Areodefined

Here are just some quick definitions I've improvised with the prefix "Areo-", relating concepts to Mars (Ares). Established precedents include Areology (the study of Mars), and Areography (mapping Mars):

Areoaesthetics (n): "The appreciation, production, and study of art, culture, and natural beauty relating to Mars." 

Areoculture (n): "The products of human life shaped by thought on or relating to Mars." 

Areophile (n): "A person who is attracted to the planet Mars."

Aresian (n): As an alternative to Martian, similar to the use of Terran instead of Earthling. "A person belonging to the planet Mars."

Red Sol Haiku

Red Morning Haiku

White sun rises late.

Weak wind lifts the finest dust.

Breath quickens with ease.

Red Noon Haiku

Canyons flood with light.

Cold mist boils free from ice.

Slow sweat runs unchecked.

Red Evening Haiku

Craters pool their shade.

Dead titans resist the night.

Plans make room for dreams.

Red Night Haiku

Stars gaze steadily.

The sons of War fly unleashed.

Tired hands caress.

  

  I think it's easier to translate the value of a place when it's described by an artistic tradition. So, adding to the body of art concerning Mars can only help us all appreciate the beauty possible on a new world. To that end, I've begun a "Red Sol" poetry section beginning with this post.

Review: Moving Mars

Redworlder Review Rating: 4.5/5

  This is my first book review for this blog. My intention is to focus primarily on Mars books, and write everything (including the synopsis) so that it's as clear and accurate for my fellow SciFi book lovers.

    Casseia Majumdar gives us an account of the most critical time in her life and human history. She traces the course of events that lead her from being a model "govmanagement" student to a starry-eyed revolutionary to a seasoned politician, appropriately terrified for the future of her planet. 

    We see Mars and Martian society through a number of perspectives, as Casseia's understanding of Mars (and Earth) deepens and evolves tremendously throughout the book.

    She belongs to one of the more powerful family syndicates that have traditionally managed a compartmentalized society on Mars, and we discover the many individual and partisan opinions of what the political future of Mars should be. 

    Casseia's personal development runs in parallel with that of Martian society as a whole. They both must learn to take on the immense responsibility of change with maturity and courage, a challenge Mars has so far avoided by its commitment to self reliance and independence.

    Earth's answer to avoiding the danger is unity, and the clash between the societies' insoluble approaches are leading humanity to the edge. Earth simply can't trust Mars with independence anymore, and unity would effectively mean the end of Martian society.

    Meanwhile, there are those who are in awe of Mars's past and the scale of what we have left to understand about the universe. Casseia is attracted, and intimidated, by the power of Charles Franklin's vision of Mars and reality.

    However, she isn't prepared to surrender herself or her planet to change on the wrong terms. Casseia must find a way for humanity to adapt to its newly found powers without sacrificing its soul.

  Pros:

• Excellent interplanetary dichotomy. Earth versus Mars in terms of politics, society, and science is very distinct and fascinating.
• Intricate but accessible history, cultural backgrounds, and geography on Mars. The story of ancient life on Mars is not central to the story's conflict, but it features prominently in the lives of key individuals. The fact that it's not at the center of the conflict actually serves the credibility of the richly imagined ecosystem.
• Well defined characters, for the most part. With the exception of a certain group of individuals which are basically interchangeable, the key players are recognizable and likable.
• Meaningful purpose. The contrast of life on Earth versus Mars, and their conflict, illustrates a very real problem we actually have to confront. Human-changing technologies won't wait for us to be ready for them, and they won't arrive one at a time. We can't guarantee unity, and we can't guarantee trust between empowered independent groups in reach of each other. If we don't take on appropriate levels of responsibility for the extreme power that will be available to us in the coming decades and centuries - it could well mean the end for humanity.

  Cons:

• You can't just get by on the characters, this story was meant to be appreciated for its politics and setting.
• Unless you're into geography, you might get tired of all the (impressive) attention to detail concerning real world places on Mars. The descriptions of landscapes are fantastic, assuming you're enthralled by alien deserts.
• Be prepared to be pulled around quite a bit, physically and theoretically. The shift between very different locations could be jarring, as well as the mind-boggling ideas embraced late in the book.

  Final Word:

    If you're tired of swimming through mediocre books on Mars, here's an excellent find for you. The characters are endearing and do their work, but you'll be most satisfied if you've come to explore. You'll discover some impressive ideas, and a settled Mars you'll grow thoroughly at home with.

Get it from Amazon today, and enjoy!

TPA1 Demonstration

  As an addendum to the The Human Script, I thought I'd include a demonstration of what I created after the fashion of my favorite language/script site, Omniglot. Below is a sample of Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in three different forms.

From the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

  The first section is my script, TPA1 (Terran Phonetic Alphabet 1). I used the English-biased version since it's a lot easier to pick up and use as a native English speaker and typist. You can find the font file for it in The Human Script post.

  The second section is the short hand way I mapped phonetic English to a keyboard. ('E' is a long 'e', 'S' is a 'sh', 'T' is a hard 'th' - as in "them", 'D' is a soft 'th' as in "three", and so on. You can see the full mapping in the original post.)

  The final section is the Latin alphabet version of Article 1 of the Declaration of Human Rights.

  They'd all be read roughly the same way, this image is just meant to illustrate what the script looks like.

Rocks from Water

Photo Credit: Nasa

  On the left, a Martian rock formed in highly acidic water (photographed by Opportunity) and, on the right, one formed in very neutral water (from Curiousity). The one on the right, unlike the one on the left, belonged to an environment of relatively fresh water with chemical gradients that would have been conducive to the metabolism of microorganisms.

