I love conspiracy theories. My favorite book is the Illuminatus! Trilogy. UFOs, the Grassy Knoll, I’m there. Of course, as a connoisseur of the form, I am most fond of those conspiracies that are actually plausible. (The ones that actually happened are best of all.) I’ve just run across a Read more…
A comment responding to my Big Idea post on Whatever led me to thinking about the sfnal concept of the Singularity. It seems quite popular to dis the concept. in fact, outside some Transhumanist circles, it seems that twice as many electrons are used on the interwebs to dismiss the concept than are used to promote it, or even defend it. There is an irony to this, as the Internet itself is a form of Singularity.
Today, thank whatever deity you might fancy, it will be over. At the moment, it looks as if Obama is the favorite. I thought I might list a couple of things I see as possible side effects of an Obama victory. (Sans gnashing teeth or messianic glee.) Those who have Read more…
There’s a bias in SF and its brethren such as alternate history to do world building around the big ass stuff; wars, revolutions, catastrophes. Or, for the sciencey mindset, the big ass discoveries that change our understanding of cosmology or fundamental physics, or some sort of massive engineering or computing Read more…
Historically, almost every significant economic crash has been due to one factor of the human psyche, the inability to conceive of change. Not adapt to change; we’re pretty damn good at figuring things out after the fact. Beforehand? Not so much. Entire industries collapse because of the assumption that the Read more…
Just saw an interesting post on The Feminist SF Blog that draws attention to one of those little cultural blind spots that are really useful in worldbuilding. You know, the kind of thing everyone takes for granted, so when they read about another culture (real or fictional) that does it Read more…
I’ve gone on at length about the replicator economy, what will happen to commerce as the cost of “stuff” goes to zero and the ability to copy anything becomes ubiquitous. Understanding the implications of this is going to make the difference between success and failure for whole industries. It also Read more…
. . .and provides an example of a point I was making over ten years ago. You may or may not have visited my home page, which predates this blog by about a dozen years or so, if you have, buried in the writing portion are a couple of essays Read more…
L. E. Modesitt, Jr. wrote a long post on his blog on why he believes the singularity won’t happen. [via SF Signal] According to Modesitt, it won’t happen because such visions are based on technology, not on humanity and they’re based on a western European/North American cultural chauvinism. He goes Read more…
According to The Guardian, ye olde brick-and-mortar bookstore is not long for this world. According to a survey at the Frankfurt Book fair [from SF Signal]: Almost a quarter of the 1,324 industry professionals who took part in the survey predicted that the high street bookseller would no longer exist Read more…