Good roundup of bad characters, particularly Janet Lester in sexist “Turnabout Intruder,” the original series’ final episode. Disclosure: Madlyn Rhue, who played Lt. McGivers who caves to Khan in “Space Speed,” played my mother in an episode of “The Courtship of Eddie’s Father.”
New Glenn, from Blue Origin/Jeff Bezos, ready for first launch. Huge moment to see if there will be competitor to SpaceX in reusable rockets, the future of spaceflight.
With Star Trek TOS hanging by a thread in 1968, spinoff Assignment: Earth never had a chance. How things have changed in approx. 60 years with the ascendency of sci-fi in film and TV, including a Star Trek canon.
Starliner astronauts to return on Crew Dragon. The only answer. Another huge fail for Boeing. Bring on the crewed version of the DreamChaser mini-shuttle!
Imminent—Memoir of Pentagon UFO investigator Luis Elizondo
Per my previous question “…did you find anything?” Perhaps most serious claims to date, including “non-human cadavers.” (The “biologics” cited by others.) Immediate conclusion: many books will sell.
Does sci-fi influence tech developments, negative and positive? Author cites the torment nexus trope—tech companies building something that a sci-fi author warns against. Sci-fi has been predictive since Jules Verne. “Playing God leads to trouble” as I say in my study series, Christian Sci-Fi Night with Professor K.
Solar sail most plausible craft to send to Alpha Centauri, with theoretical ability to reach fraction of light speed. I explore this technology in my novel Brimstone 1.
Scientists Identify Seven Star Systems That May Be Hosting Alien Megastructures - Futurism
Excess of infrared from these seven stars COULD be evidence of energy-capturing Dyson spheres surrounding them—the ultimate technosignature. Still yet to find evidence of a single microbe beyond Earth. Per The Thing: “Watch the skies…”
How New Science Fiction Could Help Us Improve AI - Scientific American
Fascinating article about organizations trying foster positive sci-fi stories about AI. Good reason why AI sci-fi is mainly negative—more plausible given humankind’s record AND more interesting. My upcoming book The HONOR System is case in point.
Frankenstein Reflects the Hopes and Fears of Every Scientific Era—The Atlantic
Looking forward to MIT Press’ anotated edition. Theme of my study series Christian Sci-Fi Night with Professor K is “Playing God leads to trouble.” Note article’s point that Victor Frankenstein’s crime was hating and abandoning his creation, antithetical to God.