WEBVTT 1 00:00:07.930 --> 00:00:09.390 ProWritingAid: Alright. 2 00:00:12.710 --> 00:00:18.750 ProWritingAid: Hello, everybody! We'll get started here. and just 3 00:00:20.260 --> 00:00:24.219 ProWritingAid: minute or so there's the Chat. 4 00:00:25.750 --> 00:00:32.049 ProWritingAid: California, Vancouver. You can hear me go ahead and drop your location in the chat. 5 00:00:37.590 --> 00:00:41.259 Catherine Asaro: Thailand, Idaho, oh, cool 6 00:00:41.460 --> 00:00:48.559 ProWritingAid: north, Carolina, Israel. Puerto Rico, what wow York. 7 00:00:48.740 --> 00:00:52.880 Catherine Asaro: we've got people from all over 8 00:00:53.420 --> 00:00:55.240 Catherine Asaro: this is exciting. 9 00:00:58.590 --> 00:01:02.440 Catherine Asaro: New Zealand. What time is it in New Zealand. 10 00:01:05.930 --> 00:01:08.109 ProWritingAid: Ottawa? All right. 11 00:01:09.850 --> 00:01:15.700 ProWritingAid: Okay. Welcome to Science Fiction writers. Week. 12 00:01:17.190 --> 00:01:28.899 ProWritingAid: Thank you for joining us today. I am Crystal creaker from pro writing aid before we get started. We just have a few housekeeping items and let me share my screen with you. 13 00:01:31.950 --> 00:01:33.200 ProWritingAid: Alright. 14 00:01:34.930 --> 00:01:41.349 ProWritingAid: mit Ctl. And so to access your replays. You can find these on the Hub page. Once they are done processing by zoom 100. 15 00:01:41.390 --> 00:02:02.029 ProWritingAid: We don't know how long that takes it can really vary, and we have no control over that. Please trust that as soon as the recordings are available to us we will make them available to you. Replays are available to everyone until September 20 eighth. After this date only replays are available from for providing 8 Academy members 16 00:02:04.230 --> 00:02:24.569 ProWritingAid: because you registered for Science Fiction writers week you get you get an offer of 40% off the annual license of pro writing a premium. This gives you access to all of our premium tools, like our advanced suggestions, comparisons to bestselling authors, and all of our integrations for scrivener award and other apps that you have on your computer. 17 00:02:24.630 --> 00:02:39.940 ProWritingAid: You can improve entire error chapters because there's no word, count length. or limit and you can create snippets or text shortcuts, dictionaries and custom style roles this offer in September 20 eighth. So be sure to get on it. 18 00:02:41.790 --> 00:03:07.949 ProWritingAid: If you wanna keep talking science fiction writing, you can join our online community at the link below. Use your pro writing a login. This is open to free and premium members. So you have access. If you have an account, and you all have an account because you registered you can also access this on our homepage from the learn tab and just click community. Here you can keep talking with other sci-fi writing fans and keep up to date with more of our writing events. 19 00:03:09.090 --> 00:03:27.039 ProWritingAid: So remember to put your questions for Katherine in the QA. Box, and then other discussion with other viewers. You can use the chat, all of your links, your offers from our speakers will be available on the Science Fiction writers we have, and in our participants guide 20 00:03:27.040 --> 00:03:40.679 ProWritingAid: you can access the hub here, and I'll share that link again at the end of the session. Remember to keep the chat. polite to other users. And we do encourage discussion. So this will be a fun session. 21 00:03:40.970 --> 00:04:05.169 ProWritingAid: Thanks for joining us today. We're joined by Dr. Catherine Asaro. Katherine is authored about 30 books, including Science Fiction thrillers and fantasy. Her novel, The Quantum Rose and Novella, The Space Time Pool. Both won the Nebula Award. She is a multiple Hugo nominee and a multiple winner of the an lab from Analog Magazine. Her most recent book is The Jigsaw Assassin, a Science Fiction Mystery. 22 00:04:05.170 --> 00:04:35.270 Catherine has a doctorate in chemical physics from Harvard and A. Bs. In chemistry from Ucla. Her paper complex speeds and special relativity, and the American Journal of Physics forms the basis for some of the science and her fiction, she directed the Chesapeake math program. For many years her students distinguished themselves in many national programs, including the U.S.A. Mathematical Olympiad, the U.S.A. Physics Olympiad and the Harvard mit Math contest. Katherine has appeared as a speaker at many institutions, and as a guest of honor at cons across the Us. And abroad. 23 00:04:35.270 --> 00:04:55.220 She served 2 terms as president for Sfwa, and is a member of Sigma, a think Tank that advises the government as to future trends affecting national security. She also appears as a vocalist, as at clubs and conventions, her most recent single, the Celtic theme song, Ancient Ages placed on the blast of him. Top 12020. 24 00:04:55.900 --> 00:05:03.059 ProWritingAid: So thank you, Catherine, for joining us. I'm going to stop sharing my screen so you can share yours. And let's begin. 25 00:05:03.840 --> 00:05:13.960 Catherine Asaro: Hi, everyone. I'm absolutely delighted to be here. And there's so many of you from all over. I see someone from Maryland. I used to live out there 26 00:05:14.190 --> 00:05:28.719 Catherine Asaro: today we're gonna talk about, you know, if you want to put science in your science fiction, you don't have to be a Ph. D. Scientist. You don't have to gone to, you know, some fancy school, or have a degree in the subject. 27 00:05:28.870 --> 00:05:36.789 Catherine Asaro: What you do need to be is resourceful. But obviously, if you're here you're resourceful. 28 00:05:36.970 --> 00:05:48.380 Catherine Asaro: Anyone who can write a book, or an essay, or an article, or a short story, and who can do something like get onto a pro writer's. 29 00:05:49.280 --> 00:05:59.290 Catherine Asaro: you know, workshop like this has the ability to find the resources. So let me start. I'm gonna share my screen with you. Oops. 30 00:06:03.730 --> 00:06:05.139 Catherine Asaro: Thought I turned that off. 31 00:06:11.370 --> 00:06:13.740 Catherine Asaro: Okay, so 32 00:06:14.400 --> 00:06:20.119 Catherine Asaro: are you seeing my screen? It looks like it's still not not yet. 33 00:06:20.490 --> 00:06:23.149 Catherine Asaro: Alright. Where's the share screen 34 00:06:27.070 --> 00:06:29.810 ProWritingAid: should be able to select the window you want to share. 35 00:06:30.520 --> 00:06:33.949 Catherine Asaro: Oh, I see what the problem there we go. 36 00:06:35.160 --> 00:06:37.050 Catherine Asaro: Okay. So 37 00:06:43.340 --> 00:06:44.989 Catherine Asaro: all right. Can you see that 38 00:06:46.040 --> 00:06:51.460 Catherine Asaro: it's easier than you think you all know who I am. So 39 00:06:51.790 --> 00:06:55.890 Catherine Asaro: alright. There's 3 main things that I would like to talk about today. 40 00:06:57.490 --> 00:07:21.970 Catherine Asaro: And it's really these are the ways to do it, talking to living people, and you know you. Now you have to specify that because you can talk to these chat bots as much as you want chat, gpt bards, another one that's good for writers, and there's more and more of them, and I'm sure within the next few years these things will proliferate. They are a godsend. If you want to put science in your science fiction and you don't have it. 41 00:07:22.190 --> 00:07:34.049 Catherine Asaro: Living people is, you know, if you wanna ask a lot of questions to an expert who isn't likely to make you know chat box. They can make mistakes, or they, you know, they get very wordy, too. 42 00:07:34.070 --> 00:07:41.020 Catherine Asaro: And finally, you know, you can do books, magazines, go online, go to the library. It used to be 43 00:07:41.080 --> 00:07:48.510 Catherine Asaro: before the onset of the Internet. You used to have to go to the library and ask the librarian to help you. 44 00:07:48.600 --> 00:07:55.550 Catherine Asaro: and there were times when I would go in and ask a question, and she'd get back to me the next day. All right. Now you can get it instantaneous. 