Post-apocalyptic 1. Hundreds of millions of years after civilization destroys itself and all complex life on Earth, human-level intelligence emerges again and sophisticated civilizations begin to form. Told as alternate history in which humans actually evolved in the shadow of a much more ancient alien civilization. The protagonist is an archaeologist and intellectual living in the … More Eight unusual science fiction plots

My computer has a problem. I can either send it in for repairs or try to fix it myself. If I send it in for repairs, it will definitely cost me 1 hour. If I try to fix it myself I’m not sure how long it will take. I decide to try to fix it … More On getting unlucky

My phone is protected by a 4-digit PIN. I’d like to make it hard for an attacker to read information from my phone without knowing the PIN. Unfortunately, there are only 10,000 4-digit PINs, so it won’t take long to guess the right one. What to do? The standard solution involves tamper-resistant hardware. A trusted … More Locking phones with quantum bits