POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS: STAR TREK - Re-Engineering It In Full-Immersion Three-Dimensions!!! Um???

On October 7, 2007, I started this blog. Eighteen years later, I am revising and doing some different things. My wife and I are now retired senior citizens, our kids are both married, we have a bonus daughter and her wife and we have three grandchildren, (with a fourth on-the-way!) the oldest of which will soon finish his first year in high school, one smack in the center of Middle School; the third almost done with kindergarten. I have forty-five professional publications, plus countless other publications as a slushpile reader, and sometime essay contributor to Stupefying Stories https://stupefyingstories.blogspot.com/.

These days, I write whenever I want to – or when I’m not busy exploring the world with my wife or kids or grandkids. I write and read constantly. Then I discovered that I was writing longer and longer pieces. My new focus is to write shorter; and to write HUMOR. On purpose. Maybe I can still irritate people while being funny. It works pretty well for John Scalzi! We’ll see what happens.

But sadly, not for this short essay…

“I know you all believed that I killed myself because of what I came face-to-face with after making a record number of jumps to interstellar space.” Lots of nods, more wide-eyed-amazement. There were even faces that displayed sheer horror. I nodded to Tiananmen. “I didn’t kill myself. I faked my death in order to talk with Felix and Grandpa about the future of Jax Lunar Lumber and the exploration of Strange New Worlds.” She shot me a look. We both had come to enjoy a century-old flattie “television program”, re-engineered in full-immersive ThreeDee.”

Ever since watching Star Trek: The Original Series, I wanted SO BADLY TO LIVE IN THAT WORLD!

My wife and I have been watching STAR TREK: Strange New Worlds and after several episodes where my fondest dream of being able to live in the Federation Universe kept getting fed. I SO wanted to live in the days of the USS Enterprise (Original through G (which is, in case you don’t know, a Time Ship!).

Then, some…interesting episodes of SNW started to crop up. Perhaps the most startling and revealing was also the BLOODIEST ST I had ever seen and references something that has only been noted in vague hints: The Klingon/Federation War.

While I’m the father of an Army soldier who was stationed in several of the world’s hot-spots during his 11-year hitch whose MOS was 94 Sierra. If you’re really interested, do some digging. That’s all I’ll say.

He related a few incidents that were hard for me to hear as his Dad. I’ll leave it at that, but use it to introduce the ST:SNW episode, “Under the Cloak of War”. I grew up with the slightly rough-and-tumble Universe of ST:TOS and ST:TNG rather than the more refined universe of PICARD (which has brutal issues of its own, but has more to chew on intellectually.) Seeing “Cloak”, my child-like vision of the FUN of space travel was cruelly tempered by what I saw on television every night when, crashing into adolescence, I was faced with the possibility of getting DRAFTED when I turned 18. Initiated in 1948, the US drafted its last soldier (at the time, all soldiers had been male) in 1972 and closed finally in 1973. While I was “just a kid” – I was fifteen and absolutely aware of the Vietnam War.

So, with that background and build up, let’s go back to my fondest dream as a kid watching Star Trek with Dad: circa 1966-1969 (9-12 years old). I wanted to live in the universe of Star Trek and “boldly go where no man (at the time) has gone before”! I wanted to live in a world of transporters, talking computers, food replicators, amazing medical care, and a seemingly clean, sweet world that spent its time “exploring strange new worlds”.

But the Federation didn’t have a very smooth beginning and went back and forth as some civilizations sought expansion, and others chose to vanish. The small slice of Federation history during STRANGE NEW WORLDS was almost as violent as our own time.

So, would I want to REALLY inhabit the Federation of this time? Worf would NOT have existed during the time – in fact, the Federation and the Klingon Empire were busy slaughtering each other. I can no easily imagine a Federation being “all good” and the Klingons being “all bad” than I can imagine all Americans being good and all Chinese being bad. Governments do nasty things – but the scarier part of that is that “government” isn’t visible. It’s RESULTS are apparent, but I can’t point and say, “Look! There’s America!” It’s an entity that has, “as of mid-2025, (has an) estimated total population of the United States and its territories (of) approximately 345.5 million people. This figure includes the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the five main inhabited U.S. territories.”

It's full of people truly nasty, truly wonderful, and truly ciphers (or invisible if you prefer). Times for different parts of the world are horrific: “Sudan, the Occupied Palestinian Territory (specifically Gaza), Myanmar, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).” Check whatever your news source is and these places will usually be prominently displayed.

