I’ve touched on before about greater Los Angeles in my science-fictional alternate timeline, and more I brainstorm it, the more fantastical it gets. Mine is a world where buildings rise a mile high, where automobile and aircraft alike zip at terrific speeds across the landscape…but … Continue readingContour Futurism: Los Angeles as a Canal City?
Young people are just not buying homes nowadays like they used to. junior citizens are well aware of how impossible the mathematics are, but their senior counterparts are not having any of it. We see wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth, often with platitudes … Continue readingHousing on Hard Mode: to be a Zoomer…
I’ve been giving some thought as to how an alien intelligence could be really alien from what we’re used to with humans on Earth; hardly an original idea, to the point I almost subvert it by making my “Thalassans”, an avian intelligence native to Proxima … Continue readingMaking my Aliens more Three-Dimensional…
Ah, the idea of gazing at a sunset or basking in the glow of twilight on the Moon; so romantic, yet totally unrealistic on a dead world with no atmosphere…or is it? Surprisingly, there’s “lunar horizon glow”, which pictures from space probes’ cameras make look … Continue readingTwilight on the Moon
“CHON?”, you might ask; “What’s that?”. It’s an affectionate acronym for the four most common vital chemical elements in the biochemistry of life as we know it. To wit, carbon (C), hydrogen (H), oxygen (O), and nitrogen (N). The human body is 95..6% CHON by … Continue readingThe Tyranny of CHON
“Y’all, I’m greatest country star in Nashville!” boomed little Tallulah’s voice as she twirled about in her costume: off-white cowgirl boots adorned with curly golden motifs extending up almost to her knees, and a sable leather riding dress, undergown, the same off-white color as the … Continue readingOrphans of Opry Tower
The space brainstorm continues! In particular, I turn to the question of “what happens with the next lunar landing mission?” and the human spaceflight effort in general; in my alternate-historical science-fiction universe, as I depict in my story “Wings of Fire”, the first manned lunar … Continue readingAfter “Wings of Fire”: A Lifting-Body World?
What would be “next level” beyond “Wings of Fire”, my story of an alternate-historical lunar landing where an Apollo-13-style explosion proves deadly, and occurs after the lander is already on the surface? This was, as in our timeline, the early space age, so backups, redundancy, … Continue readingGhost Ships of Titan
Take a bicycle outside and pedal it, and you’ll quickly discover just how much power output it takes to travel anywhere at any appreciable velocity. The tyranny of physics? Not exactly. When you try to pedal a bicycle, or really any human-powered mode of transportation, … Continue readingThe Silent City and the Space Elevator
Physics says there is no traveling through space faster than the speed of light, which is usually supposed to be a notable barrier to interstellar travel introduced by Einstein’s theory…but this isn’t quite true. Oh, from the point of view of the Earth, you will, … Continue readingBy the Light of Genesis