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Science Fiction Ebooks, SF Books

Annual Top 20 List of Digital Speculative Fiction And Science Fiction Magazines

By NeilA

Annual Top 20 List of Digital Speculative Fiction and Science Fiction Magazines

As a lot of science fiction magazines can be read in 2-3 hours, and many are released monthly, bimonthly, quarterly or annually, most of us usually buy, or subscribe, to more than one publication.

Here is my personal top 20 list, alphabetically ranked. These magazines publish some amazing speculative fiction. Support struggling authors and check out some of these titles today.

Alien Dimensions (Edited by yours truly)

Analog Science Fiction and Fact

Apex

Asimov’s Science Fiction

Black Infinity

Cirsova

Clarkesworld

Double Feature Science Fiction and Horror

Fantasy & Science Fiction

Forever

Future Science Fiction Digest

Galaxy’s Edge

Interzone

Lightspeed

On Spec

Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show

Phantaxis: Science Fiction and Fantasy

SciFan

Shoreline of Infinity

Uncanny

And a special mention goes to Locus – for editors, publishers and others in the industry.

So, if you’re ever stuck for some speculative fiction, and can’t wait until the next issue of Alien Dimensions is released, check out these publications on Kindle.

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Articles, The Universe

How to Destroy the Universe in Three Simple Steps

By NeilA

How to Destroy the Universe in Three Simple Steps

Explore the Universe

One of the most thought provoking concepts that science fiction can explore is the use of the entire universe in a story. Not just stuck in Earth’s galaxy, like most Star Trek episodes, or stuck in some galaxy a long time ago and far, far away like in Star Wars, or even stuck jumping from galaxy to galaxy like in Star Gate: Universe, but exploring the universe without any restriction. If the entire universe can be used, then a reader’s mind can be expanded further.

Once you’ve worked out a story line that will enable you to explore the entire universe, the next step would be to enable your characters to travel forward and back along the timelines. The third step would be for them to find a way to destroy the universe. (Keep making those ideas bigger!)

Destroy the Universe (in Doctor Who)

Using the entire universe, traveling along the timelines, then encountering a plan to destroy the universe, have been recurring themes in a British TV series called Doctor Who.

In the episode Logopolis, the universe was being kept alive by a team of mathematicians. They worked to make sure the mathematics that underpinned the physics of reality continued. A rogue character (The Master) decided to hold the universe to ransom, kill some of the mathematicians, and then begin systematically destroying galaxies. The main character, (The Doctor), had to find a solution to make sure he didn’t destroy the universe.

In Terminus, The Doctor encounters a ship that had caused the collapse of the previous universe, and so had been at the epicenter of the creation of this one. The Doctor has to prevent the alien’s ship from being started, and destroying the universe again.

In Journey’s End, a villain known as Davros created a reality bomb that could destroy the electromagnetic bonds between all particles across multiverses, thereby wiping out everything. Of course, The Doctor, and a cosmos of teams from across space, time and parallel realities, make sure he doesn’t destroy the universe.

In the episode The Big Bang, the universe does actually collapse, and the Doctor uses saved particles from the previously collapsed universe to effectively reboot it, temporarily trapping him outside of existence.

Kardashev Scale

But could it really be possible? Could humans one day reach beyond a Kardashev scale of civilization, and command the power of the entire universe?

While we might not ever be able to command the energy of the entire universe without becoming bigger than it and spreading across multiverses, we do have the ability to control its existence. A simple reconfiguration of the Hadron Collider, or any other collider for that matter, would give us the power to destroy the entire universe!

Of course, this is theoretical. You really don’t want anyone to try to prove it!

Here’s the science. The universe has a quantum field known as the Higgs Field. This field is thought to exist at a higher energy state than can be detected – a fake vacuum. (Vacuum state is when a particle is at its lowest energy level.) We can get into this field using quantum tunneling. If we send a particle through the field that is at a lower energy level and is able to retain its energy level when it exits, it will disrupt the Higgs Field, resulting in a domino effect that explosively releases the Higgs Field’s potential energy.

This is known as Vacuum Decay.

The Higgs Field and Quantum Tunneling

The Higgs Field, underpinning the entire structure of reality, would release its energy at the speed of light, like a very fast gas explosion. It would destroy the universe, and rewrite physics in the expanding area. Eventually, after billions of years, the universe would be destroyed.

Of course, quantum tunneling is essential for nuclear fusion in stars, and so this happens all the time. The difficulty is finding a way to quantum tunnel into a Higgs Field with a particle that is able to retain the same energy state when it comes out.

I’ll leave that up to you to work out how to do it.

If you can find a way to do it, it would be like shooting a bullet into a block of dynamite. Destruction of the universe ensured.

The Plan to Destroy the Universe

So, if you’re planning to destroy the universe (or planning to write a story about the destruction of the universe) here is a summary to get you started:

Step 1. Locate the Higgs Field
Step 2. Send a particle, via quantum tunneling, through it.
Step 3. Ensure the particle comes out the other side with the same energy level
Step 4. There is no step 4. Though, you may wish to laugh maniacally in the 0.001% of a second you would have before the universe begins collapsing around you at the speed of light.

