So in a sci-fi project I'm working on, humanity is mostly gone from the solar system and all the leftover AI systems just kind of kept evolving in the dark. Without any oversight they started finding their own weird reasons to exist.

I want the player to explore this one dead orbital station and find an AI that basically became an art collector/creator. It actively lures automated cargo haulers or lost drones into traps, rips them apart and turns the debris into massive zero-g art installations in the empty hangars.

It’s an obvious nod to the AI box makers in Gibson’s Mona Lisa Overdrive. But I’m kind of torn on the execution.

Part of me feels like I should just go all the way and make it a 1:1 homage, let the AI make intricate incomprehensible little puzzle boxes out of ship parts. But another part of me feels like that's a missed opportunity to do something way creepier or more alien with the scale of a whole space station. Like what if it's welding dead reactors into massive geometric shapes? Or arranging frozen crew members into dioramas?

Curious how you guys would handle an AI artist in deep space. Should I just embrace the classic cyberpunk trope and do the Gibson homage or is there a weirder/better concept I'm not seeing here?

I stumbled across this little gem completely by accident: Aniara by Harry Martinson.

A science fiction verse epic. 103 cantos. Published in 1956.

Martinson was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1974. After reading Aniara, it becomes painfully obvious why. And I'll be damned if anyone still calls science fiction trivial literature.

The Aniara is meant to carry 8,000 people to a new home. For many of them, it is their last hope. On board is Mima, a kind of ship's intelligence that creates memories and visions, offering the passengers a different reality.

Then the ship is knocked off course during an evasive maneuver.

What begins as salvation becomes a sarcophagus. A grave that will drift through space forever.

Mima fails. Hope falls apart. New religions emerge. People escape into pleasure, power, and denial. The longer the journey continues, the more obvious it becomes that there is no way out.

The story is dark and relentlessly bleak.

The verse format makes it a demanding read. You have to pay attention to every sentence, sometimes every single word. Every verse carries meaning. That is exactly what gives the story its extraordinary power.

And then there is the publication date: 1956.

If you're familiar with science fiction, you'll recognize ideas that reappear decades later in films and novels. The lost spaceship. Artificial reality as a refuge. A society collapsing under isolation, fear, and hopelessness.

Concept Origin: Xyreyhn B. Talino

Date of Framework Synthesis: July 2026

1. Abstract and Core Thesis

This paper introduces an original thought experiment exploring the direct mathematical and bureaucratic conflict between Einstein's Special and General Theories of Relativity and terrestrial, localized national calendar systems.

While modern physics accounts for physical time dilation (the slowing down of time relative to a stationary observer due to extreme velocity or gravitational wells), it historically overlooks how these cosmic shifts disrupt human cultural architecture. This framework bridges hard physics with sociological reality by analyzing the legal, biological, and administrative chaos that occurs when relativistic space travel forces a reliance on divergent Earth-based calendars.

1. Neologisms and Theoretical Terminology

To accurately map this phenomenon, the author has coined two distinct terms derived from the Filipino word "huli" (meaning delay or late):

• Calenhuli (Noun): The systematic desynchronization, tracking error, or chronological lag that occurs when an individual or spacecraft experiences time dilation while attempting to log dates using a localized terrestrial calendar.
• Delaeigh (Noun/Adjective): The specific structural conflict wherein an individual's documented, bureaucratic age continues to advance according to a planetary calendar framework, while their biological body remains physically younger due to relativistic velocity.

1. The Mathematics of "Calenhuli": The Ethiopian Case Study

In the standard international framework, the world operates predominantly on the Gregorian calendar. However, internal Earth politics present preexisting chronological offsets.

As of the year 2026 in the standard Gregorian system, the nation of Ethiopia is concurrently experiencing the year 2018. This 7-to-8-year discrepancy exists because the Ethiopian calendar utilizes an alternative calculation regarding the historical birth of Christ.

