T.R. Brown's Blog: Reflections author blog, page 6
October 25, 2013
The virtual book fair
Come visit the virtual book fair. A bunch of authors are sharing samples of their work. Including me. You might find your next favorite author.
https://www.facebook.com/events/14185...
https://www.facebook.com/events/14185...
October 22, 2013
What Todd takes for granted 3
The most advanced computing in The Face in the Mirror: a transhuman identity crisis world tends to be done in virtual reality.
Naturally the earliest uses of full sensory V.R. technology was for entertainment purposes. The adult entertainment industry was one of the earliest adopters naturally. This stigmatized the technology briefly but so many other uses were found that it did not remain ghettoized as porn technology for long.
Coupled with the point of use manufacturing technology in many industries virtual reality (with highly accurate avatar mapping) is used for "test driving" lots of consumer goods before they are custom made. This is actually the most common use of the technology by the time of the first book.
Education is also a common use. Art and history classes can make virtual visits to museums and historical locations that are much too far away for a real world field trip. They can even be used to visit locations that no longer exist in the real world. Unfortunately since the Caliphates conquest of Europe that includes the Lovre, the Parthenon, the Sistine Chapel and many other notable locations. Fortunately most such locations were preserved in high resolution virtual form before their real world destruction.
Doctors use virtual reality as an interface to control surgical robots both implanted and external with much more precision than they might with more conventional control systems.
Such V.R. telepresence control systems are used even more heavily by the military. Manned fighting vehicles and aircraft have almost entirely been replaced in the military except for personnel transport and large naval craft. Small remote operated robots replace human infantry in many ways sadly fully equipped felis troopers are cheaper than robots and operators.
Of course this only scratches the surface of ways virtual reality is used.
Naturally the earliest uses of full sensory V.R. technology was for entertainment purposes. The adult entertainment industry was one of the earliest adopters naturally. This stigmatized the technology briefly but so many other uses were found that it did not remain ghettoized as porn technology for long.
Coupled with the point of use manufacturing technology in many industries virtual reality (with highly accurate avatar mapping) is used for "test driving" lots of consumer goods before they are custom made. This is actually the most common use of the technology by the time of the first book.
Education is also a common use. Art and history classes can make virtual visits to museums and historical locations that are much too far away for a real world field trip. They can even be used to visit locations that no longer exist in the real world. Unfortunately since the Caliphates conquest of Europe that includes the Lovre, the Parthenon, the Sistine Chapel and many other notable locations. Fortunately most such locations were preserved in high resolution virtual form before their real world destruction.
Doctors use virtual reality as an interface to control surgical robots both implanted and external with much more precision than they might with more conventional control systems.
Such V.R. telepresence control systems are used even more heavily by the military. Manned fighting vehicles and aircraft have almost entirely been replaced in the military except for personnel transport and large naval craft. Small remote operated robots replace human infantry in many ways sadly fully equipped felis troopers are cheaper than robots and operators.
Of course this only scratches the surface of ways virtual reality is used.
October 16, 2013
What Todd takes for granted part 2
While portable flexible computer technology has replaced most of what people today would recognize as desktop and laptop functionality it is the low end of computing use in the Face in the Mirror setting. High end uses requiring intense processing power and memory usually require augmented reality or virtual reality systems.
The basics of augmented reality should be familiar to most smart phone users who are familiar with things like QR codes. Those familiar with google glass are aware that an infant version of the technology already exists in the real world. Just as few could have predicted what we do today with smart phones back when cell phones were first introduced it is hard to say where augmented reality will go. In an interview author and futurist David Brinn once suggested some possibilities of the intersection of A.R. and social networking. Imagine someone you just met being able to see your Facebook or Match.com profile overlaid over or around your face. David Brinn suggested such an innovation being coupled with dissenting opinions about you from your exes.
In the Face in the Mirror Todd speaks about using them in his engineering work. Imagine when building or repairing something having a wire frame schematic of what you're working on right in front of you superimposed on what you are working on. Broken or deformed parts would be immediately visible and helpful hints would make your life much easier. This technology will also fit into many other professions and day to day activities. Most businesses won't bother with name tags anymore assuming that customers will just use A.R. to know who their employees are. Hospitals are an exception to this since they can't count on patients having A.R. on at any given time.