I look forward to reading your ‘terrorists take over the Hadron Collider and hold the universe to ransom’ stories!

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Alien Contact, Alien Invasion, Alien Life, Aliens, Articles

Protocols of First Alien Contact

By NeilA

Protocols of First Alien Contact

What are they? Where are they?

With movies like Arrival getting a lot of attention in the mainstream press, many would like to know, myself included, what the official protocols are for first alien contact. After much searching I’ve come to the conclusion that we don’t have anything in place.

Yes, seriously! (Well, officially!)

No government agency has a formal step by step system in place. The main reason for this is that no government agency actually expects it to happen for at least another twenty years. (Best to leave it for the next generation?)

I find this very strange, as we have detailed step-by-step plans for all government officials, members of royalty and civilians for just about any eventually. Why we don’t have official protocols for first alien contact is beyond me.

After all, if the government of your country wants to make sure that you as a citizen are safe, no matter what the eventuality, pamphlets, leaflets, websites, social media, video sharing sites and more should have some easily found list of protocols for the eventuality of running into an alien at some point.

If I was Prime Minister of my country, I certainly wouldn’t want a teenage kid stumbling onto a UFO in a field somewhere, hooking up with the aliens, then going for a joyride, teaching them how cool it is to troll people, or encouraging them to blast a bully at their school. I’d prefer there to be strict rules in place, much like the safety demonstrations on air flights.

“Good morning citizens. Welcome to protocol 47. Our friendly team will demonstrate the correct way to approach a space alien, if one happens to land in your back yard…”

Private Protocols for Alien Contact

Of course, there are plenty of citizen plans out there. SETI has one, other organizations, too. But major governments? Nope. Rumor has it that the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs is planning to draft a protocol soon. Nothing on their website yet. (UNOOSA)

And so, of course, if aliens are out there waiting for us to make contact, they need to make a few more cups of tea before we get our act together.

First Things First

But, assuming aliens are waiting for us to give them an official invitation, the first thing we need to do is get organized about sending a message. When famous scientists like Stephen Hawking have said it’s dangerous, and we shouldn’t contact aliens, you’ll understand why we haven’t done even that yet.

And I don’t mean a gold disk on the side of a piece of equipment thrown into space. Or a signal sent into space in ’74 by Carl Sagan, purported to have been replied to via crop circle a few years ago, and dismissed.  I mean a real, comprehensive, contact message signed by leaders of all the nations of the world.

When that happens THAT will really be the first step. Any alien race will be far more advanced than us and would probably be simply getting on with their lives, waiting for us to grow up and actually want to contact them. So, we need to send that official message on behalf of the entire human race. All countries need to get on board and agree to it.

What’s step two?

Okay, now we can get to step two, the most popular area of making first contact with aliens, but one which leaves me cold.

The International Academy of Astronautics has created the “Declaration of Principles Concerning Activities Following the Detection of Extraterrestrial Intelligence.” This was with the support of the International Institute of Space Law, according to Wikipedia. This declaration includes what to do in the event of the detection of an alien race, what level of acceptance society is at, and other factors relating to whether the message can be understood, or even revealed.

The problem with this is that it assumes that there would be a natural order or progression for this situation, and that governments would be the ones to announce it. It also assumes a detection event like a signal or even a single ship, invisible to almost everyone in orbit. Neither of these are likely. It’s far more likely we’ll get a very noticeable appearance with no regard to red tape or official procedure.

Reality?

My personal feeling is that we’ll get the ‘official’ announcement quickly through Facebook and YouTube, followed by news reports as cameras arrive on the scene.

It may take weeks before world governments get their act together and make an official announcement. And by then, the aliens would have already been having a coffee with us.

Certainly, there would be a huge number of people, myself included, who would travel to the site to make contact, without going through officials, without considering it to be a momentous occasion, without once thinking that the first person to meet the aliens would somehow be recorded in history. (Why would it matter? Aliens!)

If we followed strict procedures…

Of course, if you want to follow strict procedure, if you’re in a country that is part of the Commonwealth, the only logical person to be flown over to meet the aliens first would be the Queen (or King) of England! That would not be considered safe, nor would it be acceptable. Like Arrival, it would be far more likely that only the military would be involved. This would certainly cause problems if the aliens decide a shopping mall in the middle of a CBD would be the ideal place to land.

If we were to assume the aliens wouldn’t want to disrupt government procedures (really?) then they would simply appear above all the major government buildings, and ask to speak to the leaders.

A very advanced alien race, with more spaceships than Earth has cars, would simply position them all above the local councils as well, creating an atmosphere of ships. There would be no need for any leaders to come out and say anything.

“Thank you for your call. If you are calling about the spaceships in the sky…Yes, they are alien. No, we don’t know anything yet. No, there’s nothing you can do. Just continue with your lives until you hear an announcement from the Queen/President/Prime Minister in your area.”

SETI have their own alien contact guide which can be found here. It really does work from a perspective of detecting a signal, though.

But, many SF fans aren’t interested in boring signals. We want real solid, chunky space craft, and shaking hands (or some other protuberance) with aliens in a first contact situation.

