"What they didn't realise was that in science fiction is some of the best social fiction of our time. I also admire the classic sort of science fiction, like Blood Music, by Greg Bear. He's a great writer."She was also the Writer GoH at the 1987 WorldCon. ]]>
But in general, you need to make an effort, you need to participate, and engage with others, and be friendly/funny/knowledgeable/interesting/whatever, the same sort of thing that's needed to become accepted and part of any community.
Wossy is both a fan and a creator, but he's not in fandom, as far as I'm aware. If he wants to, he's welcome to join, just like anybody else. Of course, his situation is a bit complicated both because he's an ouside celebrity (so his fan credentials will be questioned - is he a fake geek celeb?) and because he's a creator, which in general means you enter the community in a different position, unless you transition from fandom-fan to creator (like so many has done).
But to state he'd never be welcome in fandom is ridiculous.
]]>They'd still price it at a pro level, but it would come with permission to use the bundled models, and there'd be an aftermarket for further models, environments, props, and interactions.
Do you think this is something that will happen, or is the market too small for it to pay for the game studios?
]]>That is O. Westin via MicroSFF – https://twitter.com/MicroSFF – which is eligible in the Fan Writer category.
(Copied from my entry in John's post, with corrected punctuation and grammar.)
]]>Melbourn Bury used to be a very expensive B&B at the turn of the century. I stayed there for my first two weeks at work in England. Breakfast in the main hall was interesting, when you're all alone at a table for twenty, and the cutlery is proper silver.
]]>Visited to visit building: (Newgrange (3200 BCE), ruins of Tarxien temples (3150 BCE), numerous churches and cathedrals and castles from 7th century onwards.
Spent time in for other purpose: Norderö church (1172 CE), Cressing Temple barns (13th century CE).
Slept in: Ruins (Does that count? Probably not, it has no roof.) of Lindisfarne Priory (11th century CE), Old Bull Inn (16th century CE), Melbourn Bury (16th century CE).
Lived in: While we were renovating the "new house" (built mid 19th century) on my grandparent's old farm in Sweden, we were living in the "old house" (1667 CE) for half a year. The "old house" had last been renovated in 1911, so had no running water or heating, and the chimney was too leaky to let us use the fireplace. We did get electricity jury-rigged in, though, so we had lights in the evenings.
In general, I don't really consider buildings built after, say, the 17th century or thereabouts old, per se. I mean, they're old, but nothing special. Plenty of buildings around from that time, in both wood, and stone.
]]>Like many others, I think that cheap fiction paperbacks will disappear from the market. As electronic readers (phone, tablet, computer, dedicated device) become increasingly common, accepted, and cheap, the demand will fall. I don't expect this process to be completed within a decade, but I expect airports will be one of the last holdouts.
(It'll be interesting also to see what happens to the paper companies in the next decade. I wouldn't be surprised if their chemists came up with a cellulose-based material to use in 3d printers.)
I expect to see subscription services, like Spotify or Netflix, for ebooks. Amazon will likely be one of the first ones trialing this, probably starting with self-pub and small-press in the Kindle store. It'll be interesting to see how the big publishing houses, Google and Apple respond.
I expect there'll be more literary experimentation, or possibly that literary experimentation will reach a wider audience, in non-physical books. For instance: - an omniscient 3rd person narrative story where you can show/hide the thoughts and inner monologues of all the characters. - branching/interweaving narratives where you can chose whose story to follow - a common chose-your-adventure document format (possible in epub3, with javascript, but will still leave the whole thing visible) - ransombooks, where the first two thirds or thre quarters are free, and you just pay for the ending, and can indicate what ending you want
I expect bibliophiles to keep buying hardbacks.
I expect there'll be an ongoing shift towards ebooks in schools, and that this will get into younger groups. I imagine this will also run as a subscription service, where you lose the books you're not entitled to any more after graduating.
]]>We have learned that the Other is not only out there in the abstract (like the communists were), but in the concrete. This wasn't news per se, but it was to an awful lot of people, and it changed the world they lived in fundamentally.
Ironically, we haven't learned that with careful planning and preparation, a long-term perspective, and dedication to the task, you can succeed against the odds.
