Friday, August 3, 2007

A few otherworldly links

Not doing a long post tonight, but I wanted to throw up a few interesting links regarding interstellar travel. Of coure, Charlie Stross has already proved beyond a reasonable doubt that colonization of other worlds will never happen. But if I wanted to live in the real world, I'd be writing instruction manuals for toasters.

So if you're looking for a few blogs based on credible research that consider how space colonization might happen, try the following:

Acccording to the description of Centauri Dreams, "Paul Gilster looks at peer-reviewed research on deep space exploration, with an eye toward interstellar possibilities." Lots of good stuff about recently discovered exoplanets here, with discussion about whether the planets might be in the "habitable zone" of their star.

Colony Worlds focuses on technology that might be used for interstellar habitation. Again, the science seems to be based on peer-reviewed papers.

Accelerating Future is not specifically about interstellar travel, but is good for all you singularity nuts out there. There are several blogs here that talk about developments that might lead to "transuman intelligence," including stuff like suspended animation, nanotech, uploading consciousness, strong AI and so on.

Advanced Nanotechnology, which again is not about interstellar colonization, is really a mixed bag. But I have read columns in there that practically are begging to have a story written about them. Worth scrolling through once every couple of weeks.

A Babe in the Universe has a lot of character, and also a lot of good stuff about what space probes and so on are discovering. Highly recommended.

No comments: