Peter Cawdron's Blog, page 4

A storm is coming…

My latest novel The Tempest launches on November 4th this year and is available now for preorder! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BHL8ZZKW/

Synopsis: Marc and Emma are on the graveyard shift onboard the Sycorax, an interstellar spacecraft bound for New Haven, a colony world fifty light years from Earth. Eighteen thousand colonists lie in suspended animation, awaiting a new life around another star. For the crew of the Sycorax, interstellar flight is boring—that is until they run into a tempest. Before long, they find themselves on a crippled spacecraft falling in toward a black hole, but that’s the least of their problems…

The Tempest is a tribute to Shakespeare’s final play and explores similar themes while weaving some of his dialogue into the narrative. It includes references to the 1950s classic sci-fi film Forbidden Planet and Michael Crichton’s Sphere, both of which were influenced by Shakespeare’s work.

After the Afterword

My latest novel, Clowns, is a rather different take on First Contact with an extraterrestrial species. The central conceit is—What would an alien civilization think about our level of intelligence?

We may have landed rovers on Mars, walked on the Moon, and invented astonishingly complex, fast and compact computers, but are those really a measure of intelligence? They’re certainly not a measure of my intelligence. I get the benefit of them but I couldn’t build them.

Ask yourself this—how does a toilet work?

Toilets are simple enough. We use them several times a day. There’s a cistern holding water behind the seat. Buttons release that water and it washes away our bodily waste. Simple, right?

Build one.

Oh, not so simple now, huh?

Toilets are a remarkable feat of engineering

Toilets are a remarkable feat of design and engineering—and we take them totally for granted. They’re a great example of how modern society is built on someone else’s intelligence—not yours or mine. We benefit from the intelligence of others, regardless of any intelligence of our own (or any lack thereof).

What would an intelligent extraterrestrial species capable of traversing the stars consider a true sign of our intelligence? What would make them consider you or me intelligent?

It’s an interesting question and one I explore at length in the fictional narrative of Clowns.

As with all of my novels, the book has an afterword exploring the various concepts woven into the story. When it came to Clowns, it was easy to go off on a tangent in the afterword so I pulled a few concepts out and stuck them here for hard-core fans.

Here are the out-takes from the afterword.

Subsidizing The Spectacle

When it comes to economics, most people’s eyes glaze over. Like the example of a toilet, we want to be able to use it, not build it, but our blissful ignorance leaves us vulnerable to being exploited.

Let the free market decide, is the clarion call of economists, but does the market really decide about things like fossil fuels? Or is capitalism a quagmire of conflicting interests? 

Fossil fuel prices are kept artificially low by subsidies even though there’s an undeniable, detrimental effect on humanity. The impact of pollution isn’t limited to climate change. Globally, we waste six trillion dollars a year on fossil fuel subsidies—that’s eleven million dollars a minute! 50% of natural gas and 99% of all coal is priced at less than half its true cost. By subsidizing fossil fuels, the government is lying to us about their benefit to the economy. You pay half in the cost of goods and the other half in tax, but either way, you’re still paying the full amount. It might feel good to pay less for things, but it’s an illusion—and The Spectacle loves nothing more than the allure of a good illusion.

Personally, I’d rather remove all subsidies and let the free market decide! Studies have shown that most of these subsidies go to investors as profit so removing them won’t increase the price of gas, oil or coal—it would simply reduce company profits, while CO2 emissions would reduce by about a third as clean, green energy takes off in a truly free market. The global GDP would increase by 3.8% and one million lives would be saved each year due to reduced air pollution alone!

Clowns from the Roe City Rollers

The Spectacle and The Pandemic

I know this will raise the heckles of those that despise government intrusion, but the free market will not regulate itself. It can’t. Imagine a game of football without a referee—that’s the free market. Left to themselves, companies will lie and cheat and cut corners in order to beat each other and make a buck. The fossil fuel industry, in particular, has demonstrated that it cannot be trusted. 

Governments have their own problems, like corruption and bureaucratic incompetence, but they are “of the people, by the people, for the people.” Their role is to represent us and our best interests. Speed limits are an example of how sometimes they even need to protect us from ourselves. When it comes to capitalism, governments should provide the bit and bridle in the horse’s mouth.

Cholera is an excellent example of proper government intervention. These days, we’re told, “we need to learn to live with COVID,” but we haven’t learned anything as nothing has changed. Politicians are scared of the impact on the economy. The Spectacle will not tolerate any interruptions. Unbridled capitalism is the guiding principle, not the public good. If our modern approach had been applied to the cholera outbreaks in the 1800s, we wouldn’t have sewage systems in our homes or clean drinking water in our taps. Cholera would be left to “individual responsibility.” 

