I have to admit the ‘press publish twice’ feature is a situation. It sounds like a simple thing to remember. Press the button and then just do it again, but I don’t do it again and I find myself publishing the next day again and again. See? Problem. I’m not entirely certain the problem rests on my side of the responsibility spectrum. I’d guess somewhere in between…
That is how I wound up making this blog about the role of technological thinking in writing–wait let me make that the title… brb.
Back. So, yes. Tech thinking in writing. Consider this factoid: The far fetched imagination of Gene Roddenberry is partially responsible for cell phone technology. Now we have cell and our thinking about tech ought to be scaling so vastly upwards that we are opening our world to new ideas and possibilities. The most far fetched thing I’ve read since then is about AI-enhanced everything from smart missiles to smart clothing. This is not terribly far fetched. It is instead sensible and possible evolutionary next step in scientific thinking. I am talking about twenty steps ahead. Forty.
I am also just talking, because I haven’t made that leap myself. When I think about what Cli-fi means to me I think about that leap forward. Science fiction tends to dwell on the unintended consequences of advancements, but also requires the imagining of those advancements in order to question them.
I do have one thought: Microweather.
When I was a kid and designing superheroes for a self-made role playing game, I came up with the concept of a Cherokee (it was the ‘it’ tribe back then) woman who could manipulate moisture in the air. I looked hard for a good name and that research brought me to the concept of a Rain shadow. Of course, it became her name. However, the idea of the leeward side of a mountain being shielded from weather effects made me wonder if, in a bowl-shaped geographical depression or at least at very low altitude as to limit movement, one could create micro-weather effects. In other words, could there be a climate shell in a specific region influenced and aggregated by technology? Could we use airborne nano or other types of wide spectrum effects to control the weather?
That led me to thinking about short run seasons in a commercial zone and how that sped up cycle might lead to the production of or evolution of bacterium to the point where new diseases are birthed out of that zone. Now we have a story!
Maybe I’ll consider writing it. Or maybe you will.