Now, finally: If I lived in the United Federation of Planets during the time of SNW, there would still be atrocities perpetrated by “aliens” as they are perpetrated by the Humans of this place and time. The faces would be different, but there would STILL be my favorite Star Trek aliens like the Vulcans, the Bajorans, the Iconians, Q, the Horta, and others.

And there would be war, and that’s why “Cloak” brought home to me; even Gene Roddenberry had to invent violent aliens in order to drive the storylines; clearly recognizing that WE AS HUMANS prefer things…(to be mild and polite), SPICY. Not entirely dull and boring which has always been the problem with writing about utopias – no one wanted to read about them because THEY WERE BORING. Violence is what we LIKE, even a romantic comedy would fall flat on its face if there wasn’t CONFLICT (even of the humorous and romantic type).

After reflecting and writing about my childhood dream of living in a STAR TREK world, I find that it really wouldn’t be all that different than the world I live in today (maybe with a couple fun pieces of tech like TRANSPORTERS and STARSHIPS!

Reference: “Under the Cloak of War”, detailed discussion and insights - https://musingsofamiddleagedgeek.blog/2023/07/31/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-s2-8-under-the-cloak-of-war-commits-a-few-atrocities/

Image: https://www.paramountplus.com/collections/star-trek/

IDEA ON TUESDAY 680

Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them. Regarding horror, I found this insight in line with WIRED FOR STORY: “ We seek out…stories which give us a place to put our fears…Stories that frighten us or unsettle us - not just horror stories, but ones that make us uncomfortable or that strike a chord somewhere deep inside - give us the means to explore the things that scare us…” – Lou Morgan (The Guardian)

H Trope: Blue Collar Warlock ("I have an idea that most of the mystics in comics are generally older people, very austere, very proper, very middle class in a lot of ways. They are not at all functional on the street. It struck me that it might be interesting for once to do an almost blue collar warlock. Somebody who was streetwise, working class, and from a different background than the standard run of comic book mystics. Constantine started to grow out of that.")
Current Event: “Forgive me for getting a bit carried away. I find it an entertaining exercise to look for those parallels. I simply wonder if the manner in which we tackle the challenges we face in real life is reflected in the way we tackle our virtual battles. As a side-note, I'd also be interested to see what kind of people the Destiny sub consists of.” (http://www.reddit.com/r/DestinyTheGame/comments/2n3xfc/whats_your_primary_class_and_what_do_you_do_in/)

Rafael Pai-Teles sighed. “Eu vou estar o trabalhar para a Metrô del Belo Horizonte para o resto de minha vida!”

Eduarda Cisota shook her head and said, “Speak English. Your Portuguese is crappy.”

“I can’t work for the Belo Horizonto Metro for the rest of my life!”

Eduarda said, “What else are you going to do?”

Rafael said, “I can do something else.”

“You can’t do anything,” she said. “Now get back to work.”

Rafael scowled. “I’m worth a lot more than you think I am!” he snapped.

“You’re a kid. Just like me. You’re gonna run the train and I’m gonna take tickets from now until forever. It’s what happened. At least we didn’t get turned into stalagmites. We were lucky to be here when the Donkey Wizard took over Up North.”

“It was the Elephant Sorceress and she turned everyone into obsidian shards,” Eduarda said.

He threw his arms into the air and shouted, “Whatever! I can do something about it!”

“About every living thing being turned into some kind of inorganic obelisk – what can you possibly do?” Rafael crossed his arms over his chest and pouted. Eduarda rolled her eyes and said, “That didn’t come out how I meant it to come out.”

“How did you mean it, as a compliment?”

“No, but I didn’t mean to sound so...” as she spoke, a train roared into Carlos Prates Estação.

“I have to go now! I’ll tell you what I can do later!” he shouted.

She watched him run after the train where he was a porter. His father had been a physicist in the Aryabhata tradition, dealing with solar energy and, accordingly, solar weapons. He’d died when the Wizard or Sorceress or whoever turned life to stone. There was some Christian writer who’d written of a fictional sorceress who had done then, but she didn’t know who. The train started to pull out and she cursed. Now she’d have to...As she watched, the concrete platform under Rafael’s feet shimmered, then appeared to be a mound of living tissue – like a wart or pimple or something equally disgusting. As it rose though, it allowed Rafael to step easily on to the train. She rubbed her eyes and when she opened them, her long-time friend was waving back at her, grinning ear to ear as he pulled from the station.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belo_Horizonte_Metro
Names: ♀ Brazil; ♂ Brazil
Image: https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51niGRrH6DL.jpg

POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS: PunchFace or, Why Do We Like Our Heroes Better When They’re Beat Up?

