphed and the Jewish tradition has survived the threat of Hellenization intact.
That's where the Chanukah story ends. History continues, however, and future events
reveal a startling different conclusion.
Realizing that he couldn't stop the Jewish rebels, Antiochus installed Jonathan, one of the
Maccabee brothers, as the Jewish high priest (was he even of the priestly caste?) to try to placate the Maccabees. This effectively put the Maccabees in charge of the kingdom, in a position of power.
Power corrupts.
Jonathan elected his son as his successor to the high priesthood. This was not unusual
in biblical times. However, when you're dealing with a man in charge of both church and
state here, it takes on another meaning: dynasty. The Hasmonean (Maccabee) dynasty
would go on for many, many, years.
Eventually, one of the Maccabee high priests became enamored of Hellenism and he
starts Hellenizing the community. He took on all the trappings of a Hellenistic ruler and
started abandoning orthodox Jewish traditions.
So there you have it. The Chanukah story talks about the Maccabees preserving Jewish
traditions and keeping Hellenistic forces from impacting Judea. What it doesn't say is that
the Maccabees eventually did their best to finish the job for Antiochus.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Inflation of pinball machine scores
People have complained about inflation for a long time. However, I'm going to be talking about a new form of inflation which not many people have realized exist: pinball machine scores.
Pinball machines in the 60's and 70's were entirely mechanical and had physical numeric reels to display the score. Most of the scores on such machines were five digit numbers, between 0 and 99,990. Back in those days, the "bonus" at the end of a given ball was actually a significant portion of the player's score -- likely an attempt to make the player feel he or she was doing better.
Pinball machine scores are just like personal finance in that it's just one person against the system trying to maximize a score. As a result, people are going to do whatever they can to get higher and higher scores. For finance, it's to feel more comfortable. For pinball, it is to make the people feel like their game has been a success.
With the advent of digital displays, it became easier to put more digits on the backboard of pinball machines. And this started the inflation craze. The first digital pinball machine I ever played was one called Xenon, a science-fiction themed machine named after an noble gas. I remember being astonished when I got 100,000 for the first time. I thought it was a major accomplishment. This machine had room for six digits in the display.
When I arrived at MIT, in 1990, I found a pinball machine in my dormitory. One of the major attractions of this machine was a 10,000,000 point shot. It was extremely difficult to hit. However, in those days 10,000,000 was a fantastic score. Nothing came close. Even jackpots rarely made it past a million.
Fast forward to the mid 1990's. One of my favorite games at this time was the Addams Family machine. This machine had "skill shots" -- shots the player could only hit once, when he or she shoot the ball into the playfield for the first time -- worth 3,000,000 points or more. Jackpots routinely ran into the 30,000,000 point range or more. Things were getting out of control.
A couple of years ago (it is now 2007) I bought a simple CD which allowed the user to play several different pinball machine tables on the computer. Typical scores now range in the 100,000,000 to 200,000,000 range. I recently got a billion on one of them.
What on earth do those extra zeroes do? Getting a billion points doesn't mean much anymore if all of the other machines give you a billion points. Just like in the financial world, multiplying your income (and costs of living) by 10 doesn't make you any richer than your neighbors or better off.
Unlike in the financial world, people can survive and still have a good challenge on a new machine with most of the zeroes lopped off the score. True, your score will rarely exceed 50,000, but when replays are at 30,000 and 80,000 you don't need to worry about getting an astronomical score.
It kind of makes want to play one of those old clunkers again, does it not? Especially since the old clunkers benefit from the second form of inflation: hardware rigged for two plays per quarter instead of two quarters per play.
Pinball machines in the 60's and 70's were entirely mechanical and had physical numeric reels to display the score. Most of the scores on such machines were five digit numbers, between 0 and 99,990. Back in those days, the "bonus" at the end of a given ball was actually a significant portion of the player's score -- likely an attempt to make the player feel he or she was doing better.
Pinball machine scores are just like personal finance in that it's just one person against the system trying to maximize a score. As a result, people are going to do whatever they can to get higher and higher scores. For finance, it's to feel more comfortable. For pinball, it is to make the people feel like their game has been a success.
With the advent of digital displays, it became easier to put more digits on the backboard of pinball machines. And this started the inflation craze. The first digital pinball machine I ever played was one called Xenon, a science-fiction themed machine named after an noble gas. I remember being astonished when I got 100,000 for the first time. I thought it was a major accomplishment. This machine had room for six digits in the display.
