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Introducing new guest blogger: Ramez Naam

Charlie is still away. But in the meantime, I'd like to introduce our latest guest blogger: Ramez Naam.

Ramez Naam is a computer scientist, futurist, and an H.G. Wells Award-winning author of fiction and non-fiction. His two science fiction novels, Nexus and Crux, explore the power of near future technologies to link human minds, and the consequences of a War-on-Drugs and War-on-Terror-style backlash against such technologies. *Nexus* was named one of NPR's Best Books of 2013 and optioned by Paramount and Director Darren Aronofsky for a feature film.

His first non-fiction book was More Than Human: Embracing the Promise of Biological Enhancement, which gives a guided tour of human enhancement technologies, and argues that society should cautiously embrace them. His most recent is The Infinite Resource: The Power of Ideas on a Finite Planet, a look at the challenges of climate change, energy, water, food, and other resources and environmental issues on Earth, and our best prospects for overcoming them through innovation in science, technology, and the rules of our economies.

Ramez spent most of his adult life working in software. He founded and ran a nanonetech simulation startup. He's a fellow of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies and serves as Adjunct Faculty at Singularity University, where he teaches on energy, environment, and innovation. He lives in Seattle. You can find him at rameznaam.com or on Twitter as @ramez.

18 Comments

1:

Welcome, Ramez! I look forward to what you will blog here, since your fiction and non fiction are on the "bleeding edge".

2:

I am exhausted, otherwise I'd have found something extra-positive to say about Crux and Nexus. Let's just say, it's probably the first time I've read a novel by someone who'd read "Reflections on Trusting Trust" by Ken Thompson and used it for a plot twist ...

3:

Ah, I met Ramez briefly at WorldCon in San Antonio, where he was one of the more interesting (and erudite) panelists.

We were missing a certain someone though because he claimed the weather was too hot.

Oh well, maybe next time.

4:

Wow, it is so fantastic that two of my most favorite sci fi authors are blogging together. I myself started blogging and podcasting after reading two books, one of which was Accelerando.

Then, in time, I got to be lucky enough to interview both Charlie and Ramez on my Singularity 1 on 1 podcast.

So if you want to find a lot more about Ramez in a short period of time, go have a look at my recent interview with him here: http://www.singularityweblog.com/ramez-naam/

5:

Welcome Ramez!

6:

The (fiction) books sound awesome! And I'd love to read them (preferably on my kindle), but they seem not available trough amazon! Is there anything I can do about that? Or other ways how to get these books?

7:

Thanks all for the warm welcome! I'm looking forward to spending the next 10 days or so here! Look for a post from me tomorrow.

Best, Mez

8:

If you can access the US or UK kindle store, you can buy them that way.

If not, you can buy DRM-free epub versions from the Robot Trading Company.

Nexus: http://www.robottradingcompany.com/nexus-ramez-naam.html

Crux: http://www.robottradingcompany.com/crux-ramez-naam.html

9:

Hmm, an interesting order you have there, sir. I'd personally recommend going Kindle only after not being able to use the Angry Robot option. But on the other hand the aggregation of the Kindle store does make things easier, means you don't have to go to individual publishers.

Welcome to the blog, Ramez. I appear to have both Nexus and Crux on my Nook for some reason1, and shall have to pull them higher up my reading order.

1 Angry Robot doing a 100 book bundle. Hey, I only had 17 of the books already, and I have a great respect for their catalogue.

10:

You can also get DRM free Epub's of Nexus and Crux on the UK Kobo site. I enjoyed them both. Welcome Ramez!

11:

Listened to Crux and Nexus as audiobooks and loved them. Can't wait to hear how you follow up with the Chinese AI. My favourite authors at the moment are Stross, Hertling, Suarez, and Yours Truly. Keep up the good work.

12:

You are one of your own favourite authors? What about Mr Naam?

<princess-bride>I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means</princess-bride>

13:

You are one of your own favourite authors?

Yes, that's how I'd read the list in #11 too.

14:

Sorry. My bad. Replace "Yours Truly" with Ramez Naam.

15:

I know, I know. I beg forgiveness on the grounds of brain fog.

16:

I can understand the mistake. It's humbling how far one can get through life and still have misconceptions about the meanings of quite common words or phrases: you are not the only one to trip.

For writers this is one reason to have beta readers and copy editors. Parenthetically I notice a particular blogger every now and then using "$foo and I" when he means "$foo and me". The former should be used when it's an expansion of 'we', the latter when an expansion of 'us'. (Pray Muphry that I'm right on this.)

17:

Granted; I only weighed in to make it clear that there was more than one person who'd read #11 the same way.

18:

They're available. Search for them on Amazon in the Kindle store, rather than just following the links; Amazon will spit out the version you're "allowed" to buy.

Or use the Robot Trading Company links provided by Ramez. However, at least for me, they're more expensive (£5.49, versus $US5.46 from Amazon.)

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This page contains a single entry by Charlie Stross published on February 11, 2014 10:04 PM.

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