I often describe myself as a technoparanoaic, or a technoskeptic, or a neoluddite, or whatever. I've used an excerpt from the Unabomber Manifesto as epigrams to my books, and I've called my Acts of the Apostles “Bill Joy's Why the Future Doesn't Need Us in convenient thriller format, with fewer pictures and more sex and car chases.” But although I might use a Kaczynski quotation in order to be provacative, and although I obsess on dystopian visions of the future, I really don't have a consistent point of view.

To read somebody who does have a consistent point of view, see Netfuture:Technology and Human Responsibility, the occasional newsletter put out by Steve Talbott.

I don't always agree with everything Steve says (although I usually agree with most of it), and once in a while his writing style gets a little floral for my taste. But he is a wise man and a thoughtful writer. I highly recommend him. [Read More!]

I realize what a boon this will be for people who have lost their ability to speak.

However, all I can think about is how the thought police are going to love it.

For anyone who goes to policy conferences (and who can ever get enough of those, eh?) and science fiction cons, I'm speaking at a couple of them over the next few months. Below is a list with links. If you actually read this thing, let me know; it gives my frail little ego something to cheer about and gives my pathetic life meaning. :-) [Read More!]

Yesterday (March 11th), the Massachusetts legislature approved a proposed amendment to the state constitution banning gay marriage, and instead establishing “civil unions” for same-sex couples. In this heated debate, I think neither side has noticed the the arguments over the sanctity of marriage vs. the civil rights of gays and lesbians has suddenly become a movement to amend the country's oldest constitution to legislate the definition of a word.

As a professional writer, despite all the heated debate and the heartfelt views on both sides, I have to say I find this almost amusing...
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I've started work on a new novel (or novella — we'll see how lont it turns out to be. . .). It's set in the year 1985 in a setting that seems to be some kind of hybrid of the USA, the New Kent of my “Cheap Complex Devices”, and Orwell's 1984. Its subject, I guess, is the prison-industrial-military-entertainment complex, but I'm trying to focus (of course) more on the story than on any big themes or messages. [Read More!]

My nightmare started out last night with an image of a woman sitting by the grave of her recently deceased husband. She was one of those people who don't (can't, won't, etc) understand that dead people are dead, and so go to gravesides and talk to their dear departed ones.

She was describing to me her husband's attitude about this and that, as if he were still alive. She was happy and playful, teasing him as if he were there. She made some remark about his hair. And then he was there, lying in an open casket. His head was towards me and his feet towards her. He had a big pompadour of gorgeous hair (I'm practiacally bald, so figure that fact into any analysis).

I did not recognize either the husband or the wife..

And then his casket disappeared, and he was lying on a bed of ice, like a fish in a fishmarket. And then we were in a room of similar wives, all sitting by their dead husbands cooling on beds of ice. And then my dream got weird.
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O.K., this is a bit off the beaten tack for me, but it plays off what I read this morning. And side note to John, can we get some different catagories in our drop down menues? Everything I write is “general.” [Read More!]

Ah, Donald Rumsfeld... Secretary of Defense, coddler of dictators , and master of many arcane forms of martial arts. Truly a man for all seasons.

Half a year (or so) ago I decided to get serious about livening up my Wetmachine website. Wetmachine had been around since October 1999, but I had only updated it a few times. I wanted to transform it into a site that people would come back to. A blog of some kind was clearly in order.

Knowing that it would be a drag, not to mention probably impossible, to singlehandedly make Wetmachine sufficiently compelling to warrant return visits, I invited some friends to play along. About three months ago we made the switch to blog format. Read on for some brief musings on the experiment so far. [Read More!]

An article in the Washington Post provides a general overview of nanotech. The one interesting fact that caught me eye: nanotech companies and researchers are hiring sociologists, philosophers, and ethicists, in attempt to get ahead of the curve on public opinion. [Read More!]