M Thomas Apple Author Page

Science fiction, actual science, history, and personal ranting about life, the universe, and everything

Looking for aliens in all the wrong places?

August 12, 2022
MThomas

Our search for alien life is getting serious. With better telescopes and a growing scientific consensus that we’re probably not alone in the universe, we’re beginning to look farther and wider across the vastness of space for evidence of extraterrestrials.

But it’s possible we’re looking for too few signs in too few places. Having evolved on Earth, surrounded by Earth life, we assume alien life would look and behave like terrestrial life.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/alien-hunters-need-to-start-rethinking-the-definition-of-life?

I agree that we are biased, simply based on the basics of what we understand as (carbon-based) life (i.e., ourselves).

And I agree — in principle — that scientists need to keep an open mind when looking for other life forms on exoplanets.

However, they also need to retain a sense of skepticism.

Continue Reading

Attack of the Killer Drones — Non-fiction not fiction?

July 26, 2022
MThomas

These aren’t the drones that deliver your online order. Loaded with cameras, sensors, and explosives, their mission is to drive themselves to a target with an algorithm in the driver’s seat. They destroy themselves along with the target, leaving behind just a pile of electronic detritus.

https://m.dw.com/en/killer-robots-will-they-be-banned/a-62587436

Oh, joy. I can’t wait to see what happens when we program 3D printers to churn them out.

Or just simply make them self-replicating. What could possibly go wrong?

Another month, another missed Bringer of Light post…

July 18, 2022
MThomas

Yeah. So I missed another installment in my series.

Shoot.

Things are just ridiculously spiraling out of control at work. I hope to start posting more regularly again in a week or so.

In the meantime, check out more images from the Webb space telescope compared to Hubble. They’re pretty awe-inspiring.

Meet the man who was Shatner’s eye

March 28, 2022
MThomas

www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2022/03/22/star-trek-movie-shatners-eyeball/

The iconic “retina scan” scene in Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan was not Shatner’s own eye.

It was an “eye double” software engineer.

(As the man himself says, your iPhone can take a more detailed picture these days, but it was high tech for 1982…)

Ready to ride the laser to Mars?

February 11, 2022
MThomas

“The laser, a 10-meter wide array on Earth, would heat hydrogen plasma in a chamber behind the spacecraft, producing thrust from hydrogen gas and sending it to Mars in only 45 days. There, it would aerobrake in Mars’ atmosphere, shuttling supplies to human colonists or, someday perhaps, even humans themselves.”

https://phys.org/news/2022-02-laser-mars.html

The only problem is that there’s no way to slow the thing down right now…”aerobraking” using current technology would cause gees of 8 or above for several minutes and temperatures hot enough to cook whatever’s in the ship to a nice toasty crisp.

Not even the G-Force would survive! Well, OK, maybe. (But only if they reverted to their original Japanese name – “Gatchman.”)

But what if robots could design a receiving station with lasers to “catch” the ship and slow it down…?

Hmmm. Sounds like a science fiction work in progress…

Quantum Leap pilot episode confirmed (but Bakula is only a “maybe”)

January 14, 2022
MThomas

“Considering how many different possibilities there are for a series like Quantum Leap in today’s world, it’s more than a little surprising that it’s taken this long for the series to attempt a return. Bakula had previously stated how relevant a series reboot would be, and the idea of creating a sequel series in which a new team searches for him is perhaps the perfect way to reignite the intrigue that the original program offered.”

https://screenrant.com/quantum-leap-sequel-pilot-scott-bakula-return-update

My family used to watch this each week in the late ’80s and early ’90s. Near the end it did get a little weird (the main character Sam Beckett jumped into the body of a space race NASA chimpanzee, and animal rights activists went totally ballastic).

Still, it ended on a very unsatisfying note (basically, “He never returned home. The End.”) and almost any kind of sequel would be great. Since Sam is a “missing person,” there is likely more to this than meets the eye (see https://www.thewrap.com/quantum-leap-reboot-nbc-plot-details/).

Happy New Year 2022!

January 1, 2022
MThomas

Happy New Year, everybody!

My New Year’s resolution: to finally finish the first draft of Bringer of Light and get the editing done by summer.

Thanks for reading this blog. Best wishes to all of you for a safe and prosperous 2022!

Ho, ho, ho, Merry Akira!

December 27, 2021
MThomas

In case you didn’t know, the entire film of Akira has been available on YouTube since 12/23…in Japanese.

Kanedaaaaaaaaaaa!

Still, it’s free. I first watched it (in badly translated dubbed English) on the big screen in a cheap arts cinema in 1991.

Glorious.

Bought the original Japanese comics (MUCH better than the movie, which barely covers the first volume) and then the English translated comics. Then got the collector’s edition movie with a new English translation (both subtitles and dubbed).

Tetsuooooooo!

It’s online for free until 12/28, so if you’re sick of Santa movies go check it out!

Kanedaaaaaaaaa! Help me…..!

(It’s meant to advertise the upcoming Katsuhiro Otomo Complete Works manga collection, available at the end of January.)

Tetsuooooooooooooo!

https://soranews24.com/2021/12/24/anime-classic-akira-suddenly-becomes-free-to-watch-in-its-entirety-on-youtube/

Real world locations of dystopian scifi movies

December 10, 2021
MThomas

The Bradbury Building is well known (Blade Runner, 1982), but do you know these other locations?

Frank Lloyd Wright-designed buildings, city halls, abandoned mills, even a high school in Texas…

(An older article, but still interesting…too many movies rely entirely on green screen these days…)

10 Cheesy Sci-Fi Movies That Deserve Remakes | Screen Rant

November 25, 2021
MThomas

Between a hated Marvel movie, a quarterback in space, and ‘the worst movie ever made,’ there are so many sci-fi flicks just waiting to be rebooted.
— Read on screenrant.com/cheesy-science-fiction-movies-that-deserve-remakes-reboots/

I agree with some and totally disagree with others.

A remake of Flash Gordon?

🙆‍♂️ Sure! (The original is campy, but the comic strip it’s based on was fairly dramatic.)

Logan’s Run?

🤔 Would make a much better series than a one-off (a movie remake is currently in “development hell”).

Howard the Duck?

🤢🤦‍♂️

Are you kidding? 🙅

What do you all think?

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