astronomy

Russell Blackford

Russell Blackford is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Russell Blackford rather than just read about it. In short: Russell Blackford (born 1954) is an Australian writer, philosopher, and literary critic. Early life and education Blackford was born in Sydney, and grew up in the city of Lake Macquarie, near Newcastle, New South Wales.

Key takeaways

Russell Blackford belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Russell Blackford to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Russell Blackford from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Russell Blackford (born 1954) is an Australian writer, philosopher, and literary critic.

Early life and education Blackford was born in Sydney, and grew up in the city of Lake Macquarie, near Newcastle, New South Wales. After graduating with first-class honours degrees in both arts and law from the University of Newcastle and University of Melbourne respectively, Blackford was awarded a PhD in English literature, also from Newcastle, on the return to myth in modern fictional narrative (as postulated by Northrop Frye). He completed a Master of Bioethics at Monash University and was awarded a second PhD, in philosophy (also from Monash), for a thesis entitled "The philosophy of human enhancement". His supervisor was Justin Oakley.

Career As a fiction writer, Blackford specialises in science fiction, fantasy and horror fiction. His work includes four novels published by iBooks, three of them forming an original trilogy (The New John Connor Chronicles) set in the world of the Terminator movies. His non-fiction work frequently deals with issues involving science and society, particularly philosophical bioethics, cyberculture, transhumanism, and the history and current state of the science fiction genre. His work has appeared in many magazines, journals, and reference books, and has been featured most prominently in Quadrant, a monthly journal of literature and policy. It draws on his academic qualifications in a number of fields. Since 2008, he has also been a Fellow of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies. He was a speaker at the 2010 Global Atheist Convention and a contributor to The Australian Book of Atheism.

Bibliography

Novels The Tempting of the Witch King, Melbourne, Cory & Collins, 1983, ISBN 0-909117-18-7. The New John Connor Chronicles: Dark Futures: Book One of Terminator 2: The New John Connor Chronicles, iBooks, August 2002, 336p, ISBN 0-7434-4511-2. An Evil Hour: Book Two of Terminator 2: The New John Connor Chronicles, iBooks, May 2003, 368p, ISBN 0-7434-5863-X. Times of Trouble: Book Three of Terminator 2: The New John Connor Chronicles, iBooks, September 2003, 384p, ISBN 0-7434-7483-X. Kong Reborn, ibooks, Inc. November 2005, 320p, ISBN 1-59687-133-4.

Non-fiction books Hyperdreams: Damien Broderick's Space/Time Fiction (OCLC 44838585), Originally published in 1998 as chapbook 8 in the Babel Handbooks series on Fantasy and Science Fiction Writers. Review of the writings of SF author Damien Broderick. Strange Constellations: A History of Australian Science Fiction (with Van Ikin and Sean McMullen), Greenwood Press, Contributions to the Study of Science Fiction and Fantasy, May 1999, 264p, ISBN 0-313-25112-6. Freedom of Religion and the Secular State, Wiley-Blackwell, 2012. ISBN 978-0-470-67403-1. 50 Great Myths About Atheism (with Udo Schuklenk), Wiley-Blackwell, 2013. ISBN 978-0470674055. Humanity Enhanced: Genetic Choice and the Challenge for Liberal Democracies, MIT Press, 2014. ISBN 978-0262026611. The Mystery of Moral Authority, Palgrave Pivot, 2016. ISBN 978-1-137-56269-2. Science Fiction and the Moral Imagination: Visions, Minds, Ethics, Springer, 2017. ISBN 978-3319616834. The Tyranny of Opinion: Conformity and the Future of Liberalism, Bloomsbury, 2018 ISBN 978-1350056008. How We Became Post-Liberal: The Rise and Fall of Toleration, Bloomsbury, 2023 ISBN 978-1350322943.

