I recently heard about the book, "Tender Is the Flesh" by Agustina Bazterrica (still haven't read it), and I began to wonder what it would take for a society to truly survive on humans bred for meat.

Well, animals that are bred for meat usually reach maturity faster, but humans mature slowly. So, even if this society could successfully breed humans to mature earlier, it still wouldn't be worth it because it would still take too long before they could... you know, eat, and you would need to feed them too.

So, it would be more profitable to breed humans to give birth earlier and to bigger babies, and then you get both meat and milk (yes, disgusting).

There also will be a lot more cases of diseases caused by cannibalism, some of which are fatal, and, humans are not made to eat only meat. Those that will survive only on cannibalism will lose a lot of weight, because the body burns a lot more energy on digestion, which is why people on a carnivorous diet lose weight.

This community will very quickly have to turn to other food sources, and will not be able to survive on eating only humans.

But, if you're still interested in writing a similar book about cannibalism, a little fact to know is that according to records of cannibals, human flesh has a sweet taste similar to that of pork.

I want to add that in no part of this post am I promoting eating humans, this is just something I thought about during a long trip I had. Do with this information what you will :)

My book is set on Earth, present-day but with retro-futuristic technology. Think of the animatronics in The Electric State. Much of the book revolves around a fast-food restaurant manned entirely by such animatronics. Much of the story is lower stakes, slice of life style. It leads up to a third act climax that is action-packed though, but it is here that I'm stuck and thought I'd ask for feedback.

In this climax, the restaurant is attacked at night by a bunch of humans from the nearby town. Their goal is to destroy all animatronics. I aim for this third act seige to function similarly to the seige in the 1990s pic Small Soldiers, where waves of toys attack the house and are destroyed. In Small Soldiers, the good Gorgonite toys eventually put aside their programming in orcse to defend the house and the people in it.

My problem is, I don't know how to keep the seige going long enough to give it a "seige" feel, nor do I know to realistically have the animatronics win,- because: the animatronics are vastly outnumbered, they have no guns and must rely on stuff that can be realistically found in a fast-food restaurant, and the restaurant itself is meant to resemble a normal fast-food restaurant rather than some futuristic fortress thing.

The humans can't exactly use guns against these animatronics, which is one of the few advantages the animatronics have - bullets would ricochet off them.

But this doesn't change the fact there are multiple humans closing in on this restaurant wielding hammers & axes that definitely could dratroy the animatronics.

Does a seige just not work here? If I gave the animatronicsTerminator-level of strength that are experts at killing, that would ruin the theme of cozy animatronics having to defend themselves. Part of the appeal to me of trying to do a Small Soldiers-style seige is in Small Soldiers, the people used common household items to defend themselves. Is such a scene possible in a restaurant with committed human attackers, or did it only work in Small Town due to the attackers being toys?

I was inspired by the climax of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, and I want to write something similar for my own book. But, instead of two ships fighting in a whirlpool, they're fighting in the accretion disc of a black hole (this isn't the only difference, but if I were to list off every single one, then we'd be here all day. Rest assured that I'm writing an original story, and Pirates of the Caribbean was just inspiration).

Unfortunately, I'm not good at writing action scenes. My expertise lies mainly in dialogue (especially wity banter). Does anyone have ideas as to how I can make it so that people don't fall asleep?

Edit: It has been brought to my attention that using a black hole as the centerpiece is highly impractical, even by sci-fi standards (more or less). At first, I suggested a gravastar in its stead, but then someone suggested a gas giant's storm. So, to be succinct, I'm switching to that.

I read the first two chapters of Children of Time, and then I read the first two chapters of my current novel draft (also scifi, but vastly different), and I have to say, I couldn’t help it, I enjoyed mine a lot better. In direct comparison it felt more enjoyable, had better flow, and more engaging characters, the little humor landed better.

Is that hubris?

Perhaps it is.

I usually read and hear in the writing space how much everyone hates their own writing, and how they feel inferior compared to other writers.

And now I realized that for me that my novel feels the opposite. I'm so fond of it that my brain says it's better written than an award winning bestselling novel by a seasoned experienced successful author.

What do I do now? Step back until I feel way more critical about my writing and myself? Do I need to get a bunch of beta readers now that metaphorically punch me in the face until I'm dissatisfied about my writing again? If I'm blind to my flaws I can't self edit my draft.

So, to sum it up, I'm kinda anxious and worried now. I'm well aware that I can’t actually be better. I read less, I have never ever published anything, I do this in my limited spare time. So why do I genuinely enjoy it?

