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May 28, 2018

Singularity Game

Hi-tek science fiction surfing.
Civilization: Beyond Earth
This blog is devoted to science fiction and this post is about one particular computer game that is concerned with a science fiction theme: exploring and settling an exoplanet by colonists who arrive from Earth. After playing Civilization: Beyond Earth, I was inspired to write some Sci Fi fanfiction (here) that includes elements of the game.

The first Sid Meier (MicroProse) computer game that I bought was called Railroad Tycoon, a very non-science fiction-oriented game. However, this was the era of Thomas, and my son was fascinated by trains, so in 1992 we began playing that railroading computer game as well as building a model railway in the basement.

Turn-based strategy game
in the beginning: Civilization
Sid Meier's Civilization for Macintosh computers was released in 1992 and I began playing Civilization when Civilization II became available for the Mac in 1997. There was one small science fiction element in the game: the goal for one of the victory modes was to depart from Earth on-board a spaceship that you built.

My kids grew up playing Civilization, which provided an interesting way to think about technology development through the course of history. In a game of Civilization, your technological development starts slowly then accelerates as the game progresses, providing the sensation of an approaching technological singularity. Exponential growth in technological advancement is a fundamental feature of all Civilization games and the imaginary technologies on Beyond Earth are important for giving players of Beyond Earth a futuristic Sci Fi experience.

Planetary Council in Alpha Centauri
Out of this world
In 2000, we moved on to playing Alpha Centauri, a true science fiction-oriented game that was similar to Civilization, but played on an exoplanet rather than on Earth and set in the future with imaginary future technologies. One of the features of Alpha Centauri was the Planetary Council and a system for electing a Planetary Governor. This was still the era when you could only buy your computer games on an optical disk. My kids and I played in multiplayer "hot seat" mode, taking turns on one computer making moves for our factions and cooperating on Council votes.

Going Beyond
hot seat game setup
Beyond Earth is a complex game, so it is best if you begin playing in the default beginners game with the available advice and built-in tutoring switched on.

For experienced Civilization game players, note that there is also a "hot seat" mode in Beyond Earth, but a word of warning..... rather than using the game's standard interface for setting up and starting a multiplayer "hot seat" game, it looks like they allowed Jimmy the intern to develop this game feature. There is no "start game" button. After you select all of your startup options, click on the check-mark button.

Playing in "hot seat" mode is a great way to introduce people (particularly children) to a game. Also, if you believe that games can be fun when people cooperate then "hot seat" mode is a great option.

source
Another warning for those who want to introduce young children to this game: there can be unprovoked attacks on your units by the aliens even when playing on the easiest difficulty level of the hot-seat version of the game.

you got your satellite
in my xenomass
Also, for experimenting with the various game startup options, as a new Beyond Earth player you can select all human players for a multiplayer hot seat game and experiment with the various starting options without having to worry about receiving any harassment from computerized players.

Harassment? Read on... the game is programmed to create conflict between you and the computer-generated players who you compete against in the default game.

alien creatures threaten your colony in Beyond Earth
That's no tree! That's a siege worm!
Exoplanets
Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth became available in 2014 and at that time I played the game for a few hours and saw that it was an interesting mix of Alpha Centauri and the 4th generation Civilization games (Civilization IV). With Beyond Earth, I finally entered the era of playing a game that was down-loaded, rather than played from an optical disk. During the past few years there have been some expansions and bug fixes for Beyond Earth, and recently I played the mature, updated version of the game (Rising Tide).

known exoplanets
In the years since I first began playing computer games, exoplanets have begun to make the transition from objects of the imagination to actual places that can be observed and cataloged. In Beyond Earth, you can play the game using Earth-like maps, planet maps based on fictional worlds from famous science fiction stories or maps designed to represent specific known exoplanets. All of the Beyond Earth games I have played were computer generated variants of a lush, resource-rich, Earth-like planet with several large continents, but there are many other options.

In-game art, depicting an angry siege worm
One of the science fiction features of Beyond Earth is the giant alien "siege worms" that remind me of the sand worms in Dune. When first meeting alien creatures in this game, the small ones are peaceful and they are not difficult to get along with. Unless you like killing things, just try to ignore them, even when they get in the way.

