Alan Boyle and I talk You Call This The Future? along with science fiction, the singularity and a few other fun things over at MSNBC's Cosmic Log: Why The Future Goes Flooey.
Kilian Melloy reviews You Call This The Future? for EDGE Boston, calling it "well written" and "a fast, absorbing read that possesses a kinetic feel."
Does a lead foot count as a bionic implant? I've run into two speeding tickets this past month, which is atypical for me. In my entire life, I've only received one other speeding ticket and that was years ago. I'm not sure why I've recently decided to embody a Sammy Hagar song, but I've got to take it easy, as three speeding tickets in an eighteen month period is a big no-no and can zap your driver's license.
So now I'm driving in a slow, stressed, overly paranoid fashion. Which is maybe how we're ideally supposed to drive. In the past, I've just tried to be alert to my surroundings and to stay with the flow of traffic, but now if someone's five or ten miles over the limit I won't keep pace with them.
Star Trek style transporters are sounding pretty good these days. In the meantime, it looks like traffic school for me.
After the laptop crashed, the desktop became jealous of all the attention it was getting and crashed as well. Fortunately, today both systems are up and running again, and now with automatic backups in place to make sure any future data loss is minimized. There was a little trouble restoring email, but that's since been sorted.
If you've written me and haven't heard back yet, apologies for that, and the crashes may be why. Now that I have email restored I'm hopeful I can catch up on my online communications sometime over the next few days. And as some email may have gotten lost among the crashes, please don't hesitate to write me again if you don't hear back from me soon.
Yikes. My Powerbook screen went blue today and now it won't boot up properly. Not good. As a veteran of previous catastrophic hard drive crashes, I've learned the hard way to back up my files every couple of days. So the good news is most of my data is safe on a key drive, and the even better news is I've just spent the past few hours successfully rewriting the pages that might have been irrevocably lost.
The rational part of my brain is certain that I've got everything of importance. Of course, there's this horrible, irrational part that fears I've forgotten something really good and if the fine folks at the Apple Store aren't able to save the hard drive it'll be gone forever, but I'm 99% sure that thought isn't based in reality.
In any case, the moral of the story (which I'm sure you've heard before) is to back up your data constantly. At least once a day. Friends have recommended an automatic back up and/or backing up to an online server, and while I've been reluctant to do either, the idea is sounding better and better.
Now by rule I'm not a big drinker, but my exceptions are science fiction conventions and computer crashes. I'm off to track down a glass bottle of vodka.
Happy leap year! Here's what I've been up to:
You Call This The Future? The Greatest Inventions Sci-Fi Imagined And Science Promised will be hitting bookshelves this April.
It's a collaboration with Mark Frary and Andy Walker, two wonderful science & technology writers. I'm holding an advance copy in my hand and I'm very happy with what a fun and informative read it is.
You Call This The Future? is an exploration of technologies that have tantalized us in science fiction for many years but have yet to materialize in the world of today. We go in search of flying cars, warp drives, artificial intelligence, time travel, terraforming and many more, with a total of 50 inventions in all. How are we doing on those cybernetic exoskeletons? What's the hold up on force fields?
Hope you pick up a copy and enjoy it as much as I've enjoyed working on it.
Courtesy of the good folks at Roc, allow me to present the mass market paperback edition of Idlewild. You can find it in bookstores now. The complete trilogy goes mass market this year, with Edenborn out in the spring and Everfree hitting stores in the summer.
I loved the original covers but there's something powerful about what they're doing with the reprints. Coming of age can feel like the end of the world was a phrase that played in my head while writing Idlewild, and it's a thrill to see it rendered here so hauntingly.
One night when I was in my terrible twos, my parents wanted a much needed night on the town and had arranged for my grandparents to take care of me, but I wasn’t having any of that because I was heartbroken over a missing L. Sesame Street and The Electric Company had me in their spell back then—so much so that my favorite toys were plastic letters. Scrambling them and unscrambling them into words—well, for me, that was the Superbowl, World Series and NBA Finals all rolled into one. And to my toddler brain, a missing letter was a tragedy of unparalleled proportions because it cut down on the number of words I could make. So there I was crying hysterically and my parents were trying to explain that it might be lost now but we could find it later, or maybe go out and buy a new one tomorrow, but no, not tonight because the stores are all closed. I was inconsolable. Instead of saying “enough is enough” or letting it be my mother or my grandparents’ problem, my poor dad spent twenty minutes scouring the house for this plastic letter, eventually getting down on his hands and knees to find the L behind the radiator. Triumphantly, he brought it to me. “Look, Nick, I found the L.” So I paused in mid-cry to see what he’d done and exclaimed, “That’s an orange L! I wanted a purple L!”
Reflecting back on that story, I’m struck by his kindness and empathy. He took the time to see things from my perspective, unreasonable two year old though I was, and unselfishly helped me because he knew how important that letter was to me. There was nothing pretentious about him. He had a scientist’s humility.
