Full disclosure/disclaimer. The Nightfly album has been played to me since before I was able to make memories. It was grafted into my mind during the period in which I began to experience conscious thought, which may have resulted in a mild bias and the smoking of Chesterfield cigarettes.

Despite my bias and the opinions of a bunch of people who are wrong on the internet, I maintain that this song stands alone as the best sci-fi song ever, standing above others in several respects. First let’s take the lyrics, this song features the following:

• An intercontinental vacuum evacuated tube train.
• A Goddamn Space Casino. Or orbital weapons platforms, take your pick. I like the casino.
• Solar powered cities and geoengineerd weather.
• The liberation of mankind through automation & information technology. A singularity even, if you’re into that kind of thing.

Not to mention “more leisure time for artists everywhere” and Spandex jackets for everyone. That’s a rich world to build in just six minutes.

The Wikipedia entry for I.G.Y. states that “The song is sung from an optimistic viewpoint during the IGY”. (International Geophysical Year, a period of international cooperation in Earth Sciences, during which Russia launched Sputnik and the Space Race kicked off.) On the surface the lyrics indeed shine with the graphite and glitter of the golden age, but the fact that this song was written in the early 80′s betrays a very different sentiment.

As a childhood member of the Science Fiction Book Club, Mr. Fagen cites several sci-fi authors as having influenced his lyrics, and admits to stealing most from the dark humor and satire of Alfred Bester (also William Gibson’s favorite). Instead of Space Age optimism this song oozes with cynicism for futures that never came to pass. The very same cultural zeitgeist that fueled what would then be the next major movement in sci-fi literature, ‘the cyberpunkers’ as Fagen calls them.

This record stands lyrically in perfect balance between the two major movements in (american) 20th century science fiction, using the imagery of the golden age in sarcasm to express the sentiment that fueled cyberpunk. A feeling my generation has grown up with, and which now haunts us through the new art brought forth from our relationship with the machines.

Science fiction is a native 20th century art form that came of age at the same time as jazz. Like jazz, science fiction is very street-level, very American, rather sleazy, rather popular, with a long and somewhat recondite tradition. It’s also impossible to avoid, no matter how hard you try. - Bruce Sterling

Then the music itself. Tastes differ obviously, and we can probably agree that chart positions don’t mean much in determining how good a song really is, but there is something to be said for distribution and staying power. This song is ubiquitous at a level probably only paralleled by other Steely Dan records. It gets airtime on every inoffensive easy cool smooth mellow jazz rock station and supermarket the world over. Whether you like it or not, you know this song.

Music can, to some extent, be judged on its technical merits, the quality of its sound. In this case I.G.Y. stands entirely in a class of its own. This track is so impeccably produced that professional audio engineers use it to calibrate their systems. It’s been called ‘the Freebird of Pro Audio‘ but it’s more like the International Prototype Meter. It’s a benchmark. Hifi geeks know this song so well that when listening to it they no longer necessarily hear the song, they hear the quality of the system it’s playing on. No other record even comes close to being used as widespread in this way.

In conclusion, as Science Fiction is a literary genre we return to the lyrics. Note that nothing in the text is entirely unfeasible, or even improbable. There are no aliens, no transporters, no FTL drives, no dragons, no other dimensions and no magic wand bullshit. Politics aside humans could build everything in this song in a matter of decades. It’s an aspirational world Fagen has built, and it’s an achievable one. That is straight up hard science fiction. I don’t care how many synths you built or how spaced out your video is, this is the best science fiction song. I rest my case, thank you for your time.

I.G.Y.

Standing tough under stars and stripes
We can tell
This dream’s in sight
You’ve got to admit it
At this point in time that it’s clear
The future looks bright

On that train all graphite and glitter
Undersea by rail
Ninety minutes from New York to Paris
Well by seventy-six we’ll be A.O.K.

What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free

Get your ticket to that wheel in space
While there’s time
The fix is in
You’ll be a witness to that game of chance in the sky
You know we’ve got to win

Here at home we’ll play in the city
Powered by the sun
Perfect weather for a streamlined world
There’ll be spandex jackets one for everyone

What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free

On that train all graphite and glitter
Undersea by rail
Ninety minutes from New York to Paris
(More leisure time for artists everywhere)

A just machine to make big decisions
Programmed by fellows with compassion and vision
We’ll be clean when their work is done
We’ll be eternally free yes and eternally young

What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free

Get it on iTunes or Amazon.

Bonus reading: The Cortico-Thalamic Pause: Growing Up Sci-Fi
An essay by Donald Fagen himself on his Science Fiction influences.

