Paul Lehr's cover art detail for Best SF: 1967, ed. Harry Harrison and Brian W. Aldiss (1968)
#scifi #sciencefiction #art #artist
Winchell Chung ⚛🚀
boosted
Paul Lehr's cover art detail for the 1964 edition of H. G. Wells' The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896)
#scifi #sciencefiction #art #artist
Paul Lehr's cover art detail for the 1964 edition of H. G. Wells' The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896)
#scifi #sciencefiction #art #artist
Winchell Chung ⚛🚀
boosted
Finished book 2 of my Discworld re-read, "The Light Fantastic".
I might post some more thoughts about it tomorrow, but for now here is a great article from a cover designer about Josh Kirby's artwork for the first 26 Discworld paperbacks:
https://www.kathrynrosamiller.com/post/cover-thoughts-discworld-again
Finished book 2 of my Discworld re-read, "The Light Fantastic".
I might post some more thoughts about it tomorrow, but for now here is a great article from a cover designer about Josh Kirby's artwork for the first 26 Discworld paperbacks:
https://www.kathrynrosamiller.com/post/cover-thoughts-discworld-again
Winchell Chung ⚛🚀
boosted
Maintaining an interstellar community is extraordinarily hard. Even within the human worlds, it is difficult.
The hardest part is disease.
Not so much massive plagues - they are easy to quarantine. The tricky thing is the endemic bugs of each world. The things that could run riot in other biospheres.
Smoothing the spread of such bacteria and virii is initially handled by the scout service, who introduce the most common microflora and fauna to new worlds in a well controlled way. They also manage the outward spread of the new world's biome to neighbouring worlds.
But what about after that? How do you maintain a biome that is not going to kill travellers across tens, let alone hundreds or thousands of worlds?
The answer lies in one of the least formal parts of any major interstellar community.
The tramp trade network.
Small independent traders that move from world to world in small ships, moving relatively slowly, and almost always visiting the surface. Picking up the latest mutations in the local microflora and fauna as an incidental, and releasing the latest from the nearest neighbours.
Keeping the local group more-or-less in sync. And the trade routes overlap, and operate in overlapping spheres.
Yes, if you were to catch a fast ship from one end of a large polity and travel to the other end, you might well get very sick. But if you did it slowly, you would get gradually adapted.
The downside is that most travellers over large distances tend to spend much of their time vaguely unwell.
"Space Flu" they call it, and it is something that affects many long-distance tourists. People discuss solutions for it on the news boards almost constantly, and new treatments are always being touted.
What only a few very well informed people know is that this travelling malaise is a sign that things are working as expected. There will never be a complete cure for it, and it would be a disaster if one were found.
#SF #SFF #SciFi #SpaceOpera #microfiction #tootfic #microfic #IAmWriting
Maintaining an interstellar community is extraordinarily hard. Even within the human worlds, it is difficult.
The hardest part is disease.
Not so much massive plagues - they are easy to quarantine. The tricky thing is the endemic bugs of each world. The things that could run riot in other biospheres.
Smoothing the spread of such bacteria and virii is initially handled by the scout service, who introduce the most common microflora and fauna to new worlds in a well controlled way. They also manage the outward spread of the new world's biome to neighbouring worlds.
But what about after that? How do you maintain a biome that is not going to kill travellers across tens, let alone hundreds or thousands of worlds?
The answer lies in one of the least formal parts of any major interstellar community.
The tramp trade network.
Small independent traders that move from world to world in small ships, moving relatively slowly, and almost always visiting the surface. Picking up the latest mutations in the local microflora and fauna as an incidental, and releasing the latest from the nearest neighbours.
Keeping the local group more-or-less in sync. And the trade routes overlap, and operate in overlapping spheres.
Yes, if you were to catch a fast ship from one end of a large polity and travel to the other end, you might well get very sick. But if you did it slowly, you would get gradually adapted.
The downside is that most travellers over large distances tend to spend much of their time vaguely unwell.
"Space Flu" they call it, and it is something that affects many long-distance tourists. People discuss solutions for it on the news boards almost constantly, and new treatments are always being touted.
What only a few very well informed people know is that this travelling malaise is a sign that things are working as expected. There will never be a complete cure for it, and it would be a disaster if one were found.
#SF #SFF #SciFi #SpaceOpera #microfiction #tootfic #microfic #IAmWriting
Winchell Chung ⚛🚀
boosted
If you think sci fi failed us you are not wrong. I wrote a whole rant with feelings. https://inkican.com/how-sci-fi-failed-us-and-how-we-can-get-it-back #scifi #criticism #geek
If you think sci fi failed us you are not wrong. I wrote a whole rant with feelings. https://inkican.com/how-sci-fi-failed-us-and-how-we-can-get-it-back #scifi #criticism #geek
Elizabeth
boosted
So after a couple of days of snooping around and butting into conversations, I guess it's #introduction time 😁
I'm originally from Singapore, but moved to Naarm (Melbourne, Australia) in 2004.
I have been in the hospitality industry for 18 years.
The last 12 of which have been spent in the kitchen as a chef. I post about #food a lot 😏
I also have a background in #Anthropology, #SocialTheory and #HumanNutrition.
Am currently in the middle of a #PhD in #Education - researching community #foodpedagogies as well as food education in #PublicHealth.
I am passionate about #SocialJustice, #FoodSecurity, #Decolonisation and dismantling systems that perpetuate division and inequity.
I am a #dancer, #SciFi geek, a novice gardener and have a regular #yoga practice.
Open to meet anyone and everyone. Excited to be here and looking forward to many amazing conversations and friendships! 💜
TARGET CONTROL CATS
Years ago I ran across a humorous scifi short story about a ship's cat on a starship. Through an unlikely series of events, the cat manages to operate the ship's weapon and destroy an attacking pirate ship. It seems that the crew was incapacitated by the pirates dreaded paralysis ray. Which has no effect on cats.
Story was "Well Worth the Money" by Jody Lynn Nye. Collected in Cats in Space and Other Places.
Winchell Chung ⚛🚀
boosted
Today i was reminded of Hal Draper's "MS Fnd in a Lbry"(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Fnd_in_a_Lbry).
It is a sci-fi short story about the disastrous effects of the exponential growth of information.
#relevant #scifi #tech
Today i was reminded of Hal Draper's "MS Fnd in a Lbry"(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Fnd_in_a_Lbry).
It is a sci-fi short story about the disastrous effects of the exponential growth of information.
#relevant #scifi #tech