My First Complaint
in search of alien science
I suppose the programmers who developed Beyond Earth felt obligated to include multiple human factions from Earth. The game could have been improved by putting at least the same amount of thought into the alien residents of the exoplanet as went into creating the various human factions. The few types of alien creatures in the game do not come close to providing a realistic feel of a complex planetary biosphere. Sadly, every part of the planet has exactly the same types of creatures.

The Next Generation
I wish that a version of Beyond Earth existed in which the study of alien life forms was more central to the game rather than killing alien creatures. Some of the alien creatures could have been "unaltered" while others could have been hybrid biological/nanite constructs designed by the mysterious Progenitors.

I don't mind faction leaders who are experienced and mature, but it would be fun if the game focused on the scientific adventures of the younger generations of colonists who are born on the new exoplanet. Maybe the original colonists had a tendency to shoot the aliens, but colonists who have lived their whole life with the aliens might seek to understand and coexist with the natives.

Progenitor

Maybe there could have been on the order of 50 different alien creatures in the game, some that live in cold areas near the poles and some for the warmer parts of the exoplanet near the equator. The unseen Progenitors remind me of the science fiction stories of Jack Vance in which he casually mentions evidence that other advanced species were present in our galaxy long before we humans came into existence.  

See: Clement's Paradox.

Special Science Operations
I'd prefer a version of Beyond Earth in which there is a sophisticated scientific research effort aimed at understanding the alien life and Progenitor technologies on the planet. In my next blog post, I discuss additional features of
Beyond Earth such as its system for "covert ops". Rather than limit players to covert ops, why not have several special operations agencies?

I don't approve of the system for researching aliens in Beyond Earth. There are quests where you have to kill a requisite number of aliens in order to obtain biological samples. The idea that you can learn something about the control of alien behavior by performing "biopsies" on the skeletal remains of dead aliens is absurd. It would not have been hard to put more science into Beyond Earth and improve the science fiction "look and feel" of the game.

upgrades
Military Science Fiction
The first time I played Beyond Earth, I tried building a minimum of military units, but such a pacifist strategy is dangerous. The pre-programmed factions (several groups from Earth are colonizing the exoplanet along with you) will attack you if they feel like "their" territory is being settled by your people and if they do not fear the power of your military.

The invasion force of another faction crossing the border.
There is a numerical limit on the number of units that your growing civilization can support, but you can work at the upper limit (stop building units when you get a production penalty).

In order to collect bonus resources that are scattered across the surface of the planet, you need to make a continuous effort to explore the world. Plan to devote some of your units to exploration.

outline of planetary land areas revealed
There are many science fiction stories that involve dropping humans onto some unexplored exoplanet. In the case of Beyond Earth, you arrive at a new world and make a landing on the planet, dropping down from orbit. If you believe that there should be some available information about the surface of the planet that was gathered from orbit (before the start of the game) then you should select the startup option that reveals all of the coastal terrain hexes on your new planet.
Where am I? One startup option reveals the outlines of the planet's continents.

worker unit
You will also need to build Worker units that help your cities prosper by building farms, mines and other improvements.

Most units can change (upgrade) through time as you increase your technological sophistication. I play with the advanced startup mode and use the option that lets you delay unit upgrades.
A fleet of computer-generated worker units.

naval unit for fast exploration
My strategy is to build some military units early in the game and not bother with the upgrades until there is a threat of war with another faction. Upgrade choices are usually pairs, with one upgrade better for defense, so it can be worth waiting to see if there is an early attack on your forces by another faction. The basic units that are first available to you before any upgrades become available can explore just fine. Because of their speed, patrol boats are particularly useful for exploration early in the game.

A siege worm next to a worker unit. This scene is
late in the game and the worm is safe, having been
captured and converted into one of my own units.
When a siege worm appears near one of your cities, it can be a reminder that you should build military units, but you can also try to ignoring these worms when they appear. These particularly powerful and potentially destructive aliens are sometimes restricted in terms of where they will travel. Importantly, in some cases (when playing at the easiest difficulty level) the worms don't like to cross terrain features like rivers, which can allow your ranged units to safely bombard the worms from across the river, or even ignore them.

marine
Imaginary future technology is developed by your faction during a game of Beyond Earth, however, one of the first upgraded units is a conventional "marine". Early in the game, with just the power of the defensive rockets from your cities or perhaps a gunner or 2 and one or two marines, you can defeat a powerful siege worm, but it takes time and patience.

alien creatures and an alien nest
Later in the game, when your technology has advanced and your military units are stronger, the siege worms are not difficult to defeat. However, if you are trying to have peaceful interactions with the aliens, you are better off trying to live peacefully with the worms. It can be done!

