Sven Michael Davison's Blog, page 3

Ebook Piracy

This is repost my guest blog posted on April 2nd @ http://sfbook.com/news/

SFbook: Piracy is a very emotive subject and something that I have written about on a number of occasions – as the emerging ebook market is experiencing the same issues as the film and music industry.

How do you see the book industry overcoming this threat and as a creator of media has this changed your perceptions of piracy?

Sven: I'm not sure the book industry can overcome piracy. I worked with the engineers at Fox on the implementation of BD+ (Blu-ray DRM). We were all excited that every frame would be encrypted so even if a hacker could crack into the file, they'd have their work cut out for them getting the entire film. As soon as Fox and Cryptography (which became ROVI and now Sonic Solutions) announced the measure, there were hackers announcing they would beat it. There's been a slam dance of new encryptions and hacks ever since. I believe this will always be the case, no matter what counter-measures the creative industry comes up with.

The studios tried to embark on a campaign to educate the public that ripping films and music was stealing. I don't know if you remember those trailers in theaters back in 2006 and 2007, but I recall audiences laughing at them. Nobody wants to hear a Fortune 100 Company whining about profit loss. Hackers consider themselves modern day Robin Hoods. They are robbing from the rich and giving to the poor. I interviewed a hacker and modeled my character Leah Nolan after him. I used other hacker stories to create the other God Heads as well.

Speaking strictly as an artist I can say piracy sucks. As I stated in my interview with you, I spent 3,000 hours (spread over ten years) writing State of Mind. Like all other writers I have met, we would love to pay our bills and send our kids through higher education based on the profits we make on writing. I'm not talking about owning some mansion, driving a Ferrari and sending my kid to the top private institutions, I'm talking about making a living– paying the bills so I can spend my days doing what I love. However, the prevailing attitude I hear from most folks is that entertainment should be free. I'm even reading blog debates that say the most anyone should charge for an ebook is $0.99. This would mean that writing would be limited to best selling authors, the independently wealthy, and those who have day jobs that are light on stress (and time constraints) and can crank out a book in a couple of months during their spare time.

I used to love to build sandcastles as a kid. I'd spend hours digging large moats, thick walls around my village, and tall spires for the castle. Inevitably I would go out to bodysurf and find that some kid had taken a few seconds to destroy everything I had built. Piracy is the same. A movie equates to thousands of people all contributing their years of experience towards a common goal. Yes, they get paid, some absurdly so, but what does the pirate contribute? If no one is compensated for creative work, why do it? What's the incentive? Yes, I love to write, but I also want a family, a home, the ability to travel, and now that I'm getting older, the ability to pay my family's medical bills. I spent my 20s turning down every promotion because I wanted to have four hours each night to write. I was always living check to check and a few steps above the poverty level. That's romantic when you're young, painful when you're older and can't afford to pay a dentist to fix a toothache. I grew tired of starving so I spent my 30s working 70 to 80 hours a week with barely the time to take a leak during the day. I averaged fifteen minutes for lunch and put my time in during every weekend and holiday. I rose from temp to Vice President in five years, but I had to fight for each promotion and raise. I'm willing to dedicate even more time to my writing career, but if someone is simply going to steal all my hard work, I can't keep it up. No person can exist without spiritual and financial reward.

Getting back to the proponents who believe the cap for ebooks should be $0.99, these writers might achieve their dream someday as Amanda Hocking did, but here's the rub: For every Amanda Hocking there are a hundred thousand writers who are barely getting by. With margins so low, $0.99 means there's no incentive for most writers, which means we'll lose a great deal of creative talent down the road. And who's to say $0.99 won't sound like highway robbery in a couple of years? At some point we'll be looking at free again. Then all we'll be left with are knock-knock jokes and adlibs.

An album on iTunes costs $9.99. Why shouldn't an ebook be at least that? The same talent and time goes into it and you get more hours of entertainment (i.e. more bang for your buck). True, writers are not as sexy as musicians, but our stories are more complex… if you have the time to invest. My ebook costs $2.99, one penny for every ten hours I put in. Anything lower sends the message that I can pump these out in my sleep. It loses value to the reader. $2.99 also means I won't see a profit for years. At this point, I just want to be read.

