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Big Companies and the Military Are Paying Novelists to Write Sci-Fi for Them

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Re: Big Companies and the Military Are Paying Novelists to Write Sci-Fi for Them

#151

Post by mirimir »

Bartweiss wrote: post #126
aeorgnoieang wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Holy fuck that is awesome

It's a wild story. The craziest part was that the players who intentionally spread the plague would retreat to other regions and log out in an attempt to incubate the disease across victim die-off and mod actions, then return to cities to reinfect people. That's what got epidemiologists hooked, because disease control in the face of enemy action is (fortunately) short on real-world data. The question of how the plagu…

I've at times wondered why Ebola hasn't been weaponized. Rather like slow motion suicide bombing. If you're healthy, you have a few days of decent fitness, while shedding virus. It'd be hard, psychologically. But consider the 9/11 attackers. They worked for months, preparing to suicide.

Re: Big Companies and the Military Are Paying Novelists to Write Sci-Fi for Them

#152

Post by remarkEon »

Bartweiss wrote: post #126
aeorgnoieang wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Holy fuck that is awesome

It's a wild story. The craziest part was that the players who intentionally spread the plague would retreat to other regions and log out in an attempt to incubate the disease across victim die-off and mod actions, then return to cities to reinfect people. That's what got epidemiologists hooked, because disease control in the face of enemy action is (fortunately) short on real-world data. The question of how the plagu…

Link for those interested.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrupted_Blood_incident

There was also an event in EVE that is cool, though I'm not aware of it being studied in the manny of Corrupted Blood. Someone forgot to pay a recurring security fee, opening a system up for capture. War ensues and $300k worth of in-game spacecraft is destroyed.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloodbath_of_B-R5RB

Re: Big Companies and the Military Are Paying Novelists to Write Sci-Fi for Them

#154

Post by elorant »

Trundle wrote: post #148
elorant wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well I happen to live in Greece so I witnessed first hand the results of his reign. You probably have no idea how it is to live in a country that has capital controls so let me enlighten you. The first months, until the system was somewhat stabilized, in order to pay for servers and such we had to ask for favors from Greeks who lived abroad. Imagine having half a dozen servers to pay and not knowing if you will manag…

Being directly affected by a situation should absolutely not be a point for being more knowledgeable on it. Emotional appeal is the refuge of the ignorant.

Capital controls are real dude, they're not a figment of my imagination. Try operating an online business while you can't transfer funds abroad and then we can talk about sentimentalism.

Re: Big Companies and the Military Are Paying Novelists to Write Sci-Fi for Them

#155

Post by JadeNB »

godelmachine wrote: post #125
tzs wrote: post #119

Companies commissioning stories has gone on for a long time. For example, the Isaac Asimov story "My Son, The Physicist" was commissioned by an electronics company to run in an ad in "Scientific American". Another Asimov example. "Think", IBM's in-house magazine, commissioned Asimov to write a story based on this quote from J. B. Priestly: > Between midnight and dawn, when sleep will not come and all the old wounds b…

I had "My Son, The Physicist" in my 9th grade. The mom comes and suggests the son about "continuous conversation" with some astronaut's stuck on Jupiter's moon - Ganymede (if I am not wrong and remember correctly)

> if I am not wrong and remember correctly

You are not and you do: http://readnovelonline.com/ScienceFiction/Asimov41/27366.htm... .

Re: Big Companies and the Military Are Paying Novelists to Write Sci-Fi for Them

#156

Post by JadeNB »

wj wrote: post #70
detritus wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking of whom - a friend and I were the other day wondering Just Why On Earth none of his SciFi appears to have been optioned for conversion to other media. I can imagine scope, complexity and presumably huge budget leaving prospective optioners with slightly soiled breeks, but all the same — not even a hope of one of the tales in The State of the Art?

Probably lacking the ratio of explosions to character development that modern scifi movies and tv audiences demand.

> Probably lacking the ratio of explosions to character development that modern scifi movies and tv audiences demand.