It’s easy to think there are no solutions to something as pervasive and complex as COVID, but that’s not true. There are simple solutions. The adoption of Far UVC lights in places like schools, shopping malls, on trains and planes would drastically cut the transmission rate of all airborne diseases, not just COVID. Far UVC has been shown to be safe and 99.9% effective, but The Spectacle isn’t interested in our health and happiness, only monetary profit. Oh, and just wait. If it is adopted, there will be the usual batshit crazy conspiracy theories undermining the public health effort and resisting change. 

For some bizarre reason, we hate change. We’ll do anything to avoid changing our minds on a subject, even if it means inventing fairy tales. A lifelong friend of mine in the US died during the pandemic. His family couldn’t bring themselves to admit they’d made a mistake by not getting vaccinated. Instead, they blamed his “bad lungs.” The only thing more heartbreaking than losing him was seeing how his family dismissed his death. But they’re not alone. Denial is a defense mechanism. During the height of the pandemic, it was common for people to die denying what was happening to them. 

We all want the pandemic to be over. We all want to “go back to normal,” but as I write this in April 2022, the pandemic is not yet over. Pretending it’s over is a mistake. Don’t confuse the issues at play here: Omicron isn’t mild—vaccines are effective! Without vaccines, Omicron would be killing millions of people. As it is, there’s no lasting immunity to COVID so Omicron is ripping through the country in wave after wave. The elderly, the young and those with compromised immune systems are still dying from this damn thing. And we have no idea just how bad long COVID will be (where people have lingering symptoms).

“It’s just a cold,” is one of the worst mantras to come out of the pandemic. The reason people think COVID is just a cold is because there are flu-like symptoms. But what most don’t realize is that a cough, fever, chills, etc, are symptoms of your immune system fighting COVID. That’s why they’re so similar. Same immune system. Same symptoms. These are not COVID symptoms. COVID is a multi-organ virus. Actual COVID symptoms are damage to organs like the lungs, heart, brain and liver, etc—not an annoying cough for a few days. And for most of these organs, the damage isn’t obvious. 

At this point in the pandemic, the best strategy is to avoid repeat infections.

Do you wear a seatbelt?

Do you stop at red lights?

Ask yourself—why? 

To protect yourself. Because of the outside, remote chance you might be hurt in an accident. That’s why you should wear a mask during a pandemic. It’s the same logic. There’s no loss of freedom in wearing a mask. Think of how extraordinarily shortsighted it is for people to be celebrating the “freedom” to remove masks on a plane while still wearing seatbelts! Oh, the irony!

If we want to make contact with an intelligent extraterrestrial species, we’re going to have to start displaying some intelligence ourselves.

You can find Clowns on Amazon in ebook, paperback and hardback.

Creepy clowns personify our fear of being manipulated __ATA.cmd.push(function() { __ATA.initDynamicSlot({ id: 'atatags-26942-626e0a95d93e0', location: 120, formFactor: '001', label: { text: 'Advertisements', }, creative: { reportAd: { text: 'Report this ad', }, privacySettings: { text: 'Privacy', } } }); });

Forget about Hollywood

Have you ever wondered what First Contact will be like with an extraterrestrial species? Does Hollywood get it right?

I was privileged to work with Arvin Ash on a video exploring this concept. He delves into some really interesting science and science-fiction angles.

Fans of my novels will notice points taken from Galactic Exploration, Xenophobia, 3zekiel, Wherever Seeds May Fall and my upcoming novel Generation of Vipers!

__ATA.cmd.push(function() { __ATA.initDynamicSlot({ id: 'atatags-26942-61eca5713d2ff', location: 120, formFactor: '001', label: { text: 'Advertisements', }, creative: { reportAd: { text: 'Report this ad', }, privacySettings: { text: 'Privacy', } } }); });

Behind-the-scenes

My daughter Sarah is studying film and fine arts at university. For her final project, she had to put together a book trailer, so she settled on a novel I wrote for her in 2015 called What We Left Behind. Sarah’s always been a big Walking Dead fan, so I penned this zombie novel and it won a Kindle Scout award. Seeing her and her university team bringing it to life, though, has been astonishing. Their passion and enthusiasm is refreshing. The final cut will even have an original music score!

Once the trailer is complete, we’ll put it in front of a few producers and see what happens from there.

