Jim Baen's Universe

What's New in The Future And You

Columns

The Future And You, April 2007

Written by Stephen Euin Cobb

Listen as David Drake, Alan Dean Foster, Dave Freer, Ginjer Buchanan, Paul Levinson and Lucienne Diver describe many of the technological and social changes which will alter your life during the next few years.

The Future And You is an award-winning audio podcast about the future which may be downloaded and enjoyed, or even copied and shared, for free. Every episode contains many interviews which reveal a wide variety of ideas and opinion from a wide variety of people.

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The April 1, 2007 episode includes all of the following and more:

Apartheid ended thirteen years ago, so what are the trends within South Africa today? And what misconceptions do outsiders have about South Africa? Dave Freer, who was born and raised in South Africa, talks of this as well as his scientific profession: ichthyology (the study of fish), and the thousands of times he has been scuba diving, and one dive in particular when he got his arm caught in a shellfish tunnel and very nearly drowned.

With half the Japanese populous reading eBooks on their cell phones and Steve Jobs intent on combining cell phones with iPods for computerless downloading of music, podcasts and audio books, just how fast are the changes coming? Ginjer Buchanan (Senior Executive Editor and Marketing Director of Ace and ROC books) talks of this as well as: why William Gibson is a national hero in Japan, the increasing feminization of America, the Vatican's website, why young editors must create for themselves a niche, and her fear that unemployment is the fate of all those who create, transport and sell physical books: from press operators and truck drivers to clerks in the giant chain bookstores.

Less-than-lethal weapons will soon take their place on the battlefield, but will they actually change anything? No, says Alan Dean Foster, and he explains why. He also addresses the probability of the world entering a new dark age, and he disagrees with the host's notion that New Orleans can be used as a miniature example of the fall of civilization.

Are SF writers really trying to predict the future? Hugo Gernsback thought he was predicting, but were H.G. Wells or Jules Verne also trying to be predictors? Many people think so but David Drake says no and backs it up with specific examples.

Have audio book downloads become a bigger trend than eBook downloads? What about giving away free eBooks? Lucienne Diver, one of America's top literary agents, talks of this as well as her frustration with the large pharmaceutical companies and her skepticism over whether or not future medicine will ever provide a cure for the cryonics process.

Does the world need more people rather than less? Paul Levinson suggests that, since intelligence is our best resource then more people will produce more intelligence, more innovation and a more rapid improvement to the human condition. He also addresses other questions: Is another dark age unlikely because (unlike in the ancient world) today there are so many copies of humanity's collected knowledge? And is the fall of New Orleans (due to hurricane Katrina) a good example of how civilizations fall? And if so what can we learn from it?

We also include another installment in our serialization of the Hard SF novel, Bones Burnt Black; and Walt Boyes (The Bananaslug) & Stoney Compton do their bit to let the world at large know what's in the current issue of Jim Baen's Universe.

News items in the April 1, 2007 episode include: (a) TV channels from around the globe may be watched online for free by going to MyEasyTV.com; (b) your humble host proposes his fix for the confusion produced by dropped cell phone calls; (c) your host's latest, and shortest, test for social equality; and (d) your host will appear at RavenCon in Richmond VA, USA (April 20-22, 2007) and at ConCarolinas in Charlotte NC, USA (June 1-3, 2007).

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And if the current episode's ideas and opinion are not enough to satisfy your curiosity about the future check out the previous month's episode which contains John Barnes, Kim Stanley Robinson, Elizabeth Bear, L.E. Modesitt, Jr., Stoney Compton and Ginjer Buchanan discussing all the following and more:

Everyone agrees that Generation Y is the most connected Generation ever, but are its members so obsessed with being in complete consensus on everything that they are horrified of being in open disagreement? And if so, how will this alter America ten years from now when "Generation Y" will comprise 40% of all American consumers? John Barnes is a consulting semiotician and has done a great deal of study on this subject.

What if everyone hypertexted within all their conversations? What if you never had to define your terms because those not familiar with them could look them up faster than you could have provided the explanation. Might those people hypertext-enabled become frustrated at the slowness of your conversational data rate if you did pause to define them? Elizabeth Bear thinks so, and has many other ideas about the future and the Singularity.

What if Russia still owned Alaska? What if Lennon and Trotsky