Sunday, August 10, 2003

Ray Kurzweil, seen by many as a top futurist, has a new set of articles out. Its worth a read even though most of his ideas have been covered in SF for years, if not decades. But if you are a newbie or want to hear a very opionionated voice talking about the future, Kurzweil is worth reading. The Ray Kurzweil Reader is a collection of essays by Ray Kurzweil on virtual reality, artificial intelligence, radical life extension, conscious machines, the promise and peril of technology, and other aspects of our future world. These essays, all published on KurzweilAI.net from 2001 to 2003, are now available as a PDF document for convenient downloading and offline reading. The 30 essays, organized in seven memes (such as "How to Build a Brain"), cover subjects ranging from a review of Matrix Reloaded to "The Coming Merging of Mind and Machine" and "Human Body Version 2.0." Who said finding ideas are easy. Feed your mind and seed what comes out. 4:49:36 PM    comments & story ideas []  trackback []

Here's an interesting article, "Big beast extinction blamed on prehistoric fire starters" in New Scientist. What's interesting is the archeological process described. "Carbon isotopes in the eggshells reveal what the birds were eating when they laid the eggs." This tidbit or info could be used as background or to help you further understand archeological processes of your fictional scientists. SF Story Idea: Carbon isotopes, in the eggshells of a species of bird on the Planet Terialian, reveal what the birds where eating at the time of the abandonment of the Terialian Research Station--humans! Whoa! 3:27:42 PM    comments & story ideas []  trackback []

© Copyright 2003 Eric Griffin.