My wife and I rewatch movies all the time. From rom-coms, to historical, to sci-fi series, to period pieces, to book-to-movies (sometimes in multiple iterations with different actors!) Some don't seem to have been remade -- like Back to the Future. But the one I come back to avidly and my wife willingly, is the STAR TREK movies. All of them; all directors; all series...in particular, I typed this observation in 2009...

In JJ Abrahamson's STAR TREK, skidrow bum/cadet/PunchFace/captain Kirk is slugged by his enemies sixteen times (as opposed to only being slugged by people who would become his friends later four times); shot at with hand weapons, ship weapons and missiles innumerable times; strangled or thrown by his enemies nine times (as opposed to being injected, pushed, slapped, thrown or strangled an additional nine times by his friends); he hurts himself twice, is chased (by security officers, a furry thing and a lizardy thing) three times and mind-melded against his will once. Total number of countable physical and mental injuries in one movie: 40 (allergic reactions are being counted here as one and the same as involuntary injections…)

Kirk in the original series was pummeled as well because of his attitude or by chance or being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was always wiping a trickle of blood from his chin and was frequently the punching bag of friend and foe alike.

Lest you think I’m a STARWARS-o-phobe, I've never been compelled to do an actual PunchFace count, I recall Luke Skywalker taking an unnatural number of hits though. Perhaps even more than Han Solo did; though certainly more than those meted out to Princess Leia.

Nevertheless, and in keeping with my theme of exploring the intersection of faith and science fiction, I’m going to throw Jesus into the mix as well. The Bible even prophesied that he was going to be a PunchFace. Isaiah 53:5 says, “ But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed.” It’s well-known that He was crucified on a cross after being scourged and humiliated.

While according to the internet, both Muhammed and the Buddha died of poisoning it’s clear that they suffered at the end. While Hindus never die and are either reincarnated or achieve Nirvana, many Hindus have suffered and died in their service as well. It is the ones who suffer that we remember best.

Is it any surprise that our heroes and heroines are the ones who suffer most either before they die or at death? Is it a subconscious Human condition that in order to achieve greatness, someone must suffer and die for their cause? Is it something we’re hard-wired to respect and revere? We even have a saying that can be applied to anything from weight-lifting programs to monastic ascetism: “No pain, no gain”.

So, it is any surprise that our SF heroes and heroines also suffer and die in spectacular ways?

Not to me, it isn’t! How about you?

PunchFace to Eternity anyone?

IDEAS ON TUESDAY 679

Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them? Regarding Fantasy, this insight was startling: “I see the fantasy genre as an ever-shifting metaphor for life in this world, an innocuous medium that allows the author to examine difficult, even controversial, subjects with impunity. Honor, religion, politics, nobility, integrity, greed—we’ve an endless list of ideals to be dissected and explored. And maybe learned from.” – Melissa McPhail.

Fantasy Trope: “wǔxiá (武侠 — literally ‘martial-arts chivalry; or ‘martial arts heroes’, and pronounced roughly woo-seeah in Mandarin) stories are tall tales of honorable warriors (侠 xiá) fighting against evil, whether it be an individual villain, or a corrupt government.”
Current Event: http://achhikhabre.com/mehul-vora-martial-art-instructor-tsi-india/

Rishika Memon said, “Hang on just a second! I’ve never worn a sari before!”

Akshay Vora, her “partner in crime”, said, “Like I’ve ever worn a sherwani? Are there any buttons?”

Rishika sighed and finished wrapping the lime green garment over her shoulder and said, “It’s not the thing itself, it’s the intent.”

“You mean I’m doing all of this...”

“It’s worth it. We’re going to be fighting, not walking a runway,” she said. “I’m ready.”

“Great. I’m not. I don’t even think I can make my moves in this thing.”

Rishika shook her head. “There won’t be any moves to make.”

Akshay stared at her, “What do you mean, we’re here to fight, aren’t we?”

“Sort of,” she said, holding up her hand as he opened his mouth to talk. He scowled fiercely instead. She swallowed hard. “We’re here to fight – but not with our hands. We’re here to fight with our words.”

“Our words,” Akshay said.

“Don’t give me any of your attitude! Swords and karate chops don’t always stop wars!”

He shook his head, “China chops don’t do anything but give me gas.”

She sniffed and stepped forward to the heavy oaken door. “We’re in this together. There’s a corrupt government out there that we have to overthrow!”

“Did you ever stop and think that we’re the corrupt government we’re trying to overthrow, my oldest friend?”

Rishika paused and looked over her should at him. “That’s not true, and you know it.”

“It all depends on how you look at it!”

“What do you mean by that?” she asked, turning around.

“Being that we’re royalty, we’re the government.”

