Terrestrials

Notes for the books. Quotes, memes, things to include.


Folksonomies: writing science fiction

Memes

06 APR 2015

 Scent on an Airless Planet

Scent seems to have all the disadvantages and none of the advantages, as a long-range sense. However, under special circumstances even a modified nose may fill the need. In a story of my own some years ago ("Uncommon Sense," Astounding Science Fiction, September 1945), I assumed an airless planet, so that molecules could diffuse in nearly straight lines. The local sense organs were basically pinhole cameras, with the retinal mosaic formed of olfactory cells. Since the beings in question were ...
  1  notes

An species of space whale could smell over long distances, but scent would get swirled and pooled by gravity wells along the way.

21 MAR 2015

 World-Building Questions

1. BASIC INFRASTRUCTURE There can be no human (or alien) civilization or settlement without plumbing, energy supply, or waste disposal. So you need to spend at least a little bit figuring out how all of this worksunderneath your story’s setting. How do your characters eat? How do they transport and store food? How is waste handled? Where does the water come from? Who provides the clothes and shoes (or gear)? What money system is there? Is there a single currency? Several? Electronic money? Wh...
Folksonomies: writing science fiction
Folksonomies: writing science fiction
  1  notes
 
25 JAN 2015

 Biotechnology will Free Us from the Tyranny of Normalcy

Christopher Dewdney: Most people's “ideals” would turn them into underachieving Nicole Kidmans and eight-foot Brad Pitts, identical cutouts. My previous, rather naïve, notion was that biotechnology would free us from the tyranny of “normalcy”—that we could become anything we wanted, morph ourselves into elongated, blue-skinned, orange-haired, sixteen-fingered geniuses, or perhaps flying ribbons of sensual bliss that performed acrobatic choreographies above the sunset.
  1  notes
 
24 JAN 2015

 The Dilemma of Human Diversity Across the Cosmos

When life spreads out and diversifies in the universe, adapting itself to a spectrum of environments far wider than any one planet can encompass, the human species will one day find itself faced with the most momentous choice that we have had to make since the days when our ancestors came down from the trees in Africa and left their cousins the chimpanzees behind. We will have to choose, either to remain one species united by a common bodily shape as well as by a common history, or to let our...
  2  notes
 
24 JAN 2015

 H.G. Wells on the Future

We look back through countless millions of years and see the great will to live struggling out of the intertidal slime, struggling from shape to shape and from power to power, crawling and then walking confidently upon the land, struggling generation after generation to master the air, creeping down into the darkness of the deep; we see it turn upon itself in rage and hunger and reshape itself anew, we watch it draw nearer and more akin to us, expanding, elaborating itself, pursuing its relen...
Folksonomies: futurism purpose
Folksonomies: futurism purpose
  1  notes
 
24 JAN 2015

 Warm-Blooded Plants: Zero-g, Zero-T, and Zero-P

There are three principal obstacles to be overcome in adapting a terrestrial species to life in space. It must learn to live and be happy in zero-g, zero-T, and zero-P, that is to say, zero-gravity, zero-temperature, and zero-pressure. Of these, zero-g is probably the easiest to cope with, although we are still ignorant of the nature of the physiological hazards which it imposes. To deal with zero-T is simple in principle although it may be complicated and awkward in practice. Fur and feather...
  1  notes
 


References

06 APR 2015

 The Creation of Imaginary Beings

Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book:  Clement, Hal (1987), The Creation of Imaginary Beings, SIU Press, Retrieved on 2015-04-06
  • Source Material [books.google.com]
  • Folksonomies: literary collections
    Folksonomies: literary collections
     3  
    21 MAR 2015

     TOP 5 WORLDBUILDING MUST-HAVES

    Electronic/World Wide Web>Internet Article:  Sicoe, Veronica (Nov 15, 2014), TOP 5 WORLDBUILDING MUST-HAVES, Retrieved on 2015-03-21
  • Source Material [www.scifiideas.com]
  • Folksonomies: writing science fiction
    Folksonomies: writing science fiction
     1  
    25 JAN 2015

     Transcendence

    Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book:  Sirius, R.U. and Cornell, Jay (2015-01-01), Transcendence, Red Wheel Weiser, Retrieved on 2015-01-25
  • Source Material [books.google.com]
  •  4  
    24 JAN 2015

     The Discovery of the Future

    Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book:  Wells , H. G. (2014-05-01), The Discovery of the Future, The Floating Press, Retrieved on 2015-01-24
  • Source Material [books.google.com]
  • Folksonomies: philosophy
    Folksonomies: philosophy
     1  
    25 APR 2012

     Infinite in All Directions

    Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book:  Dyson , Freeman J. (2004-07-22), Infinite in All Directions, Harper Perennial, Retrieved on 2012-04-25
  • Source Material [books.google.com]
  • Folksonomies: religion
    Folksonomies: religion
     50