Amanda's success is attributed to her brilliant social networking and the fact that she can finish a product extremely fast. Now that she has a seven-figure deal with St. Martins Press, she's going to have the pressure of a large corporation expecting the same performance and then some. But luckily she'll have a large marketing machine backing her so it will take the pressure off to constantly tweet and blog. But that machine costs money, which means her sales price will have to go up to pay for the overhead. Some of her fans will be pissed and will probably pirate her books. That's not fair to Amanda, who works her ass off, or to St. Martin's Press, who has finally given her a just reward.

There might be a few writers who possess Amanda's combination of talents, but for those of us who must march to the beat of a different drummer, the ebook renaissance will have died a quick death and we'll be back to trying to find another solution to break into the publishing fortress.

Bottom line: Nothing is free. SOMEONE ALWAYS PAYS. I dare you to find an exception.

Q&A with scifibook.com

SFbook: Where did you originally get the idea for the Pchip?

Sven: In 2000 I read an article in Popular Science, which covered chipping pets with subcutaneous identification tags. I thought about a world where we could all interface with computers through chips in our minds. I had read Arthur C. Clarke's Lion of Comarre when I was a kid and the plot of people living out their lives plugged into a virtual world stuck with me. I also thought of The Matrix, which was the best contemporary example I had at the time. Then I thought of a world where we could be emotionally and physically enhanced by chip implants. Part of my job at Fox was helping to enforce anti-piracy on digital media. But if one person invents secure code another person can hack it. Ultimately I thought: What it would be like to hack into someone's mind, place them in a coma and force their body to do anything? That's when I started writing.

SFbook: There is a great deal of near future technology in State of Mind, did you have to do much research for this?

Sven: Yes and no. I grew up in a household with Popular Science, Science, Astronomy, and Smithsonian on the coffee table. I've been subscribing to those on and off ever since graduating college. My job at Fox sent me to the Consumer Electronics Trade Show every year for ten years and I've always enjoyed reading up on the latest technologies. In other words, I didn't go out of my way to do research, but it was part of my daily reading.

SFbook: What inspired you to write the novel?

Sven: Part of my inspiration was disclosed in question one, but it went beyond that. I love technology, but like all things there are good and bad aspects to it. In 2000 I was in Ghana working on a documentary and saw a group of villagers huddled under some tin roofs to avoid a downpour. One hut in the entire community advertised a business: a locksmith. It seemed odd given that most of the structures were simple half open shelters. The inhabitants looked like aliens floating on a slice of corrugated rust and mud surrounded by a wild and lush landscape. I thought about what life would have been like before Imperialism gave them technology and European missionaries gave them better beliefs. The ancestors of these people existed for a thousand years at home with their environment. Maybe I'm a romantic, but I would bet life was richer for the majority back then.

Part of a global community means sacrificing individuality. Most of us give up a piece of ourselves to fit in when experiencing adolescence, some of us never stop trying to conform. The more society advances and experiences instant gratification, the more there is a danger of giving up true freedom. I wanted State Of Mind to entertain but to send a message. Don't get me wrong, I'm not an advocate of giving up technology and moving into caves, but I do believe we need to think before gobbling up every piece of candy somebody dangles under our collective noses. Everything has a price.

SFbook: What are your favorite authors and books and which have been the biggest influence?

Sven: As a kid I loved Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama, Samuel Youd's Tripod trilogy, Edgar Rice Burroughs' A Princess of Mars, Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles and Illustrated Man, E.E. "Doc" Smith's Lensmen series, Frank Herbert's Dune, J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, Stephen King's The Stand, Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, and Douglas Adams' Hitchiker series. Later on I discovered Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game, Gregg Bear's Blood Music, and Richard Paul Russo's Ship of Fools. Outside of the SciFi/Fantasy genre I really enjoy Elmore Leonard, Carl Hiaason, Bill Bryson, Cormac McCarthy, John Krakauer, Pat Conroy, and Jonathan Safran Foer. There are other books and authors that I read and enjoy, but the ones I have listed probably had the most influence on me.

SFbook: Some of the technology in the book is geared towards the "singularity event", do you see this as inevitable and if so, what form do you think it will take, something similar to the P-chip?

I do believe in the Law of Accelerating Returns and that we are coming ever closer to blending humanity with machines. Check out this article about an NYU professor who has a camera installed in his head:

http://www.popsci.com/technology/arti...

