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minervadoe
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Writing novels set in the decade 2130 made me do some interesting science research.  Several things became apparent when I read Michio Kaku's "Physics of the Impossible."  The most important idea that I got from his book was that the breakthrough necessary to allow miniature power supplies to power a hand held laser simply are not on the horizon.  I also figured that body armor was going to be made lighter and stronger.  Armor piercing rounds have been around for a long time.  So, what would people be shooting each other with in a hundred years?  One of the guns I take to the range very frequently (a model 1911) was designed over a hundred years ago.  So, why not let a group of soldiers carry Glock 10mms with armor piercing rounds.  It made sense, so if it's good now, maybe it would still be good then.  If it sounds compelling check out my five novels at:   http://chronosscifi.com/

 

The Chronos series contains five novels which take place in the twenty second century. The planet Chronos is Twelve years of travel time from Earth, and it is so rich in resources that it can change the galaxy’s balance of power.

Another thing that is difficult to think about realistically is the astronomical distances required to travel to another galaxy.  Think about this while reflecting that star gazers are looking at the light from distant stars that was emitted billions of years ago.  So, traveling at the  speed of light, the stars are so distant that it billions of years for the light to get to earth.  Even faster than light travel cannot cover these vast distances in any conceivable time frame.  To top that off, there is no technological leap on the horizon to allow spaceships to travel any faster than today's craft.  To date, the fastest man made object is the Juno spacecraft which used the Earth's orbit to slingshot it to 165,000 miles per hour.  So, here's where the science fiction comes in.  The books utilize two wormholes to allow space travel to far away galaxies. 

Chronos is a military science fiction novel which takes place in the year 2132. Man’s advances in space exploration have been evolutionary, not revolutionary. The space ships are not orders of magnitude faster than twentieth century technology, batteries for electronic weapons still take up lots of room, and expensive high tech weaponry cannot be maintained very far from the factories that created it. The frontier of mankind's space exploration is twelve years of space travel away from Earth. The corporations which are involved in planetary mining decide that it is easier and more profitable to enslave their workers and there is nothing that the governments of Earth can do about it. The best Earth can do is to hire mercenaries and utilize local militias. When the Syndicate takes over Chronos to monopolize its rich resources, they begin to develop factories to make the kinds of high tech weapons that are in short supply. If they succeed, these high tech weapons will tip the balance of power. A group of mercenaries is asked to go to Chronos and fight the huge robotic armored divisions with handheld rockets. They find a few surprises which play into their hands once they get there, including telepathic aliens and a colony of miners who turn out to be incredibly resourceful allies.

 

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In the Fallout series of games, specifically Fallout 4, the 10mm is still around and a halfway decent round to use, even 200 years from now and post apocalypse.  Someone made a mod for the game, so I even get to carry around my G20...

As you said, even as technology changes and improves, the same basic concepts are still in use over a century later.  You bring a ford tech from 100 years ago, they might not know all the details, but they'd still be able to understand the basic operation and parts of a modern car, as the basic theory of operation really hasn't changed a whole lot. 

Sure there are a lot of electronics and other things added, but the basic concept (in most cars at least) is still an engine, running through a transmission, then a driveshaft to the rear axle (or front wheel drive).  Controls are still pedals and steering wheel.  Everything else is there because the laws changed to force them, not because they're necessary to make it function.

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14 hours ago, Cougar_ml said:

In the Fallout series of games, specifically Fallout 4, the 10mm is still around and a halfway decent round to use, even 200 years from now and post apocalypse.  Someone made a mod for the game, so I even get to carry around my G20...

As you said, even as technology changes and improves, the same basic concepts are still in use over a century later.  You bring a ford tech from 100 years ago, they might not know all the details, but they'd still be able to understand the basic operation and parts of a modern car, as the basic theory of operation really hasn't changed a whole lot. 

Sure there are a lot of electronics and other things added, but the basic concept (in most cars at least) is still an engine, running through a transmission, then a driveshaft to the rear axle (or front wheel drive).  Controls are still pedals and steering wheel.  Everything else is there because the laws changed to force them, not because they're necessary to make it function.

That is part of what I do in the novels.  Twelve years of travel time from Earth puts a huge economic strain on conflicts and I kind of go with the  concept of "you run what you brung."   I have examples of militia being issued rifles that use electrical ignition to fire case less ammunition.  And, these high tech weapons are rendered to junk when an electromagnetic pulse is sent out into the battlefield.  Another juxtaposition occurs when one of my characters uses a reliable old bolt action rifle to snipe, but uses an auto-magic scope that determines distance to the target and adjusts the reticle to allow for bullet drop.  A melding of the old and the new.

