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24 Vol 4 Num 6 April 2010
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What to Expect in the Next Ten Years
Wed, Mar 24, 2010
Here follows a sampling of changes you will likely see during the next ten years.
Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Singularity?
Sun, Jan 24, 2010
Artificial intelligence is a highly controversial topic for professional futurists.
We Will Transmute the Elements
Wed, Sep 23, 2009
There was a time, in humanity’s dim past, before the invention of cooking, when our ability to produce a chemical reaction was limited almost exclusively to fire.
Two Steps Toward General AI
Tue, Jul 21, 2009
People are not comfortable spending time with someone who refuses to speak.
Thinking About SF
Fri, Jun 26, 2009
At this crucial point in history, one fact seems to be universally acknowledged, even across a bitter political spectrum.
The Future of the War Between the Sexes
Sun, May 24, 2009
Because human beings are social creatures they have a highly-developed ability to observe tiny variations in personality, and so they perceive the long clichéd personality differences between their sexes to be large.
The Other Singularity: The Singularity of Connectedness
Thu, Mar 19, 2009
Many people do not believe there will ever be a Technological Singularity.
Five Famous Authors do Public Appearances in Second Life
Mon, Jan 26, 2009
“I really enjoyed my appearance in Second Life,” Robert J. Sawyer said, “and I mean that both literally and figuratively. Literally, my appearance was buff, with muscles and hair, the former of which I've never had much of and the latter of which has long been gone. Figuratively, the appearance was a blast: I was there to talk about my novel Rollback, which, in its way, is a transhumanist/extropian novel—about radical life extension. So, I was preaching to the converted, and they were a very friendly lot.”
Transhumanism's Universal Success is Unavoidable
Thu, Jul 24, 2008
Every goal of transhumanism will be achieved.
Tales of the Prozines
Mon, Jul 14, 2008
There is a lot more to the science fiction magazines than the stories they run.
The Coming Popularity and Power of Luddism
Sun, May 18, 2008
Once upon a time a man got laid off from his job.
Cosmic Electricity
Tue, May 6, 2008
There's a story about a physics student who was asked in an exam question how he would use a barometer to determine the height of a tall building.
Becoming Stewards of Our World: The Great Theme of the 21st Century, Part Two, Editing the Sun: A Way Out Way Out
Wed, Mar 19, 2008
Our biosphere doesn’t respond on the time scales of our institutions.
Earth's Next Schism
Sun, Mar 16, 2008
A schism has formed inside the virtual world called Second Life.
What I’ve Learned Interviewing Futurists
Wed, Jan 23, 2008
Two years of asking people for their expectations about the future has radically changed my view of what is to come.
Becoming Stewards of Our World: The Great Theme of the 21st Century, Part One
Mon, Jan 14, 2008
The deep secret about global warming is that the conventional wisdom solution is a lie.
Rubber Sciences
Sun, Oct 21, 2007
Science fiction and politics are, in theory, arts of the possible, just as fantasy and religion are arts of the impossible.
Why Do So Many People Resist the Idea of Global Warming?
Sat, Sep 15, 2007
I think I have the answer.
Why Carol Won't Sit Next To Me At Science Fiction Movies
Thu, Aug 30, 2007
Carol has a high threshold for embarrassment. You can't be married to me for 45 years and not have one.
The Perpetual Electron
Wed, Jul 18, 2007
Many of the articles this humble author writes must be considered speculative. The goal of speculation is to generate new ideas, new visions and new interpretations of what is and what might be.
My Father's Watch
Thu, Mar 22, 2007
If you thumb through a new and freshly printed physics textbook from any university on Earth, you will be looking at the culmination of centuries of careful work by thousands of dedicated scientists; such a book is a treasure beyond description, easily comparable to the lost library of Alexandria.
Scandals: Being True To Our Own Imaginations
Mon, Feb 5, 2007
Physics has been the forerunner of much of modern science, but perhaps we don't have enough verve, the true courage of our convictions.
Last Things: Cold Comfort in the Far Future
Mon, Feb 5, 2007
...the use, however haltingly, of our imaginations upon the possibilities of the future is a valuable spiritual exercise.
The Universal Diagram
Thu, Jan 18, 2007
Occasionally, important advances in scientific understanding are made not by gathering more or better data, or by developing a new and radical theory, but by simply experimenting with a new way of displaying the data that everyone has already examined to their satisfaction.
S.S. Sunbeam
Sat, Dec 16, 2006
A new Age of Sail is dawning. One in which the ships sail through outer space, not on water; and are propelled by the sunlight, not wind.
Genre Getaways on Earth
Mon, Nov 27, 2006
Science fiction and fantasy films have some fabulous locations: the United Federation of Planets, a galaxy far, far away, and Middle Earth, to name a few.
The Essay with No Title (until its end)
Fri, Nov 24, 2006
Based on what we have seen of the rise of life on our planet, one can extrapolate that there are three basic needs for life to develop elsewhere in the universe.
A Pocket History of MacroEngineering: The First Millennium
Tue, Sep 26, 2006
From the standpoint of a person in that distant past age around the year 2000, the central issues of the next thousand years would seem bizarre.
Jim Baen October 22, 1943 - June 28, 2006
Tue, Aug 1, 2006
Jim Baen called me on the afternoon of June 11. He generally phoned on weekends, and we'd usually talk a couple more times in the course of a week; but this was the last time.
Jim Baen October 22, 1943 - June 28, 2006
Thu, Jun 29, 2006
Jim Baen, our publisher passed away quietly around 5PM Wed. 28 June 2006.
Doing a Slow Turn
Thu, Apr 27, 2006
Lately, like a lot of other Americans, I have been trying to understand our national affliction called "Culture War."
Back to the Moon
Fri, Mar 24, 2006
"As I take these last steps from the surface for some time in the future to come, I'd just like to record that America's challenge of today has forged man's destiny of tomorrow. And as we leave the moon and Taurus-Littrow, we leave as we came, and, God willing, we shall return, with peace and hope for mankind." These are the words said by astronaut Gene Cernan, the commander of Apollo 17, as he stepped from the moon in preparation to return to Earth.
Terraforming: A Bumpy Road Ahead
Fri, Feb 10, 2006
I grew up watching Marvin the Martian and Bugs Bunny fight it out over the Illudim Pew-36 Explosive Space Modulator. Along the way, I also had a run-in with Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, Robinson Crusoe on Mars, E. E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman series, the earlier works of Robert Heinlein and a whole host of works that depicted Mars as a vital, life bearing world. Venus often followed along side, usually as a world of swamps and tropical jungles.
Gods and Monsters in Hollywood
Tue, Feb 7, 2006
Movies are just so bad. Gregory Benford wonders why...
