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James L. Cambias replied to the topic Getting Started in the Conversation
World Building Around the Tall Tower 5 years, 9 months agoI like putting it between the two published stories, as that gives us some room to make up new stuff.
Since this is specifically a game setting, we should make sure that there’s plenty of unknown territory — people may know there are weird cults and subcultures living on the Tower, but that’s all they know. That way players can drop in (er, c…[Read more]
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James L. Cambias replied to the topic Getting Started in the Conversation
World Building Around the Tall Tower 5 years, 10 months agoWere you thinking of focusing on the “Stephensonian” era of the story about building the tower, or the “Sterlingian” era long after it’s completed? The second offers much more variety and conflict, the first provides more Heroic Engineering.
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James L. Cambias joined the group
World Building Around the Tall Tower 5 years, 10 months ago -
James L. Cambias wrote a new post, Accidental Prophets and Texas Sharpshooters: Science Fiction and Predicting the Future 6 years, 4 months ago
Editor’s note: This essay originally appeared on James L. Cambias’ website. To learn more about Cambias’ fiction, and to read more of his musings, visit jamescambias.com. We hope this essay is the start of a […]
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James L. Cambias's profile was updated 6 years, 4 months ago
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James L. Cambias replied to the topic What will teen love be like with hormone regulators and augmented reality implants? in the Conversation Questionspace 7 years ago
As our ability to understand and manipulate the workings of the brain improves, we are approaching a revolution in human affairs as fundamental as those which followed the invention of printing or the steam engine. Because I believe it is so important, this is a subject I keep returning to in my fiction: my first published story was about the…[Read more]
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James L. Cambias replied to the topic 3D printing your diet in the forum
But what will we eat? 8 years, 2 months agoI don’t mean to sound snarky (well, not much) but aren’t we supposed to be thinking about attractive and inspiring visions of the future? Eating printed turkey and soybeans sounds positively dystopian — the postmodern equivalent of all those old “food pills” jokes from SF in the 1950s.
If you look at the history of food, it has been one of…[Read more]
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James L. Cambias joined the group
But what will we eat? 8 years, 2 months ago -
James L. Cambias replied to the topic A Hotel in Antarctica in the Conversation Big Ideas 8 years, 3 months ago
I suspect that, as is so often the case, the main obstacles to an Antarctic hotel are legal and political. There’s no mechanism for property ownership there, which means it’s very hard to assemble the proper financing to build one.
Having said that, I’ve thought of a way around that problem. Take a leaf from the gambling industry, which has…[Read more]
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James L. Cambias replied to the topic Lighter-than-air Bricks in the Conversation Big Ideas 8 years, 3 months ago
Even with graphene bricks, your lifting component is going to be bulky. Air has a mass of about 1 kg. per cubic meter, which would presumably be the “lifting power” of vacuum. That’s not very different from the lifting power of hydrogen. So a graphene airship would still be Zeppelin-sized, though probably a lot more durable.
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James L. Cambias replied to the topic Ecosystem is not broken… in the Conversation The Moonshot Ecosystem 8 years, 4 months ago
I hope you don’t think I don’t like Wall Street guys. But they have to operate in the real world of making a profit and obeying the law. Isn’t it just a matter of the First World regulatory environment being too […]
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James L. Cambias replied to the topic Ecosystem is not broken… in the Conversation The Moonshot Ecosystem 8 years, 4 months ago
With all due deference to Mr. Sterling, I think he’s still asking the wrong question. Looking for a group, government, or mogul with enough bucks for a big, thrilling project is Industrial Age thinking. Get a big […]
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James L. Cambias replied to the topic Let's build an airship in the Conversation Big Ideas 8 years, 5 months ago
Sounds like a cool idea. How big?
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James L. Cambias changed their profile picture 8 years, 6 months ago
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James L. Cambias started the topic Deimos in the Conversation Big Ideas 9 years ago
I’ve been thinking about what Rick Rostrom calls the “plausible midfuture” — when there’s enough human population elsewhere in the Solar System to justify space commerce and all that good stuff.
In such a […]
