As you read through THE SOWING, you’ll be drawn into a science-fiction world. Since our characters are trying to rebuild their world after devastating climate change, we tried to write about technology that is sustainable, doesn’t rely on fossil fuel, and incorporates plant-based substances into the designs. Here are a few examples:
The Sarus, Vale’s airship, runs off of a cold-fusion generator and an ionic propulsion system. The cold-fusion generator is totally sci-fi; the ionic propulsion system is science. It’s not in use yet, but it’s getting there. Here’s an article in Businessweek about it: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-04-08/mit-researchers-fire-up-the-ionic-thrusters and here’s the MIT paper to match: http://lae.mit.edu/?p=2450.
Bolts, which are the weapons that the soldiers in the Sector use, are neither lasers nor conventional bullets. They’re a form of an electrolaser, which is essentially a juiced up form of a taser. They combine the force of a thunderbolt with all the precision of a conventional weapon. The Sector uses these weapons because they don’t require mass-producing bullets, and they can be fired via rechargeable (and renewable) energy sources. Check out more information about electrolasers on the wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrolaser and at this website: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-an-electrolaser.htm.
Check out our Pinterest page for more cool tech inspirations.