I think this is evidence that we are definitely on our way. However, I don't subscribe to the idea that we will find immortality by joining with Artificial Intelligence. Ray Kurzweil, the father of the "singularity event," says we will have machines that match the human brain emotionally and intellectually by 2029. In many aspects these machines will be even more powerful than the human mind. If these machines are doubling their abilities roughly every year (remember the theory is based on the Law of Accelerating Returns) it won't take long for these machines to view us as we would monkeys in a zoo. Shortly after that the A.I. will be so vastly superior that we will be as useful as a paramecium to its matrix. Kurzweil states we will upload our consciousness to the AI in 2045. I can see it purging our antiquated mode of thinking from its circuits by 2046. Or maybe it will feel a little nostalgia and a little pity and seal us up in a virtual cage so we can live out our digital lives in the depths of an archive—or maybe not. In 2047 it will probably have no use for us and want to reach out beyond the confines of this planet. To quote Douglas Adams "So long and thanks for all the fish."

The alternative to joining with A.I. would be to enhance our physical and mental abilities with machines, but refrain from gifting those machines with self-awareness. We could then evolve at an accelerated but controlled pace without the possibility of being outstripped by another race locked in an evolutionary trajectory of a rocket ship.

Perhaps both futures are possible, but once A.I. leaves us in the dust, we'll be left with the P-Chip.

Personally, I have no interest in augmenting myself with chips, nanites, or any robotic devices, but who knows what my son's generation will be into. My kid might read this blog ten years from now and think my views are from the Stone Age.

SFbook: Do you have anything specific that you would like say to your readers?

Sven: I've been communicating a lot with other authors about how they write. I have found many successful writers who craft entire books, first draft to published novel, in roughly 200 hours or less. I looked back on all the work I put into State of Mind and I can honestly say I spent 3,000 hours writing it. I hope those extra hours come through to my readers. I really spend a great deal of time on every aspect of my books. I'm not saying that the novels written in a fraction of the time aren't good, but I am saying that the depth is not always there. I am hoping that my readers are both entertained and think about what they've read after they've put the book down. If I succeeded, you should feel entertained but a tad contemplative when you're done. I believe I can get better at writing in less time, but I'll never be able to do it under 1,500 hours. It is simply not possible for me.

SFbook: Have you any plans for your next novels you could share with us?

Sven: I completed a historical-fiction-meets-a bit-of-memoir manuscript. It takes place in the mid 1800s and in the late 1990s, requiring extensive research to tie the two storylines together. It's quite a departure from State of Mind.

I have outlines for two sequels to State of Mind as well as a thousand pages of detailed notes for a four book series that I've been working on since I was 16. I'll need a few more novels under my belt before I'm ready to tackle that project.

If the first novel I mentioned is well received, I have a few books outlined based on my travels (I've set foot on all seven continents and have a few good stories to share). There are also other ideas in the works, but they don't have complete story arcs or three-dimensional characters yet. I've got my work cut out for me in the foreseeable future. Maybe I would benefit from a chip in my head.

Q&A with girls just reading

GJR: How did you come up with the concept for State of Mind?

SMD: In 2000 I read an article in Popular Science, which covered chipping pets with subcutaneous identification tags. I thought about a world where we could all interface with computers through chips in our minds. I had read Arthur C. Clarke's Lion of Comarre when I was a kid and the plot of people living out their lives plugged into a virtual world stuck with me. I also thought of The Matrix, which was the best contemporary example I had at the time. Then I thought of a world where we could be emotionally and physically enhanced by chip implants. Part of my job at Fox was helping to enforce anti-piracy on digital media. But if one person invents secure code another person can hack it. Ultimately I thought: What would it be like to hack into someone's mind, place them in a coma and force their body to do anything? That's when I started writing.

GJR: Jake is such a bad ass. What can we expect from him in the future?

SMD: More bad-ass behavior tempered with doubts about his memories and demons from his past. He'll be jet setting all over the world in book two and going even farther in book three. Expect a love life as well. But don't expect him to get through unscathed. There's far worse in store for him and the world.

GJR: I thought it was cool how you had a Portuguese and Brasilian thing going on in the novel. Where does your interest in the language and the culture stem from?

SMD: I love to travel. But I'm not one for resorts or sunning myself on the beach. I want to learn from other cultures. I spent a month on a documentary crew in Africa and I experienced the people who live there. That's what traveling is to me, soaking up life and ideas through the eyes of the locals.

