A-Z book now for adults

[Maximum77]

A literary agent rejected my children's book on A-Z future technologies. Now I'm going to try it for adults but I feel my list is too generic. I made it so kids could understand it. Now I'm doing it for adults so their is no handicap. Can someone help me make an A-Z list of future technologies. One per letter. Be creative. Here's my list

Antimatter rocket
Brain implant
Clone
DNA scanner
Eclipse magnifiers
Fusion reactor
Genetic engineering
Herculean serum
Invisibility Jacket
Jupiter brain
Klingon
Laser cannon
Maser
Nootropics
Omega Point
Prosthetics
Quantum computer
Radiation sponge
Starship
Time dilation device
Unmanned vehicle
Vitamin X
Wormhole
Xenobiology
Yoctotechnology
Zygote freezing

As you can see, my list kinda sucks. Anybody have better ideas. Use science but limit the technobabble

[Misery Esquire]

Do... You ever stop making the same thread over and over with superficial changes?

[Maximum77]

Do... You ever stop making the same thread over and over with superficial changes?

This time I presented all the stuff I have accumulated for my project. I'm merely asking for more.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

In my humble opinion the format doesn't work for a book for adults. A-Z books are kind of cool for kids, it's a good number of topics linked together in a way they know about, and the specific subjects don't matter too much. If you're doing a semi-serious futurology book for adults or even teenagers, drop the alphabet gimmick, order the breakthroughs by field.

This choice also has an impact on the subjects. I don't think there's enough interesting about an antimatter rocket for instance. Antimatter is cool, but what can you describe about it past "you'd only need this much fuel to real this star is this amount of years"? Quantum computers and fusion reactors are examples here that I think are much better usable.

Also, don't try to finish this in two days like the last version. In a childrens book you can get away with some general half-truths and a great drawing or photograph, but for this you're going to need to do some serious research.

That's what I'd recommend. A writer/journalist working for a popular scientific magazine could probably write a small handful of these one subject articles in a month. You're not getting published by cutting corners beyond that point. Honestly, if you want to do this as an A to Z book, writable in a couple of days, including really exciting but kind of hard to write about subjects, keep pitching new incarnations of the childrens version. Maybe even start it out as a website, two subjects published per week, advertise over project wonderful, and maybe kickstart the book if people like it.



By the way, thanks for taking me up on my last bit of advice, the list of subjects helps us visualize the project a lot better.

[Knaight]

Antimatter rocket (Strictly Hypothetical)
Brain implant (Vague)
Clone (Current Technology)
DNA scanner (Strictly Hypothetical)
Eclipse magnifiers (Technobabble)
Fusion reactor (Actual future technology)
Genetic engineering (Already real)
Herculean serum (Technobabble)
Invisibility Jacket (Reasonable future technology)
Jupiter brain (Hypothetical)
Klingon (Not a technology, fictional)
Laser cannon (A bit vague, but functional)
Maser (Close to 70 years old)
Nootropics (Current technology)
Omega Point (Not a technology)
Prosthetics (An existing technological field undergoing current developments)
Quantum computer (Legitimate future technology)
Radiation sponge (Vague)
Starship (Rockets and the space shuttle already exist, the rest is less a future technology and more a piece of science fiction)
Time dilation device (Entirely fictional)
Unmanned vehicle (Already exists)
Vitamin X (Technobabble)
Wormhole (Not a technology)
Xenobiology (Not a technology)
Yoctotechnology (Technobabble)
Zygote freezing (Obviously forced into the format)


This list is completely incoherent and demonstrates a pretty thorough lack of a scientific background (reasons added above in parentheses). If you're going to try and do this you can do the research properly - and that doesn't mean asking around on random internet forums or performing google searches. It means books, scientific journals, industry journals, textbooks, and other more in depth and technical sources.

It's also going to take a fair bit longer to write, not to mention getting artwork.

[Eldan]

Yeah, what he said. There's stuff on there people are already working on, stuff with prototypes, stuff that is probably never possible and stuff that isn't even technology.


