122 down-to-earth ideas for science fiction writers by Dave Haslett

Author:Dave Haslett [Haslett, Dave]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ideas4writers
Published: 2018-01-03T05:00:00+00:00

67. Technology – use and misuse

Many science fiction stories are concerned with the use – or, more likely, the misuse – of a new invention. This usually involves a character or organization doing something with the technology that its inventor never intended. But you don’t need to restrict yourself to new inventions. There are plenty of old or current technologies that you could find alternative uses for – especially if you’re a cunning and enterprising space villain.

Perhaps your villain has a particular crime in mind, and he’s looking for a tool that will help him accomplish it. Or maybe he comes across the invention first, and then realizes that it might have potential as a criminal tool, so he builds his crime around it.

It doesn’t have to be used for a criminal purpose, of course. Perhaps the crew of your spacecraft is in trouble, and they need a specific tool that they don’t have. Why don’t they have it? Has it been lost or stolen or broken? Describe what happened. Since they don’t have that tool, they’ll have to use whatever is available.

What have you got lying around your home that could be adapted for a purpose no one has thought of yet?

What was the most recent piece of electronic equipment you bought? Could it be adapted into a new type of weapon? Could it be used to commit a crime – on Earth or on a spacecraft or on another planet? Could it be used for espionage? Could you add an extra “hidden” feature and turn it into a James Bond-style gadget?

It needn’t even be an object. There are all sorts of other discoveries, scientific laws and principles, mathematical formulas, and so on just waiting to be used, abused, rediscovered, and pressed into service in new and imaginative ways. See what you can come up with.

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