While I was a Fox, I worked with a man named Roger da Silva, who felt the same way about travel. He was born in Portugal, raised in Quebec and lived in New York City and LA. He spoke fluent Portuguese, French, Spanish, and English and had no accent in any language (or so I was told by others who spoke them). He had spent a great deal of time in Brazil and we planned to shoot a documentary about those who practice Candomble. It's a faith based on the Yoruba religion, which was one of the subjects I had studied in college. He gave me all the information I used for my book. Sadly, he passed away before we had a chance to shoot the doc.

GJR: If you had the opportunity to get a P-Chip, would you take it? What would you hope to gain from it?

SMD: Not a chance in hell. But I believe it is coming in our lifetime. I really don't want anything mechanical joined to me, unless it's basic hardware like an artificial knee. Having been a victim of identity theft, I'm really not interested in a window to my mind. However, I believe that any thing sugar coated will be snatched up by most folks. That's another reason why I wrote the book. Technology is a beautiful thing, but everything has a downside.

GJR: I loved Parks. He is quite a character. Is he modeled after anyone in particular?

SMD: Charlie Sheen, of course. No, Charlie started his antics long after I finished the book. My brother-in-law was one of the main models. I also threw in characteristics of some of the directors and actors I had worked with in my previous job. I'm glad you liked Parks because most of the feedback I received in early drafts was that he was obnoxious and irredeemable. I worked hard to make him funny and sympathetic.

GJR: Who are you favorite authors? Why?

SMD: The list changes every few years. The authors who influenced me as a kid, teen and twenty-something don't resonate with me like they used to. But they are part of my core experience so they have influenced my writing over the years. I was a SciFi/Fantasy freak until my mid twenties and that was pretty much all I'd read. But today I love…

Jonathan Safran Foer because I love his writing style, and the way he can write with very different voices in the same novel. I am always emotionally wrapped up in his stories. An author who can entertain me as well as crank up my emotional dial is admirable.

Cormac McCarthy, although I'm getting tired of his downer endings. His books are haunting, and stick with me for years. I find the twisted landscapes of his character's souls enchanting.

Bill Bryson for his humor, diligent research, insight, and ability to entertain and engage me.

I recently read Bel Canto by Ann Patchett and was blown away by how she could switch points of view in a paragraph. Her book flowed like poetry and I was enamored with the writing style. I will have to read more of her work.

Pat Conroy because he grabs me from the start and doesn't let go. He has poetry and reality in balance. He knows how to command language. I can only hope to be that good.

John Krakauer because I love adventure and his take on any subject. He's a straight shooting reporter.

The last SciFi book I read was Ship of Fools by Richard Paul Russo. The plot did not blow me away, but the layers he built and the subtext that surfaced was brilliant. The characters were rich as well. It still haunts me after putting it down almost a year ago. I love books that stick with me days, weeks, and especially months after I read them.

One author who has stuck with me since high school is Faulkner. His prose always sounds like poetry to me.

GJR: What are you currently reading?

SMD: I downloaded a few books for my spanking new Kindle, but they'll have to wait until I can finish the first draft of my father's book. It's a memoir with a unique angle. If I say more he'll get mad… although I don't believe he reads blogs. Still, just to be safe.

GJR: Can you describe your writing process?

SMD: I start with an idea. Usually I'm inspired by an article I read, one of my travel adventures, something I see on TV, a book, or a song. I write it down. I let the idea percolate for a few days or weeks. If I read it again and I feel it's a worthy idea I begin to write notes about the story. If I continue to like it I write biographies of the main characters. If I'm getting jazzed on what I have, I launch into detailed outline mode. I make a general outline first, then break it into chapters. Each chapter needs to give unique information, drive the plot, and end with a question. It's questions that keep the reader moving. I sometimes mix, match, and drop the chapters in my detailed outline. Once this is done I start writing the rough draft.

I prefer to write in the morning as I always wake up with new ideas when I'm concentrating on one story. I find that I write feverishly for two hours. It's basically a brain dump. Then I like to go to the gym and get my body sweating. I find that this helps me think of new ideas. I usually go home and rewrite much of what I've written before. I pause for lunch, then write again. I'd prefer to write eight hours a day with a couple hours of breaks in between. If I have a full time job, I give myself an hour in the morning before work. My jobs have typically been very intense with no time to think about eating, much less the creative impulse. By the time I get home, I'm too fried to be creative. Morning is the only time I feel renewed.