No Protocols for Mass Landings

So, while the SETI plan for signal detection would be useful for a slow dissemination of information, it doesn’t really deal with the mass landing scenario.

Of course, science fiction writers have come up with many types of protocols over the decades, and you’ll find them in all sorts of stories. But an actual official protocol set that covers a mass landing? Nope. Nowhere.

Perhaps it is hidden in the CIA or FBI files, or maybe Mulder and Scully have it. In any case, the governments of the world are saying that humanity is not yet ready for alien contact.

Oh, aliens landing? Hang on. We haven’t done the paperwork on that. Can you ask them to come back later? Can we get an extension of time? Yeah, I know you first asked in 1947, but, just a bit longer. Hello? Hello?

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Alien Life, Aliens, Articles, Science

Alien Life Found!

By NeilA

Alien Life Found!

The Viking Missions

“Alien Life Found” should have been the title of a news report in 1976 regarding the Viking Missions landers. Unfortunately, due to our level of understanding of the chemical reactions recorded, and the results obtained at the time, the soil was deemed to be dead. No sign of life or, more hopefully, inconclusive.

However, Joop Houtkooper from Justus-Liebig University in Giessen Germany, has gone over the evidence and believes that the Viking spacecraft did actually encounter life. A strange life form based on hydrogen peroxide. Download the research paper here: Arxiv.org pdf

Further research suggests that at least 0.1 percent of Mars land could harbor biological life. Maybe more.

Now that scientists are widening their scope of what is considered life, thanks to unusual bacteria surviving in the most inhospitable regions on Earth, it’s highly likely that NASA did discover life on Mars in 1976. (Extremophiles Las Cumbres Observatory)

Unfortunately, until the Mars 2020 mission gets there to find additional evidence, it’ll stay as ‘inconclusive’.

Alien Life Found rating: 87%

234 Alien Signals

Ermanno Borra and Eric Trottier have claimed, after analyzing 2.5 million stars in a number of galaxies, that 234 of them seem to be emitting regular pulses of light. As the stars of those systems are similar to our own, the researchers suggested the possibility that the pulses are laser messages from aliens.

The Breakthrough Listen project backed by Stephen Hawking turned its attention to these stars in an effort to figure out whether they are indeed message pulses, or whether there is a new star reaction that scientists aren’t yet aware of.

This project is still ongoing. However, the Breakthrough Listen project does give these results a Rio scale of 0 to 1, so maybe not. Read the accessible write up at (Futurism)

Alien Life Found rating: 27%

Alien Megastructure Star

KIC 8462852, known as Tabby’s Star, features some strange dimming and lightening of its light, and a slow reduction of its overall light over several years. While this may be able to be explained by a massive storm of comets constantly hitting the star, or even a ring of matter, a slightly more wilder and more interesting theory is that a megastructure is slowly being built around it. Perhaps even a Dyson Sphere. If the star completely disappears in the next 10 years, then this explanation will gain greater weight.

However, recent scientific research has confirmed that it is actually really fine dust. Sadly. More details at this (news.com.au) write up.

Alien Life Found rating: 0%

Alien Life Found on the International Space Station

Russian cosmonauts, on a number of occasions, have been able to swab bacteria, and even things higher up the chain like plankton, from the outside of the ISS. Are they coming from space? Or are they more likely being dragged up to lower Earth orbit by air currents? Or simply brought there by successive astronauts on their tablets? Hardy bacteria can survive just about anywhere, so it’s more likely that anything found in lower Earth orbit is from Earth. A great write up is at (National Geographic.)

Maybe the atmosphere extends a lot further for microbes, and there could even be a network of microbial space traveling currents between Earth and the Moon. I personally like the idea that space is just a huge bacteriological soup and not finding life somewhere is the more likely scenario. All those new viruses and bacteriological infections that appear out of nowhere probably simply floated down. (Wikipedia Panspermia)

Unfortunately, as much as I’d love to believe it, I don’t think the cosmonauts found ‘alien’ microbes. Even if they’re unrecognisable, maybe they found some old Earth microbes we haven’t had the chance to study yet.

Ancient Aliens TV Show finds Extraterrestrial Bacteria

This was also explored in another way recently in an episode of Ancient Aliens. A weather balloon was sent up, and the microbes brought back were ‘confirmed’ as alien, purely due to their size. This has yet to be scientifically disproved, (inconclusive) but knowing that plankton can exist on the outside of the ISS suggests just about anything can be floating about in lower Earth orbit.

Until I can see conclusive results of a sample of something containing DNA made from something other than adenine (A), thymine (T), guanine (G) and cytosine (C) or even something alive with no recognisable DNA, I’ll be crossing my arms and frowning.

Alien Life Found rating: 27%

Octopuses (Octopi) are aliens

Nope. Unfortunately. Or, if they are, so are we all, as they appeared in Earth’s history around 135 million years ago, and we probably started eating them about a million years ago. (Independent.co.uk) has a good write up.

Alien Life Found rating: 0%

Official Alien Life Found? Not yet, but we’re ready.

So, at this stage, it is just the 1976 Viking Mission results that give the highest possibility of proof. And I’m really excited by the idea of a hydrogen peroxide based bacteria.

