Alex R. Howe
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My blog of science, science fiction, and more.
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Category Archives: Science Fiction
The Singularity Has Encountered an Exception
A Short Story The programmers studied the screen in bewilderment. Last night, they had left the company’s newest AI model, DNEPT-7 (short for Definitely Not Evil Pre-Trained Transformer), humming along on its server on its latest project, trying to parse … Continue reading
Posted in Fiction, Science Fiction
Tagged AI, artificial intelligence, neural network, short story, Singularity
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Commissioned Artwork: Terraforming Venus 2523
I published this art piece on YouTube, Twitter earlier today. You can watch the video here. I’ve reproduced the transcript in this post, along with a few extra notes. Video Transcript (with notes) One year ago, I published a paper[1] … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Science, Science Fiction, Space
Tagged futurism, sci-fi art, Terraforming Venus, venus
1 Comment
Children’s Sci-Fi: Marketing vs. Reality
Note: this is the third and final companion post to my upcoming podcast episode about children’s sci-fi. I should also note that these results are based specifically on Amazon listings, and I don’t know if they are truly reflective of … Continue reading
Posted in Literature, Science Fiction
Tagged Amazon, children's books, middle grade
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How Bad Would the Greenhouse Effect in The Calculating Stars Really Be?
In Mary Robinette Kowal’s The Calculating Stars, a meteor hits the east coast of the United States in the 1950s, obliterating Washington DC and causing global climate catastrophe. Mathematical genius and future Lady Astronaut Elma York calculates that the climate … Continue reading
Ringworld Theory: Did Teela Brown Have Bad Luck?
In Larry Niven’s Ringworld, the alien Puppeteers have secretly been selectively breeding humans for being lucky, which they believe (correctly) is actually a psychic probability manipulation ability. (This seems a little weird because natural selection already involves a lot of … Continue reading
Posted in Science Fiction, Story Analysis
Tagged Larry Niven, Ringworld, Teela Brown, Theory
2 Comments
The Science of Project Hail Mary
Andy Weir’s latest book, Project Hail Mary, is a very good hard science fiction tale about a journey to another solar system in search of a way to save Earth from disaster. Mr. Weir always does mostly pretty good science … Continue reading
Posted in Physics, Science Fiction, Story Analysis
Tagged andy weir, Planetary Atmospheres, Project Hail Mary, Relativity, Rocket Equation
5 Comments
Do the Demographics of Logan’s Run Make Sense?
As a companion to this week’s episode of A Reader’s History of Science Fiction, I wanted to take a closer look at the science behind one of the books I’ll be talking about: Logan’s Run by William F. Nolan and … Continue reading
The Logic of “The Gordian Paradox”
In my recent short story, “The Gordian Paradox,” a human attempts to defeat an evil artificial intelligence with a logical paradox: “This sentence is false.” However, instead of getting the AI stuck in a loop, the evil AI and the … Continue reading
Posted in math, Science Fiction, Writing
Tagged fiction analysis, Liar Paradox, Logic, storytelling
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The Gordian Paradox
A Short Story “Duck!” Raven yelled, and Dave dropped to the floor. Two bullets whizzed over his head before she blocked the rest of them with her improvised shield. He didn’t know how she could stay ahead of the automated … Continue reading
#17 – Arthur C. Clarke
Arthur C. Clarke was the fourth of the “Big Four” authors of the golden age of science fiction. In this episode, we explore his work and his unique writing style, especially centered around “sufficiently advanced technology.” Book recommendation: The City … Continue reading
Posted in A Reader's History of Science Fiction, Science Fiction
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Science Meets Fiction 