Back when I was a kid I read an awful lot of science fiction – mostly Clarke, Asimov and Heinlein with a fair amount of Niven, Pournelle and others stirred into the mix. All of them portrayed futures in which the engineering problems that still confront us today had been largely solved. Space travel was … More We are living in Arthur C Clarke’s future
I discovered a new conspiracy theory the other day. Apparently Nikola Tesla invented free energy in the 1930s. Depending on which conspiracist you talk to, the physicist John Trump was his assistant, or received the papers detailing this discovery. It was then suppressed by Big Oil. But – wait for it – the Secret is … More Revealing Nikola Tesla’s free energy conspiracy
Back in the 1950s and 1960s the popular vision of the 2020s was simple. The future was defined as the turn of the millennium; the 2020s were the future of the future, and this nebulous future future had every potential to fix humanity’s problems. By the 2020s all disease would be conquered. We’d have climate … More We’ve missed our utopian future
This week I watched Don’t Look Up. I was impressed. Others may have different opinions, but to me it came across as a razor-sharp satire on the current zeitgiest, a social commentary of the highest order and a dark comedy with some solid science behind it. The scary part wasn’t the concept of a planet-killer … More What happens when Earth is hit by a 10km wide banana…
I figured out a way of making electric cars go further. All they need is a generator on board and – presto – no problems with battery charging. Better still, you can get rid of those heavy batteries altogether and run the electric motors from the juice provided by the generator. That’s even greener – … More How to make electric cars go further
I miss old Mars. The Mars of imagination, the world with deep blue skies and red deserts filled with whatever magical societies and cities our whims desired. Real Mars is interesting too, and it’s there, and it’s what we’re going to have to deal with if we ever leave this planet. That Mars too can … More The wonder of old Mars and its sands
It occurred to me that there’s a benefit to the Covid lockdowns, relentless sanitising and masking precautions that nobody much talks about. Yes, these help protect populations against Covid spread. But they also help protect against every disease. Certainly in New Zealand, it seems that rates of seasonal flu, colds and so forth are well … More The science of masks and sanitising
I realised the other day that my life would make perfect sense if I first assumed that some malevolent entity was trying to destroy me in the slowest and most painful way possible, raising obstacle after obstacle over the smallest things I try to do, ensuring luck never goes my way, and – if I … More Conspiracy theories and how they relate to medieval butt trumpets
When I was a lad and learning to drive, my Dad always warned me to watch out for ‘the car’. What he meant was the vehicle that – unerringly and without fail – would always be there, instantly, as I backed out of a driveway, or as I tried to change lanes, or turn a … More Watching out for ‘the car’ and other hazards of driving
It’s 52 years this week since the first moon landing. For all the politics shrouding Apollo, it captured a dream: the idea that humanity could – if it wanted – conquer any challenge, no matter how difficult. And, back in the 1960s, that moon landing was really difficult. That dream faltered, but now there’s a … More Remembering the dream in the age of a billionaire space race
Matthew Wright 
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