Are we finally seeing the dawn of the age of space tourism? A little over twenty years ago, the Ansari XPRIZE sent a shot of adrenaline into the virtually nonexistent private space industry. From that first competition, several budding space companies were born, including Virgin Galactic, SpaceX and Blue Origin. …
Welcome to Freestyle Friday, where I post a semi-random roundup of stuff, much of which I find cool, interesting, noteworthy or even appalling.
Brain implants are a staple of science fiction, especially cyberpunk fiction like Neuromancer, Johnny Mnemonic, and The Matrix. Personally, I’ve been fascinated by the idea of computer-brain interfaces since I was a kid. I remember seeing a clip from an old TV show—I think it was Ripley’s Believe it or …
Getting the Han Solo-Carbonite Treatment Because Space is Boring Humanity’s first trip to a distant star is likely to be boring. I’m not talking I’m-so-bored-I-can’t-find-anything-to-watch-on-237-cable-channels-or-Netflix kind of bored. I mean stuck-in-a-doctor’s-office-with-muzak-and-no-magazines-with-no-escape-for-20-years kind of bored. Think of it this way, it would be like a cruise ship without the water, ports, …
One of the most iconic phrases in Science Fiction is Star Trek’s original opening line, “Space, the final frontier.” Space may be the final frontier, but first, we have to be able to survive the cold vacuum of vast open nothingness that makes up the unimaginable distance between our solar …
Looks like I’m moving to an every-other-week thing for the NerdArt Roundup. I’m okay with that, I think. One regular post per week, then either a flash fiction or a NerdArt RoundUp! Anyway, had most of these picked out already, but one was apparently deleted. Found a really cool one …
