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Breakdown of Advanced Civilizations

Sixth in a series on Civilization What causes an advanced civilization to fail? I’ve written about the importance of specialization and cooperation. Obviously, breakdown in civilization is likely also attributable to these two traits.  Cooperation without specialization leads to one form of failure, in which all participants do the same kind of work while sharing…

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Civility and Civilization

Fifth in a series on Civilization In my last essay, I wrote about the importance of cooperation, how civilization is based primarily on two factors: specialization and cooperation. That’s how we humans get past the daily need to feed our families. Cooperation requires each individual to give up something to gain the greater good. We…

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Cooperation in Civilization

Fourth in a series on Civilization When I envision a future world in my science fiction, of course I draw upon our current world. People don’t change, and haven’t in recorded history. We love, we fight, we work to feed and support ourselves and our families. Technology provides new opportunities that might change the way…

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Levels of Civilization

Third in a series on Civilization Most of my science fiction stories take place in what I would call “advanced” civilizations. Sci-fi in general considers the impacts of science on people, so that assumes an advanced level of science. This is not generally as true for fantasy stories, which can often be placed in a…

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What is Civilization?

Second in a series on Civilization One of the fascinating challenges of writing science fiction is “world-building,” the creation of a realistic society to surround and underlie the story. Over the years, I have often been surprised to find sci-fi books—even Hugo award winners— that fail to create a realistic society. Authors create just enough…

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Civilization—the System

First in a series on Civilization Some years ago, my wife and I lived full-time in a motor home. We traveled the United States from Florida to Idaho, from New Mexico to Virginia. During COVID, we stayed in the Rocky Mountains, well away from civilization. And yet—civilization was there. Town after town, we saw business…

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New Release: Verdant Divided

My newest novel releases today on Amazon! Find it at this link. Verdant Divided: Technology Meets Holy War A simple pilgrimage with miracles runs afoul of both technology and Holy War. Award-winning author Doc Honour spins another fascinating tale of people caught in their own dilemmas on the planet Verdant. Jake Palatin’s empathy technology, the…

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Science and Emergent Behavior

Twelfth in a series on the edges of science The more complex the system, the more difficult it is for science to function well. In earlier posts, I’ve written about how science bases its Truth on the control and repeatability of experiments. If one scientist reports a new theory, proven by his experimentation, other scientists…

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Science and Preconceptions

Eleventh in a series on the edges of science Somewhat surprisingly to me, my experience of scientists (and engineers) is that we tend to be a rather arrogant crowd. We know a lot. Worse than that, we know that we know a lot. We have a tendency to look down our noses at those “civilians”…

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Science and Peer Review

Tenth in a series on the edges of science Science often presents itself—or rather, scientists present themselves—as objective truth. “This is what we know.” Yet what we “know” is often based on research papers published in peer-reviewed journals. For nearly twenty years, I was an associate editor of Systems Engineering, the journal of the International Council…

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Science and Models

Ninth in a series on the edges of science I have taken some months of hiatus in writing these essays on science—not because I ran out of topics, but simply due to personal issues. There is no dearth of topics about the limitations of science. I’m very glad we have and use science. It has…

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Science and the Spiritual

Eighth in a series on the edges of science It is fashionable to consider science somehow to be contrary to faith. Many have replaced faith in God with faith in science.  It was not always so. Australian historian Peter Harrison wrote “…many of the leading figures in the scientific revolution imagined themselves to be champions…

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Science, Order, and Chaos

Sixth in a series on the edges of science The Universe is a messy place, and there is much about it we don’t understand. Philosopher Dr. Jordan Peterson characterizes it as chaos, with little bits of order. No matter how much order we create, the chaos is lurking at the edges to take over. In…

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Science and “I Can’t See You”

Fifth in a series on the edges of science Observability is an important issue in control systems because it is essential to the closed-loop feedback on which control relies. We control a system—whether mechanical, electrical, or even social—by applying external influences to it that change its operation, while observing the results. In control theory, the…

