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The PHJ Universe
This blog is about technology, the future, and science fiction. Some posts are about our world's current tech. Others will focus on what could be. I'll post some stories of the future to muse about how strange things could really get if humans ever make it to the stars.
Or, how much they might stay the same.
STATUS OF THE MS: Nearly done! I have taken the lessons from workshopping it, and from reading some other seminal works of Sci-Fi to squeeze out all but the tension, conflict, excitement and, I hope, satisfaction of characters who struggle and only just overcome their challenges and themselves.
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Category Archives: Economics
The Fall of America, Part 2: How the Republicans Flim-flammed the American Electorate
Yes, this is a long post. But when you are trying to illustrate how a superpower can fall, it takes some words. In the last installment I discussed how the inevitable leveling of globalization started eroding the well-being of American … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Economics, Politics
Tagged economics, Politics, Republican obstructionism
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The scarcity of entrepreneurship
I’m reading William Scholz’s excellent post on the future economies here. He has some very incisive observations about the direction we’re going regarding production – in this case, production of concepts and ideas. And he posits the demise of the … Continue reading
Why space travel will have to be a mercantile monopoly, Part 1: It will need perfect software, and it will need to make money
Mercantilism used to be the norm. Countries waged economic war by launching expeditions using state-of the-art vessels (sailing and steam ships) to capture monopoly trade by whatever means possible – bribery, threats, even warfare (like the Opium Wars in China). … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Technology
Tagged interstellar trade, programming, sci-fi, space travel
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Why space travel will have to be a mercantile monopoly, Part 2: Quality = time * $$$
There is an old saying: software can have quality, features or be on time. Pick two. Those three factors – features, time, and money – define the software development process. Features are the definitive characteristic – that defines the battleground, … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Technology
Tagged interstellar trade, programming, sci-fi, space travel
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Why space travel will have to be a mercantile monopoly, Part 3: Competition=crap software
Why will it take a monopoly for us to conquer interstellar travel? Because software written in a competitive environment is always riddled with bugs. Note the qualifier here: a competitive environment. I could probably say all software with some confidence, … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Technology
Tagged interstellar trade, programming, sci-fi, space travel
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Why space travel will have to be a mercantile monopoly, Part 4: No one tests enough
Complex systems require complex tests. Remember 42? Douglas Adams’ conceit that the entire world was a computer built to answer a question and the answer was 42? Adams was, I believe, quite the technologist. He even wrote a computer game … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Technology
Tagged interstellar trade, programming, sci-fi, space travel
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Pat Hayden Jones 