David Brin talks to Wired, the mechanics of déjà-vu, on the naming of things, writing while not sitting down…

• 1 – Writing While Not Sitting Down

  “I think one of the problems beginning story writers have is that the story isn’t in their head often enough. It’s there (sort of) when they’re writing, but not at other times. They haven’t developed a story thinking habit.”

  (tags: habit thinking process development plot story prose fiction writing)

• 2 – Research deciphers ‘déjà-vu’ brain mechanics

  “…they have identified for the first time a neuronal mechanism that helps us rapidly distinguish similar, yet distinct, places. The discovery helps explain the sensation of déjà vu.” Intriguing, but I’m sure I read it before.

  (tags: science research psychology memory cognition brain neuroscience biology)

• 3 – Opportunity Fading: Why The New Second Life Offers Less for Business

  “If given a choice between clear guidelines with firm restrictions, and fuzzy guidelines with questionable but somewhat more lax restrictions, I know which one I’d choose.”

  (tags: utility purpose innovation investments business restrictions guidelines rules control Life Second metaverse)

• 4 – Dead Hamburger, and the Bird and Tree Problem

  “Writing often reminds you how much you fail to look … If a dog’s mentioned, you ask, “What was the dog called?” If a tree falls on someone and kills them, you want to know what sort it was.”

  (tags: tips advice identifying naming precision definition poetry prose writing)

• 5 – David Brin on the potential of scientific endeavour

  “Seriously, we’re pretty smart and wise, for jumped-up cavemen. But we need to get smarter. And a whole lot wiser.”

  (tags: Brin David community collaboration wisdom species human technology society science sanity politics futurism)

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