T.R. Brown's Blog: Reflections author blog, page 2

April 21, 2014

What is Tabletop Role-Playing

With the popularity of MMORPG's(Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) and other computer role-playing games, lots of people are becoming involved in RPG's who have no idea about their tabletop roots. Where do tabletop games differ from their computerized counterparts? Where did they begin? How do they relate to the electronic versions?
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Published on April 21, 2014 12:18 Tags: blogging, role-playing-games, rpg

April 18, 2014

What is Space Opera

When you mention the science fiction genre to most people the first thing that will pop into their heads are shows like “Star Trek” or Star Wars. While these are examples of sci-fi they are a subset of the genre often called space opera that is set apart from the rest of the genre in several ways. What makes space opera different from the rest of science fiction? Why has it been so much better at capturing the imagination of the general public than other subsets of sci-fi?
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Published on April 18, 2014 11:31 Tags: blogging, science-fiction, space-opera

April 16, 2014

Why You Wouldn't Want to Live in a World With Superheroes

What super power would you want? It's a popular (although to some, geeky) question. If “And why?” is added it can even give some insight into the psychology of the person you're asking. It's often depicted as being reduced to a binary choice like “Flight or invisibility.” When presented as a binary choice the powers presented may say as much about the questioner as the answer says about the responder. A question less often asked is “Would you really want to live in a world where comic book powers were real?” While it might be fun to imagine being the superhero (or villain) if such powers existed most of us would most likely not be the ones with powers. Would you really want to be one of the masses of innocent bystanders in a world where titans battled?
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Published on April 16, 2014 12:52

April 14, 2014

What is the Technological Singularity?

It seems like technology is getting more advanced every day. As soon as you buy a new gadget a newer better model is available. You just start following the best medical advice and you hear about a new study that contradicts what you've just been told. Things that science fiction used to predict as coming in hundreds of years are either here right now or on the drawing board. Sometimes it feels like you just can't keep up with how fast technology is moving. Do you ever wish the world would slow down and give you a chance to catch your breath? Well, according to many futurists, you won't be getting it. In fact, if these people are to be believed, it's only going to get harder to keep up.
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Published on April 14, 2014 11:48 Tags: a-i, blogging, computers, science-fiction, singularity

April 11, 2014

Is an Uploaded Mind the Person who was Uploaded?

Mankind has been seeking a way to cheat death as long as we have written records. Gilgamesh searched in vain for immortality. Explorers pursued the Fountain of Youth for millennium, some probably died in the process. Legends of zombies and vampires have served as cautions that immortality may not be all it's cracked up to be. Religions have promised an afterlife since the dawn of time. Some futurists are now speculating that a form of technological immortality might be right around the corner. They think that a human mind might be “uploaded” onto a computer, as software. The hope is that these “digital people” will retain their identities, memories and personalities, thus serving as an immortal extension of the original person. Is living forever as simple as copying a mind? It depends on how you define a person.
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Published on April 11, 2014 11:51 Tags: blogging, futurist, science-fiction, transhumanism

April 9, 2014

What Will a Post Scarcity World Look Like?

”A world where no child goes to bed hungry and there are no poor people.” A paraphrase of how Gene Roddenberry described the future Earth of “Star Trek: The Next Generation." Some futurists think we may actually be getting close to producing something close in the real world. 3D printer technology is already moving manufacturing of many products from the factory into the home and will do so even more as the technology is perfected and costs come down. Many predict that this technology will, eventually, merge with the ability of the scanning tunneling electron microscope to move individual atoms. An atomic scale printers capacity to create will be limited only by the availability of the correct raw materials, the power supply, and having a pattern to work with.
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Published on April 09, 2014 11:52 Tags: blogging, futurist, science-fiction

April 7, 2014

What to Expect in Case of First Contact

Stories of first contact with extraterrestrials have been part of science fiction ever since War of the Worlds. The concept has even received scrutiny from serious scientists and even world leaders. What will an alien be like? Will they be friends or enemies? And perhaps most importantly how should we proceed when we meet them?
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Published on April 07, 2014 16:58 Tags: blogging, first-contact, intelligence, science-fiction

April 4, 2014

What is Transhumanism?

Transhuman, posthuman, uploaded minds, technological singularity. The ideas behind them have been part of the public consciousness for some time in one form or another. Elements of the concepts could be found in comic books like “Captain America” or movies like Blade Runner. Some even point to Gilgamesh's search for immortality and the quest for the fountain of youth as ancient cultural antecedents of the concept. So, what is transhumanism? The short answer is that it's a philosophical movement that explores the concept of humanity controlling its own evolution. Proponents of the movement consider it a means to free humanity from the frailties we have been prey to throughout history. Detractors view the concepts as Frankenstenian meddling in things better left alone. Since it's a philosophical movement the ethics of many transhumanist proposals are freely and occasionally hotly debated. Many of the technologies to bring transhumanist ideas into reality are already on the drawing board. Some already exist.
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Published on April 04, 2014 10:26

April 2, 2014

What's the point of the aliens in Sci-Fi?

Klingon’s, Vulcan’s, Hutt's, Navi. Space opera just wouldn't be space opera without a few intelligent aliens around. Why do storytellers feel the need to include them? Is their a function that the alien serves that humans would not? Are they just there to highlight the strange setting of the story? It really varies from story to story and sometimes from species to species.
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Published on April 02, 2014 11:16 Tags: aliens, blogging, science-fiction

March 31, 2014

Ten Modern Technologies inspired by science fiction

We live in a world where yesterdays science fiction is today’s science fact. Sometimes science fiction writers get it almost exactly right. Sometimes, they predict something that when it works out does so in a way quite differently than expected. Sometimes, ideas that might work, like flying cars, are never brought to fruition due to safety, regulatory or other concerns. What follows are a few examples of technology that started in science fiction that now exists in the real world.

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Published on March 31, 2014 10:54

Reflections author blog

T.R.  Brown
An irregularly updated blog by the author of The Face in the Mirror: a transhuman identity crisis Chained Reflections.
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