Physically an augmented reality system looks like a pair of glasses fused with headphones and is most often just a display unit linked to the processing power of the computer in someones pocket. Contact lens and even implanted A.R. displays exist but are not in widespread use in the Face in the Mirror. The former are inhibited by the limited battery life available to such a small device and the fact that they are considerably less comfortable than vision correction contacts. Cybernetic augmented reality hasn't caught on because of the inherent risks and costs involved in having such a device permanently implanted especially when an external version exists.
The basics of augmented reality should be familiar to most smart phone users who are familiar with things like QR codes. Those familiar with google glass are aware that an infant version of the technology already exists in the real world. Just as few could have predicted what we do today with smart phones back when cell phones were first introduced it is hard to say where augmented reality will go. In an interview author and futurist David Brinn once suggested some possibilities of the intersection of A.R. and social networking. Imagine someone you just met being able to see your Facebook or Match.com profile overlaid over or around your face. David Brinn suggested such an innovation being coupled with dissenting opinions about you from your exes.
In the Face in the Mirror Todd speaks about using them in his engineering work. Imagine when building or repairing something having a wire frame schematic of what you're working on right in front of you superimposed on what you are working on. Broken or deformed parts would be immediately visible and helpful hints would make your life much easier. This technology will also fit into many other professions and day to day activities. Most businesses won't bother with name tags anymore assuming that customers will just use A.R. to know who their employees are. Hospitals are an exception to this since they can't count on patients having A.R. on at any given time.
Physically an augmented reality system looks like a pair of glasses fused with headphones and is most often just a display unit linked to the processing power of the computer in someones pocket. Contact lens and even implanted A.R. displays exist but are not in widespread use in the Face in the Mirror. The former are inhibited by the limited battery life available to such a small device and the fact that they are considerably less comfortable than vision correction contacts. Cybernetic augmented reality hasn't caught on because of the inherent risks and costs involved in having such a device permanently implanted especially when an external version exists.
October 12, 2013
What Todd takes for granted part 1
When I chose to tell the story of The Face in the Mirror: a transhuman identity crisis from a first person perspective I ran into a problem. The future is going to be a rather strange place by modern standards. Unfortunately I couldn't really show much of that strangeness because the point of view telling the story takes it for granted. Imagine the difference between how you would describe your typical day to a contemporary and how you might describe it to someone who lived a hundred years ago. You'd probably spend a lot more time having to explain the little details to your past audience than to the contemporary one. Some things just wouldn't translate well at all. Imagine explaining playing games on your cell phone to someone who'd only ever used a party line (some of you are going to have to ask your grandparents to explain what a party line is I suppose).
When I wrote the story I had to explain a few things in detail because they were central to the story. Examples include the nature of neos and lab grown replacement limbs. Other things that weren't as important got a hand wave at best or just ignored. One example of something hand waved is the nature of computers in the Reflections setting. Several times I refer to someone rolling up a computer and to them being used like cell phones. I extrapolated this from the increasing capacity of Smartphones and experimental flexible display technology in the real world. The underlying assumption is that Smaphone technology computers getting lighter will get to the point that they merge. Today the limiting factor in this merger is display size a big enough display for general computing is too cumbersome for a phone. Add flexible material though and you can roll or fold your computer into a more manageable size when used in phone mode. I envision a typical computer in Reflections to be roughly the size and weight of a heavy hand towel with almost as much flexibility. The ends are rigid however and usually jointed in the middle so you can prop the unrolled computer up and use half as a touch screen keyboard while half serves as an upright display or you can leave it flat like a tablet. The rigid ends also house microphones, speakers, recharge ports, cameras and any controls that can't be on the touch screen portion. Of course once this is linked into an augmented reality system or full sensory virtual reality you get a whole host of capabilities that will be even less familiar to people today. The simple fact is the computer that you can roll up and put in a large pocket is the casual end of computing capability in the Reflections setting. I'll talk about some higher end functions later.
