Those are both interesting, thanks.

I got yet another idea brewing, but I'm so backlogged already. I was thinking of a Sci-Fi first contact sort of story. I kind of favor hard sci-fi so no faster than light travel and minimal hand-wavy technology. So the alien race are virtual beings, they are, essentially, software. They travel between the stars by data transmission via quantum entanglement based communication. The trick is that communication hardware has to travel between the stars the hard way taking a couple thousand years per light year. Also communication is strictly one device to one device and both devices must be manufactured together. So a starship carries thousands of 'paired' devices.

Anyhow, such a starship arrived thousands of years ago and the aliens have been watching the Earth all that time, keeping silent and with minimal interaction. They are completely non-hostile. The Earth poses no threat and has no significant resources for a starfaring race except for biological life. Harvesting that resource is simply a matter of observation. The most important resource for this race is entertainment, and watching life develop without their interference is pure gold. Anything unpredictable is exceptionally valuable. Right now the Earth is a quasar of entertainment as they suck up every creative thing humans do.

However, there are concerns that humanity might be on a path toward destruction and factions have developed over what to do. Do they risk corrupting the quasar by interfering, or do they risk this well drying up? The story is about some initial probing, sending down an agent to quietly make contact with a select individual. The agent is a manufactured person containing a shard of one of the aliens hardwired into brain tissue. So the agent seems perfectly human both physically and in behavior (they've been watching us forever so they know how not to be awkward).

Conflict can be found among the factions, in the person being made contact with being convinced, and the agent trying to come to some conclusion about humanities chances.

Also, I'm working on the audiobook edition of Cog. By working, I mean having a narrator working on it which works well with the amount of time I have.

Proof of concept, first fifteen minutes. [link]

Interesting. Alien POV?

In my head I'm thinking the POV of the person being contacted. The POV of the alien is an interesting idea though.

Person being contacted might be easier for the reader. I certainly like the premise, you could do a lot with that.

I like the idea because I think there's it's highly likely that sending meat between the stars may never be possible, but these aliens (who transitioned from biological forms a couple million years ago) show that not being able to transport meat doesn't mean the stars are off limits. I feel like it would be a hopeful story.

Disabled writers are INSANE Shit I didn't say "No, Mr. My Art Rejects Disability Culture, you took the same money as me, so, no, it doesn't." Nicer:"Help me now...have that epiphany NEXT month, maybe?" argh, argh, argh!

Go Independent Or Go Home

That's a great piece, Tom. Thanks for the link. And he's not wrong about any of it.