Creating Alien Aliens by Guy Stewart: Aliens As Crystalline Colonial Organism -- Biology Today, Thought Next Time

Five decades ago, I started my college career with the intent of becoming a marine biologist. I found out I had to get a BS in biology before I could even begin work on MARINE biology; especially because there WEREN'T any marine biology programs in Minnesota.Along the way, the science fiction stories I'd been writing since I was 13 began to grow more believable. With my BS...

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One Point of View: Stars of WONDER, "Star of Royal Beauty, Bright" Christmas 2023

Stars.The foundation of science fiction is a journey to the stars. I remember as a kid searching for book titles with “star”, “planet”, “moon” or “alien” on the cover or the book spine.One of Arthur C. Clarke’s most famous short stories is titled simply, “The Star” (Infinity SF, 1955). (If you never read it, try it here (it's short) https://sites.uni.edu/morgans/astro/course/TheStar.pdf...

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“Script Treatment” • by Bruce Bethke

FAX TRANSMITTALTO: Gene Roddenberry, Paramount StudiosFROM: Bruce Bethke, Auteurs Sans FiertéDATE: 12 October 1988RE: ST:TNG Season 3 Script TreatmentWORKING TITLE: “Wesley Crusher Returns Again for the Last Time, No Kidding!”Okay Gene, here’s the outline. Returning from a mission dirtside, the Away Team discovers that a freak malfunction of the transporter contrast control...

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“Corrections” • by Lorraine Schein

After my skull implant and genochemical modification, I received this sublimail letter in my visual field. To our new editor hire: WELCOME TO CEREBRUM EDITING! Congratulations on joining our team of AI-assisted, brain-modified remote editors. Your surgery was successful and there should be no lingering symptoms or disability after your stitches are removed.  You can now...

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Creating Alien Aliens: How Would Intelligent Reptiles Think and Behave?

Five decades ago, I started my college career with the intent of becoming a marine biologist. I found out I had to get a BS in biology before I could even begin work on MARINE biology; especially because there WEREN'T any marine biology programs in Minnesota. Along the way, the science fiction stories I'd been writing since I was 13 began to grow more believable. With...

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“Silenced Night” • by Paul Celmer

In the TV studio a warning bell sounded, and then the lights came up at Leon, blinding.Kyle Jackson spoke first, as usual. “And now for all the latest nuts and bolts on this whopper of a storm, the man you have all been waiting for, our resident master meteorologist, Leon Metzlmann. Take it away, Leon!” Leon couldn’t stand Kyle, but Leon smiled back anyway. “Well folks, we...

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POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY: Near Future SF OFTEN Ignores Human Education

Using the Programme Guide of the 2020 World Science Fiction Convention, ConZEALAND (The First Virtual World Science Fiction Convention), I will jump off, jump on, rail against, and shamelessly agree with the BRIEF DESCRIPTION given in the pdf copy of the 2020 Program Guide. I will be using the events to drive me to distraction or revelation – as the case may be. The Day...

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Remembering the Future: “Requiem for the Space Age” • by Bruce Bethke

This morning I learned that after 33 years in orbit, the Hubble Space Telescope has gone offline, due to the failure of one of its three remaining gyroscopes. Gee. What a shame we don’t have some sort of reusable, crewed, orbital launch vehicle—let’s call it a “space shuttle”—that we could use to fly a repair team up there, to perform the sort of in-orbit maintenance...

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What Do We Do When We Find “Them”?

Using the Program Guide of the 2018 World Science Fiction Convention in San Jose, CA, I read the notes and comment on the subject.SETI: What Do We Do When We Find Them?Scientists at SETI, and METI, and other organizations are actively searching for extraterrestrial intelligence. But what are we going to do when we make that first contact?Andrew Fraknoi: Director of the...

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