45 00:07:56.330 --> 00:08:03.750 Catherine Asaro: So what I'd like to do is I'm gonna show you a few things about how these work. 46 00:08:05.540 --> 00:08:07.070 Catherine Asaro: So 47 00:08:11.510 --> 00:08:13.610 Catherine Asaro: how do I make it stopption? 48 00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:29.990 Catherine Asaro: There we go. So I'm going to start with showing you I'm going to share my screen so we can go through some of these things that 49 00:08:31.570 --> 00:08:35.850 Catherine Asaro: chat. Gpt. chat, Gp can do. 50 00:08:41.049 --> 00:08:44.290 Catherine Asaro: Okay. What you see here is that coming through. 51 00:08:47.510 --> 00:08:49.569 Catherine Asaro: Are you seeing? Yes. 52 00:08:49.760 --> 00:08:51.420 Catherine Asaro: yeah, we can see it. 53 00:08:51.860 --> 00:08:58.279 ProWritingAid: Can you zoom in just a little more on your screen so everyone can see the text. There we go. Thank you 54 00:08:59.590 --> 00:09:02.560 Catherine Asaro: all right. What I did I set up for you. 55 00:09:04.300 --> 00:09:16.450 Catherine Asaro: I actually set several things up sometimes these will be very slow. so I set them up just in case the question was okay. In most stories wonder woman has. 56 00:09:17.530 --> 00:09:24.509 Catherine Asaro: or bracelets that she calls them. Her bracelets of submission sounds very ominous. 57 00:09:24.790 --> 00:09:35.780 Catherine Asaro: but she uses them to deflect things like bullets, and we're going to look at a scene later where she actually does that. So I wanted to come up with a scientific rationale or explanation for how they might work. 58 00:09:36.110 --> 00:09:39.339 Catherine Asaro: So it got very wordy. But I'm going to show you 59 00:09:41.290 --> 00:09:44.579 Catherine Asaro: first of all, if you want to go to chat, Gpt. 60 00:09:45.950 --> 00:09:51.940 Catherine Asaro: can you people put in the chat yourself? How many of you have ever used? Chat deep? Gpt. 61 00:09:53.630 --> 00:09:59.069 Catherine Asaro: I'm in share screen. But if you could tell me who's saying they've used it, that would be great. 62 00:10:00.480 --> 00:10:01.900 Catherine Asaro: Anybody here. 63 00:10:06.220 --> 00:10:18.030 Catherine Asaro: Oh, there, I see. Yes, a lot of you. Good. Okay. So if you've never used it when I so put in chat, it automatically gives me the right place. 64 00:10:18.570 --> 00:10:25.330 Catherine Asaro: I'm going to actually say. put in something like Chat Gpt or Chatbot, or something like that. 65 00:10:25.410 --> 00:10:27.330 it'll take you to the site. 66 00:10:27.520 --> 00:10:31.880 Catherine Asaro: Okay, this is what it looks like after you start a new account. 67 00:10:32.960 --> 00:10:41.669 Catherine Asaro: Okay, this is so, you know, you can enter something. Say, Hello, and oh, good! It's responding so it'll say, Hello! How can I assist you? You could say. 68 00:10:41.840 --> 00:10:45.069 Catherine Asaro: can you help me with writing research 69 00:10:49.020 --> 00:10:53.120 Catherine Asaro: and that it? It'll usually gets rather wordy with these things. 70 00:10:54.420 --> 00:11:01.060 Catherine Asaro: Okay? So yeah, it asked, can it give you. Can you give me more details, and so on. So 71 00:11:05.890 --> 00:11:17.660 Catherine Asaro: this is something where it gave me some ideas about how to. you know a come up with ideas. Why wonder women's bracelets would work 72 00:11:18.340 --> 00:11:34.499 Catherine Asaro: advanced material science science vibration, absorption came up with some really clever ideas about how those bracelets scientifically, you might be able to design them so that they really do. What wonder woman does in the comics 73 00:11:34.530 --> 00:11:48.010 Catherine Asaro: right now, we don't, you know. Wonder women, all these comic book stories aren't really considered science fiction in the sense that they're science based. But you know it. Probably it's not gonna be that long until 74 00:11:49.430 --> 00:12:02.420 Catherine Asaro: we can actually do these things right? So chat box bard is another one that comes up VARD. It also comes up with a lot of good ideas. 75 00:12:02.690 --> 00:12:11.960 Catherine Asaro: However, you have to be careful with these chat bots. The disadvantage of talking to a chat bot instead of a real person is that they make mistakes. 76 00:12:12.350 --> 00:12:25.170 Catherine Asaro: Okay, I noticed it the most when I was trying to come up with problems for my math students. And I use the same old problems over and over. So I said, Chat, Bob, can you come up with a da da da? That uses, say, the quadratic equation? 77 00:12:25.570 --> 00:12:35.049 Catherine Asaro: And it gave me a nice problem, and then it solved it wrong. I said you solved it wrong. You should know better than that, said, Oh, sorry! It's always very polite. 78 00:12:35.110 --> 00:12:37.360 Catherine Asaro: and it solved it again. It was still wrong. 79 00:12:37.450 --> 00:12:48.569 Catherine Asaro: took like 4 times for to get it right. So you need to know other ways to check alright. So I'm gonna go through some actual examples with you about. 80 00:12:48.800 --> 00:12:53.480 Catherine Asaro: you know, coming up with a way to 81 00:12:54.310 --> 00:13:07.210 Catherine Asaro: the find, what you need to know. and then to check your work. Alright. So let's go back to the slideshow in the current slide. 82 00:13:07.510 --> 00:13:11.579 Catherine Asaro: So I'm gonna start with Star Wars example 83 00:13:11.700 --> 00:13:22.409 Catherine Asaro: cause Star Wars is famous for blowing things up. They've blown up so many planets and stars. I'm surprised there's any left in the universe, and it gets more serious. 84 00:13:22.570 --> 00:13:32.940 Catherine Asaro: Course. It's not like the the Marvel or DC. That blew up the whole universe or got rid of a third of the universe, but they certainly do some drastic things. 85 00:13:33.210 --> 00:13:36.860 Catherine Asaro: Alright, I'm gonna look at the 86 00:13:37.940 --> 00:13:41.079 Catherine Asaro: when they blow it up in 87 00:13:42.070 --> 00:13:43.560 Catherine Asaro: one of the 88 00:13:46.170 --> 00:13:48.670 Catherine Asaro: later movies. Let me get that up 89 00:13:58.370 --> 00:14:00.220 Catherine Asaro: all right. So 90 00:14:04.420 --> 00:14:06.090 Catherine Asaro: this is from 91 00:14:06.270 --> 00:14:11.530 Catherine Asaro: the star killer destroys the host. Hosnian system. 92 00:14:12.770 --> 00:14:13.830 Catherine Asaro: I 93 00:14:15.090 --> 00:14:22.669 Catherine Asaro: what I'd like you to do. I'm going to show you this clip as it goes through the clip. I want you to think about 2 things. 94 00:14:22.730 --> 00:14:24.650 Catherine Asaro: One is. 95 00:14:25.080 --> 00:14:49.910 Catherine Asaro: where is there science in this that doesn't make sense. Okay? Because this, you know, when you're talking about a comic book, nobody expects the science to make sense. And, in fact, that's an ability of superheroes to violate physics. I love it, they can violate physics. One of their super powers. What I want you to do here is to go through the places. Think in your head as you watch this. 96 00:14:50.480 --> 00:15:09.990 Catherine Asaro: Where is the science? Wonky? Okay? And then I want you to think, well, what could I do to make it realistic, even if I don't know how to do it, you know. How could I find out how to do it? I'm not actually gonna go through, you know, a long thing on how to make Star Wars science work that would take the whole time. 97 00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:18.119 Catherine Asaro: But I'm going to show you places you can go to find out. So think about that as you watch this at this very moment. 98 00:15:18.210 --> 00:15:29.500 Catherine Asaro: in a system far from here, the new Republic lies to the galaxy. While secretly supporting the destructuring 99 00:15:29.710 --> 00:15:41.319 Catherine Asaro: of the roads of resistance. This is this machine which you have built upon which we stand will bring an end to the Senate 100 00:15:41.350 --> 00:15:43.590 Catherine Asaro: today, sheriff, please 101 00:15:43.960 --> 00:15:46.300 Catherine Asaro: all American public will. 102 00:15:46.510 --> 00:15:51.080 Catherine Asaro: and just go down. and we'll remember this 103 00:15:51.400 --> 00:15:55.890 as the last day of the Republic. 