Let me once again, (I think I did anyway 
) point out how powerful the first 'official' post in this thread is.
It takes a very hard and open look at the public and political landscape at the end of the 1960s and rams headlong into the over-optimistic world-view that many inside and outside NASA had that was totally out of step with the afore mentioned public and political landscape.... And then it simply says they can coexist and proceeds to do so.
Again wonderful TL
Randy
) point out how powerful the first 'official' post in this thread is.It takes a very hard and open look at the public and political landscape at the end of the 1960s and rams headlong into the over-optimistic world-view that many inside and outside NASA had that was totally out of step with the afore mentioned public and political landscape.... And then it simply says they can coexist and proceeds to do so.
Again wonderful TL
Randy
Hi all,
Since there is now some activity on this thread again (and I'm on my coffee break), just thought I would drop a quick note.
Firstly, certainly agree with RanulfC above - this thread is still a great read even several years down the line, for all sorts of reasons.
I seem to remember PM-ing either one of the thread authors on this, so this is addressed to either @Workable Goblin or @e of pi - but my PM has gone missing, or maybe it was actually a post in the thread.
I know it might be a huge effort, maybe for little gain... but have you ever considered doing a revised "v1.1" of the story? It could take in to account gaps in knowledge when you were writing, which have since been filled in.
For example, your post on one of the Voyager probes getting to Pluto/Charon (and incidentally discovering another moon which we know about), was very vague - understandably so, as at the time New Horizons was on the way but hadn't got there yet. So you only knew what we knew at the time.
A newer version, maybe a 'story only' version, could address that. Maybe it would have a very blurry version of the famous New Horizons image, with Pluto's big heart on display
I'm sure there's a good few areas which could benefit from similar treatment, that I can't bring to mind just now.
Of course, none of this is to say that it isn't still a great piece of work and fantastic story... in many ways far more plausible than reality. As somebody or other said, reality doesn't have to make sense, fiction does
Just a thought.
Since there is now some activity on this thread again (and I'm on my coffee break), just thought I would drop a quick note.
Firstly, certainly agree with RanulfC above - this thread is still a great read even several years down the line, for all sorts of reasons.
I seem to remember PM-ing either one of the thread authors on this, so this is addressed to either @Workable Goblin or @e of pi - but my PM has gone missing, or maybe it was actually a post in the thread.
I know it might be a huge effort, maybe for little gain... but have you ever considered doing a revised "v1.1" of the story? It could take in to account gaps in knowledge when you were writing, which have since been filled in.
For example, your post on one of the Voyager probes getting to Pluto/Charon (and incidentally discovering another moon which we know about), was very vague - understandably so, as at the time New Horizons was on the way but hadn't got there yet. So you only knew what we knew at the time.
A newer version, maybe a 'story only' version, could address that. Maybe it would have a very blurry version of the famous New Horizons image, with Pluto's big heart on display
I'm sure there's a good few areas which could benefit from similar treatment, that I can't bring to mind just now.
Of course, none of this is to say that it isn't still a great piece of work and fantastic story... in many ways far more plausible than reality. As somebody or other said, reality doesn't have to make sense, fiction does
Just a thought.
Let me once again, (I think I did anyway
It takes a very hard and open look at the public and political landscape at the end of the 1960s and rams headlong into the over-optimistic world-view that many inside and outside NASA had that was totally out of step with the afore mentioned public and political landscape.... And then it simply says they can coexist and proceeds to do so.
Again wonderful TL
Randy
Thank you both very much.
We've given such a thing some thought, but the level of work would be pretty significant--effectively, it'd be an overhaul of much of the body of the timeline, revisiting writing decisions we made more than a decade ago in some cases, new research material, and old assumptions. We'd also run into a lot of stuff we might like to change, but which ended up "baked in" to the timeline as it went forward, with the risk that changing some of it would cascade through and end up requiring almost a total re-write. We talked about it a bit in the 10th anniversary retrospective post. It'd be a huge amount of work which would, in some ways, destroy the value of being able to look at what we got right or wrong. If we created a world at the time engaging enough to have the details live on for you beyond what we put on the page as we've found out more in real life, that's worth a lot I think, much like Clarke wasn't correct about every aspect of space and yet has been an inspiration for many through the years. Is throwing in a few photoshopped images of Pluto downgraded to match Voyager's cameras worth degrading that a bit and all the effort it would entail? I don't know if it is, and so we haven't gone back to try such a re-write. Besides, if I did do that, it'd get in the way of progressing on new projects like the Turtledove-winning Boldly Going and the timelines I have in works now.I know it might be a huge effort, maybe for little gain... but have you ever considered doing a revised "v1.1" of the story? It could take in to account gaps in knowledge when you were writing, which have since been filled in.
For example, your post on one of the Voyager probes getting to Pluto/Charon (and incidentally discovering another moon which we know about), was very vague - understandably so, as at the time New Horizons was on the way but hadn't got there yet. So you only knew what we knew at the time.
A newer version, maybe a 'story only' version, could address that. Maybe it would have a very blurry version of the famous New Horizons image, with Pluto's big heart on display
I'm sure there's a good few areas which could benefit from similar treatment, that I can't bring to mind just now.
Of course, none of this is to say that it isn't still a great piece of work and fantastic story... in many ways far more plausible than reality. As somebody or other said, reality doesn't have to make sense, fiction does
Just a thought.
Fair enough, I think that's what you said before anyway.
Though, maybe if it was going to be an e-book...
Whichever, is up to the two of you!
Well, I'm rather flattered that someone spent a few minutes talking about our story in a YouTube video, much less praising it for detail...
Damn, I completely forgot to put that in. My bad.
Here you go:
The BDB team has really done an amazing job in bringing that to life nearly as well as some of the original art for this TL as playable components. (Meaning not only taking on the challenge @nixonshead had in interpreting our ideas into 3D, but also trying to make it somewhat flyable...) I remain really honored by people spending time to replicate stuff from this timeline after so long, that there's something in it that has held up.
