M Thomas Apple Author Page

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

Goodbye, “Kelvin Timeline,” Hello “Picard’s Universe”!

January 8, 2019
MThomas

IMG_4223.png

Looks like the new Picard series will make sure to use the supernova of Romulus’s sun as part of its storyline.

Here’s hoping they also explain why the Romulans were using a name from ancient Earth legends about the foundation of the Roman Empire.

Read all about it at trekcore.com/blog/2019/01/picard-star-trek-series-heavily-influenced-by-2009-romulan-disaster/

The Ultima Thule Awakens! (Well, OK, New Horizons Awakens, Fine…)

December 31, 2018
MThomas

It’s been a long 13 years.

Remember New Horizons? The Little Probe That Could?

No?

You know, the photos of Pluto, Formerly Known As the Ninth Planet?

Doesn’t ring a bell?

Hmpf. Go read about about it.

Anyway, by sheer chance, New Horizons happens to be close enough to grab some pictures of an object in the Kuiper Belt (which looks like KEW-per or KWEE-per but is actually pronounced KAI-per and is completely unrelated to former SF Giants player and current announcer Duane).

Ever wanted to see a peanut-shaped tiny rock (or rocks)

Only half a day left!

Read all about it, uh, pretty much anywhere online, really:

The Verge

Space.com

BBC

Globe and Mail

WIRED

Not anthropomorphic but anthropogenic climate change SF

December 24, 2018
MThomas

Yes, climate change is real.

Yes, some of these five classic SF novels from Tor are really about pollution and not climate change per se.

Yes, that doesn’t really matter.

The Sheep Look Up is still the best of the bunch. And (not surprisingly) somewhat prophetic.

Le plus chose change…

(P.S. Happy Yuletide. Bwah ha ha…)

Who’s up for some Mars skating?

December 23, 2018
MThomas

MarsSkating

Just in time for Christmas!

The Korolev Crater, 51 miles wide and over a mile deep of ice. Perfect spot to place a colony or two.

Or play a massive game of ice hockey. Game on!

Two of the greatest Science Fiction authors of all time, were both born on this day December 16 – Arthur C. Clarke in 1917 and Philip K. Dick in 1928.

Note that I always put “Sir” in quotes, because, basically, $%# that BS. Clarke may have conceived of (NOT invented) the satellite, but PDK (NOT a “Sir”) has had infinitely more influence on modern society.

So I’m calling PKD “Esq.” Also a Pope. Remember that “All statements are true in some sense, false in some sense, meaningless in some sense, true and false in some sense, true and meaningless in some sense, false and meaningless in some sense, and true and false and meaningless in some sense.” Hail Eris!

Anyway, thanks to blackwings666 for the reminder…

via SCIENCE FICTION LEGENDS: ARTHUR C. CLARKE & PHILIP K. DICK — blackwings666

“Feel-bad Seventies Sci-Fi” — The influence on and by changing societies

December 10, 2018
MThomas

logansrun.pngI love ’70s sci-fi movies. Partly it’s because the early ’80s was the advent of the VHS/VCR and cable TV, and in late elementary school I was introduce to these movies for the first time.

Don’t even get me started about late ’70s / early ’80s sci-fi TV shows. Buck Rogers and the original Battlestar Galactica. Gil Gerard and Lorne Greene. My childhood heroes. Yikes. Continue Reading

Wandering Earth and the future of SciFi — the China syndrome?

December 8, 2018
MThomas

foldingbeijingChinese science fiction has been up and coming for a while now. The work of Liu Cixin, for example, earned the author (or translator, not sure which) a Hugo Award. (I reviewed and found the Three-Body Solution to be full of interesting ideas but bogged down with poorly written dialogue, unexpected shifts in voice and style, stereotypes, and two-dimensional characters.)

And, of course, China is about to (re)discover itself as a major player on the world stage. Complete with the “only our civilization can save humanity” trope, a.k.a., just like the US.

So it was just a matter before Chinese cinema followed suit. Continue Reading

The extrasolar immigrants are/have been/will be here

May 29, 2018
MThomas

Though discovered nearly four years ago, an asteroid in orbit near Jupiter ( BZ509, or just “bee-zee” for short) is now said to be originally from outside our solar system. The aliens are here (have been here…). Continue Reading

In his house at R’yleh…

May 20, 2018
MThomas

Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn!

In his house at R’yleh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming…

…because of course his ancestral DNA was brought to Earth aboard an asteroid, as part of an ancient bombardment that seeded life…

Well, maybe not. It’s a controversial idea only in the sense that octopi are not aliens and no DNA can possibly have survived an asteroid bombardment hundreds of millions (or even billions) of years ago.

Still, asteroids seeding the universe is a fun idea for fiction writers. Which is the germ of my novel in progress…

https://qz.com/1281064/a-controversial-study-has-a-new-spin-on-the-otherworldliness-of-the-octopus/

Technology and control: The Eye in the Sky/I

March 25, 2018
MThomas

It’s been a few days now since the “big reveal” that a social science researcher sold information from 50,000,000 Facebook users to a third party company (which used said info for various campaign purposes, but that’s another topic for another blog….).

Somehow, we all managed to be surprised by this. What about our right to privacy? How dare our personal information be used without our permission!

How did we all get so naïve about technology and its control over us?

Continue Reading

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