We SF writers often write about new technologies that work the way they’re supposed to. That leads to interesting stories – but what about the familiar reality of technology that doesn’t quite work right?
Originally shared by Eduardo Suastegui
The Neurologist Who #Hacked His Brain—And Almost Lost His #Mind #neuroscience
“Neurologist Phil Kennedy set out to build the ultimate brain-computer interface. In the process he almost lost his mind…”
Lindsay Buroker is one of those indie authors who make a steady living writing midlist books. Is there a “secret formula”? Well, not as such.
Write competently, publish consistently, build an audience, keep new readers coming in, and try things out until one of them clicks.
Modular electronics. Something that Sparx, the electromancer from my Auckland Allies series, would definitely be into.
Originally shared by Laston Kirkland
“Last year, says Elmieh, he and his team took apart 600 products released since 2012 and found that 80 percent of them could be built from just 15 common electronic components.”
http://www.wired.com/2016/01/nascent-objects-an-ambitious-plan-to-stop-us-from-wasting-our-gadgets
Orson Scott Card’s book on Characters and Viewpoint is well worthwhile even for the intermediate writer, though it would also be great for a beginner if you worked through it slowly.
He takes care throughout to relate the techniques to their effect on the reader, and explains them clearly and well, with plenty of examples.
Here’s your flying car. Of course, it’s self-driving as well.
Originally shared by Eduardo Suastegui
The FAA will definitely require you register this #drone… Which might also appear in one of my upcoming stories…
http://nerdist.com/drones-for-people-to-ride-in-ehang-184-ces-2016/
N. K. Jemisin has a new column in the New York Times Sunday Book Review, and here’s the first instalment. I might take a look at the Charlie Jane Anders book; it sounds interesting.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/03/books/review/the-latest-in-science-fiction-and-fantasy.html
To pair with the earlier piece about echo chambers. Via Masha du Toit.
Originally shared by Jim Tipping
“Proctor had found that the cigarette industry did not want consumers to know the harms of its product, and it spent billions obscuring the facts of the health effects of smoking. This search led him to create a word for the study of deliberate propagation of ignorance: agnotology.
“It comes from agnosis, the neoclassical Greek word for ignorance or ‘not knowing’, and ontology, the branch of metaphysics which deals with the nature of being. Agnotology is the study of wilful acts to spread confusion and deceit, usually to sell a product or win favour.”
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160105-the-man-who-studies-the-spread-of-ignorance
With my permission, Fantasy Literature (FanLit) is republishing some of my reviews for books that their regular reviewers haven’t covered. Here’s the latest.
Originally shared by Fantasy Literature (FanLit)
Pratchett’s Women: An interesting perspective on a fantasy legend
Story idea starter.
Originally shared by Will Shetterly
“The spread of misinformation online is becoming so pervasive that the World Economic Forum listed it as one of their global risks to society in 2013, alongside terrorism and cyberattacks.”
A good start for 2016: the first book I’ve finished this year earns five stars and the “well-edited” tag.
If you’re up for beautifully written YA with a wonderful character voice, an author who really understands chronic illness, skyships, bird people, a suspenseful plot and fantastical worldbuilding, here it all is.