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Protocol: Succession

Protocol: Succession

The following is a piece of flash fiction inspired by a conversation between science communicator and cosmobiologist Graham Lau, myself, and others via Twitter. Everything and everyone depicted within is pure fiction, though they may allude to famous people living or dead.

It hovered before him. The mass of entangled particles, shining, black, blue, and chrome, whirling around a common center like a hive of frighteningly synchronized insects. Abu knew better, but the image was unshakable. So many tiny machines coordinated by a common intelligence. And they were emitting a loud humming noise that sounded distinctly like a high-pitched buzz.

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Boltzmann’s Brainchild

Boltzmann’s Brainchild

His head was hurting. His mouth was dry. His entire body felt uninspired and feeble. He felt much the same a short while ago when he left the dinner table. How long ago was that? What time was it?

He’d left his watch upstairs and hadn’t the capacity to find a clock right now. But a quick pass by the hall window confirmed that the Sun was coming up. They were firmly in the AM, and he was forced to accept that it was no longer the previous evening.

No appreciation for time! Why was that?

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A Sneak Peak at Exogenisis!

A Sneak Peak at Exogenisis!

Hello again! I am going to do something I haven’t done in a long time here and share some creative writing I’ve been working on. In truth, I have done a lot of creative writing these past few years that I have failed to share here. I decided it was time to rectify this, and what better way to start than to share the first chapter of one of my current WIPs? It is titled Exogenesis, and it is a story that has taken a long time for me to realize!

I described this idea a short while ago in another post (“A Visit to the Ideas Folder“). In fact, I described two ideas, one titled Pilgrimage and the other titled Exogenesis. As I wrote at the time, Pilgrimage is a short story about distant origins and how future humans may come to trace their ancestry back to Earth. It is also the first chapter in the full-length version set in the same universe, titled Exogenesis. I am told that this is how many of the greats realized their first novels, so I decided to give it a try.

In any case, here’s the first chapter in full! A word of warning: there’s a lot of linguistics and semantic evolution in here, so some words won’t make a lot of sense at first sight. But I’m hoping the context will help resolve all that. Enjoy!

Continue reading “A Sneak Peak at Exogenisis!” →

Episode 89 of Stories from Space is now Live!

Episode 89 of Stories from Space is now Live!

The dream of interstellar travel, of reaching another star system and setting foot on another world, has been with us for centuries. However, with the dawn of the Space Age, this dream began to materialize as multiple scientific proposals were made. These included iconic studies like Project Orion, Project Daedalus, Project Icarus, and the Enzmann Starship, concepts that either prioritized speed or settling in for a long journey!

As we enter a new era of space exploration, many of these concepts are being reconsidered while new ones are being researched. These include antimatter propulsion, the HALO Drive, the fabled Alcubierre Warp Drive, and directed energy propulsion (DEP). The question is, which of these methods are feasible within our lifetimes? More to the point, how long before we can start sending crewed missions to other stars?

Follow the links below to learn more…

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Episode 87 of SfS is now Live! “The Space Race: Part II”

Episode 87 of SfS is now Live! “The Space Race: Part II”

This week’s episode is the second installment in the Space Race. In the previous installment, we examined how the American and Soviet space programs were locked in a competition to “get there first.” This included sending the first satellites, animals, and astronauts/cosmonauts to space, in which the Soviets obtained an early lead. By the mid-60s, with the Gemini program, NASA surpassed its Soviet counterparts and was poised to make the Moonshot!

From 1966 onward, both NASA and the Soviets pursued the same goal: sending crewed missions to the Moon. While NASA’s efforts were bold and public, the Soviets developed their own plans in secret. In 1969, history was made when Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin became the first humans to set foot on the lunar surface. They would be followed by no less than six more Apollo missions and twelve astronauts.

With the Space Race officially over, both NASA and the Soviet space program began to set their sights on more long-term goals. They also entered into a new era of cooperation in space, which was demonstrated in the famous “handshake in space” and would eventually lead to the International Space Station (ISS).

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Episode 82 of SfS – Where is Everybody? The SETI Paradox – is now Live!

Episode 82 of SfS – Where is Everybody? The SETI Paradox – is now Live!

This week’s episode was the final installment in the Fermi Paradox series. For the finale, we examine the “SETI Paradox,” a proposed resolution that asks the question, “What if everybody is listening, but no one is transmitting?” This theory reflects humanity’s own conundrum when it comes to the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI): should we continue to conduct “passive SETI” (listening) or engage in “active SETI” (messaging)?

In recent years, the latter has given rise to a new field known as Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence, or METI. While most efforts to make contact with an extraterrestrial species have been in the form of SETI, a few METI experiments have been conducted over the years. The most well-known example is the Arecibo Message, which was transmitted from the venerable Arecibo Observatory in 1974. Other examples include the Pioneer Plaques and the Voyager Golden Records. There have been other examples, but they don’t begin to rival the time or resources committed to SETI.