Here are some behind-the-scenes shots…

Don’t go in there! What are you thinking? Lights, camera, action! The production crew was totally professional. You wouldn’t think they were students There was a team of six special effects makeup artists on the crew This is between scenes, adding a headshot before filming the zombie falling Ouch! It’s just a flesh wound He seems nice Here’s Sarah filming at Hinze Dam True story: Mary Shelley (the author of Frankenstein) kept her husband’s heart in a jar on her writing desk!

__ATA.cmd.push(function() { __ATA.initDynamicSlot({ id: 'atatags-26942-619ad6ffe9c42', location: 120, formFactor: '001', label: { text: 'Advertisements', }, creative: { reportAd: { text: 'Report this ad', }, privacySettings: { text: 'Privacy', onClick: function() { window.__tcfapi && window.__tcfapi( 'showUi' ); }, } } }); });

Postmarked from the Stars

I love talking about science and science fiction. As much as possible, I try to base my novels around actual scientific concepts and weave in ideas from biology, physics and astronomy but it’s rare I get to talk about the inspiration in detail.

If you’re interested in hearing a little behind-the-scenes on my novels 3zekiel and Cold Eyes, be sure to check out my interview on Postmarked from the Stars—it was a lot of fun!

UFOs and UAPs

Are there UFOs? Yes, there are flying objects we can’t easily identify.

Are they alien? Not so fast.

Aliens is one possibility, but it’s not the only possibility and shouldn’t be our first choice when considering an unknown phenomenon.

We humans have a long history of jumping to conclusions. For thousands of years, this resulted in superstitions and traditions that lead to bizarre beliefs. To this day, people avoid black cats, think bad luck comes in threes, and avoid anything with the number 13. As irrational is these sentiments are, they’re persistent.

Science has given us the means of removing our natural biases and flawed intuition about the world around us, giving us a clear (or at least clearer) view of reality. Science has shown us we can’t trust our own senses. The sun doesn’t rise each day—Earth turns. Even scientists need to be “double blind” to avoid any bias.

If you’re not familiar with the term “double blind,” it arose from trials comparing new drugs with harmless placebos. Although patients didn’t know who got the real drug and who didn’t, they were able to read subtle, unintentional clues from researchers and this influenced the outcomes. It became necessary to “blind” even the researchers handing out the drugs. So when giving pills as part of a trial, even the researchers don’t know who gets what until after the experiment concludes.

The point is—science cannot identify genuine results without first eliminating any human bias. When our natural tendency is to jump to the spectacular, this becomes extremely difficult.

When it comes to UFOs—Unidentified Flying Objects—also known as UAPs—Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon, our first concern needs to be eliminating our own bias to ensure we’re seeing clearly.

To the credit of those involved in the recent 60 Minutes special on this, they considered (1) advanced US technology (2) advanced foreign technology and only lastly (3) alien technology.

So what are these things?

1, 2 or 3?

Being unidentified, we don’t know and shouldn’t guess.

Honestly, that’s the conclusion we can reach. They could be 1, 2, 3, or 4, 5, 6, as there may be other possibilities we haven’t yet identified.

One of the claims in this video is that UFOs/UAPs were observed on an almost daily basis over the Atlantic. This is good for science. It means we can make multiple observations. More data leads to better analysis. Let’s get a look at these things through a dedicated spectroscope and figure out their composition. Let’s get some focus on this and collect detailed information so we can form a proper hypothesis. If UFOs/UAPs are really visible on a daily basis, the guys at JPL are going to love this. It’s a lot easier than spending decades planning missions to Mars, Europa, Enceladus and Titan to look for microbes. And it would be a great way to silence the critics like me.

[image error]

Science loves converging lines of evidence. Take evolution as an example, there are multiple converging lines of evidence that support the theory of evolution—the fossil record, the phylogenetic relationships between species at a genetic level, the ability to observe evolution both in the lab and in the wild, etc.

When it comes to UFOs, we expect to see converging lines of evidence. So far, we have eyewitness testimony of extremely competent, trusted military aviators, video and radar imaging. That’s a great start.

For me, the most compelling point so far is when the pilots discussed the object disturbing the ocean as that’s showing an interaction with the physical environment.

A lot of these sightings defy physics, which is not something that should be taken lightly. An acceleration of 700 gees or descending 80,000 meters in seconds is going to have a physical effect on the environment. We may not be able to measure much on the craft itself, but we should be able to observe clear physical effects within the atmosphere.