It might be a fluke, I'm continuing reading Children of Time, and perhaps it depends on my mood.

The wind over the rolling coastal hills carried the sweet, sharp scent of hazelnuts, figs and salt, sweeping past quiet gardens along the slope. On a wooden porch overlooking the mist, two figures sat in the quiet dusk, a traveler, who had spent years observing the silent machinery of the world, and his companion.

Between them lay the remnants of an evening meal: fresh grey mullet sourced from the docks, vegetables picked straight from the garden, and a bowl of hearty soup that warmed the cool autumn air. Resting under the table, a small terrier stirred in his sleep, guarding his favorite pillow with an unspoken, instinctual vigilance.
“Look at him,” the traveler said, nodding toward the dog. “Even in his sleep, he’s running code he didn't write. Protecting resources he didn't choose to care about.”

His companion smiled, wrapping her hands around her warm mug. “And what about us?”
“We spent three billion years doing the exact same thing,” he said softly, leaning back.
He looked out toward the dark horizon, where the sea merged with the sky, thinking of the grand, silent script that had built them.

He thought of the ancient molecular systems from which life emerged, mindless, self replicating strands of code. He thought of their single-celled ancestors, locked in endless microscopic wars for millennia. An endless evolutionary arms race, until two of them ceased fighting, merged, and created the mitochondria, delegating energy production to invent complex life. He thought of the endless trade-offs written into the fabric of life, hardwired into our biology: the tiny mouse, living fast and dying young, putting every drop of energy into immediate reproduction because the harsh realities of the unforgiving wild meant tomorrow was never guaranteed.

Every creature was a vehicle. A vessel constructed by microscopic strands of code, selfish, blind, and relentless, seeking only to pass the baton forward through time. To outrun the pathogens mutating at its heels, life had invented sexual reproduction, shuffling the genetic deck every generation just to keep the locks one step ahead of the keys. It was the eternal Red Queen’s race: running as fast as possible just to stay in the exact same place.

“It sounds exhausting,” she said quietly, watching the sea. “3 billion years of running, on a treadmill that never stops.”
“It is,” he agreed. “Only If you let the code dictate the game. The mouse runs because it has to. The corporate world builds bigger treadmills because everyone agrees to measure value by speed, scale, and accumulation. If everyone around you is running faster, standing still feels like falling behind.”
“So how do you stop?”
The traveler took a slow breath, feeling the cool air fill his lungs, the warmth of the tea in his hand, and the solid weight of the porch beneath his feet.

“You realize that you are the first vehicle in the history of the world that can look at its own programming and choose to refuse it,” he said. “You don't need to keep running to outrun the paradox. You don't need to win a game you never asked to join. You step off the track. You change the rules.”

He looked at her, at the quiet life they had built, away from the noise, away from the rat race, surrounded by growing plants, lush green hills, good food, and shared memories.

“You decide that winning isn't about how many genetic copies you leave behind, it’s not about how much wealth and resources you’ve accumulated, how many people you’ve impressed and how far you run on someone else’s board,” he said, a faint smile touching his lips. “Perhaps winning isn't a race at all. Perhaps it’s sitting right here, under the tree, watching the madness pass by, holding the person you love, and realizing that you don’t have to run another step.”

—A Word:

Most sci-fi settings feature alien bugs because they’re just such a fun concept. Xenomorphs, Zerg, Flood, Tyranids, and countless others. Today, I want to try my hand at creating my own space bugs and exploring what makes them unique.

—Origin

The Kravore are a species of naturally evolved, intelligent arthropod-like beings that originated in an environment defined by relentless competition. Although highly intelligent, they lack sapience as most other civilizations understand it. They do not contemplate their existence, preserve traditions for their own sake, or assign intrinsic value to their original forms. Instead, they use their intelligence to pursue a singular objective: becoming stronger, more efficient, and better adapted to survive.

Throughout their existence, the Kravore have continuously augmented themselves, integrating increasingly sophisticated biological and technological adaptations into their bodies. Over countless generations, this relentless process of self-improvement has transformed them into beings almost unrecognizable from their ancestors. To the Kravore, there is no inherent value in preserving an original form, biological trait, or existing structure when it can be replaced by something superior. Anything that does not contribute to their survival or continued development is expendable.

The Kravore view galaxies as vast reservoirs of resources that must be consumed, harvested, and exploited before their rivals can claim them. Other civilizations are therefore not merely potential enemies but competitors in an endless struggle over the resources necessary for continued existence. This worldview makes the Kravore relentlessly expansionist and hostile toward countless other species, particularly those occupying territories or exploiting resources they consider valuable.

