A.E. Currie Blog

. My new hard science fiction novel came out this month!  Denizen 43  is the third in the Panopticon trilogy  and it's my first book set in space, which meant I had to do a lot of research. Specifically, I needed to know what realistic engineering would look like on the Moon and what life there might be like. It's Going To Be A Long Night Solar panels will be a key lunar power source and getting enough daylight will be an issue for future colonists.  The result of millions of years of gravitational interaction between the Earth and the Moon is something called "tidal locking" or synchronous rotation. On Earth, tidal locking means everyone always sees the same face of the Moon. On the Moon, the effect is more significant: it means a single one of their days lasts nearly 30 Earth days . As a lunar colonist, once the sun sets over the horizon, you aren't going to see it rise again for a fortnight. I like a lie-in, but even I might find 2 weeks excessive. ...

In 1818, a young woman called Mary Shelley published the first work of science fiction: Frankenstein . I would argue it is also the earliest examination of technology ethics. Perhaps every scientist and engineer needs to read it again. A Reanimated Discussion Frankenstein is a deceptively simple story of the dangers of creating something without understanding the consequences. The eponymous main character, Victor Frankenstein, struggles to discover the secret of restoring life to dead flesh. He finally does so, only to abandon the man he has brought to life. The novel describes the chase across Europe of the doctor by the reanimated corpse - a surprisingly sympathetic character, who is never named. The monster's hunt is partly in revenge for his abandonment, but primarily to force Frankenstein to be answerable for his ill thought-through act. Shelley reflects on the ethics and responsibilities of creation, and her work is an excellent example of the power of a novel ...