“The faster the planet, the fiercer the storms…”
elementix / Alamy Stock Photo
Joel Kontinen
Exoplanets are strange. They are not meant for life. But God has made the Earth in check
so that life can continue on Earth.
"In the past month, Earth experienced some
of its shortest days on record. The planet spun quickly enough to shave 1.4
milliseconds off of its usual 24-hour day. These natural accelerations in
Earth’s spin are, of course, hard to notice. But if you’re anything like me,
the feeling that our world is spinning out of control – metaphorically, at
least – might not be unfamiliar.
The straightforward effects of the sun rising and
setting ever-more frequently are easy to imagine. How many of us already feel
as if there’s not enough time in the day? In Circular Motion, the
characters are increasingly overworked, struggling to keep up with the demands
of everyday life while their days keep shortening on them. Because their
productivity relies on a high-speed global transport system that is itself the
cause of the planet’s acceleration in the book, their rushing only makes the
problem worse.”
By Alex Foster 2025
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