Category: SFF Thought Starters

Brin, somewhat less ranty than usual (yes, this is him being less ranty), makes a good point here about different kinds of stories: the Solitary Chosen Hero or the ensemble cast of ordinary people, representing a whole functioning civilization.

Originally shared by David Brin

For the weekend: my own impudent, off-axis take on the 50th anniversary of Star Trek! How diametrically opposite Trek is, from Star Wars, in every moral sense. And you can see this in one trait – the size of the ship. Size does matter! Come find out why.

People in SF are often as rational as the writers, unless it’s satirical SF like Robert Sheckley. But people in real life believe all kinds of bizarre things. How might you realistically and convincingly incorporate a belief like this into your story?

Originally shared by Yonatan Zunger

There is a new theory making the rounds in Flat Earth circles. (Squares?) The forests you see are not real forests; the true forests are long dead, and the things which we think are mountains are actually their ruins.

There’s a marvelous article here about how such a theory spreads, and its curious and somewhat mad beauty. (OK, strike “somewhat”) It’s a fascinating way to start your day.

h/t Steven Flaeck

http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/09/flat-earth-truthers/499322/

Via Charles Barouch.

Originally shared by Andrew Brown (drusepth)

Both awesome and terrifying (but mostly awesome) that technology like this is available now.

https://www.wired.com/2016/09/googles-clever-plan-stop-aspiring-isis-recruits/

Via Winchell Chung.

Originally shared by Gadgetify

PD6B-AW-ARM Large Drone with Dual Robotic Arms

http://www.gadgetify.com/pd6b-aw-arm-drone-robot/

We’re coming up to the 200th anniversary of the book which defined the modern literary vampire – charismatic, aristocratic, consuming and destroying everyone who comes near. There’s a terrible ironic twist near the end of the tale.

Originally shared by The Public Domain Review

Happy birthday to John Polidori — Lord Byron’s long-suffering physician and creator of the modern vampire with his novella The Vampyre (which sees it 200th anniversary this year!). Andrew McConnell Stott explores how a fractious relationship between Polidori and his poet employer lies behind the tale, with Byron himself providing a model for the blood-sucking aristocratic figure of the legend we are familiar with today: http://buff.ly/2c6M2av

tl;dr: The biggest difference is that Democrats are more likely to see difference just as difference, not better or worse, while Republicans (and Trump Republicans especially) are more likely to see difference in terms of one thing being better than the other.

This whole approach of “primals” (fundamental beliefs about the world), though, is very interesting and thought-provoking, which is why I’m posting this in SFF Thought Starters.

Originally shared by Kimberly Chapman

This is a very interesting way to examine Trump support: https://jerclifton.com/2016/08/17/what-reality-are-trump-people-living-in/

And it could be useful in crafting better messages to potentially change minds.

https://jerclifton.com/2016/08/17/what-reality-are-trump-people-living-in

Marketing, as well as R&D, will be involved in any transition to non-animal-sourced proteins.

Originally shared by Winchell Chung

Growing meat in a petri dish is sustainable, more ecological, and harvesting does not require actually killing an animal. But nobody wants to eat food described as “cultured” or “lab-grown”

So the power of marketing and branding is pushing the label Clean Food

The Atomic Rocket interest is for spacecraft closed ecological life support systems. Since it is impractical to raise and slaughter cattle on your spacecraft.

http://qz.com/772987/to-lure-people-put-off-by-the-freakiness-of-lab-made-meat-this-is-what-the-industry-wants-to-call-it/

Relevant to my steampunk interests. Via Mary Robinette Kowal.

http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-chinese-typewriter-snap-story.html

The argument is that, just as the marginal cost of communication has plummeted to near zero, so will the costs of transport and manufacturing, and that this will lead to a shift from integrated vertical corporations to a new form of organisation: a commons, with ownership by contributors.

https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2014/nov/07/radical-new-economic-system-will-emerge-from-collapse-of-capitalism?CMP=share_btn_gp