When researching for my post “The Final Frontiers of the Periodic Table” it struck me how dull the names of most of the chemical elements are, “something-something-ium”, a trend of uncreativity that’s worsened with the more recent discoveries of the transuranic and superheavy elements. Now, … Continue readingOn Etymologies of the Elements
Ah, the periodic table of the elements: that ubiquitous chart in the realm of chemistry. In the heady days of the 19th century new elements were being discovered, filling in the table left and right, culminating with the last discovery of a naturally-occurring stable element, … Continue readingThe Final Frontiers of the Periodic Table
Since I wrote up my post “When Worlds Collide” I’ve been doing some more worldbuilding for the extremely far future of my space-opera universe, the ultimate fate of the Earth. 1.2 billion years from now, when Earth is a desert-like hothouse of a planet populated … Continue readingAfter Worlds Collide
I’ve been thinking recently again about how I’m going to take my space-opera setting into the extremely far future, from millions of years from now to the end of the universe. In particular: the blaze of glory I have in mind for the end of … Continue readingWhen Worlds Collide
I just realized I haven’t yet told all of you about my ultimate plans for Earth in the far future of my space opera setting! In my post “Taking my Space Opera Setting into the Extremely Far Future”, I left them ambiguous, but now I’ve … Continue readingThe Lastborn of Mother Earth
What if the universe had expanded much more slowly, so that Big Bang Nucleosynthesis lasted not a mere 20 minutes but rather, say, a trillion years? The age of stars would begin far later and start with a lot more heavy elements, completely reshaping the … Continue readingWorldbuilding an Expanding Universe
I know just last week I posted about taking my space opera into the really far future, millions of years from now, but since then I’ve been thinking about going all the way, to orders of magnitude longer time scales. Many orders of magnitude. As … Continue readingTaking My Space Opera into the Extremely Far Future
Panpsychism has to be true. No other explanation for the fact of consciousness makes any logical sense whatsoever. What’s kept hush-hush among respectable intellectuals these days is that panpsychism being true implies some form of animism, the idea that all things that exist have a … Continue readingPanpsychism and Beyond
We’re told that specialization is the elixir of prosperity, the division of labor the font of civilization itself, but what if that’s not true, at least in the way we think it is? Since the age of the Renaissance Man faded into the history books … Continue readingThe Renaissance Man: Still the Master
When speculating about alien intelligence, much is made of the fact that we see a cosmos primeval rather than a cosmos being eaten away by artifice. What if, instead of proving there are no advanced spacefaring civilizations out there, it proves that some of our … Continue readingInfinite Scattering: The Future of Spacefaring Civilization?