Essays

A light analysis of the current state of the publishing industry, including the ripple effects that indie publishing can have on traditional models. Featuring big indie collaborations, warring states, James Patterson, and more.

A wonderful writers’ group I’m part of recently started discussing civilization. There were many sub-discussions, but one thing struck my interest: someone pointed out that our civilization, unlike any that has gone before is global, networked across the entire planet. And thus, how it might fall cannot be predicted from studying past empires, which were just isolated pockets without the network effects.

(A speech given at the Arthur C Clarke Centennial on the 16th of December, 2017, Colombo) BOWMAN Hal, give me manual hibernation control. HAL Have you decided to revive the rest of the crew, Dave? PAUSE. BOWMAN Yes, I have. HAL I suppose it’s because you’ve been under a lot of stress, but have you… Read more Artificial Intelligence then, now, tomorrow

Hi. My apologies for the long spell of incommunicado. My day job is as a Big Data researcher, and I’ve been working on a new novel; between the two, I haven’t really had much time to do any of the other things that I’m supposed to do, like writing emails and blogposts. My boss from… Read more Big Data + Big Brother: when China moves to rate its citizens

“It’s not a human move. I’ve never seen a human play this move. So beautiful. So beautiful.”