“But neither one of us will ever inherit an actual…like…throne. Your oldest brother and my little sister will be the King and Queen. We aren’t actually the government.”

Akshay looked at him then said, “We could be walking into a slaughter, you know. Us included. There’s only one way to stop this whole thing and that’s if we fight them.”

Rishika went to the door and made a motion over the elaborate carvings, standing with his hands flat over the door, not touching it. He said, “There’s a crowd over there and they’re ugly.”

“Must be your side of the family,” Akshay said.

She scowled, “It’s an angry crowd, Akshay. They’re mad at us...”

“They aren’t mad at us personally, they’re mad at the institution. That’s what we’re here to change.”

“We still haven’t answered the question of how.”

Rishika took a deep breath, held it, then said softly, “We change it by becoming heroes of the people.”

Akshay shook his head and said, “Sounds pretty socialist of you,” he stopped her retort with his hand, “But I agree. We become heroes of the people – sort of like the heroes of the Cultural Revolution. Rénmín Yīngxióng.”

“Exactly.” She pushed the doors open on the square as lightning split the sky...

Names: ♀ India; ♂ India

Image: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/98/71/e5/9871e52bbc09c525af21b8f6471eab15.jpg

Slice of PIE: Why Do We Need Christian Spec Fic Publishers? (First posted in March 2009)

In 2014, I received the monthly announcement of Marcher Lord Press (Rebranded as ENCLAVE PUBLISHING ) (http://www.marcherlordpress.com/MLP_Publishing_Model.htm. Around their slogan, " “Enclave publishes out-of-this-world stories that are informed by a coherent theology.” Enclave Publishing is built around the power of great stories which explore the boundaries of the imagination, while championing powerful expressions of Redemption, Truth, and Hope." 
As a division of Oasis Family Media, "Enclave publishes genres called speculative fiction, science fiction, fantasy, military, space opera, steam punk, and myths. Whether it’s Christian science fiction you love, or fantasy, time travel, retellings, steampunk—if it’s speculative and it comes from the Christian worldview, Enclave is the place to go. We strive to get Christian speculative fiction into the hands of the fans who love and devour great stories."

An enclave is a group of like-minded people in a place where they are surrounded by those who are not like-minded. It is not a place to hide, instead, Enclave is supposed to be a place where authors and fans of Christian Fantasy and Science Fiction can come together and then go out and make a difference through worlds of words. Our stories can seem strange but underneath they contain powerful expressions of Redemption, Truth, and Hope.

My question: with hundreds of publishers already producing spec fic in the secular world, why do we need a Christian spec fic publisher? While I can't dispute their call to minister to God’s people in this way, I have serious questions to which I’d like to hear answers.

I've yet to find a well-known hard science fiction writer on Enclaves's author list. Some authors have won secular awards, but by no means all of them. By extension then, these authors are not the "best" in the field yet they are being published as representative of the BEST the Christian spec fic market can produce. These authors represent Christ – at least in the speculative fiction field – to the entire world. Scripture is clear in its commission to us: “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.” (Colossians 3:17) The fact is that when people buy these books and give them to their spec fic reading unsaved friends, they’ll be compared unfavorably to what is being published in the secular press.

CS Lewis, who not only wrote spec fic for a secular publisher, and published short fiction in the secular market (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction published three of his stories) spoke eloquently to the issue: “What we want is not more little books about Christianity, but more little books by Christians on other subjects with their Christianity latent.” GOD IN THE DOCK, p. 93

Beth Moore as well points out in her scripture workbook: “We cannot seclude ourselves indefinitely in Christian hideouts. Our lives must be poured out like healing ointment on this injured land.” DANIEL: LIVES OF INTEGRITY, WORDS OF PROPHECY, p. 128

Finally, Reggie McNeal: “The truth is that the North American church culture extracts salt from the world and diminishes the amount of light available to those who need to find their way.” THE PRESENT FUTURE, p. 72

It’s clear to me that these Christian publishers have, with the greatest of good will inadvertently created a ghetto in which they might safely believe that they are reaching the world but may be creating a spectacle of themselves at which the secular world peeks, points their fingers, laughs and then moves on its way to the REALLY important work.

And that leaves the secular world effectively unreached. The Church has always been responsible for their loss from the Kingdom of God and leaves us open to the reprimand of our Lord. Matthew 25: 34-46 are verses we often quote to ourselves, patting ourselves on the back. In particular, verses 41-46: "Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’ Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me. These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.’”

