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Featured
Exercise
By Herman Pontzer THE Spine Challenger is a brutal race. It claws its way along the toughest 174 kilometres of the Pennines, the geological backbone of England, in the dead of winter. It must be completed in 60 hours. Finishers rack up some 5400 metres of ascent, equivalent to climbing Mont Blanc twice. Participants in 2017 –… Read more
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Dreaming The Enemy
Editorial note ~ There is official art work being done for the dream tower that will replace this so I borrowed this from a free distribution site. Author not known. The Young Dream Vigilante The dream was different this time. He could feel it immediately. It was sharper, more in focus somehow. That made sense… Read more
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Featured
Chemicals & Family
Jay and Max made it past all the normal security checks until the turbo-pod to the science labs. Max produced a code from a class he’d had earlier that day, which got them access to the pod ride that took them down four miles beneath the earth’s surface to the science facility. The tricky part… Read more
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Featured
Drugs & Fake News
They woke in the afternoon, he found himself wondering why she had chosen that moment to seduce him, she could have done it any time from the minute she walked into his POD. Was it something he had said pushed her to a place she didn’t want to be? He asked her if she wanted… Read more
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Featured
The Bond
“When he steps through that loop and takes my head in his hands tapping the side of his own head and disappearing. The numbers he whispers are always the same, never different and then the dream had only become more intense because of the medical treatments.” “I remember waking up and hearing you screaming, and… Read more
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Featured
Hiring Hackers & Plans
The hopper had been skimming for just five minutes, that was all that separated them and whomever it was turning up at his POD, it had been close. Abby was staring out of the hopper window and it took him some time to get her attention. “Can you log into the C-NET while we skim… Read more
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Featured
Po-Leece
Detective Jane Foley and Sergeant Paul Morton were on their way to the scene of the crime, their initial dispatch triggered by an unusual retraction of an AI from A-NET at 10:25pm, however things had gone from routine to weird very quickly. The attention from various agencies was growing fast, and other than the A-NET… Read more
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Featured
Fight Flight & Betrayal
Jay slumped into his chair. “Chameleon, what is protocol in these The situations?” “Disconnecting from A-NET for any reason is illegal. My database is suggesting the probability of arrest and confiscation of all assets as a ninety-nine percent probability, as well as possible jail time.” He took a long sip of his beer. He needed… Read more
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Featured
Coincidence or Conspiracy
Marcus had eventually been summoned on his way home Saturday evening from the office around 6pm. He had been waiting all day. “I need to get this clear in my mind,” Xavier said as he paced in front of Marcus Davenport, his CO for many years and friend. “We have a working prototype FTL engine,… Read more
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Featured
Code Hack
Max took a breath Look this may all be connected to that AI paranoia of yours its why I came here in person. I analyzed the blood you took this morning as soon as your AI sent over the results.” Max paused for a sip of beer, and Jay had the distinct impression he was… Read more
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Featured
Authority and Compassion
Earlier that same day, in search of compassion, Xavier Maison sat in his office watching the solar balloons shed their eerie dawn light onto Manchester. He had not been able to sleep, and had come in early, before light-up time. As he gazed out over the city from his one-hundredth-floor office, his thoughts turned to… Read more
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Some Progress on encoded
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No Excuses – Gun control in 4 months with more to come
A gentle reminder for when the rhetoric starts. Things can be done in a short period of time there are no political excuses. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/four-months-after-christchurch-shooting-new-zealand-gun-owners-turn-n1029496
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Something is seriously wrong with our understanding of the cosmos
Something is seriously wrong with our understanding of the cosmos 11 SPACE 11 July 2019 The Hubble constant may not be that constant after all ABELL 370 By Leah Crane Something is wrong with the expansion of the universe. Nearby galaxies seem to be moving away from one another too fast, we don’t know why,… Read more
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Dark Matter World Building
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Spies
The first visit happened a year before the last encode. He had always been a low level spy for New Earth. Nothing dangerous just the odd report on progress back to whomever it was he spoke to. He really cared for his fellow encoders and the human race as a whole, but nostalgia rooted him… Read more
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The Truth Is out there !
