As I wrote in a recent column on EEjournal (see TrustInSoft Analyzer Turbocharged with AI and RUST), I just started reading Road Kill by Dennis E. Taylor

This isn’t “hard” science fiction in the classic, slide-rule-and-star-charts sense, nor is it trying to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the grand philosophical epics of the genre. Instead, it’s fast, funny, idea-rich, and immensely readable—what I’d call “comfort food” for the SF-inclined.

In a crunchy nutshell, three twenty-something friends—Jack, Natalie, and Patrick—come into possession of an alien spaceship in the form of an invisible (cloaked) flying saucer. This spaceship is controlled by a somewhat snippy AI. Although the AI is obliged to follow our heroes’ orders, it’s not happy about it and refers to them using terms like “semi-sentient pond scum.” As a result, they tell the AI that its name henceforth will be Sheldon.

The first thing Jack and his friends do is get Sheldon to fly them to the Moon so they can visit the Apollo 11 landing site. Based on the spaceship’s advanced antimatter-powered technology, this trip takes just 20 minutes or so. On the way, Sheldon “prints” spacesuits for them so they can take a stroll on the lunar surface. Next, they take a quick jaunt to Mars and still make it back home in time for supper.

I mentioned this book to my friend Joe Farr. He’d already read it (rats!). We agreed that if either of us were to come into possession of such a ship, one of the first things we’d do would be to pick the other one up (I’d stop off to get my wife, Gina the Gorgeous, first), and then we too would take excursions to the Moon and Mars.

I’m not as stupid as I look (who could be?). I realize that the chances of something like this happening to me are infinitesimally small—although I prefer to think of them as “non-zero”—but “it’s a funny old world, and no mistake,” as they say in England. Muttering this mantra affords me a modicum of hope.

Of course, talking about our agreeing to pick each other up should we run across an alien spaceship reminds me of the episode in The Big Bang Theory where Leonard is signing Sheldon’s roommate agreement. Towards the end, in the miscellaneous section, Sheldon reads a clause saying, “If either of us ever invents time travel, we agree our first stop will be this meeting today in precisely five seconds.” Leonard signs, then they both pause for five seconds, looking around the room to see if they actually do travel back from the future.

But we digress. The reason I’m waffling on about this here is that when I asked Joe what he’d do if we did get to visit Mars, he immediately responded that he would leave an old miner’s boot lying on the ground where the Perseverance rover was sure to find it (see also, Want to Build Your Own AI-Powered Perseverance Mars Rover?).

This prompted me to imagine headlines screaming “Human Artifacts Discovered on Mars!” in respectable newspapers (that is, publications other than the National Enquirer). In turn, this led us to remind each other of related books and films, such as the 1964 movie classic Robinson Crusoe on Mars.

But wait, there’s more: this reminded me of my favorite virtual reality (VR) game, Obduction, created by the folks at Cyan (who also brought us Myst and Riven). Sad to relate, although this is available in VR on the Oculus Rift, it’s not made its way to my Meta Quest 3 yet (rats²!).

If you haven’t seen this game, you should check out the trailer. When you are “obducted” to this alien world, and you start exploring, you quickly discover bits and pieces that come from Earth, including some old narrow-gauge mine tramway tracks. Joe and I discussed the idea of placing a couple of short sections of track and some sleepers leading to a blocked cave entrance, as shown in the image to the right.

Can you imagine the consternation of the folks guiding Perseverance back on Earth when they saw this? Can you conceive their frustration that they couldn’t explore further? All I can say is that there would be much gnashing of teeth and rending of garb, let me tell you.