“As he wandered about the place, he had three different chance encounters with the same elementary school teacher, one Ms. Hinojosa, and fell in love with her. This was unusual. He had not been in love with anyone in twelve years. He had been divorced for nine. He found it nearly as shocking in its […]
Ramex Naam’s Nexus Arc has become wildly popular since I read the first installment back in early 2013. I’ve enjoyed this series and would recommend it to pretty much anyone interested in near-future scifi, but I have to admit that Apex was a rather lukewarm finale. While Naam has created a vibrant speculative landscape full […]
“Posthumans are coming, Captain Garud. There’ll be one after this. And another. And another. And more after that. Humans drove this woman crazy. You nuke her for it? The next posthuman will decide to nuke you first. You want them to treat you well? Then give them a reason. Treat them well.” ––Apex, by Ramez […]
Next month, Ma and I will be installing something we’ve wanted ever since I took the permaculture design course at the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center: rainwater catchment. Ma’s been looking into it on and off for months, and we finally found a guy through a friend who pitched us a simple design for a […]
If you decide to read one piece of nonfiction this summer, let this be it. Martin Ford’s Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future is one of the most intelligent and important works of futurism to date. Although the book’s title might trigger images of popcorn and 3D glasses rather […]
“Su-Yong Shu died in pieces. Li-hua watched in fascination as the diagnostics became more and more erratic, as her simulated brain became aware of what was happening, as activity spiked, even as each fragment of her was collapsed and written in triplicate to the waiting diamondoid cubes. What are you thinking in there? Li-hua wondered. […]
“In an interview with CBS News, the president of the United States was asked if the nation’s dire unemployment problem was likely to improve soon. ‘There’s no magic solution,’ he replied. ‘To even stand still we have to move very fast.’ By this, he meant that the economy needs to create tens of thousands of […]
“‘You see, Princess Nell, you have conquered this world today, and now that you have conquered it, you’ll find it a rather boring place. Now it’s your responsibility to make new worlds for other people to explore and conquer.’ King Coyote waved his hand out the window into the vast, empty white space where once […]
Having worked my way through almost all of Neal Stephenson’s novels, I’ve come to recognize a phenomenon I call The Stephenson Guarantee: You don’t know what any Stephenson book will be like before you crack it open, but you can be assured it won’t be like anything else. The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady’s […]
“Some people come here because they are on a quest of some sort––trying to find a lost lover, or to understand why something terrible happened in their lives, or why there is cruelty in the world, or why they aren’t satisfied with their career. Society has never been good at answering these questions––the sorts of […]