This is a reasonably lengthy read which I popped into my favourite app #voicedream. But for any kind of serious futuristic writer #dreampunk or #hardscifi this is a worth while read. Always great quality essays from #Aeon http://bit.ly/2sSQqEa
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Seven
There were twelve crew operating The juggernaut Another Destiny 7. Three data scientists, Three HER specialists, Three engineers, two first officers and a lead officer. “Please find a seat.” Mika asked them in a authoritative but silky manner, perfected over many hundreds of cycles. A cycle was still 365 days, but with no signal solar… Read more
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DreamPunk gets real
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Silent Genocide
AI’s were not allowed into the Hobby shops uninvited but sensing his worry they were now asking for an entry card. The buzzing got so loud Digbee had to stop and press a panic button. Noise stopped and Digbee was floating somewhere, it always happened like this with controlling AI. You were just there. Digbee… Read more
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The Hobby Shop
Digbee knew the message was from the real Hector and not a copy because he used his name at the start of the e-note. Technically in the Goo, there was no need for e-anything. They were living in “e-“, and as such should be able to just touch each other at a moment’s notice. However… Read more
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Bishop to C4
Martin Muller stood and looked through his window. What he beheld was in his mind the pinnacle of evolution. A world, New Earth. Grown from hardened calkium9 crystals, it was twice the size of earth. Engineered already for internal and external habitation. He watched a hyper zoomed in Holo Column showing him images of the… Read more
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Outside
The vast arena he surveyed that had once processed hundreds of people a day contained the last encoder machine, although technically in an emergency his HER vehicle could work in reverse and reabsorb you into the GOO if something went wrong with the isolation protocol, keeping your master digital copy MDC updated where ever it… Read more
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Scorched Earth
DigBee’s three counterparts were currently traveling to him from the other Habitable Zones, having completed their last encodes. Potts, Sheepman and Drew. The last window for encoding would take place in four hours at 16:00 at his location. It was 1000 years since the digital reset when all electronics were destroyed, the magnetic chaos erupting… Read more
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Dupie
It was about five a.m. Sunday morning a few hours after the dream. Neither of them could sleep and they were having a semi heated discussion about what had happened and what to do next. “But Jay, we have broken several laws in the last 24 hours. Neither of which I think we will get… Read more
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History Lesson From The Future
When Jay came back to bed, Abby rolled into his arms and looked up into his face. Concern wrinkled her brow but this time for her not for him. It was time she told him, especially considering what had just happened. “Jay,” she said sternly enough to snap him out of his own thoughts. “What’s… Read more
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Serializing Fiction Take a Look – The Faculty of Matter’s first chapters
carlfreeman.net/
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The Gloves Come Off
He left the hopper and was entering his POD, around the same time Max got the response back he was expecting from Roddy and he felt sick. There had been no mention of Jay being sick on the last call, no mention of Jay at all, on any call. He left the campus and headed… Read more
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Big Brother Could Be Bad
The memo ended with an order for Xavier to depart for Station X within the week with his family. He knew ISEC expected them to come along as a sort of insurance policy to make sure Xavier did his job and they tended to get what they wanted. If anyone insisted on staying behind, and… Read more
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Are we ready for the Drugs?
If you missed yesterdays sex scene you will have to go back and read “The Bond” Today we move into the future of fake news and designer drug glanding. !
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Abby
Jay often worried if fusion-hoppers were not around he might never have met Abby and a life without Abby would be impossible for him. Abby’s parents had died in a “supposed” freak hopper accident in one of the early models. She distrusted ISECs explanations for the crash and she distrusted hoppers in general. She understandably… Read more
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More options to read
Check out “Faculty of Matter” on Bookshelves https://forums.onlinebookclub.org/shelves/book.php?id=353154 #books via @TwBookClub
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Please Provide Some Feedback
I am serialising parts of #FOM and would love some feed back on it please! https://my.w.tt/61xUB6jFzS
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Meetings and Messages
Jay Maison forced himself back into the dream space. He’d been relentless in his quest for answers, every morning since the night he had once found himself unexpectedly caught up in Abby’s nightmare. He closed and slowed his mind. While in her nightmare, his perspective was locked to hers and he could not change it… Read more
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Prologue
Prologue… A small science outpost sparkled in the cold vacuum of space, its orbit shallow and elliptical. Two modified Mark Nine shuttles equipped with new fusion engines and loaded with every weapon humanity had thus far invented followed the same orbit, directly opposite one another. The focus of this deep-space mission was a large gunmetal… Read more
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Accepting that AI may just become EI like us.
