is there one writer or novel in paticular that has “cranked” your head open?
No suprises to longtime readers here but for me its Larry Niven. Back in the 1970s growing up in suburban Toronto culture was like water at the Burning Man festival unless you trucked some in with you, you went without. You basicaly […]

There’s a somewhat silly question (ok maybe not so silly for some) that pops up in writer’s interviews. And that’s the question of writer’s block. I’ve not used it in any of our author interviews but as an experiment I’ve put together a mini-Brain Parade on the topic:
Do you get “writer’s block”? And if so […]

We’re lining up a new of futurism Brain Parades this November and we’re kicking it off with a series of Pet predictions.
Putting aside a comprehensive vision of the future, do you have a single “pet prediction” of something that you think might happen over the next decade or two?

The weather was crap today so […]

This is the second parter of a Brain Parade we ran back in September. Just to refresh your memory here’s the question:
Is the Enlightenment ideal on the rocks or is it merely a bit shaken?
The range of responses we’ve had to this one ranging on this one partly because the Enlightenment is also joined at […]

Do you perceive a growing sense of mistrust from the public with respect to science?
This is the second parter of a Brain Parade that we ran last month. I’ve already given an answer focusing on the “culture wars” in the United States and Canada and growing acceptance of Global Warming back then.
Looking back at my […]

Science has come under fire from some people on religious grounds. Some scientists (eg. Richard Dawkins) have returned fire by criticising religion. Is this productive? Or should scientists avoid talking about the merits of religion?
This is the second parter of a Brain Parade we ran over a month ago. You can read the first installment […]

What ethical dilemmas posed by future technology or social changes would you like to see explored more thoroughly in contemporary Science Fiction?
I’ve got a lot of things I want to say on this one (so its a good thing it’s a two parter). And its especially apt since I just watched the first two […]

Outside of your field, what advances/research excite you the most?
This is a touch one for me to answer. I’m not a scientist so I don’t have “a field” but I’m not going to let a lack of qualifications stop me. To me the most exciting thing going on right now is what is being referred […]

Sorry for not posting yesterday, we were out getting sloshed. Bad bloggers.
We kick the week off late with a bit of a cheeky one…
With the help of a friendly timelord you’ve assembled a poker game with some of the greatest minds in history. Who did you invite and why?
I’ve just come back from the […]

Out of the ethical dilemmas that Science Fiction has explored in the past which ones have been your favourite(s)? Are they still relevant in the same way today?

It seems a bit silly but today’s question is something that I’ve picked away at ocassionaly from time to time since I was a kid….

What would the world be like if Science Fiction authors ran it? If you had to pick one Science Fiction author to run the world, who would you choose?

Today we tackle a subject that has been vexing me more and more later. I’m going to blather on in a moment but first the question….

Do you think the rise of self selecting media channels is going to facilitate more people subscribing to a lot of loony conspiracy theories and consensual realities, or will the net effect be to dispel many such notions?

Today we bring you the first part of another two parter. As before it’s a two parter because it was a question I liked asking…

Out of the ethical dilemmas that Science Fiction has explored in the past which ones have been your favourite(s)? Are they still relevant in the same way today?

Yesterday we were serious and now we get silly again with the second parter of one of my favourite Brain Parades. That’s right its manky towel wielding time travelling author time again. For those of you who missed out first installment “manky” is British for used, worn out and filthy.

Today we tackle a subject about which countless hundreds of thousands of words have been written over the past sixty years.

Do you perceive a growing sense of mistrust from the public with respect to science?

We continue reviewing books that are unavailable in stores.

Is the Enlightenment ideal on the rocks or is it merely a bit shaken?

MT: The three answers that we received to this question are wildly divergent from each other. Partly this is because in common usage the term enlightenment tends to denote not just the idea that reason can be used to build authoritative systems of logic, aesthetics and ethics, (a concept rooted, as Robert Freeman points out below, in the idea of the perfectibility of man) but also the wider concept that the application of reason through the scientific method is the best way to understand the physical world.

A Brain Parade of reviews of Science Fiction books with a small twist, none of the books review here actually exsists. These books may not have the advantage of exsisting but at least we’ve done you the favour of giving you a sneak peak as to what you’re missing.

I continue my obsessive question of people with the question:

What is the strangest thing you believe to be true?

Have you ever taken perverse pleasure in killing a character off in your writing? If so which one of your characters did you enjoy killing the most?

MT: Sorry for those of you who visited over the weekend only to find a huge gaping void of nothingness where memetherapy should have been. Unfortunately our host had a problem at their datacenter and the site was down for the whole of Sunday some of Saturday and some of Monday morning. However we’re back up now and normal service has been resumed.

Some transhumanists have advocated the “uplifting” of primates. Do you see any merit in this idea?

