• Five SF Books Set in the Future... of 2020

    From James Nicoll@21:1/5 to All on Tue Sep 17 15:10:30 2024
    Five SF Books Set in the Future… of 2020

    How did science fiction imagine the world of the 2020s? Let's
    look at some of the more entertaining predictions and speculations...

    https://reactormag.com/five-sf-books-set-in-the-future-of-2020/
    --
    My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
    My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
    My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
    My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

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  • From BCFD 36@21:1/5 to James Nicoll on Tue Sep 17 18:14:34 2024
    On 9/17/24 08:10, James Nicoll wrote:
    Five SF Books Set in the Future… of 2020

    How did science fiction imagine the world of the 2020s? Let's
    look at some of the more entertaining predictions and speculations...

    https://reactormag.com/five-sf-books-set-in-the-future-of-2020/

    Not a one.

    --
    ----------------

    Dave Scruggs
    Senior Software Engineer - Lockheed Martin, et. al (mostly Retired)
    Captain - Boulder Creek Fire (Retired)
    Board of Directors - Boulder Creek Fire Protection District (What was I thinking?)

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  • From Robert Woodward@21:1/5 to Lynn McGuire on Tue Sep 17 21:50:28 2024
    In article <vcdjoc$3u4qi$[email protected]>,
    Lynn McGuire <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 9/17/2024 10:10 AM, James Nicoll wrote:
    Five SF Books Set in the Future… of 2020

    How did science fiction imagine the world of the 2020s? Let's
    look at some of the more entertaining predictions and speculations...

    https://reactormag.com/five-sf-books-set-in-the-future-of-2020/

    "2020 Vision edited by Jerry Pournelle (1974)" looks very familiar. And
    I passed on "Directive 51" and the others.

    I've got another book at the back of my mind but it refuses to release
    the name so far. Maybe "Wolf and Iron" by Gordon Dickson ???
    https://www.amazon.com/Wolf-Iron-Gordon-R-Dickson/dp/0812533348/

    Or "World Made by Hand" by James Howard Kunstler which one reviewer said
    is set around 2015.
    https://www.amazon.com/World-Made-James-Howard-Kunstler/dp/0802144012/

    _The Postman_ by David Brin?

    --
    "We have advanced to new and surprising levels of bafflement."
    Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan describes progress in _Komarr_. —-----------------------------------------------------
    Robert Woodward [email protected]

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  • From Titus G@21:1/5 to All on Wed Sep 18 17:37:54 2024
    On 18/09/24 13:14, BCFD 36 wrote:
    On 9/17/24 08:10, James Nicoll wrote:
    Five SF Books Set in the Future… of 2020

    How did science fiction imagine the world of the 2020s? Let's
    look at some of the more entertaining predictions and speculations...

    https://reactormag.com/five-sf-books-set-in-the-future-of-2020/

    Not a one.


    One. I enjoyed Stross' Halting State but did not enjoy Rule 34, (Halting
    State 2). I think I just didn't like the writing style and can't
    remember the plot nor content despite reading James' outline but I think
    that their smart phones were chips in their heads.

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  • From James Nicoll@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Wed Sep 18 13:44:39 2024
    In article <vcdjoc$3u4qi$[email protected]>,
    Lynn McGuire <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 9/17/2024 10:10 AM, James Nicoll wrote:
    Five SF Books Set in the Future… of 2020

    How did science fiction imagine the world of the 2020s? Let's
    look at some of the more entertaining predictions and speculations...

    https://reactormag.com/five-sf-books-set-in-the-future-of-2020/

    "2020 Vision edited by Jerry Pournelle (1974)" looks very familiar. And
    I passed on "Directive 51" and the others.

    I've got another book at the back of my mind but it refuses to release
    the name so far. Maybe "Wolf and Iron" by Gordon Dickson ???
    https://www.amazon.com/Wolf-Iron-Gordon-R-Dickson/dp/0812533348/

    Or "World Made by Hand" by James Howard Kunstler which one reviewer said
    is set around 2015.
    https://www.amazon.com/World-Made-James-Howard-Kunstler/dp/0802144012/

    Does not seem to specify a period aside from "Sometime in the
    not-distant future. . . ." but "the early twenty-first century"
    is in the past.


