The Big Idea

Science fiction has a tendency to regard telepathy as a realistic mental ability that other species may have or humans may learn to develop in the future. This post lays out some fresh ways to write about telepathy based on how it might actually work. Note the faith some science fiction seems to have in the future reality of mind reading, even though there is no clear theory on how it would work. I suppose being in physical contact with someone and picking up the energy from the electrical patterns of their mind, their brain waves, could form a theory of sorts that supports telepathy. However, note that brain waves give an overall impression of a mind and do not at all reveal individual thoughts. In fact, they scarcely reveal individual emotions. They show the difference between a healthy and unhealthy brain and whether or nor someone is agitated, deep in sleep, drowsy, or normally alert. (It might be interesting to create a story where someone has the natural ability to read s...

Imagine a particular set of dragons who dwell in the vacuum of outer space. They'd have natural carbon in their body structures, like a natural version of carbon nanotubes. This would make them strong for large size, with wings--but most of their wings would be very thin, thinner than paper. For flight they could use light pressure but the wings required are so massive to beyond the scale of a living thing most likely, However, they could get some assistance out of light pressure. I'd make their primary means of getting energy generating natural electricity by means of aborbing solar energy in a photoelectric effect --which could be enhanced by electricity generated by temperature differences between hot and cold areas (a  thermoelectric effect ). The dragons would use this electricity to heat reactive material in their gut into a natural version of a plasma drive (as well as power their muscles and brains and such). So the dragons would not need to breathe. In fact, they ...

Imagining the "Image of the Beast" from the book of Revelation is an AI is not new to me. Thinking that such an image could be an Artificial Intelligence is as least as old as the 1981 Christian apocalyptic film with that title  (which I don't consider a quality production, but it does exist). And I've also found a few Evangelical Christian sites who repeat the same idea (which I won't reference here) and even link it with the notion of technological singularity . However, I do have what may be prove to be some distinctive twists on the notion. First off, while I don't usually quote Scripture on this blog, I'm going to make an exception. Let's examine the Bible reference to "the image of the beast" itself. Revelation 13:14-16 (NKJV): "And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he is granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the...

The question of Artificial Intelligences created by mankind becoming more intelligent and more powerful than humanity has been raised many times in science fiction. Some stories, especially highly popular ones, feature humans fighting back, resisting the machines and even winning ultimate victory in epic battles--think the Terminator movies. Some stories have featured humans and artificial intelligences living in relative harmony--the classic example is the overall arc of Isaac Asimov's robot series. Others, especially more recent tales, speak of the " technological singularity " which can have more than one meaning, but is used by many to refer to a complete harmonization of humanity with machine, providing virtual immortality to the human race as our brains are harmonized with computers and all our thoughts can be stored and processed electronically. I've just had a different concept of a possible future AI revolution. What if the AIs take over, in effect conque...

The title is meant to be attention-grabbing, but the idea behind it is simple. If alien life is ever going to be found  in our Solar System outside of Earth, it will be in a world with liquid water under an icy surface. Not on Mars. This notion has not entirely escaped science fiction writers. But it deserves further consideration. I say this for simple, straightforward reasons. Everywhere on planet Earth where water is abundant, life teems. The water can be that of a geyser in Yellowstone Park (or elsewhere), extremely hot, yet life is still found in these geysers . The glaciers of Antarctica support some life themselves, but drilling under the ice to a region where pressure is high enough to preserve liquid water has shown more abundant bacterial life below one half mile of Antarctic ice . Jupiter's moon Europa shows clear signs of having liquid water under an icy surface. The smoothness of the planet shows cracks that appear to heal themselves as liquid water from below soli...