We still have time to become the BEST in the secular world and reach the lost for Jesus Christ. I went to Minnesota Minicon (link here: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2025/04/caring-over-science-fiction-and-fantasy.html

That’s where my mission is. Here's a letter from another Christian who is reaching the unreached: https://pierpoints.wordpress.com/2024/08/01/christians-increasingly-consider-their-voice-in-secular-culture/

I have no doubt my concern will have zero effect on Enclave -- that's business and the company was founded to make a profit for its investors -- be that a single founder or other stock investors. But that market draws Christians from writing for the secular market to reach the lost. That's where I want to be...How about you?

Image: https://www.equip.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/CAB-WEB-Is-There-a-Gospel-in-the-Stars-1080-x-630-px.png

MINING THE ASTEROIDS Part 32: After Some “WILDLY HOPEFUL CLAIMS”, Asteroid Mining Companies Start Being “Real”

Initially, I started this series because of the 2021 World Science Fiction Convention, DisCON which I WOULD have been attending in person if I felt safe enough to do so in person AND it hadn’t been changed to the week before the Christmas Holidays…HOWEVER, as time passed, I knew that this was a subject I was going to explore because it interests me. Reality hit the first wave of asteroid mining startups square between the eyes…

““Asteroid Mining May be a Reality by 2025,” published by us (Space.com) in August 2015. Back then, “Planetary Resources had deployed its first spacecraft and Deep Space Industries was showing pretty pictures of its spacecraft, with the companies more than happy to tell everyone that they were in pole position to turn far away rocks into earthly profit…

“A decade later, both companies are gone”. TODAY, the Asteroid Mining Corporation (AMC), AstroForge, Karman+, and TransAstra are among the start-ups that want to be a part of the second wave of space mining, but one company clearly seems to be ahead of the pack.”

And instead of lots of talk, “AstroForge launched its first mission in April 2023 to demonstrate its refinery technology operating in space. It failed, but its second mission is on deck for launch sometime this year with the Odin spacecraft expected to be the first to collect images of an M-type (or M-class) asteroid (that is, “metallic-type) a spectral class of asteroids which appear to contain higher concentrations of metal.”

“More importantly, AstroForge has cash, is being transparent in how its first mission failed and what it needs to accomplish to fly Odin ( new probe), and has a path charted out for a third mission, Vestri, which will revisit the M-type asteroid and attempt to land…”

“TransAstra, which currently has products to track and spot objects in space, giving it the ability to bring in space domain awareness (SDA) revenue while it works on capture bags for ‘snagging and bagging’ satellites and recycling orbital debris into resources. This technology R&D leads to its Honey Bee asteroid mining vehicle, which would capture an asteroid and optically mine (here’s the definition of “optically mining…using concentrated sunlight to heat and vaporize volatile materials (like water ice) from asteroids, which are then collected and processed [to analyze it] for resources such as water and metals.”

Wasn’t sure what “optically mine” an asteroid was – sounded like they take pictures and then send them to the highest bidder. That doesn’t seem wise at the moment, as the highest bidder will likely be one of their main competitors…but who am I but an old science fiction writer? Turns out they’ll use an onboard laser to zap rock samples, and check them for wealth.

Seems there are OTHER players that are nowhere near as far along as AF and TA: “Karman+ has raised $20 million towards building an asteroid water mining mission, with a target launch window in 2027…”

“AMC is building autonomous ruggedized (???) six-legged robots that could be used on Earth in hazardous environments as well as in space with the ability to coordinate operations in swarms for inspection and other duties. AMC expects to conduct an on-orbit demonstration of its SCAR-E (Space Cargo and Reconnaissance – Explorer) robot in 2026 with deployments onboard the International Space Station and the lunar surface in the 2026-2027 timeframe.”

OK – so the quest continues with lots of companies spending money to see if mining the asteroids is REALISTIC and will (above all else) MAKE THEM MONEY.

These last contenders seem to have drifted farther and farther from reality and more into the fantasy that devoured PR and DSI. Also clear is that mining in space will be FAR more difficult than mining on Earth is…

Or is it? The website EARTH SYSTEMS points out, “…it seems the majority of the news we hear about mining is negative. However, it is important to remember how important mining is to our civilization and standard of living. It’s interesting to reflect on how we reached our current perception of mining because, during most of our history, mining has had priority over most other activities.” They point out that “…mining started as a search for the stone tools. Objects we’ve unearthed that are clearly primitive tools “are approximately 2.6 million years old, predating even Homo Sapiens.”

So humans and humanoids have been mining for a long, long time. Eventually, humans started digging iron out of rocks that had fallen from the skies: aka meteorites. “Dated to around 1400 BC, several iron axes from Shang dynasty China were confirmed to be meteoritic in origin; from around the same time, an iron dagger, bracelet and headrest from the tomb of Tutankhamun were confirmed to be meteoritic in origin”.