When an airplane breaks the speed of sound, it generates a sonic boom occasioned by a vapor cone. Regardless of the alien technology, any UFO that suddenly accelerates beyond the speed of sound is going to cause something similar in the air around it. This is an unavoidable consequence of moving through our atmosphere. So far, we haven’t seen any evidence of this, leaving a significant question about what is actually being observed.

Another factor to consider is these things are showing up on the video and radar of a fighter jet, but they’re not showing up in orbit, where we are tracking space debris with considerable care and our most advanced technology.

The US Air Force and various other space agencies in different parts of the world are ALL tracking space debris. We’re looking for nuts and bolts up there—literally. Anything that could potentially interfere with a space mission. We’re tracking half a million objects in a variety of orbits, looking at debris down to about two inches in length, but we haven’t detected anything the size of a UFO.

Our ability to use radar from a ground installation and satellites is more advanced than anything in a fighter craft simply because it doesn’t need to be minimized to fit into a high-performance jet. Oh, and this is run by the Department of Defense. Orbital debris is taken very seriously.

Someone might argue that UFOs are dark and intended to fool our instruments. The problem here is they’re not fooling the instruments on fighter craft. Even if a UFO was pitch black, we would see them in outer space as we’re constantly looking for asteroids that might pose a threat to life on Earth. We wouldn’t see a completely dark UFO, but we would see it occult or block out distant stars. Imagine someone walking in front of the porch light. As soon as a shadow blocks the light, you know someone’s there. We don’t see this. If we did, it would raise alarm bells around the world.

Again, like the space debris, asteroid tracking is conducted by multiple space agencies in various countries. This is a great opportunity for converging lines of evidence, but… crickets.

Another thing that bothers me about UFOs is their size. They’re roughly the size of the fighter jets observing them. That doesn’t seem like a comfortable ride across the galaxy.

At the moment, the odds are this is either US tech, foreign tech or simply mistaken sightings. There’s no compelling evidence UFOs or UAPs are extraterrestrial in origin.

Sorry.

__ATA.cmd.push(function() { __ATA.initDynamicSlot({ id: 'atatags-26942-60a3054cb7836', location: 120, formFactor: '001', label: { text: 'Advertisements', }, creative: { reportAd: { text: 'Report this ad', }, privacySettings: { text: 'Privacy', } } }); });

Tom Petty was right—we’re free falling

Everything everywhere in the universe is falling—even you.

You might think you’re sitting on a chair, reading this article, but you’re not. You’re falling toward the center of Earth. It’s just that you have no distance left to fall. This creates the illusion of being still. If everything everywhere in the universe is falling then nothing is still. Not even you on your chair. 

Being stationary is an illusion. It’s a convenient one, but it’s like a magician’s trick, it hides reality from us.

Einstein proposed that gravity is the warping or distorting of spacetime by a massive object. The consequence of this simple insight is that space (and time) are not flat. Far from being empty, space is lumpy. Bumpy. It’s curved everywhere by gravity.

Gravity effects everything, even light

We’ve all seen astronauts floating in outer space, like on the International Space Station. We say they’re weightless. We used to call this zero gravity. Now it’s referred to as microgravity, but even that’s not entirely correct. 

The International Space Station orbits about 250 miles above Earth, roughly 400 kilometers up. What would happen if I could build a tower that reached 250 miles into the sky? What if the Burj Khalifain, the world’s tallest building, had an elevator that took you to an observation deck at the same altitude as the International Space Station? What would you see? What would you feel? Would you be weightless like the astronauts? Would you be in microgravity? 

Astronauts are falling with style

Most people think the answer is yes. If astronauts are floating around up there, then why wouldn’t I float as well?

The answer is astonishing. You’d weigh less, but not by much. You certainly wouldn’t be floating around. Your feet would be firmly on the floor of the observation deck.  

At sea level, Earth’s gravity is 9.8 meters per second squared—meaning if you drop something, it’s going to fall almost ten meters in the first second (ignoring wind resistance for a moment). That’s about 32 feet. 

On top of our hypothetical super-high Burj Khalifain, at an altitude of 400km, Earth’s gravity has reduced as we move away from the planet, but it’s still astonishingly strong. It’s 8.7 meters per second, or about 28 feet.

But what about our astronauts in microgravity. Yeah, they’re not really in microgravity. They’re experiencing the same 8.7 meters per second acceleration down toward the center of Earth as I am standing on a tower 400 kilometers high.

The reason they’re floating is they’re falling. Remember. Everything everywhere in the universe is falling toward something. Earth is falling around the Sun. The Sun is falling around the Milky Way. Our galaxy is falling around the Great Attractor. Yep, the entire Milky Way is moving at well over a million miles an hour toward a super-cluster containing 10,000 galaxies the size of Andromeda.

