Submarines and Starships

Are sci-fi starship stories just extensions of submarine stories?

Submarines and interstellar space ships have a lot in common. Both are self-contained vessels carrying a crew through a cold, dark, hostile environment. Modern nuclear subs generate all their own oxygen and remove the harmful carbon dioxide and maintain a livable environment, just as a starship would have to do.

I think the original series of Star Trek had it right when they had a view screen and no windows. After all, the view on an interstellar voyage is, for the most part, going to be very boring.  A view screen is going to be a much more practical solution.

Another similarity, most sci-fi stories that take place on starships have the ship’s society based on a military style hierarchy.

And the final similarity, I enjoy both. I enjoy sci-fi and I love a good submarine novel. Maybe it’s the independence that each represents. Maybe it’s the attraction of the isolation from a complicated world with so many worries and problems. Life on either seems simpler than the real world. And both promise an adventure.

Bob Garvin Deviantart

Evolution

How many millions of years have been necessary for evolution to develop the complex forms we see in our world today. It is a slow process of trial and error. We can contrast this development with the development of machines. Machinery is now faster, stronger, larger, longer lived, and more powerful than any living animal. The difference between evolution and engineering is incredible. Evolution involves the progress of an organism through blind trial and error. Random changes are selected for their benefits and passed on through genetic information. Engineering involves the intelligent design and testing of improvements, leading to rapid advances in machinery. Engineering has surpassed many of nature’s creatures in only 200 years. The fastest animal is the falcon at 120 mph: the fastest jet aircraft is the sr-71 at 2,430 mph. The horse has long been the measure of power, yet we measure our average automobile in terms of hundreds of horse power. Modern aircraft carriers dwarf the blue whale, the world’s largest animal to ever live. The modern machines have only been created recently, but there are numerous steam engines from the 1800’s still in operation and there is no reason to doubt that many machines could be maintained indefinitely. This is why clerics saw the idea of evolution so threatening. It reveals the randomness of our natural world and defies any intelligent guiding hand in its creation. For if man can achieve such incredible accomplishments in only 200 years, why did it take 4 billion years for God to create the natural world that we know. 

The last bastion of nature’s record holder is intelligence, but that may soon be surpassed by the computer. And at what point will the computer become self-aware?

          Many people do not believe that man should engineer his own DNA, but if he does not then he may face a successor in his own creation, the machine. It took millions of years for animal intelligence to evolve from simple single celled organisms that reacted only to light and chemical stimulation to the more complex insects. Today’s computers are somewhere between the two, depending on who you ask. But the rate at which computer intelligence is increasing, as measured by their speed of “thought,” is truly astounding, doubling every two years. In contrast, human intelligence has not changed over the last 4,000 years. The people that constructed the pyramids were just as intelligent as the people that constructed the space shuttle, the difference being only the amount of stored information that they had available to them. Will we become the second most intelligent system on Earth or will we merge with the machine in a symbiotic organic/inorganic new species that is unlike anything that has gone before?

          

The New Politics

A well done sci-fi short with a twist. 

artwork by Sparth artstation.com

Isn't it time for a Dune movie remake? A trilogy done with modern tech and a great cast would be fantastic. I'd be happy to the screenplay just for a front seat on premiere night.

Flying Cars,at last

The promise of flying cars soon is one that I've heard for decades, but just maybe they might really become a reality this time. Uber is promising to try them out in Dallas and in Dubai. I guess they just have a thing for capital D.

There is no end to the hurtles they will face in setting up air control, getting approval from the FAA, gaining acceptance from customers, and actually building reliable "quadcopters" to make this endeavor successful. (I still have too many memories of my own quadcopter going out of control)

But I hope it is successful. I'd love to fly in one, although not one of the first ones.

If you have not discovered Coldfusion on YouTube, be sure to check them out. The channel is devoted to timely and interesting science and tech. 

Silo Series

The newest addition to the world of Wool created by Hugh Howey explores the life of a silo that receives a glimmer of hope as an uprising threatens to tear the silo apart. The Best Selling Wool Series lives on in the Kindle Worlds' extensions of the amazing phenomenon of indie author Hugh Howey.
The Lost Silo is a novella in the Silo Saga, available on Amazon.

Lunar Contact Trilogy

The entire Lunar Contact Trilogy is now available in a single volume on Amazon. The single volume price is $4.99

The crew of the space shuttle Atlantis find themselves caught up in a war of survival between an alien species and a computer intelligence that threatens all organic life. In this story of first contact, humanity is threatened by an intelligence created by a race of aliens that have conquered the ability to control the fabric of space, but unable to control their own creation. Their best weapons are their creativity and resourcefulness in protecting the Earth from exploitation and ultimate ruin, but first they have to master their own internal struggles.
This is the compilation of the Contact Series, all three books in one. Over eight hundred pages of fast action, roller coaster thrills in a world of future technology and strange creatures.

New Sci-Fi Book on Kindle

The Sands of Calysto is the story of a young man that joins his uncle on a distant planet where men go to get rich. He soon discovers that if it's not the planet that's trying to kill you, it's the greed of your fellow man trying to take what's yours, including your life. Zack has to grow up quick and learn a new way of life in order to survive.
Available now on Amazon.