As a writer of Sci-fi that encompasses AI in storylines; as well as a technologist who is looking more and more at AI in the workplace and home, I found this a hugely enriching article. It captures many of the debates and concepts surround AI in a consumable way. We learn emotional intelligence why can’t… Read more
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Should Murder in VR be illegal.. What a great question and title for a novel. While put more poetically by William Gibson in The Peripheral…
A very serious point for new parents where their children will grow up in a more detached world. Fascinated as I am by AI and VR to the point where I attempt to write clumsily about it, there are the “Real World” Sinister side street showes. As we look to bring another child into the… Read more
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IaaS vs PaaS vs CaaS – This is a good summary of the terms and what to know. Confused by these types of pictures your tech teams keep showing you?
Almost daily I will wince in a meeting when someone blurts out IaaS and rattles of a totally home grown description to suit their own home grown form of Job Security Paranoia. Moving on from job paranoia we get to people who know about the cloud or should. And they shout out PaaS! and explain… Read more
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When Harry Met Sally – #Love- A prequel to the Faculty of Matter. #FOM
“What are you sick with?” The female synthesized voice of Sally asked without compassion. “Cancer.” He replied flatly, it was a question that used to fill him with horror at having to answer, but over the years as the disease had come and gone, it had become part of his life. He was out of… Read more
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How do I serialise some science fiction online. All (scar tissue) advice welcome! #writingadvice #amlearning #amwriting
Friends. I’m looking to release some prequel work for Faculty Of Matter. I am still six months or so from publication of #FOM but have some matirial I’d love to get some online feedback on. I would like to serialise it because I’m pivoting around a few world building ideas. Also I would like to… Read more
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Are we past the #Turing #Test? Can #AI #learn to #love?
This is a great point, and starts to split the two words. Define artificial, something created rather than natural… Continue reading Are we past the #Turing #Test? Can #AI #learn to #love?
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#CSP too big to #fail? Just putting #cloud in front of something shouldn’t inject #urbanmyths and privacy hysteria
This is a debate leveled at recent issues that arise from the near banking collapse and how we have viewed market dominant companies since. So in responding to these questions and articles from the other day here is my opinion having been in the heart of these collapses and the spiral of recovery from the… Read more
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#AI something wonderful or the end of the world.
Regardless of your own opinion on this, and many of you are writting about it. If you missed the #60Mins on it last night it’s worth catching up. Not very science insightful but certainly, as always with this wonderful show some great questions. Also some wonderful #worldbuilding ideas to chew on. https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/60-minutes/id81210923?mt=2
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Finally splitting my twitter account. If your #publishing #books #writing #author #scifi #cyberpunk could you follow @FOMAuthor or both!! Thanks
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Political Change – I feel #disconnected. Are we ready to endorse #nuclear instability to change a #democratic #process. Can we learn from #Brexit? Please give me your views
I am an agent for change. I thought I understood the need for change. I spent the first half of my adult life being buffeted around fortune 100 company toxic change. I then took control of change, and tried desperately to understand people needs within that toxic change cycle to try to break the vast… Read more
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Martin Luther King Jr., Why We Can’t Wait – A very timely reminder.
“Time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively. More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad… Read more
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#BigData & #Datascience Don’t let it be another faith based #opinion riddled debate. Any of these sound familiar?
Any of these resonate with you? Then read on! Specifically, we argue that: 1. There is no known effective method to anonymize location data, and no evidence that it’s meaningfully achievable. 2. Computing re-identification probabilities based on proof-of-concept demonstrations is silly. 3. Cavoukian and Castro ignore many realistic threats by focusing narrowly on a particular… Read more
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Experience will we really need it in the future? People keep telling me AI is going to take over the world. Love to hear his views too?
Experience will we really need it in the future? People keep telling me AI is going to take over the world. Love to hear his views too? Now I write about the cynicism of AI in my fiction but how much do we really believe AI is going to replace real judgement. If we were… Read more
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Some Major Book News #amwriting #facultyofmatter
For those that follow from a #scifi #nearfi and #cyberpunk point of view. Yesterday I finally spent the day over coming the major structural issue that occurred during recent edit merge with my editor. The task so daunting it’s taken me nearly a year. We are moving to document sharing online going forward. Thanks to… Read more
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AI is becoming part of our society through the #internetofthings.
The internet of things is about connecting every day devices to us, via intelligent devices that use the cloud to interpret the data the send it to us in an meaningful way before storing it some place for later review. As an author there can be no limit to what we write about the connected… Read more