    --
    My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
    My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
    My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
    My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

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  • From Garrett Wollman@21:1/5 to James Nicoll on Wed Sep 18 15:56:41 2024
    In article <vcc656$ipb$[email protected]>,
    James Nicoll <[email protected]> wrote:

    Five SF Books Set in the Future… of 2020

    How did science fiction imagine the world of the 2020s? Let's
    look at some of the more entertaining predictions and speculations...

    https://reactormag.com/five-sf-books-set-in-the-future-of-2020/

    I have read none of these, unsurprisingly. However, I absolutely did
    read a (purportedly non-fiction) book, THE 2025 REPORT: A CONCISE
    HISTORY OF THE FUTURE, 1975-2025, published in 1985 by libertarian
    British journalist Norman Macrae. (Published a year earlier with like adjustments to the title in Britain.)

    I remember very little of it other than the title and the author's
    suggestion that in the future, nationality would be a matter of choice
    and not birth, and states would compete, on the basis of economic
    "freedom", for citizens. It is perhaps unsurprising that the author
    wrote this after spending nearly four decades writing for The
    Economist.

    -GAWollman

    --
    Garrett A. Wollman | "Act to avoid constraining the future; if you can, [email protected]| act to remove constraint from the future. This is Opinions not shared by| a thing you can do, are able to do, to do together."
    my employers. | - Graydon Saunders, _A Succession of Bad Days_ (2015)

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  • From Scott Dorsey@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Thu Sep 19 00:27:20 2024
    Lynn McGuire <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 9/18/2024 8:03 AM, BillGill wrote:

    And now the chips in the head would be a problem, because
    how would you upgrade to the new and better chip every
    couple of years?  And how would you incorporate a camera?

    And what would you do when your chip in your head got hacked ?

    You know it happen.

    You'd immediately go out and buy all the products made by the company
    that hired the hackers, and then go vote up and down the ballot for the straight Bochialist ticket.
    --scott

    --
    "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

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  • From Titus G@21:1/5 to BillGill on Thu Sep 19 17:37:02 2024
    On 19/09/24 01:03, BillGill wrote:
    On 9/18/2024 12:37 AM, Titus G wrote:
    On 18/09/24 13:14, BCFD 36 wrote:
    On 9/17/24 08:10, James Nicoll wrote:
    Five SF Books Set in the Future… of 2020

    How did science fiction imagine the world of the 2020s? Let's
    look at some of the more entertaining predictions and speculations...

    https://reactormag.com/five-sf-books-set-in-the-future-of-2020/

    Not a one.


    One. I enjoyed Stross' Halting State but did not enjoy Rule 34, (Halting
    State 2). I think I just didn't like the writing style and can't
    remember the plot nor content despite reading James' outline but I think
    that their smart phones were chips in their heads.

    And now the chips in the head would be a problem, because
    how would you upgrade to the new and better chip every
    couple of years?  And how would you incorporate a camera?

    It was copyright in 2011 so 2020 wasn't that far in the future anyway.
    I can't answer because I don't know if that issue was raised. In some of Alastair Reynolds' novels there are neural implants which are
    programmable or altered by remote means without a physical interface
    such as Bluetooth.

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  • From Bobbie Sellers@21:1/5 to James Nicoll on Sat Sep 21 23:28:23 2024
    On 9/17/24 08:10, James Nicoll wrote:
    Five SF Books Set in the Future… of 2020

    How did science fiction imagine the world of the 2020s? Let's
    look at some of the more entertaining predictions and speculations...

    https://reactormag.com/five-sf-books-set-in-the-future-of-2020/


    Curiously enough I have read several of those but think I
    missed the Philip Dick novel and the anthology.