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Science and Complexity

Fourth in a series on the edges of science We say something is complex when we find it difficult to understand. This definition is intuitive, but not very useful in a scientific way. Cambridge Dictionary carries it a bit further, defining complexity as “the state of having many parts and being difficult to understand or…

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Science and Reproducibility

Third in a series on the edges of Science. Reproducibility is at the core of science. If an experimental effect can be reproduced by others, then it confirms the hypothesized theory. Usually, the theory is then treated as Truth—at least, until a countering (or extending) theory can be proven. But how reproducible are the results…

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Science and Truth

Second in a series about the edges of Science. Science and engineering rely on the repeatable. Two hundred years ago, Georg Ohm experimentally discovered a linear relationship between voltage (V) and current (I), leading to the formulation of “Ohm’s Law” stated as V=IR. The mathematical constant in the linearity became known as “resistance (R).”  Today,…

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Is Science True?

The basic idea behind science fiction is to extend known science into the unknown, then explore the impact on people. This has been true from its beginnings with Mary Shelley, Jules Verne, and H.G. Wells. But what is “known science”? In the modern era, we rely heavily on the objective truth of science to inform…

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A New Accolade

I’m very pleased to say that my novel Not Like Us has been accepted as a Science Fiction semi-finalist in the Florida-wide Royal Palm Literary Awards for 2023. Finalists will be announced in another month or so, and the awards are at the Florida WritersCon on October 22. Last year, my short story “Fishing Hands”…

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The Writing Bug

A recent publication! Several months ago, my good friend Mark Newhouse asked if I would do a guest column for his article “The Writing Bug” in the local monthly magazine Village Neighbors. Mark is an accomplished author with multiple international awards, several for his acclaimed series The Devil’s Bookkeepers, based on true records from the…

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Fantasy … or Science Fiction?

I’ve been reading science fiction long enough that I remember the “Golden Age,” when editor John W. Campbell of Analog magazine (earlier Astounding Science Fiction) guided the careers of such greats as Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Theodore Sturgeon, and Arthur C. Clarke. Lost in a library stack, I’d pull book after book off the shelf…

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The Reality of Travel

So this morning I took this big boy in for annual servicing, a 3-1/2 hour round trip hooking and unhooking a tow car for the return trip. What does that have to do with writing? Well, I’m also working on my sequel novel tentatively titled “Khubar f’Elláh,” that involves a hiking pilgrimage of about 600km…

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Available as Speaker

By invitation, I have joined the Speakers Bureau of the Florida Writers Association, available to give various talks around the state on writing topics such as writing science fiction, book design, editing & revision, writing craft, and more. Find out more at Speakers Bureau. Doc HonourMarch 2023

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The Joy of Writing

So, the first novel is done and has moved into marketing. Do I stop? Or do I continue to write? There’s no question in my mind! I find writing to be a marvelous experience. To take an idea, frame it as a story, create interesting characters, fill it with tension and compelling language. What a…

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What’s Next: Tales of Verdant

With Not Like Us now released, where is Doc Honour going next? The anthology Tales of Verdant has been in work since before I started on the novel, and I’m now returning to finish it. It’s a series of thirteen short stories placed on Verdant, where looming global war threatens to destroy the planet. How…

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RELEASED: “Not Like Us”

I am pleased to announce the release of my premier novel Not Like Us, available now on Amazon in hard cover, paperback, or Kindle versions. How do you escape total socialism? Jake Palatin is forced to develop an antimatter bomb on the planet Verdant, where global war using his technology is terrifyingly close.  Zofia, a woman…

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Jacoby Palatin

Jake is young, brilliant, dedicated—a particle physicist and systems engineer, already near the top of his field. He’s working with antimatter in ways never attempted before. He leads a team of three other engineers, demonstrating skill in motivating people. Believing in the society in which he lives, he works to do what he can. But…