All alien life on the planet is telepathically linked. If you blast an annoying alien unit such as a siege worm then every alien creature on the entire planet will become more aggressive. Another way to anger the aliens is to destroy their nests or just build your colony too close to a nest.

When an alien guest visits,
it activates the RED destroy
button on your city
The default programming for the computerized factions seems to involve fighting the alien creatures, not living peacefully with them. Luckily, the aliens can be very mad at other factions, but still not attack your units.

Beyond Earth is designed to provoke you into fighting the alien creatures. As soon as an alien moves close to your first city, a big RED button appears, inviting you to blast the poor innocent creature. However, if you have a scrupulous policy of not angering the aliens and if you ignore the aliens when they get in your way then they will not attack you.
The game "advises" you to use a colonist unit to build an new outpost next to an alien nest
rather than at a good coastal location. Don't always follow the advice provided by the computer.

War Score, what is it good for?
During wars, you earn points for defeating enemy units.
Spend the earned points to collect your spoils of war.
Another way that the game tries to bring you into conflict with the aliens is by suggesting that you build your cities close to the alien nests. As shown in the image above, you should not be afraid to ignore the suggested sites for new cities.

The game is designed to continually provide you with opportunities to fight other factions. Don't be afraid to start a war, particularly if you find yourself competing for a needed resource. At the lower difficulty levels, your computer generated opponents are quite predictable and easy to defeat as long as you have taken care to build a few military units.

exponential growth
click image to enlarge
In the "Soyuz" difficulty level game that I played, the computer opponents used several "tricks" to push me towards war. This was the first difficulty level at which a computer faction showed signs of achieving exponential growth (see the "score" graph to the left). There are limits to how many cities you can build before a health penalty cripples your growth (see the graph of "excess health). These sorts of limitations seemed not to apply strongly to one of the computerized factions (see the "number of cities" graph). That faction, the one that was closest to my borders, suddenly started creating many new cities, seemingly in an attempt to provoke me.

an invitation to war...
A naval fleet appears.
click image to enlarge
Then, as soon as I had defeated that first foe, a naval war fleet from another faction showed up in my waters, inviting a second war. This second computer opponent had a huge number of naval military units, which it never used in a sensible way, allowing my air force to systematically eliminate their navy at my leisure.

part of the technology
web for Beyond Earth
Click image to enlarge
A game of Beyond Earth is a kind of puzzle. You need to learn what technologies are available and make decisions about which technologies will be most useful to you.

a large number of alien creatures attracted to a Xeno Siren orbital unit,
but a trade convoy passes right through
Ultratechnology
At higher difficulty levels, the worms  and other alien lifeforms are even more aggressive, but you can keep them away from your cities if you obtain the technology that is required for building an "ultrasonic fence" around each newly-founded city. Eventually you will be able to build the Xeno Siren orbital unit which can be used to attract alien creatures to an area away from your cities.

an alien
This can have comical effects. Some parts of the map contain alien nests and open plains, a combination that can generate herds of alien creatures. Combined with a Xeno Siren, the terrain can become packed with aliens. If you are at the stage of the game after you have obtained the special advanced ability to protect traders from alien attacks then your trade convoys can safely cruise right through a swarming mass of alien creatures.

Early in the game, nearby areas of miasma are highlighted,
showing places where a convoy cannot travel.
Click image to enlarge.
Trade convoys establish trade routes between your cities or with the cities of other factions or with special independent trade stations. Trade convoys are unusual units because as soon as you assign them to a trade route, you do not have any control over how they move to their destination. You may have built a perfectly good road between two cities, but don't expect a trade convoy to use the road. Early in the game, convoy units cannot pass through miasma, a mysterious mist that covers some terrain hexes.

trade station
the station is not owned by a player
While exploring, you might discover a trade station before you can create trade convoys. It might be shown as belonging to an "unmet player", but if actually belonged to a player then you would meet that player. Stations belong to "Minor Powers" which are "independent from any colony or affinity".

