This is not a science fiction novel – more of a technothriller set in the immediate future – but it’s a good one. The author has just got his rights back (the original publisher did a terrible marketing job, apparently), and it’s on 99c sale.
You could easily build an anthology just off the story possibilities in this article.
What’s the status of biotech, and specifically genetech, in your near-future setting? Better think about it if you want to stay current.
Originally shared by Singularity Hub
The Enormous Promise and Peril of Bioengineering’s Pandora’s Box http://suhub.co/2BiArmh
“Cassidy and other women in tech who spoke during the one-day event stressed that the watershed came not because women finally broke the silence about sexual harassment, whatever Time’s editors may believe. The change came because the women were finally listened to and the bad actors faced repercussions.”
Via Singularity Hub And in IEEE Spectrum, which is not where I would have expected such a piece to appear.
(Accessibility issue: small, non-resizable font.)
Another benefit of autonomous, or even semi-autonomous, cars: traffic could flow twice as fast.
Originally shared by Jennifer Ouellette
Math Says You’re Driving Wrong and It’s Slowing Us All Down https://www.wired.com/story/math-says-youre-driving-wrong-and-its-slowing-us-all-down/
https://www.wired.com/story/math-says-youre-driving-wrong-and-its-slowing-us-all-down/
Qualified hope. I look forward to other strategies – perhaps using biomimicry to design small scavenger drones which will collect toxic plastic and remove it from the environment.
Originally shared by Singularity Hub
The Massive Project to Clean Up the Ocean With a Two-Kilometer Screen http://suhub.co/2CjqFA7
“You’re not constantly seeing negative headlines because the world is getting worse, you’re constantly seeing negative headlines because that’s what audiences react to.”
I quietly make it my mission to post mostly positive stuff to social media, as my small contribution to making it more like I want it to be (note to self: do that social media manifestorant sometime).
I especially emphasise stories about possibility, and about people who are making, or have made, a difference through courage, intelligence, and perseverance. And my fiction is like that, too.
This isn’t an attempt to ignore the enormous problems we have. But just constantly boosting the message “We have enormous problems!” is no way to make any progress on solving them.
I’m fortunate to have worked with many engineers, and I like their mindset: “We assume that this problem can be solved, now let’s work together to figure out how.”
Originally shared by Singularity Hub
Why Intelligent Optimism Is Crucial to Human Progress http://suhub.co/2BzQz5A
“Explains” is much too yang a word for what she’s doing here. It’s more “suggests”.
I happen to be interested in utopias where natural balance, not powerful authority, is what keeps things working, though history shows us that’s hard to achieve (to say the least).
Via the Adafruit blog.
When the usually-utopian Singularity Hub sounds a note of caution, it’s smart to pay attention.
As this article points out, it’s all too easy to be caught up in the technical possibilities of a technology and ignore history and on-the-ground realities that may make it less useful, or not useful at all – at least, for the purpose claimed. I can see a possible place for bulk freight hyperloops replacing some trucking with more efficient transport – but, again, political distortions already favour trucking over more efficient rail.
Originally shared by Singularity Hub
History Suggests the Hyperloop Is an Uncertain Promise for Future Cities http://suhub.co/2AHwkl8
There are various reasons why we have humanoid robots in our SF, but they’re mostly to do with using them as symbols of how we’ve historically treated humans (and being able to put an actor inside, in the case of movies), rather than because a humanoid robot is really useful.
Originally shared by Singularity Hub
Why Humanoid Robots Are Still So Hard to Make Useful http://suhub.co/2kwzSkn
Pleased to get an acceptance today from the NZ anthology Korero Ahi Ka for my story “Gatekeeper, What Toll?” (originally published last year in Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores).
It’s a piece in what I think of as my Zelaznian style, which sets out to imply a six-book epic fantasy series in a thousandth of the wordcount. I don’t know if it succeeds at that, but judging from the very positive editor comments it clearly succeeds at something.