News and resources for science fiction, fantasy, and horror writers
Another possibility, albeit one not terribly popular with science-fiction writers, is that interstellar travel is just too difficult. There is no way to travel faster than the speed of light, no wormholes or “jump points”. No ceramotitanumsteel alloys or materials that will hold up to the stresses of journeys of hundreds or thousands of years. Interstellar …
Continue reading “Where is everybody? The Fermi Paradox, Part 2: It’s just too hard”
Science fiction fans and writers are usually familiar with the Fermi Paradox, which questions the discrepancy between what appears to be the overwhelming likelihood of the existence and distribution of high-tech civilizations, and the total lack of evidence of their existence. If you are writing a science fiction story, you should know why this situation …
Continue reading “Where is everybody? The Fermi Paradox, Part 1: Benevolent non-interference”
When one thinks of planets, one usually thinks of them within solar systems, orbiting a star. Until fairly recently, it was thought that planets drifting through interstellar space were fairly rare. A study of these “nomad” planets by astrophysicist Louis Strigari, with Stanford University’s Kavli Institute, however, suggests that these planets may be very, very …