Bruce Sterling is that rarest of things – a visionary science fiction author who has made the transition to being a visionary outside of the genre. In a typically poetic article for Metropolis Magazine, he takes a look at the potential future that could await a digital world society that embraces green ‘ambient powered’ wireless communications technology – while nodding towards the doom awaiting a planet that doesn’t wise up to energy efficiency.

The casual visitor to Second Life may be put off by the sheer acreage of crap that a newcomer ends up running into. I know I was – and I didn’t start going back until I’d seen reports of things really worth seeing. Luckily, you can teleport from place to place, and hence avoid the tedium in between the good stuff – but you still need a list of places to check out. Which is where comics maverick Warren Ellis’s column for Reuters comes in handy – and this week, he simply lists a bunch of his favourite virtual haunts. If you have a few hours to spare of the weekend, why not create a free account and go and see what all the fuss is about? And if you visit The Wastelands, be sure to stop by and say hello.

The title should say it all, and whatever else you need to know should become apparent after you read Geoff Ryman’s announcement on the TTA Press website.

But for those too flabbergasted (or lazy) to click through, Mr. Ryman (with the assistance of Julian Todd and Trent Walters) will be guest editing an issue of Interzone to be published next year, which will adhere strictly to the manifesto of the Mundane SF movement, of which Ryman is a founder. Some simple guidelines:

“What makes a story Mundane? A few simple rules:

• no FTL travel or communications
• no aliens
• no time travel
• no parallel universes
• no immortality or telepathy.”

There you have it. More guidelines, plus details about how to submit a story for consideration, can be found by clicking through to the TTA website. So get writing, already! I might even have a go at this myself. After all, what’s a little failure between friends?

[Cross-posted from VCTB]

Despite the best efforts of scientists, the role of the brain (as opposed to the mind) in the learning process is largely ignored by education systems. Ever since the turn of the millennium, a quiet revolution has been brewing at the Harvard School of Graduate, with courses creating graduate teachers capable of using the latest advances in genetics and brain scans to enhance education – and the student’s response to it. Which is great news – maybe a few decades down the line the same techniques will be used to enhance the apparent ability of dogs to learn in the same way as humans.

Of all the organisations cheerleading for 3D virtual environments, none has a bigger name or longer pedigree than IBM. And they must mean what they say, because they’re putting their money where their mouth is by designing a new range of mainframe computers based on the Cell processor (as used in the PS3) that are specifically created to handle the increased computing overheads that applications like Second Life demand of their hardware. So, is Big Blue aiming to reclaim the computing crown it once held in the golden era of mainframes? Or are their employees just really keen on taking virtual drugs at virtual raves?