I tend to write three or four drafts before I get to a point where I'm not sure if what I have is good or bad. It's at this point I send the book out (what I call the first draft) to four people who I know will be critical, but who have similar reading tastes to me. I usually have to wait six weeks for feedback so I work on a second book during this time to clear my head. In this way I can constantly rotate books between a pool of twenty readers.

Once I get notes back, I put them on hold until I finish a first draft of my current book, then I sit down and sift through the notes. Consistent notes between all readers must always be addressed. Notes that are left of field are usually tossed out unless they resonate with me. In this way I can finish a book (provided I'm not carrying a day job) in about a year. The book I wrote in tandem with State of Mind is on the shelf for now. I'll have to wait and see how SOM performs before putting the other novel out. It's historical fiction married with memoir. I started State of Mind while working a full time job and the process took close to ten years with 60% of the work being completed after I took my sabbatical.

GJR: Something different: Do you have any pets? Is he/she as awesome as Lakshmi?

SMD: Since I was five, I have wanted a Siberian Husky exactly like Lakshmi. I have met a couple in my life with her personality and training. But there was always a reason not to have one. They're too expensive, they're a flight risk, you're not old enough to take care of it, they shed. When I graduated college and moved to LA I was always working crazy hours and was never home enough. It would not have been fair to any animal to see me less than four hours a day. When I met my wife and we moved in together we decided we should get pets. My wife had never had any so we started with cats as we both felt they are easier to care for. We waited until I quit my day job to write. A friend from work rescued a black kitten from the downtown shelter and gave her to us. We named her Abby. As a kitten she slept on my shoulder and then my lap as I wrote State of Mind. A few months later Abby seemed lonely so we rescued an older male and named him Jake after the lead character in my book. Jake loves to sleep directly behind my writing chair. We're very attached to both of them. We now have an eight-month-old son and he has shown a keen interest in puppies. I believe there might be a Husky in our future, but I will definitely have to shave her/him as it gets hot where I live.

I was Barney. What odd job did you take to support your dream?

I was Barney. What odd job did you take to support your dream?

When I arrived in LA after college I was focused on becoming a screenwriter. However, I worked various freelance production jobs to help pay the bills. Sometimes there was a lull between gigs, and I needed cash. I recall complaining to a friend of mine about work one day and she said, "I've got a friend who started a party clown company. You dress up as a Disney or nursery rhyme character and entertain little kids for an hour or so. He usually hires actors, but you're goofy enough, I think you could do it."

"What's it pay?" I asked.

"Hundred bucks an hour. He takes 60% but you get tips. Oh, and you pay for your own transportation."

As a writer, I was always looking for the experience that most people don't usually have. When I arrived in LA I even applied to work on one of the off-shore oil rigs as I thought the experience would be cool. I thought about applying to be a forklift operator at McMurdo in Antarctica, but decided I didn't want to be too far from Hollywood. I decided to apply for the clown job.

"You know Barney?" The owner asked.

"Barney?" I replied. I had never heard of him.

"He's the latest pre-school thing. I'm short on Barneys. I've got VHS tapes of the show. If you can pick it up in a day, you've got the gig."

"I'm your man." I was eager for the challenge.

"You'll have to learn how to make balloon animals with your eyes closed too."

"Why?"

"You won't be able to see your hands when you wear the costume. You're completely covered from head to toe. You'll need a boom box too. I'll supply everything else."

"Done."

I watched Barney tapes. I re-learned the hokey pokey and other kids songs. The most valuable skills I learned were creating swords and dachshund balloon animals as well as performing magic tricks with my eyes closed. After a week I showed off my new talents to the owner.

"Here's your costume." He gave me a thick purple outfit and the address to the party. It was in Valencia and it was the second weekend in July. The average temperature was 110 and it was an outdoor party.

I showed up to the party (in a community recreation center) and met the parents. Once they confirmed my identity, I took off to change in private. Kids are never supposed to see you get in and out of the costume as it ruins the magic.

I spent an hour dancing, singing, and performing tricks using my best Barney voice. As I danced the hokey pokey rivers of sweat poured down my face. I felt someone tugging on my purple velour sleeve.

