Visions of the Future (91 page)
Read Visions of the Future Online
Authors: David Brin,Greg Bear,Joe Haldeman,Hugh Howey,Ben Bova,Robert Sawyer,Kevin J. Anderson,Ray Kurzweil,Martin Rees
Tags: #Science / Fiction
In another place, I talked about the simplest way to do this. A method that is so cheap and easy and
lazy
that none of you have any excuses. It is called
proxy
activism
… the simple way to invest in saving the world by whatever combination of concerns that you feel to be important. It is utterly straightforward. And if we all did this one little thing, the world would change, no matter what folks in Washington or on Cable News believe.
4
It’s Coming, Like It or Not
I could go on. There are so many realms under this tent. And indeed, as a sci fi author, I have to admit that the problem faced by Douglas Richards—in his essay about difficulties of sci fi—is a tough one to overcome. For if the optimists (and/or a subset of the pessimists) prove right, then accelerating progress may render moot even the sharpest and most compelling of our stories. The “singularity” will then be a daunting barrier to look past. This is one reason why I keep re-defining the near-intermediate future from 50 years ahead—as in
Earth
(1989)—down to 30 years—as in
Existence
(2012)—and so on.
Does this mean I sense the threshold, just ahead, and deem it impossible to write beyond?
Nonsense Richard! Take heart, dear colleague. Boldly set forth across that sea! The Singularity may turn out to be a soft one, allowing human style beings to criss-cross the stars and have adventures, as in the novels of Vernor Vinge. Or it might engender great minds who then
choose
to encourage human adventure, as in the novels of Iain Banks. Heck, I’ve even written stories set in worlds where men and women are effectively gods, yet have new problems of their own. And why not?
This is, after all, our greatest power. To envision that dark road ahead, filled with land mines and quicksand and snakes and deadfalls, created by both nature and by man, ready to trip any unwary species and civilization.
Only… we’re not unwary! Suspicion and worry-R-us!
What we
need
(and I will repeat it endlessly) is
confidence
.
Not arrogance! But the ability to trade criticism, learn from each other…
…and then… to boldly go.
ENDNOTES
- http://www.davidbrin.com/1984.html
- http://www.davidbrin.com/idiotplot.html
- http://www.xprize.org
- http://www.davidbrin.com/proxyactivism.html
LIFEBOAT FOUNDATION
The Lifeboat Foundation is a nonprofit nongovernmental organization dedicated to encouraging scientific advancements while helping humanity survive existential risks and possible misuse of increasingly powerful technologies, including genetic engineering, nanotechnology, and robotics/AI, as we move towards the Singularity.
Lifeboat Foundation is pursuing a variety of options, including helping to accelerate the development of technologies to defend humanity such as new methods to combat viruses, effective nanotechnological defensive strategies, and even self-sustaining space colonies in case the other defensive strategies fail.
We believe that, in some situations, it might be feasible to relinquish technological capacity in the public interest (for example, we are against the U.S. government posting the recipe for the 1918 flu virus on the internet). We have some of the best minds on the planet working on programs to enable our survival. We invite you to join our cause!
LINKS
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. The Lifeboat Foundation is working on a prototype Friendly AI at
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. - Learn about all our books at
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Acknowledgement is made for permission to print the following material:
“The Shoulders of Giants,” Copyright 2000 by Robert J. Sawyer. First published in
Star Colonies
edited by Martin H. Greenberg and John Helfers, DAW Books, New York, June 2000.
“Gift of a Useless Man,” Copyright by Davis Publications, Inc.; first published in
Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine
, November 1979.
“Light and Shadow,” Copyright by Catherine Asaro; first published in
Analog Science Fiction and Fact
, April 1994.
“Lungfish,” Copyright 1987 by David Brin. First published in
The River of Time
.
“The Birth of the Dawn,” Copyright 2015 by Nicole Sallak Anderson.
“The Weathermakers,” Copyright by Ben Bova; first published in
Analog Science Fiction and Fact
, December 1966.
“Last Day of Work,” Copyright 2011 by Douglas Rushkoff.
“I’m a What?” Copyright 2012 by Frank White.