The Great Attractor dwarfs even the local group of galaxies we’re in

And here you are sitting on a chair reading an article. It’s an illusion. We’re all falling. It’s just that most of us are falling along with a rather large mass we like to call Earth.

Going back to the observation deck on our imaginary Burj Khalifain, we’re looking for the International Space Station. Only there’s a problem. It’s not floating in space. It’s in orbit. And that means it’s falling. And it’s falling at five miles a second. It’s falling so fast it never reaches the ground.

Here it comes.

Blink and you’ll miss it as it whizzes by at five miles a second. 

The International Space Station as seen from the Space Shuttle in 2008

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe describes flight as…

…an art… [that] lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss

Douglas Adams

This is true of orbits as well.

In 1687, Sir Isaac Newton was inventing modern physics and he wondered how far a cannonball could go if the army kept increasing the amount of gunpowder behind the shot. He knew Earth was a sphere. He realized that with each increase in distance, the cannonball would slowly disappear over the horizon.

Newton’s Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica

Our modern concept of orbits was born when he realized that at a certain speed, his cannonball would keep falling. It would be moving so fast that it would fall around Earth rather than back to it. 

And that’s what’s happening to our astronauts and satellites. They’re moving so fast sideways, that when they fall back toward Earth, they miss the entire planet.  

The next time you see a rocket launch at night, watch how it moves in an arc, curving until it’s going sideways.

SpaceX Launch captured by That Rocket Scientist

Look at how the rocket clears the lower atmosphere and then races sideways. Why does it do that? Because getting into space is one thing. Staying there is another. Gravity is still strong up there, right? Remember, it’s 8.7 meters per second squared at 400 kilometers in altitude. So our rockets have to race sideways until they’re going fast enough to fall around Earth rather than falling back to Earth.   

Astronauts floating in space are no different to you or me floating as an airplane hits turbulence and plummets a few hundred feet in a couple of seconds, or if we’re falling on a rollercoaster at the fairground, or falling while bouncing on a trampoline. The only difference is astronauts have mastered the art of missing the ground. 

It seems Tom Petty was right—we are free-falling.

__ATA.cmd.push(function() { __ATA.initDynamicSlot({ id: 'atatags-26942-6080b4c865e03', location: 120, formFactor: '001', label: { text: 'Advertisements', }, creative: { reportAd: { text: 'Report this ad', }, privacySettings: { text: 'Privacy', } } }); });

Chariot of the Gods?

As a science fiction writer that’s penned 17 novels about First Contact, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone more interested in the possibility of extraterrestrial intelligence than me, but I’ll tell you ʻOumuamua is not alien.

In October 2017, Robert Weryk used the Pan-STARRS telescope at Haleakalā Observatory, Hawaii to observe the first indisputable extra-solar object to enter our solar system. He called it 1I/2017 U1 ʻOumuamua, which is Hawaiian for ‘scout,’ meaning ‘reaching out in advance.’

This is what he saw.

Yep. That’s it. That’s ʻOumuamua. Every other image you’ve seen is an artist’s rendition.

Oh, now that NASA’s had time to properly analyze the data, they’ve revised the dark cigar in favor of this next image, although the pancake is probably not going to be as popular as the cigar, and herein lies the problem—science isn’t a popularity contest.

Science is very good at teasing out an astonishing amount of information from the slimmest of leads, but it takes painstaking patience and diligence to ensure accuracy. When it came to ʻOumuamua, NASA was able to track its path through the solar system.

Seeing something from outside our solar system inevitably raises the question of aliens. Was this an extraterrestrial spacecraft? Prominent astrophysicist Abi Loeb thinks so, but he’s missing a teeny tiny thing called evidence. Loeb wrote a best-selling book called Extraterrestrial, which has a rating of 4.4 stars over almost a thousand reviews! Unfortunately for Loeb, science isn’t interested in a book’s rating.

I too want to believe, but based on good science using on empirical evidence, not warm fuzzy feelings.

Let’s look at a few quotes from Loeb’s book.

“The search for extraterrestrial life has never been more than an oddity to the vast majority of scientists. To them, it is a subject worthy of, at best, glancing interest and at worst, outright derision… The scientific community’s prejudice or closed-mindedness — however you want to describe it — is particularly pervasive and powerful when it comes to the search for alien life, especially intelligent life.”