Assisted Weapons Suits

Here are three really cool pictures of futuristic assisted power suits from my friend Eliott Lilly.

 

 You can see more of his artwork at http://www.eliottlillyart.com. He is truly a gifted artist.

Time-Wells and Instant Comunication

In the Contact Series, I touch on the concept of sending information back in time. There has been a lot of discussion about time travel among many of today’s physicists. A topic that would never have been taken seriously by scientists previously has finally received a serious examination. Unfortunately most agree that nature conspires against the possibility of making a trip back in time. The amount of energy required either becomes impractical or impossible, depending on who you listen to (and I really wanted a time machine, too).

But what about sending information back through time? I read about Ronald Mallett’s work using lasers to distort spacetime and create a method for time travel. While his work is very controversial it does have some valid points and is based in science. Harold White and the Icarus project have also proposed using light to warp spacetime, so the jury is still out considering whether time travel will ever be possible.

I personally don’t believe we will ever have a time machine capable of transporting a person back in time. It simply creates too many physical paradoxes. But I find the possibility of sending information into the past fascinating.

Suppose a devise is invented that can transmit data into the past. It might only be able to send the information to itself, but even that would have far reaching ramifications. How would it work? In the novel I described the devise as a time-well. Information could be dropped into the well on a specific date, for instance January first, 2099, and appear in the same time-well fifty years earlier, January first 2049. This information could then be used accordingly (instant lotto winner, guaranteed stock picks, avoidance of natural disasters).

In the book it is used to solve the problem of communications over great distances. The problem of sending a message to a star ship 20 light years away is that the message is twenty years old when it gets to the star ship. By utilizing a time-well, the message could be sent twenty years into the past and then sent out to where the star ship would be in twenty years. The message would appear to be instantaneous. The reply could be handled in the same manner aboard the star ship if they also had a time-well. 

Of course this “opens a whole ‘nother can of worms,” as my grandfather used to say. Why not just read all the messages from the future before you leave. Then you can avoid any nasty surprises or unfortunate space battles that you might lose. How would knowing the future, change the future? And what paradoxes would result from having the information? Would your time-well fill to overflowing with messages from alternative futures, all possible futures?

It could also lead to some very creative story writing, the challenge is making the story simple versus so convoluted and confusing that the reader is hopelessly lost. It is just one of the many ideas that I touched upon in the Contact Series, hoping to give the reader something to consider.

Fun Facts

With David Beckham's retirement filling the news, I got a little curious about the origin of soccer. Here's what I learned.
Is it "Football" or "Soccer?"
It seems that the word "soccer" was invented by the British and used to describe the game by the upper classes when the game first started. It was the proper name of the game. Eighteen years later as the sport became more popular with middle and lower classes, the term football came into use.
Of course in the confusing times before the internet, especially the 1860's, there were several "Football" sports and different regions practiced different rules. So, in 1863 the "Association Football" was formed to standardize the rules and seperate it from other games such as rugby football.
By the time "Football" spread to the rest of the world, many countries already had a popular sport called football and so in these countries, U.S.A., Australia, Ireland, South Africa, New Zeland...etc.the name "Soccer" was preferred.
Among the other "football" sports, the term football is often in reference to the fact that the game is played on foot as opposed to being played on horseback and not as is commonly assumed because the ball is kicked with the foot.
The Japanese have the first recorded account of a soccer-like game in the year 1004 B.C.
The Romans played a similar game that fielded 27 men on each team.
The ball was originally a solid color and the familiar black and white pattern was an adaptation to make the ball more easily visible on black and white TV's.

David Beckham

adapted from:  http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2010/06/the-origin-of-the-word-soccer/

Final Contact

Book Three in the Contact Series is now on sale.

Cover artwork by Ryan Wolf at 0-hr.com.

Jason and the humans aboard the Defiant find themselves the underdogs in a battle for survival against an alien intelligence that seeks to replace all biological life with a simulation. Only creativity and determination can keep the crew of the Defiant alive, but will it be enough against an immortal enemy that has all of time on its side?
Final Contact is the third book in the Contact Series of science fiction novels. The first two books were listed on Amazon's Best Selling Science Fiction in the summer of 2012 and then the following winter. Now the book that fans have been demanding is available. Will the human crew be able to save Earth and return home?


"Fast pace, good characters, great premise."

   "I really liked the premise of the book and the "this could happen tomorrow" feeling Clarke
        gives to the book"


      "Once again, JD Clarke has written an interesting space opera adventure 
           that kept the pages turning. The main characters are really in it deep"
            

Newest Sci-Fi book on sale at Amazon now.

Science Fiction Artwork that Sparks the Imagination

Artwork by Ryan Wolf at 0-hr.com

Just an average guy with a killer gun, art by Rikelee on CGHUB.

In the future androids may be indistinguishable from humans.

Emergency by Rikelee.

Women are taking a more dynamic role in today's sci-fi art as well as in novels and movies.