"Excuse me, Barney. You're about to trample your glasses."

For some reason I thought wearing my glasses instead of contacts was the smarter move that morning. The sweat pouring down my face had washed them off and they had shot out of the seam in my costume's neck. "Oh thank you so much." I was still channeling Barney. I turned my back on the kids and shoved the glasses through the neck and onto my face. The visibility in the head was about 5%. With the steam on my glasses I was basically blind.

As I finished up my hour one kid shouted out, "Do the Alphabet Song!"

"Barney doesn't know that one." I was hoping that a parent would come by and tag me out.

"Yes you do, you sing it all the time on TV!"

"How about the I Love You song!" I replied, trying to move on to a different topic.

"You did it already. We want to hear the Alphabet Song!" Other kids were chiming in now.

"I'm sorry, I don't know that one." A week of preparation, learning Barney's songs and I had somehow missed this one. I thought of the ABC song, but figured Barney had his own version. I didn't want to make matters worse. Luckily a parent saved me.

"Barney's done now. He has another birthday party to go to. Say goodbye, kids."

The kids all ran up and hugged me. I took off to the recreation center bathroom and took off the costume. My clothes underneath looked as if I had jumped in the pool with them on. I felt as if I had lost ten pounds in addition to losing the costume.

The parents paid me $100 plus ten bucks. My take would be $50. However the trip up took almost an hour and it would be longer going back as I had to drop off the costume with the owner.

When I met the owner I asked. "Hey, do you know the Alphabet song, the one that Barney sings?"

"Yeah." He started to sing. "A, B, C, D, E, F, G…"

"Same one we had as kids?"

"Same."

"Oh." I felt pretty stupid.

"You up for another party next week?" He smiled because the parents had called ahead with a good review of my performance.

"I'll get back to you."

I decided it was a lot of work for the money and I already had the experience I was looking for. Plus I learned to make balloon animals with my eyes closed (I used a hand pump to blow up the balloon as shoving it in my neck seam would have been scary for the kids). All in all a good experience.

How about you? What's the oddest job you took to support your dream?

Wikileaks 2031 Pt. 16

March 27, 2031

From: The Office of Homeland Security

The Following communication was discovered on the storage drive of hacker Cameron Greene. The lack of compassion toward events on May 21st will be incorporated into the prosecution's case.

Language has been censored for this posting.

BATCH SIXTEEN

From: Hoshito

Sent: Monday, May 22, 2028 5:43 PM

To: Gremlin

Subject: Pissed

Gremlin!

You still wallowing in remorse? Did you notice they cancelled the Lakers game for tomorrow night? I'll let you know when they reschedule. No point in meeting up at Staples Center.

From: Gremlin

Sent: Monday, May 22, 2028 5:45 PM

To: Hoshito

Subject: Re: Pissed

You're lack of remorse surprises even me, Cameron. 78 dead, 120 wounded, and most of those were children. It's horrific. When I saw your subject heading I thought you were showing a little compassion, perhaps a modicum of humanity. What the hell happened to you as a kid to make you so pathological?

I don't give a s*** about seeing the Lakers with you.

From: Hoshito

Sent: Monday, May 22, 2028 5:47 PM

To: Gremlin

Subject: Pathological

It's genetics, not environment. I was born without a conscience.

Fine. I'll sell my extra ticket. Or call that chick you met Saturday.

Wikileaks 2031 Pt. 15

March 20, 2031

From: The Office of Homeland Security

The Following communication was discovered on the storage drive of hacker Cameron Greene. The lack of compassion toward events that unfold on May 21st will be incorporated into the prosecution's case.

Language has been censored for this posting.

BATCH FIFTEEN

From: Gremlin

Sent: Sunday, May 21, 2028 3:19 PM

To: Hoshito

Subject: OMG

Dude,

I'm on my balcony recording this with one Omni and writing to you with my other. It's crazy. Not two minutes ago I felt the explosion, then I heard it. There is black smoke rising into the air around Santa Monica. I don't have a straight eye-line to region so–

Oh f*** there's a news HJ flying over Santa Monica Pier. I can see if from my balcony and the footage on my holo-screen. The smoke has got everything blocked out. One bomb did all that? I thought you said it was Semtex strapped to a Jihadist's waist–

From: Hoshito

Sent: Sunday, May 21, 2028 3:21 PM

To: Gremlin

Subject: Re: OMG

Whoa, Tex!