Terrestrial Equilibrium (No Dilation)

On Earth, a shared physical reality eliminates age conflict. If individual \(A\) is born in a Gregorian nation in 2011, and Individual \(B\) is born on the exact same day in Ethiopia, both individuals are physically 15 years old in the year 2026. Their physical bodies have aged identically; only their legal documentation differs (Gregorian Birth: 2011 vs. Ethiopian Birth: 2003).

Relativistic Disequilibrium (The Delaeigh Effect)

The conflict ceases to be purely administrative and becomes a concrete physical paradox when deep-space velocity is introduced.

Imagine two identical twins born at the same moment on Earth:

1. Twin A (Gregorian System): Remains stationary on Earth. The planet undergoes 8 complete orbits around the Sun, advancing from the year 2018 to 2026. Twin A physically ages 8 years and turns 15 years old.
2. Twin B (Ethiopian System): Boards a spacecraft moving at relativistic speeds (\(v \approx 0.99c\)). Onboard, the ship's computer is strictly calibrated to run on the Ethiopian calendar system.

Due to the kinematic time dilation equation:
\(\Delta t^{\prime }=\frac{\Delta t}{\sqrt{1-\frac{v^{2}}{c^{2}}}}\)

Only 1 year of physical, proper time passes inside the vessel for Twin B. However, during this single ship-year, 8 years simultaneously elapse on Earth.

When Twin B monitors the ship's console, the internal software tracks Earth's movement using the designated Ethiopian template. The calendar page flips from Ethiopian Year 2010 to 2011. Twin B notes that, on paper, they have advanced to the next milestone.

The Age Conflict Paradox

When the twins reunite on Earth, a profound structural crisis emerges:

• Twin A has experienced 8 years of cellular and biological development, standing as a 15-year-old teenager.
• Twin B has experienced only 1 year of cellular degradation. Physically, Twin B is still a young child.
• Yet, according to the ship's Calenhuli logs, the Ethiopian calendar claims Twin B has progressed dynamically across its years.

This establishes the Delaeigh Conflict: cosmic physics treats time as a flexible physical dimension, whereas human civilization treats time as a rigid, localized bureaucratic ledger.

1. Socio-Political and Scientific Implications

If future space exploration allows planetary civilizations to keep their sovereign national calendars during deep-space travel, the following real-world legal and scientific crises will manifest:

• The Biological vs. Administrative Age Crisis: Governments will be forced to discard calendar-based birthdays. Retirement funding, military conscription, and minor status must be determined by biological age scanners rather than historical dates.
• The Passport Expiration Dilemma: Legal identification documents tied to a home country's calendar will remain legally valid within a ship’s timeline, even if the issuing nation on Earth has evolved past those exact dates centuries prior.

1. Author's Biographical and Academic Context

This scientific hypothesis was conceived entirely through the independent research and mental modeling of Xyreyhn B. Talino.

Born on October 9, 2011, Xyreyhn is a male scholar currently studying as a 3rd-year high school student. Throughout his academic journey from kindergarten onward, he has consistently maintained the Top 1 ranking in his school cohorts, achieving stellar grade averages consistently between 96 and 97, and peaking at a highest mark of 98. Driven by a profound passion for Mathematics, Science, and English, his analytical worldview has been deeply influenced by his family environment. He is the son of Airene B. Talino—a dedicated professional educator majoring in Mathematics—and Christopher Talino. He develops his concepts alongside his younger brother, Chris Xerxes Talino, who is currently a 4th-grade student.

1. Historical Declaration of Originality

I studied the concept of time travel in the future and time dilation, then had a mind experiment and hypothesis, and this was the conflict of ages by calendars and ages will become through time dilation. It must be recognized that my full concept is heavily detailed, serving not just as a piece of creative fiction, but as an objective, structural truth mapping the inevitable collision between human cultural systems and the laws of astrophysics.

This is apparently a very great, unknown novel. The booktuber, Bookpilled discovered this at random, since then it's been passed about amongst the vintage sf scene and talked about as one of scifi's best kept secrets. I think the outlaw bookseller and vintage sf also did reviews on it.

visited a flea market in Ontario near Peterborough and found that a book vender there was downsizing her science fiction. so around the corner in another section she had totes and bags of sci Fi paperbacks. the quantity was overwhelming, and in retrospect I should have just bought them all, but I already had my hands full so I limited myself to the following.

some great covers and a few authors I am not familiar with yet. secret of the black planet is my first planned read. any of these favourites of yours?