Purge: Eva X by Marcin Jakubowski AKA: balloontree  
on CGHUB.

"The Sergeant's heavy armor looked intimidating."

Art by Piotr Nasirau of Shanghai.

Mischevious or just plain trouble? It's all in the eyes.

Art by Moon Hyunsoo from Seoul.

Aliens in battle armor, does it get any cooler than this?

See the video by Benjamin Erdt.

Would a scientist make a good soldier or would he over-engineer his own armor?

Art work by Evan Lee of Taiwan.

Armor

Pathfinder armor from Halo 4 by PatJS on CGHUB

There are many visions of what armor will look like in the future. Some artists seem to feel that large metal plates are the answer. Modern armor on today's tanks rely on a sandwich formula of high strength metal and ceramic. Maybe this will be developed for the foot soldier of tomorrow.

The soldier of tomorrow may have heavy flat plate armor.

Diesel Punk - US Subterrarean Suit MKI by BjornHurri on CGHUB

 Other artists envision a mix of thick protective plates and some type of bullet resistant fabric to increase mobility. It would certainly save on the weight factor of an armored suit as well.

Will there be a conflict between armor protection and fashion?

Many other artists are heavily influenced by the popularity of steam punk design. This leads to some interesting design concepts. While they are seldom practical, they definitely stimulate an interest in alternate reality time lines.

Deathwatch by stefan-kopinski on CGHUB

Nurgle marine by karlkopinski on CGHUB

Other artists take their inspiration from medieval times when armor not only protected its wearer, but also identified its owner with family crests. The ornate detail let enemies know they were dealing with a man of wealth that could afford the best armor and the best training. Perhaps this style will make a come back in the armies of the future.

inquisitor by karlkopinski on CGHUB

Enforcer by Marek_Okon on CGHUB

Sister of Battle by ManiakS on CGHUB

Rufus, N.O.V.A. 3 by ez5k on CGHUB

Perhaps materials of the future will provide both mobility and protection without the bulky flat plate design that adorns many of today's concepts. This would be a real boon to the poor soldier that has to lug around a heavy suit all day and then engage an enemy in a strenuous fight for survival.

Maximum Fire by Marek_Okon

The modo replicator suit by Maciej seems to share some inspiration from today's dragon armor design.

What ever lies ahead for the fighting foot soldier of tomorrow, many of today's artists may inspire the scientists of tomorrow with their visions of future battle suits.

space gato by illfill on CGHUB

Chloe Moretz as YT  Snow Crash the Movie by cannibalcandy

Applibot_Galaxy Saga_Commander_Evolve by chrisnfy85 on CGHUB

Rasmus Poulsen is an artist in Quebec, Canada. He has worked on:

Hitman: Bloodmoney (Artist), Kane & Lynch (Artist), Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days (Art Director)

His images are realistic with detailed backgrounds. 

He was educated at the Danish Design School in 2005. Graduating in the field of Concept Art and Production Design. He received an internship at IO Interactive while still at school, and a job following gradiation. "Here I worked as an graphics artist doing concept art, 3D and texturing, post production, editing and graphic design. I've been an art director for the last couple of years working on K&L2: Dog Days, guiding my wonderful colleagues to great fortune and glory :)"

His website, technouveau.net, features many other pictures of future war machines and landscapes.

Star Trek, Pixar Style

Phil Postma's Minion Factory blogsite featured these pictures of Star Trek, the original series, done in a Pixar style.

Phil used Photoshop to create these amusing characterizations of Kirk, Spock, and the crew of the Enterprise along with a few of the featured aliens.

He used existing Pixar film characters as his starting point to build these pictures.

He is obviously a gifted artist and I am hoping he does the crew of the current Star Trek movies as well.

His blog has also featured Star Wars in a Pixar style also. 

Hats off to Phil Postma's Minion Factory

Latest Reviews for Enemy Contact

January 27, 2013

4.2 Stars

 Reviews on Amazon:

Excellent book that I couldn't put down til it was over.
Now I'm patiently waiting on the next in the series.
by VaeVictis

Very enjoyable books in the series. This is definitely a strong argument for the series continuation. The story is cohesive and well crafted.
by Mountain  Runner

This sequel was a quick enjoyable read for me. The knowledge of science, biology and astrophysics I learned from this book make me king nerd at my house. The characters are growing more confident and stronger while taking charge of their destiny and situation they are in. Once again Mr. JD Clarke kept me entertained and I am ready to purchase book three as soon as it comes out.
by Esebobo

So far this has been a fantastic series! A great deal of fun following the balancing of robot AI vs. Organic beings fighting for survival.
David B. Chapman "Conundrum"

As much as I enjoyed the first book, this one was even better! The story arc is engrossing. Mr. Clarke where is the third book? Don't leave me hanging!
by Jason

From the author:

Thanks for the kind words and taking the time to write a review. I always enjoy reading email from readers as well, so keep those emails coming. The third book will be out soon. It is coming along well and the crew of the Defiant will be facing more challenges in their adventure to survive what started as a short mission to the moon.