I was re-watching Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and I realized that I've left out some influences from my early exposure to science fiction. The book from Jules Verne was one of my earliest exposures to Sci-Fi.

While the movie alludes to the Nautilus being powered by nuclear fission, the original book alludes to a process where Nemo extracts his fuel from the seawater itself. Or at least that's what I remembered. According to Wikipedia Nemo actually described a rather mundane chemical reaction that used coal from the sea to provide the power for the refining process.

I was already planning on sprinkling references to 2001, a Space Odyssey, Starship Troopers, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, The Man in the High Castle, and Neuromancer throughout the lore of Sublight:

  • One faction, the ISTO, no longer builds shipwide automation systems following an incident with a rogue AI in 1968.
  • Their main Rival, the Krasnovian Empire, is based on the Moon, following a rebellion from Earth.
  • Their society is secretly run by an AI. Though, according to propaganda, the real power is with the Fürer, who just happens to be a fictitious personality concocted by the AI.
  • The Krasnovians are a top-down military/collectivist organization where Service Guarantees Citizenship.
  • A third faction, the Circle Trigon Syndicate, is basically a network of Mafias who control trade throughout the Solar System.
  • Throughout the story I'll be making jokes about an alternate reality where the Germans lost the Great War. (Really backwards place. They still burn rock oil. Capitalists took over the place. And they never even figured out nuclear fusion...)

...Getting back to my main point.

I think I need to expand this lore to include some 19th and early 20th century Sci-Fi. And probably throw some Sherlock Holmes in for good measure.