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20 hours ago, minervadoe said:

Writing novels set in the decade 2130 made me do some interesting science research.  Several things became apparent when I read Michio Kaku's "Physics of the Impossible."  The most important idea that I got from his book was that the breakthrough necessary to allow miniature power supplies to power a hand held laser simply are not on the horizon.  I also figured that body armor was going to be made lighter and stronger.  Armor piercing rounds have been around for a long time.  So, what would people be shooting each other with in a hundred years?  One of the guns I take to the range very frequently (a model 1911) was designed over a hundred years ago.  So, why not let a group of soldiers carry Glock 10mms with armor piercing rounds.  It made sense, so if it's good now, maybe it would still be good then.  If it sounds compelling check out my five novels at:   http://chronosscifi.com/

 

The Chronos series contains five novels which take place in the twenty second century. The planet Chronos is Twelve years of travel time from Earth, and it is so rich in resources that it can change the galaxy’s balance of power.

Another thing that is difficult to think about realistically is the astronomical distances required to travel to another galaxy.  Think about this while reflecting that star gazers are looking at the light from distant stars that was emitted billions of years ago.  So, traveling at the  speed of light, the stars are so distant that it billions of years for the light to get to earth.  Even faster than light travel cannot cover these vast distances in any conceivable time frame.  To top that off, there is no technological leap on the horizon to allow spaceships to travel any faster than today's craft.  To date, the fastest man made object is the Juno spacecraft which used the Earth's orbit to slingshot it to 165,000 miles per hour.  So, here's where the science fiction comes in.  The books utilize two wormholes to allow space travel to far away galaxies. 

Chronos is a military science fiction novel which takes place in the year 2132. Man’s advances in space exploration have been evolutionary, not revolutionary. The space ships are not orders of magnitude faster than twentieth century technology, batteries for electronic weapons still take up lots of room, and expensive high tech weaponry cannot be maintained very far from the factories that created it. The frontier of mankind's space exploration is twelve years of space travel away from Earth. The corporations which are involved in planetary mining decide that it is easier and more profitable to enslave their workers and there is nothing that the governments of Earth can do about it. The best Earth can do is to hire mercenaries and utilize local militias. When the Syndicate takes over Chronos to monopolize its rich resources, they begin to develop factories to make the kinds of high tech weapons that are in short supply. If they succeed, these high tech weapons will tip the balance of power. A group of mercenaries is asked to go to Chronos and fight the huge robotic armored divisions with handheld rockets. They find a few surprises which play into their hands once they get there, including telepathic aliens and a colony of miners who turn out to be incredibly resourceful allies.

 

One of the greatest failures of SciFi is that it missed the changes in humans.

Physically we are taller and fatter then previous generations.  Yet, this is not reflected in scifi.

Social changes e.g. effects of iPhone and social media, missed in full.

Robots and AI, not reflected in full.  Usually they are the main focus of the novel, they should not.  They should be in the background but their effects should be shown to the reader.

 

If you know of a Scifi book that address those issues; please let me know.

 

If you do not have them in your books ... think about putting them in.

 

Hand held rockets??????  Have people forgotten how to build drones?  Getting people light years into to the battle make them very valuable.  You are not going to put them at risk.  What about robots and AI?

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1 hour ago, AerynSun2 said:

...changes in humans.

... taller and fatter ...

Social changes e.g. effects of iPhone and social media, missed in full.

Robots and AI, ... should be in the background but their effects should be shown to the reader.

Hand held rockets??????  Have people forgotten how to build drones?  ...  What about robots and AI?

Great feedback.  One of my main characters has the nickname of rocket man.  He is the Wolverines go to guy for all manner of handheld rocketry.  Some of my robots are tracked, some are wheeled, some are walkers and some are spider like.  But, the people's personalities are my focus.  I develop plots where they are more like the escaping slaves of Egypt or the avenging angels of Utah.  Sometimes, history repeats itself and tyranny rules again.

One of my uses of drones has been as sort of a rolling intelligence screen where wheeled robot mules follow a group that's on foot.  The mules carry equipment while the drone expert walks with a handheld terminal that feeds back info from the drones.  It's stuff they can do today, so may be old school tech by then. 

In my novel in the works, a group has to bug out on foot so as to not be detected by a drone swarm sent in to reconnoiter an area.  

All good stuff and all stuff that is going to be very sophisticated, common, and refined in 100 years. 

Social media in science fiction.  YIKES!!!   You could write novels about slothful overweight people sitting in rooms and never interacting with each other, just their handheld devices.  I sidestep this sad possibility by having many of my characters be telepaths.  That way, they can communicate with each other in situations where talking would be suicidal. 

It is so hard to anticipate how future tech will effect human behavior.  I even have one guy who can control androids telepathically.  But, I describe it from his point of view as though he is inside the android, feeling what it feels and seeing what it sees.  I probably need to extend this to giving him a lifelike android that he can use to spy or something.  But, right now he has one giant cobalt blue android and a half dozen normal size androids (also available in one color: blue).