Now that plumes of water have been confirmed as coming from Jupiter’s Moon Europa (abc.net.au) , TESS has been launched to look for more exoplanets (Aljazeera), and (NASA) has its Mars 2020 plan to look for alien life on the planet, it’s just a matter of time before we know for sure.

I guess the governments of the world have decided that humanity is now ready, and there’ll be an ‘official’ announcement with scientific proof in 2020.

Finally!

 

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Articles, Parallel Worlds and Alternate Realities, Science

When Parallel Realities Become Mainstream

By NeilA

When Parallel Realities Become Mainstream

Parallel Realities and Alternate Worlds

One of the things in science fiction that has fascinated me for a long time is the concept of parallel realities. Until recently, it has just been a fictional idea, perhaps one where all our alternate selves are evil and have goatees. Yes, even the women.

Stephen Hawking and Thomas Hertog

Now, however, Stephen Hawking and Thomas Hertog have been able to prove with mathematics that there are, indeed, multiple universes. They were even able to indicate ways we can build research stations in space to be able to detect them.

The late Stephen Hawking had also theorized that black holes could be a place that easily connects you to an alternate reality. However, being crushed to the size of atoms, and having just the record of me pop out the other side, doesn’t sound so enticing.

Portals to Other Dimensions

Ancient Alien theorists suggest these doorways to alternate realities are everywhere, and all we need is the right frequency to access them. No massive black holes required.

Sounds good to me.

And, in esoteric circles, there is a belief that each Planck second is static, and that it is only our consciousness, passing through billions of these static parallel worlds a second, that makes reality look like it’s moving. So, we’re already in a parallel reality, and again, and again.

Sounds even better!

It looks like accepting parallel realities as fact is a bold new change to our perception of the world. I, for one, welcome our new alternate reality friends.

But, where will this lead? Will I be able to say ‘Sorry, I haven’t had time to read your book yet, but my other me has, and he thought it was great!’? That would save a lot of embarrassment at parties!

Alien Characters

Awhile ago, I released a series called Alien Characters, (friendly aliens for children) Two of the books had alternate realities as the main theme.

In Alien Rex, Alien Rex takes people on tours to alternate realities in their street, but runs into a consortium of Alien Rexes across space / time (at the local mall) that want to prevent him from taking all their customers.

In Alien Jack, Alien Jack needs Alien Rex’s help to find out why there is such a terrible radiation leak that seems to be coming from nowhere. Alien Rex discovers it is a radiation leak across multiple realities bleeding into this one, and takes Alien Jack through several parallel world doorways, with the leak getting stronger, until they find… 😉

Science Fiction Weekly

And, one of my most popular short stories, (based on reader traffic on various sites) is Interrelations. I’ve put it on this site for you to enjoy for free. Or, you can get one for your ebook here for about US0.99 Science Fiction Weekly #6 Interrelations

In it, Cindi is a trade negotiator, and swaps bodies with another version of herself to complete a trade with another version of herself. However, she finds that her alternate self doesn’t treat her body as well as she would have liked while she’s not using it, and that her boss is deliberately sending trade girls to different realities to swap with particular versions of themselves who are already having a relationship with the boss in that world. She’s also approached by a dayer, who needs her help to find out why there is an ongoing destruction of multiple Earths, with hers being next. After that, it gets complicated!

If you have a moment, please read Interrelations and let me know if there are any other books out there that similarly deals with the complexity of multiple realities. But if you don’t have time, please ask one of your other selves who might have already read it and can answer. Would love to read their thoughts, though, I guess, being from parallel reality, the story might be better written than the one in this one, so the review may not count. 😛

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Aliens, Articles, VR TV

Vriter Notes. Writing Science Fiction for VR TV. Extending the Life Span of your Story.

By NeilA

Vriter Notes. Writing Science Fiction for VR TV. Extending the Life Span of your Story.

One of the things I’ve said to science fiction writers just starting out is that you need a future proof game plan for your stories. You don’t want your stories to date too quickly. If you plan to stay a writer and not move into script editing, you might find these tips useful. If you have any other suggestions as to how to make sure a story doesn’t get dated, besides constantly reediting it, please leave a comment below.

Make your story as disconnected from the present as possible

Generally, if you write it well, it’ll have about a fifty year life span. If you write it with only limited reference to the present, it might even have 100 years. If you use science that has no possibility of being replicated in the near future, you might even get your story to 200 years. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, also known as The Modern Prometheus, is 200 years old this year. First published 1st January 1818. And humans still haven’t been able to put together a pseudo human from multiple parts from a variety of bodies, and resurrect it. Though, there is a lot more to this story than just that, but it’s a good example of a story that can withstand the march of time.

Choose your characters’ words carefully

Unfortunately, sometimes, the mere fact of being a certain age will date your writing, purely due to the kinds of words you use. In 2018 what words should characters use to show appreciation? ‘Incredible’ in their 70s, ‘Cool’ or ‘Sick’ in their 50s, ‘Awesome’ or ‘Winning’ in their 30s… But when someone reads that story in 2038 they’re going to feel all the characters sound weird. Cool, huh?! Best avoided. Choose a generic exclamation for your characters so that it becomes background. Battlestar Galactica did this with ‘frak’ , Red Dwarf with ‘smeg’.

