HOT NEWS!

Through Stranger Eyes

A collection of my book reviews, introductions and essays on popular culture will soon be released in the Western Hemisphere by Nimble Books and in the Eastern Hemisphere by Altair (Australia). Included will be those infamous articles about Tolkien and Star Wars, sober reflections on Jared Diamond's Collapse, and Rebecca Solnit's River of Shadows, scientific ponderings on Feynman and Gott, appraisals of Brunner, Resnick, Zelazny, Verne, and Orwell... all the way to fun riffs on the Matrix and Buffy! Watch for news here!

Second Lifers

My recent single-speaker event on Second Life -- helping the Extropian group commemorate the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's first manned spaceflight -- was one of the most popular and well-attended events in 2L history. The avatars and world-aspects are getting better all the time and it was great fun, chatting away with so many lively people. (See my own avatar here, professionally made and accurate everywhere but the waistline!) Alas, though, everything about how conversation, actual ideas, and discourse get exchanged is still utterly primitive... no better than when I used a teletype on one of the world's first university networks, back in 1971! Elsewhere I go on (at flamboyant length!) about how much better we might be doing at communicating online if actual human discourse ever got anywhere near the priority given to sexy bod-mods!

Watch Me Watch You

Some upcoming events where I'll be speaking:

The Grand Challenge

A year ago, the Computer Graphics Society ran a "Grand Challenge," resulting in marvelous images, animations, and even movie trailers, for Greg Bear's wonderful novel, EON. Now, it's my turn to inspire the next of these challenges! Starting March 19, individual artists and teams have three months to illustrate moments or scenes or trailers based upon my Uplift Universe. Tell your artist friends! The results are likely to be stunning.

Mr. History Channel?

Since I was part of the team for "The Architechs," I've done appearances on "The Universe" and "Life After People" (the top rated History Channel show ever.)

Openness About Openness

My 1997 book, The Transparent Society, continues to generate controversy! I recently posted a rebuttal (originally published by Wired.com) to commentator Bruce Schneier's assertion that any civilization based upon general, reciprocal openness would be a major departure from our present social contract. Something "different than before."

Echoes of Ecco

I'm told that the wonderful old Dreamcast game -- Ecco the Dolphin -- has been re-issued as a downloadable for the Nintendo Wii. It happens I wrote that game! Or, at least, I wrote the storyline and scenario and introduction. It's terrific. Under-rated.

Smarter Mobs

The latest issue of Baen's UNIVERSE MAGAZINE is online, containing two big items from yours truly -- Part Five of my comedic serial "The Ancient Ones"... plus a novella "The Smartest Mob." The latter is an excerpt from my novel in progress, another huge, lavish, near-future exploration, like EARTH. This one is the best portrayal of rapid, tech-empowered citizen action that you'll see, this side of Vernor Vinge! Subscribe to the best online magazine ever!

The Crystal Sphere

Check out the StarShipSofa site, where they have some really terrific podcasts of classic science fiction stories. They made an earnest effort to recite "The Crystal Spheres" -- though it's a very hard story to do in audio, filled with combined-words that most readers need to eye scan a few times in order to grasp or put in context. Something most can do unconsciously, but cannot do in audio. That understood, this narrator does a fine job with this Hugo-winning story.

Life After Life After People

Serving as a futurist pundit, I opened and closed the History Channel show "Life After People" -- which became the network's best-watched telecast ever, with 5.4 million viewers. Somewhat better than my earlier show for the HC -- "The ArchiTechs." ("Five geniuses are challenged: Design better safety/rescue systems for skyscrapers... in 48 hours!") Those more interested a hurried roller-coaster of ideas about "saving the Enlightenment" might visit my speech at the "Beyond Belief: Enlightenment 2.0" conference. For other appearances on Nova and Discovery Channel shows, see Speaking and Podcasts.