104 00:16:48.610 --> 00:16:50.840 ProWritingAid: Sorry that we lost sound, everybody. 105 00:16:51.800 --> 00:16:55.079 Catherine Asaro: Oh, no, I'm still getting. 106 00:16:55.950 --> 00:16:56.730 ProWritingAid: Hmm. 107 00:17:00.550 --> 00:17:02.040 Catherine Asaro: no, no, no 108 00:17:04.250 --> 00:17:05.050 bigotry. 109 00:17:05.770 --> 00:17:09.790 ProWritingAid: Yeah, I think, for having some zoom connection issues with the video. 110 00:17:15.440 --> 00:17:17.989 ProWritingAid: I think everybody can get the gist, though. 111 00:17:19.440 --> 00:17:24.720 Catherine Asaro: Alright. Well, let's let's stop that. That's that's all we needed to see, anyway. 112 00:17:25.250 --> 00:17:29.209 Catherine Asaro: All right. So there's obviously a lot going on here. 113 00:17:29.700 --> 00:17:45.600 Catherine Asaro: so maybe people could start putting in the chat what sort of problems? Scientific there's so many I hardly know where to start. So what did you think? What sort of scientific problems. Do you see with this? 114 00:17:46.300 --> 00:17:58.870 Catherine Asaro: Okay, I can see it now. Screen sharing. So how did the beam suddenly spread? Excellent question. They're standing on the weapon, and there seems to be no recoil. 115 00:17:59.020 --> 00:18:01.960 Catherine Asaro: Yes, speed of light issues. Excellent. 116 00:18:02.240 --> 00:18:14.560 Catherine Asaro: Yeah, there's a lot of it's can't do with current knowledge of physics. Exactly. Excellent gravity issues. Lasers slowed because they use plasma. Stormtrooper boss 117 00:18:14.900 --> 00:18:26.060 Catherine Asaro: doesn't get blind. These are all excellent. Okay, the view of the being from a distant planet. All right. You guys got the idea alright. So there's so many things. 118 00:18:26.500 --> 00:18:30.499 Catherine Asaro: you know. One thing I've noticed when you're writing 119 00:18:31.250 --> 00:18:33.879 Catherine Asaro: is if you make an attempt. 120 00:18:33.980 --> 00:18:48.019 Catherine Asaro: and the reader who knows? Science says all right. They made an attempt a lot of times. They'll give you leeway on other things. For example, if you make an attempt on getting the science right often. Readers will give you leeway on saying, Well, there's a faster than light travel 121 00:18:48.240 --> 00:18:57.430 Catherine Asaro: method of travel. I'm not gonna tell you how it works, and say, Well, I'll let you go on that cause. You try. You tried, and and it was reasonable. So we have to get everything right. 122 00:18:57.590 --> 00:19:03.089 Catherine Asaro: But the thing I think probably the most fun to talk about is blowing up stuff 123 00:19:03.450 --> 00:19:10.980 Catherine Asaro: blowing up planets or stars, you know, in in science fiction. So let's talk about that. 124 00:19:11.250 --> 00:19:15.110 Catherine Asaro: Think about what's the first thing. If you want to write something plausible. 125 00:19:16.000 --> 00:19:28.269 Catherine Asaro: what's the first thing you have to know, you have to know what kind of energy you need in order to do it. In order to come up with something you need to know. You have to ask yourself the question. 126 00:19:28.350 --> 00:19:30.700 Catherine Asaro: What is it that I have to come up with? 127 00:19:31.040 --> 00:19:37.339 Catherine Asaro: Well, of course, the obvious question in this case is, you have to come up with something that 128 00:19:37.470 --> 00:19:55.239 Catherine Asaro: has enough energy to do that to blow up those planets. Okay, so number one is, ask someone. So I'm a physicist. So I can ask myself, but I also check number 2 is often check. 129 00:19:55.400 --> 00:20:11.630 Catherine Asaro: especially if you do the calculation yourself. I'm a physicist. I should know how to do this stuff right. I got my doctorate from an advisor who worked at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for astrophysics, so I should know how to do this. But it's easy to make a mistake, so doesn't hurt to ask for help. 130 00:20:11.860 --> 00:20:31.360 Catherine Asaro: So I'm I was lucky before he passed. My husband worked for NASA. It's very useful for Science Fiction writer. So I said, Okay, check my my work. And it came up with the minimum energy to blow up. Earth was 2.2 4 times 10 to 30 s Joules. And you may say, what does that mean? If you're gonna write 131 00:20:31.460 --> 00:20:38.120 Catherine Asaro: about these things, you need a feel for what it means, because that can really inform what you write. 132 00:20:38.200 --> 00:20:53.239 Catherine Asaro: For example, if I were a ballet dancer doing a pure wet, it takes about a hundred joules to spin. Not very much, by the way, that 32 there when it says 10 to the 32, that means there's 32 zeros after the 2.2 4, 133 00:20:53.260 --> 00:21:06.969 Catherine Asaro: so I showed you the whole number there in all its glory. All right. Energy for rocket to reach a hundred kilometers, which is roughly above the atmosphere that's getting up there. That's 980,000 joules. 134 00:21:07.080 --> 00:21:17.439 Catherine Asaro: The entire energy output of the sun per second is 10 to the 26 joules. So the entire sun doesn't produce anywhere. 135 00:21:19.430 --> 00:21:29.880 Catherine Asaro: hey? To blow up the planet, even one planet. So the next thing you have to come up with is, 136 00:21:33.770 --> 00:21:36.680 Catherine Asaro: how? How are you going to do that? 137 00:21:37.920 --> 00:21:59.139 Catherine Asaro: And some chat gpt very nice, because it also tells you things that you should think about as you're doing this. This is from a question I asked Chatbot. Gpt. And I was very specific. I said, please give me a succinct answer that will fit on my slide, because usually it's answers or 3 or 4 times this link. 138 00:21:59.140 --> 00:22:08.089 Catherine Asaro: Okay? So it tells me what. And this is, if you actually want to calculate it yourself. It gives me the formula. It tells me. 139 00:22:09.360 --> 00:22:23.099 Catherine Asaro: you know what each thing means, and if you don't know what one of those things mean like G is a gravitational constant. The next thing you would type into Chat GPT. Would be, what what is G, and it would tell you both what it meant 140 00:22:23.180 --> 00:22:26.339 Catherine Asaro: and what the value was, so you could plug it into your equation. 141 00:22:26.670 --> 00:22:40.080 Catherine Asaro: Okay, if you do that, you get the result I gave you on the last side, and then it comes up with you know it. See where it says. This energy estimate highlights the immense challenges of destruction. 142 00:22:40.140 --> 00:22:45.570 Catherine Asaro: I mean, it'll give you as much of that as you want to figure out. 143 00:22:46.580 --> 00:22:49.020 Catherine Asaro: you know what you have to think about. 144 00:22:49.430 --> 00:23:07.590 Catherine Asaro: Okay. So now we figured out to find out how much it takes. Well, how are you gonna do it? Alright. Think about it, put in the the chat box. There's so many of you I can't respond to all you specifically. But if you could put in some ideas of how you could 145 00:23:08.070 --> 00:23:16.879 Catherine Asaro: generate that much energy the sun produces one in 1 s doesn't produce anywhere near as much. You need much, much more 146 00:23:17.100 --> 00:23:20.279 Catherine Asaro: so. How could you do it? Anybody have any ideas. 147 00:23:23.560 --> 00:23:25.700 Catherine Asaro: Aha! Dyson! Swarm! 148 00:23:26.040 --> 00:23:34.570 Catherine Asaro: Use an amplifier. Invent an element. Oh, I love these. The sun converts 4 million tons. Okay, the solution! 149 00:23:36.450 --> 00:23:38.820 Catherine Asaro: Oh, antimatter interesting! 150 00:23:39.550 --> 00:23:49.349 Catherine Asaro: I love these answers, alright, very good. Okay, I will tell you. Stars actually did come up with a possible solution. 151 00:23:49.440 --> 00:23:54.389 Catherine Asaro: they said. Put a spear around the sun that can 152 00:23:54.840 --> 00:24:03.560 Catherine Asaro: absorb energy for a week. I think they did. And actually a week is enough, at least for one planet. I don't know if it would destroy the entire solar system 153 00:24:03.870 --> 00:24:08.100 Catherine Asaro: like happened in that clip I showed you. But 154 00:24:08.350 --> 00:24:25.879 Catherine Asaro: it would be enough. So that's one way, of course, that introduces all sorts of other problems like, how are you gonna build this thing that surrounds the entire sun that can absorb its energy and then transmit it to this thing on the planet. Collect. And then focus. Someone said, Yeah, that's the right. 