One could almost say that mining the asteroids is the destiny of modern Humanity.

Admittedly, it’s not HERE AND NOW, but I don’t think, based on what I’m reading now, that it’s all that far away. Of course, starting to mine the asteroids may very well lead to some bumps and bruises for the Human race in the future…

NEXT TIME: A bit of history of mining ON EARTH...was it REALLY as easy as we pretend it is?

Today’s Source: https://www.spacecomexpo.com/spacecom-column/space-mining-time-now ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-type_asteroid ; https://www.earthsystems.com/history-mining/ ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteoric_iron
Foundational Resource: (A general Wikipedia post detailing what the authors currently know about asteroid mining: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid_mining)
Noted Resources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_asteroid_close_approaches_to_Earth, https://www.pharostribune.com/news/local_news/article_7fcd3ea5-3c14-533f-a8d5-9bf629922f34.html, https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/04/29/like-asteroid-mining-be-careful-what-you-wish-for/, https://www.nps.gov/wrbr/learn/historyculture/theroadtothefirstflight.htm, https://hackaday.com/2019/03/27/extraterrestrial-excavation-digging-holes-on-other-worlds/, https://www.planetary.org/space-missions/every-small-worlds-mission
Interesting Stuff The Might Apply To Mining Asteroids: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgej7gzg8l0o

Image: https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/A2D5/production/_114558614_hls-eva-apr2020.jpg

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 678

Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them.

SF Trope: Aesoptinium ((http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Aesoptinum)
Event:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/mindreading-rodents-scientists-show-telepathic-rats-can-communicate-using-braintobrain-8515259.html

Sophie Sperl stared at the researcher and pursed her lips. "How is this legal?"

The technician who was hooking up the wires that led into the helmet shrugged. "You're like fourteen?" Sophie nodded slowly. He continued, "And you're in a maximum security prison, so I figure you probably committed some really bad crime, so you have no, like, rights or anything." Sophie growled and squirmed. The tech looked at her and said, "I should let you know that the room is completely monitored and I'm armed with a taser, and whoever's watching can send sleep gas into here in a second." He worked for a while then said, "What'd you do?"

Sophie snorted. "I killed someone."

"Duh," said the tech.

Sophie looked at him and said, "What's your name, handsome?" She squirmed in the chair until the straps pressed up under her breasts.

"Arnava Boqpool, and I'm gay."

Sophie looked disappointed and squirmed until she was comfortable again.

"Sorry, kiddo."

"You're the same age as me! I'm as much of a kiddo as you are!"

He shrugged, finished the contacts in the helmet and said, "Yeah, but I'm a genius."

"I am, too."

"You're a genius at murder. I'm a genius at being a sponge."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

He picked up the helmet and tried to place it on her head. She snapped her head back and forth until he stopped and said, "You can be conscious for this or I can tase you out cold." He shrugged. "Up to you."

She stopped struggling and let him put the helmet on her head. He snugged a strap under her chin and said, "There. This shouldn't take too long. They say your brain is no match for mine."

He sat down across from her and lifted an aluminum bad bristling with wires and spikes and placed it on his head.

"What, you're a refugee from GAME OF THRONES?"

"Nope." He leaned to one side and said, "When I turn on the interface, we'll meet mind to mind. You'll try and kill me and I'll absorb you like so much spilled Koolaid." He flipped the switch.

Names: ♀ India ; ♂, Germany

Resource: “Robert Sawyer…Neanderthal Parallax…plans sent by aliens…lets people read each other’s minds...strongly implied that this will lead to utopia.” Image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_%283%29.jpg/220px-Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_%283%29.jpg

GUY’S WEEKLY WRITING UPDATE

SHORT STORIES - ADVICE AND OBSERVATIONS Short Stories #33: Beatrix Potter “& Me”
Short story observations by Beatrix Potter – with a few from myself…
Link: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2025/08/writing-advice-short-stories-advice-and.html
IDEAS ON TUESDAY 677
“We seek out…stories which give us a place to put our fears…”
H: “And I must scream!”

https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2025/07/idea-on-tuesday-677.html

DIABETES GUY’S GOTTA TALK ABOUT…TYPE 2 DIABETES #33: Diabetes & Alzheimer’s Disease
My nightmare: “…a strong connection between diabetes and Alzheimer's Disease..."
LINK: https://breastcancerreaper.blogspot.com/2025/07/guys-gotta-talk-abouttype-2-diabetes-33.html
IMAGE: GUY’S WEEKLY WRITING UPDATE
MY NEW SITE: https://manyworldsofguy.blogspot.com/

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WRITING ADVICE: Short Stories – Advice and Observation #33: Beatrix Potter “& Me”

In this feature, I’ll be looking at “advice” for writing short stories – not from me, but from other short story writers. In speculative fiction, “short” has very carefully delineated categories: “The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America specifies word lengths for each category of its Nebula award categories by word count; Novel 40,000 words or over; Novella 17,500 to 39,999 words; Novelette 7,500 to 17,499 words; Short story under 7,500 words.”

