First Week

Interests this week included Mars, and the Mars TV Series, on which I wrote a post, as well as Asimov’s Foundation Series. Those interests are clearly represented in the most common words: Mars, Foundation, science, Earth, planet, second, and Seldon.

Second Visualization

Given that my exploration of SF during remote learning is on a more variable schedule, I am choosing to represent certain bursts of exploration, rather than exploration week by week.

In this visualization, I have gone down the “Mars Colonization” rabbit hole. Colonizing Mars involves many variables, represented by some of the most common words in this cirrus: water, NASA, atmosphere, dust, soil, pressure, and minerals. The colonization of Mars has two major areas of concern: 1) How do you make life sustainable on Mars?; and 2) What do you do once life is sustainable? This visualization centers more around concern (1), evidenced by the large presence of words focused on the Martian environment: dust, surface, crater, rock, minerals, and radiation. Less words focus on concern (2): policy, exploration, nasa, terraforming, time, life, and earth.