Monthly Archives: September 2020

writer's life

Why I Haven’t Left Facebook (Yet)

For those of you who don’t know me, I’m a recently-retired English teacher and a writer with an aggressive plan (I intend to publish 10 books between now and Christmas 2022).

Like many of you, I’m not thrilled with Facebook. They’ve taken too much information, too much control, and not shown enough restraint. I’ve read about the ways that Facebook radicalizes QAnon followers, supports racist groups and generally does not act like a good local or global citizen.

More and more, I’ve come to the conclusion that the world would be a better place without Facebook.

And yet, I’m still there.

Why?

Well, that ‘author’ part is a big reason why. There are too many resources that exist on Facebook alone. Facebook has gained a monopoly on certain communities, and I need three of them for my career.

There’s a group that’s specifically about how to market your writing when you’re an author. The group is run by authors for authors and is a great example of the philosophy that “A rising tide lifts all boats.” They offer so many free resources and lessons, help anyone who has questions … it’s an amazing resource for a new author and one that I’d want to contribute to once I’ve got some successes to draw lessons from.

There’s another group that’s specifically for my genre of writers. All it does is track which short story markets are seeking submissions. Now a lot of this information can be found elsewhere, and I know a few places that it appears in, but this group has the value add of writers who have worked with those markets before telling of their experiences. Again, a great tool for an ‘emerging writer.’

There’s another Facebook group for my genre of writers that’s solely focussed on craft. This is an essential tool for a successful writer. Again, there are other places, Codex may be one of them, or Scribophile or the Online Writers Workshop (the latter at least is a paid membership group).

The combination of these three resources, not available in any one other place, but probably replaceable across a broad spectrum of online communities, is one of the main reasons I’m still on Facebook.

The other is advertising. If you’re a writer, there are (too) many options to attract new readers. The two most impactful options are advertising on Amazon and Facebook. You can’t advertise on the platform if you’re not a member.

You’ll notice what’s absent from this list of reasons to stay – the personal social reasons. They’re fading rapidly.

Yes, I have many social contacts on Facebook it’d be hard to keep in touch with through other means. First, I’m an ex-pat, living on a different continent from my family. Second, I’ve taught students from well over a hundred countries, and met people from many more. Facebook is the standard way to keep in touch with these people.

But it’s the economic potential, the stranglehold that Facebook has on my career, that keeps me there.

As much as I may try to limit my interactions with the Facebook group of companies, they’re planning ways to force me to play by their rules.

Have you noticed anything odd about the new redesign? There are a bunch of functions that have become less than what they were, unless, and only unless, you are using either the iOS or Android app.

So on my desktop, I can no longer control what shows up in my favourites list (now called shortcuts). I can if I’ll download the phone app and give Facebook access to my phone. I won’t do that. I can no longer see which of the few visible favourites have had recent activity, something especially important for following story submission markets. Those counts have disappeared. Facebook controls that.

I won’t allow the Facebook app on my phone, nor Messenger. I’ve getting wary of the Instagram app and just waiting to hear the bad news about the WhatsApp app. On my desktop, I can still maintain some control, by installing the FBPurity and Fences plug-ins. This somewhat hinders Facebook’s ability to gather data on me, or push their unrequested content onto my screens.

But that doesn’t feel like I’ve done enough.

As part of my developing marketing strategy, I’ve purchased a few domains. I’ve seriously considered adding the Open Source Social Network plug-in as a sub-domain and starting my own little echo chamber, free of Mark Zuckerberg’s minions. But everyone I’d invite to use it would also want others there; others I don’t know or don’t like. Pretty soon I’d have to bear the costs of running a full social network, or start losing the attention of my desired members as they sought interactions with people I hadn’t allowed in.

So I’m here for now, biding my time, watching for alternatives, building routines that don’t include Facebook.

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Stephen G Parks is the author of A Godless Man, due in December 2020, and the soon-to-be released short story collection, The Maiden Voyage of Novyy Mir. He lives in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with his wife, his cat, and too many fish to name. You can learn more about his books at Skrap Books.

Astronomy, Space

Is Fossil Fuel the Great Filter?

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There’s this idea, called the great filter, that is used to explain why we haven’t found alien civilizations yet. The basics are this: The universe has existed long enough for any early-developing intelligent species to have populated the galaxy by now, even with slower than light technology.

Basically, we could almost do it with our level of tech, and can see the engineering challenges that would be needed to make it practical. It’d take thousands of years, but that’s nothing on the galactic scale.

It’s doable.

There’s also this idea that we’re kind of late to develop in the galactic time scale, so someone should have beaten us to it. The fact that no one apparently has suggests that there’s a ‘great filter’ an insurmountable problem that any growing civilization must face and can not overcome. (This video gives a good overview)

There have been many candidates put forward as to what that great filter could be – the technology to build nuclear weapons, pandemics gaining access to whole populations thanks to transportation efficiencies, some kind of genetic lethargy, even the Internet’s ability to destroy logical/scientific progress.

Here’s a candidate that I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. Maybe the great filter is the absence or abuse of fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are a limited resource. Technically they are renewable, but not on our time scale. To have fossil fuels, a planet has to be of a certain age, sustained multiple periods of life and had the geological process necessary to develop them.

Perhaps early Civilizations were too early and there weren’t fossil fuels available for them to use to industrialize. Perhaps, like us, these Civilizations squandered their fossil fuels on immediate needs instead of thinking long term for the greater good of their species.

What role does fossil fuel have on the development of an interplanetary civilization? Our industrial revolution was driven by the use and adaptation of fossil fuels to industrial production. Coal, the first fossil fuel utilized on a massive scale, launched the revolution, with oil and gas coming along soon after to make even better energy sources for the production of fidget spinners and other much needed plastics (sarcasm kids). Prior to that, transport had to be done in slower and smaller ships, reducing the capability of factories to produce goods, thus slowing the growth of economies, and reducing economies of scale. Things were more expensive and innovation was slower.

Oil, along with natural gas and the various industries that can produce oil-based products added not only greater speed to the whole economic cycle, but allowed for greater possibilities -air transport became feasible, space travel became achievable. But what happens when the fossil fuels are gone?

That’s my idea of the great filter. Civilizations as a whole discover and use up their fossil fuels before they achieve interstellar travel. Not that fossil fuels would take them there, but that fossil fuels are a step on the path, a step that many civilizations either don’t have access to or fall off of.

To use an analogy that might be too on point, think of civilization as a rocket ship. Before fossil fuels, we could build the ship, but only dream of launching it. With fossil fuels applied, our economy can now lift off and make orbit. But to get to greater heights, we need something better than fossil fuels. We may not discover that answer before fossil fuels run out, plummeting us back to the ground and breaking us for a long time if not permanently.