Links Related to the World of Terra Ignota
In the years between starting to write these novels and their long-awaited publication, many news items have come my way (often sent by friends who read the manuscript) about little advances in the real world that parallel things I imagined in my world-building. Here are some of the most fun, with my notes in parentheses of whatTerra Ignota world-building element they relate to. With the exception of the Mojave spaceport (which is what Apollo Mojave is named for) these are all developments which were sent to me well after I had invented parallel things for my imagined future:
- American Philosophical Practitioners (Councilor Certification) (Sensayer program)
- Article about “RealDoll” human-sized realistic doll companions (Sniper dolls)
- Article on the “stateless people” issue (“floating citizenship”, Hives & Hiveless)
- Augmented Reality Contact Lenses in development (Lenses)
- Case of assault against person wearing altered reality cybernetic visor/glasses (Utopian vizors)
- Congressional candidate attempting to create non-geographic nations (Hives)
- Flying Car, the Terrafugia Transition, to hit market in 2012 (Mukta)
- Mojave Air and Space Port – the latest on Earth’s first civilian space port (Apollo Mojave)
- Passenger drone “Flying Car” unveiled in China (Mukta)
- Programmable pattern-changing shoes (Utopian Boots, Lesley’s Boots)
- Scent capsule memory camera (Thisbe’s smelltrack work)
- Strap-on tracker device monitors individual biology (Tracker)
- Supercomputer for predicting political and social events (set-set system)
- Swiss ‘janitor’ satellite to sweep up space junk and hurl it to a flaming death (Bridger’s satellite)
- The Human Project (kickstarter) (Humanist Hive)
- US Government attempt to test new superfast aircraft fails (Mukta)
- Wikipedia’s article on the “Singular They” in English (genderless language)
