World-building Part 5 – Geomorphology (planetary features)

Note this is a series: Part One, Part Two, Part Three, and Part Four. A note for my readers, especially those interested in my paper mache planet project: This post in particular describes how I created my own tectonic plate maps, determined the geological features of my own planet including major rivers and lakes; I’ve… Continue reading World-building Part 5 – Geomorphology (planetary features)

World-building Part 4 – Atmospheres and Natural Cycles

Note this is a series: Part One, Part Two, and Part Three. In order to have a planet house life, an atmosphere is absolutely essential, unless the sentient species is capable of enclosed domes, which even then they’d still have an atmosphere within that enclosed dome. This brings us to the fourth part of building… Continue reading World-building Part 4 – Atmospheres and Natural Cycles

Technology in Ancient Times

Often when people consider ancient civilizations, they picture societies with little to no technology, but recent studies and archeological discoveries show that this is far from the truth. One of the most famous ancient devices was recently discovered by the island of Antikythera by Greece. Known as the Antikythera device, it is a fascinating glimpse… Continue reading Technology in Ancient Times

Planet Geology – World-building Part 3

Note this is a series: Part One and Part Two. Now that you have a sketch of your solar system, we can focus on the individual planets. Terrestrial Planets First, planets made of rock – terrestrial planets.  They are largely powered by geological processes such as hot spots, volcanism, and plate tectonics.  Rocky planets tend… Continue reading Planet Geology – World-building Part 3

Physics of a World

Since I study physics at my university, I often will read articles of new experiments in the field. I like to start with Scientific American, and from there access the original papers of the researchers. Recently, I came across this article: http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/Is_Space_Digital.pdf and this article: how-the-hippies-saved-physics-science-counterculture-and-quantum-revival-excerpt The second article is about Bell and his theorem,… Continue reading Physics of a World

Creating a Solar System: Part One – A star

Often, when I world build, I’ll start with an idea for a planet, and then build a solar system around it. The idea may stem from a random scene of a group of characters. From that seed, I build a solar system. What are the first two aspects to consider for such a project? The… Continue reading Creating a Solar System: Part One – A star

Effects of Environment

When world-building, the effects an environment has on a culture is fairly profound. For example, if the world has a fairly small star, the planet has to be fairly close to this sun in order to even be habitable. However, if the star is not particularly massive (a small star generally wouldn’t be), then the… Continue reading Effects of Environment

Connections and Patterns

As I studied for my finals today, I started to wonder about my creative process when it came to composing music and writing novels/stories. When I sit down to compose, I start with an idea. For example, in my Particles piece, I focused on the idea of representing quantum mechanics in music. With this idea… Continue reading Connections and Patterns