Right now, the eugenics-happy alt-right are also climate deniers; but climate denial has a short half-life — its undeniability will only grow, as the world gets hotter, more dangerous, drier, wetter, colder, stormier, more becalmed — more uninhabitable.
Charlie Stross's longrunning Merchant Princes series are a sneaky, brilliant techno-economic thought experiment disguised as heroic fantasy, and with Empire Games, the first book of the second phase of the series, Stross throws in a heavy dose of the noirest spycraft, an experiment in dieselpunk Leninism and War on Terror paranoia.
Charlie Stross explains that he's more-or-less stopped reading science fiction, no longer capable of stomaching the paper-thin worldbuilding that refuses to contemplate the profound ways in which technology changes human relations and motivations.
Charlie Stross's keynote at the 34th Chaos Communications Congress Leipzig is entitled "Dude, you broke the Future!" and it's an excellent, Strossian look at the future we're barelling towards, best understood by a critical examination of the past we've just gone through.
Charlie Stross has concluded his three-part, wrist-slittingly hilarious projection of the likely (?) outcomes of 2017, which starts with the death of Queen Elizabeth and a massive economic collapse in the UK, and ends when President Pence gets stomach flu and is replaced, once again, by the disgraced President Trump, whose fingers are itching to press the nuclear button.
My former EFF colleague Kevin Bankston writes, "For Boing Boing readers in the Washington DC area, here's a great event: this coming Tuesday, science fiction writer (and Cory's occasional collaborator) Charlie Stross will be doing a happy hour interview at think tank New America. — Read the rest
Charlie Stross's keynote speech to the Yet Another Perl Conference is an inspired riff on the weird, gradual-then-sudden nature of technological change. As Charlie points out, almost everything today — including the people — was around 20 years ago, and most of what's around now will be around in 20 years. — Read the rest
Gary writes, "Episode 5 of the podcast Far-Fetched Fables features a great reading by Kenny Park of the short story 'Snowball's Chance' by Charles Stross. Far-Fetched Fables is the recent addition to the District of Wonders podcast network, which includes Tony C. — Read the rest
@Veronica @warrenellis @scalzi @jjsaul @swordandlaser @StephenBrust @doctorow @neilhimself Assaulted BitCoin & invaded Libertopia, SAME DAY.
— Charlie Stross (@cstross) December 18, 2013
Charlie Stross's Why I want Bitcoin to die in a fire presents a set of scorching denunciations of Bitcoin based on its technical, political, and economic demerits. — Read the rest
One year ago today
BB Readers' DIY Costumes: Zombie Baby breaking out of womb: In our Epic Halloween DIY Costume thread, Boing Boing reader Laz Burke shares this awesome photo of a zombie baby breaking out of the womb.
Five years ago today
$20 kit produces trillions of universes: Any kind of measurement causes the universe to split and this is the basis of Keats' new device. — Read the rest
Charlie Stross, who's written a rather wonderful series of spy novels disguised as fat fantasy novels, has a fabulous riff on the surrealism of spies, who are often incompetent, paranoid nutcases, vested with terrifyingly limitless power.
Charlie Stross and Tor.com have published Equoid, a new short story set in his wonderful Laundry universe, in which British secret agents battle Lovecraftian horrors with computational magic, and Bob must keep the computers running.
Charlie Stross and I are doing a public interview on The WELL's Inkwell.vue conference — you don't have to be a WELL member to ask questions, either! While I'm on the subject, Charlie and I are doing a live online Torchat tomorrow, Sept 19 at 16h Eastern/13h Pacific.
Charlie Stross and I will be at the Brookline Booksmith tonight at 7PM! It's the second-to-last stop on our quick tour for Rapture of the Nerds — the last stop is this weekend in Rochester, NY. Be there or be pre-posthuman!
Hey, Brooklynites and assorted New Yorkers! Charlie Stross and I will be at MakerBot's BotCave TONIGHT at 7PM (MakerBot Headquarters, 314 Dean Street, Brooklyn, NY 11217)! There are party favors, exciting transhuman humor, and books! And 3D printers!
There's two more stops on this tour: we'll be in Brookline, MA tomorrow night, and at RIT in Rochester this weekend. — Read the rest
Tomorrow morning, Charlie Stross and I kick off our tour for Rapture of the Nerds tour, with stops in Lexington, KY; Brooklyn, NY: Brookline, MA; and Rochester, NY. Be there or be left behind!
Suicide Girls has published an excerpt from Rapture of the Nerds, the novel Charlie Stross and I wrote, which will come out in September. Charlie and I will be touring the book together briefly after Labor Day. The details are still being settled, but there's going to be some very exciting stops! — Read the rest
Today I appeared in a group presentation of Tor Books authors — Charlie Stross, John Scalzi and me — and Macmillan USA's Executive Vice President for Digital Publishing and Technology — Fritz Foy — at Book Expo America in New York City. — Read the rest
Charlie Stross has published the text of his smashing and mind-bending keynote to the 2011 USENIX conference, on the subject of network security in 50 years:
— Read the restInitially I see lifelogging having specific niches; as an aid for people with early-stage dementia or other memory impairments, or to allow students to sleep through lectures.
I've just started podcasting Charlie Stross's and my gonzo Singularity novella Appeals Court. It's the sequel to Jury Service, the first thing Charlie and I ever wrote together (the podcast for Jury Service finished last week). We're about to start work on Parole Board, the thrilling conclusion, which Tor will be publishing as a novel under the title Rapture of the Nerds, a title we nicked from the brilliant Ken MacLeod. — Read the rest
