Planning a Seattle Futures Meeting

I used to attend monthly futurist meetings in Santa Monica California, run by John Smart.  They were great get togethers – a pile of people interested in talking about the future.  Eclectic.  It was scientists and techs from JPL and the local universities, people off the street, students, business people, consultants, etc.  Often up to fifty of sixty at a time.  We’d talk about books and the accelerating pace of change (which is, of course, even faster now).  I actually designed other trips so the timing would coincide with these meetings.

Well, now we’re testing the waters in Seattle to see if there are people interested here.  We did a few meetings a few years ago, but then life intervened and the meetings stopped.  So we’re trying to re-start them again.  There’s a Yahoo group, the SeaFuture Group, which you can sign up for if you’re interested in attending.  We’re planning to set up a meetup group.

We have a date and a time and a topic. That’s February 19th (a Friday) at Park Place Books in Kirkland from 6:30 to 8:00.  It’s a great location.  The people at Park Place are nice, and there are a ton of great restaurants right there in the shopping center, including Luccia, Purple, and Rikki Rikki.    We want to talk about the new design revolution.  We science fiction writers have been interested in fabricators, or machines that can make stuff out of raw materials and  a computer program, for some time.  Well, with 3D printing, this is starting to become possible.  For background reading, we’re suggesting this month’s issue of Wired Magazine.

I’ll blog more about this, but in the meantime, mark your calendar!

Jan Vandenbos is the other moderator and group leader.

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Books

Wings of Creation by Brenda Cooper

Reading the Wind cover image

Available November 10th, 2009 from Tor Books.

Reading the Wind by Brenda Cooper

Reading the Wind cover image

Audio promo:

"Brenda Cooper's newest novel is a feast of character and concept. She depicts the devastation of war on microcosmic and macrocosmic levels, and even more so, the driving motives of young men and women caught in deadly conflict. Cooper is a master explorer of the interaction of society and individuals. She probes the psychology of her genetically enhanced characters with both rare depth and fidelity to scientific plausibility. Moral conundrums drive the plot in this unforgettable narrative. Don't miss this compelling work by a major new talent." - Mary A. Turzillo, An Old-Fashioned Martian Girl.

"Brenda Cooper tells a tale of a powerful brother and sister in a fight for their lives, offering insights along the way into the nature of courage and the hunger for community that burns in every human being. This is a lively book, full of colorful images and a memorable cast of human and animal characters, a worthy successor to The Silver Ship and the Sea." - Louise Marley

Available in July, 2008, from Tor Books.

The Silver Ship and the Sea by Brenda Cooper

Silver Ship and the Sea cover image

Audio promo:

"The first solo novel by Larry Niven's Building Harlequin's Moon (2005) coauthor portrays the thoroughly convincing human colonial society on Fremont, a dangerous planet rife with vicious predators, frequent earthquakes, and falling meteors....Distinctive characterizations, well-limned interrelationships, and the vividly realized Fremont contribute to an exciting coming-of-age story with a strong message about the evils of prejudice." - Sally Estes, Copyright American Library Association.

Mass Market Paperback, July 2008.
Included by Booklist as a "Best Adult Book for Young Adults."

Building Harlequin's Moon by Brenda Cooper and Larry Niven

Building Harlequin's Moon cover image

"Fans of both hard and softer, psychological SF will welcome veteran Niven and newcome Cooper's well-written tale of a 60,000 year layover in space, in which physical challenges of world building are matched by the social challenges of collaboration among disparate groups." - Publisher's Weekly

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