Date : Saturday 29 January 2000 Time : 2pm Place : ALSO Foundation office,            1/35 Cato Street, Prahran, Melbourne
	Come and have your say on the future of Spaced Out. Some members of the group have prepared a draft Constitution which will be discussed and we will also be looking at what sort of things we want to do during 2000. Bring your ideas and enthusiasm to this meeting which will be followed by coffee and a chance to get to know other members of the group better.

SHORT STORY REVIEW : TRANSIT .
Australian SF author Stephen Dedman is apparently renown for the diversity within his short stories. His latest collection, "The Lady of Situations" is no exception. The story in this collection that is worthy of note for Spaced Out readers is called, "Transit". It was first published in Asimov's Science Fiction, March 1998, demonstrating the quality of the material. In this story, the future Earth features children from different planets and religions who come to understand the differences (and similarities) between hermaphrodites and monosexes. He weaves together  classic religions and moralities with others not yet invented.  Even his futuristic vocabulary seems real.	The main strength of this story is that it is seen through the eyes of children. Dedman's book, "The Lady of Situations" contains some other stories that are probably best suited for adults. But with stories that range from amusing and infuriatingly logical to outright challenging, readers will certainly never be bored by their diversity! The book is currently available and should presumably be accessible through good bookshops. Further enquiries about its availability could probably be addressed to the publishers: Ticonderoga Publications, PO Box 407, Nedlands, Western Australia 6909, or try them on the Internet at http://www.ozemail.com.au/-nanite/russell
Virtual Free-Range (Miriam English)

Beneath this flashing caption, cyber journalists and commentators were busy debating the boy's fate. Given that the apparent incubation period was five and one-half years, it seemed inconceivable to many that an eleven year-old boy could have contracted it. The mode of transmission was presumably along innocent lines, such as the swallowing of contaminated water at the local swimming pool or through sharing of a towel that contained another person's sweat.

Still the debate raged. The facts did not change. The media struggled to understand how this cyberplague had infected an uninjected child, who had suddenly collapsed and died in a public playground.

Other news channels were also full of media speculation, hype and hysteria concerning the developing social crisis. The boy was only one of a number of such cases, and it was clear that the contagion had passed from the original at-risk group into the general population.

Five years after reforming the world, the nanotchnology was becoming a world crisis. A world saviour was becoming a world pestilence. The cybernet buzzed with speculation and sermons, demands and denials. People were now hysterical,..

Peter Galleystone turned off his cybernews and opened his eyes. The whole issue was worrying him and putting him off even using his own neurocomps.

It had been a new revolution to rival the invention of the wheel or the printing press. It had even been hailed as the biggest watershed in humanity's social evolution since we had climbed out of the trees and learnt to walk upright.

Just one injection of the miracle nanotechnology had enabled the average person to officially become a true world citizen. The self-replenishing nanocomputers were grown inside water and would dissolve harmlessly into the human bloodstream. There, they would receive nutrient and multiply indefinitely. There, as a water-based techno-biological addition within the body, the nanocomputers would enable the human carrier to link into the world electronic superhighway with just a carefree thought.

Billions of people around the world had become members of the World Quilt, conducting business, communications and entertainment from the privacy of their own minds.

Citizens of richer countries enjoyed the ability to virtually travel anywhere in the world instantaneously, conducting commerce and creative espionage at whim. Censorship and secrets became virtually impossible, Fortunes and empires became a commodity for those with the most agile, creative and manipulative minds.

Others in the poorer nations welcomed the cheap, new technology as one small step in medicine but a giant leap for human rights and equality. Dictators and corrupt governments fell as their citizens could instantly transmit human rights violations around the world.

After receiving an injection of this nanotech, a person became a member of a world-wide family that shared thoughts, sights and senses. They were never alone again; they had become part of the first-ever literal, human community. They became joined with this, their new family more intimately and more indelibly than they were with any of their genetic relations. Just as this new species of computer changed humans' views of themselves and their place in the world, it also changed their language concepts. The term "blood relatives" took on a new meaning...