    But I happen to be curently reading "Aftermath" by
    Charles Sheffield which is set in 2026 published in 1998.
    In this novel the world is suffering a double crisis. Alpha Centuri
    has gone supenova and the radiation hit the Suuthern Hemisphere
    and set offgsome very unpleansanbt weather but the wave of hard
    radiation causes a EMP and wipes out all computers not in
    Faraday cages.
    The USA is center stage of course along wiht a group of aged cancer
    victims who have been following a course of treatment involving
    destroying the telomeres of their cancer treatment. The Presiden
    t is a sane but single man. A Mission is returning from a Mars Landing
    and no communication from Ground to Space is available. The technology
    is a bit more advanced as the cancer patient have home gendnome
    sequencers which of course not long work nor does much htat used
    integrated circuit chips.
    Capital punishment is gone and in its place we have Judicial Sleep
    which is suspended animation with normal aging. This opens with
    a serial killer undergoing Judicial Sleep.

    That is as far as I have gotten.

    bliss

    --
    b l i s s - S F 4 e v e r at D S L E x t r e m e dot com

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  • From Scott Dorsey@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Sun Sep 22 22:09:35 2024
    Bobbie Sellers <[email protected]> wrote:
    But I happen to be curently reading "Aftermath" by
    Charles Sheffield which is set in 2026 published in 1998.
    In this novel the world is suffering a double crisis. Alpha Centuri
    has gone supenova and the radiation hit the Suuthern Hemisphere
    and set offgsome very unpleansanbt weather but the wave of hard
    radiation causes a EMP and wipes out all computers not in
    Faraday cages.

    This is written by someone who is unfamiliar with the inverse square law? --scott

    --
    "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Bobbie Sellers@21:1/5 to Scott Dorsey on Sun Sep 22 15:25:37 2024
    On 9/22/24 15:09, Scott Dorsey wrote:
    Bobbie Sellers <[email protected]> wrote:
    But I happen to be curently reading "Aftermath" by
    Charles Sheffield which is set in 2026 published in 1998.
    In this novel the world is suffering a double crisis. Alpha Centuri
    has gone supenova and the radiation hit the Suuthern Hemisphere
    and set offgsome very unpleansanbt weather but the wave of hard
    radiation causes a EMP and wipes out all computers not in
    Faraday cages.

    This is written by someone who is unfamiliar with the inverse square law? --scott

    I dunno what Sheffield is familiar with aside from excellent story telling skills. But the microchip ending event is the very hard
    radiation delayed by the expanding shell of the supernova.

    Within the story the effects are credible. In real life asfawk
    Alpha Centuri is not the correct sort of star to become a supernova. In
    the story that point is raised and then dropped because in the world
    of the story it happened regardless of supernova theory. Also in this
    version of reality we have not developed a treatment for cance that
    involves removing the telomeres of the cancer cells.

    It reads though like hard SF and is written. If in 2026
    Alpha Centuri for some reason goes nova or even supernova we will
    hail Sheffield as a prophet.
    I hope it does not happen because prophets have had crazy
    ideas for thousands of years.

    bliss

    --
    b l i s s - S F 4 e v e r at D S L E x t r e m e dot com

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From James Nicoll@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Sun Sep 22 23:09:03 2024
    In article <vcq5h2$2cdcj$[email protected]>,
    Bobbie Sellers <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 9/22/24 15:09, Scott Dorsey wrote:
    Bobbie Sellers <[email protected]> wrote:
    But I happen to be curently reading "Aftermath" by
    Charles Sheffield which is set in 2026 published in 1998.
    In this novel the world is suffering a double crisis. Alpha Centuri
    has gone supenova and the radiation hit the Suuthern Hemisphere
    and set offgsome very unpleansanbt weather but the wave of hard
    radiation causes a EMP and wipes out all computers not in
    Faraday cages.

    This is written by someone who is unfamiliar with the inverse square law?
    --scott

    I dunno what Sheffield is familiar with aside from excellent story
    telling skills. But the microchip ending event is the very hard
    radiation delayed by the expanding shell of the supernova.