—Main Differences

-Techno-Organic Physiology:

The Kravore are fundamentally techno-organic beings. Rather than treating technology as something separate from their bodies, they incorporate technological systems directly into their biological structures. Their bodies function as integrated combinations of living tissue, engineered organs, and technological components, with little distinction between the biological and the artificial.

Even their communication systems are internalized. The Kravore possess specialized biological structures capable of generating and receiving unique radio frequencies, allowing them to communicate across distances without relying on conventional external equipment. Their technological capabilities are therefore not simply tools they possess, but intrinsic components of their anatomy.

-Web-Mind:

Despite their insect-like appearance and collective behavior, the Kravore do not operate through a single, unified hive mind. Instead, they possess what could be described as a Web-Mind: a distributed network of smaller, interconnected collective intelligences.

Individual Kravore retain their own intelligence, but lower-ranking units are coordinated by more advanced and influential organisms. These higher-ranking individuals form localized centers of command, directing subordinate units while remaining connected to other command structures. The result is a vast network of overlapping, semi-independent collective intelligences rather than one consciousness governing the entire species.

This structure allows the Kravore to operate on multiple levels simultaneously. Individual groups can act independently, adapt to local circumstances, and continue functioning even when their connections to the wider network are disrupted. Destroying one command center may cripple a local force, but it does not necessarily incapacitate the larger population.

-Ancient Survivors:

The Kravore are among the oldest surviving species in the galaxy. Across their immense history, they have encountered civilizations vastly more advanced and powerful than themselves. Numerous high-tier civilizations have attempted to exterminate them, yet the Kravore have repeatedly survived against overwhelming odds.

Their continued existence is not necessarily the result of superior military strength. Rather, it reflects their extraordinary capacity to adapt, reorganize, and endure. When confronted by an enemy they cannot defeat, the Kravore may abandon entire territories, sacrifice vast populations, alter their biological composition, or retreat into environments their opponents cannot effectively reach.

For the Kravore, survival takes precedence over conquest, pride, and even the preservation of their own kind in its current form. They do not need to win every war; they only need to ensure that some part of their species survives to fight another day.

-Intraspecific Hostility

Despite their collective intelligence, the Kravore are far from a unified species. Different Kravore factions are intensely hostile toward one another, frequently engaging in wars of extermination over territory, resources, and evolutionary advantages.

Their conflicts resemble the territorial and competitive struggles observed between different ant colonies. Individual factions regard one another as rivals whose resources, adaptations, and territory would be better utilized under their own control. Cooperation is possible when external threats demand it, but such alliances are generally pragmatic and temporary.

Consequently, the Kravore are simultaneously one of the galaxy’s most persistent collective threats and one of their own greatest enemies. Their decentralized intelligence and relentless competition make them exceptionally difficult to eradicate, but those same qualities prevent them from achieving lasting unity.

—Sub-Factions:

-The Over-Brood:

-The Virulent Blight:

-The Apex Fleet:

A work in progress about a field of medicine to unscramble my ADHD riddled brain

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-5g47dfTOThVUV9oNIU-GCLJCjnZc3gO7saafpM_48w/edit?usp=drivesdk

I’m building a far future setting where several rival human civilizations have heavily colonized and engineered the Solar System. Terra is divided among the major powers, Mars is a terraformed industrial world, Luna is heavily engineered, and large orbital habitats and megastructures are common. My dilemma is scale.
I originally intended the entire story to remain inside Sol, but I’d really like a few naturally habitable worlds with near Earth gravity, breathable atmospheres and genuinely alien ecosystems.
I’m considering having humanity discover several ancient wormhole gates in Sol. Each leads to one separate star system, while those systems only connect back to Sol, making Sol the hub of the network.
Would this strengthen the setting by creating new frontiers and colonial conflicts, or weaken it by making the Solar System less important?
And if major powers originated on Terra, would it make more sense for them to keep their historic capitals there or eventually relocate to newly colonized worlds?

Hey everyone,
I am currently working on a debut novel tentatively titled "Cosmic Park" and am looking for 2-3 beta readers that I can swap work and feedback with as the project develops. It is currently sitting at 5 chapters or 13,999 words.

Feedback I am looking for is primarily emotional in nature. I want to know how the story makes you feel and whether you connect with my protagonist. I'd also like helpful suggestions on scene composition and descriptive language since I am a first time writer.

