Wrecking Balls of Extinction

12 Tuesday Jan 2016

Posted by dtkrippene in Dystopian Subjects, Future Trends

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Bolides, Cosmology, Dark Matter, Dystopian, Extinction Events, Future Trends, Lisa Randall, Meteor Shower, Meteors, WSJ Book Review

From: GL0CK – Depositphotos.com

Extinction is a fascinating subject to me as a writer, especially if it has a dystopian plot line around a group of humans barely surviving a decimated landscape from any one of natural or manmade calamities. It’s all about the human equation, but what makes it really compelling, is a natural disaster by which we have no control. I’m obsessed with The Apocalypse Waiting Beneath Our Feet, and other earth-based, regularly-scheduled natural disasters mentioned in an article I wrote a couple years ago. Not to say meteor impacts are passé, it’s been a hotly debated subject for decades, but I viewed heavenly body impacts as random events, like chances of winning the lottery (or in this case … losing).

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A Little Progress On My Wish List

04 Thursday Dec 2014

Posted by dtkrippene in Future Trends, The Humor Zone

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Best Inventions of 2014, Future Trends, Futuristic Life, Futuristic Transit, Science Fiction, Time Magazine

From: DepositPhotos.com

Last year about this time, I waxed curmudgeonly on Things I’m Still Waiting For, like interplanetary ion drives, flying cars, hover boards, to mention a few. Time magazine’s recent Best Inventions of 2014 review, has some interesting items for consideration.

First out of the chutes is a real-life hover board, not unlike the one I drooled over in the movie Back to the Future. Not exactly the fly anywhere version Michael J. Fox used, but it’s a start. We’re still shooting objects into space via 1950’s style ballistic missiles, but it’s getting cheaper. India just parked a satellite in Mars orbit for the paltry sum of $74 million. Hell, that’s less expensive than retiling the old Space Shuttle. Fossil fuel sourced energy is more popular than ever, but Lockheed’s development of a High-Beta Fusion Reactor, just might get us closer to the holy grail of nuclear fusion. Molecular X-Rays (images of body at molecular level) might bring Dr.McCoy of Star Trek, back in vogue. The humanitarian invention of the year is a filtration system that scrubs Ebola virus from the blood stream.

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Bride of Frankenchicken

07 Wednesday May 2014

Posted by dtkrippene in Dystopian Subjects, Future Trends, Sci-Fi Themes, The Humor Zone, Writing Dystopian Themes

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Allentown Morning Call, Animal Husbandry, Climate Change, Dystopia, Evan Halper, Featherless Chickens, Future Trends, Futuristic Food, Global Warming, GMO, Modified Foods, Movie Matrix, Science Fiction plots, Writing Science Fiction

From: amusingplanet.com

Anybody out there think last year’s weather was normal? Bounty hunters are still looking for Punxsutawney Phil. Or is it Phyllis now? Who can keep up with the changes anymore? Harder still, I’m unsure what’s considered normal. What I do know, based on the regularity of Chicken Little teeth gnashing, much of the world is warming, and farmers have been encouraged to rethink industrial agriculture.

A recent article in a local paper by Evan Halper, described how food scientists are Hot on the Trail of New Food Sources better suited to endure the hazards of climate change. You had me at “new food sources”. I love it when geneticists and agrobiologists talk shop, especially over cocktails, and think of ways to further jigger the natural world. It gives us writers of dystopian fiction new fodder in a currently overcrowded, literary genre. I had a little fun on the subject last year with the idea of synthetic meat, How Do You Like Your Schmeat. Never mind that we’ve have thrown in the towel on global warming, for a new arena of carnival freaks about to make their debut, I can’t wait for the ticket booth to open.

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Things I’m Still Waiting For:

04 Wednesday Dec 2013

Posted by dtkrippene in Sci-Fi Themes, The Humor Zone

≈ 1 Comment

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Black Weekend, Future Trends, Futuristic Life, Holiday Humor, Science Fiction plots

From: Fantasy and Sci-Fi Rock My World

While safely bunkered during Black Weekend (used to be Black Friday), giving thanks for what we already have, a quiet moment alone (always a dangerous scenario), had me pondering of things we’re still waiting for as a modern society. I grew up expecting we’d have flying cars by this time, and believed the book “2001 Space Odyssey” to be less fiction, more coming soon, give or take a few years. Hell, we put a guy on the moon in the sixties, a first step to our planetary neighbors. Granted, I was a kid, and never considered serious concepts of economic reality, but really, it’s 2014 already. Why aren’t we throwing Frisbees on Mars?

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What’s On Your Plate In Two Hundred Years?

24 Wednesday Jul 2013

Posted by dtkrippene in Future Trends

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Eating, F&W Magazine, Food, Food of the Future, Future Agriculture, Future Cooking, Future Trends, Malthusian, Manufactured Food, Science of Food, Writing Science Fiction

Lightsource – DepositPhotos.com

I’m a bit of a foodie, and own a sizable collection of eclectic cookbooks. My favorite cocktail hour pastime is to peruse one of many food magazine subscriptions, reading the latest recipes. The cocktail stimulates my virtual tasting acumen. I’m at a point where I can imagine how something tastes by reading the ingredients, but it’s a limited window, disproportional to the quantity of alcohol consumed.

While sifting through past issues, I stumbled across an article in the March 2013 issue of Food &Wine, The Plate Project: What We’ll Be Eating in 35 Years. What made this article unique was not gastronomical guessing by famous chefs. The project was more of a lighthearted prediction that had to be drawn, or displayed, on a paper plate. The results were as unique and original as the personalities of world famous cooks, artists, and designers. As a writer of sci-fi, it had me pondering what influences would decide what’s on our plate two-hundred years from now.

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