Things I Enjoy About Writing SF

Sitting here at 2:30 am trying to figure out if it would even be possible tosurvive firing the theoretically-possible-to-make-from-off-the-shelf-parts thousands-of-rounds-per-minute multibarrel antimatter-grenade-launcher full auto. (I mean, no-one in their right mind would assemble the thing, much less fire it, even if they could afford the ammunition – but still, I’m curious.)

Values Dissonance

Not an actual trope-a-day, but something I thought I’d write down after the latest xkcd reminded me of the existence of the book, The Giving Tree. Just in case I forgot it by the time I’m actually tackling Values Dissonance, belike.

Which in our culture may well be – although I note the controversy in interpretation Wikipedia mentions – a heartwarming tale of selflessness and self-sacrifice, but the analogous book in the Imperials’ culture would unambiguously be a horror story of how parasites will suck you dry and kill you if you let them, and/or a morality tale for children on how some gifts should never be accepted, and the necessity for mélith – balance and obligation – as the basis for any kind of ethical relationship.

Orion Drives

wolfkazumaru replied to your quote: Phoenix Zero, you are blue-lighted across the”

Using nuclear drives in atmo? Tsk, tsk, that’s dangerous.

Ah, you humans and your silly fragile immune systems…

Well, considering at the time they were already using nuclear power plants, nuclear furnaces, nuclear-powered vehicles, and nuclear devices to excavate reservoirs, cut tunnels, dig canals, disperse inconvenient mountains, and so forth, no-one was really all that worried about another use for Our Friend, The Atom.

(Especially one that was being tested in the middle of a freakin’ desert many miles from anywhere stuff might fall on.)

It also helped that in their universe, no-one at the time had thought of using them on people. I mean, sure, you could theoretically weaponize a nuclear device, but what would be the point? Everyone knows they’d have no imaginable practical use in warfare, right? What possible use is there for a bomb that completely obliterates the economic value of whatever you’re fighting over?