When I arrived at MIT, in 1990, I found a pinball machine in my dormitory. One of the major attractions of this machine was a 10,000,000 point shot. It was extremely difficult to hit. However, in those days 10,000,000 was a fantastic score. Nothing came close. Even jackpots rarely made it past a million.
Fast forward to the mid 1990's. One of my favorite games at this time was the Addams Family machine. This machine had "skill shots" -- shots the player could only hit once, when he or she shoot the ball into the playfield for the first time -- worth 3,000,000 points or more. Jackpots routinely ran into the 30,000,000 point range or more. Things were getting out of control.
A couple of years ago (it is now 2007) I bought a simple CD which allowed the user to play several different pinball machine tables on the computer. Typical scores now range in the 100,000,000 to 200,000,000 range. I recently got a billion on one of them.
What on earth do those extra zeroes do? Getting a billion points doesn't mean much anymore if all of the other machines give you a billion points. Just like in the financial world, multiplying your income (and costs of living) by 10 doesn't make you any richer than your neighbors or better off.
Unlike in the financial world, people can survive and still have a good challenge on a new machine with most of the zeroes lopped off the score. True, your score will rarely exceed 50,000, but when replays are at 30,000 and 80,000 you don't need to worry about getting an astronomical score.
It kind of makes want to play one of those old clunkers again, does it not? Especially since the old clunkers benefit from the second form of inflation: hardware rigged for two plays per quarter instead of two quarters per play.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
I often listen to courses on tape in the car to and from work. The course I am currently working on involves Alexander the Great and Hellenistic Greece. The current lecture discusses famous Greek philosophers.
The three best-known Greek philosophers are Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates. A good way to tell that a philosopher is famous is that Bill and Ted spend their precious time sending their time-traveling phone booth back to ancient Greece to pick him up.
However, consider Epicurus. Epicurus is best known for hedonistic philosophy, where pleasure is good and adherents should spend all their time pursuing it. Needless to say, many traditional institutions frown upon this policy. To this day, Judaism uses the word "apikoros" -- a transliteration of Epicurus's name -- to refer to an apostate: someone who has abandoned his or her ancestral traditions.
Epicurus probably would have had a great deal of trouble dealing with his detractors. However, he managed to avoid it very easily. Why?
The answer is simple. He never advocated hedonism. The hedonism is actually a corruption of his teachings. Perhaps competing
philosophies and religions wanted to put a bad spin on his teachings.
Epicurus actually believed that overindulging in pleasure was actually a bad idea -- pleasure was desirable, but in MODERATION. He recognized that pleasure was addictive, and indulging could cause oneself to start yearning for it more and more. Too much pleasure could therefore make someone never feel content about anything.
The thing that is interesting about this is that this seems very similar to Buddhist philosophy, which indicates that desire is the major cause of suffering.
Could Epicurus have known of Buddhism?
Epicurus lived around 300 BC. Buddha lived in India in 620 BC or so -- and Alexander managed to make it to India. Could Buddhist philosophy have been transmitted,
to some extent to Greece via Alexander's armies?
Part of the hedonism misconception could have been from the fact that he also believed that there was no life after death and therefore death should not be feared. If there's no life after death, then you don't have to worry about Zeus coming after you for your misdeeds in the next world. So, live it up. He believed that the body simply decomposed into the smallest indivisible possible pieces of matter -- the original concept of atoms (which is itself a Greek word derived from this philosophy).
And that was it.
So if you are Jewish and someone tells you that you are an apikoros, don't think of it entirely as
negative -- particularly if you have the discipline to enjoy your happiness in moderation.
The three best-known Greek philosophers are Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates. A good way to tell that a philosopher is famous is that Bill and Ted spend their precious time sending their time-traveling phone booth back to ancient Greece to pick him up.
However, consider Epicurus. Epicurus is best known for hedonistic philosophy, where pleasure is good and adherents should spend all their time pursuing it. Needless to say, many traditional institutions frown upon this policy. To this day, Judaism uses the word "apikoros" -- a transliteration of Epicurus's name -- to refer to an apostate: someone who has abandoned his or her ancestral traditions.
Epicurus probably would have had a great deal of trouble dealing with his detractors. However, he managed to avoid it very easily. Why?
The answer is simple. He never advocated hedonism. The hedonism is actually a corruption of his teachings. Perhaps competing
philosophies and religions wanted to put a bad spin on his teachings.
Epicurus actually believed that overindulging in pleasure was actually a bad idea -- pleasure was desirable, but in MODERATION. He recognized that pleasure was addictive, and indulging could cause oneself to start yearning for it more and more. Too much pleasure could therefore make someone never feel content about anything.