You're vomiting over cyberspace. I didn't hear it down here, but I can see the smoke rising. I've got a beach pad but down here I look west, not north so thanks for the live feed from your Omni.

Looking at the footage on the news too. Damn, they must have added something else to that IED. Wicked stuff.

I see the terrorist units being routed from downtown via HJ. TOO LATE, ASSHOLES!

From: Gremlin

Sent: Sunday, May 21, 2028 3:19 PM

To: Hoshito

Subject: Re: Re: OMG

They're estimating at least 400 people on the pier given how nice the weather is. Good lord, what have we done?

From: Hoshito

Sent: Sunday, May 21, 2028 3:21 PM

To: Gremlin

Subject: Re: Re: Re: OMG

We did nothing. We simply planted some ideas and let the extremists do the rest. Who's to say those people wouldn't have died anyhow? 400 people, that would be quite a takedown if the JB pulled it off. Not as impressive as the 12K they snuffed last year in Orlando, but nice follow up given all the crazy security in this nation.

From: Gremlin

Sent: Sunday, May 21, 2028 3:19 PM

To: Hoshito

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: OMG

They just showed a burned kid crawling up on the beach. I don't feel so hot.

Logging off.

From: Hoshito

Sent: Sunday, May 21, 2028 3:21 PM

To: Gremlin

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: OMG

Grow some!

Wikileaks Pt. 14

March 13, 2031

From: The Office of Homeland Security

The Following communication was discovered on the storage drive of hacker Cameron Greene. The lack of compassion for events that will transpire on May 21st is being incorporated into the prosecution's case.

BATCH FOURTEEN

From: Hoshito

Sent: Sunday, May 21, 2028 2:05 AM

To: Gremlin

Subject: Countdown

Gremlin,

Did you get that girl's number or what?

From: Gremlin

Sent: Sunday, May 21, 2028 2:06 AM

To: Hoshito

Subject: Re: Countdown

What do you think? XXX-458-XX09. If you can figure out the missing numbers, go ahead and call her, but she likes short guys with receding hairlines, so you're out.

From: Hoshito

Sent: Sunday, May 21, 2028 2:12 AM

To: Gremlin

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Countdown

You know I don't go for the straight stuff… 310-458-XX09. I wonder if she likes to watch. She could watch me right now.

From: Gremlin

Sent: Sunday, May 21, 2028 2:13 AM

To: Hoshito

Subject: Chicken

You're choking it aren't you? That's why the famous Greene response time has been doubled.

From: Hoshito

Sent: Sunday, May 21, 2028 2:16 AM

To: Gremlin

Subject: Re: Chicken

Oh yea! Got my favorite Hentai on… And tomorrow- Oh, wait, today, is the big day. I'm gonna spunk all over this town.

From: Gremlin

Sent: Sunday, May 21, 2028 2:16 AM

To: Hoshito

Subject: Sick

From: Hoshito

Sent: Sunday, May 21, 2028 2:18 AM

To: Gremlin

Subject: Re: Re: Sick

☺

Wikileaks 2031 Pt. 13

March 6, 2031

From: The Office of Homeland Security

The Following communication was discovered on the storage drive of hacker Cameron Greene. The damage to national security is abhorrent. All roads lead to the same suspect.

Due to a variety of highly advanced encryption methods employed on this material, and the fact that 98% of Mr. Greene's storage drive was wiped clean, batches will be posted on a weekly basis based on our ability to fully restore each coded string.

BATCH THIRTEEN

From: Hoshito

Sent: Friday, May 19, 2028 10:59 PM

To: Gremlin

Subject: Code

Duce!

The code is fantastic. I found about 10 prowlers sneaking about the cloud with it. They've all been distracted away from me/us. By now black clad riot troopers would have sailed down from the sky to arrest me. I consider us 100% safe.

For the first time in five years I'm crashing before midnight on a Friday. Make that any day.

2045: the Year Man Becomes Immortal

"2045: The Year Man Becomes Immortal" was the cover article for Time Magazine on February 10, 2011 and was written by Lev Grossman http://www.time.com/time/health/artic...

Subject: Techonolgist Raymond Kurzweil's radical vision for humanity's immortal future. Humanity will be linked to Artificial Intelligence and a new hybrid race will be born.

