How to power a starship with an artificial black hole
According to theory, it may be possible to create an advanced propulsion system that would harness the available energy from an evaporating black hole, a so-called Schwarzschild Kugelblitz drive. Here’s how it would work. Above: Artist’s rendition of a Schwarzschild Kugelblitz Starship. Adrian Mann, Bisbos.com. Interstellar flight certainly ranks among the most daunting challenges ever…
Would You Have Sex with a Robot?
Ads for the computer love story Her are everywhere, and it makes me wonder about the ethics of sex robots. Would I ever have sex with one? Or would I find it ooky and gross — in a moral sense, but also aesthetically and erotically? Here’s what I decided. I certainly don’t have any objections…
Stanisaw Lem’s Summa Technologiae portrays a grim and sober singularity
Stanislaw Lem’s Summa Technologiae was first published in 1964 in Poland. Now, some 50 years later, the publication of the English translation by Joanna Zylinska is finally making Lem’s thoughts about science, technology, and the future accessible to Western readers. Lem, who passed away in 2006, is known and loved by science fiction readers worldwide.…