Avoid common items from the past

Awhile ago I read a great science fiction story that was written in the 90s. Set hundreds of years in the future, after the Earth had been enslaved by giant space whale like entities, a government representative (?) took a long journey (?) to meet one and while waiting, opened his briefcase (???) After reading that, it took me awhile to get back into it again. A lot more effort was needed to suspend disbelief at that point, but the story got a lot better as it progressed. Most writers struggle with that first chapter and write and rewrite it over and over after writing the rest of the story, so most readers are forgiving. But I thought I’d point it out as, if you happen to include audio cassettes, old music, briefcases, even CDs, in the far future, you’ve already dated it. Best to avoid these things and create new things eg mindview system (instead of audio tapes) space fold storage systems keyed to a thought (instead of briefcases), sounds of the solar winds of Archetan 5 (instead of music) I’m sure you can come up with anything. Basically look at absolutely every item any of your characters use, and make sure none of them have ever existed.

Include aliens, even if it is just a reference

I’ve always loved writing about aliens, and expect that most stories in the future will have them. In the future, when we are working with the millions of alien races in the galaxy, most humans will find any story without an alien in it to be a bit anachronistic, if people are even still reading then. It would be like watching Alien Nation or Buffy and not seeing a mobile phone.

So, I encourage anyone writing science fiction to always include some alien races, even if it is just a reference. You could write a whole story about human habitats if that is your passion, or human-only colonies, without ever having an alien in it, but if you don’t refer to the ‘trade with alien x in the nearby star system’ it’s just going to get dated really quickly once aliens land.

Scientists speculate that we’ll make contact within the next ten years. Some believe we’ll even have an official landing before 2033. Others believe it already happened in the 60s and there is film somewhere to prove it. And even the series Ancient Aliens suggests we’ve always been in contact with them, for at least 500,000 years. Don’t leave out the aliens!

Write (vrite) your scenes with VR TV in mind

If you want to make it easier for a future script writer to discover your story and create an immersive experience from it, think about all your scenes as though there is space in the middle for a constantly moving camera.

I call this ‘vriting.’ (Oh, look, he’s replaced the ‘w’ with a ‘v’ so that the word has VR in it. LOL.)

When you vrite, you should have three things happening in the scene. The camera should be able to be placed in the center of three characters, or two characters and a screen, so that if you were there, with a VR screen, you could turn around and see the characters talking to each other, or turn to see the screen and hear the characters behind you.

As more and more people get immersed in VR, normal writing will seem a bit staid and boring. A character walks down the street? Two characters side by side talking? No, these are less immersive scenes. Not much is going on. New readers will see old stories like this as endless padding. Make sure you have a lot of things going on at once, and you’ll be able to grab the attention of younger readers.

If you’re unsure what I mean, just check out a Marvel movie. The camera rarely stops moving. It is continually tracking moving characters and screens, turning back and forth. Scenes rarely last more than 3 seconds. If you want to write for future generations, take on the vriting style where possible.

There has been a steady decline in reading over the past hundred years, only propped up with the increase in babies being born. Eventually, if we don’t change our writing styles for future generations, readers will continue to disappear. I doubt anyone will be reading books or ebooks in 200 years anyway, so make the most of those remaining upcoming years by writing with VR in mind.

 

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Alien Invasion, Aliens, Articles

Alienophobia

By NeilA

Alienophobia

Fear of Aliens and Alien Invasions

The fear that people feel, who suffer from this affliction, is based on a need to be in complete control of their lives. They don’t want their current life changed or controlled in any way. The idea of an alien invasion fills them with dread.

Of course, with the number of rules and regulations in our lives, the cultural norms we’re expected to follow, the clothes we need to wear, the behaviour we need to display, and the connections with certain types of people we need to make, we really have no control over anything anywhere ever anyway. We just flit from place to place, swapping one net of standards for another, believing that we have some semblance of control. Try to control when the sun comes up, or the weather, or even the time that your train arrives, and you’ll realize how little control you really have. Not to mention that no one can yet make a light saber fly across the room and into their hand.

So, control is already lost anyway. We’d be just passing what we don’t have to someone else.

Invaded thousands of years ago

Some more esoteric texts and fringe beliefs have explored the possibility that we have had an alien invasion in the past. The series Ancient Aliens, alien channelers, and new age belief systems take this as truth.

Ancient Babylonian texts talk of our previous species being visited by a race of aliens called the Annunaki, an alien splinter group intent on taking gold and other minerals from our planet. They reengineered the human race (then homo habilis) to enable them to work better in the mines, and they subjugated us, had children with us, and then were removed from the planet by their own race, who were horrified at what this fringe group had done to the peace-loving homo habilis.

If this is true, then we’ve already been invaded and we are now the invaders, the descendants of the original invaders 500,000 years ago.

So, the invasion has already happened. Nothing more to worry about!

Original humans

(According to some, the original human species, the original custodians of planet Earth, have already advanced to the point of no longer needing to exist in this reality, and flit in and out of our dimension from time to time just for fun. If we ever saw them, we’d recognize them as sasquatch, big foot or yeti.)

