On Creating Imaginary Worlds: Science Fiction

[J-WO]

But it would be impermanent

'There can be no true beauty without decay.'

-Uncle Monty, Withnail &I

 

[chrispenycate]

Would you need a vacuum cleaner? (that would be a really big bag; megatonnes.) Could we not just blow the dust to the sides with flights of synchronised rockets? Dynamic art, with the swirling dust veils slowly dropping to reveal the final design?

Mind you, art that is only available to someone with a really powerful telescope (looking at it on the internet just isn't the same) seems rather discriminative to me. Like writing advertising slogans in Saturn's rings; it's such a long time before you have a decent target audience.

 

[Ursa major]

'There can be no true beauty without decay.'

-Uncle Monty, Withnail &I

This isn't decay, it's dust to dust.

 

[J-WO]

LOL.

Ok, fellas, how about giving the sun a big tattoo made of sunspots? Now that would be seen everywhere. Could that be done?

 

[chrispenycate]

I rather hope not; that would make current global warming debates relatively irrelevant.

So, it's a question of scale. Your average sunspot is bigger than the Earth and you'd need – well, depending on the product you wanted to advertise, several hundred, at least. High temperature superconductors, in quantity (yes, I've considered an evaporation tank of liquid helium behind, in the shadow; but even if a superconductor is the same temperature throughout, the thermal shock can't move instantaneously, and we're talking light speed delays of seconds on this scale. Big coils (but very thin; no resistance means no electrical heating effect) Magnetohydrodynamic control of the plasma of the photosphere (can I please go onto MHD? You'll understand?) produces a back EMF which cancels out the energy you've stored, and a reaction force which slows the incoming projectiles and prevents them penetrating too deeply. They are vaporised, plasmolised, immediately of course, but the shock waves and collapsing magnetic fields give you a temporary clear spot. I don't know if it will be a sunspot or a solar flare, but either would suffice.

It'd be a lot cheaper, and less dangerous, to put a load of umbrellas (causing umbre, or shadow; parasols, but planetary scale) into solar orbit, calculated that as they were passing between us and the sun they just happened to align into the form 'CocaCola'…

 

[J Riff]

Right....and maybe the people who live on the Sun would want to buy CocaCola, too. Plasmolised Coke, though some may prefer Pepsi.

 

[chrispenycate]

In the sun, please; no distinct surface. But I admit I had ignored them as a potential market; what would they pay in? I was more interested in getting a billboard you could see from any of the planets, and out to the Kuiper belt with minimal optical enhancement.

 

[J Riff]

They would pay in SunBux of course, though they can't be brought to Earth without starting the atmosphere on fire.
On the open market, a bottle of Coke on Venus would cost how much?

 

[Ursa major]

They're more sophisticated than that: they have derivatives.


They'd pay in photon opportunites....

 

[J-WO]

They would pay in SunBux of course, though they can't be brought to Earth without starting the atmosphere on fire.
On the open market, a bottle of Coke on Venus would cost how much?

That'd have to come in one tough bottle.

 

[J-WO]

I rather hope not; that would make current global warming debates relatively irrelevant.

If it was an advert for sunblock, so much the better!

Still, thanks for your thoughts on this. Very intriguing.

 

[J Riff]

Photon Opportunities. Pork Futures .... )
Hey J-Wo, are you going to join the 75-word writing challenge?

 

[J-WO]

Photon Opportunities. Pork Futures .... )
Hey J-Wo, are you going to join the 75-word writing challenge?

I dunno if I have the skills for it. Still, I'll have a look...

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

I dunno if I have the skills for it. Still, I'll have a look...

It's really fun, J-WO. Even I've joined in. And we all know how MY writing is.


I'm sure you'll have the skill for it, and new entries are always welcome. The first two months, we've had 42 entries.


Can't remember how many we had for June, though.....***





***Hijacking of this thread on my part is finished. Thank you for your time. *click*

 

[Hilarious Joke]

*briefly hijacks again*

I think you should enter J-WO! I reckon you could do a really good funny one (judging by your posts), or something else cool!

*unhijacks*

 

[HareBrain]

Yeah, enter J-WO! Or we're taking this sci-fi thread all the way to fairyland!

 

[J-WO]

Blimey! You guys are like the Scientologists or the Jehovahs.

Oh, alright I'll give it a whirl. But I've seen all you literary Bruce Lee's work and I'm not sure I'm capable of such one-inch narrative punches.*



*And with overly elaborate metaphors like this, who can blame me?

 

[J-WO]

Yeah, enter J-WO! Or we're taking this sci-fi thread all the way to fairyland!

If you hyperlink it to ON CREATING IMAGINARY WORLDS: FANTASY you could actually carry out your threat. Sort of.

 

[chrispenycate]

Blimey! You guys are like the Scientologists or the Jehovahs.

Exactly *rubs hands* And the Book of Brian sayeth "Blessed are the wordmakers, for they shall find words." Repent, and thou shalt be judged.

Oh, alright I'll give it a whirl. But I've seen all you literary Bruce Lee's work and I'm not sure I'm capable of such one-inch narrative punches.*



*And with overly elaborate metaphors like this, who can blame me?

Actually, just reading, comparing such diversity and voting is an educational experience,and how hard can that be? (Remarkably so, apparently, seeing that generally more members write than vote) But writing something is more satisfying, if harder work.

Now, getting away from this hijack, doesn't anyone need me to create a toroidal gas giant, or a linear accelerator a hundred thousand kilometres long for sending robots to the stars?

 

[J-WO]

Now, getting away from this hijack, doesn't anyone need me to create a toroidal gas giant, or a linear accelerator a hundred thousand kilometres long for sending robots to the stars?

Make it one of each with fries.