I know I’ve felt it, for years that was one of my favorite t-shirts. I bought mine when it first came out a decade ago and wore it thin. I was still wearing it out just a few years back, but now hardly at all anymore. Why? I’m still kinda pissed at the world for its inequitable distribution of the future, but I realized my idea of what the future should entail has evolved considerably over time and all of this shirts questions have been answered. So here we go, let me ruin that for you:

Where is my jetpack?

New Zealand. Ok, so that’s technically not a jetpack. How about the Jetlev? C’mon it only costs like 6 grand and there’s even groupons for it. Not good enough? Well I guess you could go ahead and kill yourself trying to pilot the fastest jetpack on the planet. The point is, the jetpack has been around already. Hell they’ve been flying the things around for the entire history of the Superbowl, jetpacks these days are about as futuristic as computers. They just turned out to be a hell of a lot less portable, practical or useful.

Where is my robotic companion?

I don’t know, do you mean Asimo, Roomba, Pleo, Cogniron, Huggable, Robosapien, Wrex, Roxxxy, Karotz, Tri-Bot, Big dog, Little dog, Paro, Travis, Kota, Sphero, Aibo, Nao, Mahru, Wakamaru, Joebot, Cocorobo, Smartpet, or (Gods help you) Furby?

I can’t keep track of your stuff for you, it’s probably been left where you interacted with it last. What, you didn’t let it out unsupervised did you? You know those things aren’t 3 laws compliant yet…

Where is my dinner in pill form?

Look, not even Ray Kurzweil can live on pills alone and he sure as hell is doing his damndest. We’ve known this for a long time too, as this excellent article on meal pills by Lord Prime Paleofuturist Matt Novak points out, you can get your minerals & vitamins in pill form, but as long as you’re just a puny human you can only get your calories from eating food, so that Jetsons shit won’t fly.

Where is my hydrogen fueled automobile?

Now that’s a good question. It’s not like we don’t have the technology right? We’re told by industry that hydrogen vehicles should become cost effective for mass production around 2015, IF there’s a fuel infrastructure to support them. Seeing as the backbone of that infrastructure, the ‘Hydrogen Highway‘ was promised for 2010, odds are we’re not going to hit that marker. For the time being you’ll have to settle for electric or hybrid.

Where is my nuclear powered levitating house?

Japan. Or at least it will be if you can convince the Japanese that ditching all their nuclear power generation is an incredibly stupid idea and they should be investing in developing more and safer capacity instead. Not interested in living as a Gaijin? I’m sure the tech will make it to your own earthquake prone region soon enough. If your municipal net runs on nuclear, you’re in luck!

Where is my cure for this disease?

Sorry, but it’s terminal. The good news is you can manage the symptoms and still live a long, fulfilled & maybe only mildly disgruntled life. Can’t really complain much about not having a flying car when your pocket contains a magic light square that can access the entire sum of human knowledge. We are living in the future, it’s just not your dead Grandfathers’ future.

If you’ve been annoyed recently by the fact that cool kids are running around dressed like your grandmother you may want to look into the concept of Atemporality. If you’ve been moaning that nothing new happens in art anymore perhaps The New Aesthetic is something you should be looking into.

With more people running into this meme all the time it’s going to be around for a while yet. But for your own sanity, consider letting dead futures lie. Or if you think sanity is overrated, you might want to start asking yourself some new questions…

Where is my global energy-backed p2p currency?
Where is my space habitat vacation & cheap sub-orbital flights?
Where is my post-agile intelligent democracy?
Where is my equitable distribution of the future?

Simplicity: Don’t use big words when you can use small ones.
Clutter: Cut out anything you don’t need. Simplify.
Style: Keep it personal by writing from first person and cutting out the I’s afterwards. Be honest.
The Audience: Forget them. Write to please yourself.
Words: Avoid cliches. When in doubt, look it up. Consider the sound of words when spoken.
Usage: The laws of usage are relative. If a word or phrase fills a real need, go ahead and use it.

These are of course just principles not rules, and this is as much a reminder to myself as help to anyone else. If anyone has recommendations for other books on the construction of non-fiction prose, journalism or criticism go ahead and bother me on email or @thesjef. Cheers.

In review of last years projects; baseball, bash scripting, breakfast & alcoholism:

• I played a season of baseball, our team sucked the least out of those that belonged in our division & we ended the season 3rd of 8. Result!
• I scripted nothing. The linux box in the kitchen was mostly used to stream Al-Jazeera while cooking.
• Eating proper breakfasts didn’t happen.
• Alcoholism never really took off, though I did develop a taste for Scotch.