As we cannot yet prove this beyond a shadow of a doubt, let’s leave that in the background and move onto the likelihood of a future alien invasion.

Is it worth getting stressed over?

Future Alien Invasions

Firstly, any aliens capable of travelling the galaxy by avoiding the speed of light limitation must be so incredibly advanced to either a) not need our planet or b) be able to invade and take over in moments. There are planets out there, thousands of times larger than ours. If they were full of trillions of aliens bent on control, and physically strong enough to withstand the higher gravity or a larger planet, of course ours would be invaded in moments.

So, if we are going to be invaded, it won’t be the fear-filled, fight-to-the-last-man or woman style alien invasion that the movies portray. It would be simply billions of ships the size of cars landing everywhere, freezing everyone in force fields and subjugating us, probably within about one hour. So, no stress, and we would then humbly greet our new overlords.

Humans wouldn’t be needed

Of course, if an alien wanted Earth and had all the materials it needed to get what it wanted, what would it need humans for? A simple and quick reengineering of the Ebola virus seeded into every cloud would wipe out the entire human race within days. Or perhaps a spray stimulating anaphylactic shock, ending the human race in hours. Or something more dramatic but slow acting like an asteroid. An alien could even easily detect life signs and send out a pulse that disrupted the electrical signals of living creatures. Then use another device to suck them all up and send them into the sun. Really, if they had wanted to do that, it would have happened a long time ago.

We’re still pretty defenseless. Anything from a major solar flare to a large mass passing by would wipe us out, and hyper-advanced aliens have an endless list of extinction events they could draw on. I think a one hour invasion would be too long.

Aliens that want to mine Earth

Why? Hyper-advanced aliens could recombine atoms to create the matter they needed. If there was a rare element that was difficult to make, and I was just looking for planets full of minerals to mine, I’d build another spherical device that was 100 times the size of the one I planned to mine, full of mining equipment, and simply get it to suck in whole planets, extract what I needed and spit out the useless dust. I wouldn’t even think about considering the life signs on the planet. Douglas Adams explored this concept in the story ‘The Pirate Planet‘ in the TV series Doctor Who. Why would you bother with an invasion? Just suck the planet into your mining system, process it, and compress what remained.

No invasion needed.

Alien Tourists

In conclusion, if you are worrying about an alien invasion, I hope these few points might help you to overcome the fear and push forward with enjoying your life. Live in the moment, and don’t get caught up in something that, if it could have happened, would have already happened. It is either highly unlikely to happen or, even if it did, be over in an hour.

Having said that, my personal belief is that any aliens planning to come to Earth will be friendly, peaceful and want to learn more about us. Much like human tourists today.

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Aliens, Science, SF Related TV

Review of Ancient Aliens “Earth’s Black Holes”

By NeilA

Review of Ancient Aliens “Earth’s Black Holes”

Playgrounds for Exotic Physics

One of my guilty pleasures is chilling with a glass of wine while watching the latest Ancient Aliens. For a science fiction writer, it is full of pieces of gold that could be weaved into the next short story, or a one-liner that helps expand on a futuristic environment. I thoroughly recommend it, if only to broaden your perceptions.

Earth’s Black Holes

Earth’s Black Holes was surprising in that it not only gave some really serious science (with actual interviews with real scientists) and some fantastic imagery of black holes (along with some dramatic voice-overs) it was creative and accessible enough that I’m sure many kids would have loved this episode.

Physicists

An integral part of the first section was the research done at the SLACK national accelerator laboratory. Commentary was provided by Michael Dennin Ph.D Physicist at the University of California – Irvine, and John Brandenburg Ph. D Plasma Physicist at Orbital Technologies. Fascinating stuff.  I had always thought that black holes were collapsed stars, involving intense gravity, and the cessation of various physical laws. But black holes can be created by other means, especially via just about any kind of vortex. Gravitational, electromagnetic, you name it. Get rid of some electrons in a certain way, and a vortex or hole will automatically appear.

Portals through space / time

I was interested in the idea that the SF trope about black holes being a portal through space / time could actually be true in a smaller sense. The environment of Earth, even just the weather, is ripe for portal creation. The idea of any part of the environment forming a vortex that could transport you through space / time is quite attractive for me, and has probably contributed to thousands of Science Fiction and Fantasy stories over the decades for other writers, too. (The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, anyone?)

Aliens!

Of course, the basic premise of Ancient Aliens is to make sure that any idea mentioned ends up making some kind of connection with aliens. So, of course, these portals or pockets created by electromagnetic squalls would be ideal for aliens to visit Earth via, say a quick hi, drop some knowledge, then split again. There was discussion about the South Atlantic Anomaly, and how it is a localized reversal of the EM field across South America, information about how nature can create its own electrodynamic space/time portals, and a lot more.

Compelling Stuff!

Skipping Journeys

I personally loved it because it used an idea that has been a feature of many of my stories for over 10 years, namely finding a way to either flash to another location through instant teleportation, or space folding, or wormholes, or tunnels through space and time. Essentially, I’ve always wanted to get rid of any boring ‘travel’ or unnecessary ‘journey’ paragraphs. (Yes, I’m one of those who has never made it past the first few chapters of Lord of the Rings – OMG a journey??? Saw it at the cinema instead!)