Cometary Research

For many years now, every science show -- from Nova to UNIVERSE -- that has done an episode about comets has portrayed the cometary nucleus as a dark, spinning mass, covered with dust, except for a geyser-like fountain or two, bursting steam through the mantle layer and spewing particles into space. Would it shock anybody out there to learn that this was my original theory? Drawn out in my doctoral dissertation at UCSD, way back in 1980? The same hypothesis is also featured in a novel I wrote with Gregory Benford, Heart of the Comet, which appeared just before the European Giotto mission approached Halley in 1986... and confirmed this model, down to the last detail. Now, you can view the Astrophysical Journal paper that started it all, "Three Models of Dust Layers on Cometary Nuclei." See also an abstract of my dissertation itself: "Evolution of Cometary Nuclei as Influenced by a Dust Component."

A Whole New Tribes

For you gamers, a new edition of Tribes comes out next Spring! Designed by Steve Jackson and me, it is a terrific social game for extended parties... and also scientifically interesting as a simulation of the tradeoffs that men and women faced, living in the Neolithic.

Help Deserving Capitalists

Forbes Magazine recently interviewed a number of futurists (including me) on the topic of predicting business and societal trends.

"My biggest surprise was to see America swept by a major, societywide case of Alvin Toffler's future shock when that '2' arrived in the millennium column. I didn't see it at first, because, back at the turn of the century, it seemed that folks were taking the milestone in stride. And yet, masked beneath layers of surface bravado, people appear to have developed a jittery alienation toward concepts like 'the future,' or the inevitability of change. One casualty: the assertive, pragmatic approach to negotiation and human-wrought progress that used to be mother's milk to this civilization."

Young Indiana Jones

For years I had wanted to rent THE YOUNG INDIANA JONES CHRONICLES for my kids. A lovely romp, as we see a child, teen and aged Indie alternately tell of encounters with some of the most vivid players in the first couple of decades of the newborn 20th Century. Flawed (sometimes turgid and slow) it nevertheless came across as a love song for civilization and the way many kinds of heroes -- even intellectuals -- can fight to propel it forward, against all odds.

And yes, I must admit bias. In STAR WARS ON TRIAL I joined several other "prosecutors" pointing out what seems to have been a profound REVERSAL in attitudes, in the part of George Lucas, between the era when he produced the first SW series -- along with the Young Indie shows -- and his later attitudes, manifest so blatantly (and awfully) in the sequels/prequels (Phantom Menace etc.) In which a deeply stupid civilization does nothing right, and people must rely upon one group of supersecret patronizing chosen-one "super" beings to protect them against another bunch of supersecret patronizing villains, with everything hanging on one genetic/mutant chosen-one. Feh.

Get the Young Indiana Jones Series... in BOTH old (pirated) copies of the original episodes AND this version that's been thoroughly (and by all accounts dismally) edited by GL himself, removing much of the charm and wisdom. (If you pay that much for the new DVD, you can certainly buy the old tapes with a clear conscience!) Decide for yourself if something happened, at some point, to transform a guy who once loved civilization (and us) into just another grouchy bazillionaire.

Help Deserving Ostriches

In a time of increasing political polarization, I have urged (in my most recent essay, "The Ostrich Papers") that we look past the simplistic and outdated "left-right political axis." Yes, there is madness going on. But I suggest that the cure is not bitter "culture war." Rather, moderate and decent citizens of the Enlightenment need to reach out to other decent people -- even those who have swallowed nonsense. At stake is preserving a nation of modern confidence from a looming dark age.

Dire Scenario-ists

I consult often for companies and agencies, e.g. Defense Department, CIA, Air Force, DTRA and the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) about "unusual potential threats and opportunities." So do some of my colleagues in the futurist/SF game -- proving there are skilled professionals at the upper middle ranks who know the value of technologically-informed imagination. We even formed a "think tank" called SIGMA to do this at a larger scale. Now, in a recent issue of USA Today, read about the how some members explored dire scenarios for DHS, using those "lamps on the brow" to peer ahead for the greater good.