]]>Not that I expect Eton to be as affected by these trends as the less hallowed schools, but they will have an eye on the trends, and plan for a changing demographic.
The young prince will likely get to know more foreigners, of non-British appearance and culture, than his father and grandfather.
I expect that security will become an increasingly important issue at the public schools, too. Both physical and electronic. For instance, it wouldn't surprise me if the school ran its own social network (per the original Facebook) and had rather strict whitelisting for outside communication.
(Sorry, this was written as a tweet, but since you inspired it...)
]]>But, yes, you missed the migrant's situation, which is the main reason the righteous right is caling for a referendum.
Here's a fun little personal observation from someone who's been on the custom-hardware/telecoms side of software engineering in England for over a decade - the English programmers are becoming a minority. I'm seeing a lot of Indians - both from the big outsourcing companies, and economic migrants - and Eastern Europeans (particularly Polish and Slovak).
Fresh graduates from UK universities tend not to know how to program close to the metal - my daughter's doing a Comp.Sci. degree and picked the "Advanced Programming" component, which is essentially "Basic C - pointers, algorithms, data structures" - and the courses are getting increasingly aimed at either Web design/development, or "games development" without the low-level stuff.
A lot of engineering companies already complain they can't find the staff, and I can't imagine this will improve with a withdrawal from the EU.
]]>The family aspect would be interesting - currently, and crudely simplified, people on average spend 25 years being a child/youth, another 25 being a parent, and a final 25 years winding down. A significantly longer life span would change this dramatically, as a much smaller proportion of your life would be spent bringing up children, although I could see people doing 25 years of child-rearing, then spend another as grand-parents, another as great-grands with more distance to children, and then re-starting a new batch.
I wouldn't be more risk-averse than I am now - I've stopped smoking, I don't drink much, and don't have any dangerous hobbies (sword- and axe-fighting is much safer than, say, rugby, football or ice hockey, and I've only suffered two broken knuckles in the last twelve years). But I suspect that many bucket lists would be down-prioritised. Things I'd like to try and learn - parashuteing, scuba diving, rock climbing - would lose the urgency physical detoriation brings, so could be put off.
]]>I think that given a hard limit like that, I'd go back to work in the City for a year, on a ridiculous-pay contract (the pimps keep calling, so I reckon the odds of getting one of those contracts is decent), to build a buffer. I could waste a year on that.
Another year or so in a more normal contract, while I fix up the house here in England properly and sell it, then move back to Sweden, to the mountains and forests and rivers and lakes. As luck has it, there'll soon be a spare house on my old family farm, so we'd have somewhere to live cheaply (no heating or water costs worth mentioning, cheap 100Mb fiber installed).
I'd try to teach my son the forest and mountain crafts and skills I haven't been able to teach my kids before, living in the most boring area of England.
I'd make an effort to finish some of the long-running projects I'm working on far too slowly at the moment, both software and literary. If they become successful, that be nice, but the important thing would be to finish them, to put them (well, some of them - there are always more ideas and interesting projects than there is time and energy to work on them) to rest.
I'd have 12-18 months of decent health in Sweden, which I'd be happy with. All the seasons, you know? That should be enough time enough to finish a couple of projects, too.
Oh, and I'd collect all poems and short stories and songs and things I've written of the years, and collect the ones I thought were decent. Then I'd ask that after I'm dead, recycled (if the illness left any usable parts) and cremated, my friends and family pick a few that they like into a best-of, and give them to people at the wake/funeral party, to remember me by.
]]>Hunting/fishing wild animals will be a niche hobby, and actually killing for real, and eating the meat, will be seen as rather disturbing (like drinking mare's blood is among modern westerners).
Seeing how wooden building techniques have improved in the last 30 years (well, in Scandinavia at least...), I would expect the notion of building dwellings out of bricks and cement will be considered outlandish. (As for the longevity of wooden houses, well, I grew up in a wooden house built in 1882. While we were renovating that to modern standards, we lived for half a year in another wooden house, built 1681.)
]]>Should the independece side win, it will be up to the Scottish political parties - old and new (and new ones will rise up) - to shape the future of Scotland. SNP is one of those parties, but there'll be others, and SNP may well lose enough seats that they'll find themselves outside government.
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