The thing that is interesting about this is that this seems very similar to Buddhist philosophy, which indicates that desire is the major cause of suffering.
Could Epicurus have known of Buddhism?
Epicurus lived around 300 BC. Buddha lived in India in 620 BC or so -- and Alexander managed to make it to India. Could Buddhist philosophy have been transmitted,
to some extent to Greece via Alexander's armies?
Part of the hedonism misconception could have been from the fact that he also believed that there was no life after death and therefore death should not be feared. If there's no life after death, then you don't have to worry about Zeus coming after you for your misdeeds in the next world. So, live it up. He believed that the body simply decomposed into the smallest indivisible possible pieces of matter -- the original concept of atoms (which is itself a Greek word derived from this philosophy).
And that was it.
So if you are Jewish and someone tells you that you are an apikoros, don't think of it entirely as
negative -- particularly if you have the discipline to enjoy your happiness in moderation.
Monday, April 23, 2007
People without class
Why do the various economic classes not mingle with each other if their members' dreams and interests overlap a great deal?
I was raised in an upper-middle class family in one of the safest neighborhoods in America. My parents lived in the same house for 30 years and are about to have their 40th
anniversary. Most of the friends of the family were doctors, lawyers, and professors. Everyone I knew went to very good colleges and often came back with advanced degrees.
Yet for some reason, I knew virtually NO members of the "working class". For people who purport to be intelligent, this is a wee bit odd. Growing up, "working class" meant "having to live in HALF of a house instead of a whole house and not having a huge backyard". The only member of the "working class" I knew was a cleaning lady who came every week to clean the house. This illustrates the problem with class issues: very often the interaction between the two classes is a "master/servant" type of relationship, not one you'd expect between peers.
If you were raised in a similar environment, consider this question. How many machinists do YOU know well? Security guards? Gas station attendants? Construction workers? Cashiers? Do you ever interact with people like these as equals, in situations where you do not expect them to serve you?
All people want to pursue their interests and follow their dreams. Believe it or not, people in classes "inferior" to yours might have the same interests as you. They may even look up to you, hoping they can be like you. Ever thought of trying to forge some connections with people whom you've tried to ignore for most of your life?
I am interested in astronomy and was debating getting a Master's in astronomy or planetary science. I eventually run into someone who is getting a doctorate in astronomy from Harvard. A doctorate from Harvard? This girl must have connections. Let me guess -- family of lawyers, doctors, professors?
Nope. She grew up in a working-class household, in a culture which I had no idea about. Her relatives included machinists and security guards. Her home town was part of the Terra Incognita between Boston and Cape Cod where my people had no reason to stop in (except in traffic jams in front of the Bourne and Sagamore Bridges). She will be the first person in her entire family tree to get a Ph.D, and she can trace the aforementioned tree back to the Mayflower. Her interest in astronomy is -- quite possibly -- the ONLY way these two communities could have interacted on a peer-to-peer level.
So the next time you see someone in the street, try to make friends with him. You may be surprised what you find.
What is more noble, being born into the upper middle class or actually entering it on your
own merit, encouraged to use the American work ethic?
I was raised in an upper-middle class family in one of the safest neighborhoods in America. My parents lived in the same house for 30 years and are about to have their 40th
anniversary. Most of the friends of the family were doctors, lawyers, and professors. Everyone I knew went to very good colleges and often came back with advanced degrees.
Yet for some reason, I knew virtually NO members of the "working class". For people who purport to be intelligent, this is a wee bit odd. Growing up, "working class" meant "having to live in HALF of a house instead of a whole house and not having a huge backyard". The only member of the "working class" I knew was a cleaning lady who came every week to clean the house. This illustrates the problem with class issues: very often the interaction between the two classes is a "master/servant" type of relationship, not one you'd expect between peers.
If you were raised in a similar environment, consider this question. How many machinists do YOU know well? Security guards? Gas station attendants? Construction workers? Cashiers? Do you ever interact with people like these as equals, in situations where you do not expect them to serve you?
All people want to pursue their interests and follow their dreams. Believe it or not, people in classes "inferior" to yours might have the same interests as you. They may even look up to you, hoping they can be like you. Ever thought of trying to forge some connections with people whom you've tried to ignore for most of your life?
I am interested in astronomy and was debating getting a Master's in astronomy or planetary science. I eventually run into someone who is getting a doctorate in astronomy from Harvard. A doctorate from Harvard? This girl must have connections. Let me guess -- family of lawyers, doctors, professors?