155 00:24:27.190 --> 00:24:40.699 Catherine Asaro: Oh, there's all sorts of very clever stuff, you know. These are brilliant. The stuff that's just appearing here in the chat box is another way to get ideas. Get together with a bunch of friends who like this stuff. 156 00:24:40.900 --> 00:24:44.069 Catherine Asaro: and who are willing to be 157 00:24:45.040 --> 00:24:57.289 Catherine Asaro: to imagine, to say what if you know, some scientists will help you. In fact, scientists love to be asked questions, but some will say, Well, no, you can't do that. It's impossible. Say, but I'm writing a book. 158 00:24:57.500 --> 00:25:00.899 Catherine Asaro: and but a lot of scientists really enjoy 159 00:25:01.210 --> 00:25:03.730 Catherine Asaro: getting involved with stuff like that. 160 00:25:04.000 --> 00:25:16.150 Catherine Asaro: So get involved with people who like to predict stuff and get involved with other writers like you all here. None of you have to be scientists to come up with these wonderful ideas. How does it store the energy? You know? Gamma rays 161 00:25:16.480 --> 00:25:27.730 Catherine Asaro: all sorts of ideas, you know. Throw them off each other. Once you come up with some ideas to do your science, you have to get somebody to tell you whether it's wonky or not. 162 00:25:27.860 --> 00:25:32.959 Catherine Asaro: Okay. I've talked about Chat Gpt, that's one way to do it. 163 00:25:35.040 --> 00:25:37.449 Catherine Asaro: Okay, are you still getting my screen? 164 00:25:41.060 --> 00:25:41.950 ProWritingAid: No. 165 00:25:42.360 --> 00:25:45.149 Catherine Asaro: okay, cause I can't get it. Oh, there we go 166 00:25:45.550 --> 00:25:46.470 Catherine Asaro: alright. 167 00:25:46.750 --> 00:25:50.859 Catherine Asaro: There's something else I would like to talk about, which is 168 00:25:51.770 --> 00:25:58.589 Catherine Asaro: finding real people who are willing to help you. And it's actually easier than what you think? 169 00:26:02.900 --> 00:26:06.370 Catherine Asaro: Okay, I've lost. I've lost the zoom. 170 00:26:07.610 --> 00:26:09.170 Catherine Asaro: Oh, there it is. Okay. 171 00:26:12.640 --> 00:26:18.660 Catherine Asaro: So supposing let's go back to the share screen. 172 00:26:19.720 --> 00:26:30.500 Catherine Asaro: supposing you want to go online and find the information. Because that is a way to do this. It's another way that you can. 173 00:26:36.990 --> 00:26:47.130 Catherine Asaro: The problem with going online is, there's so much information. how do you get what you need to know from online? 174 00:26:48.490 --> 00:26:50.180 Catherine Asaro: For example. 175 00:26:50.630 --> 00:26:56.639 Catherine Asaro: this was actually a nice example, because lots of people wanted to figure out 176 00:26:57.220 --> 00:27:11.640 Catherine Asaro: how to blow up planets. I don't know why we love blowing up planets so much. but I did. You know how much power does it? What take to blow up a planet. That's what I enter. You can see it up here if you look at the top of the screen where it says 177 00:27:12.180 --> 00:27:24.900 Catherine Asaro: the URL, that's what I entered. How much power does it take to blow up a planet? And this was the first thing that came up. And it's very nice this. I'll play a little bit. Tell me if you can hear this. 178 00:27:25.510 --> 00:27:34.669 Catherine Asaro: Can you hear that? Hallowed Scott Manley here now I love the Star wars movies when I first stop. Did the sound come through on that? 179 00:27:35.300 --> 00:27:36.230 ProWritingAid: Yes. 180 00:27:36.410 --> 00:27:47.250 Catherine Asaro: good. Okay. So Star Wars is a 4 year old. It pretty much framed my life and sent me off in my spaceship. Obsessed course in life. Now, Star Wars movies are actually pretty light in term. 181 00:27:47.670 --> 00:28:01.069 Catherine Asaro: Okay? So you can see how that works. You also get a lot of ads which is annoying. And then here's in a whole article about it. and you can read that, and it's very nice. It tells you about how to calculate the one thing. 182 00:28:02.110 --> 00:28:17.429 Catherine Asaro: The problem is, there's so much information. This was a very specific question. I. So I chose this one because there's so much about it. And you could actually find a website like this. That explains how much energy it takes. And some of the problems associated with it. 183 00:28:18.460 --> 00:28:25.279 Catherine Asaro: and how you know it doesn't tell you how to solve the problems. But we'll get back to chat, gpt in a minute for that. 184 00:28:25.850 --> 00:28:29.249 Catherine Asaro: However, supposing it's something 185 00:28:29.440 --> 00:28:32.570 Catherine Asaro: like. I want to know. 186 00:28:33.650 --> 00:28:37.839 Catherine Asaro: how can I come up with a physical way to deflect bullets 187 00:28:37.960 --> 00:28:45.910 Catherine Asaro: so that I could design. You know these bracelets for wonder, woman? Well, here's something the physics of Wonder Woman versus you know 188 00:28:46.390 --> 00:28:53.619 Catherine Asaro: her bracelets, and it's a nice article about how her bracelets would have have to deflect 189 00:28:54.110 --> 00:29:05.630 Catherine Asaro: the bullets, you know. Would she suffer recoil, would she? You know how much energy would she need to do that? I mean, there's all sorts of stuff like that 190 00:29:05.980 --> 00:29:10.730 Catherine Asaro: that you can find online. The problem is, it doesn't really answer your questions. 191 00:29:10.930 --> 00:29:25.949 Catherine Asaro: You want to know. I want to come up with a scientific way. Well, this has all sorts of nice stuff about the physics. It tells you how to calculate the momentum when the bullet hits it. How she deflects it! The biggest possible recoil you get all this other stuff. 192 00:29:27.370 --> 00:29:32.330 Catherine Asaro: Well, maybe there's a way. and there's yet more. Let's go. 193 00:29:33.700 --> 00:29:36.860 Catherine Asaro: Maybe there's another way you could find it. 194 00:29:39.850 --> 00:29:40.920 Catherine Asaro: Ask. 195 00:29:41.460 --> 00:29:48.039 Catherine Asaro: well, who do I want to ask? Let's ask an astrophysicist. Okay? And let's see if we get someone from NASA. 196 00:29:48.830 --> 00:29:55.600 And look at that! What a surprise! I actually knew that exists! Cause my husband used to do this. 197 00:29:56.140 --> 00:30:00.229 Catherine Asaro: You can write, NASA and say, here we go 198 00:30:01.500 --> 00:30:11.670 Catherine Asaro: ask them any question. They're a small group of volunteers, you know. They came to my husband one time because he was known as kind of someone who was good with people. They said, Would you do this? 199 00:30:11.720 --> 00:30:19.700 Catherine Asaro: Basically, people would email him and say, Well, tell me such and such about astrophysics. Okay, they give you. 200 00:30:20.890 --> 00:30:25.989 Catherine Asaro: These are various topics. You can see down here if you want to ask them something about that. 201 00:30:27.120 --> 00:30:36.379 Catherine Asaro: And they even tell you, how did this decide how to ask? They tell you a way you can do more targeted searches on the Internet. 202 00:30:36.750 --> 00:30:47.349 Catherine Asaro: And I'll tell you something. My husband really liked the interesting questions like, could you tell me how the physics works if I want to have? Let's say. 203 00:30:47.770 --> 00:30:50.890 Catherine Asaro: a solar system with 4 planets in it. 204 00:30:50.980 --> 00:31:01.160 Catherine Asaro: and one of them I want to be this size, another one. I want to be that size, you know. What's the likelihood that I can make this work, and he really liked stuff like that because it was interesting. 205 00:31:01.260 --> 00:31:11.640 Catherine Asaro: You know, they get a lot of questions like, Well, I want you to tell me the truth. The Moon landing was really fake right? And you know they actually have to be trained how to answer that. 206 00:31:11.990 --> 00:31:22.050 Catherine Asaro: So that's one thing you can do. You can try. Ask a chemist right a bit. Let's see what comes up. Ask a chemist at the American Chemical Society. 