The Eternal Golden Braid (Free subscription) | yesterday
Prepare the Red Matter! So now that it is finally out on DVD, I finally watched the "reboot" of Star Trek . So, Fred, you're a trekkie from way back, what'cha think of it? Sorry, but I am not a trekkie or a trekker. I am a science fiction fan who is a big fan of the original Trek series (but not to the extent that I ever owned a costume or even attended a Trek convention, or even, past a...
Quicksilber (Free subscription) | 11/18/2009
Every once in a while, there arises the arcane question of how to keep far-future people (robots? aliens') away from radioactive waste dumps that will still be dangerous millennia hence. Juliet Lapidos at Slate discusses it here , and there are some glosses on it here and here . I've long been fascinated by this question, but in a minor irony something I once wrote about it (a review of Gregory Benford's...
Mad Hatter's Bookshelf & Book Review (Free subscription) | 11/13/2009
This is a little late, but the news have been chafing me a bit. In a surprising move Isaac Asimov's estate has authorized a trilogy of new I, Robot Universe books. This is shocking because Asimov had plenty of time to add to that Universe if he so desired considering the last book in the series was written about a decade before he passed away and he was prolific till the end. Suffice it to say if he...
Planet Intertwingly (Free subscription) | 11/13/2009
Another big anniversary issue. I tend not to like these anniversary issues, but this one was very good. First, "A Democracy of Trolls", in which RoOSFM favorite Charles Coleman Finlay dares to tell the true story of Reddit. Ursula K. Le Guin's "Social Dreaming of the Frin" is also excellent. Tanith Lee's "In the City of Dead Night" starts out really slowly and infodumply...
advanced nanotechnology (Free subscription) | 11/02/2009
The videos of the Singularity Summit 2009 that was held in New York are up at Vimeo (H/T Michael Anissimov at Accelerating Future ) A selection of embedded videos are below. Changing the World Panel -- Singularity Summit 2009 -- Peter Thiel, Eliezer Yudkowsky, Aubrey de Grey from Michael Anissimov on Vimeo . Aubrey de Grey at Singularity Summit 2009 -- The Singularity and the Methuselarity: Similarities...
Visions of Paradise (Free subscription) | 11/01/2009
Before the Science Fiction Book Club fell victim to a “re-organization” by their new owners a few years ago, assistant editor Andrew Wheeler was publishing a series of original collections of novellas that contained some of the best stuff being published at the time. They included four volumes of Jonathan Strahan’s Best Short Novels as well as such original novella collections as...
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 10/29/2009
Mickey Zucker Reichert signed to produce new series of Dr Susan Calvin stories Publishing's enthusiasm for the undead – which has already this autumn seen posthumous sequels published to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Dracula, Winnie the Pooh and Noddy – is set to bring one of Isaac Asimov's most enduring creations, Dr Susan Calvin, back to life. A new series of authorised sequels...
Earth and other unlikely worlds (Free subscription) | 10/14/2009
The Quiet War has just been the subject of io9's first book club feature . Someone asked me to provide a list of the short stories that preceded the novels, and I thought it might be useful to post it here, too. Originally, I just wanted to make use of various exotic settings in the outer reaches of the Solar System; later the stories became a trial run for the novels, which modify a background history...
advanced nanotechnology (Free subscription) | 10/09/2009
Anders Sandberg discusses his view of the summit as a speaker and a participant. Anders provides a view into the follow up discussions that occured at lunch and other breaks. Anders also provides good analysis of the Artificial Intelligence talks from the perspective of someone in the field of AI and Brain Emulation. (H/T Michael Anissimov at Accelerating Future ) I of course talked about whole brain...
Free SF Reader : Free Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror (Free subscription) | 10/08/2009
Error observation religion. 4 out of 5 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00mw7zc/episodes/2009
Reason Magazine - Hit & Run (Free subscription) | 10/01/2009
The Singularity Summit comes to the East Coast this weekend in the Big Apple. The event will feature presentations and conversations with Singulatarian luminaries such as Ray Kurzweil, Stephen Wolfram, Aubrey de Grey, Gregory Benford, Stuart Hameroff, Peter Thiel, Eliezer Yudkowsky, and many, many others. What is the Singularity? By one defintion , the Singularity is usually meant as "a future...
advanced nanotechnology (Free subscription) | 09/28/2009
Accelerating Future has the Saturday program for the Singularity Summit in New York on October 3rd and 4th, 2009. The full two day program is here Stephen Wolfram, the British polymath known as the creator of Mathematica and Wolfram Alpha and the author of A New Kind of Science, will be attending the Singularity Summit 2009 next weekend. He will engage in a “Conversation on the Singularity”...
Accelerating Future (Free subscription) | 09/28/2009
Stephen Wolfram, the British polymath known as the creator of Mathematica and Wolfram Alpha and the author of A New Kind of Science, will be attending the Singularity Summit 2009 next weekend. Here is his bio. He will engage in a “Conversation on the Singularity” with Gregory Benford, at 3 PM on Saturday, [...]
SF Signal (Free subscription) | 09/20/2009
More free fictiony goodness from the ever-excellent website Free Speculative Fiction Online : Gregory Benford: " Paradise Afternoon " (Flurb #8, Fall 2009) Michael Bishop: " Vinegar Peace " [PDF or audio ] (Asimov's, July 2008) Terry Bisson: " Billy In Dinosaur City " [audio] Jerome Bixby: " Zen " (Galaxy, October 1952) Nelson S. Bond: " Lighter Than You...
SF Signal (Free subscription) | 09/11/2009
Free Fiction and Stuff [courtesy of the Flurbalicious QuasarDragon ] The Latest issue of Flurb is out with fiction Emily C. Skaftun, Gregory Benford, Charlie Anders, Rudy Rucker, Peter Hagelslag, Tamara Vining, Howard V. Hendrix, Nathaniel Hellerstein, Paul Di Filippo, John Roches, Martin Hayes, Brendan Byrne, Braian Landis, and Carter Scholz. [via SFScope ] @Manybooks: " Two Timer " by...
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