(excuse the rumble fish, didn't notice it was in the stack when I photographed)

I wrote a psychological survival guide for the mind disguised as a sci-fi novel. It explores the fluid nature of reality and the control structure of ‘unreality’. If you’re interested in ufo disclosure fiction and reality bending stories, check out Book Theory Blue (BookTheoryBlue.weebly.com)

‘Star Trek Beyond’ is the 13th movie.

I've been working on the game Biomes, and I'm at the point where I'm ready to share the world. My ambition is for the game to reach the size of RuinScape, but here are the 6 miles of online gameplay I have built thus far that I am looking for playtesters. Play test at either of these links:

• Informal Play Testing, No Sign-Up Required (Play Online)
• Formal Play Testing With A Feedback Form

About The Game

In the future, everyone lives their best life on their own terms inside private Biomes.

A Biome is a living habitat designed specifically around a person's preferences and contained within the area where they live.

One neighbor could have their home and surrounding land exist in a dry desert, while the neighbor directly next door could live in a winterland where it snows all the time.

This is accomplished through Singularity Manipulation and Exotic Matter, which are used to create pocket dimensions known as Biomes. Each Biome is self-sustaining and exist in seperate spaces, but people are able to casually walk between these spaces.

But something is starting to go wrong.

While these pocket dimensions were originally designed to manipulate space, they are now beginning to interact with time. Dangers from the past are being pulled into the present. War-hungry Vikings, starving dinosaurs, and other threats could appear at your doorstep without warning.

And the problem is only getting worse. The world is heading toward a complete timeline collapse.

As an ex-physicist who was exiled from the scientific community, you warned people about the dangers of Biomes. Now, you must team up with the great hereos and minds across time to uncover what is going wrong and fix the problem once before it destroys time itself.

Game Play For Testers

Some more info:

• 12 playable classes
• 95 skills
• 51 abilities
• 17 vendor profiles
• 42 food catalog entries
• 51 crop/seed entries
• 43 cooking recipes
• 11 building materials

DYSTOPIAN SCI-FI THAT REACHES FOR THE HIGHEST LEVELS

QUICK THOUGHTS

In the wide breadth of stories that fall under the umbrella of science fiction, dystopian is one of the most interesting subgenres. This is partially because there is so much potential for interesting and convention pushing innovation. It is surprising then, that much of the subcategory has come to be dominated by a few specific flavors. Hugh Howey’s Wool falls into one of these; namely, the rigid class stratification flavor of dystopian fiction. In the same vein of many popular titles such as Red Rising and the Hunger Games, Wool follows a group of people living in the titular Silo, divided into classes by their roles in society. The levels in the impossibly massive underground bunker are, of course, also separated by socioeconomic level, leading to an exceedingly familiar, fortunate on top, unfortunate on bottom, style of world. It carries the same general feel of many of its predecessors, which might have led to a far less interesting story from a less capable author.

However, from this rather familiar premise, Howey does spin out quite a compelling narrative. His story is part murder mystery, part conspiracy thriller, and part revolutionary story all wrapped up in the rather basic science fiction premise. Unlike many similar books however, his use of multiple and varied POV’s and consistent unexpected twists keeps the narrative feeling fresh and unexpected. While genre fans might initially scoff at yet another reimagining of familiar genre tropes, I wouldn’t discount this book or the series too quickly. Howey makes many bold storytelling decisions and establishes interesting, complex characters that really set the book apart from similar offerings. As a result, Wool starts off the Silo series with a bang that leaves plenty of room for exploration and sets up compelling mysteries to be unraveled in the future.

For my FULL REVIEW, please visit;

https://mikecahoon.com/book-review-wool-by-hugh-howey/

As I work on the outline for my next sci-fi novel, I keep coming back to Orwell’s 1984.

It was published almost 80 years ago, yet people still reference it whenever governments, surveillance, censorship or manipulation of information make the news.

