There is a concept going around in science fiction called "dark forest theory." The popular Three Body Problem trilogy relies on it. New author Patrick Tomlinson's Children of a Dead Earth series relies on it. The theory is this ( Read more... )

I recently finished reading Robert Charles Wilson's novel Burning Paradise. The book is set in the year 2014, but it's not our 2014. WWI ended in 1914, and there was no WWII. Humanity is generally at peace and growing more prosperous. There's a catch, of course - humanity is being manipulated by a collective of aliens ( Read more... )

I was reading somewhere that, in certain Japanese temples, one can see Roman glassware. To be clear, Roman glassware that was purchased when it was new by the temple staff. It was a reminder that the Silk Road was a real thing. So, not only was the road real, but at least some people on both ends of the road were aware of the people on the other ( Read more... )

1) From Tobias Buckell, our future will be brighter then you think. The gist of the article is that technology is offering radical solutions to problems such as providing enough clean water to drink. The article mentions in passing that the cost-per-watt of solar energy is falling through the floor. It would seem to me a good use of cheap solar ( Read more... )

Two cool things "borrowed" from jaylake:

Cool Thing #1

I give you The Law of the Tongue, a "treaty" between men and killer whales.

Cool Thing #2

Apparently, as late as 500 million years ago, massive floods were still happening on Mars. It sure looks like there'd be lots of water on Mars today, just buried underground.

PredictionsJason Kuznicki at ( Read more... )

I'm going to Windycon this weekend, and tomorrow's a bank holiday, so this is probably the last post for the week. (My schedule at the con is here.)

On the "OMG" front, I saw Rick Perry's brain freeze at the debate last night. Now, as a writer who forgets his characters' names, I sympathize with the man. On the other hand, write it down! He had ( Read more... )

Every once in a while, I get fixated on a really weird concept. For some reason, the current concept was "scale models of the Solar System." Finding myself with a little time, a calculator and an Internet connection, I did a little noodling. I think the results are interesting, and are presented for your amusement ( Read more... )

I've written from time to time of Fermi's Paradox. One of the concepts used to "answer" the paradox is the Great Filter, which is the idea that there is some event that allows few if any civilizations to arise. I'd said before that I don't think peak oil is such an event. But now I'd like to add an event to the possible list of Great Filters. ( Read more... )

So, via , I find a link to an article suggesting a fatal flaw of Fermi's Paradox. Basically, Fermi's Paradox asks, "if there are other intelligent species in the galaxy, why aren't they here?" An analysis of the paradox suggests that, even with slower than light travel, a civilization could fill the galaxy in about 100 million years ( Read more... )

Fermi's Paradox is the famous question, "if there are other intelligent life forms in the galaxy, why aren't they here?"

Via jaylake, I find that the real question is when were they here?. Basically, Charles Magee, the blogger, generated 50 random alien visits in the 5 billion years that the solar system has been around ( Read more... )