Jim Baen's Universe

What's New in The Future And You

Columns

The Future And You, April 2007

Written by Stephen Euin Cobb

Listen as David Drake, Alan Dean Foster, Dave Freer, Ginjer Buchanan, Paul Levinson and Lucienne Diver describe many of the technological and social changes which will alter your life during the next few years.

The Future And You is an award-winning audio podcast about the future which may be downloaded and enjoyed, or even copied and shared, for free. Every episode contains many interviews which reveal a wide variety of ideas and opinion from a wide variety of people.

****

The April 1, 2007 episode includes all of the following and more:

Apartheid ended thirteen years ago, so what are the trends within South Africa today? And what misconceptions do outsiders have about South Africa? Dave Freer, who was born and raised in South Africa, talks of this as well as his scientific profession: ichthyology (the study of fish), and the thousands of times he has been scuba diving, and one dive in particular when he got his arm caught in a shellfish tunnel and very nearly drowned.

With half the Japanese populous reading eBooks on their cell phones and Steve Jobs intent on combining cell phones with iPods for computerless downloading of music, podcasts and audio books, just how fast are the changes coming? Ginjer Buchanan (Senior Executive Editor and Marketing Director of Ace and ROC books) talks of this as well as: why William Gibson is a national hero in Japan, the increasing feminization of America, the Vatican's website, why young editors must create for themselves a niche, and her fear that unemployment is the fate of all those who create, transport and sell physical books: from press operators and truck drivers to clerks in the giant chain bookstores.

Less-than-lethal weapons will soon take their place on the battlefield, but will they actually change anything? No, says Alan Dean Foster, and he explains why. He also addresses the probability of the world entering a new dark age, and he disagrees with the host's notion that New Orleans can be used as a miniature example of the fall of civilization.

Are SF writers really trying to predict the future? Hugo Gernsback thought he was predicting, but were H.G. Wells or Jules Verne also trying to be predictors? Many people think so but David Drake says no and backs it up with specific examples.

Have audio book downloads become a bigger trend than eBook downloads? What about giving away free eBooks? Lucienne Diver, one of America's top literary agents, talks of this as well as her frustration with the large pharmaceutical companies and her skepticism over whether or not future medicine will ever provide a cure for the cryonics process.

Does the world need more people rather than less? Paul Levinson suggests that, since intelligence is our best resource then more people will produce more intelligence, more innovation and a more rapid improvement to the human condition. He also addresses other questions: Is another dark age unlikely because (unlike in the ancient world) today there are so many copies of humanity's collected knowledge? And is the fall of New Orleans (due to hurricane Katrina) a good example of how civilizations fall? And if so what can we learn from it?

We also include another installment in our serialization of the Hard SF novel, Bones Burnt Black; and Walt Boyes (The Bananaslug) & Stoney Compton do their bit to let the world at large know what's in the current issue of Jim Baen's Universe.

News items in the April 1, 2007 episode include: (a) TV channels from around the globe may be watched online for free by going to MyEasyTV.com; (b) your humble host proposes his fix for the confusion produced by dropped cell phone calls; (c) your host's latest, and shortest, test for social equality; and (d) your host will appear at RavenCon in Richmond VA, USA (April 20-22, 2007) and at ConCarolinas in Charlotte NC, USA (June 1-3, 2007).

****

And if the current episode's ideas and opinion are not enough to satisfy your curiosity about the future check out the previous month's episode which contains John Barnes, Kim Stanley Robinson, Elizabeth Bear, L.E. Modesitt, Jr., Stoney Compton and Ginjer Buchanan discussing all the following and more:

Everyone agrees that Generation Y is the most connected Generation ever, but are its members so obsessed with being in complete consensus on everything that they are horrified of being in open disagreement? And if so, how will this alter America ten years from now when "Generation Y" will comprise 40% of all American consumers? John Barnes is a consulting semiotician and has done a great deal of study on this subject.

What if everyone hypertexted within all their conversations? What if you never had to define your terms because those not familiar with them could look them up faster than you could have provided the explanation. Might those people hypertext-enabled become frustrated at the slowness of your conversational data rate if you did pause to define them? Elizabeth Bear thinks so, and has many other ideas about the future and the Singularity.

