Did a comet explode in Earth’s atmosphere at the end of the Pleistocene?
Little heros
I’ve been a little concerned that the actions and responsibilities taken on by Cas and Ori in my next Generation Mars book (still a WIP) are beyond what is possible for a six and eight year old. Turns out: nope.
CNN Interview with Neal Stephenson
Neal Stephenson, commenting on a bunch of stuff.
Reason.com His comments regarding personal freedom in a Martian colony don’t gel with mine. The social system that I imagine in Generation Mars has a great respect for personal freedom.
However, that is tempered by a level of social responsibility that we would likely find unrecognizable here on Earth.
Outgrowing the planet is not a bad thing
Dr. Phil Metzger posted an epic 48 tweet thread on Twitter explaining why megaconstellations (e.g. SpaceX’s Starlink) are inevitable, as is their eventual demise as better tech comes online.
Looking at the evolution of life, from single celled organisms to bipedal apes rapidly outgrowing the planet, as the exponential growth of information is a novel (to me at least) approach and provides an interesting perspective.
“I would bet that if we find alien civilizations somewhere else in the galaxy, or in a galaxy far, far away, we will discover that they ALL developed megaconstellations right before they got industry off their planets & divorced their information systems from their biosphere.”
This is wild stuff and well worth a full read.
Where the rules haven’t been written
A brief but inspiring interview with Robert Zubrin:
“… that’s what we need: a place where the rules haven’t been written yet, so people can give new ideas a try. Martian society will be an engine for invention.”
WPR Video clip 17: Bigger
What Scratching the Surface is really about.
background: illustration by Luis Peres for Scratching the Surface
Inspiring kids
“I want to inspire that first girl who is going to walk on Mars.”
We share the same goal!
the Guardian The challenge of writing science fiction
“Writing science fiction is a race between the author’s imagination and the progress of science and history.”
Utopia is a journey
“This perfect society we’re striving towards should always be a spot on the horizon, something we’re still moving towards even if it seems like we’ve fixed everything. Utopia is a journey: not the happy ending, but the continued improvement of ourselves.”
This is a near perfect summation of my thoughts regarding Dawn Colony in Generation Mars.
Ut melius faciat! (To do better)
Video clip 15: They know about Earth
What would it be like to have only experienced another planet, yet know about Earth?
background: illustration by Luis Peres for Scratching the Surface