  Abundant warm wet environments persisted on Mars from (very) roughly 4.5 to 3.0 billion years ago (and water persisted on the surface even as the planet started to dry for another billion years or so). Within the same time span, Earth had abundant primitive life.

  Being smaller, and thereby cooling faster, Mars probably even had some hundreds of millions of years on Earth to harbor life first. I'd be fairly surprised if we found fossils of very complex life on Mars, but I'd be equally surprised if there weren't evidence of very primitive life hiding away in its most ancient rock formations.

  Honestly, I think there's a good chance Gale Crater itself might have a surprise in store for us.

  For more information, check out the source link:
  http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA16833

The Human Script

  I felt the need to expend some creative energy, and what better way to do that than in a way which promotes humanism? So I created a phonetic alphabet that people might find attractive with the least cultural bias that I could manage. It's structure is based on the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet).

  I was going for an interesting mix of logical construction with a multicultural appeal, so I've been calling it "Terran Phonetic Alphabet 1" or "TPA1".

  Check out the complete version, and the English-biased one, below as they are mapped to a "QWERTY" keyboard. Try them out yourself by installing the font files, which you can download from links further down the page.

Complete Terran Phonetic Alphabet 1

English-biased TPA1 (QWERTY based)

  I wanted to represent my interest in advancing the cause of humanity in general, and not leave anyone with the impression that my sole purpose is getting humans to Mars. It was a lot of fun to design, and I want to share it for the non-profit enjoyment of everyone.

  There are two free font files here:

Install Instructions: 

Download the .ttf font files you want, and place in your computer's Font folder. 

(On my computer, for instance, this is C:\Windows\Fonts)

• Complete TPA1 version
• English-based TPA1 version

  One file is the complete version which can be used to write any human language and is mapped to the keyboard based on the organization of how each sound is made (the chart directly below is the IPA chart demonstrating every human sound mapped in this manner).

  The other is English biased, mapped with the standard QWERTY system in mind. The idea being that in the likely event that you'd want to just pickup TPA1 with the typing system you're familiar with without having to understand all the logic behind how the IPA is organized, you can. That being said, if you are interested in how I designed this project, check out the explanation section below.

The International Phonetic Alphabet

Explanation:

  Using the IPA chart's structure, which is based on how each sound is made, I devised the foundation for each symbol by numbering the columns (which relate to the source location of a vocalization, like the front of the mouth versus the back of the throat) and using an equal number of strokes to inform the structure of each TPA1 numeral.

(Therefore, '1' would have one stroke and stand for bilabial, '2' would have two and stand for labiodental, etc. '0' serves as the base for the vowel symbols, and distinguishes itself not by number of strokes but by the way those strokes leave an empty space.).

  From there, I applied diacritics (smaller symbols which modify bigger symbols) to each row (which represent how the sound is actually constructed at its location). The diacritics placement around the symbols would determine to which row the symbol belongs (for instance, "plosive" diacritics go above the "1" symbol to form 'p's and 'b's).

  To distinguish between hard and soft sounds that belong to the same position on the chart (like 'p' and 'b' respectively), I used a dot diacritic to mark hard sounds, and a line to mark soft sounds. So, 'p' is a '1' with a dot over it, and 'b' is a '1' with a line over it.

-end of explanation-

  It's by no means a perfectly logical construction, that's because it's as much art project as a logic exercise. Primarily, it's meant to be fun and hopefully inspire some to consider how communication and art can unite humanity. I'm fairly pleased with the look, and I hope you are too.

__________________________________________________________

All fonts © Derek St.Jarre. All Rights Reserved. No font created by Derek St.Jarre may be altered, embedded or redistributed without an additional license fee. Email for details.

The free fonts are freeware for independent works and non-profit use ONLY. This excludes use by "mainstream" publishers, (Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, Oni, Image, SLG, Top Cow, Wildstorm, Crossgen, TokyoPop etc.) without a license fee. Use by a "mainstream" publisher (or its employee), and use for mainstream comics, or non-comic, for-profit endeavors incurs a license fee be paid to Derek St.Jarre. In Essence, this means:

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E-mail Derek St.Jarre for specific fonts' license fees.

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On Mature Earth

  When people advocate for human colonization of Mars, they try to help others understand it in terms of how it benefits Earth. Mostly, because that's the only way they feel they can make the case for going. The thought process, in turn, from listeners often involves perceiving the arguments made as explanations for how Mars might be considered "superior" to Earth by the would-be settlers.

  That's a fine position to take, assuming your intention is only to prioritize planets. It's important, as advocates for humanity, that we keep in mind that the priority is never about Mars itself. It's about explaining how colonization is best for humanity. Here's the truth that most proponents of colonization can't bring themselves to admit to Terraphiles: The fact is Mars will be, perhaps always, inferior to Earth in terms of providing for humanity materially.

  The problem with explaining the merit of Mars to a Terran is it's a little like trying to explain the merits of parenthood to the first and only human being, who must also reproduce asexually. There is a cost to the parent, and the fact is that the child will be at first (and perhaps always) inferior by comparison.

  We must decide whether reproduction is necessary, based on whether we value the future of life, but without any frame of reference for what multiple humanized planets would be like. That said, we should also consider the dividends paid by a unique relationship which, one might speculate, could outweigh the perceived cost to the parent.

  Mother Earth is really a misnomer. As we are, in effect, the living Earth, it would be more accurate to refer to the planet as "Mature Earth". It won't be a mother until it gives rise to a child beyond itself. A more honest argument therefore for Terran humanity to give rise to an Aresian humanity is the wonder of parenthood.

  Yes, infant Mars will be ugly and useless for a good while, but if Terrans give Mars a chance, they might be surprised how relieved they are for Mars's presence in Earth's golden years. If nothing else, as for all parents, we can bet our lives would never be the same.