When I wrote the story I had to explain a few things in detail because they were central to the story. Examples include the nature of neos and lab grown replacement limbs. Other things that weren't as important got a hand wave at best or just ignored. One example of something hand waved is the nature of computers in the Reflections setting. Several times I refer to someone rolling up a computer and to them being used like cell phones. I extrapolated this from the increasing capacity of Smartphones and experimental flexible display technology in the real world. The underlying assumption is that Smaphone technology computers getting lighter will get to the point that they merge. Today the limiting factor in this merger is display size a big enough display for general computing is too cumbersome for a phone. Add flexible material though and you can roll or fold your computer into a more manageable size when used in phone mode. I envision a typical computer in Reflections to be roughly the size and weight of a heavy hand towel with almost as much flexibility. The ends are rigid however and usually jointed in the middle so you can prop the unrolled computer up and use half as a touch screen keyboard while half serves as an upright display or you can leave it flat like a tablet. The rigid ends also house microphones, speakers, recharge ports, cameras and any controls that can't be on the touch screen portion. Of course once this is linked into an augmented reality system or full sensory virtual reality you get a whole host of capabilities that will be even less familiar to people today. The simple fact is the computer that you can roll up and put in a large pocket is the casual end of computing capability in the Reflections setting. I'll talk about some higher end functions later.
October 11, 2013
Come visit the virtual book fair
Come visit Tammie Clarke Gibbs book fair and read an excerpt from my The Face in the Mirror: a transhuman identity crisis and others.
https://www.facebook.com/events/60192...
https://www.facebook.com/events/60192...
October 9, 2013
Don't let plan B take over
I've always wanted to be a professional writer. Even as a young man I enjoyed writing stories. However I was always cautioned that it was tough to get published and I'd need a plan B to make a living while I tried to get published. So I went to college studding biology got married and got a job while writing on the side but, like a lot of writers, never quite having something I thought worth sending to an agent or publisher. Of course I wrote in my spare time. I had to earn a living to support myself and my family.
As time went on I had less and less time to write because more and more was taken up by my family and job responsibilities. Then a little over five years ago something happened. When I went in for what I thought was going to be a routine doctor visit for my worsening back pain the doctor decided it had been long enough since my last M.R.I. that I needed a new one before any new procedures. The scan found something odd in my L1 vertebrae. It turned out to be cancer, lymphoma specifically. Strangely enough as nearly as they could determine it had started in my back rather than in my lymph nodes as is normal. Their followed months of chemotherapy and years of regaining my strength and trying to pay off my medical bills.
So there I was a cancer survivor pushing forty with a child almost ready for junior high and I'd still never published anything (outside of an undergrad research paper and some technical documents for work). Then one night I had a crazy dream about being in an accident and having my brain transplanted into a new inhuman body. I thought it might make an interesting short story and decided to try writing it thinking I might sent it in to a magazine or something. Along the way I decided that having the body of my protagonist being a different gender as well as species might be more interesting or at least more accessible to readers. More people are familiar with gender identity disorder than with those who call themselves otherkin after all. In the process though as I examined all the potential results of such a transformation I realized that I wasn't going to do the story justice in a short story. Actually as I started to flesh out the characters and situations in my mind I realized that a single novel may be too short. In fact I was half way through writing my first book when I the voice of a character whose birth I hadn't even written yet came into my head to insist on being the narrator of book three. Yes I'm an author who has the characters talk to me in my mind, I'm told it's not that uncommon.
Just under a year later I had my first book finished, edited and proofread. I decided to self publish feeling that a book about a gender confused bisexual cat girl might not have enough general appeal to get published through a conventional publisher. It took almost another year to finish my second book and now my third is under way. I'm still not selling enough books to support my family exclusively from my writing but I am making a little money off it.
The moral of my story is if you have a story to tell don't wait till after a brush with cancer to tell it. Tell your story through a conventional publisher or through the new world of e-book publishing. Tell your story. Some people may like it some won't. You may make a living off it or you may never sell a copy in your lifetime. Don't let whatever your plan b is take over your life. It will probably take up a lot of your spare time. Treat it like a second job if you want to be serious about it. Whatever story you have to tell, tell it. Stories help us look at the world in new ways and as our world constantly changes we need new perspectives.