Your Drone unit cannot move onto an ice hex
if there is an enemy submarine under the ice.
Another feature among the assortment of military units that can be built and deployed during a game of Beyond Earth is that some units are hidden or invisible under some conditions. The first of these that you are likely to encounter are submarine units. You might never see a submarine, but it can prevent you unit from moving into a hex.

The rules for when two units can occupy the same hex seem rather arbitrary and silly. Why can't a flying Drone unit fly over an ice hex if there is a submarine under the ice? Restrictions like that make no sense.

an exploring sea dragon unit bumps into a hidden submarine
I wish that the makers of Beyond Earth had made planets globular. The flat Mercator projection worlds are absurd. Further, each hex should be able to expand into 19 sub-hexes so that units can occupy specialized features of the terrain and conduct battlefield maneuvers.
Apola: the alien science faction.

Difficulty Levels
You can view the lower difficulty levels in Beyond Earth as a mechanism for providing you with training sessions. When you reach the hardest difficulty level, be prepared for the gloves to come off. Near the start of my first Apollo level game, I lost a worker unit in an unprovoked attack by an alien creature, something I never experienced at the other difficulty levels of a single-player game.

dome improvement (land version)
The aliens are nicely adapted to their world, but the atmosphere of the planet is not optimal for humans. Everyone in your colony wears protective environmental suits and assisted respiration equipment.

living under the sea
(click image to enlarge)
One of my favorite terrain improvements (simply for its prettiness) is the underwater dome.

Transparent habitation domes built on land seem more practical than the underwater version, but your workers can't build any of these fancy domes until later in the game, after you have developed the needed technologies (terraforming and biospheres). As a Star Trek fan, I was expecting transparent aluminum to be a technology needed for underwater domes.

weather control
Sadly, the game developers did not make any weather for your exoplanet. Variable weather and different climates for parts of the exoplanet would have made Beyond Earth a more realistic planet exploration game. Part of any science fiction experience is suspension of disbelief. The only mention of "weather" in the game is the "weather control" orbital unit. It provides excess food and magically makes some new resources appear. The "explanation" given by the game designers is that the weather control orbital unit can produce "precise electrical-magnetic charges" that improve the weather for the land below.

imaginary physics (source)
Rather than use tired old electromagnetism, this would have been a good time for the introduction of a mysterious new advanced Progenitor technology. Why not sprinkle the equivalent of a "positron" into the story? Back in the 1940s when Isaac Asimov knew nothing about transistors, his "explanation" for how to make a robot brain involved using "positronics", a futuristic variant of electronics.

For Beyond Earth, there could have been a new imaginary branch of particle physics for you to learn about by collecting Progenitor artifacts. There are some interesting Progenitor artifacts that can randomly pop up during the game, but they seem like tease and seldom lead to any lasting changes in your growing civilization... maybe they mostly just end up in a museum.
a cool Progenitor artifact

In my next blog post, I continue my exploration of the science fiction features of Beyond Earth. Yet to come: some old-time Sci Fi goodies..... time travel and teleportation!

Next: more of my comments on Beyond Earth.

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May 12, 2018

Star Tripping

cordrazine-induced psychosis
When Star Trek came to television in the 1960s, the programs that were broadcasted by television networks were constrained by a set of standards. Those content standards allowed for depictions of Enterprise crew members using alcohol, but there was more restraint when it came to the use of other psycho-active chemicals.

In 1966, months before the start of the first broadcast season of Star Trek (the pilot had been filmed in 1964), Harlan Ellison was asked to write an episode for the new show.

1957
I've never read the original story that he wrote for Star Trek, but apparently Ellison included the idea that a crew member on the Enterprise was a drug dealer.

The City on the Edge of Forever
I have no idea why Ellison inserted a drug dealer into his story. I've seen the claim that during the time when Ellison was writing his episode of Star Trek, he visited the studio and watched some of the filming of "Mudd's Women", which became one of the earliest broadcasted episode of the show, seen on TV in the fall of 1966.

