>>6305416>>6305465>>6305488>technofuturist Quantified Self idea, tracking biodata / penis stock chart or bodily fluids etc via some FitBit or aapl watch device etc>>6305026>>6305080>SPACE POOSo on the face of it that Jerkcity comic / JG Ballard idea seems stupid and ludicrous and absurd, completely beyond the realm of sci-fi worldbuilding but I would argue it is actually extremely astute and insightful
Take the Frank Herbert DUNE STILLSUIT concept. I bet most people just read about how it recycled all the bodily fluids on Arrakis the harsh desert environment, they were probably a bit disgusted by the details of drinking the reprocessed moisture / sweat / urine but ultimately concluded, well it is an exotic alien desert planet, very dry and arid, not sure why the author emphasised this perverted worldbuilding detail but it probably makes ecological sense
But when I thought about the stillsuit urine I realised, this is why Frank Herbert is almost a genius HARD SCI-FI author lol, he has researched and been inspired by the ACTUAL TECHNICAL DETAILS of SPACESUIT DESIGN, anticipated how astronauts might eventually use space toilets recycling water and how that would evolve over many space missions. (Yuri Gagarin Vostok 1 was 1961; Dune published in 1965; I think the first crewed US mission Apollo 7 was 1968)
https://www.astronomicalreturns.com/2020/07/designing-lunar-loo-history-of-space.html?m=1>In 1961, Alan Shepard found himself strapped to his Mercury-Redstone rocket aiming to be the first American in space, but as his suborbital flight was only expected to last 15 minutes, the engineers didn't bother providing him a diaper or some other waste management system. After hours of launch delays with no method of relief, Shepard pleaded with Mission Control to let him out of the spacecraft ("Man, I gotta pee"), and although fellow astronaut Gordon Cooper dutifully relayed his request up the chain of command ("Look, the man has got to go"), it was emphatically denied by Wernher von Braun himself. So instead, Shepard told Mission Control he would simply pee in his suit despite concerns he might short circuit the medical sensors, and soon after, an audible "ahhhhhhh" emanated over the intercomFrank Herbert just took ideas about spacesuit urine reprocessing and absorbed it directly into his worldbuilding, incredible!
pic related just depicts a healthy mother and son scene, as they prepare to drink their own urine. These are fundamentally the most important worldbuilding details
