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SciFi: The unexpected problems with gravity
Artificial gravity in science fiction falls into three categories: Applied Phlebotinum works via made-up technobabble. Examples include the gravity plating in Star Trek. Spin gravity is where inertia wants you to keep going in a straight line, but centripetal force from your outer hull keeps pulling (or pushing) you towards your axis of rotation, creating…
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Why do some people hate masks?
A bit over two weeks ago, I wrote the following on a nerd forum: I wear masks outside, because sometimes I encounter a bus stop where the entire volume of the bus exits exactly where and when I happen to be walking. Also, a mask, like wearing trousers, is a trivial cost. I still will wear one…
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Bioprinted fairy drones
As Arthur C. Clarke wrote, any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. In the case of bioprinted fairy drones, the tech only looks like magic because it isn’t advanced enough. Bioprinting is the 3D printing of organic material. It’s been demonstrated for years in various different capacities, but the current state-of-the-art suggests that we’re…
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Baryon asymmetry
One day, I might learn enough physics that my questions don’t sound like nonsense to physics graduates. Today is not that day — my working assumption is I sound like a freshman at best, and a homeopath at worst, and will remain so until I put numerical simulations of standard results in general relativity, quantum…
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Truthiness & COVID denial by the dying
Enough people believe enough odd things that I was not surprised when I learned of COVID deniers; not just because the same happened a century ago with Influenza, but also my own former (as a teenager, now embarrassing) sincere belief in the occult. Indeed, even when it comes to people denying the existence of COVID…
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If you wanted to steal an election…
Let us say that you were in charge of the Ministry for Shenanigans, tasked by the Supreme Leader with interfering with the democratic elections in Freedonia, not to ensure the current Prime Minister of Freedonia remains in power, but to sow dissent amongst its people. The current Prime Minister of Freedonia is known for saying…
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Hᵤ(2, 2) = 4 for all u>0
A bit of recreational mathematics. I’d be (pleasantly) shocked if this is novel. 2+2 = 2×2 = 2² = 4 🤔 Hᵤ is the set of hyperoperations, e.g. H₁(a, b) = a + b H₂(a, b) = a × b Hu(a, b) = Hu-1(a, Hu(a, b-1)) when u≥3 & b≠0 ∴ Hu(2, 2) = Hu-1(2,…
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Trek head-cannon
In the real world, the “vaporise” setting in SciFi ray-guns comes from a desire to make extras disappear quickly when their characters are killed off. As countless of pedants have noticed, a real-life weapon which vaporised a target would have all sorts of unpleasant side-effects, from the merely icky of inhaling your enemies to the…
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Post-scarcity
There are many different ways to discuss “post-scarcity”. The traditional idea is that all material goods are available at no cost, kinda like the replicators in Star Treks TNG and DS9. However, even in the Trek universe, replicators used power, and this allowed replicator rationing to be a plot point in Star Trek Voyager. Even…
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