Podcasts on a Vast Range of Topics

Escape Pod posted a podcast-reading (pretty good) of my short story "The Giving Plague."

To see all my downloads and podcasts, visit my new page!

A Dark Scenario

Swinging from optimism to pessimism, I started by posting a few thoughts about how the incoming U.S. Congress might change the nation's way of doing business. (Many of these unconventional proposals may sound good to both conservatives and liberals.)

Only now it's time for something much darker, more cynical, and maybe even a little paranoid! Come take a look at a chillingly plausible way that powerful forces may try to affect our politics by using the age-old trick of blackmail.

Sigularities and Nightmares

One of my biggest, boldest and most popular essays about our future destiny, "Singularities and Nightmares," is now available for free access. It explores a startling range of possibilities for humanity and the Earth, from dangers all the way to opportunities that inspire others to think that we may soon become apprentice gods. Weigh the possibilities for yourself.

Visualizing the 21st Century

In October, Google invited me to fly up and give one of their company-wide Tech Talks on "Visualization as a Problem-Solving Tool in the 21st Century." For this topic, I asked to bring along one of the most ingenious "visualizers," Professor Sheldon Brown, my colleague in the Exorarium Project. The Google talk (hosted by my friend, the appropriately named Larry Brilliant) stretched 90 minutes, but for those who are interested in the evolution of online tools, it should offer a few new perspectives.

We also met with Sims creator Will Wright, whose new game "Spore" will knock you out of this world.

My Latest Writings

Another reminder that those interested in a truly dynamic community of discussion are welcome to drop by my weblog where topics spiral about, from science to public affairs, from mass media to philosophy. Or check out Baen's UNIVERSE Magazine for my latest serialized novel!

SETI Search Intensifies

Did you think that SETI (the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) was benign and scientific, as portrayed in the movie CONTACT? Well that was back in the 20th Century, when the programs, aims and goals were open and scientific. Alas, things have been gradually changing in the cult-ridden 21st Century. See an exposé of how a small and inward-looking community of radio astronomers aim to gamble with all of human posterity, based on a few questionable assumptions... without ever openly discussing their intention with colleagues or the world at-large.

Indeed, the world is taking notice. A recent editorial in NATURE presented a capsule summary of the problem and the very openminded and vigorously fun Seti League (not to be confused with the Seti Institute) has posted a pdf version online. Let there be no confusion. The request that is on the table -- for a wide-open and broad-based discussion of this important issue at some prestigious and eclectic venue like (say) the AAAS -- is one that no reasonable person or group would refuse. Will such an open discussion take place? Allowing all perspectives to be heard and examined? Stay tuned.

The Architechs

The History Channel show The Architechs challenged "five geniuses" to solve impossible design problems in 48 hours. Of two pilot episodes (I was in both), the first saw former FDNY Commissioner Thomas Von Essen, one of the heroes of 9/11, call upon the team to innovate more than a dozen new fire rescue and evacuation tools for skyscraper disasters. This episode briefly aired last October (2006). Copies can be ordered from the HC web site. In the second pilot, a four-star general asked the designers to sketch a way-cool 21st Century replacement for the Humvee.

A Pictorial Interview

Here's a 360 degree view of me in my study... and... wait! Who's that other guy! A ditto?...

It Should Be Basic

Once again, I had the weekly cover article on Salon, the greatest online magazine, and it stirred even more controversy than with my infamous Star Wars essay, or my appraisal of technological secrecy/privacy in the future. This time it wasn't intentional!

In "Why Johnny Can't Code" I point out that the simple programming language BASIC used to be on every computer a child touched -- but today there's no easy way for kids to get hooked on programming. They cannot even do the little exercises that are still in many classroom textbooks. What I didn't expect was the flurry of intensely passionate replies!

