Oct 13 2008

Essays

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This section of the website is growing slowly. Some older works are being pulled in as I convert them, and new stuff (perhaps somewhat blog-like) will appear as I write it.

Mars (or, The Great Martian Novel)

Editors need to be careful what questions they ask. Somebody might not take it rhetorically.

Niven’s “Neutron Star” as Detective Fiction

One of the elements that makes the story “Neutron Star” work so well is that it takes a key meme from detective fiction. It turns out that the requirements for this have lasting repercussions for Niven’s “Known Space” stories.

Yes Virginia, There Really Is A Warp Drive

It would seem that Relativity may allow something like a “warp drive” after all. Alcubierre did the math back in the ’90s, and it’s been refined since then. Of course, there’s a catch.

“Chocolate Fusion”

Back in the heady early days when Pons & Fleischmann first announced cold fusion, I developed suspicion about Larry Niven. There’s a short-short story in that, and a bit of history when I discussed it with Larry.

The Aresian Well, or, A Use for Mars

Jim Baen once posed the question, dismissively, “what good is Mars anyway?” Ever one to rise to a challenge, I invented the Aresian Well, which could supply space colonies with water and air for relative peanuts. (The paper linked above will be updated Real Soon Now.)

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