What if Russia still owned Alaska? What if Lennon and Trotsky had remained nobodies and the Czar and Czarina ruled to this very day? Understanding how history pivots on trivial occurrences can provide insights into the changes we will all face in the future. Stoney Compton, a life-long student of history and alternate history, talks of both and shares a few personal anecdotes about Alaska and its native Athabaskan Indians.

Imagine you're standing in line in a cafeteria but federal regulations will not allow you to buy any kind of soft drink or any kind of fried food. Now imagine that there are tens of thousands of similarly restrictive cafeterias all across America. How can this be? Simple, these are the cafeterias in public schools. To learn the trends our future wage earners are experiencing I spoke with Ricki Dean, manager of a high school cafeteria in Columbia County Georgia.

Many full-time authors saw their careers come to an abrupt end when sales of horror books collapsed in the 1980's. Could this happen all over again to one of the other genres? Ginjer Buchanan, Senior Executive Editor and Marketing Director of Ace and ROC books, talks of this as well as the rapidly growing popularity of audio books: a trend the big houses have spotted and are making a serious effort not to be left out of.

What would you do differently today if you knew for certain that your generation would live three hundred years? Kim Stanley Robinson tackles this question and its social ramifications since he sees it as a genuine possibility based on what he has been hearing from his friends within the field of biotechnology. He also covers cryonics, SETI and our next earth.

Stores and shops are filled with every variety of goods, but does this variety give us only the "Illusion of Choice?" L.E. Modesitt Jr. suggests that it does. He also talks of his concern that we will be forced to rely on fossil fuels much farther into the future than anyone would like to admit.

We also include another installment in our serialization of the Hard SF novel, Bones Burnt Black; as well as the official segment from Jim Baen's Universe in which Walt Boyes (The Bananaslug) & Stoney Compton take us inside the greatest online science fiction and fantasy magazine in the world, this time by presenting a reading by Louise Marley of the opening scenes of her short story The Spiral Road which is in the February 1, 2007 issue of Jim Baen's Universe magazine.

News items in this episode include: (a) your host will appear at RavenCon in Richmond VA, USA the weekend of April 20-22, 2007; (b) a new version of Death Stacks which you may play online for free and which requires no download; (c) how you may prove for yourself that there's no such thing as a Chinese Journalist; and (d) why there is a 15 percent probability that Al Gore will be the next US president.

****

Here's a bit more detail on two of the news items from these two episodes:

You may now play Death Stacks online (without downloading anything). A web based version of this strategy board game—which was invented by the host of The Future And You, Stephen Euin Cobb—has been created by the same artificial intelligence programmer who released a downloadable version (which is still available). Those who wish to may read more about Death Stacks in the Wikipedia article. No word yet if the programmer intends to enter his heuristic software to compete in the—so far, human-dominated—Annual Death Stacks Tournament which is only a few months away and will be held at the Marriott Executive Hotel in Charlotte NC as part of the SF&F convention ConCarolinas.

Listeners may visit with the host of The Future And You at any of the following SF&F conventions: RavenCon in Richmond VA (April 20-22, 2007), ConCarolinas in Charlotte NC (June 1-3, 2007), LibertyCon in Chattanooga TN (July 27-29, 2007) or DragonCon in Atlanta GA (August 31-September 3, 2007).

****

And finally, here's a little throwaway idea I came up with on March 16, 2007.

Lately I've been seeing a lot of TV commercials about cell phones in which the signal is lost and the call is dropped which causes terrible misunderstandings such as failed romances or someone losing their job. Obsessive problem solver that I am, this started me thinking of how the problem could be fixed. After two minutes of thought the solution became obvious: cell phone software should be redesigned to let every user choose their own personal background music which will play softly and constantly throughout every phone call they make and will be transmitted in the same signal that carries their voice. This way, if the connection is lost, even for a fraction of a second and even if they are not talking during the loss, the other person will know instantly that the connection was lost because the music was not transmitted and fell silent. Never again need anyone spend thirty seconds talking to dead air.

****

You can learn more about this podcast here, or here or even here.

Or learn more about its host here or here.

****