Antimatter Rocket? How is that different from starship? What do you even mean by it? A drive using antimatter for propulsion? Or an antimatter reactor to drive an ion drive or something?
Brain Implant? We have those. We implant electrodes into people for medical reasons, now.
Cloning? Being done. Not even that rare anymore. If you mean human clones, the main problem here isn ot technology, it's legal and moral.
DNA scanner? We can read DNA. Getting pretty quick at it too. The problem is not getting the sequence. It's knowing what the sequence means.
Eclipse magnifiers? What? That sounds utterly meaningless. Do you mean some kind of device to look at eclipses? We have those, they are called telescopes.
Fusion reactors? Working on those. We have prototypes, they just need more energy to run than they produce.
Genetic engineering? Same. I have people within a hundred meters of me who do it.
Herculean serum? Bwah? Stop putting words that don't mean much on here. IF you mean something that gives you more muscles, they are called steroids.
Klingon? A Klingon is a fictional alien and probably copyrighted. Not a technology.
Laser cannon? Like those we are currently using?
Maser? Doesn't belong on this list any more than RADAR or nuclear power.
Nootropics. You said it yourself. Not future tech.
Omega point. Is that in the airport literature shelf between the Alpha protocol and Epsilon Project?
Protesthics. Literally thousands of years old.
Quantum computer. People working on it. Prototypes running.
Starships: space shuttles. Got those.
Time dilation device: that's called a car. Or a bicycle.
Unmanned vehicle: nothing new.
Vitamin X: doens't mean anything.
Wormhole: a theoretical phenomenon. If you mena generating one, probably not possible.
Yoctotech: as you say yourself.
Zygote freezing: We do that already. Not future tech.


First, decide what you actually want to do. Narrow your focus. Massively. Do you want technology that is in the prototype stage? TEchnology we use and then talk about possible improvements in the near future? Something that is impossibly far off? Decide what you want first.

Then do the research. A lot of research. Good research. Look, this is an interesting idea, but to write a popular science book, you will have to read dozens of real science books, scientific journals, talk to real scientists. Wikipedia, a forum full of nerds and some sci fi shows won't help you.

[Knaight]

Then do the research. A lot of research. Good research. Look, this is an interesting idea, but to write a popular science book, you will have to read dozens of real science books, scientific journals, talk to real scientists. Wikipedia, a forum full of nerds and some sci fi shows won't help you.

Science gets you part of the way there, but anything this technology focused is going to require engineering resources as well - particularly in terms of journals and textbooks.

[kyoryu]

https://www.amazon.com/Uncle-Shelbys-ABZ-Book-Primer/dp/067121148X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1507654912&sr=8-1&keywords=uncle+shelby%27s+abz+book

[Maximum77]

This is all very sobering. You guys are all right. My list does suck and I need to do research but I don't know where to start. Does anybody have a better A-Z list? I'll credit you if I get the book approved.

[Fri]

I honestly don't know how else I can explain this. You can't just make a book out of nothing, or out of a few random phrases. Someone with better eloquence than me my be able to explain exactly why you can't just randomly have 26 random phrases you know from nowhere and write a few paragraphs about it.

Here's my suggestion.

1. Read science book as much as you can. Popular science book, even. From then, think which parts are interesting, and focus on those. For example of very simple and fun start, you can read Randall Munroe's (of xkcd's fame) "What If (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21413662-what-if)" and to lesser extent "Thing Explainer (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25329850-thing-explainer)," also Zach Weinersmith's (from SMBC) new book "Soonish (http://www.soonishbook.com/)"

Those would be easy and fun as starter, but then you should read more books. Use them as jump point, and find topics that interest you.

2. Watch TED talks (www.ted.com). They're fun, and might clue you on what fun new ideas people have in popular science nowadays. Then once again, you should use them as jump points to topics that interest you.

[Peelee]

1. Read science book as much as you can. Popular science book, even. From then, think which parts are interesting, and focus on those. For example of very simple and fun start, you can read Randall Munroe's (of xkcd's fame) "What If (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21413662-what-if)" and to lesser extent "Thing Explainer (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25329850-thing-explainer)," also Zach's Weinersmith's (from SMBC) new book "Soonish (http://www.soonishbook.com/)"

It's worth mentioning that Munroe has a BS in Physics and strong ties to the scientific community, and Wienersmith has a BA in Lit, but has enjoyed the ability to continue higher ed in the sciences thanks to his success. His wife, Kelly, is also an accomplished scientist in her own right, holding a Ph.D in Ecology and a fellowship at Rice. Not to mention co-author of Soonish.

These guys are all heavy hitters, academically. Randall and Zach also have the good fortune to have excellent sense of humor coupled with artistic ability, and all three are not only incredibly smart, but VERY well-educated. Which in no small part contributes to their books' successes (yes, Soonish isn't actually out yet, but it's got rave reviews from pretty incredible sources, and it's clearly going to do well. Which is awesome, I love the Wienersmiths).

[Lvl 2 Expert]

What Fri says.

Remember, you're talking about tackling one of the biggest subjects, if you can even still call it that, in the entire world here. "Science". Your goal is to write a book where you explain stuff about the cutting edge of a lot of different fields, meaning you'll need to educate yourself quite a bit on pretty much every branch of science in order to understand it well enough to explain it to others. You don't need an advanced degree in any of them, but you'll need something.

And props to you for still playing with the idea of doing that and doing it right. Lots of people at this point would have declared "this is too complicated, screw this, the truth is probably that the earth is flat and everything I don't understand is a lie and a conspiracy". That doesn't mean there isn't still a huge amount of stuff to learn about in science though.