Yesterday, I received a cold call from a woman wanting to “clean up Hollywood,” reaching out to people at random to complain that the industry puts out so few G rated movies compared to years ago, and how television is subjecting young people to entertainment that fails to promote family values. She wasn’t in favor of censorship, she claimed, but she was part of an action group that wanted to put pressure on the industry and “tighten up the rating system.” Now that’s an interesting issue to me, and I happen to be on the other side of it, so I politely countered that parents should simply monitor the entertainment their children are watching, and what exactly do you consider “family values?” What offends one person may not offend another. I had the sense she was following a script, because every time I’d answer one of her questions, she’d not quite address what I was saying and would instead move on to her next talking point. Ultimately, she realized I wasn’t inclined to support her cause, and mumbled a “thank you for your time” before hanging up. And I realized that I'd been naive—she wasn’t interested in discussing the issue at all. She just wanted recruitment. It’s a shame because a real, open conversation might have left one or both of us with a fresh perspective.
(As it turns out, I wasn't talking to a live person at all. Hat Tip: Thanny.)
Since that call, I’ve found myself thinking wistfully about conversations with my dad. Many times when we were on opposite sides of a social issue, the back and forth would be not only spirited but genuinely productive, with each showing the other a perspective that had not been considered. He’d make a point, and I could feel my understanding deepen. It would force me to rethink my position. To evolve. I’m sure he moved me from my position more often than I moved him, and yet I remember the times he’d smile in appreciation of something I’d said. “Ah, that’s a good point,” he’d say, and he’d look at the issue again with a new point of view. That’s the honesty and humility that comes with science, and I’m struck by how little of it there is in the public discourse today.
There’s a Zen expression: “Enlightenment can come only after humility.” My father once said:
“In science it often happens that scientists say, ‘You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,’ and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.”
It’s such an important message. Stand up for what you believe, but don’t be so stubborn that you can’t learn and change from another’s reasoned argument. So the question I would ask is this: How should we bring the sincerity and openness of science to the rest of our society? How best to enlighten our leaders and ourselves?
I view the blog-a-thon both as a tribute to the man who led so many of us to science, to skepticism, and to view our universe with a sense of majesty and wonder, and as a call for Carl Sagan fans to come together and exchange ideas in the hopes of making the world a better place. I’m grateful to Ann Druyan, Joel Schlosberg, Bryan and Dave of the Celebrating Sagan website, and to all of you who take part each year. Thank you for sharing your memories, your stories of inspiration. I know my father would be overjoyed.
Tomorrow is the anniversary of the first Carl Sagan Memorial Blog-a-thon, and I'm happy to report that Joel Schlosberg is carrying on the tradition by coordinating one for this year.
Thanks in advance to those of you who choose to blog about my father's life and/or work tomorrow. I'll have a blog entry up here to mark the occasion, as will Ann Druyan over at carlsagan.com.
Here's my post from last year, "Memories Of My Dad."
And here's a link to the Celebrating Sagan blog.
My friend Peter Hyoguchi (whose surname I borrowed when creating Dr. James Hyoguchi for my trilogy) has made an excellent short documentary on the WGA strike, and if you have a few minutes it's well worth the watch, as it presents a side of screenwriters that many don't get the chance to see.
And on the topic of Peter Hyoguchi, allow me to recommend both his award-winning feature film, First, Last and Deposit, and his Interviewing Hollywood website where he puts the questions to a variety of interesting writers, actors and directors.
Nick-the-novelist continues to work away, but for the past few days Nick-the-screenwriter has been on strike. I'm sure this strike is going to hurt a lot of people before it's over, but it's for a good cause, and I'm proud to stand in solidarity with my fellow TV and film writers. If you haven't seen it already, here's a handy YouTube primer on the issues of the strike, what's at stake, and what the WGA is fighting for.
I'm racing a deadline over here (what else is new?), but I couldn't let the day go by without checking in and wishing all of you a happy Halloween. Hope you're having a terrific time tonight. Everything's fine with me, just endlessly busy, trying to knock some work out before I head off to World Fantasy Con. Today is the two year anniversary of this blog, and though I haven't been as active on it as I'd like, I'm looking forward to finding a little time in the near future to share what's been on my mind. And also to catch up on email and comments. (Apologies for being slow!)
MSNBC.com invited me to weigh in on what the NFL might look like in 25 years, so I wrote an article arguing that it's going to be exactly like Flash Gordon.
Okay, maybe not exactly like Flash Gordon, but any time you combine futurism and football, the possibilities are sure to be fun. Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. You can check it out here.
It's been thirty years since the first launch of a Voyager spacecraft. Voyager 2 took flight on August 20, 1977, with Voyager 1 following on September 5th.
NASA is celebrating the anniversary not only with the above commemorative pin, but with an article by Janna Brancolini called, Voyager at 30: Looking Beyond and Within. Ann Druyan, Ed Stone and I were interviewed for this, and I spoke about having my voice on the Golden Record. Here's an excerpt:
[Nick] Sagan said he began to realize what the record meant as he got older, and as a teen he started to realize what a "strange but wonderful honor" it was. "It's been a challenge for the rest of my life to live up to that honor. It's always there in my subconscious," he said.
