Project Hail Mary

And lastly, Jeff Collins got Artemis by Andy Weir.

I bought Artemis by Andy Weir, who wrote The Martian and Project Hail Mary.

I've heard good things about this one and looking forward to a little late summer read instead of doom scrolling.

Rumors are Jenna Ortega might star in the eventual big screen adaptation.

Daniel Piecznik has a wonderful blog, Daniel.Games, where he talks through all things board game design.

It's a very didactic and prescriptive way of speaking.

It's for a very specific goal with a very specific intended experience.

He's trying to make a particular kind of game, which is one that has a very broad appeal, is very easy to learn, very elegant.

It's a big ask.

and

the advice I always give is if you think this game is a deck building element release it without it and if it's big enough people will add that in like you don't have to do that for them

Yeah,

This is a guy who's got some serious Hollywood success.

His books, The Martian and Project Hail Mary, first of all, they were very, very successful books.

But when they've been made into movies, they've also been super successful.

And yet when I ask him, really, in an email, you've bought your fourth house in five years? He writes back and says, indeed, I have bought another house on the North Shore, which I love because, you know, the question is exactly what you said.

At the time, what he said is, we're probably going to move back to California.

So then they buy another one not too far away, they rehab that, the first one hasn't sold yet, and they put the second one on the market.

And I either call or email him and he says, well, you know, I was involved in the production of the movie for Project Hail Mary, and I enjoyed Hollywood production so much, I'm gonna move the family to be closer to Hollywood.

So that's two times he's told me we're selling our houses to move.

Oh, it's so good.

Project Hail Mary.

Mm.

Mm-hmm.

Yep.

So good.

And then Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir.

Love.

Everybody, so here's the thing.

We have, until this point, discussed the magnum opus that is Project Hail Mary.

We discussed the book, Hannah and I.

Yes, we did.

Thank the gods.

Thank the gods.

So now we are here because Dr. Neal is gonna tell us a story about how Project Hail Mary is the most scientifically accurate movie ever made.

Interstellar has been usurped.

Mm-hmm.

So in Project Hail Mary when they're like, "Oh, what do we need to do? Oh, we'll just, we'll be ...

Oh yeah, someone from Af- some African countries are gonna bear the brunt of this," and, there's ...

And you're like, oh, you don't even care enough to name another, like, to even look up a name of a country that could be used in the world-building of the entire continent of Africa.

That's what I find interesting.

Reading about this, I found myself thinking of Project Hail Mary, which I'd started on a flight to New Zealand not long ago.

That story features life and civilization that evolved in a completely different environment from Earth's.

The beings look nothing like humans.

But that might just be because our sample size is one.

Somewhere in the universe, there might be life using six-letter DNA, or eight, or life that passes on information through some mechanism nothing like DNA at all.

and if that life had billions of years to evolve it's not hard to imagine something emerging with a completely different body different senses a completely different way of being alive and yet still capable of building science and civilization the way project hail mary imagines it this research hasn't shown that alien life exists That's an entirely separate question.

But the assumption that life must use four letters, A, T, G, and C, may simply be a rule that applies only on Earth.