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Spider Star
The human colony on the planet Argo has long explored and exploited the technology left behind by an extinct alien race. But then an archaeology team accidentally activates a terrible weapon...
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Praise for Star Dragon
"Seldom does a storytelling talent come along as potent and fully mature as Mike Brotherton. His complex characters take you on a voyage that is both fiercely credible and astonishingly imaginative. This is Science Fiction."
-- David Brin"Star Dragon is terrific fare, offering readers a fusion of hard science and grand adventure."
-- Locus Magazine"Star Dragon is steeped in cosmology, the physics of interstellar travel, exobiology, artificial intelligence, bioscience. Brotherton, author of many scientific articles in refereed journals, has written a dramatic, provocative, utterly convincing hard science sf novel that includes an ironic twist that fans will love."
-- Booklist starred review"Readers hungry for the thought-provoking extrapolation and rigorous technical detail of old-fashioned hard SF are sure to enjoy astronomer Brotherton's first novel."
-- Publishers Weekly"Mike Brotherton, himself a trained astrophysicist, combines the technical acuity and ingenuity of Robert Forward with the ironic, postmodern stance and style of M. John Harrison. In this, his debut novel, those twin talents unite to produce a work that is involving on any number of levels. It's just about all you could ask for in a hardcore SF adventure."
-- Paul di Fillippo, SCI-FI.COM
Starlink Day
March 2nd, 2009
I’m busy having fun in Rio this week, plus a little work and a few necessary errands (getting a Chinese visa for next month’s trip), and anticipating the arrival of my parents tomorrow. I’ll probably get a chance to write a few decent entry while they take naps or take tours this week.
But there’s a bunch of things I want to point and and comment on, so let’s get started.
James Wallace Harris writes about filming sf stories in response to a call for the best sf to be made into short (10-15 minute) movies. I think this is a great topic and will think about doing a follow-up post later in the week, although I fear my staple of short stories isn’t large enough to do this justice.
Nokia is starting something called the IdeasProject and just issued a press release about the involvement of Vernor Vinge. Here’s an extended interview (4-5 minutes) with him from last month on this topic:
OK, I’m a skeptic about some aspects of the Singularity, the concept of “the” singularity, and the timescale, but it is interesting and possible. Basically you have to count on current trends continuining and not flattening off, software matching hardware development, “superhuman” intelligence actually making a fundamental difference, and more. Possible, but very speculative.
Why Doctors Hate Science. Have to say I’m in general agreement with the tone of the article. Doctors tend to be technicians rather than scientists and apply reasoning in a rather different way most of the time. Doctors also tend to be out of touch with science as much as any other profession, technical or not. Don’t want to get into this now. Could be a larger topic later for discussion.
A planet imaged from reprocessing Hubble archival pictures. And probably more to come in the near future. This is cool. I think I am going to have to interview my old friend Bruce Macintosh about this here soon.
Army exoskeleton news: the HULC:
Finally, 13 Unsolved Science Puzzles. This could lead to a lengthy post, as I have ideas about this and am critical of some of the choices on the list and don’t regard them as serious “puzzles.” Some of them are pretty good choices though and the article is worth a quick look.
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March 3rd, 2009 at 5:04 am
Everything I’ve seen on “the singularity” strikes me as ridiculous mystical bullshit, personally.
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On a brighter note, check out Ben Goldacre’s Bad Science (http://www.badscience.net/) if you’re not already familiar with it. A good example of a doctor who definitely doesn’t hate science.