“The Listeners,” Copyright by James E. Gunn; first published in
Galaxy
, September 1968.
“The Emperor of Mars,” Copyright by Allen Steele; first published in
Asimov’s Science Fiction
, June 2010.
“Lunar One,” Copyright 2015 by Jasper T. Scott.
“My Father’s Singularity,” Copyright by Brenda Cooper; first published in
Clarkesworld Magazine,
June 2010.
“A Delicate Balance,” Copyright by WordFire, Inc.; first published in
Analog Science Fiction and Fact,
April 2012.
“More Than the Sum of His Parts,” Copyright by Joe Haldeman; first published in
Playboy
, May 1985.
“Lazarus Rising,” Copyright 2009 by Gregory Benford.
“Unit 514” originally appeared in
Pardon The Disruption. The Future You Never Saw Coming
, published November 2013 by Wasteland Press. It is reprinted by permission by authors Clayton R. Rawlings, James Randall Smith, and Rob Bencini who hold the copyright.
“Persistence,” Copyright 2014 by Keith Wiley.
“The Boy Who Gave Us the Stars,” Copyright 2014 by J. Daniel Batt.
“The Etiology of Infomania,” Copyright 2014 by Chris Hables Gray.
“Water,” Copyright 2013 by Ramez Naam.
“Looking Forward: Dialogs with Artilects in the Age of Spiritual Machines,” Copyright 2014 by Frank Sudia.
“Teleporter,” Copyright 2014 by James Jr Tankersley.
“The Spa,” Copyright 2015 by Donald Maclean.
“The Automated Ones,” Copyright 2009 by Hugh Howey.
“The Billionaires’ Gambit,” Copyright 2015 by Peg Kay.
“The Children of Men,” Copyright 2015 by J.M. Porup.
“Down in the Noodle Forest,” Copyright 2014 by Jeremy Lichtman.
“A Requiem for Futures Past,” Copyright 2015 by Ille Gebeshuber.
“Get the Message,” Copyright 2015 by Coni Koepfinger.
“New Age Teacher,” Copyright 2014 by Lawrence Baines.
“Blood Music,” Copyright by Greg Bear; first published in
Analog Science Fiction and Fact
, June 1983.
“Our Final Hour,” Copyright 2003 by Lord Martin Rees.
“The Significance of Watson,” Copyright 2011 by Ray Kurzweil; first published at
http://www.kurzweilai.net/the-significance-of-watson
.
“Proof that the End of Moore’s Law Isn’t the End of the Singularity,” Copyright 2014 by Eric Klien; first published at
http://lifeboat.com/blog/2014/12/proof-that-the-end-of-moores-law-is-not-the-end-of-the-singularity
.
“The Future of Energy: Towards the Energularity,” Copyright 2015 by José Cordeiro.
“Intolerable Delays,” Copyright 2014 by William Faloon.
“Enhanced AI: The Key to Unmanned Space Exploration,” Copyright 2012 by Tom Kerwick; first published at
http://lifeboat.com/blog/2012/08/enhanced-ai-the-key-to-unmanned-space-exploration
.
“Do It Yourself ‘Saving the World,’” Copyright 2014 by James Blodgett.
“Will Brain Wave Technology Eliminate the Need for a Second Language?” Copyright 2014 by Zoltan Istvan.
“Smart Cities Go to the Dogs: How Tech-Savvy Cities Will Affect the Canine Population,” Copyright by Brenda Cooper; first published in
Slate
, October 2014.
“Reputation Currencies,” Copyright 2014 by Heather Schlegel. This article is sponsored by (ICE): The Institute of Customer Experience.
“Scientific Advances are Ruining Science Fiction,” Copyright 2015 by Douglas E. Richards.
“10 Futuristic Materials,” Copyright 2008 by Michael Anissimov.
The Lifeboat Foundation would like to thank the following for their assistance in copy editing and proofreading:
- Edwin B. Cooper Jr.
- Odette Gregory
- Peg Kay
- Lilia Lens-Pechakova
- Patrice Levin Kell
- Clay Rawlings
- Jim Tankersley
- Alan S. Ziegler