Nope. She grew up in a working-class household, in a culture which I had no idea about. Her relatives included machinists and security guards. Her home town was part of the Terra Incognita between Boston and Cape Cod where my people had no reason to stop in (except in traffic jams in front of the Bourne and Sagamore Bridges). She will be the first person in her entire family tree to get a Ph.D, and she can trace the aforementioned tree back to the Mayflower. Her interest in astronomy is -- quite possibly -- the ONLY way these two communities could have interacted on a peer-to-peer level.
So the next time you see someone in the street, try to make friends with him. You may be surprised what you find.
What is more noble, being born into the upper middle class or actually entering it on your
own merit, encouraged to use the American work ethic?
Friday, April 20, 2007
A Modest Proposal to Encourage Recycling
I've read that a lot of recyclable stuff is discarded instead of recycled. So what about this idea?
Require that each town have recycling bins and regular trash bags for each apartment and house. Each bag has the house's number on it. I know that several towns in Massachusetts already have recycle bins, so that's a good start.
Now here's the kicker. When the trash is emptied into the landfills, have the trash companies sort through the two bags. If anything recyclable shows up in the regular trash, the house which provided the trash gets fined (and similarly for non-recyclable goods placed in the recyclable bag). This should increase the rate of recycling and
give the garbage workers more to do.
This could be enforced by spot checks from time to time, similar to speeding. However, if spot checks are used, the penalties should be quite stiff. If you only get caught 1% of the time, you'd better be forced to pay $500 or $1000 or something like that to make sure that it's worth your while to keep on doing it.
I'd also recommend that the government place some kind of tax on any product which cannot be recycled. It can be a relatively small tax. However, there is so much waste nowadays that even a small tax can have an impact on consumers.
Require that each town have recycling bins and regular trash bags for each apartment and house. Each bag has the house's number on it. I know that several towns in Massachusetts already have recycle bins, so that's a good start.
Now here's the kicker. When the trash is emptied into the landfills, have the trash companies sort through the two bags. If anything recyclable shows up in the regular trash, the house which provided the trash gets fined (and similarly for non-recyclable goods placed in the recyclable bag). This should increase the rate of recycling and
give the garbage workers more to do.
This could be enforced by spot checks from time to time, similar to speeding. However, if spot checks are used, the penalties should be quite stiff. If you only get caught 1% of the time, you'd better be forced to pay $500 or $1000 or something like that to make sure that it's worth your while to keep on doing it.
I'd also recommend that the government place some kind of tax on any product which cannot be recycled. It can be a relatively small tax. However, there is so much waste nowadays that even a small tax can have an impact on consumers.
Monday, April 16, 2007
Marathon report
Here's a major surprise.
The men's winner was Kenyan.
The second place winner was Kenyan.
The third place winner was Kenyan.
And don't forget, the two "rabbits" at the beginning of the race -- both supposedly from Georgia -- were originally born in Kenya.
Do you see a trend here?
The Kenyans have won a whole slew of marathons in a row. It often makes you wonder what on earth they do in order to win so consistently.
I don't know that much about it, but here are the rumors I've heard.
1. Boston has the premier marathon in the world, and from what I've heard the Kenyans put a tremendous amount of effort to try to win it. From what I've heard, their win rate in other marathons is much lower than their win rate in Boston.
2. Kenya sends a large number of elite runners to Boston. Although any individual athlete has a low chance of winning, having a lot of competitors representing your country gives you a higher possibility of winning. (I'm ignoring all of the local hoi polloi with bib numbers in the 10,000's -- they have absolutely no chance of actually winning).
3. Several of the Kenyan runners may belong to tribes and peoples with genetic traits which may make them good long-distance runners. It's well-known that certain ethnic groups have unique genetic markers (Tay-Sachs disease is unusually common among Jews, for instance).
4. Westerners very likely have sacrificed much of their physical potential to technology. How many people walk 5 miles to work each day in the United States? How many people work on farms in the US? No wonder Americans tend to be out of shape when compared to people in other cultures. Having an American diet certainly doesn't help.
5. Kenya must have an established running club or prize related to the Marathon. If it were just an ethnic/cultural issue, many of the former British colonies near Kenya (Uganda, Tanzania, and so forth) would also be able to field strong teams.
I highly doubt that this is an issue of training. An athlete's will and self-determination clearly transcends national identity and culture. You can't become an elite runner
without lots of training. I'm curious if the Americans can learn something from the Kenyans.