207 00:31:22.760 --> 00:31:29.309 Catherine Asaro: So these are ways you can get help from a live person. a real scientist. 208 00:31:29.430 --> 00:31:40.709 Catherine Asaro: to answer very specific questions, and if they can't answer it because let's face it. Science is huge scientists don't know all the answers, either, but they will be able to tell you where to go. 209 00:31:40.940 --> 00:31:44.129 Catherine Asaro: you know. Well, try this website. Try that website. 210 00:31:45.340 --> 00:31:47.130 Catherine Asaro: Okay? 211 00:31:48.510 --> 00:31:52.440 Catherine Asaro: no, yeah. I already did that. So 212 00:31:53.880 --> 00:32:07.229 Catherine Asaro: who? You can ask? That's going to real person. They can help you target your searches online so that you don't end up with these huge searches. It takes hours, and you never find the exact information you want. 213 00:32:07.590 --> 00:32:21.510 Catherine Asaro: and then give you an idea what questions to ask. Chat. Gpt. Also, here's a barb. Well, let's do. Let's do wonder, woman. Alright, I'm gonna give you one more example. We have time for one more 214 00:32:21.830 --> 00:32:31.690 Catherine Asaro: I want you to think about. This is a famous scene, one of my favorite scenes in all time movies. It's called the No Man's Land scene in Wonder Woman. 215 00:32:32.060 --> 00:32:54.949 Catherine Asaro: And let's say you decided you wanna write a science fiction book where scientific explanations exist for the various things that wonder woman uses. And that's actually all. There's a whole area of Science Fiction where they talk about P possible ways to make comic books in the Science Fiction. I mean, we're all bunch of geeks. We enjoy having these conversations. 216 00:32:54.980 --> 00:33:07.940 Catherine Asaro: But if you're writing it, that's vital to get into the mind frame of not just, I mean it's fun to talk about. Well, this violates physics, and that violates physics. But the next step 217 00:33:07.980 --> 00:33:13.730 Catherine Asaro: for an author, if you want to write science is, what do I need to know? 218 00:33:14.090 --> 00:33:21.779 Catherine Asaro: And then how do I find what I need to know? So the first thing I want you to do on this during this 219 00:33:24.030 --> 00:33:31.280 Catherine Asaro: clip is. Think about. What do you need to know to make what's happening in this scene scientifically plausible? 220 00:33:31.880 --> 00:33:37.800 Catherine Asaro: This is called the no-man Scene in wonder, woman, and it's pretty self-expected. 221 00:33:40.400 --> 00:34:04.940 Catherine Asaro: This is no man's way, Diane. It's no man can cross it all right. This battalion has been here for nearly a year, and they they barely gained an inch alright, because on the other side they're a bunch of Germans wanting machine guns at every square inch of this place. This is not something you can cross, it's not possible. So what? So we do nothing. No, we. We are doing something, we are, we just. We can't save everyone in this room. 222 00:34:05.420 --> 00:34:08.870 Catherine Asaro: This is not what we came here to do that 223 00:34:24.560 --> 00:34:27.260 Catherine Asaro: so. But he's like I'm going to do. 224 00:35:14.450 --> 00:35:20.060 ProWritingAid: Sorry for the technical difficulties. Everybody I know it's in slow motion, without sound. 225 00:35:25.220 --> 00:35:27.439 Catherine Asaro: Thank you all aboard. Let's give them 226 00:36:33.260 --> 00:36:34.170 Catherine Asaro: alright. 227 00:36:35.050 --> 00:36:42.639 Catherine Asaro: So there's a lot going on in that scene. If you're writing, and you want to make that science fiction, what are some of the things 228 00:36:43.670 --> 00:36:46.220 Catherine Asaro: that you think 229 00:36:46.420 --> 00:37:02.089 Catherine Asaro: you need to look up to, you know, to make a scientific justification. If people could put some ideas in the comments. For example, we already talked about the recoil. Is there a recoil when the bullets hit for bracelets, for example. 230 00:37:02.290 --> 00:37:08.900 Catherine Asaro: force fields. Okay, yeah. Are, are her her shield or bracelets? Are there force fields involved? 231 00:37:10.620 --> 00:37:16.050 Catherine Asaro: Muscle strength? Yeah, her muscle strength. The strength of materials 232 00:37:16.340 --> 00:37:24.050 Catherine Asaro: no man could cross, but a woman could. Maybe the bracelets are made of Amazonian metal. Yeah, but what is Amazonian metal 233 00:37:24.240 --> 00:37:40.730 Catherine Asaro: material, the inertia. How much force is a bullet recoils? Why, she leans forward. Very good, very good, composite material. These are excellent. You guys are very smart, any of you. I mean, every single one of these comments is excellent. This is exactly what you need to do. 234 00:37:41.490 --> 00:38:02.169 Catherine Asaro: So friction creating heat on the glove, slowdown time to stop the bullets. Nanotech to absorb the energy. That's a good one. Amazon's have a deal with Wakanda for Vibranium. Yeah, that's great. These are all great things. But the question for the Science Fiction writer as opposed to comic book writer, is, what is Amazonium? 235 00:38:02.250 --> 00:38:04.009 Catherine Asaro: What is Vibranium? 236 00:38:04.520 --> 00:38:14.449 Catherine Asaro: Okay? So they're magic braces. Yeah, that's her super power. Her magic superpower is is, she can violate physics. She doesn't have to have a justification, which is fun. 237 00:38:14.550 --> 00:38:19.259 Catherine Asaro: But if you want to give a scientific explanation, you need to come up with something. 238 00:38:20.610 --> 00:38:23.640 Catherine Asaro: Oh, very good. Yeah. Okay. 239 00:38:24.000 --> 00:38:33.040 Catherine Asaro: We just start a war between Marvel and DC, alright, well, let's talk about. Let's take one of these ideas. 240 00:38:34.130 --> 00:38:36.090 Catherine Asaro: So 241 00:38:38.970 --> 00:38:40.620 Catherine Asaro: let me get back to zoom. 242 00:38:48.400 --> 00:38:52.960 Catherine Asaro: Alright. I'm gonna share my screen with you again. So 243 00:39:00.260 --> 00:39:02.990 Catherine Asaro: there are a lot of different 244 00:39:04.650 --> 00:39:09.610 Catherine Asaro: things that we could talk about for hers. Yes, we already saw that. Let's get 245 00:39:09.980 --> 00:39:12.330 Catherine Asaro: next one. Okay, so there's wonder, woman. 246 00:39:12.440 --> 00:39:16.589 So let's look at her bracelets because we've already brought that up. 247 00:39:17.150 --> 00:39:32.700 Catherine Asaro: What are some scientific ways we can come up with. And people have said, amazonium vibranium. There was something in one of the old shows they call it femininum, some element or metal called femininum. I think it was. 248 00:39:33.160 --> 00:39:34.870 The question is. 249 00:39:35.270 --> 00:39:42.460 Catherine Asaro: you know, how do we make this and what I'm suggesting that you do? Okay. 250 00:39:44.010 --> 00:39:51.570 Catherine Asaro: I'm giving you examples from movies. But if you're writing a book that your book is your movie or your book? Is your 251 00:39:52.300 --> 00:39:58.400 Catherine Asaro: your show, or whatever, if it's going on in your head. So 252 00:39:58.940 --> 00:40:08.559 Catherine Asaro: when you're thinking of your book, or your short story, or even an essay. If you're writing an essay on Science Fiction, you know, ask yourself these questions, and then go on the web. 253 00:40:08.690 --> 00:40:15.980 Catherine Asaro: So I went on the web, I said, bullets wonder woman's bullets! How could you make the bracelets? 254 00:40:16.530 --> 00:40:22.040 Catherine Asaro: And I think I showed you this before with all those lovely ads. 255 00:40:22.810 --> 00:40:30.379 Catherine Asaro: This is a very nice description of how you calculate the physics involved, and that is actually your first step. 256 00:40:30.800 --> 00:40:35.749 Catherine Asaro: you need someone to tell you, or you need to figure out yourself. 