Originally shared by Singularity Hub
Big Data Is Helping Us See Environmental Problems in a Whole New Light http://suhub.co/2jj5w1F
This is so ridiculously cool that it has to be exaggerated. Mind-controlled drones providing augmented-reality views to the pilot – and then you scroll down, and they have swarm drones that form what amount to protective force fields?
Doesn’t mean you can’t use these probably fictional drones in your fiction, though.
Turns out that if you consider tasks, not jobs, the picture is rather different.
Originally shared by Singularity Hub
Robots May Steal Our Jobs, but Not as Quickly as We Thought
Want to write in a shared world for pro rates?
Originally shared by As If
Call For Contributors: Science-Fiction Anthology
As If Productions is currently seeking short story writers for a science-fiction/near-future anthology entitled “UbiquiCity”. All stories take place within a “Smart City” of the first world 100 years in the future, where ubiquitous computing has become commonplace. The project will be releasing both an anthology and a sourcebook for RPGs, based on the anthology material. Roleplaying or GMing experience is preferred, but not essential.
Details:
* This is a guided collaborative project. Authors will be working in a curated setting, using characters and plots of their own devising. Guided by this document and the project curator, authors will be encouraged to intertwine their contributions in interesting and logical ways.
* There will be three online meetings, to be held in the first week of Feb, Mar and Apr, respectively. Additional meetings may be called, either for the whole group or just for particular writers whose content interacts, depending on circumstances. Notes will be made available for anyone missing a meeting.
* Final deadline for stories will be Apr 15.
* I’ll be looking for around 5,000 words, on average.
* Expected Publication: Winter 2017.
* Terms: Seeking first world rights in English and exclusive right to publish in print and electronic format for six months after publication date, after which I retain nonexclusive right to continue to publish for the life of the anthology. In addition your characters will be statted for the sourcebook, which is (to that extent) a derivative work.
* Compensation: A paperback copy of the anthology and either $0.06/word on acceptance OR a perpetual share of revenue (based on price received) pro-rated by pagecount.
* Interested? Send a query and backgrounder to everyone@asifproductions.com and use “UbiquiCity” in the subject line. Writing samples may be linked or attached; science fiction preferred.
* Query deadline is 28 Jan 2017
If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.
Looking forward to reading your work!
About the Anthologist: Tod Foley is the founder of As If Productions, specialists in interactive development and game design. He’s the creator of the “DayTrippers” RPG line (a surreal science-fiction reality-hopping RPG), and designer/writer of “Other Borders” (a narrativist game based on Robin Laws’ “DramaSystem”), “Watch the World Die” (a collaborative apocalypse-generation game), “CyberSpace” (an old-school cyberpunk RPG), as well as several roleplaying games and adventure modules for Iron Crown Enterprises. His website is http://asifproductions.com
Originally shared by Singularity Hub
How does stem cell therapy actually work? Peter Diamandis explains, based on his own experience.
TIL:
Originally shared by Adafruit Industries
Mary Somerville: The Woman For Whom The Word “Scientist” Was Made #WomenInSTEM
Via All That is Interesting
When we think of history’s great scientists, names such as Isaac Newton, Galileo Galilei, or Nicolaus Copernicus likely come to mind. The funny thing is that the term “scientist” wasn’t coined until 1834 — well after these men had died — and it was a woman named Mary Somerville who brought it into being in the first place.
Mary Somerville was an almost entirely self-taught polymath whose areas of study included math, astronomy, and geology – just to name a few. That Somerville had such a constellation of interests, and possessed two X chromosomes, would signal a need to create a new term for someone like her — and scientific historian William Whewell would do precisely that upon reading her treatise, On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences, in 1834.
After reading the 53-year-old Somerville’s work, he wanted to pen a glowing review of it. He encountered a problem, however: The term du jour for such an author would have been “man of science,” and that just didn’t fit Somerville.
In a pinch, the well-known wordsmith coined the term “scientist” for Somerville. Whewell did not intend for this to be a gender-neutral term for “man of science;” rather, he made it in order to reflect the interdisciplinary nature of Somerville’s expertise. She was not just a mathematician, astronomer, or physicist; she possessed the intellectual acumen to weave these concepts together seamlessly.
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Clothing is some of our most gendered cultural equipment. This is an interesting insight.
Originally shared by Deborah Teramis Christian
This is a very interesting read.
“Motivated by Octieber and determined to combat the world of gendered clothing, Lucy Rycroft-Smith tries menswear for a month and documents her findings”
Just sold a short story to Compelling Science Fiction for their March issue. That’s my fourth pro sale, and my first this year.
For context, I’ve had 144 rejections in five years, including six for this story.
One for the fantasy crowd.
Via Karen Conlin. I love this kind of stuff when it comes up in SFF.
Originally shared by Able Lawrence