I think the idea of underwater cities is just plain impractical for anything other than highly specialized purposes. We seem to have no trouble doing deep sea research from boats and oceanic drilling from floating oil rigs. But the idea of floating cities or boat towns may not be too far fetched.

Rosie and I were just talking about advanced forms of viral mimetics delivered through the internet just before I got hit by one. It’s a pass along book quiz. Velcro City Tourist Board tagged me with a post titled When book memes attack!. The idea is a bit cheesey but I couldn’t resist:

That Mars vs. Moon debate isn’t new. I’m partial to the Moon myself, partly out of sheer practicality and partial out of temperment. There’s something very appealing to me about a human presence on the moon.

I already had this Brain Parade in the works when Lou Anders at Bowing to the Future posted The State of Science Fiction, Part II but this could very well be a response to Lou’s musings about how other’s see SF.

Every once in a while we run a Brain Parade on a question that we don’t really have an answer for ourselves. In a way these are my faves because these are often the Brain Parades I learn the most from and it also means that I don’t have to write any commentary of my own because I simply can’t answer the question.

It’s been a while since we’ve had some science ficiton related content on the blog but we’re making up for some lost time with an interview with young turk science fiction author and coolio blogger John Scalzi.

Today we interview The Guardian’s Technology editor Charles Arthur on the Free Our Data campaign, aimed at persuading the British government to stop charging for non personal data collected at the taxpayers expense. To read the original article that started the campaign go here. (link)

I have to confess to having a crush on utopian visions. I suspect that’s a side effect of a happy childhood and reading too much science fiction growing up. On the flipside however whenever people get the idea in their heads that the world would be perfect if only we did X, Y and Z then they tend to be a bit ruthless in their pursuit of it.

As usual you’ll have to wade through my two cents first: The first step that I see happening are networked grassroot movements gaining an increasing say in the internal politics of political parties. This isn’t going to happen quickly.

Today we get a head start on the week with an interview with science fiction author Mark Budz. I talk to him about science ficiton, writing, military robots and his latest novel Idolon.