As time went on I had less and less time to write because more and more was taken up by my family and job responsibilities. Then a little over five years ago something happened. When I went in for what I thought was going to be a routine doctor visit for my worsening back pain the doctor decided it had been long enough since my last M.R.I. that I needed a new one before any new procedures. The scan found something odd in my L1 vertebrae. It turned out to be cancer, lymphoma specifically. Strangely enough as nearly as they could determine it had started in my back rather than in my lymph nodes as is normal. Their followed months of chemotherapy and years of regaining my strength and trying to pay off my medical bills.
So there I was a cancer survivor pushing forty with a child almost ready for junior high and I'd still never published anything (outside of an undergrad research paper and some technical documents for work). Then one night I had a crazy dream about being in an accident and having my brain transplanted into a new inhuman body. I thought it might make an interesting short story and decided to try writing it thinking I might sent it in to a magazine or something. Along the way I decided that having the body of my protagonist being a different gender as well as species might be more interesting or at least more accessible to readers. More people are familiar with gender identity disorder than with those who call themselves otherkin after all. In the process though as I examined all the potential results of such a transformation I realized that I wasn't going to do the story justice in a short story. Actually as I started to flesh out the characters and situations in my mind I realized that a single novel may be too short. In fact I was half way through writing my first book when I the voice of a character whose birth I hadn't even written yet came into my head to insist on being the narrator of book three. Yes I'm an author who has the characters talk to me in my mind, I'm told it's not that uncommon.
Just under a year later I had my first book finished, edited and proofread. I decided to self publish feeling that a book about a gender confused bisexual cat girl might not have enough general appeal to get published through a conventional publisher. It took almost another year to finish my second book and now my third is under way. I'm still not selling enough books to support my family exclusively from my writing but I am making a little money off it.
The moral of my story is if you have a story to tell don't wait till after a brush with cancer to tell it. Tell your story through a conventional publisher or through the new world of e-book publishing. Tell your story. Some people may like it some won't. You may make a living off it or you may never sell a copy in your lifetime. Don't let whatever your plan b is take over your life. It will probably take up a lot of your spare time. Treat it like a second job if you want to be serious about it. Whatever story you have to tell, tell it. Stories help us look at the world in new ways and as our world constantly changes we need new perspectives.
October 7, 2013
Status Update
Book 3 Reflections of Hope is up to 110 pages 34000 words.
The opening line.
I have the most messed up family in the world!
The opening line.
I have the most messed up family in the world!
October 4, 2013
Come visit the virtual book fair
This is my third week participating in the Facebook Virtual book Fair sponsored byTammie Clarke Gibbs. Lots of interesting reads to check out.
https://www.facebook.com/events/14202...
Thanks Tammie.
https://www.facebook.com/events/14202...
Thanks Tammie.
September 30, 2013
A request to my friends and fans
A request to my friends and fans.
Sales of the Face in the Mirror: a transhuman identity crisis have dropped of late. One reason for this may be that some people have rated my one negative review as helpful putting it at the top of the list of reviews. If you were to go to http://amzn.to/154UQZ9 scroll down to the reviews and below them check the box saying yes the review was helpful on some of the favorable reviews it may help boost my sales. If you haven't written a review and want to add your own favorable words too I'd appreciate that as well.
Sales of the Face in the Mirror: a transhuman identity crisis have dropped of late. One reason for this may be that some people have rated my one negative review as helpful putting it at the top of the list of reviews. If you were to go to http://amzn.to/154UQZ9 scroll down to the reviews and below them check the box saying yes the review was helpful on some of the favorable reviews it may help boost my sales. If you haven't written a review and want to add your own favorable words too I'd appreciate that as well.
September 28, 2013
Free promotion
To celebrate my upcoming birthday the kindle version of my book the Face in the Mirror: a transhuman identity crisis will be free from tomorrow 9/28 till 10/2.
amzn.to/154UQZ9
If you enjoy it check out the sequel Chained Reflections
http://amzn.to/16aEnU1
The Face in the Mirror: a transhuman identity crisis
Chained Reflections
amzn.to/154UQZ9
If you enjoy it check out the sequel Chained Reflections
http://amzn.to/16aEnU1
The Face in the Mirror: a transhuman identity crisis
Chained Reflections
Reflections author blog
An irregularly updated blog by the author of The Face in the Mirror: a transhuman identity crisis Chained Reflections.
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