A Thoughtful Herd

We stand now at an amazing moment in the history of our people. Just a 18 herds of migrations ago, our people were unable to build meaning with our hands, for we had neither the digits, nor the consciousness, to build. But here, now, all herds of the Southern Steppe share those genes, and the herds of the Northwest are adapting as well, with genes gained from when our migrations meet during rut. Those hatchlings without these genes, fail and die before reaching personhood; or, reaching personhood, fail to find carriers for their eggs. Just one herd of migrations ago, we would have left them to die of exposure, or be consumed by our old threat, the cleavers.

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Depression and the Creative Professional

In March, 2014, I announced the launch of the Mobile Frame Zero 002: Intercept Orbit (originally, Alpha Bandit) Kickstarter. I had high hopes, as my three previous Kickstarters had gone well, succeeding with between 300% and 900% of my cash goal. Instead, the project wound up testing my limits as a creator and seriously, adversely affecting my mental health.

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Pris is More Cyborg than Woman

At the beginning of Blade Runner, Captain Bryant tells us that (editing errors aside) four replicants have escaped their restraints and have flown to Earth. The oldest of them is Roy Batty (incept date: January 8, 2016), followed closely by Pris (February 14, 2016). Of the replicants, they’re emotionally closest to each other; where Zhora and Leon seem to be living together as a matter of convenience, Roy and Pris seem to be traveling and living together because they like each other, they miss each other when they’re gone, and they share an objective. But Pris is different from Roy.

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Repos of the 22nd Century

The promise of private spaceflight brings with it the conditions of the socioeconomic systems from which it stems. By the mid-22nd century, there are so many private space operations that the asteroid belt and many of the minor bodies of the solar system are crawling with mining operations. Their primary function is not to send their goods back planetside — such an endeavor requires more ∆V than it’s worth in most cases — but to supply other interplanetary operations.

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Kefo Rn, the Language of the Academy

When I wrote Human Contact in 2010, one of the elements I lavished attention on was Kefo Rn, the language of the Academy. Now that Human Contact is out of print (though available as a PDF to patrons of my Patreon), I want to make sure that these ideas are here for everyone to play with.

When its creators, pioneers in linguistic cultivation, first designed Kefo- Rn two centuries ago, they invested the language with several core principles that have endured ever since.

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The Question Is Not Whether Deckard Is A Replicant, But Whether Roy Is A Person

Blade Runner is a near-perfect vision. What I love most about it is its willingness to embrace the Noir idiom, not just in its visuals, but in the ambivalent moral position of its protagonist, Roy Batty. Continue reading “The Question Is Not Whether Deckard Is A Replicant, But Whether Roy Is A Person”

Galactic Geographic 3003 Annual Review

One of the great sources of fun one can have in the worldbuilding process is making it so your ideas are all compatible. When the components all sing together, you can find yourself with an entire universe of ideas; one where you canlook from all different directions at the philosophical assertions that sit at the core of your exploration.

…Look from all different directions at the philosophical assertions that sit at the core of your exploration.

 Often, when that’s the stated objective of a creator, I find the end result feels forced; for all the vastness of, say, the Star Trek universe, it’s pretty simple. We have recognizable political forces in recognizable conflicts, resolved with recognizable means.

Other times, a creator stretches their creative muscles to make a universe that’s beautiful and weird, conceding as little as possible to recognizability.

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The Quud

The Contactor, We’ll Get It Right This Time has made contact with a non-hominin species we are calling “Quud”, named after our own Rn-Amajhan’s description in his home language of Ough. The last several years has provided both We’ll Get It Right This Time and the Quud herd-fleet, [Poet’s name]’s First Migration with ample time to begin translating each other’s databases and folkways.

Here follows a summary for the layreader.

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