#faster than light

[bandaidfingers]

My 8-page comic for the Faster Than Light sci-fi anthology about how families maintain their bonds in a fast-paced, futuristic world and how they struggle to do so.

My particular comic, "The Ancient One Two", is about an ancient alien creature receiving help from a plucky archaeologist to reunite it with their long-lost spouse.

This is a draft version of my inked pages prior to making digital adjustments to the contrast and removing the blue pencil sketch lines underneath, as well as prior to me deciding to go back and add a bit of physical black crayon directly onto the pages for a bit of texture as well.

You can see the way the final pages look by backing the anthology on kickstarter HERE! Which I would love and appreciate you for forever and ever :)

[robocorn]

Engi

[videogamepolls]

Requested by @silence-at-the-library

[joehills]

None of our spaceships have floors like the cars on the Flintstones.

Some spacecraft already have gloveboxes for handling scientific experiments, but none of them have a place where pilots can slip their legs into sleeves that extend below the craft so they can run really fast while the craft moves forward.

It's going to be really embarrassing for humanity when we learn that every other spacefaring species figured out centuries ago that legs extending below the craft are essential for FTL travel.

[shpepyao]

do you remember FTL?

[mimicschest]

The overuse of FTL in scifi

I think that in a lot of space-settings, ftl is overused.

It is just taken as a given that it has ftl if it is in space.

I think that is sad. There is so much potential for stories in non-ftl space settings. All of those stories are missed just to have this trope. Its even in otherwise hard sci-fi stories. It makes me sad.

How do you get around?

This is a GOOD question, and one that should be actually explored, rather than handwaved. Nuclear torch drives, solar sails, Laser Highways. You can get around very fast using just these technologies. It will still take years to get to a neighboring star system - but not generations.

What about planets? Alien empires?

Admittedly, you cant simply go from one life-baring planet to another halfway across the galaxy. However, this is a good thing. Planets are often depicted as sparsely inhabited copies of earth with some kind of gimmick. By focusing on Major Planets, you are forgetting all the other *stuff* out there. Each kilometer sized rock could support a city-state of a million people in comfort. There are *millions* of those just in the inner system.

As for aliens? We are dealing with a no-ftl space civilization. You have thousands of years, advanced technology, and people living in a huge variety of environments. That means speciation. Wait long enough, and any given star system will have dozens of culturally and biologically distinct groups with bodies and minds vastly different than most depicted aliens.

Deep Time

With ftl, you generally avoid questions like, "what will this society look like after ten thousand years and a population that numbers in the quintillions?" - This is an interesting question. Like, you could have a society dedicated just to maintaining a interstellar highway, which also safeguards and updates the Encyclopedia Galactica. People take thousand year pilgrimages through the dark of interstellar space, learning the ways of the reclusive Librarians, in order to gain their support for the governorship of their home system.

As mentioned above, over time, you can expect speciation. How would humans living in zero-gravity in hollowed out asteroids look after twenty thousand years? What about those living in a high-gravity world? Or the group that cybernetically changed themselves to live in a vacuum? How does culture, society, and politics change?

Like, I get it. Explore new worlds, meet aliens. Its cool. Its been done to death. You know how much modern space fiction doesn't have ftl? Almost none of it. Even the expanse eventually got ftl.

[leguh170]

Hornet is in some shitty places until silksong comes out day 33

[toothpastecanyon]

You don't understand how happy this image makes me. I've been playing 5 years waiting to unlock the Rock B Cruiser so I can unlock the Rock C Cruiser so I can finally have a decent shot at unlocking the secret Crystal Cruiser without the stupid chain of 3 random events that have to go exactly right.

I know no one I know plays this game but I've literally been waiting to get this achievement for 5 years!!!

Maybe later I'll do a rant explain about how hard it is to get but for now I'm just so happy and also I should go to sleep lol

[cold-black-and-infinite]

Trent Reznor in Lead Into Gold - "Faster than Light" (1990)

[essayboardorg]

(via Breaking the Light Barrier: How General Relativity and Warp Drive Theory Make Faster-Than-Light Travel Theoretically Possible)

[bug-the-chicken-nug]

really thinking about it further i feel like the fundamental "issue" with no FTL vs. having FTL in sci-fi that involves space travel is that like It basically comes down to FTL is like "playing racecars". but then eventually it can get boring, or trivializing. so non-FTL is taking away the racecars in the name of a more 'grown-up' and 'sophisticated' game, something that's not just racecars again. but the thing is, it's actually kinda hard to find an Actually Just As Good or better game than racecars. and a lot of the time, people just feel sufficiently 'sophisticated' simply for not playing racecars in the first place, and we get a lose/lose situation where its like. either your game is lame compared to racecars, or your game of racecars is lame. in either case, the "solution" is essentially to Make The Game You Chose More Fun which is to also say i tend to disagree with the supposition that FTL is best used just as a convenience you're meant to gloss over and just accept because then that easily leads to being Ashamed Of Playing Racecars and under-utilizing the concept due to this shame, when the actual problem is often that You Should Find More Ways To Make Racecars Fun Again. ("Fun" here being a metaphorical stand-in for novelty/engagement/stimulation/wonder in general) And in the face of this frequent issue, it often comes down to "are you so tired of racecars you'd rather have anything else, or is a boring game of racecars still better than a boring game that isn't racecars" and in my case, I would typically choose the latter.

[robocorn]

Ruwen

[space-stalagmite]

Robert smith appreciation post

Look at him, isn't he so human

[jam-does-audio]

IT ONLY TOOK 5 YEARS (and multiple depressive episodes) TO BEAT THAT STUBID FLAGSHIP

[comrade-blog-edition]

There is something really satisfying about setting an entire enemy ship on fire.

[iowafashionweekbegins]

oh btw i almost forgot to post that i won a second time!