Extraterrestrial, Avi Loeb

Personally, I hate it when someone tells me what I think. If this contention is true, provide quotes from these scientists, otherwise don’t guess at their motivation. This kind of projection is typical of a straw-man argument as it unfairly misrepresents an opponent’s position.

Is he right? I don’t think so.

There is literally an independent scientific institution called SETI comprised of hundreds of scientists dedicated to finding evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence. SETI has established a number of subsidiary organizations and research centers to help pursue every possible lead. In addition to this, NASA has established research areas for astrobiology and cosmic origins. The Breakthrough Listen Project is using AI to monitor over a million stars looking for signs of intelligent life. To call the search for extraterrestrial life a ‘glancing interest‘ is absurd. To suggest there’s ‘outright derision‘ is laughable when Breakthrough Listen (alone) is spending a hundred million dollars on this over the next decade.

The simplest explanation for these peculiarities [ʻOumuamua’s shape, trajectory and apparent acceleration] is that the object was created by an intelligent civilization not of this Earth.

Extraterrestrial, Avi Loeb

That’s not a simple explanation at all, let alone the simplest.

As ʻOumuamua left our solar system it underwent “sudden acceleration” according to Loeb. NASA described it as “a little kick in speed.” Who’s right? Well, according to those with a ‘glancing interest‘ that spent considerable time calculating all the possible effects on ʻOumuamua, it was 5 micrometers / s².

To put this in context, a comet will experience an acceleration of anywhere from 0.5 to 20 micrometers / s² based on out-gassing, so ʻOumuamua is hardly the ‘flip and burn‘ you see on The Expanse. It’s right in the region we’d expect for a comet.

Given that ʻOumuamua was traveling at 196,000 mph, or 54 miles per second (87.3 kilometers per second), the real surprise here is that we could measure such a tiny acceleration by comparison. The reason is, we know very well how much gravitational attraction is exerted by the Sun so we were able to calculate the drag on ʻOumuamua. When it didn’t match exactly, we went hunting to find out why.

This is strange behavior for a bunch of astronomers with only a glancing interest, huh? It really makes you wonder just who is being closed-minded (to use Avi Loeb’s term).

As for “the simplest explanation” advanced by Loeb, I’m wondering if a fragment of nitrogen ice might be simpler than aliens?

Recall the clerics who refused to look through Galileo’s telescope… Many researchers refuse to even consider the possibility that a bizarre object or phenomenon might be evidence of an advanced civilization

Avi Loeb, Extraterrestrial

That Loeb puts himself on par with Galileo is comical.

When Loeb says, “Many researchers refuse to even consider the possibility” he’s taking a “god of the gaps” position. This is something used by creationists. Basically, if science can’t explain it, then God did it. In Loeb’s case, if science can’t immediately explain it, then it’s aliens. Given time, science has explained ʻOumuamua with extraordinary precision.

When I was growing up, Chariot of the Gods was the most popular explanation for Fermi’s Paradox. Essentially, it said that aliens visited us in the past. Although their absence now wasn’t explained, lots of historical artifacts were supposedly the result of alien interactions with humans. Just like Avi Loeb’s Extraterrestrial, the book Chariot of the Gods relied on sensationalism, half-truths, and straw-man arguments. Oh, and it has a rating of 4.7 stars over 5000 reviews, yet again demonstrating that science is not a popularity contest—that’s the role of fiction.

In Chariot of the Gods, Australian Aborigine cave art, like the one below of Wandjina from the Kimberly Region, were depicted as aliens wearing spacesuits and helmets. Really? That’s absurd.

Oh, and when it comes to scientists being “conservative” or “[refusing] to even consider” alternatives, I call bull. Science has a long and rich history of challenging its own assumptions and changing its theories as evidence mounts. Perhaps the best recent example of this is dark energy, which only emerged as an idea in 1998. I don’t know of a single astrophysicist that likes the concept. They’d all rather have some other explanation, but dark energy is the best way of describing the evidence. If/when a better theory comes along, or if/when additional evidence refutes the idea, scientists will embrace that. For now, dark energy is the best placeholder we have to explain the expansion of the universe.

Scientists are literally always considering alternatives. It’s in the job description. That doesn’t mean they should accept the alternatives.

The point is… science is not about what someone likes or wants. It’s about gathering evidence and looking for the most consistent explanation of that evidence. When it comes to ʻOumuamua, that explanation doesn’t involve aliens. I’m happy to be convinced otherwise if there’s legitimate evidence to the contrary.