20-year-old Diane Pine turns up the
heat on the star ship Enterprise.
The story idea that became "Mudd's Women" was one of the original story ideas proposed by the show's creator, Gene Roddenberry. I've seen it claimed that Roddenberry's efforts to express his sexual fantasies through the filming of "Mudd's Women" had to be curtailed.

rock and ray guns
I wonder if his exposure to "Mudd's Women" influenced Ellison's choices for what to include in his own Star Trek story. Dune had just been published in 1965, a story that features the fictional drug melange. Maybe Ellison toyed with the idea that Star Trek was the right show at the right time to deal with a Star Trip. However, Star Trek was being forced into the future by people like Ellison. Roddenberry was from a more conservative, older generation that was being dragged towards cultural revolution.

Mudd and the three women.
Harcourt Fenton Mudd was an unusual character in Star Trek.  The television show was built around interstellar adventures, visiting newly discovered exoplanets and interacting with newly discovered alien civilizations. Mudd was an opportunist, looking for ways to make money. In "Mudd's Women", we get to watch Mudd scheme to deliver sell three women to lonely miners on a frontier planet.

stories from the 1950s
Chemistry
There is a long history of attempts to build science fiction stories around fictional chemistry. Mudd is depicted as providing his three female passengers with an illegal drug (called the Venus drug). In the end, his goal becomes making sure that the wealthy dilithium miners will pay top dollar for their "mail-order brides".

It is easy to view Mudd as a pimp, using drugs to keep control of "his women". Only by chance does an opportunity arise for Mudd to cash in and make "his women" into brides for 3 rich miners.

In his 1957 story, "World of Women", Harlan Ellison imagined a planet where a drug was used to give women immortality.

Mudd's artificial women
When Mudd returned to Star Trek for another episode, he was surrounded by a harem of sexy robots, programmed to fulfill his every desire.

Why did Gene Roddenberry ask Harlan Ellison to write an episode of Star Trek? I think that Ellison was best known at that time within Sci Fi fandom for "Demon with a Glass Hand". I saw that television program when I was very young, and it left a lasting impression on me; probably my first exposure to the idea of a robot that looks like a man (see the image, below).

robot and Arlene Martel
It does not surprise me that Ellison selected a plot device (a drug dealing crew member of the Enterprise) that offended the sensibilities of Gene Roddenberry.

In 1966, The Avengers had appeared on television in the United States. The origin of these "avengers" was in an attempt to get revenge for the actions of some drug dealers. However, the drug angle really only appeared in the original 1961 episode (Hot Snow) in England and in subsequent comic books. In 1967, Dragnet illustrated how recreational drug use was portrayed on television in the United States. In 1965, LSD was taken off the psychiatric drug market by Sandoz. In 1966, California made use of LSD illegal. In the mid-1960s, recreational drug use was in the news and if the drug was not alcohol or nicotine, it was not going to be welcomed on television.

1967 television depiction of a drug dealer
Why should Roddenberry allow Ellison to depict a drug dealer as a crew member on the Enterprise? No good reason existed.

Episode on the cusp of forever
At a time when some Star Trek episodes were created, filmed and seen on television in just a few months, "The City on the Edge of Forever" took almost a year. Ellison took well over half a year to write the original story then there were more delays due to the episode going through multiple re-writes. Apparently there were only a few of Ellison's original lines remaining in the final version of the story that was seen by Star Trek fans.

Time Travel Trip
The Guardian, a sentient time travel portal.
In "The City on the Edge of Forever", the crew of the star-ship Enterprise finds a time machine on an exoplanet. They use the alien time machine to journey back to the 1930s. After they use the time portal (which is controlled by a sentient being, the Guardian) and return from the past, the landing party just walks away and returns to the Enterprise. I truly despise science fiction stories that depict amazing technological discoveries followed by techno-amnesia; the discovery is forgotten and never mentioned again.
time travel

Asimov's Time Axiom
Time axiom 1: science fiction writers can't resist time travel. Isaac Asimov took note of the fact that we have no reason at all to suspect that time travel is possible, but science fiction story writers simply enjoy creating stories about time travel.

Asimov's time travel novel, The End of Eternity, illustrates another principle, what I'll call time axiom 2: the only good science fiction stories about time travel are those that end with all further time travel having been made impossible. If you don't put an end to time travel than you are committing yourself to some endless Time Travel War.