One thing I work with is the idea that all manner of electronic communication can be interrupted by jamming and destroyed by EMPs.  This leaves the characters in some very primitive situations where human resourcefulness trumps high tech wizardry. 

Edited by minervadoe
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17 minutes ago, minervadoe said:

Great feedback.  One of my main characters has the nickname of rocket man.  He is the Wolverines go to guy for all manner of handheld rocketry.  Some of my robots are tracked, some are wheeled, some are walkers and some are spider like.  But, the people's personalities are my focus.  I develop plots where they are more like the escaping slaves of Egypt or the avenging angels of Utah.  Sometimes, history repeats itself and tyranny rules again.

One of my uses of drones has been as sort of a rolling intelligence screen where wheeled robot mules follow a group that's on foot.  The mules carry equipment while the drone expert walks with a handheld terminal that feeds back info from the drones.  It's stuff they can do today, so may be old school tech by then. 

In my novel in the works, a group has to bug out on foot so as to not be detected by a drone swarm sent in to reconnoiter an area.  

All good stuff and all stuff that is going to be very sophisticated, common, and refined in 100 years. 

Social media in science fiction.  YIKES!!!   You could write novels about slothful overweight people sitting in rooms and never interacting with each other, just their handheld devices.  I sidestep this sad possibility by having many of my characters be telepaths.  That way, they can communicate with each other in situations where talking would be suicidal. 

It is so hard to anticipate how future tech will effect human behavior.  I even have one guy who can control androids telepathically.  But, I describe it from his point of view as though he is inside the android, feeling what it feels and seeing what it sees.  I probably need to extend this to giving him a lifelike android that he can use to spy or something.  But, right now he has one giant cobalt blue android and a half dozen normal size androids (also available in one color: blue).

One thing I work with is the idea that all manner of electronic communication can be interrupted by jamming and destroyed by EMPs.  This leaves the characters in some very primitive situations where human resourcefulness trumps high tech wizardry. 

You are writing Science Fantasy - not science fiction.  

No scientific basis for telepathy.  Science has disproved it.

Can't predict human behavior ... don't tell that to sociology or psychologist or psychiatrist. 

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Some of my characters utilize devices to communicate telepathically.  Others have unique genes.  A couple of recent articles have touched on the realm of telepathy.  This one used a chip implant and what they do (I believe) is not properly called telepathy.  But, it's still opens up an amazing world of possibilities not even imagined yet.

https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2018/09/its-now-possible-telepathically-communicate-drone-swarm/151068/

Quote

A person with a brain chip can now pilot a swarm of drones — or even advanced fighter jets, thanks to research funded by the U.S. military’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/3999810/us-government-wants-to-plug-implants-into-human-brains-which-let-us-communicate-telepathically/

https://thenewstack.io/self-correcting-robot-thats-telepathically-controlled-human-brain/

Quote

... scientists are exploring alternatives in robot control, such as brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) that make a direct communication link between the brain and an external machine. A team of researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and Boston University recently created such an interface that allows humans to control a robot with their minds, utilizing machine learning and a commercially-available collaborative robot from Rethink Robotics named Baxter.

 

Maybe the fantasy is what makes it fun for me.

https://www.collective-evolution.com/2017/10/16/study-discovers-humans-can-communicate-telepathically-with-another-person-while-theyre-dreaming/

 

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3 hours ago, minervadoe said:

Social media in science fiction.  YIKES!!!   You could write novels about slothful overweight people sitting in rooms and never interacting with each other, just their handheld devices. 

Wasn't that basically a main idea around what happened to the humans in the movie "WALL-E"?

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4 minutes ago, Cougar_ml said:

Wasn't that basically a main idea around what happened to the humans in the movie "WALL-E"?

I never saw that one, but it seems only a step or two removed from people living in vats with electrodes strapped to their brains in the Matrix. 

People and their smart phones remind me of lab rats with electrodes stimulating the pleasure centers in their brains when they press a lever.  The rats literally starved to death.  I saw a study where they likened people looking for social approval from their smart phones to a similar neural stimulus addiction.

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2 hours ago, minervadoe said:

Some of my characters utilize devices to communicate telepathically.  Others have unique genes.  A couple of recent articles have touched on the realm of telepathy.  This one used a chip implant and what they do (I believe) is not properly called telepathy.  But, it's still opens up an amazing world of possibilities not even imagined yet.

https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2018/09/its-now-possible-telepathically-communicate-drone-swarm/151068/

https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/3999810/us-government-wants-to-plug-implants-into-human-brains-which-let-us-communicate-telepathically/

https://thenewstack.io/self-correcting-robot-thats-telepathically-controlled-human-brain/

 

Maybe the fantasy is what makes it fun for me.

https://www.collective-evolution.com/2017/10/16/study-discovers-humans-can-communicate-telepathically-with-another-person-while-theyre-dreaming/

 

You should have been more specific in the post I replied to.  And I hope you explain all that to the reader.