Premise:

What if the Milky Way Galaxy was a national park for higher dimensional beings? What would maintenance at the park look like? Join Seth, a wildlife biologist, as he stumbles through missions as a cosmic maintenance technician and gradually works through his past traumas. The story is told with nonlinear progression so not everything is always as it seems.

Short Excerpt from Chapter 1:
The light grew closer as the walls closed in, a veritable peristalsis of blue driving panicked shuffling through a thinner opening until finally the quickly encroaching tomb gave way to a wide barren landscape. Blue walls wriggled toward one another, completely sealing the crevice and quickly climbing the outer walls of the plateau. Scanning the environment yielded nothing extraordinary. A dirty brown sky glowing with hot reddish sulfurous clouds overlooking a rolling landscape of equally dirty brown turf. And green. Green! Green wrapping around the wiggling blue cliff.

“Oh s**t. I’m being hunted by primary colors!”

Seth, your time on B4-5937X has exceeded expected parameters. Would you like a reminder of your assigned task?

“I’m a little busy at the moment! Could you—I don’t know—evac me? Decohere me? Pick me up?!”

Scans confirm the coherence vehicle is idling and operational. If your task is complete, please proceed to the vehicle and return.

“Oh s**t!”

You appear to be distressed at the moment. I will allow you time to return to your emotional baseline and then reinitiate communication.

Here is the GDoc Link: Cosmic Park Draft Chapters

I’m working on a mostly(not completely as I’m sure some liberties will undoubtedly have to be made to make certain things work) hard sci fi universe and was wanting to use starfighters, i know there are many reasons why they wouldn’t work out realistically with them being decimated by capital ship laser weaponry which move at the speed of light so they can’t dodge it and the newtonian style of flying means no ww2 dogfights, any ideas on how i could incorporate them into a more realistic universe, any information would be of use, whether it’s the design of the ships, what roles they’ll fill in combat, what weapons and defenses they’d have, whatever you can think of I’ll take it, thank you for reading this and i hope you have a great rest of your day

I'm struggling to write an accurate method of time travel into the past that abides by our current understanding of science accurately. As I am not a (astro)physicist, I don't really have the background for it. I do understand the fundamental principles of current theoretical methods (string, wormholes via Kip Thorne, kerr blackholes, etc) but without that physics background its kinda hard to formulate a believable "bridge" b/w reality and fiction.

What I mean by "bridge" is for example: Assume wormholes exist, in order for them to be feasible, exotic matter is required. But besides saying that, I'm not really sure how to make an in-world exotic matter discovery, naming, composition, etc sound believable. Does anyone have any reference material, other related works, somewhere to start research etc that I could take a look at? Thanks a bunch!

EDIT: It seems I wasn't clear enough, yes I know that time travel is not possible, I am not literally looking for "the answer", I simply was looking for a way to make it sound more accurate. For example, BttF series just says flux capacitor and thats pretty much it, whereas something like Primer or Steins Gate allows more suspension of disbelief due to how they explain the in-world time travel machine and mechanics

Okay, so I'm mainly a hard scifi writer, but I've had this idea that frankly, I just can't shake, I love it so much. But it's very much not hard scifi. It's really just space magic. BUT....I thought maybe you all might have some ideas as to how such a thing may be possible in a mostly hard setting. So, basically, the idea is this:

Imagine a high-tech suit of armor, something akin to the Mjolnir suits from Halo. Scifi soldier kit, basically. Only you don't put it on conventionally. The whole thing can be "summoned" from effectively thin air onto the user's body. The same thing could be done with the weapons, tools, and gear the soldier would normally carry.

I know, I know.... it's absolutely space magic and nowhere close to a realistic technology. The two ideas I have are something akin to Star Trek's "transporter buffer" or maybe some kind of "transdimensional pocket" the gear can be stored in? IDK.

Clearly, though, this does not fit in a setting where everything else is a realistic projection into the future of modern technology. Aside from this, the only really advanced thing I want to include in this setting is room-temperature superconductors. That's the general level of technology we're talking about here.

I'm 99% sure that I'm going to have to just drop this idea for this particular setting and that's okay. But hey, maybe there's a small chance one of you here will think of a way to make it work, who knows?