...but then, so did the term "computer virus".

At first, it appeared to be a random and tragic fluke as people began to die of inexplicable cerebral haemorrhage. Their cases had been investigated and dismissed as random medical occurrences.

But the cases had multiplied, and it slowly became apparent that a pattern was emerging. Medical investigator Peter Galleystone had used his own nanocomps to collect, collate and calculate the answer - and then he realised that these very same instruments would, quite possibly, ultimately cause his own demise.

The miracle micro-computers were simultaneously the saviour and villain of humanity. For just as they had joined together, they were also tearing asunder.

Galleystone had conclusively identified the new technology as the cause of an ever-increasing medical problem. On one hand, it increased the intellectual and emotional capacities of the human brain. Humans were wiser, more knowledgeable and more intelligent than ever before; they had taken a step forward in evolution; they were a community that had abolished loneliness, bigotry and ignorance. The Universe seemed to be their destiny. For five years, people everywhere had rushed to receive the injection. Only the fanatical environmentalists, the naturists and some religious fundamentalists had refrained.

And yet, the same nanocomputers that circulated and multiplied in the bloodstream of most of humanity also placed too great a strain upon the cellular tissue of the individual human brain. For years, everything seemed fine, senses were heightened, intellect blossomed. Then, one morning, as each carrier awoke and their conscious mind automatically clicked into top gear, something happened. As the nanocomps in their blood activated for approximately the two thousandth time, the brain's synapses shut down, overloaded and melted. Organic brain tissue turned to mush.

That meant that the vast majority of the human race had injected itself with a terminal condition that had an incubation period of about five and one-half years -- give or take two years, according to random statistical variation.

This crisis had been known for some months, but the boy who had collapsed and died from braincrash was one of the many people who had NOT received the injection. He had NOT belonged to the world-wide electronic community, and yet he had still died from its built-in terminal computer virus. The computer virus was evidently much more contagious than had been previously believed. Perhaps it had somehow entered the world's own water cycle.

Accordingly, it seemed that the human race faced virtual extinction within a short timeframe. The time bombs were ticking in the brains and precious bodily fluids of most of humanity.

Galleystone had to do something. His team of medical experts had been working against the clock to investigate the problem: if they could determine what happened on the two thousandth bootup, perhaps they could prevent the problem or delay it indefinitely.

Injections into melons, mice and monkeys were all to no avail -- they just created super-intelligent animals with greatly reduced lifespans. Nothing seemed to work!

Galleystone became increasingly frustrated as his team investigated and eliminated increasing numbers of alternatives.

As he worked late into the night in his laboratory, he sat back in his chair and sipped a cup of coffee...and then he stared at the ripples in the liquid within the cup as he realised that he had a possible answer.

It was an answer that was as obvious as life itself...but as radical as asking the prehistoric primates to climb out of the trees. Of course. it would be an answer that no-one liked. But then, they really had no choice.

Aeons passed and life on Earth evolved and changed. Continents shifted and ice ages waxed and waned. The Universe went on as before.

One day, when an older and more bloated Sun shone dimly in the skies of an older Earth, a space ship landed. Aliens emerged and planted a flag from a distant planet, claiming Earth on behalf of their people. Then, they began to explore, standing on a shore line and admiring the rays of sunlight which sparkled on the ancient sea.

Then, using a million voices at once, the Earth spoke clearly and unambiguously to their minds: "Who are you...?"

"I åm ShængååÐ, from the planet Tri§§iulåå." called the alien leader aloud stepping forward, "Who åre you? Where åre you?...How is it thåt you communicåte directly into our minds?"

"Once, in aeons past, we called ourselves humans. We were then the myriad, but now we are one. We bonded together to survive a disaster...and found meaning and strength in the joining. We now coexist and communicate together..,"

"Where åre you?" called the alien, "Show yourselves!"

"We are here..." replied the voices. And the sea lapped at his feet.