Toward the topic: "Interstellar Probes"

Author's Commentary: "The Futility of Cycling"

Interstellar probes was the topic this week, so it echoed a bit with “To Geddes,” which makes sense, because it’s a sequel topic to the “Surveying for Habitable Interstellar Planetary Systems” episode. I suppose I could have gone into a more traditional fictional story that involved the lives of a probe-maker or maybe someone dating a probe-maker or something along those lines.

This goes a different way, though, as you’ll have figured out if you’ve already read/listened, but this will serve as fair warning if not. This was more of a fictional essay, as composed by a character living his life on the Europa Outstation. It constitutes his impressions of humanity at that stage in our development as a spacefaring civilization—or at least my best reckoning of what his perspective might be.

We don’t get to know Tanner’s personal life too well here, but we do get a sense of his opinion and the depth from which he draws it.

This is a change of pace to be sure, and I don’t expect a lot of these stories to come out like this, but it was interesting (for me anyway) as a change of pace.

Hope you find it interesting too.

Rowe