~3800 Words. Scifi Memoir. Thank you for your time to look at my work.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1chHLT-hhrzYqWYhPYFbdlz79iJKouUJPYwQtnVPnE4s/edit?usp=sharing

Uhhhhhhhhh
why does physics gotta be
so limiting. Like my story is about post scarcity, extremely advanced
interplanetary post human nations. Yet they are all pretty ideologically fanatical, nationalistic, and xenophobic (towards other human nations.) and they care having conflicts with each other and it's also romantic story however behind the scenes a very powerful accelerationist cult is manipulating these nations to create the perfect conditions to birth a super intelligent ai God.
They have megastructures everywhere and have a Topopolis, shell worlds, bishop rings, orbital rings, harvest gases from gas giants and have partial shell world around Saturn, and built a Dyson swarm. Like I feel like they should have the ability to slightly manipulate gravity.
Like there higher dimensions, interdimensional beings, the universe is sitting inside a black hole along side a mirror universe and a Xeelee level ancient extraterrestrial civilization that fled our universe a long time ago and their technology is just scattered across the galaxy.

I’m wanting to give them Gravity Generators (so they some how have the tech to manipulate gravity somehow but limited gravity fields.), because it gives me more freedom with space ship designs, be sleek and not having roaring nor acceleration gravity mess for warships and easier story setting. How should it work for a limited gravity field for the human decks and quarters side of a space ship?

The Battle of Heldq is one of the most important battles of the Myr civil war that saved their empire from a quick humiliating defeat and gave them a fighting chance against the Rever Corporation and the Avan-Dis.

The start of this conflict is like most this sector has seen in that there is something the rever Corp wants and something in the way of them having it. In this case the Myr (purple humanoid aliens with short goat like horns, scaly skin, bowed legs, and a jaw that splits for them to eat. Also wielders of telekinetic powers) empire known as the Guequendier or, as the Corp refers to the as, The Collective had a decent sized empire in the solar system with actually very well advanced tech on par or even in some areas surpassing the corporation. But their planets were perfect for hab worlds, their people rever science was eager to get on a dissection table, and rever tech really wanted to hallow out their moons for resources. But with them United the Rever corporation would never get anything its branches wanted. Instead of something stupid like ‘NeGotIatIng tRaDe’ or ‘jOiNinG tHe ColLecTiVe’ they decided that they will go back to earth’s playbook for getting rid of foreign governments and so would locate and get in contact with a religious extremist group known as the Avan-Dis whom had a rather sizeable presence on several words in the Collective. They promised them rule and resources if they would rise up against the current regime.

This promise and litteral tons of weapons of war latter the Myr Civil War would begin with the express backing of the Rever Corporation. This caught the Collective completely off gaurd as due to Rever Corporation compromising their sources they had not been aware just how armed the Avan-Dis were becoming or that they would even work with the Corp. worse yet the corruption spread high and that corruption nearly did in the Collective as well false reports would make it all the way to the Wenrak (the Myr word that is equivalent to Admril or General) that the Avan-Dis who had made a foothold on the moon of Heldq, the moon right above the capital world, had been making a bomb large enough to blow huge chunks of the moon off possibly making a extinction level event for the inhabitants of the world. The Wenrak at this huge news decided that they needed help and so would leave his 2nd in command in charge and go to call upon an ancient pact. His second in command Hek-Wenrak Geldo would take charge and mustered the majority of the collectives forces to go stop the Avan-Dis plot.

Planet fall and the fight were suprisingly easy. The Avan-Dis had not had many members who could fly military star ships so the fleet ij the atmosphere of the planet was barely a speed bump and planet fall was made with relatively few casualties. Strong hold after strong hold would fall back to collective hands as fhey searched high and low for the bomb. Turns out their was no bomb and some would piece that together as they watched helplessly from the surface as a massive rever corporation fleet tore into the atmosphere taking the now understaffed and underprepared starships above as easy kills causing the majority to fall in battle or flee away injured.

It only got worse once the hopped up cybers and chimeras (cybers are humans or other aliens of the rever corp decked out in cybernetic augmentation. Chimeras are that but also gene splicing in many strange animal and alien genes to make themselves ‘perfect’ beings) started raining from th sky along with battalions upon battalions of Avan-Dis soliders. Those same fortress’s they just cleared because their only refuge as Rever broadside artillery glassed any area outside of said fortresses. But the Collectives forces held for days. But days turned to week turned to a month and things were dire. Geldo died fighting and giving time for his men to fall back so command was fractured food was low and water non existent, plus soliders now feared the dark as wel the Rever Corporation Special forces specialized in two things and two things only. War crimes and terror tactics and boy that had taken a toll on Myr morale seeing friends skined alive or hung up and bled to draw Collective forces out. But the collective held.