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Zofia Dobrunik

Ah, Zofia! In the prime of life at twenty-six (Verdant years), well-proportioned with waist-length sleek black hair and grey eyes. Saucy, bold, competent, athletic, she attracts Jake Palatin’s attention right away. She plays zero-G racquetball, at the top of the ladder Zofia’s an implant technician, wearing the prescribed yellow coveralls of the Technology people in…

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Berndt Denmark

At the time of Not Like Us, Denmark is the Director of General Defense for the country of Verdant Prime, sitting on the Solity Council as one of the seven top leaders of the country. Short and swarthy in complexion, his penetrating eyes notice everything. Denmark is a man of power with supreme confidence in…

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Yitzak Goren

In my novel Not Like Us, to be released later this year, one of the key secondary players is Yitzak Goren. He is a leader of the Lazarite resistance, working to bring down the overbearing socialist government (“Solity”) of Verdant Prime. Modeled after Einstein, Yitzak is a brilliant man, a highly intelligent visionary who has…

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Living on Verdant

What’s it like to live on the planet Verdant? In a prior post (Future History), you can see that Verdant was colonized from One Hope in 2555 AD (Earth years). It was the fifteenth human world. Air and biology were very compatible. Gravity was less at 0.94G. Verdant, however, presented some unique problems for humanity…

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Not Like Us

People often ask, “Where do you get your ideas?”  It’s probably the most common question authors hear. Most of the time, the answer is completely intangible. Ideas come from shared experience, from strange correlations, or even from Sir Terry Pratchett’s “inspirons” that sleet out of space into every mind, only taking root in those that…

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Future History

My stories are mostly written at a point in time about 900 years in the future. Imagine, if you will, what the world was like in 1100 AD, a similar length of time in the past. Compare it with today. Technology in the past 150 years has given humankind many amazing tools—and yet day-to-day life…

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Independence in the Islands of Winter

The Islands of Winter are in the far northern ocean, a brutally cold climate much of the year. Summers are short and beautiful, with each vale filled with forests of dark blue, green, and russet foliage using different photosynthetic chemicals. Higher slopes are bare tundra and rock with year-round snow. The islands attracted those people…

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Religion in Rathas

Often in the history of humanity, people have discovered a spiritual life that brings serenity in the midst of calamity. Equally often, spreading such a discovery leads to ossification of ideas into rigid religions that negate the discovery itself. On old Earth, before and during colonization, the three warring sects of Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism…

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Democracy in Tileus

Is democracy always good? By a hundred local years After Touchdown, people had expanded to the Beta continent, to the north of Alpha across the Vissensee Channel. With greater distance from the capital in Oriens came less control and more freedom. In 186 AT, the residents of Beta rebelled against Verdant Prime. They wanted self-determination…

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Socialism in Verdant Prime

Verdant was colonized 416 local years ago from the world of One Hope. The colony ship chose an ideal subtropical location on the southern “Alpha” continent, and Captain Mueller initiated the massive offload of materials, equipment, and people. Shipboard life had been necessarily restrictive, controlled with the captain’s strong hand, and setting up the colony…

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Technology

One of the things I’ve always loved about science fiction is the assumed creativity to envision new technologies. In the future world of Verdant, some key technologies provide a different life than we have today. Repellor beams are used widely. They’re extremely efficient, providing a great deal of force for little electric input, even seeming…

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Space Travel

The repellor beam became the key technology to open space. Inexpensive and energy efficient, it pushes away any mass within its beam. Or—in another sense—it pushes you away from any larger mass. It found immediate use in transportation, machinery, and even weapons. Friction-free bearings, non-explosive motive power, projectile expulsion, space travel, and much more. In…

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Worlds ahead of us

Imagine a future, hundreds of years from now, in which humankind has solved the problems of space travel. Colony ships go to dozens of worlds. Travel takes months to years, but excitement and opportunity reign. Some of the ships disappear, never reporting back. Most succeed, and humankind no longer has all its eggs in one…

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