Click here for full resolution. This is my new oil-on-canvas piece, depicting a spherical space habitat in low orbit around Neptune, providing a natural living space with artificial gravity for a small community of human pioneers. The habitat currently has a great view of one … Continue readingSpaceplane approaching Neptune orbital Sphere
When worldbuilding a science fiction or especially space opera setting, it is often desired for the scope to encompass more than one solar system, spanning part or all of one galaxy or even beyond. There is just one big problem: no object with mass can … Continue readingWorldbuilding Faster than Light Travel
For the entire history of computing to date, and even dating back to the advent of television, glowing screens with a board-like form have been the primary and ever-more-dominant way people consume information. This “glowing screen” or “glowing board” paradigm reached its culmination in the … Continue readingIndistinguishable From Nature: Toward a Ubiquitous Dark Web
One of the most distinct characteristics of life in outer space is the lack of gravity pulling you and everything else down to the floor. Objects and people inside any structure launched into orbit will float around and experience zero gravity. This is not a … Continue readingArtificial Gravity in Outer Space: Centrifuges and Beyond
Solarpunk, a subversively optimistic genre of science fiction, has proven to be a breath of fresh air for our vision of the future over the past several years. As the latest major incarnation of the various “-punk” subgenres, it joins the likes of atompunk, clockpunk, … Continue readingToward Nuclearpunk: Solarpunk with a Twist
The concept of a city that is so large it engulfs an entire planet is one of the most common tropes of science fiction, especially space opera. After all, population growth and urbanization throughout history, particularly in the last two centuries, have driven cities to … Continue readingEcumenopolis: Thoughts on Worldbuilding City-Planets
The role of transportation technology, specifically the fastest transportation that the masses can afford and the infrastructure permits, is a pervasive but often unconsidered factor in our daily lives, influencing our built environment and even our social and economic opportunities. After rapid advancement in the … Continue readingPersonal Transportation of the Near Future: Flying Cars and Beyond
After the solar system is colonized, settled, and developed, interstellar colonization is the next step in mankind’s journey through the final frontier. The distances between planets within our own solar system are easily surmountable once enough space infrastructure is built out to allow the mass … Continue readingWorldbuilding Near-Future Interstellar Demography
When worldbuilding any outer-space setting, from galactic-scale space opera to the earliest space colonies, one must consider demographics: the magnitude, distribution, and composition of the setting’s population. While other galaxies or far-future settings could easily have a very wide range of outcomes, a near-future in … Continue readingWorldbuilding Near-Future Space Demography
When investors seek to grow their wealth over the long run, mainstream advice for how to allocate their assets usually ranges from a relatively even blend of stocks and bonds to 100% stocks. Introducing bonds into an otherwise all-stock portfolio reduces volatility (and returns), and … Continue readingLeveraged Stocks for Long-Term Investing