Last night I did something I rarely do anymore, saw a movie in theater right when it was released: Captain Marvel. As Marvel movies go, it was typical: lots of action, special effects, heart warming moments, and laughs. Marvel / Disney really seems to have the formula for general entertainment down. You don't come out … Continue reading Captain Marvel
Tag: Science fiction
Why faster than light travel is inevitably also time travel
I've always loved space opera, but when I was growing up, as I learned more about science, I discovered that a lot of the tropes in space opera are problematic. Space operas, to tell adventure stories among the stars, often have to make compromises. One of the earliest and most pervasive is FTL (faster than … Continue reading Why faster than light travel is inevitably also time travel
Recommendation: The Soldier
I've recommended Neal Asher's books before. He writes epic space opera where the stories take place over a vast scale, most of the characters are superhuman or alien entities, and the forces involved are titanic. That was the motif of his Transformation series that I recommended back in 2017. Like that series, The Soldier, which … Continue reading Recommendation: The Soldier
The dangers of artificial companionship
Lux Alpstraum at Undark argues against "Our Irrational Fear of Sexbots": When most people envision a world where human partners are abandoned in favor of robots, the robots they picture tend to be reasonably good approximations of flesh-and-blood humans. The sexbots of “Westworld” are effectively just humans who can be programmed and controlled by the … Continue reading The dangers of artificial companionship
Doctor Who: The Woman Who Fell to Earth
I've noted before that I'm a long time fan of Doctor Who, so naturally I tuned in to watch the first episode of the new Doctor played by Jodie Whittaker. I'll be honest here, I wasn't sure what to expect with a female Doctor. As a progressive, I was certainly for it in principle, but … Continue reading Doctor Who: The Woman Who Fell to Earth
A qualified recommendation: The Murderbot Diaries
I'm generally not a fan of most depictions of AI (artificial intelligence) in science fiction. They're often highly anthropomorphic, assuming that engineered intelligences would innately have motivations and impulses similar to humans or other living systems, such as caring about their own survival, social status, or self actualization. A good example of this is the … Continue reading A qualified recommendation: The Murderbot Diaries
Recommendation: Children of Time
The Fermi Paradox is the observation that if intelligent life is pervasive in the universe, it should have arrived on Earth ages ago, but there is no evidence it ever did. The solutions to the paradox include the possibilities that interstellar travel is impossible (or so appallingly difficult that no one bothers), that there is … Continue reading Recommendation: Children of Time
Altered Carbon
Several years ago, I read Richard K. Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs novels about a future where people's minds are recorded in a device (called a "stack") implanted just below the brain stem, essentially providing a form of mind uploading, and allowing people to survive the death of their body. Kovacs, the protagonist of the series, is an … Continue reading Altered Carbon
Recommendation: We Are Legion (We Are Bob)
One of the things that many space enthusiasts find frustrating about the space age is how slow it's moving, at least relative to its early years. Humans made it to the moon almost 50 years ago, but since then seem to have retreated to low Earth orbit, working in space stations just above the atmosphere. … Continue reading Recommendation: We Are Legion (We Are Bob)
Recommendation: The Roboteer Trilogy
I'm sure anyone who's paid attention to my science fiction novel recommendations has noticed that I love space opera. But as much as I love the genre, I'm often aware of an issue many of its stories have. In order to have the characters be in jeopardy, they often ignore the implications of artificial intelligence. … Continue reading Recommendation: The Roboteer Trilogy
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