Fear of the unknown— an immutable human trait— traces deep into our evolutionary subconscious. Some use science to cast light into the void of uncertainty. Others seek solace in religion. But what if we faced an adversary so elusive, yet so visceral, that we can neither understand it nor escape it? What do we call a…
Game of Thrones has already been the subject of several scientific papers, including the one that yielded the production of this awesome geologic map. Now mathematicians are vying to get a slice of the fame and glory that comes from studying the epic fantasy series.
Kim Stanley Robinson's asteroid terrariums probably take inspiration from the O'Neill Cylinder, pictured above. Credit: Wikipedia
And what had manifested? What do I believe manifested? Think of it as a thorn, perhaps, a long, thick thorn so large it is buried deep in the side of the world. Injecting itself into the world. Emanating from this giant thorn is an endless, perhaps automatic, need to assimilate and to mimic…. It creates out of our…
Imagine for a moment: you're walking in a forest. It's a cool, early autumn day. The air is wet and tastes of rotting wood. You tread softly, the earth beneath your feet matted with decomposition. As you walk the ground springs back, exhaling like rising bread dough.
"As a species we're in deep trouble, worse than anyone's saying. They're afraid to release the stats because people might just give up, but take it from me, we're running out of space-time. Demand for resources has exceeded supply for decades in marginal geopolitical areas, hence the famines and droughts; but very…
Imagine a world where the Internet never cut out. No, I don't just mean a world where Comcast customer service doesn't blow, I mean a world where you literally could not turn the web off if you wanted too. Now imagine the computational power of that interweb is so great you can immerse yourself in any virtual…
If you've ever played StarCraft, you'll immediately recognize the living city in Paolo Bacigalupi's "Pocketful of Dharma" for what it is: a monstrous organic hive from which a new race of insectoid humans will soon be spawned. That was the first mental image that popped into my head, at least. In one of Bacigalupi's…