Time-twisted love: Zarabeth and Spock
Among the time travel stories produced for the original Star Trek show, "All Our Yesterdays" is my favorite. Once again (season 3), the crew of the Enterprise finds an exoplanet where time travel technology has long been in use. However, this planet's star is soon to explode, so Kirk, Spock and McCoy only have a few hours for a quick trip back in time. After Spock has a quick romance with Zarabeth, Kirk, Spock and McCoy return to the Enterprise, the star explodes, and we need not worry about any further use of the doomed planet's time travel technology.

Edith and Kirk
In contrast, Kirk leaves the time travel portal from "The City on the Edge of Forever" behind... the Enterprise just departs. We can imagine the report to Star Fleet Headquarters: "The Guardian of Forever is still there, waiting and able display all of Earth's history." Maybe Star Fleet eventually ends up with a long list of planets (like Talos IV) that are off-limits due to the presence of advanced technology that is simply too dangerous for we bumbling humans.

Several Star Trek episodes depicted romances for the main characters; Kirk, Spock and McCoy. Kirk's love affair with Edith Keeler in 1930 is both tragic and futile. Exactly how Kirk gets the chance to travel back through time to meet Edith is never explained.

McCoy eventually decides that
Edith is not a hallucination
McCoy is the first to go back through time to 1930 while delusional and under the influence of cordrazine, following an accidental overdose. McCoy changes the course of Earth's history by saving the life of a woman, Edith Keeler. In the new timeline created by McCoy's actions in 1930, the Enterprise disappears, but Kirk and Spock remain with the Guardian. Why doesn't the landing party also disappear from the new time line?

Spock brings future technology to 1930
We are not supposed to ask questions about the fictional science in Star Trek, but Asimov provided a solution to this kind of time paradox. In The End of Eternity, Asimov imagined that special technologies could be used to isolate people from the usual flow of time. We can imagine that the Guardian can protect Kirk and Spock from experiencing the effects that arise from McCoy being in the past. Maybe for the Guardian it is all a kind of game; the Guardian conspires to provide visitors with adventures in the past. Maybe the Guardian gets royalty checks from accountants who work in Hollywood.

source
Another axiom for science fiction writers is that they can't resist sequels. With the Guardian still out there, it seems like there should be a followup episode of Star Trek featuring the Guardian (see Star Trek: Galactic Core).

Apples and Oranges
I recently came across a 2015 essay by Noah Berlatsky concerning "The City on the Edge of Forever" (read the Noah Berlatsky essay). Berlatsky wrote that "The City on the Edge of Forever" is "an elaborate exercise in justifying violence".

Berlatsky says that Kirk's need to let Edith die is ethically equivalent to dropping an atomic bomb on Hiroshima in an effort to save the lives of soldiers who otherwise would have died while invading Japan. Berlatsky also claims that when Kirk allows Edith to die, his act is based on the same moral justification that was used for invading Iraq and deposing Saddam Hussein.

"The City on the Edge of Forever" came to television just when Americans were watching the horrors of the Vietnam War unfold on their television screens. Spock mutters words to the effect of: Peace is the way, but now is not the time for peace.
Edith ad astra

Fear mongering is an ever-popular way to get a democracy into a war. "If we wage war now, we will prevent even worse horrors". A populace can be in doubt, but willing to err on the side of caution, feeling that it is wiser to fight a bully than give in to the abuses handed out by the bully. Using that logic, we often abandon the path of peace. Berlatsky also claims that the popularity of "The City on the Edge of Forever" is "inseparable from its rejection of pacifism".

In the Ekcolir Reality
Original cover art by Willis Terry
However, in "The City on the Edge of Forever", there is no room at all for doubt. Kirk and Spock have seen the future and they know: a future in which Edith lives will be worse than a future in which she dies. Under these conditions, viewers also had no doubt: only a fool or a madman would decide to save Edith's life. Kirk had to let Edith die even though he loved her. My expectation is that Star Trek fans have never -and will never- care about this episode's "rejection of pacifism".

Picard's mind trip.
fan favorite: the next generation
Berlatsky suggests that Star Trek fans should abandon their devotion to "The City on the Edge of Forever" and find some other episode to proclaim as a favorite. I have my own reasons (based on my views of what constitutes a good science fiction story) for wishing that some other episode of Star Trek was the all-time fan favorite.

image source
Related reading: some old comments (21) on "City at the Edge of Forever".

Harlan Ellison died about a month after I wrote this blog post.

Next: the science fiction computer game experience

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