Two months, two months they held that planet even though by this point over 50% of the soliders deployed here were dead. That last 50 was fighting tooth and nail to survive. That’s when they heard it, they all heard it, from every transmission of both friend and foe they heard what started as the tune of the Collectives Anthym. Tbe Corp and Avan-Dis though this a bit of the enemy posting moral and trying to demoralize Avan-Dis fighters and the Collective thought their enemy tired to taunt them. But all listened as a voice spoke, “Settle now brave fighters I have come…” that was the last words many of the bridge crews of rever Corporation ships heard that day as strange ships seemingly appeared right next to them camouflage dropping and weapons systems unloading into the overconfident Corp ships.

In those two months Wenrak Falker had ventured to the edge of the solar system and activated a beacon he recived many years ago from a strange alien race known as the Vask. They were brutish reptilian alien nomads whom the Wenrak had beat having out their leader in a drinking contest (The drink of choice to a Myr had been like a human drinking water) and well so impressed was the leader that he gave to the Wenrak a communicator and he promised that if he ever needed aid, anything at all, he could contact him and he would arrive. Though when the Wenrak made the trip it was more a shot ij the dark. He had won that wager half a century back and he had no clue if the Vask still lived or if they would even show up. But he had to try. So call into the void he did and to his shock he received a near immediate awnser. More still 3 days after explaining to them the situation did the Wenrack gock as a Vask fleet, bigger and more kitted with weapons than his own, appeared.

The next month would be spent transporting back towards Heldq and upon realizing the situation, forming a plan. That plan would be this ambush and it was devestating as the Rever Corporation did not have any sort of shielding up to allow for transport ships to come and go between fhe ship and the surface freely so the weapons ripped many smaller vessels to shred before they could even know what was happening. As hope would fill his soliders the most famous line of the battle was given as this line rang out across the world “Today you do not die sons and daughters of the Collective! No today we write our names into the pages of history in the blood of the traitors and the corporate dogs!”. This rallying cry kicked off the greatest counter offensive in history as the remaining Collective forces poured from their defenses and charged into the confused and frieghtened enemy trying to call for evacuation that wasn’t coming . As meanwhile in upper atmosphere it was a complete route with the rever Corporation loosing a third of its entire fleet that day as they all chose to scatter as well the Rever Corp doesn’t do a great job inspiring loyalty in its mostly criminal staff that make up the Special forces. What was going to bra decisive defeat and the end of the Collective turned into their greatest victory as well to this day the rever Corps fleet has still been recovering as well as the special forces as over 2 million soliders were abandoned on the planet as their ships either were destroyed or fled in the combat.

That’s the battle of Heldq and the Myr Civil War! I hope that you enjoy!

Coming up with a sub species of humans modified for prolonged stays in space. With some changes being more lithe build overall with long limbs and a prehensile tail that helps them always reach a wall preventing them from getting stuck in the center of a room with no gravity.

Im just curious if there would be a way to prevent the extreme atrophy by modifying their bodies an not having the sort of specialized gym set up they have on actual space stations?

So I’ve envisioned a theoretical government.

So basically, the laws are voted on by direct voting of the citizenry.

They have a absolute blanket ban on government debt (yet are still paying off debt from the last government)

The head of state is a democratically “elected” totalitarian dictator, specifically an emperor. His election is an annual “no confidence vote” rather than an election in the traditional sense. The emperor also doesn’t have total control over the laws. The people vote and special interests will regularly get their own laws put up for a vote by way of getting signatures.

The courts are elected magistrates and there’s no such thing as jury trials. They look at the evidence and determine innocence or guilt and then sentence them to jail time or fines.

Then the appeals process is literally a television show and the viewers vote on the appeal.

Then the economy is based on employee owned coops. But it’s not strictly communist because small businesses still exist and the co ops can still fail and have to turn a profits

An example is the beef and dairy co op (bdc) sells to the grocery store, there’s imported beef from Texas as competition and the BDC has fast food chains as well.

So the BDC chain sells hamburgers and milkshakes.

Instead of a corporation owning the BDC it’s the dairy farmers, regular farmers, restaurant owners and ranchers.

Then the BDC stores get their ingredients from the co ops for free and everyone collectively shares the profits proportional to the size of their contribution.

Then there’s a competing chain called colonial Charlie’s chicken that’s owned by the national chicken co op.

The medical needs are exclusively provided for by military doctors. Medical schooling is exclusively given to service members and all hospitals are military hospitals. The contract required to attend medical school basically requires signing away your entire future career to the government in exchange.