The men's winner was Kenyan.
The second place winner was Kenyan.
The third place winner was Kenyan.
And don't forget, the two "rabbits" at the beginning of the race -- both supposedly from Georgia -- were originally born in Kenya.
Do you see a trend here?
The Kenyans have won a whole slew of marathons in a row. It often makes you wonder what on earth they do in order to win so consistently.
I don't know that much about it, but here are the rumors I've heard.
1. Boston has the premier marathon in the world, and from what I've heard the Kenyans put a tremendous amount of effort to try to win it. From what I've heard, their win rate in other marathons is much lower than their win rate in Boston.
2. Kenya sends a large number of elite runners to Boston. Although any individual athlete has a low chance of winning, having a lot of competitors representing your country gives you a higher possibility of winning. (I'm ignoring all of the local hoi polloi with bib numbers in the 10,000's -- they have absolutely no chance of actually winning).
3. Several of the Kenyan runners may belong to tribes and peoples with genetic traits which may make them good long-distance runners. It's well-known that certain ethnic groups have unique genetic markers (Tay-Sachs disease is unusually common among Jews, for instance).
4. Westerners very likely have sacrificed much of their physical potential to technology. How many people walk 5 miles to work each day in the United States? How many people work on farms in the US? No wonder Americans tend to be out of shape when compared to people in other cultures. Having an American diet certainly doesn't help.
5. Kenya must have an established running club or prize related to the Marathon. If it were just an ethnic/cultural issue, many of the former British colonies near Kenya (Uganda, Tanzania, and so forth) would also be able to field strong teams.
I highly doubt that this is an issue of training. An athlete's will and self-determination clearly transcends national identity and culture. You can't become an elite runner
without lots of training. I'm curious if the Americans can learn something from the Kenyans.
Sunday, April 15, 2007
First entry
Well, here it is by popular demand. A blog.
I'm not sure what exactly you're expecting. Song parodies? Interesting discoveries and puns (for instance, you must be aware that the reason Matzah tastes bad and constipates people during Passover is because MATZAH anagrams to HAZMAT?). Meditative words of wisdom?
Well, I can start with an idea for science/fiction/nonfiction novel all in one. It's quite simple. Take a certain date and time: for instance 4/23/07 at 6:00 PM.
Have one chapter describe what was going on in the immediate vicinity 1 second earlier. This could be done by having a friend describe what he or she was doing at 6:00. Should be pretty straightforward. For instance, John Smith can say "I had just gone past mile marker 0.7 on the Leverett Connector, heading towards Boston".
Now multiply the time interval by 10. Have the second chapter describe what the person had been doing 10 seconds earlier. They need not be the same people, but they should be linked in some way. Mary Smith, in the car with John, could say: "John and I had just passed mile marker 0.6."
For each succeeding chapter, keep on multiplying the interval by 10. And this is where things get interesting.
3: 100 seconds. John and Mary Smith are approaching the beginning of the Leverett Connector.
4: 1000 seconds = 15 minutes. John and Mary Smith are leaving work.
5: 150 minutes. The sun is still quite high in the sky. Mary Smith is at a meeting. John Smith is working out at the gym.
6: 1500 minutes = 1 day. It's Sunday and John and Mary Smith are talking with friends.
7: 10 days. John and Mary Smith are making plans for 9 days later to talk with friends.
8: 100 days. John and Mary Smith watch Deval Patrick get inaugurated in Massachusetts.
9: 1000 days = 3 years. John and Mary Smith get married.
10: 30 years. John Smith is born.
11: 300 years -- at this point things start to become fictional if necessary. It's 1707. Charity Smith is accused of witchcraft in Reading, Massachusetts. You can have a few pages describing what happened to her. Salem was not the only town in the area to have witch trials.
12: 3000 years -- King David [ca 1000 BC] plans a party for his wife Bathsheba. The chapter would talk about what he did and so forth.
13: 30,000 years -- The last Neanderthal laments the last of his species as the Neanderthals are exterminated in Europe by Homo sapiens.
14: 300,000 years -- Depending on what correct time period for the event is, humans decide to start exploring
northern Africa. Chieftain G'ob is concerned about the future of his tribe. Either that, or he invents a new tool or the wheel or something like that.
15: 3 million years - A lemur realizes that he can survive without his tail just fine.
16: 30 million years - One mammal eats another or something like that.
17: 300 million years - I'd have to check the fossil record: maybe we can have some fish getting forced out of water and realizing that it strange mutation allows it to breathe air for short periods of time.
