“…these utilities are coveted by investors; that the regulatory environment makes them extraordinarily profitable; and that investors have very little interest in the quality or the long-term operational efficiency of the systems.”
There’s an often unexamined myth that private enterprise will always and inevitably do a better job than government. It isn’t true, and it especially isn’t true for infrastructure.
When I worked in the city, I used to park in a particular parking building which was owned by the council. They handed over management to a private firm. The charges went up with a big bump, and the standard of cleanliness of the facility dropped sharply.
In order for “good books get more reviews” to be true, you have to use a very specific and (to me) non-intuitive definition of “good”. Otherwise, I largely agree with this piece, which has some useful points to make.
Originally shared by Damien Walter
Writing a regular column for The Guardian on weird books, I get asked by writers of all kinds to read their latest tome. And sometimes that question becomes “how do I get my book reviewed?”
In the age of social media and the internet the book review is a much different beast than it once was.
A tweet from Neil Gaiman can be much better publicity than a national newspaper book review today.
And a groundswell of interest from fans talking on blogs can shift more copies than old style book clubs.
So while I’m discussing this in terms of “getting reviewed”, it might just be better to think of this as some thoughts on how to get people talking about your book.
Nanoassemblers, and the post-scarcity world that they would enable, have been used in SF by Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross, among others. Whatever we can imagine such a world being like, we’re sure to fall short of the reality (if it ever becomes possible).
My novella Gu takes a slightly different tack – programmable matter – but more or less systematically imagines some of the impacts, in the format of a documentary. Again, I’m sure I missed a lot, just because I’m embedded in a society where things are made in a certain shape and stay that shape.
1. You know those fairy tales where it looks like you’re in a beautiful palace full of richly dressed people eating delicacies, and when you put the ointment on your eyes you see that it’s a hovel full of people dressed in rags eating slops?
2. You could live a full, and social, life, travel widely, have all sorts of adventures, without ever leaving your small, cheap apartment. Which, depending how you want to play it, could be a cover for a deteriorating dystopia (see also idea #1) or a celebration of the virtual riches of a future life. It might be interesting to write a story that plays out both ways at once.
3. Might this technology slow, even reverse, the several-thousand-year-old trend for the population to drain into cities and stay there, just as urban dwellers are becoming the majority? After all, if you can have everything that a city dweller has without leaving your small town, without the inconveniences of city living, why move?
4. Kabuki drones. This is an idea I’ve had for a while: little spiderlike drones that pick physical things up and bring them to you, and that are filtered out of your virtual perception, so that from your point of view the objects just come to your hand when you want them, as if by magic.
Goodreads have done a roundup of literacy-related charities. Most of them are specifically US, but there are some international ones, if literacy is something you want to help promote. It has a lot of leverage for improving people’s lives.
This makes sense to me. Not only does a dynamic, innovative economy involve a lot of disruption which requires supporting people as they transition out of jobs that are disappearing into new ones that are coming into existence, but being an entrepreneur is risky. If you weren’t already independently wealthy, would you take the risk of losing your home and your healthcare with no backup? A few people would, but a lot wouldn’t, and that’s potential innovation that everyone is missing out on.
Originally shared by Deborah Teramis Christian
“[A]s numerous Republican lawmakers have made clear, tax reform is only the first part of a broader effort to begin dismantling key components of the social safety net. And yet. . . the old doctrine that the safety net is always and everywhere antithetical to growth is beginning to be reassessed. Dawning instead, as we have observed elsewhere, is a recognition that a high-tech economy fueled by disruptive innovation actually requires a stronger safety net, if only to maintain the public’s tolerance for its inherent dislocations.
Well, that’s my 200th submission since 2012: a reprint to Cast of Wonders.
Forty different pieces, 200 submissions, 161 rejections, 20 acceptances, and I’ve made $1,621.41 USD. (I love The Submission Grinder and how it helps me keep track.)