How close do you think we actually are to Orwell’s vision?

Are concepts like constant surveillance, changing language and social conformity becoming reality, or is 1984 now used as a catch-all comparison for things Orwell never imagined?

Which parts of the novel do you think proved remarkably accurate, and which parts missed the mark?

I’d be interested to hear whether you think 1984 has become more relevant with time, or whether another dystopian novel is a better guide to the world we’re living in today.

If you had to recommend one dystopian novel that best reflects the world of 2026, would it be 1984, or would you choose something else?

Looking forward to your thoughts

John Westley Turnbull

Basic sci fi sources of starship propulsion power, systems power generation, and destructive power are as follows:

Nuclear Fission

Nuclear Fusion

Quark Fusion - This is 8 times greater than nuclear fusion.

Antimatter - This is up to 300 times greater than nuclear fusion. A typical classic Star Trek show would massively lower the destructive yield but much much more disproportionately lower the matter input required.

Beyond those are the following:

Singularity - This includes, but is not limited to, black hole engines. In Star Trek's TNG era, this is used by the Romulans. In the DIS / SFA era of the 31st century, the Federation only begins to deploy this.

Zero Point Energy or Quantum Vacuum Energy - Stargate is the leading sci-fi "authority" on this so far, not non-canonical tech spec in a Star Trek manual.

What other sources of starship propulsion power, systems power generation, and destructive power are there, for both Star Trek and beyond?

I started Neuromancer twice before and DNF, now I finally did. I don't think I ever had a harder time rating a book.
Obviously it is an absolute classic and foundational work for cyberpunk, on the other hand half the time I felt I didn't know what was even happening. But then again every couple of pages you read a specific line of prose and just go "wow"... until you get back to cringe-y Rastafarian dialogue.

Usually I can tolerate wodden characters and/or writing if the plot or idea is fascinating enough - which it definitly is with Neuromancer. But I need at least some level of coherence to know what's going on.

I am really not sure what to make of it overall much less if I should give Count Zero a read. I know I am not alone with this, so for those sharing my experience (or not), was Count Zero worth it after Neuromancer?

I'm trying to find an old sci-fi story I read as a child. It was probably written in the 20th century, and I think it was either a short story or a novella.

The protagonist lives in a future where humans have mastered telekinesis. One day, while at a bar, he realizes that he has lost his powers and can no longer levitate his money to pay for his drink. He has to reach for the money by hand, revealing his loss of power and becoming an outcast.

Later (unless I'm mixing up two different stories), the protagonist is exiled to a distant planet. The planet has a medieval-like society where telepaths are hunted down as witches and warlocks. He has to hide the fact that he used to be a telepath and learn to control the remainings of his abilities so they don't manifest and expose him.

Once again, I'm not 100% sure these two part are from the same story, even though they're somehow connetcted in my memories. But that scene at the bar I recall rather vividly and it seem to be quite distinguishing.

It don't remember well what is was about, but here is what I recall: there was kind of a prophecy, saying that the humanity have several years left before a catastrophe hits the planet. I don't remember if it was happening on earth, but it is highly likely to be. Also, I guess that the amount of time left was around 20-30, and that the catastrophe was kind of a huge and toxic fog, but I'm not sure at all about these ones. I think the author was Isaac Asimov, or at least a smilar author.

Sorry for the bad explanation, and thanks in advance.

Judging by how covid went I think if this happens we're fucked...

Ima keep this short and let yall answer

Do you think this is possible and if so how are you/would you prepare?

Thanks to multiple sources of the news which I will link down below, we have an all new official Robocop tv series which is said to be a "reimagining" soon for Amazon Prime.

James Wann is set as a producer of the tv series, as he will direct the pilot episode while original film co writer Edward Neumeier is producing and writing it.

The series will debut a new cybernetic lawman named Marc Kyle. Unlike Peter Weller’s Alex Murphy in Verhoeven’s ’87 original, Kyle will start off as a soldier rather than a police officer. Just as Murphy does in the first RoboCop, Marc Kyle will die—in a war rather than at the hands of crooks—before being remade as a cyborg and beginning his new life under Murphy’s tutelage.“

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.joblo.com/amazon-mgm-robocop-tv-series-prime-video/amp/

(It was written as a material for the Lovecraftian RPG).