 

 

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23 minutes ago, minervadoe said:

I never saw that one, but it seems only a step or two removed from people living in vats with electrodes strapped to their brains in the Matrix. 

People and their smart phones remind me of lab rats with electrodes stimulating the pleasure centers in their brains when they press a lever.  The rats literally starved to death.  I saw a study where they likened people looking for social approval from their smart phones to a similar neural stimulus addiction.

All the humans live on what's basically an interstellar cruise ship, they lie down on antigrav lounge chairs that move them around from place to place, and the chairs have a screen that completely blocks in front of their faces, so it's all they see.  The chairs move them all around the ship in a pre-programmed order, but nobody ever pays any attention to anything but the screen in front of them or the occasional large advertisement that interrupts their screens.  Everyone is very fat, has no muscle mass to speak of, weakened bones, and doesn't know how to do even the slightest thing for themselves.  

https://youtu.be/h1BQPV-iCkU

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1 hour ago, Cougar_ml said:

All the humans live on what's basically an interstellar cruise ship, they lie down on antigrav lounge chairs that move them around from place to place, and the chairs have a screen that completely blocks in front of their faces, so it's all they see.  The chairs move them all around the ship in a pre-programmed order, but nobody ever pays any attention to anything but the screen in front of them or the occasional large advertisement that interrupts their screens.  Everyone is very fat, has no muscle mass to speak of, weakened bones, and doesn't know how to do even the slightest thing for themselves.  

https://youtu.be/h1BQPV-iCkU

They sound like they'd make a perfect meal for the Morlocks in the book The Time Machine.  I used to love H.G. Wells and Edgar Rice Burroughs as a kid.

maxresdefault.jpg

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2 hours ago, minervadoe said:

I never saw that one, but it seems only a step or two removed from people living in vats with electrodes strapped to their brains in the Matrix. 

People and their smart phones remind me of lab rats with electrodes stimulating the pleasure centers in their brains when they press a lever.  The rats literally starved to death.  I saw a study where they likened people looking for social approval from their smart phones to a similar neural stimulus addiction.

I was just reading "The Ringworld Engineers" again today, part of it involves "wireheads" and how it's ultimately a self eliminating problem, anyone who is willing to do such a thing or easily addicted typically breeds themselves out of the gene pool.

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43 minutes ago, Cougar_ml said:

I was just reading "The Ringworld Engineers" again today, part of it involves "wireheads" and how it's ultimately a self eliminating problem, anyone who is willing to do such a thing or easily addicted typically breeds themselves out of the gene pool.

I had to look your reference up and then, look at this, wireheads get their own wikipedia page:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wirehead_(science_fiction)

Quote

Also in this science fiction there is a device called a "tasp" (similar to transcranial magnetic stimulation) that does not need a surgical implant; the pleasure center of a person's brain is found and remotely stimulated (considered a violation without seeking the person's consent beforehand), an important device in the Ringworld novels.

That is very cool.  It sort of reminds me of the real world hollywood crackheads I saw on Breaking Bad.  Yikes.  No attention to keeping the body alive at all.  Just stimulate it and make it feel good.

My current novel in the works takes place on Earth where there is no shortage of materials and I have a group that I tagged augments who have chip implants to enhance just about any skill you can think of.  But, some of them have cylinders in their necks which can inject anything from adrenaline to a cocktail of stimulants.  It's not a very rosy picture when you add in the potential for dependence and addiction. 

 

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13 hours ago, minervadoe said:

They sound like they'd make a perfect meal for the Morlocks in the book The Time Machine.  I used to love H.G. Wells and Edgar Rice Burroughs as a kid.

maxresdefault.jpg

 

This was Mad Maxine and family during Thanksgiving. I gotta say, I sorta like the new hairdo.

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15 hours ago, Cougar_ml said:

All the humans live on what's basically an interstellar cruise ship, they lie down on antigrav lounge chairs that move them around from place to place, and the chairs have a screen that completely blocks in front of their faces, so it's all they see.  The chairs move them all around the ship in a pre-programmed order, but nobody ever pays any attention to anything but the screen in front of them or the occasional large advertisement that interrupts their screens.  Everyone is very fat, has no muscle mass to speak of, weakened bones, and doesn't know how to do even the slightest thing for themselves.  

https://youtu.be/h1BQPV-iCkU

I never saw that movie.  But, it is a good representation of one future. 

One thing to consider is the question "How will people have money to buy those things if robots/AI do the work  There would be a few that could afford it but the masses might be poor.

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2 hours ago, AerynSun2 said:

 

One thing to consider is the question "How will people have money to buy those things if robots/AI do the work  There would be a few that could afford it but the masses might be poor.

 

They be doing the work the robots are too cool for.

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