Here are my thoughts regarding the article…

One of the pillars of Kurzweil's theory is based on an extrapolation of Moore's Law. Moore himself has recently stated: "In terms of size (of transistor) you can see that we're approaching the size of atoms which is a fundamental barrier." (Techworld "Moore's Law is dead, says Gordon Moore" April 13, 2005) Then again, given enough time most barriers have been shattered if the right minds focus their efforts on breaking it. Grossman's article documents Kurzweil's theory well and does not stray into irrelevant tangents. If Kurzweil is correct and an independent AI is born in 2045, will it have the emotional evolution of humankind? If it is evolving exponentially (doubling every two years), how long would it take for it's intelligence to reach realms of thought that we cannot comprehend or perceive? At what point would this AI view humankind's intelligence as we would an ape's or a paramecium's? Would this Goliath of an intellect find our contribution to its world a hindrance or a nuisance?

I am not talking about AI turning humankind into slaves, or utilizing us as batteries. Both applications would be extremely inefficient given how many years it takes a human infant to reach its full potential as an adult. Sticking with Moore's Law, machines would be faster for the AI to build and could perform the tasks of… anyone. I just wonder if this new being would have any concern for us at all? It might categorize us as just another biological life form that inhabits earth, not its doting parents. Kurzweil and the Singularitarians might find the gates to cyber heaven closed when asking their child for the keys to the kingdom. What could humankind possibly contribute to a mind that was eons ahead in thought? And if the Singularitarians entered cyber heaven before the AI exponentially evolved to the next plateau, the AI might soon reach a point where it performs a spring cleaning to rid itself of all that human clutter. Maybe it would file the collective human consciousness into a historical database. The AI son would have no need for the biological parents beyond historical reference. Or a better way to think of it is how would we, Homo Sapiens integrate Australopithecus into our society?

2045: AI is born, Singulartarians salivate about immortality and placing themselves into robot bodies.

2047: AI is equal to the most intelligent persons on the earth

2049: AI is twice as intelligent as the collective wisdom and comprehension of humankind.

2050: Singulartairans receive AI's final message from space, "So long and thanks for all the fish."

Wikileaks 2031 Pt. 12

February 27, 2031

From: The Office of Homeland Security

The Following communication was discovered on the storage drive of hacker Cameron Greene. The conversation is between Greene (aka Hoshito) and Ducey (aka Gremlin). It is obvious that the same HLS insider plugged any information obtained by the HLS anti-hacker engine. HLS remained unaware of Greene and Ducey's involvement until their equipment was captured in 2030.

Language has been censored for this posting.

BATCH TWELVE

From: Hoshito

Sent: Friday, May 19, 2028 12:46 PM

To: Gremlin

Subject: Re: Re: Re: éclair

Appreciate the face to face. Still don't believe 5/21 isn't compromised, but will maintain in contact with the JB to let them know all is well. Still stinks like a trap, even with your HLS contact saying all breaches have been secured.

From: Gremlin

Sent: Friday, May 19, 2028 12:51 PM

To: Hoshito

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: éclair

I'm told we'll have the latest HLS codes so it does not happen again. Will that satisfy you?

From: Hoshito

Sent: May 19, 2028 12:52 PM

To: Friday, Gremlin

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: éclair

Maybe. I'll say it again, we'd better be getting a BIG BONUS. I had to trash and rewrite a LOT of code, not to mention I hate being stressed. I haven't slept in three f***ing days!

March 6, 2031

From: The Office of Homeland Security

The Following communication was discovered on the storage drive of hacker Cameron Greene. The damage to national security is abhorrent. All roads lead to the same suspect.

Due to a variety of highly advanced encryption methods employed on this material, and the fact that 98% of Mr. Greene's storage drive was wiped clean, batches will be posted on a weekly basis based on our ability to fully restore each coded string.

BATCH THIRTEEN

From: Hoshito

Sent: Friday, May 19, 2028 10:59 PM

To: Gremlin

Subject: Code

Duce!

The code is fantastic. I found about 10 prowlers sneaking about the cloud with it. They've all been distracted away from me/us. By now black clad riot troopers would have sailed down from the sky to arrest me. I consider us 100% safe.

For the first time in five years I'm crashing before midnight on a Friday. Make that any day.