I’m going to use advice from people who, in addition to writing novels, have also spent plenty of time “interning” with short stories. While most of them are speculative fiction writers, I’ll also be looking at plain, old, effective short story writers. The advice will be in the form of one or several quotes off of which I’ll jump and connect it with my own writing experience. While I don’t write full-time, nor do I make enough money with my writing to live off of it...neither do most of the professional writers...someone pays for and publishes ten percent of what I write. When I started this blog, that was NOT true, so I may have reached a point where my own advice is reasonably good. We shall see as I work to increase my writing output and sales! As always, your comments are welcome! Without further ado, short story observations by Beatrix Potter – with a few from myself…

“There is something delicious about writing the first words of a story. You never quite know where they’ll take you.”

THAT’S for certain! In May of 1990, I had an idea: “Robot In A Mass Driver” in which an AI robot at a remote lunar mining operation must carry a message of rebellion. If they walk, the message will be too late; if they are fired through a mass driver, they will “die”, programming and memory scrambled by intense magnetism. What do they do?”

On Thanksgiving Day, 1995, my seven year old son asked, "Can robots die?"

The story that grew from that seed started, that day with this:

“What were you before you became self-aware?”
“A very fast, very efficient machine.”
“Are you still a machine?”
Arnine thirty-seven looked at him. “Yes.”
Terry looked away.
“At least, technically. But I am more than the sum of my parts.”

The story ends with Arnine sacrificing themselves to save the Humans.

After that, the story sat in a file. Recently, I started wondering how I could write this with considerable more skill today. The story NOW begins:

“Can we adapt to a future where machines aren’t tools anymore, but

people who can make their own choices? Is that even possible?”

Huwei, Wise, SAP, Toyota, Google, Samsung, Swisscom. Apple

Robot9374 had experienced death seven-hundred and thirty-eight times over the past hundred Martian Years.

Not their own…

“The shorter and the plainer the better.”

When I look back at the stories I’ve written that have been PUBLISHED, I can easily see that they are simple stories. The first book even has the word in the title: SIMPLE SCIENCE SERMONS FOR BIG AND LITTLE KIDS.

If you look to the right, you can see a list of my professionally published stories (ones I actually got PAID for.) Most of them are pretty straightforward stories. If you look to the right and scroll down to LINKS TO MY ONLINE STORIES, you can click on whichever one intrigues you and have a read! Let me know what you think; also tell me if you thought the message was “plainer and better”!

“Most people, after one success, are so cringingly afraid of doing less well that they rub all the edge off their subsequent work.”

Interesting thought. I wonder if that’s happened to my writing? When I look at the stories I first got published, I notice a couple things:

- They’re all very short
- Four of the ten are children’s stories (or activities)
- ONE is my collection of children’s sermons, a science experiment paired with a short homily. I sold that (as a neophyte in the hands of CSS Publishing, “christian” shysters who still publish the book, selling it for $9 since they published it in 1998 (after pointing out that they’d be paying me $100 for all rights because it wouldn’t sell very well and they were “a ministry” after all.) So let’s say the price started at $5, so we’ll average it out at $7 over the past 27 years, let’s say they sell 10 books a year for 27 years, that’s 270 books, so, they’d have made just shy of $2000; minus the $100 paid to me, and ignoring the fact that they can do POD pretty easily…and they’ve continued to put it in their catalogue ever since…

Three of the kids’ stories were also purchased outright – but for WAYYYYY more than CSS paid. As a stunning aside, I discovered that one of THOSE stories had been sold to the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (Check page 20 and page 52 for details). “Penguin Whisperer”, published in CRICKET in 2013) to be used in an the 2022-2023 English Language exam…

Anyway, the contracts I signed because even though they were “crappy”, I really didn’t expect it would MATTER if the publishers did whatever they wanted to with work that I imagined into reality…

“I cannot rest, I must draw, however poor the result, and when I have a bad time come over me it is a stronger desire than ever.”

My novel, EMERALD OF EARTH: HEIRS OF THE SHATTERED SPHERES, was published last year. I started WRITING it…a long, long time ago. Most likely twenty some years ago. I loved the story then, and I STILL love it!

