Difference between revisions of "Wyrick Balnor"
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''"Maybe I'm just wise, but I was always instilled with the notion that absolute certainty was a big thing. I was a scientist, for me absolute certainty was a big ask. So I stayed out of those arguments. Still, though, the radio observations were intriguing. There was no proof--nothing 'absolute'-- but the general consensus was that there was a 'high probability' of life beyond our solar system. | ''"Maybe I'm just wise, but I was always instilled with the notion that absolute certainty was a big thing. I was a scientist, for me absolute certainty was a big ask. So I stayed out of those arguments. Still, though, the radio observations were intriguing. There was no proof--nothing 'absolute'-- but the general consensus was that there was a 'high probability' of life beyond our solar system. | ||
| − | ''"In the months leading up to it, we started getting and increase in patterned radio signals. A friend of mine was a... well, you don't have those, here, but we used to call a person who studied stars through telescopes an 'astronomer'. He wasn't exactly on the forefront of anything, but he had connections to that region of the scientific community and got to see the radio telescope data first-hand. We all poured over it, but it was weird. The signals indicated that there were a lot of transmissions, they were very powerful, and they were very close--we were picking things up that had to be artificial, but looked like they may have been less than 100 light years away. But while the emissions were definitely artificial, we still couldn't find a pattern to them, nothing recognizable, nothing identifiable... | + | ''"In the months leading up to it, we started getting and increase in patterned radio signals. A friend of mine was a... well, you don't have those, here, but we used to call a person who studied stars through telescopes an 'astronomer'. He wasn't exactly on the forefront of anything, but he had connections to that region of the scientific community and got to see the radio telescope data first-hand. We all poured over it, but it was weird. The signals indicated that there were a lot of transmissions, they were very powerful, and they were very close--we were picking things up that had to be artificial, but looked like they may have been less than 100 light years away. But while the emissions were definitely artificial, we still couldn't find a pattern to them, nothing recognizable, nothing identifiable... the only thing any of us ever came up with--and keep in mind none of us were exactly experts even though we were all scientists--but, to me, the emissions looked like the radio waves that were generated |
Revision as of 15:56, 12 August 2015
Wyrick was Chief Technology Officer of Industrial Face Annihilators, LLC, during the mid Sixth Age, and received several accolades during his life for his substantial contributions towards increasing the company's production while decreasing failure rates. While no one factor ever wins a war, his contributions and leadership effectively doubled IFA's output and ensured there was never a shortage of high-level weapons systems.
While he spent most of his life as an uninteresting business executive, Wyrick became a minor media sensation in A.Y. 6500 when his unique history came to light. During a televised interview when he was being recognized for his contributions to the war effort, a newscaster asked him about his childhood, and the story he proceeded to tell delighted audiences. The media ferver was short-lived, but he continued to be held up as a shining example for the Foundation.
Life Story
What follows is a transcript of Wyrick's interview:
Interviewer: "So, I imagine coming this far in life must leave you a bit retrospective at times; did you ever think you'd be handling development and manufacturing for a major corporation?"
Wyrick: "No, no I can't say that I did. I didn't even ever really expect to fly in space, let alone work there. It's been... a journey, let's call it."
Interviewer: "What was it like where you grew up?"
Wyrick:(laughs) "What is it like anywhere?"
Interviewer: "Were you born on Langara?"
Wyrick: "That... would be a 'no'." (laughs)
Interviewer: "Well that sounds just cryptic enough to be interesting, why don't you tell us about it?"
Wyrick: "Sure, sure. Let's see... I guess I won't bother with any place names, you won't have heard of them anyway. Yes, I was born outside the Foundation, not exactly way outside but we didn't have off-world travel, communication, or... well, we didn't even know intelligent life existed elsewhere.
"The debate was quite hot. The mainstream scientific community believed human life evolved on my homeworld, but our archeologists couldn't seem to find any solid evidence of humans more than around five thousand years old. Then there were supposed radio signals, extra-terrestrial artifacts... Nobody could find proof of anything, but that didn't stop many--even close friends of mine--from having strong opinions.
"Maybe I'm just wise, but I was always instilled with the notion that absolute certainty was a big thing. I was a scientist, for me absolute certainty was a big ask. So I stayed out of those arguments. Still, though, the radio observations were intriguing. There was no proof--nothing 'absolute'-- but the general consensus was that there was a 'high probability' of life beyond our solar system.
"In the months leading up to it, we started getting and increase in patterned radio signals. A friend of mine was a... well, you don't have those, here, but we used to call a person who studied stars through telescopes an 'astronomer'. He wasn't exactly on the forefront of anything, but he had connections to that region of the scientific community and got to see the radio telescope data first-hand. We all poured over it, but it was weird. The signals indicated that there were a lot of transmissions, they were very powerful, and they were very close--we were picking things up that had to be artificial, but looked like they may have been less than 100 light years away. But while the emissions were definitely artificial, we still couldn't find a pattern to them, nothing recognizable, nothing identifiable... the only thing any of us ever came up with--and keep in mind none of us were exactly experts even though we were all scientists--but, to me, the emissions looked like the radio waves that were generated