This year’s major personal project (besides a return to shitty writing) is an experiment in post-national tech-nomadism. While remaining based in Amsterdam with our studio I intend to go without really being locked down into one place of residence and spend a couple of months here and there in other cities. I might also take up swimming. Bring it 2012.

The discerning WordPress type nerd will have noticed this theme is based on Neutica+, nothing too fancy but a good upgrade from Neutica which I was running previously. I also have one custom plugin that tweaks a few styles & adds some new behaviour, the rest is all stock WordPress & various plugins because really, who needs the extra fucking work.

Now check back next year, and there might be some actual new new content. Later!

In the interests of full disclosure I should say this isn’t the complete list. I’ve withheld the stuff from the last couple of weeks, and culled about 30% for being just too stupid, angry, incomplete or incoherent. Enjoy, I guess.

Pissing away another hour of life because I can’t spell otpion correctly… #debuggingsucks

If growing a beard has taught me anything, it’s how easy it is to lose combs.

My new system for rating mixes in iTunes? 1 star per gunfingers. Yes, I need to leave the computer more often. #thesunitburns

Now that imminent global economic collapse trader man is not a hoax again do we resume the panic or is that just funny old news now?

Reform copyright. Fix patents. Protect privacy. Institutionalize social innovation. Re-tool defunct industries. #talklikeapirateday

Bester’s ‘Stars my Destination’, @bruces’s ‘Schismatrix’ & @shineanthology’s uh, Shine anthology. Pretty good spread I thought.

’8 hours work’ doesn’t mean it will be done in a day. This is a design studio, not a sausage factory.

Read article -> Gain hope for future of humanity, problems are there to be solved! Read comments -> Lose all hope, want to kill everybody.

I think about half the tweets I type out get thrown away without posting.

That pink cowboy hat makes me think you’re a shitty, boring person.

I swear some designers think the web is rendered by rainbow pixies shaking unicorn bones at the screen.

Who uses the ignorant asshole commenter or juvenile troll stereotypes when designing their use case personas? Why not?

Hipster tourists out wandering around looking like lost time-travelers, kicked out of 3 last centuries by fashion police. #atemporality

“You’ve got the votes & the money, you’ve got no conscience. Get out of the way. Over the long term you attitude is fatal.” -@bruces

I wonder how much of that black teflon shit I’ve ingested out of frying pans over the years. Must be like a woks worth.

There you go. I can’t believe you actually read that. Check back in like another 4 months when I have another super exciting blog post to share!

In other news, Google+ now exists and for the first time in the history of the social networkings I have a publicly visible profile. You can find me at http://gplus.to/sjef. I’ll be more active on there, so bar robo-posts until I embark on some noteworthy project that requires documentation this place will probably be pretty dormant for the time being.

1. He decided to persevere in his search to find a cream to soothe his itchy bites.

Epic.

2. The general heard a rumor that his adversary was planning an attack.

We’ll just assume appropriate action was taken.

3. The mischievous boy ran away in the confusion of the fire.

This must have been around the time friends of mine had built pipe-bombs using legs we broke off school chairs & filled with powder from shotgun shells someone stole off their Dad. We lit those off in a forest, over cans of petrol we siphoned out of his dirtbike. Amazingly that went well. Good times!

4. He was rather impatient but he treated everyone with equality.

No idea who I had in mind.

5. The guardians domocile was rather messy.

Again, no idea.

Spelling & Handwriting is schoolwork I did 20 years ago to the day. Great stories are told if you can handle the boring bits.

1. Lost and Never Found II is a book full of stories about people who have disappeared.

That’s nice.

2. He was always very methodical when packing his portmanteau.

And I never used that word to mean suitcase ever again.

3. His popularity took a dive when he lost the miscellaneous objects needed for the project.

Haha, the project manager is always such a popular guy.

4. After too long he had accredited a negative additude.

Bastard, I still don’t have any credentials for that. Also, I don’t think I knew what accredited meant 20 years ago. Neither did my teacher, apparently.

5. He resolved to find the problem with his subterranean 100% oxygen free sea-saucer.

I wish I remembered why I might have thought 100% oxygen free was the way to go.

6. Roger Ramjet caught the dare-devil racketeer.

I forgot about Roger Ramjet, that’s some atomic shit.

B+ Sjef, you could have done better.

Spelling & Handwriting is schoolwork I did 20 years ago to the day. It’s super exciting and you love it.