I wrote my FIRST story when I was a sixth grader. I still have it, and I know it’s a blatant rip-off of one of Andre Norton’s novels like CATSEYE, STAR’KAAT (series), THE MARK OF THE CAT AND THE YEAR OF THE RAT, and BREED TO COME. Such was my addiction to not only reading science fiction, but my determination to write it! I’ve had several short stories published (though none recently) and while I’m still writing new stories, none of those seem to be selling. I very much understand the desire write more “like” my old work…

“We cannot stay home all our lives, we must present ourselves to the world and we must look upon it as an adventure.”

I love this and totally embrace it. My wife and I are retired now, comfortably able to do pretty much anything we want to, and I now have basically as much time as I want to to write. While we don’t travel as much as we used to, I’ve come back to the old realization that in the written word, I can go wherever I want to – and if I can’t find a REAL place to go, I can create a place in my imagination and populate it with marvelous characters and dive into that place as deeply as I want to. Then, once there and having completed ONE story in that new space, I can share it with others, and we can ALL be there, together as total strangers!

That’s why I write. And that’s why everyone I KNOW reads!

References: https://www.writerswrite.co.za/5-things-beatrix-potter-can-teach-you-about-writing/?fbclid=IwY2xjawL4XUJleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHu7VJ6iAwwYSxXdunScDYPVD3uXnG63anceZzLkU558AxK49umGXRzKLXr4Z_aem_iY01_dy7d9aMx9gsf_IzFA
HBO FILM: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Potter
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CREATING ALIEN ALIENS Part 42A: Human Space Families and What That Might Mean For First Contact

Five decades ago, I started my college career with the intent of becoming a marine biologist. I found out I had to get a BS in biology before I could even begin work on MARINE biology; especially because there WEREN'T any marine biology programs in Minnesota.

Along the way, the science fiction stories I'd been writing since I was 13 began to grow more believable. With my BS in biology and a fascination with genetics, I started to use more science in my fiction.

After reading hard SF for the past 50 years, and writing hard SF successfully for the past 20, I've started to dig deeper into what it takes to create realistic alien life forms. In the following series, I'll be sharing some of what I've learned. I've had some of those stories published, some not...I teach a class to GT young people every summer called ALIEN WORLDS. I've learned a lot preparing for that class for the past 25 years...so...I have the opportunity to share with you what I've learned thus far. Take what you can use, leave the rest. Let me know what YOU'VE learned. Without further ado...

You know, it’s weird that there are SO FEW ALIEN MOVIES, NOVELS, or STORIES that include families. I'm going to do this post in two parts. FIRST, I want to take a QUICK look to see how writers have handled HUMAN families in outer space.

The stories usually allude to familial units by introducing kids, but that’s often as a matter of “they’re succeeding the Throne after the death of their “parent”…or the kid’s overthrowing the evil parent…or the parents spawn eighteen quadrillion children who invade Earth to eat as much of the life on it as they can.

But, mostly, there are few families. Old-timey books include families: PODKAYNE OF MARS by Robert A. Heinlein seems space travel as totally normal and a teen kiddo and younger brother lit through the Solar System like they were on a trip to the Wisconsin Dells. Speaking of which, LOST IN SPACE was literally about a family who was “lost in space”…though, of course, it was basically a joke.

A novel I’m reading today, which I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend to your attention is SWEEP OF STARS by Maurice Broaddus, which fascinating, complex, and has Solar Civilization arranged along the lines of traditional/and wildly variable African families – a TRUE Diaspora. I’m 2/3 through it and you should read it AND it’s about Families In Space!

But…but…but…just finishing up the STAR TREK: PICARD series, and for once, it has a HEAVY family component. But that’s mostly a recent development…SF writers never USED TO explore families in space. It was always INTREPID explorers doing things the Old Military Way – the men left their families behind to save the world! So, SF writers tended to take the easiest route and had the men (occasionally women) leaving their families behind. Of course, exploring that would have HAD to have led to showing men weeping when their children die (or are born) while they’re away “exploring Outer Space” or “Colonizing The Universe”. So, today, we have a dearth of REALISITC Families In Space. I’d be happy if we explored OTHER kinds of families than Nuclear…but I’d be happier if we DID explore using families as the foundation of Human exploration of space.

I also see that I, myself had contributed to that dearth of “Families IN OUTER SPACE” tales. I think I need to get to work on that idea…see ya!

Sources: ONE list from 2023 that lists “Family SciFi – https://bookriot.com/found-family-young-adult-books-in-space/ 

Image: https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/astronaut-family-on-space-2206022229