Beta and Higher Patron Update Notice
Added 2015-12-19 00:45:34 +0000 UTCPLANETARY BASE
added entry for US Army's Project Horizon lunar base
http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/planetbase.php#id--Sample_Lunar_Base_2
SPACE WAR DEFENSES
added to Point Defense a quote about intercepting missiles
http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/spacewardefense.php#intercept
ASTROMILITARY
added quote Boarding Tactics
http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/astromilitary.php#boardingtactics
ADVANCED DESIGN
added new section Hull
http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/advdesign.php#id--Hull
INTERSTELLAR TRADE
added to Megacorporations a quote from Skylark Duquesne
http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/stellartrade.php#skylarkduquesne
SPACE SUITS AND TUGS
added to Suiting Up a quote from The Forever War
http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/spacesuits.php#foreverwar
PSIONICS
the bulk of this week's update was in creating this new page
http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/psionics.php
ATOMIC NOVELS
added an entry for James Krych's novel THE FLIGHT TO OZ
http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/atomicnovel.php#id--James_Krych
SEAL OF APPROVAL
added an entry for Karl Gallagher's novel Torchship
http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/sealofapproval.php#id--Science_Fiction_Novels--Torchship
added quotes from two reviews of The Expanse
http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/sealofapproval.php#id--Movies--The_Expanse
FUTURE LANGUAGE
added a quote about Incan Quipus
http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/futurelang.php#quipu
Comments
The Science Fiction Encyclopedia talks about the "Psi Boom" of science fiction in the '50's and '60s, due to the actions of editor John W. Campbell Jr.
Nyrath
2015-12-21 19:50:17 +0000 UTCSpiritualism evolved into "parapsychology", a legitimate if highly speculative field of inquiry in the 1940's and 1950's; enough so that the CIA investigated it's potential. It turned out that poor methodology was responsible for early positive results. But by that time the idea was so entrenched in fiction that scarcely a SF story in the '60s or '70s didn't feature psi.
Michael Hutson
2015-12-21 17:23:18 +0000 UTCAh, nice! I'll have to read those then.
Nyrath
2015-12-20 22:40:17 +0000 UTCOn further thought, actually, the thing that really stands out to me about the Pliocene Exile/Galactic Milieu books is that they're perhaps the one example I've seen of psionics that are actually well-integrated with the underlying physics in the worldbuilding process... (Said underlying physics in this case being "dynamic-field theory", the local GUT, which presents the mechanisms unifying mind and matter - with explored implications, including the ability to build mechanical psionic devices and enhancers, that all the other SFnal handwavium runs off the same underlying effects as the psionics with consequences fully explored, etc., etc. Which makes it a *very* refreshing change from all the universes where psionics seems to be this awkward grab-bag of effects hung off the side a ways.)
Alistair Young
2015-12-20 17:06:30 +0000 UTCAh, thanks for the pointer! When I was a teenager I tried to read the first book in the Pliocene series, and grew disinterested after a few pages. I'll have to try again.
Nyrath
2015-12-19 16:41:09 +0000 UTCAs long as psionics are on the table, I'd be vaguely remiss not to mention Julian May's Pliocene Exile/Galactic Milieu series for your consideration, which has probably the most well-drawn depiction of them of anything I've ever read or heard of...
Alistair Young
2015-12-19 07:00:16 +0000 UTC
