Tag Archives: Science fiction

Predicting far future technologies

Posted on May 15, 2017 by

Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future. Niels Bohr If you’re a science fiction writer, one of the things you do is try to predict what future technologies will come along.  If you’re not writing hard science fiction, this … Continue reading →

Posted in Science Fiction | Tagged , , , , | 11 Comments

Recommendation: Dark Intelligence

Posted on April 17, 2017 by

I’ve been meaning to check out Neal Asher’s books for some time.  They keep coming up as recommendations on Amazon, Goodreads, and in various other venues, and they sound enticing, like the kind of fiction I’d enjoy.  Last week, I … Continue reading →

Posted in Science Fiction | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

The success of John Scalzi’s descriptive minimalism

Posted on March 27, 2017 by

One of the categories here on the blog is Science Fiction, mainly because I read and watch a lot of it.  Occasionally, someone wanting to get into the literary version of the genre asks me for recommendations on good initial books to … Continue reading →

Posted in Writing | Tagged , , , , | 18 Comments

Recommendation: The Stars Are Legion

Posted on March 3, 2017 by

Occasionally on this blog, when pondering the far future, I’ve pushed back on the idea that the long term fate of civilization is to be machine robotic type life, instead noting that a truly advanced civilization would instead be engineered life, that … Continue reading →

Posted in Science Fiction | Tagged , , | 22 Comments

Arrival, the shape of aliens, and bridging the communication barrier

Posted on February 5, 2017 by

This weekend, I watched the movie ‘Arrival‘.  It starts off with the now common scenario of several floating ships appearing in the skies around the world.  But unlike most movies in this mold, it focuses on humanity’s efforts to communicate with … Continue reading →

Posted in Science Fiction | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 40 Comments

Childhood’s End and why a war between us and aliens is profoundly unlikely

Posted on December 15, 2015 by

Last night, SyFy debuted two shows, ‘The Expanse’, which I’ve already written about, and ‘Childhood’s End’, which is an adaptation of a classic science fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke.  With these two shows, along with some other pretty decent … Continue reading →

Posted in Science Fiction | Tagged , , | 29 Comments

xkcd: Why Asimov put the Three Laws of Robotics in the order he did

Posted on December 7, 2015 by

Source: xkcd: The Three Laws of Robotics The Three Laws from the Wikipedia article: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. A robot must obey the orders given it by … Continue reading →

Posted in Zeitgeist | Tagged , , , , , , | 23 Comments