18: 3 billion years - An amoeba finds itself in pain and tries to figure out why. Eventually, it can't resist the pain and divides in two. Life has arisen for the first time in the area.
And the kicker:
19: 30 billion years - The novel adopts the philosophy of the cyclical universe, where it is possible for universes to be created in Big Bangs, collapse into Big Crunches, and have the crunched universe explode in a new Big Bang. In this prior universe, a race of virtually omnipotent, astronomically long-lived beings (known as the Creators) discover that their universe will collapse upon itself in 16.7 +/- 1.3 years [though their description of time would be different]. They are the only intelligent species in their universe and don't want their knowledge to be lost in the ensuing Crunch. To this end, they use their sophisticated technology to manipulate their universe's spacetime continuum to guarantee that at least one form of intelligent life will be reconstructed out of the wreckage of their universe. After voting to carry on with this idea, they execute the change to the universe and then retire to their homes to anticipate the end.
I'm not sure what exactly you're expecting. Song parodies? Interesting discoveries and puns (for instance, you must be aware that the reason Matzah tastes bad and constipates people during Passover is because MATZAH anagrams to HAZMAT?). Meditative words of wisdom?
Well, I can start with an idea for science/fiction/nonfiction novel all in one. It's quite simple. Take a certain date and time: for instance 4/23/07 at 6:00 PM.
Have one chapter describe what was going on in the immediate vicinity 1 second earlier. This could be done by having a friend describe what he or she was doing at 6:00. Should be pretty straightforward. For instance, John Smith can say "I had just gone past mile marker 0.7 on the Leverett Connector, heading towards Boston".
Now multiply the time interval by 10. Have the second chapter describe what the person had been doing 10 seconds earlier. They need not be the same people, but they should be linked in some way. Mary Smith, in the car with John, could say: "John and I had just passed mile marker 0.6."
For each succeeding chapter, keep on multiplying the interval by 10. And this is where things get interesting.
3: 100 seconds. John and Mary Smith are approaching the beginning of the Leverett Connector.
4: 1000 seconds = 15 minutes. John and Mary Smith are leaving work.
5: 150 minutes. The sun is still quite high in the sky. Mary Smith is at a meeting. John Smith is working out at the gym.
6: 1500 minutes = 1 day. It's Sunday and John and Mary Smith are talking with friends.
7: 10 days. John and Mary Smith are making plans for 9 days later to talk with friends.
8: 100 days. John and Mary Smith watch Deval Patrick get inaugurated in Massachusetts.
9: 1000 days = 3 years. John and Mary Smith get married.
10: 30 years. John Smith is born.
11: 300 years -- at this point things start to become fictional if necessary. It's 1707. Charity Smith is accused of witchcraft in Reading, Massachusetts. You can have a few pages describing what happened to her. Salem was not the only town in the area to have witch trials.
12: 3000 years -- King David [ca 1000 BC] plans a party for his wife Bathsheba. The chapter would talk about what he did and so forth.
13: 30,000 years -- The last Neanderthal laments the last of his species as the Neanderthals are exterminated in Europe by Homo sapiens.
14: 300,000 years -- Depending on what correct time period for the event is, humans decide to start exploring
northern Africa. Chieftain G'ob is concerned about the future of his tribe. Either that, or he invents a new tool or the wheel or something like that.
15: 3 million years - A lemur realizes that he can survive without his tail just fine.
16: 30 million years - One mammal eats another or something like that.
17: 300 million years - I'd have to check the fossil record: maybe we can have some fish getting forced out of water and realizing that it strange mutation allows it to breathe air for short periods of time.
18: 3 billion years - An amoeba finds itself in pain and tries to figure out why. Eventually, it can't resist the pain and divides in two. Life has arisen for the first time in the area.
And the kicker:
19: 30 billion years - The novel adopts the philosophy of the cyclical universe, where it is possible for universes to be created in Big Bangs, collapse into Big Crunches, and have the crunched universe explode in a new Big Bang. In this prior universe, a race of virtually omnipotent, astronomically long-lived beings (known as the Creators) discover that their universe will collapse upon itself in 16.7 +/- 1.3 years [though their description of time would be different]. They are the only intelligent species in their universe and don't want their knowledge to be lost in the ensuing Crunch. To this end, they use their sophisticated technology to manipulate their universe's spacetime continuum to guarantee that at least one form of intelligent life will be reconstructed out of the wreckage of their universe. After voting to carry on with this idea, they execute the change to the universe and then retire to their homes to anticipate the end.
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