Avi Loeb’s Extraterrestrial is this generation’s Chariot of the Gods. For now, aliens remain in the realm of science fiction.

Speaking of science fiction…

If you’re looking for some great science fiction, check out Deja Vu.

__ATA.cmd.push(function() { __ATA.initDynamicSlot({ id: 'atatags-26942-605bf9085820c', location: 120, formFactor: '001', label: { text: 'Advertisements', }, creative: { reportAd: { text: 'Report this ad', }, privacySettings: { text: 'Privacy', onClick: function() { window.__tcfapi && window.__tcfapi( 'showUi' ); }, } } }); });

Top Ten First Contact Novels

With the release of my latest First Contact novel, Wherever Seeds May Fall, on January 22, I thought it would be interesting to look at the Top Ten First Contact novels. I’ve tried to work in a few outsiders amidst the predictable classics of the genre.

SPOILER ALERT: Rather than discussing the novels in what amounts to a broad outline akin to a synopsis, I’ll be talking about why they make the list, which may involve spoilers but is far more interesting.

10: Pushing Ice

Alistair Reynold’s Pushing Ice is a novel in three distinctly separate acts. In essence, an ice hauler is sent to investigate a Saturnian moon that has departed orbit and is headed for interstellar space. It quickly becomes apparent that the moon is an ancient alien artifact and the crew of the Rockhopper has been captured.

The challenge every spacefaring interstellar species must face is the impossibility of exploration as potentially thousands of generations may pass before a probe finds anything interesting. Reynold’s offers a unique solution in his underrated third act. He imagines an advanced alien civilization that sends out traps. Once the trap is sprung, it accelerates to almost the speed of light, fast enough that time dilation takes effect. Then, in the far distant future, ALL the traps can converge on the same location in space/time to be examined. It’s wickedly and deviously clever.

9: The Three-Body Problem

Cixin Liu’s Three-Body Problem is a trilogy of stories looking at the Dark Forest as a solution to Fermi’s Paradox. This isn’t pew-pew bang-bang shooty-shooty science fiction, it’s about exploring the big ideas and thinking about the implications. Also, as it’s translated from Chinese, it demands patience from the reader, but the payoff is worth the effort with some serious thought being given to the nature of life itself.

My novel, Wherever Seeds May Fall, was inspired by Liu’s Dark Forest in that I considered a slight variation on the problem. Like Liu, I hope I’m wrong.

8: Sphere

Sphere is a slow burn. An alien spacecraft is discovered on the ocean floor. The exploration crew is cut-off from the surface team by a storm. They go on to realize the alien craft is human, having returned to Earth from the future. In its cargo hold is a sphere. The alien sphere is, well, alien. It’s purpose and function are inexplicable to human minds.

By modern standards, Michael Crichton’s Sphere is a little slow and gets a bit sloppy in the middle. At one point, it’s in danger of going off the rails, but Crichton wrangles it back. Crichton loves a science fiction thriller. He gets us to examine not only the prospect of alien contact but our own human nature. Like Solaris, it is deeply concerned with the divide in the human psyche between morals and instincts. Both of these books helped inspire my novel But the Stars.

7: The Gods Themselves

Arthur C. Clarke said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology will be indistinguishable from magic,” and Isaac Asimov’s The Gods Themselves extends this further, looking at the bounds of known nuclear science and extrapolating from there to suggest we would see such advanced alien races as being essentially gods albeit in a parallel universe.

Religion is the third-rail of science fiction. For those that aren’t familiar with the US subway system, the third-rail is electrified. Touch it and it’s the last thing you’ll ever touch. In the same way, it’s a brave author that takes on our zealous devotion to religious ideals. To suggest they’re misplaced is anathema to most, but the hallmark of good thinking science fiction.

6: Rendezvous With Rama

Arthur C. Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama normally hits higher in this kind of top ten list, but for me the characters were one-dimensional. The concept, though, is amazing and something that could very well happen at some point in the near future. When the extrasolar object Omaumau passed through our solar system in 2018, plenty of people were quick to draw parallels with Rama. This is a novel that could very well be prophetic. Like so much of Clarke’s work, its legacy is in inspiring us to think deeper about the possibility of First Contact.

5: Dragon’s Egg

Dragon’s Egg is speculative science fiction at its best! It imagines how life might evolve on a neutron star and, due to the relativistic effects of heavy gravity, in a very different timeframe to our own. Technically, Dragon’s Egg is a novella, but it is beautifully written and examines a hypothetical alien race that goes from the Stone Age to the Space Race almost in the blink of a human eye. For me, there was something visceral in seeing humanity go from god-like to pitied within the arc of a single story.