257 00:40:36.340 --> 00:40:47.410 Catherine Asaro: Which things do I have to worry about? Okay. Obviously. you have to worry about how the bullet hits her, her bracelets. 258 00:40:47.720 --> 00:41:06.059 Catherine Asaro: But what's involved? Well, this is a very nice physics. Description of you have to worry about momentum. He explains in quite a bit of detail, how both the force that it hits from the the speed and acceleration that it's going, and the mass of the object affect. 259 00:41:06.150 --> 00:41:10.889 Catherine Asaro: You know the recoil she feels when these bullets hits her 260 00:41:11.020 --> 00:41:23.309 Catherine Asaro: her bracelets, and it turns out there's not much recoil because she's so much bigger, and weighs so much more in a bullet. Okay? And he says, what about a barrage of bullets from a machine gun? 261 00:41:23.720 --> 00:41:39.710 Catherine Asaro: Ok, if you notice, he mentions German submachine guns. So this is the other aspect of putting science or accuracy in your Science Fiction is for things that already exist. You want to get those right, too. You need to know what a submachine gun can fire, what rate 262 00:41:39.790 --> 00:41:50.769 Catherine Asaro: you don't have to be exactly right, though. The more details you get right the more you get the reader on your side. and when you have the reader on your side they'll let some things go because they know you tried. 263 00:41:50.980 --> 00:41:57.110 Okay, so he makes a reasonable estimate. 5 that 500 rounds per minute. He does a lot of physics. 264 00:41:57.440 --> 00:42:11.629 Catherine Asaro: so he says no big deal. He figures out with just a little bit of friction by friction he means something that holds her to the ground. So if she was on ice, you know, the bullets would make her move backwards because nothing's holding her there. 265 00:42:12.010 --> 00:42:16.710 Catherine Asaro: But normally, if she's standing on ground like she was in that clip. 266 00:42:17.340 --> 00:42:31.510 Catherine Asaro: shouldn't have to worry about recoil. So you figured that out. If you add a little note about that, just one short phrase in in your writing, your reader will go. Okay. She looked into that, or he looked into that. And so that makes them happy. 267 00:42:32.310 --> 00:42:43.170 Catherine Asaro: Okay, then he talks about reaction time. What he talks about in this article, or all the things you need to worry about. What he doesn't talk about is how to solve it. 268 00:42:43.580 --> 00:42:46.999 Catherine Asaro: So let's go back to. I'm going to show you Bard. Now. 269 00:42:47.650 --> 00:42:56.849 Catherine Asaro: okay. So Bard is very similar to chat. Gpt, it does have some nice things. If you look toward the top of the page, it says Google, it. 270 00:42:57.050 --> 00:43:11.009 Catherine Asaro: Okay, barred. And by the way, these are free. The what I'm showing you, the barred version that I'm using was free. The chat Gpt version I was using was free. You can get better versions that are more updated, that have more. 271 00:43:11.430 --> 00:43:17.270 Catherine Asaro: you know, bells and whistles if he pay for it. But this, you can get what I'm showing you to day for free. 272 00:43:17.670 --> 00:43:38.819 Catherine Asaro: So I said I would like to figure out how I could scientifically design bracelets with the same properties as wonder, woman. And I said, brackets of submission sounds really kinky. That's not what I meant. I meant bracelets of submission, but that sounds kinky, too. But the nice thing about these semi, so they can figure out. 273 00:43:39.170 --> 00:43:42.609 Catherine Asaro: So it said, Oh, I know what you meant. You meant her bracelets. 274 00:43:42.670 --> 00:44:09.789 Catherine Asaro: Okay? So first, you know, they tell me the things that are kind of obvious, like you need something that's strong and durable. But then it gives you some words graphene or carbon nanotubes. So you know specifically now, something you can look up that will help you do it. And you don't have to be a chemist. You don't need to know that graphing existed. You didn't need to know that carbon nanotubes existed because chat, I mean, Bard just told you they did. 275 00:44:10.090 --> 00:44:25.290 Catherine Asaro: Okay, this is something. These all came up in the chat, in the comments that you guys are really smart. You guys are very good at this. You know a horse field, a material. put a force field somehow around the material or type of energy barrier that can deflect it. 276 00:44:25.670 --> 00:44:29.620 Catherine Asaro: Okay, so and it, it talks about various things you need to do. 277 00:44:30.010 --> 00:44:41.799 Catherine Asaro: and it also chat. Gpt does this too, and Vard, and so probably some of the other ais also do it they? Because if you tell them you're writing a story like I said up here 278 00:44:42.580 --> 00:44:49.720 Catherine Asaro: I was writing a story. They will give you things to consider. Besides, just actual science, like, what is a symbolism? 279 00:44:50.730 --> 00:45:04.089 Catherine Asaro: Okay? And the science can inform that one thing I love about knowing the science is that often the scientific aspects that I find when I'm doing research, actually inform what happens in the story. 280 00:45:04.680 --> 00:45:28.619 Catherine Asaro: Or you know, you can explore those things in your story. Well, thank you, Bar. Alright. So then it gives some specifics. It tells you what graphing is. So again, you don't need to be a chemist because Bar did it for you. It's a one, a Adam thick sheet of carbon that is incredibly strong and lightweight, and it gives you other properties. It tells you about carbon nanotubes. In other words. 281 00:45:28.630 --> 00:45:39.540 Catherine Asaro: you can ask very specific questions to these A I's, and they will give you answers as specific as you want. For example. Supposing, I said. 282 00:45:40.790 --> 00:45:49.630 Catherine Asaro: I don't understand, actually do. But I'll tell it. I don't understand how a carbon 283 00:45:50.000 --> 00:45:52.469 Catherine Asaro: nanotube works. 284 00:45:54.600 --> 00:45:56.040 Catherine Asaro: And hopefully. 285 00:45:58.300 --> 00:46:00.930 Catherine Asaro: oh, there we go so, and it gives you. 286 00:46:01.290 --> 00:46:22.489 Catherine Asaro: Bard is actually not quite as wordy as chat. Gpd like this is fairly non wordy answer, but it'll give you, and they don't usually just give you one thing, they'll give you some different applications to to apply. So you can look through okay, electronics. Well, I'm not comfortable with that. How about materials? 287 00:46:23.710 --> 00:46:35.079 Catherine Asaro: You know. They'll give you different ways to incorporate it into your science, and you can do as much as little as you want. You can just say she has carbon nanotubes in her bracelets. 288 00:46:35.520 --> 00:46:39.340 Catherine Asaro: and they make it stronger, and that can be it. 289 00:46:39.660 --> 00:46:46.200 Catherine Asaro: Or you can go into much detail as you want by talking to these various online sources of help. 290 00:46:46.350 --> 00:46:52.199 Catherine Asaro: And also, once you know, you know, once you have a specific idea of what you want. 291 00:46:52.300 --> 00:47:06.439 Catherine Asaro: then you can target your Internet searches better. Or you can target the person that you're asking the question to who's a scientist with something more specific. And I'll tell you something. When my husband was doing the ask an astronomer 292 00:47:06.510 --> 00:47:34.680 Catherine Asaro: we had these wonderful conversations. He he had a really high opinion of writers, partially because he was married to one, but also cause, he said they asked the best questions. That's the most interesting questions and the more specific the type of answer they're looking for like if they you know, if they said something general, like, how many planets are there that I can set a science fiction story on. Well, how do you answer that? There could be 1, 2 millions 1,000? We know a lot about 293 00:47:34.680 --> 00:47:52.499 Catherine Asaro: possible extraterrestrial planets now, but he needs more details, like how many planets that are like Earth. about the same distance from the sun as earth? Roughly, the same climate that have an atmosphere people can potentially breathe. 