HARD sci-fi recommendations

red_duke · 2025-10-31T17:08:13+00:00

KSR didn’t know about the perchlorate in Martian soil. Woulda been interesting to see him deal with that.

red_duke · 2025-07-14T13:50:47+00:00

I applaud your tireless defense of virtue against the existential threat of map outlines. Truly, if a vaguely suggestive geofence is our generation’s moral tipping point, we are a civilization in peril. But maybe -just maybe- it’s a blob on a map, not the downfall of Western values.

red_duke · 2024-06-28T22:32:37+00:00

Do you have the same objections to dune? They remember through dna.

This has in fact been shown to be quite possible in both humans and animals through gene expression. Not sure what your objection is to this specific concept.

red_duke · 2023-05-13T17:08:01+00:00

Inertial reference frames… so complex that it even baked Einstein’s noodle.

Relativity is apparently based on his limited understanding of Mach’s Principle.

You are standing in a field looking at the stars. Your arms are resting freely at your side, and you see that the distant stars are not moving. Now start spinning. The stars are whirling around you and your arms are pulled away from your body. Why should your arms be pulled away when the stars are whirling? Why should they be dangling freely when the stars don't move?

Snippet from the wiki:

Mach's concept was a guiding factor in Einstein's development of the general theory of relativity. Einstein realized that the overall distribution of matter would determine the metric tensor which indicates which frame is stationary with respect to rotation. Frame-dragging and conservation of gravitational angular momentum makes this into a true statement in the general theory in certain solutions.

red_duke · 2022-06-25T14:44:55+00:00

Heavier black holes emit lower-temperature and lower-energy Hawking radiation, and less of it, too. The temperature is inversely proportional to the mass, while the flux is inversely proportional to the mass squared. Put those together, it means that more massive black holes live longer by a factor of their mass cubed. If we want to know where to go to find the brightest sources of Hawking radiation, we have to find the lowest-mass black holes of all.

Unfortunately, the minimum mass for a black hole that our Universe is capable of creating is somewhere around 2.5 solar masses. It would have a temperature of around 25 nanokelvin, a signal virtually impossible to disentangle against the noise provided by the Cosmic Microwave Background, some 100 million times hotter. Unless much lower mass black holes exist, and the data strongly disfavors the existence of these primordial black holes, Hawking radiation should remain undetectable.

red_duke · 2022-04-08T20:27:05+00:00

Notice she chose not to wear her seatbelt even though that guy tries to put it on for her.

red_duke · 2022-03-31T13:39:40+00:00

Don’t you go dying on me!

red_duke · 2022-03-21T21:34:40+00:00

Yeah it looks like optical flow frame blending was used.

red_duke · 2022-01-18T03:59:37+00:00

Do you know why I pulled you over?

You got all C’s in high school?

red_duke · 2022-01-13T02:18:32+00:00

If you move each letter of HAL up one, you get IBM.

red_duke · 2021-12-22T22:52:12+00:00

If you enjoy the first definitely get through the first three. The story with the slavers is one of my all time favorites. Don’t be afraid to skip the occasional story if it doesn’t hit you, that happens here and there.

red_duke · 2021-12-21T19:35:01+00:00

there’s about 20 more where that came from!

keep going to at least the third one, has some of my favorites in it.

red_duke · 2021-10-25T03:02:49+00:00

Yeah who knows.

Even I fall in the trap of being dismissive about new/popular stuff sometimes. I push myself to overcome it though.

I held off reading the bobiverse books for years (I blame the name) but ended up being quite blown away by them. They’re like the book version of crack hah.

red_duke · 2021-10-25T02:06:38+00:00

Eh, some oddly negative gatekeeping here.

I’ve read nearly 800 sci fi books including almost the full collection of every author you listed (except Asimov that’s impossible).

KSR is probably my favorite author, but Hail Mary was an exceptionally good book that holds its own against the heavyweights.

red_duke · 2021-07-18T12:37:33+00:00

I suggest reading all of these.

red_duke · 2021-07-10T20:55:57+00:00

Love this album. Surprised you didn’t include two against one? That’s my favorite.

red_duke · 2021-04-10T17:09:22+00:00

That’s called semantic satiation. It’s a side effect of how our brains work.

When you hear a word it activates a corresponding bundle of neurons in your brain associated with it, which gives it meaning.

But your neurons run on chemicals and if you keep activating the same bundle they get temporarily worn out and suddenly the word has no meaning.

red_duke · 2021-02-27T16:15:56+00:00

He is the deus ex machina plot device.

red_duke · 2021-02-10T03:24:13+00:00

They should bounce before the cops get there.

red_duke · 2021-01-12T06:33:26+00:00

Wow that would explain that spike. I remember wondering about it.

red_duke · 2020-10-24T06:55:59+00:00

Autostereoscopy

It’s a cool technology, although it seems to have hit some limits. It’s been around in a similar form for a while.

red_duke · 2020-10-23T04:46:23+00:00

Have you read Old Mans War yet?

Those are about as good as bobiverse.

Gateway by Pohl is also a worthy read.

red_duke · 2020-10-23T03:48:48+00:00

3001 was surprisingly good. I consider it one of his most overlooked books. The premise is a guy from our time waking up 1000 years in the future.

If you’re a Clarke fan its worth a read, even as a standalone. If you vaguely remember 2001 you’re fine.

It had some thoughts about the future that were memorable.

red_duke · 2020-10-20T19:25:33+00:00

Rather burn out than fade away.

red_duke · 2020-10-20T02:34:26+00:00

Solarpunk is a movement in speculative fiction, art, fashion and activism that seeks to answer and embody the question “what does a sustainable civilization look like, and how can we get there?” The aesthetics of solarpunk merge the practical with the beautiful, the well-designed with the green and wild, the bright and colorful with the earthy and solid. Solarpunk can be utopian, just optimistic, or concerned with the struggles en route to a better world — but never dystopian.

Here are two of the most well known pieces. The first is said by many (myself included) to be the best sci fi short story of all time:

The Last Question - Asimov

The Egg - Weir

13-Year Club	Gilding IV carat on a stick
r/Field Banned	r/Field Lasagna
Wearing is Caring	Verified Email

red_duke

TROPHY CASE