Huzzah!

It's Friday! And I'm on holiday all next week, so double huzzah!

Now that the celebrations are over, back to business.

I've been told about an event called book in a week, and as it's all to do with sci fi, I'm working on another short story to enter into it. No idea how it'll go, seeing as I don't tend to write many short stories (I've found it really difficult to think up plots that work as a short story), but I think it'll be good for me to try.

After much deliberation, consideration, dithering and not being entirely satisfied, I have decided to make a few changes to the location for Serial Psyence. It's still set on Callisto, and in an arcology, but the arcology itself has undergone a transformation in my mind.

Originally, I conceived the arcology to be a massive, domed city, built inside a crate, but over time, I started to have a few issues with that concept.

The dome seals the city from the weak atmosphere on Callisto, keeping the Earth-like atmosphere inside. Yes, the dome is made from a superstrong material, but what happens if the dome is damaged? Everyone dies. There were a lot of open spaces inside, the idea being that it was like an Earth city had been transported to the Jovian moon, then covered in a glass shell. But that shell is a weak link, and let's face it, why the hell would you build such a fragile object?

Then there's the problem of transport. Surely, when building a self-contained city, you would work transport into the strucure, not rely on cars and bikes and the sort of things we use on Earth. That's limited thinking on my behalf.

So back to the drawing board I went.

And then I came across this. The Shimizu pyramid arcology.

Having read up on the design principles, and the way the transport links are integrated into the structure itself, I started to rethink the Callisto arcology. So now I've got something perhaps a little less fantastical, but nonetheless amazing. I don't know about you, but I'd love to live in this technical marvel.

A self-contained city, twelve times the size of the pyramids of giza? Check. Jupiter in the sky day and night? Check. When can I book my ticket?