The inspiration for this Brain Parade comes from my readings of thinking in the transhumanist movement. I agree with the transhumanists in a lot of things. They’re right to say that our response to ethical challenges posed by future technologies should be informed by something more than yuk factor.

We return to our Mankind’s Destiny in Space debate origins by collecting responses to this question:

Do you think its important that human beings venture out into space? What does space as a frontier mean to you?

For your money what’s the most underrated Science Fiction film of all time?
This post is going to be dangerous as I’m very drunk but just like last Friday I’m going ahead with it anyways. 2001 is my favourite SF flick and it’s frequently dissed (mostly proximaly here by Rosie) but I can’t call it underated […]

Time for another silly one…

The forces of Fate have decided that the world will come to an end. Fortunately Fate is a drinking buddy of yours and she let’s you pick the means of the world’s destruction. Do you take her up on her offer? And if so please provide gory details.

Today we tackle a tricky question: Do you think advances in technology may spell the end for asymmetric warfare? And if so is this necessarily a bad thing?
Asymmetric warfare as defined by Wikipedia:
Asymmetric warfare is a term that describes a military situation in which two belligerents of unequal strength interact and take advantage of their respective strengths and weaknesses. This interaction often involves strategies and tactics outside the bounds of conventional warfare.

Is it becoming harder to imagine a plausible utopia evolving from the world as it stands today? Which do you find more compelling, the carrot of Utopia or the stick of dystopia?

MT: I think the idea that we’ll ever get close to a utopia is a pretty dubious one given human nature and fallibility, and personally I can’t think of any that I’d actually want to inhabit (even Aldous Huxley’s Island would grate after a while despite the sex and psychedelics).

Is Science Fiction entering a new Golden Age? Authors Jay Lake, Mark Chadbourn, Kelley Esteridge and M.J Young seperate the wheat from the hype.

It’s time for the second installment off the Stumbler’s Brain Parade Experiment. I’m warning you in advance that this is a long post but I hope you enjoy it as I have. In the past two weeks I’ve gotten hooked on Stumbleupon, the idea seemed a bit naff at first but it can get addictive if you give it the chance.

In today’s Brain Parade I asked a number of science fiction authors (and one fan) a rather ambigous question:
Is there a conspiracy?

I’m a bit too drunk to comment on this one intelligently. But I’m not going to let that stop me. Yes there is a conspiracy but it’s probably something that no one imagines and by the time it comes to light no one will care.

As an experiment we decided to ask a load of the denizens of stumbleupon.com this question: What is the strangest thing you believe to be true? We got an amazing response and some truly fascinating answers. This is first installment of a series of articles so if you don’t see your answer here don’t despair, as I’ll be printing all of them eventually.

I asked a lot of people the following question:
What is the strangest thing that you believe to be true?
I started with a few writers and scientists whose answers are below. But I found myself continually asking people this question. I went on Stumbleupon and asked dozens of people this question. I’ve got all kinds of weird and wonderful answers…

We asked Mike Treder and Patrick Lin, two nanoethicists the following question:
Do you think the global economy and already existing regulatory structures will be able to adapt to the impact of nanotechnology without large-scale negative disruptions?
This is part of our nanotechnology series, more of which can be found by clicking through to the post itself.

I was going to post a frivolous Brain Parade up tonight but as I’m all grumpy and introspective from my battles with nicotine withdraw I can’t be asked to write anything funny. So today I’m going to give you a bit of controversy by asking whether scientists should criticize religion or if this is counterproductive?

This is the second installment of the Brain Parade we kicked the week off with. You can see the first installment here.

We asked the question: What is the job of contemporary SF? Does it have a job?

Today we cover odd facts that authors dig up when they’re researching stories. Here’s the question I posed to todays commentators:
What’s the oddest thing that you learned while researching a story?
Find out what weird factoids our pick of authors have discovered while researching for their books.

We ask a bunch of our favourite Brainiacs if there are any places that give the impression they were ripped out of the pages of a science fiction or fantasy book.
This is the second part of this brain parade, read the first part here.

We kick the week off with a Brain Parade that got suggested to me by Lou Anders at Pyr.

What is the job of contemporary SF? Does it have a job?
I found it hard to come up with comments for this one, it’s much easier to answer your own questions.
Read the second part of this brain parade here

We ask the question: Much of what has been written about nanotech revolves around fairly advanced/far future scenarios. What however do you thing are going to be some of the impacts and applications over the next few years?

We ask the very silly question: As the new Tom Clancy you’re writing a near future anti-terrorism pot boiler. Who are the enemies of freedom and what’s their evil plan?
Read the deeply strange responses of our brainiacs, commentators and your memetherapists.

IS the talk of WWIII Paranoid or plausible? I’m not going to answer this in depth because our commentators mirror much of my own thinking on this one. Personaly I think the whole thing is a paranoid fantasy myself but it’s one that it’s one that is perfectly capable of becoming self fullfiling.