What if the first sign of ETI was a Big Dumb Object, a vast and clearly artificial construction that dwarfs Humanity's scale and maybe gives us a moment to pause and think about things.
The antics of Oligarchs and Presidents are nothing when compared to a Dyson Swarm...

https://www.centauri-dreams.org/2026/04/24/stability-of-interstellar-big-dumb-objects/

#SETI #BDO #Megastructures #Space #CordwainerSmith #ScienceFiction

Feral Historian on Cordwainer Smith's "Rediscovery of Man" / "The Instrumentality of Man"

#FeralHistorian #CordwainerSmith

(also, it's an animal charity #fundraiser in it's first month)

https://youtu.be/hmANOYOZ_o8

I finally got around to reading some Cordwainer Smith!
Just 3 stories (Project Gutenberg via Standard Ebooks), but they include "Scanners Live in Vain."

Review: https://kvibber.com/reviews/books/cordwainer-smith-short-fiction/

#ScienceFiction #reviews #CordwainerSmith

Virgil Finlay illustrates A Planet Named Shayol by Cordwainer Smith, Galaxy Science Fiction, October 1961. #FinlayFriday
#VirgilFinlay #CordwainerSmith #Illustration #SF #SFF #ScienceFiction

“Which do you prefer?” said the skin technician. “A great deal of pain or a couple of hour’s unconsciousness?”
“Why should I want pain?” said Mercer.
“Some specimens do,” said the technician, “by the time they arrive here. I suppose it depends on what people have done to them before they got here.”

A conversation about science fiction author Cordwainer Smith, real name Paul M. A. Linebarger, author of the award-winning novella "Scanners Live in Vain", and the US Army's favorite Cold War textbook, "Psychological Warfare".

https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/universe-art/articles/how-science-fiction-influenced-american-psychological-warfare

#ScienceFiction #Authors #ClassicSciFi #ColdWar #History #Culture #Propaganda #PsyOps #CordwainerSmith #ScannersLiveInVain #PaulLinebarger #PsychologicalWarfare #UniverseOfArt