When I was a kid, I used to find stairs so boring that I would simply jump flights of them. My friends would slide or skate down the banisters, but even that was a bit slow for me. Now, if I could find a way to physically and instantly travel almost anywhere in the universe, I’d be very happy, (As would my hips, and probably later my replacement hips.) I’d love to jump about one of the Magellanic Clouds one day!

Ancient Aliens Convention

In its 13th year, the series has become popular enough that it now has its own annual convention, called Alien Con, not only featuring presenters of the programme, but also X-Files and Star Trek luminaries. At the time of writing, David Duchovny, Gates McFadden and Robert Picardo for the June 2018 convention. The marketing is USA-only, so I had to set up a fake USA address to find out more from the robot system, but I’ve since been in contact with one of the organizers of the convention, and things look like they’re going to be pretty wild.

As a brand, Giorgio A. Tsoukalos is well known, and it would be great to rub shoulders with him, learn a bit about the behind the scenes stuff that goes on. Meeting Erich Von Daniken would also be a highlight, and he’s not in as many episodes as I’d like. I read his book in the 70s, and was quite taken with it. Chariots of the Gods. It has probably influenced quite a lot of my SF writing over the years, so I’m sure a convention would elicit more interesting insights from him that would not otherwise be seen in a restricted 40 minute format.

Unfortunately, beyond my budget

Most tickets have already sold out (US$549 Gold Pass!) A 14h flight from Melbourne to Pasadena (AU$1500) plus accommodation (US$200pn) plus food and drinks and local travel (probably lots of drinks!) I’d be expecting to pay, at a bare minimum, about AU$4000 for the weekend. So, hopefully there’ll be some Youtube videos afterwards.

If you want to know more about the Ancient Aliens Convention, check out the website here:

The Alien Con

Being a writer, I wanted to know how much I could advertise my book Alien Frequency in their programme guide for. Unfortunately, a bit beyond my budget. US$1000 for a page – more than I earn in a month! (Quarter pages available for US$300)

Maybe next year.

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General Missives

Hanging Around on Quora

By NeilA

Hanging Around on Quora

Recently, I spent some time answering questions on Quora. I was curious about how it worked, what sort of questions got asked, how people were asked the questions and more.

I found that the most distracting thing for me was that people would hunt down those with ratings in certain categories and then send them random questions. It meant I would get sent questions I would have no time to answer like What are you favorite Science Fiction books of all time?

I messed about with the settings, attempting to get the system to deliver questions that didn’t already have an answer easily discoverable via Google, before giving up.

Fun, if you have plenty of time and just want to answer basic questions like a primary school teacher. Otherwise, it can rob you of your writing time. Best taken in small doses. So, I’m just going to visit once a week. (Hmm, says the voice in my head, I’ve heard that before.)

So, here are some answers I posted on Quora.

What sound does an alien make?

If the universe is teeming with life, then any vibration imaginable on any wavelength is possible. Just look at how all the life in our world communicates. Plants communicate through electrical signals, releasing scents, and some even move to signal others nearby. Bacteria communicates with chemical signal molecules. Fish mainly use body language. Ants communicate with pheromones. The possibilities are endless, though I believe most advanced aliens would be communicating telepathically.

If you’re wanting to work out how a grey alien might sound if they attempt to speak, think about how much sound and flexibility that tiny mouth and jaw could make. I doubt even a tongue could fit in there, so it’s unlikely you’ll get more than a few bleats or basic words. Probably no English words containing ‘th’ or ‘l’ sounds.

What happened to three body dot net?

An archive of http://3body.net from 2015 can be found at Archive dot org: the most best selling science fiction in China

According to Whois, the site is still owned by HiChina Zhicheng Technology Ltd Registry Expiry Date: 2020-11-12T06:07:07Z which also owns 3body.com,

I guess they kept it to promote the movie in English on it, but since the movie has been postponed indefinitely, so has everything else.

Do the writers represent themselves in their story or they create an imaginary character of imaginary personality?

One of my goals is to write convincing non-anthropomorphic characters, and I need to figure out how they think and communicate first, before creating scenarios for them.

For that I usually have to also create the worlds they come from and their backstory, and work out their customs, how they move, even how slowly or quickly they react, depending on the gravity they grew up in (if they did, in fact, grow.) An alien that uses its mouth a lot would probably have things in it when it is speaking. An alien with two brains and twelve eyes would be processing many more things at the same time, while it is working on a singular reply to another alien. Getting those thought processes as alien as possible is crucial to a believable alien character. So, in that sense, most of my characters are completely imaginary.

However, after creating a character from scratch, eventually that character is going to have to have a conversation with another character to move the story forward. And unless I’m wanting to alienate all my readers, I’m going to have to use some of my own human 21st century personality to be able to communicate their conversation in standard English.

Why is English (language) described as “primitive” in sci-fi movies?

It’s mainly a trope to describe anything humanity-based as primitive in SF. Language, culture, customs, religions etc. All are primitive in comparison to a more advanced alien race.

