Tag Archives: science fiction

What ‘The Kerala Story’ and ‘The Old Guard’ share

Posted on May 9, 2023 by

I was rewatching The Old Guard last week; the film is a bit of a favourite because a) Charlize Theron and b) it explores, even if in passing, the sometimes horrific terms on which science feels free to progress. But … Continue reading →

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‘Hunters’, sci-fi and pseudoscience

Posted on March 8, 2020 by

One of the ways in which pseudoscience is connected to authoritarian governments is through its newfound purpose and duty to supply an alternate intellectual tradition that subsumes science as well as culminates in the identitarian superiority of a race, culture … Continue reading →

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Sci-fi past the science

Posted on January 3, 2020 by

There’s an interesting remark in the introductory portion of this article by Zeynep Tufekci (emphasis added): At its best, though, science fiction is a brilliant vehicle for exploring not the far future or the scientifically implausible but the interactions among science, technology … Continue reading →

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Hard sci-fi

Posted on September 29, 2019 by

Come November, I will be at the Bangalore Literary Festival in conversation with Sri Lankan sci-fi author Navin Weeraratne. I am told Navin – “like you,” according to one of the organisers – is a proponent of hard sci-fi, the … Continue reading →

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The Sea

Posted on June 11, 2012 by

Big Fish walked into a wall. His large nose tried to penetrate the digital concrete first. Of course, it went in for a second, but Marcus recomputed the algorithm, and it jumped back out. The impact of its return threw … Continue reading →

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Universality of the Lotka-Volterra equations

Posted on June 10, 2012 by

If humankind were to discover a planet that harbours water, and if, by some provenance, the same unicellular organisms that were the precursors to Earth-bound evolution were to be introduced into this environment… Would the significant differences between our evolutionary … Continue reading →

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Winterwolf VII

Posted on June 3, 2012 by

At that moment, the semi-AI beeped completion, and 34 jumped out of the chair in one fluid motion and lunged at 32, pinning him to the floor as the gun spilled from his hand and clattered a few feet away. … Continue reading →

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Winterwolf VI

Posted on June 3, 2012 by

“Right. Caution. Good. Anyway, where was I? Yes! Evolution! This race of new humans was enabled to evolve at an accelerated pace, to mutate and reform within a decade without having to wait for a million years, with a genetically … Continue reading →

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Winterwolf V

Posted on June 3, 2012 by

The alarms didn’t bother him; no one would believe an upgraded cyborg could have committed murder. On the other hand, the CEs 32 and 34 were the only cyborgs aboard the Winterwolf, and would quickly turn suspect if the intervention … Continue reading →

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Winterwolf IV

Posted on June 3, 2012 by

CE34 came to life. He felt great innocence, although that could have meant nothing in particular to CE34 because he wouldn’t have known the corruption of innocence. The room he was in was empty. Nothing odd about that. His memories, … Continue reading →

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