Ender’s Game, one of the first science fiction novels I remember reading. It took me about a week to finish it, but by the time I was finished with the book I was hooked. This was my gateway book to higher levels of science fiction.
Originally published in 1977 as a short story, Ender’s Game was so loved that readers wanted more. In January of 1985, Orson Scott Card released the first novel in the whole series.
Originally published in 1977 as a short story, Ender’s Game was so loved that readers wanted more. In January of 1985, Orson Scott Card released the first novel in the whole series.
In November of this year, Summit Entertainment is releasing Ender’s Game the movie. My hopes are that it is very much like the book, and they don’t butcher it much like other book-to-film movies.
In the series, communicating with places way far away is instantaneous. Not like from one continent to another, although yes, that is also possible, but this is on a large scale. Places that are light-years apart. Using a machine called the Ansible, people are able to communicate instantaneously over vast distances. The Ansible was first created by Ursula K LeGuin in her 1966 book, Rocannon’s World.
The original term of the Ansible is described as:
In the series, communicating with places way far away is instantaneous. Not like from one continent to another, although yes, that is also possible, but this is on a large scale. Places that are light-years apart. Using a machine called the Ansible, people are able to communicate instantaneously over vast distances. The Ansible was first created by Ursula K LeGuin in her 1966 book, Rocannon’s World.
The original term of the Ansible is described as:
“A method of communication across galactic distances that circumvents Einstein’s theory of relativity is a useful plot device, avoiding part of the suspension of disbelief that is required with the faster-than-light transport of physical objects.” – Michael Quinion
In the Ender’s Game series, the Ansible is a nickname for the Philotic Parallax Instantaneous Communicator. It is described as a process that Philotes to vibrate in space, which causes other counterpart philotes to also vibrate. Through this, they are able to make them vibrate in a specific way so that they are able to send messages instantaneously. (1)
Although at the time that the story was written, and up until very recently, being able to communicate instantaneously was unheard of except in science fiction. According to Orson Scott Card, the author of Ender’s Game, there was no theory or possibility of being able to communicate instantaneously at the time when Ender’s Game was written or any of the other books in the original series.
In the last 5 years though, research was done to try and create a way to communicate instantaneously or at least faster than light. One project that has been done in attempt to find a way to communicate instantaneously was done by A.Y. Shiekh using light particles. Using a single photon emitted by a light source, the photon is sent through all sorts of shifters and mirrors. If these shifters and mirrors are set up in a specific way the photon detector at the end of the course wouldn’t detect any photons. It seems I need to brush up on my particle physics to understand how this works. But all in all the experiment deemed this instance of instantaneous communication unfeasible.
Over the last 50 years, communication has been getting easier to do. One of the things that makes communication super-fast, but not quite instantaneous, is the internet. To read more about how the internet works, here is a great link that will explain how it works in great detail. But when one is connected to the internet, much like you probably are now, packets of information are sent to your computer electronically. Originally, this had to be done with wires and cables, but nowadays, people are able to get information from what seems straight out of the air using WI-FI. Wi-Fi uses radio waves to be able to connect to a router, which using cables, is able to connect back to the internet. (2)
The communication in Ender’s Game and Ursula K LeGuin’s book, Rocannon’s World, revolutionized the way people thought about how to communicate written out messages.
Although at the time that the story was written, and up until very recently, being able to communicate instantaneously was unheard of except in science fiction. According to Orson Scott Card, the author of Ender’s Game, there was no theory or possibility of being able to communicate instantaneously at the time when Ender’s Game was written or any of the other books in the original series.
In the last 5 years though, research was done to try and create a way to communicate instantaneously or at least faster than light. One project that has been done in attempt to find a way to communicate instantaneously was done by A.Y. Shiekh using light particles. Using a single photon emitted by a light source, the photon is sent through all sorts of shifters and mirrors. If these shifters and mirrors are set up in a specific way the photon detector at the end of the course wouldn’t detect any photons. It seems I need to brush up on my particle physics to understand how this works. But all in all the experiment deemed this instance of instantaneous communication unfeasible.
Over the last 50 years, communication has been getting easier to do. One of the things that makes communication super-fast, but not quite instantaneous, is the internet. To read more about how the internet works, here is a great link that will explain how it works in great detail. But when one is connected to the internet, much like you probably are now, packets of information are sent to your computer electronically. Originally, this had to be done with wires and cables, but nowadays, people are able to get information from what seems straight out of the air using WI-FI. Wi-Fi uses radio waves to be able to connect to a router, which using cables, is able to connect back to the internet. (2)
The communication in Ender’s Game and Ursula K LeGuin’s book, Rocannon’s World, revolutionized the way people thought about how to communicate written out messages.
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