blogging from a to z
So, this challenge that I did last year? That was fun. So I’m doing it again this year! This time, though, I’m going to offer you, gentle readers, a chance to help me out a little with the conceptualizing of things and possibly see things you want to
trope-a-day
Would Hit A Girl: Played straight in the Empire, since they never invented that particular double standard in the first place (of course, by their regular social standards, it’s not acceptable to hit anybody outwith special circumstances mostly involving rights violations, which may also explain why it’s universally
preview
So, here’s something a bit special for you today. I have a long work in mind and butcher-paper progress right now, and by that I don’t just mean on the scale of The Core War, I mean an actual novel, belike. Covering one of those interesting historical periods
trope-a-day
Worthy Opponent: Played straight quite often by the old guard of the Imperial Navy and Imperial Legions, who are known for feeling respect in the presence and nostalgia in the absence of their fellow professionals on the other side, who know how to fight honorably, in accordance with the Laws
trope-a-day
Worthless Yellow Rocks: Oh, yeah. Starting with gold itself, whose rarity went the way of the dodo shortly after asteroid mining was developed, and whose price is of a similar order to Earth’s prices for iron, if not actually less. (Which is to say, if it didn’t wear
trope-a-day
The Worm That Walks: There are a number of cybershells which are made up of microbot or even nanobot foglets, all of which would qualify, here. So, too, would some made up of somewhat larger modular components. (Also embatil, of course, who are a collegiate intelligence made up of multiple
worldbuilding
Clearing the backlog a little again… On “Securing Security“: Specialist290: ‘I’m guessing, though, that in their own courts of law, the Imperials would view the refusal to voluntarily provide access to such a device as an aggravating circumstance in itself?’ Tony Harris: ‘If I’m reading Alastair’s posts
memetics
cultural contamination (n.): The passage of memes and their sociotypes between cultures, often with associated unrest, due to contact between them. Attitudes to cultural contamination vary widely across known space. The extreme poles of this are the Voniensa Republic, whose policy is to avoid cultural contamination to the greatest extent
trope-a-day
World Building: You’ve been reading this blog, right?
worldbuilding
A couple of questions here from Specialist290, which I happen to already have the answer to, so let’s knock those off straight away: A pair of questions whose answers might overlap just a bit: 1. How does the Imperial law handle cases of lost, mislaid, and abandoned property? Down
trope-a-day
The White Prince/Sheltered Aristocrat: See also Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense for the purely financial aspects of this (post-scarcity vs. poverty), but this also applies across the Associated Worlds and their Decade Dissonance, and in general… well, let’s just say that the most developed civilizations are more
eldraeic language
First in this initial set, a terribly useful phrase in first contact situations or when wandering around an unfamiliar starport, Floating Market, or lost sophont office, lest you commit a dreadful solecism and confuse a robot, a piece of luggage, a pet, vehicle, furniture, or potted plant for a fellow