294 00:47:53.050 --> 00:47:59.939 Catherine Asaro: are there available? That's a much more specific question. So it gives the expert you're asking a better way to answer 295 00:48:00.570 --> 00:48:04.469 Catherine Asaro: But look at all this wonderful things. 296 00:48:04.900 --> 00:48:13.240 Catherine Asaro: Oh, okay, someone said, AR, for research, you're editing is okay. But they are tightening down rules for using it in writing. Yes, this is something I wanted to bring up. 297 00:48:14.000 --> 00:48:20.320 Catherine Asaro: It's a godsend using AI to do your research, but you have to be very careful because 298 00:48:20.390 --> 00:48:34.579 Catherine Asaro: you don't want. There are a lot of publishers that won't take anything that was written, even with the help of an AI. And I'm not talking about research here, but where the AI actually helps you write a section, and it's very clear when that happens. 299 00:48:34.750 --> 00:48:43.599 Catherine Asaro: That's considered an abuse. It's considered a form of plagiarism. So be very careful. Ask the AI as many scientific questions if you want. 300 00:48:44.400 --> 00:48:52.279 Catherine Asaro: but don't actually take something that it wrote and put it in your story as if you wrote it. Okay, you have to be very careful about that. 301 00:48:52.470 --> 00:49:04.190 Catherine Asaro: and I suspect guidelines for how to do this will become more established as we get further into. Some people say it isn't even right to call it artificial intelligence. 302 00:49:04.370 --> 00:49:11.310 Catherine Asaro: you know. I remember when people said artificial intelligence would be, the 303 00:49:11.700 --> 00:49:19.569 Catherine Asaro: would be, we would have it the day that a computer beat the World chess champion. Well, that happened a long time ago. 304 00:49:19.630 --> 00:49:34.350 Catherine Asaro: It was Ibm machine, I think. Be Gary Casparov, and all of a sudden oh, well, that's not artificial intelligence. It's just that it knows a lot of moves. So what we define is AI keeps moving every time we achieve something it moves farther. 305 00:49:34.380 --> 00:49:49.340 Catherine Asaro: so call it what you want, but be careful how you use it. Be responsible and ethical about how you use it. Okay, that said, though it's an excellent research tool. Okay, there are other places you can find people if you want. 306 00:49:49.690 --> 00:49:51.120 Catherine Asaro: to. 307 00:49:52.210 --> 00:50:01.989 Catherine Asaro: alright, I don't want to go. I had some other. I was going to show you the trouble with Triples, and that is a sample of how you could actually calculate some science yourself, even if you're not a scientist. 308 00:50:02.220 --> 00:50:26.419 Catherine Asaro: But we don't have time. I wanna leave some time for questions. So let me just say, if there's other places that you wanna find people to help, you know. Ask an astronomer. Ask a chemist. Also. Call your local university call a physics department say, I'm a science fiction writer. I'm looking for an expert who would be willing to answer questions on, you know, fill in the blank on the biology or the chemistry 309 00:50:26.420 --> 00:50:38.479 Catherine Asaro: of creatures that are on a world that's silicon based instead of oxygen instead of carbon based. So that's another place. Go to library. There's lots of places that you can do it 310 00:50:38.750 --> 00:50:47.629 alright. What I'd like to do. I think I should. Stop here. By the way, someone said, Hollywood can whistle Dixie in a whirlwind. 311 00:50:47.780 --> 00:51:14.040 Catherine Asaro: I wanted to say something. Hollywood sometimes does try. and there are some shows. The reason I use trouble with Triples is because he actually got it right. There's this lovely scene where Mr. Spock gives all the details. Well, this is, you know, the science behind this is such and such. And you get this number and this amount of days, and this weight and this blah blah, and every single number gives us right? So scientists, you know, science fiction doesn't always get it wrong even in movies. 312 00:51:14.740 --> 00:51:21.710 Catherine Asaro: All right. So let's go to the question and answers, and let me see if I can answer some questions. Wow, there's a lot. 313 00:51:22.490 --> 00:51:27.200 Catherine Asaro: Okay. Number one. Do you think that a science background helps in writing sci-fi? 314 00:51:27.210 --> 00:51:36.699 Catherine Asaro: Well, it certainly helped me. I mean, it was a wonderful use of my background in science, not so much because 315 00:51:37.020 --> 00:51:41.559 Catherine Asaro: I knew everything that I needed to know, to write the books off and don't. 316 00:51:41.820 --> 00:51:58.749 Catherine Asaro: But getting a doctor taught me how to do research. And so I learned how to look, stuff up, how to go, find what I need to know how to write. Sometimes I'd write the story. And then, for example, one time I wrote a story where character got Alzheimer's. I wanted him to get Alzheimer's early 317 00:51:59.010 --> 00:52:04.060 Catherine Asaro: by early I mean young in his life. I wrote the story the way I wanted it. 318 00:52:04.160 --> 00:52:19.979 Catherine Asaro: and then I did the research to see. Is there anything that fits this? And I actually ended up contacting an Alzheimer's foundation, and they were able to help me? And it turned out. What I wanted to do is actually not that uncommon. So it worked. 319 00:52:20.280 --> 00:52:44.700 Catherine Asaro: Another place you can. Contact is, and that I've also contacted is the military has outreach programs! You can go to their websites that will help authors. They help me. When I was writing a book called The Veiled Web, where I needed the Us. Military to come into Morocco and get an American citizen and her husband, who was Moroccan out cause he was dying. 320 00:52:44.750 --> 00:52:46.750 Catherine Asaro: People were coming to get them. 321 00:52:47.510 --> 00:52:49.959 Catherine Asaro: and they couldn't reach anyone. 322 00:52:50.150 --> 00:53:01.380 Catherine Asaro: and the military actually told me the proper protocol for how you do that when you're in this, you know, very desperate separate situation. So there's a lot of people out there will help you with this. 323 00:53:01.890 --> 00:53:17.820 Catherine Asaro: Okay? So the answer is, I think it helps. But you don't need one. It helped me learn how to do research more than told me all the science I needed to know. If you don't have a science background, you can still do it. You may not be able to put in as many details. 324 00:53:18.210 --> 00:53:26.290 Catherine Asaro: you know. That depends. Oh, there's one other suggestion. You can hire somebody. If you want somebody who will be there 325 00:53:27.810 --> 00:53:31.760 Catherine Asaro: to answer all your questions as much as you want. 326 00:53:32.400 --> 00:53:47.169 Catherine Asaro: you can actually put out a notice saying, I'm looking to hire. Someone would be interested in helping me with this. I will pay you such and such. I had a website. I was going to show you where John Scalzi, if you're familiar with his work, he actually did that on his website. 327 00:53:47.360 --> 00:53:59.309 Catherine Asaro: and I'm sure he got a huge number of applicants, but he was very specific about, he said, I want someone with a degree. I want someone to answer my questions. I want someone who can do calculations of celestial mechanics. 