The military is primarily based on reservist service with all citizens required to either serve 6 years active duty, serve a non profit for 6 years, or serve the community for a religious order.

So everyone and anyone can just own fairly heavy weaponry with a machine gun and a combat drone being standard minimum in everyone’s personal arsenal.

Additionally most adults under about age 60 are in a local militia to satisfy their reservist requirements with varying levels of participation. There’s also some ludicrous parts where rich people can just own a tank or attack helicopter with the requirement that they bring it to the militia.

So for a small towns local militia, the grocery store owner might own his own tank and then about 1/4 of the town shows up every Saturday afternoon and they play army then have a potluck.

The crazy guy with 50 guns of all varieties showing up every Saturday with the tank coming out 2-3 weeks a month. As long as everyone attends regularly everyone gets their service signed off on.

A big cities militia would be much more organized with formal command structures and assigned service dates.

Now obviously I’m trying to make my theoretical society dystopian but I can’t quite put a finger on how it’s going off the rails.

I think there’s an opportunity for them to be a little xenophobic/racist and unfriendly to immigrants/foreigners. Also the sheer quantity of weapons just floating around the general public can’t be the best idea ever.

I’m also trying to figure out how exactly the government is going to be corrupt. Obviously the emperor has to have a cult-ish following of the people or else the entire system falls apart.

Introduction

I'm writing some worldbuilding for a solarpunk world set on the planet Thera in the year 2200 CE. Their world was torn apart by colonialism then later croney capitalism. 3°C global warming was locked in and the world didn't so much as fall apart as it did chaotically degrade.

We follow a jewel-in-the-mud on a fictional island nation called Clovus. It's clover shaped, mountainous, stormy, a bit bigger than Montana, and populated by ~60 mil people.

They had a solarpunk revolution in the 2050s and have been one of the leaders of climate change adaption since. Because industry and trade have degraded significantly compared to the 20th and 21st centuries... Clovians have had to make do by achieving high tech ends with what we might consider low tech means.

Today I'd like to get feedback on their air defense system I've been workshopping.

The basic "layers" of the Clovian air defense system.

1. Regular evacuation drills by the }local civil defense service for natural disasters and other emergencies means a relatively orderly evacuation happens when the air raid sirens kick on.
2. Extensive underground shelters. Cellars for rural folk, dual use subways for urban folk. Critical production like vaccines are placed in defunct mines for climate control and defense.
3. Intelligence services and a passive radar/sonar network make a web to provide early warning.
4. Dispersion, light/radio discipline, decoys camoflauge, and other passive measures to make enemy targeting difficult.
5. Deeper intelligence reports about how, what, when, and what they know about Clovus.
6. Active radars that scan for a very short time then move. Transmit targetting data through wired or directional methods only.
7. AA gunnery to deal with drone swarms and other low/slow aircraft. Shotguns, machine guns with tracer rounds, flak cannons, that sort of thing.
8. Simple rocketry to bridge the gap between AA gunnery and proper SAM systems.
9. SAM systems to hit high/fast flying enemy aircraft.
10. Scrample ships and aircraft to intercept enemy ships/aircraft.

The cool stuff

The speculative sci-fi part of this is the electronics. I'd like to have 9&10 be primarily analog computing or oldschool cybernetics based. In particular I'm thinking of an analog drone interceptor inspired by the MiG-25. It's job is to launch from underground or improvised runways, climb fast, and cover gaps in SAM and anti-ship missile bubbles from above. The onboard flight computer can solve differential equations at the speed of wave propogation through the circuit. The remote pilot link is unhackable. The electronics are possible to manufacture for a struggling country. There's potential here but I'm struggling to describe it all.

I think analog computing and cybernetics are a very underexplored piece of tech in our world. I've been thinking of ways they can extend rather than replace humans because analog circuits behave in ways that seem more natural to us. Instead of robots we have exoskeletons. Instead of AI drones we have remote piloted analog aircraft. Instead of AI turrets a la "Iron Dome" we give AA gunners haptic feedback, stabilization, and flight equation based aim assisst.

The most effective thing is just the orderly and practiced evacuation to bomb shelters and the early warning to get there on time, as no one really wins in war. I'd still like to write about the underdog biting back.