Uplifting Origami

I've had some of my characters dramatized in unusual media over the years. An Australian fan made magnificent plush toys of the "noor" or "tytlal" characters in BRIGHTNESS REEF and even a Tower of Hanoi game in which successive rings get piled up to make a wise old traeki sage. Now, in the run-up to the 2007 worldcon, I have been given a CD showing details how to make origami figures of various uplift species, from urs and hoon to traeki and even the wheeled g'kek! All by expert Kazuo Sumiya.

Star Wars on Trial

Shipping in June 2006, Star Wars on Trial: Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Debate the Most Popular Science Fiction Films of All Time (Smart Pop series) by David Brin and Matthew Woodring Stover, with two dozen wonderfully articulate authors "testifying" either for the prosecution or the defense. Is SW fantasy disguised as science fiction? Does the series spread doom-pessimism about democracy? Has it been a let-down since "The Empire Strikes Back"? Does it even make any sense? Pick up a copy and be prepared for a wild, extravagant "trial" -- brash and entertaining and downright fun!

Intelligent Designers

My full essay on "Other Theories of Intelligent Design" appears in SKEPTIC's online edition.

New at Amazon Shorts

See new essays, articles and stories available at trivial cost. My latest reveals many pros and cons of "human transformation" in Singularities and Nightmares: The Range of Our Futures. Another popular item suggests a simple exercise to overcome the vile modern habit of cynicism.

Also in the nonfiction category are older pieces on "beleaguered Professionals vs. disempowered Citizens" about a looming 21st Century power struggle between average people and the sincere, skilled professionals who are paid to protect us. "

The Power of Proxy Activism" tells how busy people, distracted by daily life, may still help make a better world. Another offers a controversial solution to the problem of a Mississippi River that's rebelling against human control.

Thanks to these popular articles, Amazon ranked me along with Stuart Woods, David Niall Wilson and James Lee Burke, as one of the top ten short-subject writers of 2005.

Politics?

Should I keep to topics I'm paid to talk about, like the future? Given the times, can I be forgiven the occasional opinionated rant? Take the problem of gerrymandering, which I examine from a dozen fresh perspectives. Another in-depth essay reappraises Newt Gingrich's 1994 Contract With America, considering how this masterful piece of 20th Century political polemic might be used by the other side, in the 21st. Also, is it prudent to overstretch our military reserves in a war that is, at best, a case of international elective surgery? These viewpoints are not classically partisan, but seek a broader view. Whether you agree or not, I promise to be interesting!

Popular Culture

Seems I'm making appearances in a number of surprising pop-cult venues. See a recent spread that features a novel by yours truly, in a popular literary comic strip... the "Unshelved Book Club." I've also been interviewed for several episodes of a podcast "The Future And You."

Of course some of this is in reaction to the wildly popular-culture book King Kong Is Back!: An Unauthorized Look at One Humongous Ape! (Smart Pop series) -- a fun and smart collection of 21 essays examining King Kong from every angle. (Some will surprise you.) But if you think that was something, just keep your eyes open for the next brash offering - Star Wars on Trial: Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Debate the Most Popular Science Fiction Films of All Time (Smart Pop series)!

Start Wiki'ing

I long ago predicted that the Net would enable self-published and mass-collaborative projects like the wonderful Wikipedia. (That's just one of fourteen predictive hits in my novel Earth. (I wish been I'd proved wrong about drowned New Orleans.) Now there is a Wikipedia entry for yours truly. Start wiki'ing, and remember, you have the power to contribute or vote to change it!

The War on Science

Will the first decade of the 21st Century be known as the time when our Scientific Age came to a whimpering end? The one trait shared by anti-modernists of both left and right appears to be disdain for our ability to learn and do bold new things. My review of Chris Mooney's The Republican War on Science (published in the San Diego Union-Tribune), explores how partisanship can explain much of this collapse of confidence... and why partisan interpretations don't cover everything.