328 00:53:59.430 --> 00:54:04.599 Catherine Asaro: So maybe you don't have the background. But you can hire someone. If you're willing to pay. 329 00:54:04.740 --> 00:54:15.800 Catherine Asaro: they'll do all sorts of stuff for you. A lot of them will answer anyway. But their time's limited because they have jobs. If you're willing to pay, you get someone, spend many, many hours, you know, doing this 330 00:54:16.490 --> 00:54:26.930 Catherine Asaro: all right. Many sci-fi magazines don't accept stories that used ais in the creation process. Oh, that's a good question. I don't think there's a definite answer yet. 331 00:54:26.970 --> 00:54:31.410 Catherine Asaro: I would be very careful 332 00:54:32.540 --> 00:54:44.879 Catherine Asaro: if you're if you're using an AI for scientific research. I mean, you're not putting anything that AI wrote into your book. So in that sense none of your writing is 333 00:54:45.760 --> 00:55:07.849 Catherine Asaro: determined by what the a I wrote, and it's not any different than if you ask the scientists I mean a publisher isn't going to say, well, we won't take any books that you consulted with a scientist on. So you're consulting with an AI absolutely. Do not put anything the AI wrote into your book and claim it's your own, because then you're getting into a Iffy area. 334 00:55:08.430 --> 00:55:18.700 Catherine Asaro: I don't think worse early enough in the use of AI that I don't think there is any definite answer to that question. I would just be very, very careful 335 00:55:19.020 --> 00:55:24.640 Catherine Asaro: But if you can brainstorm with a human person. 336 00:55:25.190 --> 00:55:39.770 Catherine Asaro: I don't see how that's different from brainstorming with an AI. But I would ask the publisher, you know. III think if you said your publisher, I want to get my science better. I want to talk to an a you know. Chat. Gpt, do I have your okay? 337 00:55:40.450 --> 00:55:45.339 Catherine Asaro: I don't know. I don't know what would happen actually. But you do have to be very careful. 338 00:55:47.080 --> 00:55:53.290 Catherine Asaro: Okay, I'm I'm not sure there's so many questions. I think I've missed some of these. Do you think 339 00:55:53.530 --> 00:56:15.059 Catherine Asaro: we should differentiate between Science Fiction, where the laws of physics are obeyed, and science fantasy where they can be broken, but still in the consistent way. Yeah. I think that's fine. Just be clear about what you're doing you can set up like in magic. You set up your magic system right? Well, science fantasy is called fantasy, because essentially, you're setting up a system where 340 00:56:15.080 --> 00:56:32.230 Catherine Asaro: this is, where how things work the same way you do with magic. And that's really what the comic book universes are. I mean, there's science fantasy like the Wonder Woman that we just walked. There's very definite things that are set up ahead of time. There's a whole, you know. 341 00:56:32.740 --> 00:56:39.719 Catherine Asaro: origin and world building around. Wonder Woman. She has those bracelets we talked about. She has this 342 00:56:39.940 --> 00:56:48.579 Catherine Asaro: the the shield she holds, and if you notice it essentially attracts the bullets, and there's a very nice scene. I don't know if any of you noticed it 343 00:56:48.710 --> 00:56:58.890 Catherine Asaro: where the bullets were hitting her shield and bouncing off at the right angle. So they got the physics right of, you know, when you hit a certain angle you bounce off at a certain angle. 344 00:56:59.440 --> 00:57:08.079 Catherine Asaro: but you know there's a whole world building that surrounds us just like there's a whole magic building system for fantasy. So yeah. 345 00:57:08.900 --> 00:57:11.149 Catherine Asaro: if you want to have your own 346 00:57:11.720 --> 00:57:29.280 Catherine Asaro: world building like that. That's fine. Okay, it's not science in the sense, if you want to do science and science fiction. But I'm sure that there are experts who could do a whole nother workshop on that? That would be wonderful. Alright. So what's next to me? The unbelievable part is that 347 00:57:29.420 --> 00:57:48.169 Catherine Asaro: she can see it coming and moving her. Oh, and time to stop it. Yeah, that was another one of the the things that the guy talked about in his article on wonder woman in her bracelets. She's gotta move really fast to deflect all those bullets. I think what he figured out. She could actually move that fast if she were enhanced, you know. 348 00:57:48.310 --> 00:57:58.120 Catherine Asaro: and that's something scientifically. I mean, the military is even working on stuff like that. Now, how do you enhance the human body to make people stronger, faster. You know. 349 00:57:58.390 --> 00:58:20.679 Catherine Asaro: cybernetic warriors. Essentially, I mean woman. Wonder. Woman is essentially a cybernetic warrior with magic instead of technology. Do you remember the 6 million dollar woman that may be before most of your time, but that was a show about a woman or the bionic one. That's what it was called the 6 million Dollar Man, where they were enhanced scientifically to be faster and stronger. 350 00:58:20.830 --> 00:58:33.230 Catherine Asaro: So you know, that's always been a theme of science fiction. It can either be part of her superpower. So then it's fantasy, or you can come up with scientific reasons to do it, which become more and more feasible all the time. 351 00:58:34.100 --> 00:58:49.350 Catherine Asaro: Oh, here's a good one. How many handwavs can you get away with in a novel? How many series? Well, it by getting away with it depends. If you try to get away with it by making it sound like science when scientifically, it's not 352 00:58:49.780 --> 00:58:57.180 Catherine Asaro: plausible. then that that tends to annoy readers. if you do something like 353 00:58:58.020 --> 00:59:06.899 Catherine Asaro: you say. For example, there was a star trek about. I mentioned basing life forms on silicone instead of 354 00:59:06.920 --> 00:59:27.280 Catherine Asaro: a carbon. We're carbon based. It's possible there's a whole chemistry involved with the idea of basing living things on silicone instead of carbon. And there are all sorts of problems associated with it. Scientific problems like, could it exist in an oxygen atmosphere? Probably not because of the way the compounds react with oxygen. 355 00:59:27.530 --> 00:59:33.589 Catherine Asaro: So they did this on a star trek, and they introduced the idea. And of course, Mr. 356 00:59:34.120 --> 00:59:52.249 Catherine Asaro: Bones is arguing with Spock. Right? The doctors arguing with Mr. Spock is saying well, scientifically, this wouldn't work cause of this, and this wouldn't work because of this. And he's actually coming up with good reasons. Mr. Spock says. Well, it might be possible. And there's, you know, they come up with a few reasons why it might work in the show. 357 00:59:52.920 --> 01:00:12.080 Catherine Asaro: and that made me happy, as someone who has a strong background in chemistry and the chemical extraterrestrial chemistry chemical concerns. You know I was happy. They at least tried so all the other wonky stuff that they did, and there was a lot of wonky stuff in that show, you know. I was willing to let them get away with it. 358 01:00:12.230 --> 01:00:15.939 Catherine Asaro: So in that sense they did enough science 359 01:00:15.960 --> 01:00:23.060 Catherine Asaro: so that the hand waving, I was okay with it. It really depends on who your your reader is. 360 01:00:23.730 --> 01:00:32.879 Catherine Asaro: But if you if you try and come up with stuff that's scientifically accurate. Most of the time you can get away with more. 361 01:00:35.370 --> 01:00:58.879 Catherine Asaro: Katherine. I think we're we are out of time. Yes, so that was such a great session. Thank you so much. For generously spending your time with us. Thank all of you for joining, as always, you can find the replay to this session and the other sessions in the Science Fiction writers we have, you can find the links again in the chat. Now we hope you join us for our 362 01:00:58.880 --> 01:01:08.169 Catherine Asaro: next session. Thanks, everybody. Thank you. Everybody. That was fun. Is there any answer? Question? I mean there's a lot more good questions. 363 01:01:08.840 --> 01:01:36.890 ProWritingAid: Oh, I know we we are out of time. I'm so sorry we've got to get ready for our next session. Oh, yeah. If you join the community. You guys, I'll start a thread in community that you can ask your questions to Katherine. Let me drop that link again, Katherine. You could just sign in with a providing aid account to our community and interact with our users there. 364 01:01:36.970 --> 01:01:49.070 Catherine Asaro: Alright! Can you email me that link because I'm gonna lose it. Yes, I'll do. I'll do that right now. Alright, wonderful! You're all smart enough to do this. You're brilliant. Take care, bye.