You can download the complete article here.
Well, it's been a crazy few weeks, but a good crazy. Now that I'm on the other side of the semester, I'm looking forward to updating you on how things have been here in my neck of the woods. But for now, here's a follow up to my Vegetable Soup post from last year. Clips from the episodes are now available on YouTube.com. Come take a look at the very well meaning and yet strangely terrifying children's programming I grew up on.
Crash Landing:
The March to the Throne:
The Trail is Discovered:
Betty Surprises Them All:
With all the disturbing, depressing events in the news this week, I'm struck by the forward thinking and all around goodness of Rocky Mountain Futurevisions. Founder Brian Vox states:
We hope to create a sense of wonder, excitement, inspiration, and fun with these visions of a possible tomorrow. It is our mission to help engender a positive attitude toward the future in young and old alike. Please feel free to explore the site and let your mind soar into a better tomorrow.
The site's filled with futurism, technology, artwork of what tomorrow might look like, and a video about nano-replication. Weeks ago, Brian kindly invited me to contribute to the Futurist Forum, which asks intriguing questions like, "If visitors from the year 2057 traveled back through time to the present, what message do you think they would give to us?" and "What do you think is the biggest threat to prolonged human survival?" Among those asked: Sustainability Consultant Daniel Bowers, Musician Mike Garson, and Industrial Designer Jacque Fresco. Well worth checking out.
I'm really taken with this rendering of Halloween, and I've been meaning to post it here for the longest time. It's the work of Cyclo, who was kind enough to send it to me as a gift. I'm always happy when something I've written stays with a person after he's read it, and it's a thrill to find that my words would inspire someone to take the time to create something as cool as this.
Between this Halloween and the Halloween that Annah Hutchings created, I'm never at a loss for creative inspiration where my main character's concerned. I'm very fortunate to have such talented artists among my fans.
The wonderful folks at Penguicon have invited me to join the fun as a "Nifty Guest." It's flattering to be invited as a Program Participant, and that "Nifty" title is a special upgrade which puts me in illustrious company. I'm honored. Here's the 411 on Penguicon:
Time again for the Linux/OSS and Science Fiction/Fantasy convention, Penguicon, in Troy, Michigan April 20 through April 22nd, 2007. This year's guests include Bruce Schneier, Charlie Stross, Christine Peterson, Steve Jackson, Randy Milholland, and Elizabeth Bear.
It's an anarchic hotbed of intelligence and creativity, a geek Woodstock, a true Nerdvana. At Penguicon, you can be discussing characters with your favorite author one moment, getting help installing Linux on your laptop the next, and enjoying a swordfighting demonstration in your spare time. Penguicon is where creative and technical dreamers meet the visionaries who are creating the future.
Should be a whole lot of fun, and hopefully no one will mind that I know very little absolutely nothing about Linux. I've signed up for a couple of panels, including one that's featured in the advertising:
SF authors John Scalzi and Nick Sagan, and the filker Tom Smith, and "The TRON Guy" Jay Maynard will give goofy films the MST3K treatment.
Epic, no? Two deranged science fiction writers, a master filker, and a veritable internet phenomenon. I'd like to see the goofy film this panel can't riff on.
All in all, I'm looking forward to panelling, hanging out with friends, signing books, meeting all kinds of new people, and drinking myself silly generally having a good time. If you're going to be in the Troy area, I hope you'll swing by and say hello.
Warm weather has brought out the wasps. They're inside the house, wriggling in through tiny cracks. My strategy has been to let them land on the windows, and then suck them up with a vaccuum. That's working. They're drawn to sunlight, so windows are a good place to check for them, and I've found that several stationary wasps clinging to the windows are much easier to deal with than one angry, buzzing wasp which won't land and instead keeps circling your head.
Seeing these beautiful flying needles emerge from hibernation makes me think of two things:
1.) It's about time for me to read Iain Banks' The Wasp Factory again.
2.) This blog has been in a state of hibernation for far too long. If the wasps are emerging after a long winter, perhaps my posts can follow suit.
So that's the plan. Expect more activity here over the next few weeks than in weeks past, as there's a number of things I'm looking forward to blogging about. (Starting with my upcoming trip to Penguicon; I'll have a post about that later today.)
Hope the world's been treating you well since last we spoke. What's going on in your neck of the woods?
Recently, I've been organizing my thoughts for my screenwriting class, and the prep work has been illuminating. This is subject matter I know well, but now I'm forced to reexamine why I believe what I believe, and in the process I'm discovering all sorts of wonderful, new things. Love it, love it, love it. The left and right hemispheres of my brain are playing off each other in ways I enjoy, which means the decision to teach this class is already paying off. Very jazzed I decided to do this; hopefully that feeling stays with me all semester long. I'm encouraged that it will, in part because all the applications I received had something interesting going for them. Not fun turning any of the students away, but with so many applicants after so few slots, that's the nature of the beast.
Hmm. I wonder if there's any chance my class will wind up like this?
Happy 2007, everyone. Here's to a great new year!
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