It’s a cliché that science fiction is supposed to be, to a certain extent, prescient. SF writers have claimed credit for predictions ranging to the (blessedly short) popularity of digital watches to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Even trickier than the social future is getting future scientific discoveries right. Sure, discoveries are often minor, contingent, and fit in nicely with what is already known, but sometimes an SF writer needs to fudge. Issui Ogawa in his forthcoming novel of lunar colonization, The Next Continent, took a bit of a risk, positing that there would be sufficient water on the moon (thanks to comets and whatnot hitting the surface) to make concrete from the regolith.
Well, as it turns out, he was right! There’s water on the moon! On the friggin’ moon! YES! Sayanora, suckers! Screw San Francisco, I’m going to move to the MOON!
I hope they let me keep my job. I can get email on the moon, right? You’d miss my blog entires, wouldn’t you? I mean, moon blog entries would be even more fun. I’d take up golf and dune-buggy riding and stuff. That would be sweet.
Anyway, we should have info on The Next Continent and other books up on the site soon, so keep your eyes peeled. And when you look up at the moon think of me, living there, tax-exempt and superstrong, forever!
Tags: haikasoru, I'M ON THE MOON!!!, Issui Ogawa
Moon hobby pros and cons:
Pros –
Golf game improves
Dune buggies
Your sand paintings will last forever, or at least until some asshole comes along with a dune buggy
Never miss another meteor shower
Cons –
No birdwatching
Instead of just breaking your leg on the backyard trampoline, you might end up launching yourself into orbit and dying
Meteor showers may also fail to miss you
Just remember: the moon is a harsh mistress. Someone at a party once told me so.