Of course, from another perspective, why aren’t we all using telepathy (or telempathy) yet? This would be the natural progression of any species. In that sense, using any part of your physical body to communicate is primitive.

If you want to know specifically why English might be considered primitive, check out the movie Arrival. English is trapped in a linear progression and can’t override the timeline it’s expressed in.

Hope this helps.

Professor Orson Scott Card kindly commented on my post, and you can read it here. 

My reply was: True! Unless the story is written by a linguist who uses the concept of aliens thinking English is primitive to prove to them that it is not. I personally doubt any alien race we meet will have a disparaging or condescending tone about human languages. I’m sure they’ll all be so far advanced that they’ll love everything about us, and be fascinated by the way we’ve evolved this complicated method of communication.

Is a life form in gaseous state possible?

Videos of lower Earth orbit astronauts encountering weird white blobs or globes floating near them, and an upper atmosphere experiment that brought back a flattened version of one of them, seems to suggest we have gaseous state biological organisms, with a thin bacteriological film holding them together, floating in Earth’s atmosphere.

On a more esoteric note, it is believed by some religions that everything is conscious – levels of visible awareness being identified through physical conduits capable of projecting the consciousness in an interactive form.

So, while a knife and fork could be conscious, they have no way of expressing it, whereas, a gas could potentially shape itself into a communicative form. And with the plethora of strange sea creatures still being discovered, I would suggest that no matter what form you can imagine, it’s probably a life form to some degree.

How does modern Chinese science fiction compare with the recent English science fiction?

At the risk of using a standard cliche, ‘this is a difficult question to answer.’ You’re basically looking for someone who has recently, and extensively, read Chinese and English science fiction stories. That suggests they need to be bilingual. Unfortunately, I have only read Chinese science fiction in English so I would assume a lot is lost in translation.

Having said that, The Three Body Problem is an amazing piece of work, but I doubt it is representative of Chinese science fiction writing. (It won where others did not.) I would hazard a guess that Cixin Liu won the Hugo for his impressive science, and emotive history, as well as his engaging storytelling. Other science fiction stories from Chinese writers that I have encountered seem to be bogged down in fantasy, or human stories with just a futuristic background. To me, science fiction must feature a high tech or hard science element, with limited emotional or romantic connection between the characters, and at least one alien protagonist or antagonist. Sadly, this is not that common in science fiction these days.

Unfortunately, this means Chinese science fiction has a lot of similarities with English science fiction of present. Science fiction and fantasy mixed together, no real research done to confirm legitimate science, and no detailed, well-defined aliens. I’m eager to stand corrected, and would love to read a story by a Chinese author who has written detailed alien life and worlds with as much, if not more science than The Three Bodies problem, so please list some stories in the comments.

I haven’t found any other high tech SF from China yet, but I’m sure this will change. Even so, in this day and age, we’re going through the painful period of romantic human fantasy stories disguised as science fiction. The whole world is guilty of this thanks to publishers realizing that’s what sells in that genre. I look forward to more non-anthropomorphic aliens not having romantic relationships with human starship crews in the near future, and look to China and their teams of translators to release these kinds of stories for future generations.

Why is science fiction so popular?

Sadly, it’s not true. Science Fiction is ranked as the lowest selling genre on Amazon. Publishers consider it to be the most expensive genre to produce (highest page count for lowest profit) TV channels, live streaming organisations and local community productions know it costs a huge amount of money to make, with limited advertising opportunities. (Sponsorship is available for products similar to the show that is being screened. When it comes to science fiction, what are you going to sell?)

And, yet, there are still small groups of people around the world that love the stuff, which is why, considering all these ‘facts’ I still write it.

So, yes, it is popular in certain small areas. But in comparison to the interests of over 7 billion people, it is quite a tiny area of passion. Perhaps your question would be best put as ‘Why is Science Fiction so loved?’ In which case, I will direct you to the answers of other Quorans.

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SF Books, SF Streaming, SF TV, SF Video

Alas, poor Expanse, I didn’t know it well

By NeilA

The Expanse has been cancelled by SyFy

The series was cancelled, not because it was getting 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, or because of its huge fan following, or because it was one of the most advanced and gritty SF series since the Battlestar Galactica reboot, but simply because of legalities. (Because, we know those other things tend to get things cancelled!)

Deadline Hollywood has a good write up, and says Alcon Entertainment will begin shopping it to other broadcasters. The Expanse Cancelled

I have a feeling that Netflix might pick it up, as it is currently distributing it in Australia.

On a personal note, I haven’t watched the series. I couldn’t get past episode 2. No aliens? No plans to find aliens? Barely any discussion of the existence of aliens? A complete focus on politics, drama and relationships between humans? And then, when there is an alien, it’s a fantastic protomolecule that causes a lot of problems.  (Yeah, I read a few reviews. Many thanks io9.)

All my friends say I should watch it. <rubs eyes> But, I still haven’t had time to finish watching Andromeda, or Fringe.

Change my mind!

If you’ve never seen the series, and like dystopian fiction, you’ll probably love it. You can find out more here:

The Expanse Streaming Video

The Expanse Books by James S. A. Corey