4. Solaris

Like Sphere, Stanislaw Lem’s Solaris is concerned not just with the nature of an alien intelligence (which Lem suggests might be utterly incomprehensible to us), but our own nature and our response to the realization we are not alone. This is not light reading. Solaris is for the mature, committed reader, but the payoff is there in terms of a philosophical journey into the nature of intelligence. Think of Solaris as the Lord-of-the-Rings-of-Science-Fiction. It’s more of a journey than a book.

3: Mote in God’s Eye

Larry Niven’s The Mote in God’s Eye imagines a civilization that expands and reaches the point of interstellar travel only to be held captive by the tyranny of its location. The inhabitants of Easter Island suffered a similar fate, and the book looks at the clash of cultures between human civilization and a civilization that has had to accept the brutal fate of a boom/bust cycle over and again.

We tend to anthropomorphize animals. Dolphins are cute and friendly. They’re mammals just like us. Only they aren’t. Males regularly gang-rape females in brutal assaults. Not so cute now, huh? In the same way, we tend to anthropomorphize First Contact. The Mote in God’s Eye does no such thing. It challenges us to consider that aliens might have their own morality that is completely incompatible with our own. After all, “mote” is a splinter in the eye.

2: Contact

Carl Sagan’s Contact is perhaps best known as a film starting Jodie Foster, but the book explores far more material than the film and has a few twists along the way that didn’t make it into the movie script. Contact is easy to read and keeps its discussion of science at an accessible level. It’s the COSMOS series compactified into a fictional story.

Contact was the inspiration for my novel Anomaly.

1: War of the Worlds

Forget everything you’ve seen in the films. War of the Worlds is beautifully written and stands the test of time. Not only is this one of the first stories in the First Contact genre, but it also continues to show more maturity and plausibility than latecomers. As with several other novels in this list, it not only speculates on the nature of alien intelligence but looks at our own intelligence and how our fears and mortality can distort our own thinking. If there’s one book in this list you should grab as an audiobook, it’s War of the Worlds.

If there are other novels you think should be in contention, leave a comment below.

If you’re interested in reading some new and exciting science fiction, check out my latest novel, Wherever Seeds May Fall. Do you think it might make a list like this one day?

Which is better? The book or movie?

Which is better? The book or the movie of the book?

Most movies and television series are made-for-the-screen, but occasionally books are converted into movies/series and the inevitable question arises—which is better?

A couple of years ago, this was an easy question to answer—the book. But producers and directors have lifted their game and an interesting trend has emerged. Now, books are often considered “source material.” Rather than trying to translate from one medium to another verbatim, the focus is on developing the material and, as an author, I like this approach.

Books are generally the domain of a single writer whereas movie/television productions have writing rooms. There are pros and cons to each approach. From what I’ve seen, combining the two approaches magnifies the pros and eliminates the cons.

As a writer working on my own, I have the advantage of an unlimited special effects budget and can avoid too many cooks spoiling the broth (I’m looking at you, Prometheus), but the disadvantage is an extra set of eyes looking for plot holes or inconsistencies.

In a writing room, there’s a danger of too many angles and plot-lines being shoehorned into a story “just because,” but when working with an existing story, the writing room can explore untapped veins of gold within a novel and expand upon the source material.

A good example of this is The Expanse (a television series built on a best selling series of science fiction novels). The James S. A. Corey duo are also involved with the screenwriting (which is unusual), but they’ve been open to expanding concepts from the books.

For example, one of the most fascinating characters in the series is the UN’s Chrisjen Avasarala. She appears in the second novel, Caliban’s War, but is moved up to the first series of the show because of her importance to the themes being developed. To me, her character arc is a good example of expanding the source material. The acting is sublime and her story displays how political power is wielded effectively.

Netflix has been revolutionary, leading to Amazon Prime, Apple TV, etc. Not only have these companies spearheaded online video streaming services, they’ve made strategic decisions to pour some serious cash into developing their offerings. It used to be that movies were far superior to television, but not any more. These days, movies pale in comparison to a well-developed online series because the series has the advantage of time, allowing for character development on screen to finally be on par with what is possible in a book.

Oh, and for the record, I’m pro-binge over weekly releases. I get why streaming services go for the weekly release (to keep people subscribing), but the binge allows for some serious story immersion and I think there’s enough diverse content to keep people subscribing anyway.

For me, the future of collaboration between books and video is bright. I’d like to think we can have our cake and eat it too.