On a related note, two recommended books that tout assertive problem solving are The Past and Future of America's Economy: Long Waves of Innovation that Power Cycles of Growth by Robert D. Atkinson, and Ray Kurzweil's The Singularity is Near. The first explores measures that would allow us to play our roles better in the world economy. The latter pursues Kurzweil's argument that our scientific competence and technologically-empowered creativity will soon skyrocket, propelling humanity into an entirely new age. I don't entirely agree. But boy, what a ride.

An Open Letter to Researchers in the Fields of Addiciton, Brain Chemistry, and Social Psychology

I often meddle in my old professional stomping ground of science (see about Science). And yes, I opine about modern politics (see The Political Lamp is Lit! and I, blog). These two areas have meshed in recent years -- a good thing, when disinterested science informs public policy. And bad, when political fanaticism warps or ignores science. All parties in the passionate "culture war" are guilty of trumping evidence to serve dogmatic will. Can we ever return to an era of confident problem-solving? Not so long as indignation remains the worst addiction.

But then, might that be a clue? Could a single scientific breakthrough help get us past a rising mass frenzy of self-righteousness? I've long corresponded with experts, trying to find out. Now, I'll post my suggestion online, hoping to interest more of the right people. "An Open Letter to Researchers In the Fields of Addiction, Brain Chemistry, and Social Psychology" talks about the worst "drug addiction" -- one that crosses all political and social boundaries, warping our ability to negotiate like adults or solve problems for the sake of our children.

Being Human in a Technological World

Audio transcript is now available for a panel discussion on "Human Rights, Technology & the Humanities," at a conference hosted by HumaniTech at the University of California, Irvine, (May 2005). Also, an excellent audio talk about the future "surveillance panopticon" by tech pundit Jamais Cascio is very worthwhile.

Armageddon Time!

Other brash new websites? Try Armageddon Buffet. "Eat While You Can"!

Society's Collapse?

When it comes to Earth's future, we tend to be offered two simplistic choices, either guilt-ridden pessimism or a pollyanna faith in market forces. Too much planning or too little. Here I reprint my lengthy review of Jared Diamond's new book, COLLAPSE: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. No society ever succeeded using the prescriptions we hear touted from today's Left and Right. But history does offer some alternatives.

The Surveillance Society

See my cover story in the August Salon magazine, about new surveillance technologies and some of the stark choices we face in the years ahead.

Some Fun Interviews

Here are some interviews that originally ran on National Public Radio (and elsewhere). One is about 'Video Surveillance' -- deriving from The Transparent Society.

Also -- NPR has archived a discussion of "The Science in Science Fiction" with William Gibson and one about "Science Fiction Writing."

Listen also to TECHNOLOGICAL NIGHTMARES renowned futurist economist Paul Streetn offer wise perspectives about future threats and opportunities, including insights to The Transparent Society.

Then, in June 2004, I talked about The Future on a special "NPR Talk of The Nation: Science Friday with Ira Flatow," at the grand opening of the new Science Fiction Museum in Seattle.

Downloadable Speeches

Get audio from a talk I gave (11/04) at the Institute for Accelerating Change about "exploring horizons," or how people peer ahead, spotting errors and opportunities, not hobbled by crippling assumptions. (This was saved at the IT Conversations website. Folks seemed to find this one "laugh-out-loud funny at times.")

Help for New Authors

After typing countless answers to requests for advice from would-be writers, I finally put it all together in this essay. Mine it for whatever wisdom you may find. (Also, the new website Science News for Kids has a section devoted to encouraging middle schoolers to read and write science fiction.

Special Signed Bookplates

Signed bookplates are available for Kiln People, The Life Eaters, and GURPS Uplift. See OFFERS (part of the freebies & offers menu item) for instructions where to send a self-addressed, stamped envelope.

Where does 'news' go when it is no longer hot, but still potentially interesting to visitors who want to browse through DavidBrin.com? For plenty more about events, music and other recent (but not VERY recent) happenings, click here to see Warm News! (Or just browse some of the other menu categories, where you can read some of my short stories, or learn more about my other activities. Have fun!)