    Within the story the effects are credible. In real life asfawk
    Alpha Centuri is not the correct sort of star to become a supernova. In
    the story that point is raised and then dropped because in the world
    of the story it happened regardless of supernova theory.

    I believe in the second book, Alpha C's nova turns out to have
    been assisted, and also that the explosion was assymetric.
    --
    My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
    My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
    My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
    My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

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  • From Scott Dorsey@21:1/5 to James Nicoll on Sun Sep 22 23:19:21 2024
    James Nicoll <[email protected]> wrote:
    Bobbie Sellers <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 9/22/24 15:09, Scott Dorsey wrote:
    Bobbie Sellers <[email protected]> wrote:
    But I happen to be curently reading "Aftermath" by
    Charles Sheffield which is set in 2026 published in 1998.
    In this novel the world is suffering a double crisis. Alpha Centuri >>>> has gone supenova and the radiation hit the Suuthern Hemisphere
    and set offgsome very unpleansanbt weather but the wave of hard
    radiation causes a EMP and wipes out all computers not in
    Faraday cages.

    This is written by someone who is unfamiliar with the inverse square law? >>
    I dunno what Sheffield is familiar with aside from excellent story >>telling skills. But the microchip ending event is the very hard
    radiation delayed by the expanding shell of the supernova.

    Right, and as the shell gets larger and larger, it becomes less and less
    dense. The radiation still has lots of energy, but there is less of it.

    We get very high energy cosmic rays here that are very high energy,
    enough to easily penetrate through the Van Allen belts and the atmosphere
    and my roof. They leave annoying streaks on the photographic film stored
    in my freezer, and they keep on going. But there aren't a lot of them,
    so other than some fogging they aren't a serious threat.

    Within the story the effects are credible. In real life asfawk
    Alpha Centuri is not the correct sort of star to become a supernova. In
    the story that point is raised and then dropped because in the world
    of the story it happened regardless of supernova theory.

    I believe in the second book, Alpha C's nova turns out to have
    been assisted, and also that the explosion was assymetric.

    A CME directed toward the earth might make for something more measurable
    here, although it would have to be pretty narrow.
    --scott

    --
    "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Scott Lurndal@21:1/5 to Scott Dorsey on Mon Sep 23 15:42:06 2024
    [email protected] (Scott Dorsey) writes:
    James Nicoll <[email protected]> wrote:
    Bobbie Sellers <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 9/22/24 15:09, Scott Dorsey wrote:
    Bobbie Sellers <[email protected]> wrote:
    But I happen to be curently reading "Aftermath" by
    Charles Sheffield which is set in 2026 published in 1998.
    In this novel the world is suffering a double crisis. Alpha Centuri >>>>> has gone supenova and the radiation hit the Suuthern Hemisphere
    and set offgsome very unpleansanbt weather but the wave of hard
    radiation causes a EMP and wipes out all computers not in
    Faraday cages.

    This is written by someone who is unfamiliar with the inverse square law? >>>
    I dunno what Sheffield is familiar with aside from excellent story >>>telling skills. But the microchip ending event is the very hard
    radiation delayed by the expanding shell of the supernova.

    Right, and as the shell gets larger and larger, it becomes less and less >dense. The radiation still has lots of energy, but there is less of it.

    You're assuming that the radiation from the supernova is omnidirectional -
    is that a safe assumption? Consider a gamma ray burst, for example,
    which can be highly focused in effect - and are blamed for at least one mass-extinction event here on earth.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Paul S Person@21:1/5 to Scott Dorsey on Mon Sep 23 09:03:21 2024
    On 22 Sep 2024 23:19:21 -0000, [email protected] (Scott Dorsey) wrote:

    James Nicoll <[email protected]> wrote:
    Bobbie Sellers <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 9/22/24 15:09, Scott Dorsey wrote:
    Bobbie Sellers <[email protected]> wrote:
    But I happen to be curently reading "Aftermath" by
    Charles Sheffield which is set in 2026 published in 1998.
    In this novel the world is suffering a double crisis. Alpha Centuri >>>>> has gone supenova and the radiation hit the Suuthern Hemisphere
    and set offgsome very unpleansanbt weather but the wave of hard
    radiation causes a EMP and wipes out all computers not in
    Faraday cages.