Editor Urban Fantasies, anthology of 13 stories, edited with David King, Ebony, 1985. ISBN 978-0-9590655-1-0. Contrary Modes, proceedings of the academic track of Aussiecon 2, edited with Jenny Blackford, Lucy Sussex and Norman Talbot, 1985. ISBN 978-0-9590655-2-7. 50 Voices of Disbelief: Why We Are Atheists, co-editor with Udo Schuklenk, 2009. ISBN 978-1-4051-9045-9. Intelligence Unbound: The Future of Uploaded and Machine Minds, co-editor with Damien Broderick, 2014. ISBN 978-1118736289. Philosophy's Future: The Problem of Philosophical Progress, co-editor with Damien Broderick, 2017. ISBN 978-1119210092.

Academic articles "Judicial Power, Political Liberty and the Post-Industrial State." Australian Law Journal 71 (1997): 267–93. "Thinking about Cloning: A Reply to Judith Thomson." Journal of Law and Medicine 9 (2001): 238–50. "Stranger Than You Think: Arthur C. Clarke's Profiles of the Future." Prefiguring Cyberculture: An Intellectual History. Ed. Darren Tofts, Annemarie Jonson, and Alessio Cavellaro. Sydney: Power Publications, 2002; co-published Boston: MIT Press, 2003: 252–63. "Try the Blue Pill: What's Wrong with Life in a Simulation?" Jacking In to the Matrix Franchise: Cultural Reception and Interpretation. Ed. Matthew Kapell and William Doty. New York: Continuum, 2004: 169–82. "Should We Fear Death? Epicurean and Modern Arguments." Immortality Institute, ed. The Scientific Conquest of Death: Essays on Infinite Lifespans. Buenos Aires: LibrosEnRed, 2004: 257–69. "Human Cloning and 'Posthuman' Society." Monash Bioethics Review 24 (2005): 10–26. "Stem cell research on other worlds, or why embryos do not have a right to life." Journal of Medical Ethics 32 (2006): 177–80.

Short stories "The Load on Her Mind", Westerly Volume 27, (1982). ISSN 0043-342X. "Crystal Soldier" (1983) in Dreamworks: Strange New Stories (ed. David King) ISBN 978-0-909106-11-9. "Glass Reptile Breakout" (1985) in Strange attractors: Original Australian speculative fiction (ed. Hale and Iremonger) ISBN 978-0-86806-208-2. "The Sword of God" (1996) in Dream Weavers (ed. Paul Collins). "Lucent Carbon" (1997) in Eidolon (Australian magazine), #25/26. "The Soldier in the Machine" (1998) in Dreaming Down-Under (ed. Jack Dann, Janeen Webb). "Byzantium vs Republic of Australia" (1998) in Aurealis #20/21. "The King with Three Daughters" (2000) in Black Heart, Ivory Bones (ed. Ellen Datlow, Terri Windling) ISBN 978-0-380-78623-7 "Two Thousand Years" (2000) in Eidolon (Australian magazine) #29/30. "Smoke City" (2003) in Gathering the Bones (ed. Ramsey Campbell, Jack Dann, Dennis Etchison) ISBN 978-0-7322-8068-0 "The Name of the Beast Was Number" (2004) in Microcosms (ed. Gregory Benford) ISBN 978-0-7564-0171-9 "Idol" (2004) in Oceans of the Mind XII - reprinted (2014) in Novascapes (ed. C.E. Page). "Manannan's Children" (2008) in Dreaming Again: Thirty-five New Stories Celebrating the Wild Side of Australian Fiction (ed. Jack Dann).

References David Seed. A Companion To Science Fiction Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2005. ISBN 978-1-4051-1218-5.

Footnotes

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Russell Blackford: Blackford in 2005 — Blackford in 2005

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Russell Blackford

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Russell Blackford claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Russell Blackford before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Russell Blackford ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Russell Blackford

In research: Russell Blackford appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Russell Blackford in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Russell Blackford is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1954 births, 20th-century Australian philosophers, 21st-century Australian philosophers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Russell Blackford outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Russell Blackford in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Russell Blackford means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Russell Blackford out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Russell Blackford in simple terms?

Russell Blackford (born 1954) is an Australian writer, philosopher, and literary critic. Early life and education Blackford was born in Sydney, and grew up in the city of Lake Macquarie, near Newcastle, New South Wales.

Why does Russell Blackford matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Russell Blackford?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Russell Blackford.