While METI has become a field in its own right, those who are passionate about it understand that there are necessary concerns. After all, we have no idea what’s out there. What if we broadcast our existence to the Universe and it leads to an invasion by a hostile civilization? It makes sense that other civilizations would be preoccupied with the same concerns, so perhaps this is why we aren’t hearing from anyone. As you might have guessed, there is some crossover with the Dark Forest Hypothesis here.

Follow the links below to learn more about this hypothesis and the controversy surrounding SETI vs. METI:

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Talking About Grief and Trauma

Talking About Grief and Trauma

This is not something I’ve spoken publicly about much for obvious reasons. It’s painful and difficult to discuss the things in life that have traumatized us, especially when we are still dealing with the aftermath. While I addressed this in a previous post, it’s something I have not talked about on my site since. Suffice it to say, this past year has been the worst year of our lives here—that includes my wife, our Boy Jasper, our families, and myself.

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Episode 81 of SfS – An Interview with Sir Peter Beck – is now Live!

Episode 81 of SfS – An Interview with Sir Peter Beck – is now Live!

This week’s episode was special. By chance, I was able to secure an interview with Rocket Lab founder and CEO Sir Peter Beck (yes, he was knighted!). For those unfamiliar, Rocket Lab is a New Zealand-based commercial space company poised to challenge SpaceX’s near-monopoly over commercial launches. Their first launch happened in 2009 and involved the sounding rocket (a test launch vehicle) Ātea-1 launching from their launch facility on the Māhia Peninsula in New Zealand.

This launch made them the first commercial space company in the southern hemisphere to reach space. Since then, Rocket Lab has launched over 50 smallsat missions using its small-launch Electron rocket and expanded its operations to the U.S. In the coming years, it will introduce the Neutron rocket, a medium-lift launch vehicle that will give them the capability to launch satellite constellations. Check out the links below to hear the full interview:

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Episode 76 of SfS – Where is Everybody? The Waterworlds Hypothesis – is now Live!

Episode 76 of SfS – Where is Everybody? The Waterworlds Hypothesis – is now Live!

In this week’s episode, I returned to the ongoing segment about Fermi’s Paradox (“Where is Everybody?”), which focuses on another proposed resolution known as the Waterworlds Hypothesis. Basically, this theory takes the traditional “follow the water” and asks the question: could rocky exoplanets orbiting distant stars have too much water to be habitable? This theory is based on the current exoplanet census, which indicates that there are many rocky planets several times the size and mass of Earth but with lower densities.

This suggests that volatile elements (such as water) make up a significant fraction of these planets’ mass. If true, this would indicate that these rocky worlds are completely covered in deep oceans. If they don’t possess a dense atmosphere, they would likely consist of an icy outer shell, an interior ocean, and a rocky and metallic core. This is similar to what we see in our own Solar System, where many satellites orbiting the gas giants are thought to have interior oceans beneath their icy crusts.

Like Jupiter’s moon Ganymede, the depths and pressure conditions in these oceans would lead to the formation of an ice layer between the ocean and the rocky, metallic core. If true, this would mean that the very things that could support the emergence of life – hydrothermal activity at the core-mantle boundary – would be missing. Based on the fossil record, this is how scientists believe life emerged on Earth (around deep-sea vents) and what is believed to be happening inside Jupiter’s moon Europa.

However, this does not mean that all Waterworlds can’t support life. In fact, there’s also research that indicates that planets lacking continents and plate tectonics could still support life, perhaps in the form of “space whales“! Still, using Earth as a template, the lack of continents and land masses could mean that evolution would be restricted, and tool-using species may not emerge. So it begs the question: If rocky planets with too much water are the norm, and Earth is an outlier, could this be why we haven’t heard from any extraterrestrial civilizations yet?

Check out the links below to learn more!

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Episode 72 of SfS – The Gift of Gravitational Lensing (with Dr. Slava Turyshev) – is now Live!

Episode 72 of SfS – The Gift of Gravitational Lensing (with Dr. Slava Turyshev) – is now Live!

This week, my guest was Russian-American physicist Dr. Slava Turyshev, a Senior Research Scientist, Technologist, and Project Manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Dr. Turyshev has spent years studying the phenomenon known as gravitational lenses, a consequence of General Relativity, where massive objects amplify and alter the path of light from more distant objects. Astronomers have used this phenomenon to study objects that would otherwise be very difficult to see, including some of the farthest galaxies in the Universe.

In recent years, Turyshev has published numerous studies advocating for a space telescope that would travel to the focal region of our Sun’s Gravitational Lens (SGL). Once there, it could conduct the most detailed astronomical studies ever, which includes taking extremely high-resolution images of exoplanets. In fact, astronomers predict that an SGL telescope could take pictures of exoplanets that would have the same resolution as images of Earth taken from high orbit (see below).

Toth H. & Turyshev, S.G.

Not only that, but Turyshev predicts that gravitational lenses could also be used for communications from one star system to another. These ideas could lead to an “interstellar internet,” which could be how advanced civilizations keep in touch in our galaxy. Perhaps this is why we haven’t found evidence of any extraterrestrial civilizations: they are routing all their calls through a gravitational lens network, and we aren’t hooked up to it yet!

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