To be fair, in the collection of stories I would have expected never to be adapted, "Story of your life" is high up there, and yet "Arrival" was a deeply thoughtful film that, despite a few strange adjustments, was faithful in many important ways to its source. (OK, it did have one explosion.)

Re: Big Companies and the Military Are Paying Novelists to Write Sci-Fi for Them

#157

Post by nonbel »

mirimir wrote: post #151
Bartweiss wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a wild story. The craziest part was that the players who intentionally spread the plague would retreat to other regions and log out in an attempt to incubate the disease across victim die-off and mod actions, then return to cities to reinfect people. That's what got epidemiologists hooked, because disease control in the face of enemy action is (fortunately) short on real-world data. The question of how the plagu…

I've at times wondered why Ebola hasn't been weaponized. Rather like slow motion suicide bombing. If you're healthy, you have a few days of decent fitness, while shedding virus. It'd be hard, psychologically. But consider the 9/11 attackers. They worked for months, preparing to suicide.

Ebola isn't going to kill everybody, apparently ~25% of people show pretty much no symptoms at all: http://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article?id=10.1371/journal...

It is pretty usual for viral infections to have a range of effects with only a small percent (~15% in the case of measles I believe) of people getting sick enough to report it. I don't know what that number is for ebola but it always seemed to me the initial estimates of its virulance were going to be high. I mean, nobody was going to go reporting flu like symptoms in an african village to the CDC.

Re: Big Companies and the Military Are Paying Novelists to Write Sci-Fi for Them

#158

Post by Ntrails »

tzs wrote: post #119

Companies commissioning stories has gone on for a long time. For example, the Isaac Asimov story "My Son, The Physicist" was commissioned by an electronics company to run in an ad in "Scientific American". Another Asimov example. "Think", IBM's in-house magazine, commissioned Asimov to write a story based on this quote from J. B. Priestly: > Between midnight and dawn, when sleep will not come and all the old wounds b…

I always remember my Grandfather suggesting that Michael Crichton (sp?) wrote a bunch of stuff to order by the government. I was never entirely sure I believed him, but then never entirely dismissed it (as evidenced by this comment).

Re: Big Companies and the Military Are Paying Novelists to Write Sci-Fi for Them

#159

Post by jermaustin1 »

YCode wrote: post #55
jermaustin1 wrote: post #43

I do something similar. I pay writers to write me sci-fi and fantasy stories based on my prompts! It allows me to read what I want to read!

What's that sort of service cost? What's the length of the stories?

So I like to use a couple of ghost writers I have found on various freelancing sites (Upwork, elance, etc). Don't let their rates scare you away. Almost all of them work for fixed prices. I let them chose the price, then I add a bonus on top of that.

A story can cost anywhere from $50 for a 20 page novelette to $2500 for a full novel.

As a terrible writer, some times I provide my own short story, then work with a professional to plan out something bigger. I'm currently working on a 200-250 pager with a guy I found on upwork. This will cost me about $500 for the writing, $500 in bonus, $500 for proofing and editing, then I have a novel with full ownership - he will be on the byline if I ever decide to publish it.

Re: Big Companies and the Military Are Paying Novelists to Write Sci-Fi for Them

#160

Post by jermaustin1 »

jff wrote: post #100
jermaustin1 wrote: post #43

I do something similar. I pay writers to write me sci-fi and fantasy stories based on my prompts! It allows me to read what I want to read!

Seems like it would put you in a position to publish a, say, quarterly collection of the results. Combine that with a Patreon or something similar if other people enjoy the stories that come from the prompts, and you might break even while still getting the stories you like :) Seems like most short story publishers run in a deficit so if you're accepting that from the start you're in a better position than most.

I'm actually contemplating doing this. I am a technical person with no time or energy on my hands to build shit in my personal time. So I'm putting together an RFQ for someone to build the site to automate a weekly writing competition with amazon gift cards for prizes. So I was thinking a semi-monthly issue of 8-10 of the top rated stories with royalties (if any sales) to the writers.
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