If you're serious, if you want to give popular science writing/futurology/I don't know how to call this exactly a shot maybe start with one part of science. For instance, dive into quantum mechanics. Just start on wikipedia and work your way down from there. See if you get what it does, and see if you can understand articles about quantum computers that way. This could also lead you to other subjects. You mentioned yoctotechnology, which is something I've never heard of before and which sounds like nonsense to me, because even a single atom doesn't go below 0.1 nanometer or something, and that's the size cutoff where my knowledge of stuff pretty much ends. If yoctotech is a thing as a futuristic concept you're going to find it in the realm of quantum mechanics, or even lower but still a few steps above strong theory.

And that's just an example really. If you have any subject that you already like in particular, like say something you liked a lot in school, start there. The worst that could happen is that you learn something. Maybe try to find places where you can write about this stuff without having to make it a complete book first. Cracked.com is always looking for pitches. If you can do an article "7 problems in quantum computing (that belong in a haunted house)", they might pay you a few dozen bucks to write it. It's a first step. But yeah, you're not just trying to write a single book here, the scope of this project pretty much justifies making a career out of this. If you want to be a writer maybe start with something easier, like an epic fantasy novel full of made up species or a globe spanning modern day spy adventure or something. At least those only require working knowledge of some fields in science. (Most notably ecology, geography anthropology and biology in the first example and electronics, sociology, politicology and psychology in the second.)

By the way, now that I'm here anyway, is there a chance I could see the children's book/the pitch for a children's book the publisher rejected? I'm kind of curious now what it was like. I don't suppose it would fit in a PM?

[Fri]

Talking about wikipedia, I always prefer simple wikipedia (https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page) rather than actual wikipedia for of science or tech summary. It's not actually talking down, it's just simple wikipedia actually often times explain things better for laymen than actual wikipedia.

Also you may think of this. "Why do I need to actually study/read science if I only want to make a simple book of list of stuff?"

Here's the thing. People keep mentioning your list sucks/doesn't make sense/doesn't have theme/etc. Do you know *why* your list sucks, or you just agreeing for anyone who say that? Do you know *what* make a good list, or you're just waiting for people to hand you over a list that people agree is a good list, then make a book out of that *other person's* list?

You need to know why people keep saying your list sucks, and then make a list which people will agree it doesn't suck, and even if some people do say it, you can give them explanation on why it doesn't suck. And there's no other way for that other than actually reading about science and technology.

[Vinyadan]

Also, most doors you knock on wielding a book will remain closed. Even if you better your book, expect many refusals, and be aware that only perseverance will see it published.

[Maximum77]

Okay so I'm not doing this book anymore. My list is no good and the points you made about the tech are all true.


I'm redirecting my energy into writing a short sci-fi story about a brilliant scientist named Dr. Angstrom. I have all I need for the story, however, in the story, Angstrom has a to do list of 10 inventions that he hopes to create in his lifetime. What 10 inventions could be on his list? I need stuff that is different and out of the box. Not like "Jetpack" or "Flying car". I can't think of anything creative. Thanks

[Grey_Wolf_c]

I have all I need for the story
and

What 10 inventions could be on his list?
seem contradictory.

If the inventions are not needed for the story, you might as well go with the following:

McGuffin generator
Falcon Maltesser
Rosebud Trimmer
Briefcase internal illuminator
Snarl gates
Philosopher's Stone
Continuum Transfunctioner
Neutrino Mutator
The Tesseract
The Arkenstone


If the inventions have no impact on the plot, then what they are is irrelevant. If they are crucial to the plot, then you do NOT have all you need, and you need to figure what inventions work best for the story.

GW

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Dr. Angstrom

Is that just a random name, or is he related to these (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anders_Jonas_%C3%85ngstr%C3%B6m) two (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knut_%C3%85ngstr%C3%B6m) fine chaps? If he's not supposed to be a relative, maybe think about the name again, as that first guy is famous enough to have a unit of measurement named after him. Like calling him Dr. Avogadro or Dr. Huygens, it may be a little on the nose. If he is related, great, so what exactly aspired you to pick these guys? Base the inventions around that.

From a story perspective (not that I know your story so take it with a grain of salt) think about cutting the list. A scientist aiming for one specific invention has a great obsession (this can be as big or as small as you want from a time machine or room temperature superconductor to a control circuit for unstable voltage circuits that would make the power net 3% more efficient or the formal mathematical proof that a magic square using pi, e and i is impossible), one with a list of three obsessions can use a nice fairy tale like story structure in three parts. (Works especially well when the three are related somehow, like a miniature black hole, a donut shaped black hole that forms a wormhole and a time machine made from a wormhole with one fast moving end) Ten? Might be overkill unless you already know why ten and how that works into a story.

And yes, I do think switching to fiction, or more to the point switching to a thing that does not require you to know a little bit (which can still be a lot) of almost every part of science could be a good call.