Beat me to it. I had the 60s version.

Joe Haldeman did it first...

Personally I always thought that was more his editors at work. As you say, the themes were there, they just became more overt as his work progressed.

I recently watched it again on Netflix, after seeing it in the theatres on it's initial release. Still strange and wonderful.

Beat me to it, and funnier besides. Thanks!

Although the Hi-Standard HDM has a venerable pedigree, it's not exactly secret or particularly rare. We had several in the armory during my time with the 19th Special Forces Group (1980s), and I believe they are still in service. Ugly, but reliable and effective. Sort of like the A-10!

He not only refused, but attempted to pull some political strings and threatened to blackmail the general who assigned him if I recall correctly. As a result he was reduced to private and sent to the front as fodder.

Actually, despite wishing there was one at times, I think that this is a bad idea. Destiny is (at least ostensibly) an MMO. There's no pause button in WOW, EQ (dating myself) or any other MMO I've played. If you're solo and you have to AFK, you find a place that's relatively safe and hunker down while you do your RL…

Chemical reactions are those magical moments when the matter that surrounds us suddenly bursts into life

Very nice - all except the eyes, those dead eyes.

Thanks, and your post is very like most of the others. I understand that these responses are restatements of what is popularly conceived about the subject, but posting them doesn't remove the mystery (at least for myself), it just intensifies it. The basic question is really larger than the Big Bang - it's the "Who…

Great post! I'm not sure that we can't comprehend the existence you describe, although I can admit it's a possibility. That's quite different than saying that there was nothing though.

That's a popular concept, however nobody has shown convincing proof that it is the case.

Turtles, it's turtles, all the way down. =D

Sorry, but your response seems to be a non-sequitur. Taking you literally, the implication is that one could theoretically travel far enough ahead to circle back to before the Big Bang (because once you hit the South Pole you starting heading back North, eh?).

See my other replies. And by whose definition?

You're contradicting yourself though. You state that there was both nothing before the Big Bang, and a universe existing without space and time. There was either nothing, or something, and I want to know which!

My point exactly. This is a place where physics seems to break down. If there was truly nothing before the Big Bang, then we have the pending question of how nothing begat something, and as you say we might as well believe in Genesis (or the Watchmaker, etc.). That's why I contend that it is the most baffling mystery,…

Extending your comment a wee bit - what was before the Big Bang?

It's already occurred in California several times, and we're doing it now in Utah, Nevada and Colorado. And that's just the west.