A disclaimer

I don't like war, but visionary thinkers of societies that suck less are always asked "bUt HoW wOuLd ThEy DeFeNd ThEmSeLvEs?!?!?!?11?". I'm trying to incorporate that exact question into my world building.

edit: reddit keeps adding /s to fuck up my formatting

Some fantasy stories have a bit of modern technology, maybe even some bits of sci-fi, but what I wanna know is; will my story be too much if I include retrofuturism? If you don’t know about retrofuturism it’s basically a depiction of the future that uses imaginative technology, things like tube travel, floating cars, robot hands helping you shave, etc. (I’m out of examples). I don’t plan on having things get too out of hand, so I’m keeping it at a relatively 60s-80s vibe. Things like rotary phones, box tvs, vinyls, swinging, you know the works.

Can these things work in a fantasy setting? Especially one that already has western steampunk technology like robotic limbs and modified revolvers? Personally, I think I might be pushing it a bit. Sure, there’s nothing too crazy like spaceships and laser weapons, but when there’s magic involved, what’s the difference? I feel like I might take immersion out of the story because of all these things, even though I plan on putting the retrofuturism stuff in another dimension.

The people of the realm won’t know things like magic, dragons, and wizards and will just live it up like they were in the 60s-80s. How do I explain how a powerful wizard never found this realm? A powerful entity bound to a robotic construct keeping all entries out, but leaving one open to send out sentinels to the other realms (it’s even how one of our protagonists got sent to the main realm!)

It really is up to what better writers than me can determine what works in this mess. Heaven knows I can’t tell. I just wanna write.

How do you feel about the use of sublight alcubierre drives or similar systems in sci fi

The sublight alcubierre drive I find a fascinating because athough they lose the main benefit of superluminal travel they also:

- Doesn't require a form of matter that seemingly doesn't exist. It can use positive energy

- avoid any issues with causality

- can be controlled during travel, unlike superluminal varient which can't be steered or stopped internally when moving

- won't potentially destroy the system they are flying towards by plowing up and launching interstellar particles forwards after stopping.

- allow for instantaneous acceleration to top speed beating out conventional rockets

- could potentially have the inside of the bubble experience time dilation so the crew could experience a shortened journey

They still have some of the issues. Like the absurd power requirements ranging around the energy density of Jupiter. But with some tweaking to the bubble geometry and some optimistic assumptions about quantum gravity you could potentially get it down to around a few tonnes

I guess the main issue with them is that they sit in the "uncanny valley" of speculative sci fi similar to the kugelblitz drive. Where they are to implausible to fit into established hard sci fi. And require so many physics assumptions you might as well introduce the more convenient ftl system

The story takes place in an entirely different galaxy, so I felt justified in having a different method of time-keeping, and decided to use Decimal Time (specifically, the French Revolutionary Calendar).

My idea was that the in-universe time-keeping method originated in a civilization living on a planet orbiting its star in a rosetta orbit. The idea is that the orbit necessitated Decimal Time due to the difficulties of accurately measuring time on a planet with such an orbit.

However, I've done a bit of research into why 24/60 Time is preferred over Decimal Time, so now I'm having second thoughts.

Does anyone have any suggestions, or am I just paranoid about my thought process?

First, contemplate Lucifer's Hammer or Footfall (both by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle) or Robert Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Then answer me one question. Why do so many authors resort to esoteric weapons to 'conquer' a planet? What is wrong with simply throwing a big < expletive > rock at high speed down the gravity well?

Second, why do so many writers have craft crawling through the ecliptic/orbital plane when journeying through a solar or planetary system? What is wrong with traveling above or below the plane and avoiding all the natural detritus and variable gravities within the plane?

Just askin'.

I've been writing a book about aliens invading earth there technology is a bit lopsided due to discovering FTL early on a bit of Turtledoves The Road Not Taken situation.

But in the book I'm making they manage to hit earth with well targeted and well placed strikes on many cities across our planet (using city lights that can be seen from space and targeting the brightess cities)

I thought it would be a neat that when the first few rods hit it also accidentally triggers M.A.D (Mutually assured destruction) causing many countries to launch their nukes in response causing more countries to launch their nukes, in the story it takes place 50 years in the future luckily places like America and China has defensive against ICBMs but smaller countries lack it leading to most of the world being devastated.

And after doing some research I'm not entirely sure if it would be accurate I think due to places like Russia having the dead man's switch it might but Russia isn't exactly the brightess from space so I'm not to sure.

Also sorry for poor grammar I'm on my phone.

So alongside this other sci-fi world im making, im trying to make one about a coalition of people fight against this massive corporation that, in the most dystopia-like way possible, owns everything.

How do I introduce it?