    This is written by someone who is unfamiliar with the inverse square law? >>>
    I dunno what Sheffield is familiar with aside from excellent story >>>telling skills. But the microchip ending event is the very hard >>>radiation delayed by the expanding shell of the supernova.

    Right, and as the shell gets larger and larger, it becomes less and less >dense. The radiation still has lots of energy, but there is less of it.

    We get very high energy cosmic rays here that are very high energy,
    enough to easily penetrate through the Van Allen belts and the atmosphere
    and my roof. They leave annoying streaks on the photographic film stored
    in my freezer, and they keep on going. But there aren't a lot of them,
    so other than some fogging they aren't a serious threat.

    IIRC, the reason computer hard drives began coming with their own
    error detection and correction is because, occasionally, a cosmic ray
    would flip a bit.

    Which isn't much of a problem with 360K floppies or even 20MB hard
    drives, but once you get up into the GB (or TB), bit flips start
    happening on a regular recurring basis.

    This ultimately made SpinRite not as necessary as it once was, as the
    hard drives were doing the work themselves.

    Within the story the effects are credible. In real life asfawk
    Alpha Centuri is not the correct sort of star to become a supernova. In >>>the story that point is raised and then dropped because in the world
    of the story it happened regardless of supernova theory.

    I believe in the second book, Alpha C's nova turns out to have
    been assisted, and also that the explosion was assymetric.

    A CME directed toward the earth might make for something more measurable >here, although it would have to be pretty narrow.
    --
    "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
    Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
    Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Robert Woodward@21:1/5 to James Nicoll on Wed Sep 25 10:13:04 2024
    In article <vcc656$ipb$[email protected]>,
    [email protected] (James Nicoll) wrote:

    Five SF Books Set in the Future… of 2020

    How did science fiction imagine the world of the 2020s? Let's
    look at some of the more entertaining predictions and speculations...

    https://reactormag.com/five-sf-books-set-in-the-future-of-2020/

    This reply is a bit late, but I was just looking at my database of books
    bought and read and a comment I made decades ago for one book caught my attention. I give you _Touch the Stars: Emergence_ by John Dalmas and
    Carl Martin (published by Tor in 1983). The chapter heads include dates, chapter 1 being set on September 16, 2024. I don't remember much about
    it (I think it could be called a gadget story), but there appears to be
    a E-book edition available. Oh, the comment: "King Charles III makes a
    brief appearance".

    --
    "We have advanced to new and surprising levels of bafflement."
    Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan describes progress in _Komarr_. �-----------------------------------------------------
    Robert Woodward [email protected]

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Robert Woodward@21:1/5 to Robert Woodward on Thu Sep 26 09:58:47 2024
    In article <[email protected]>,
    Robert Woodward <[email protected]> wrote:

    In article <vcc656$ipb$[email protected]>,
    [email protected] (James Nicoll) wrote:

    Five SF Books Set in the Future… of 2020

    How did science fiction imagine the world of the 2020s? Let's
    look at some of the more entertaining predictions and speculations...

    https://reactormag.com/five-sf-books-set-in-the-future-of-2020/

    This reply is a bit late, but I was just looking at my database of books bought and read and a comment I made decades ago for one book caught my attention. I give you _Touch the Stars: Emergence_ by John Dalmas and
    Carl Martin (published by Tor in 1983). The chapter heads include dates, chapter 1 being set on September 16, 2024. I don't remember much about
    it (I think it could be called a gadget story), but there appears to be
    a E-book edition available. Oh, the comment: "King Charles III makes a
    brief appearance".

    However, when I checked that e-book edition; I discovered that the text
    had been revised and expanded.

    --
    "We have advanced to new and surprising levels of bafflement."
    Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan describes progress in _Komarr_. �-----------------------------------------------------
    Robert Woodward [email protected]

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)