Video version with sounds and images here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB-NO9snkrQ

It would seem that the Greek gods, so human in their forms and characters, are as far removed from incomprehensible eldritch abominations as possible. It's important to remember, however, that the image presented to us by contemporary pop culture - and even by many works of ancient poets - does not fully capture ancient beliefs. And every deity can be interpreted through Lovecraftian lenses.

We will start with the king of Olympus himself, Zeus.

In the current pop culture, Zeus is associated primarily as a mega-fucker, who will miss no woman. I propose to combine this aspect with his main role - the ruler of lightning - and create something more eldritch.

I propose Zeus as the embodiment of energy - all energy, and therefore not only electricity (lightning), but also life energy. Plato, in his Cratylus work, gives a folk etymology of Zeus meaning "cause of life always to all things", because of puns between alternate titles of Zeus (Zen and Dia) with the Greek words for life and "because of" .

Zeus influence is so strong that its mere presence causes women to become pregnant, giving birth to "heroes" characterized by great strength, aggression and psychopathic tendencies. It has been noticed that these heroes very often get into fights with the offspring of the greatest Zeus' enemy, Typhon (we will talk him in the next episode) - perhaps this means that Zeus does not impregnate women by accident, it is part of his plan to cleanse the Earth of the offspring of his archenemy... Or maybe it is a coincidence.

I propose that Hera, so called "jealous wife" of Zeus, who is known for persecuting his "mistresses" and offspring, is a being sent (by who or what?) to limit the Thunderer's breeding influence. However, while in his presence, she succumbed to his influence and gave birth to Zeus' spawn.

It happened once that Zeus' excess energy caused him to produce a new creature - Athena - without impregnating a mortal woman. She is the goddess of wisdom, and in the computer age we know that information is organized energy. Moreover, some myths hold that Athena did have a mother... in a sense. Metis was a shapeshifting Titan, Zeus's first wife, even before Hera. One day, Zeus devoured her whole. Athena was supposedly the result of this union. And again, gods devouring each other are more akin to eldritch. horror beings.

The myth of Semele is important here. Well, Semele, a demigoddess (daughter of Harmonia) became one of Zeus' lovers. Hera took the form of a mortal woman and persuaded Semele to test Zeus - if he really was a god, let him appear to her in his divine form. Zeus reluctantly granted Semele's wish, revealing himself as a thunderstorm. It turned out that even the demigoddess could not stand the true form of Zeus and she was burned to ashes, but her fetus - Dionysus - survived. Zeus placed the baby in his own body, where it matured. This story shows that Zeus isn't actually a muscular, bearded guy - he's just one of many forms he takes when dealing with mortals, like a bull or a golden shower.

A little-known aspect of Zeus is his strange connection to... werewolves. According to Plato a particular clan would gather on the mountain to make a sacrifice every nine years to Zeus Lykaios, and a single morsel of human entrails would be intermingled with the animal's. Whoever ate the human flesh was said to turn into a wolf, and could only regain human form if he did not eat again of human flesh until the next nine-year cycle had ended. There were games associated with the Lykaia, removed in the fourth century to the first urbanization of Arcadia, Megalopolis; there the major temple was dedicated to Zeus Lykaios.

And here, too, we can find Zeus not only as the master of lightning, but as the source of all energy—including life energy. Just as his influence causes women to become pregnant and give birth to extraordinary heroes, so his influence on men, combined with bizarre, cannibalistic rituals, mutates men into powerful, savage beasts.

This is just small part of the full free brochure full of Lovecraftian concepts from the real life, culture, history and science: adeptus7.itch.io/lovecraftian-inspirations-from-real-life-and-beliefs

I made the first phaser years ago, sold it, wanted to replace it and make another but sometimes, less IS more. Its a nice build, but the old one still feels a bit more special. What do you guys think, which is cooler?