Hey folks – just a heads-up for those of you who (inexplicably) don’t subscribe to Futurismic*.

One of my excellent blogging crew over there, Edward Willett, has a new novel out from DAW Books. It’s called Marseguro**, and he’s giving copies away – click on over there to take part. You’ve got until Sunday 17th February.

He’ll ship international, so no worries if you’re not Canadian. And hey, y’know – free books! Get to it.

[* How easy do I have to make it for you, huh? ]

[** You can sample the first few chapters of Marseguro on Ed's website, if you like.]

It’s a strange thing, blogging – often a largely thankless task, a genuine labour of love (or of egotism, in the opinion of some who may not be entirely incorrect). But suffice to say that, except for the industry bigwigs and AdSense farmers, there’s little reward for running a blog.

Indeed, all you can hope for is recognition, a little bit of kudos – which is why I was incredibly chuffed to discover that Futurismic is listed among PC Magazine’s 100 Favourite Blogs, alongside major heavyweights like BoingBoing, Gawker and Lifehacker.

I’ve thought about quitting Futurismic a number of times in the last year or so; I was reaching a point where being the only person with the available time to struggle with the old broken Moveable Type installation, just to make sure there were a few fresh posts every day, felt like head-butting a brick wall – only without the consolation of an audience that head-butting a brick wall brings (in this town, at least).

But now I feel immensely glad I stuck with it, and that I recently hired in my new crew of bloggers. Futurismic will probably never pay me one red cent, and I never joined in the expectation that it would. I joined because I liked what it was trying to do … and making it onto that list means that other people have noticed it, and that they like it too.

Once we get the fiction and columns up and running again (which promises to be sooner rather than later), we’re going to kick some serious arse, right across this here blogosphere. I hope all of you will be watching us do it, too.

Yes indeed, after a weekend of hard graft and staring at screens for hours on end, we’ve managed to get Futurismic back on its feet, as promised.

If you were subscribed to the old feed, some neat trickery should ensure that the new one reaches you automagically. If you weren’t subscribed to Futurismic’s RSS feed before, maybe you should consider becoming so?

It’s not just a paying market for short sf stories, but a fast-paced blog delivering bite-sized chunks of news that connect to science fiction, as well as a soon-to-be-revived non-fiction section with regular columns on the more down-to-earth aspects of futurist speculation.

We’re still working on the site theme, however, so don’t be surprised if it doesn’t look the same next time you click through.

NASA caused quite a stir with a recent announcement of their intent to return to the moon and establish a full-time colony there. Continue reading “Small steps before giant leaps – why we should be planning to build orbital colonies before lunar colonies”

Modern communication technologies such as the internet are providing new tools and channels for citizens to use in their interaction with governments – and vice versa. Is it time for citizens and governments alike to accept the changed landscape of politics, and begin opening up the ‘source code’ of democracy to closer inspection?

Continue reading “Democracy 2.0 – Opening the Black Boxes of Government”

“Synthetic worlds are big business. And not just for their creators – there are a growing number of people and businesses making a living in the real world by working in simulated ones. Continue reading “The Potential Of Synthetic Worlds”

The least-mimicked and least interesting meme on the entire intarwebs makes its triumphant return! Ladies and gentlemen, we give you…Friday Plant Blogging!

Continue reading “Friday Plant Blogging! Front Room Fig”

No, not here, I’m afraid…which is probably a good thing, as I doubt mine host‘s ISP would be awfully happy with that sort of bandwidth consumption, let alone the humble little Linux server where VCTB resides. Continue reading “Slashdotted!”

Talking about conscious machines often provokes visions of dark-future scenarios akin to those in the Terminator movies, where humanity is beseiged by robots which were, in a fit of typical human hubris, created in man’s own image. There are researchers trying to build conscious machines today, but their aims and ideas are as far from these science fiction movie nightmares as one could imagine – much more mundane, but at the same time quietly astonishing in their own right. Continue reading “Conscious Machines interview”

It’s a tough gig, this blogging thing, y’know. It’s like working in a vacuum, wondering if you’ll ever get a gasp of air. Today, I got a big old lung-full. Continue reading “The ultimate endorsement”