Just in case you were looking for proof that culture is developing in strange and interesting new ways, take a look at this review of a graphic novel written in the style of a graphic novel. When you bear in mind that the graphic novel in question (Alice in Sunderland) is partly about the history of the graphic novel as a format, as well as being a reexamination of Lewis Carroll (the author of Alice in Wonderland), you find yourself in about four metacultural layers of significance all at once. I’m not sure what that actually says about culture in general, but it strikes me as pretty cool none the less.

Here’s some interesting if slightly disheartening news – our bodies are nothing but temporary colonies constructed by our genes as a method of propagating themselves into the next generation, and diseases like cancer are all part of the process. The better we get at treating cancer, the longer we’ll live, and the more at risk of developing cancer our bodies will be – which sounds like a good starting point for arguing a transhumanist agenda. And another blow for those who like to think we humans are the peak end-product of evolution – chimps are actually further evolved than we are. Existential humble pie, anyone?

While the concept of the metaverse may currently appear to be a catch-all term for a bunch of disparate multiplayer online games, that definition is going to broaden considerably over the next few years. CNet has seen the draft report from the Metaverse Roadmap Project, which suggests that in less than a decade we’ll be spending the majority of our time in augmented or fully virtual realities. Only time will tell, but people are starting to colonise the metaverse with some enthusiasm – Second Life already has resident artists who make money from selling their work ‘in world’. Meanwhile Cory Doctorow is worried that online games are dictatorships, their residents subject to every whim of the game’s creators. There’s a lot to be ironed out yet, but this phenomenon isn’t going to go away. 

The perpetually excellent Technovelgy website has an interview with science fiction author Greg Bear, where they talk about his latest novel Quantico, some of the science and security issues raised in the story, and (this being Technovelgy, after all) some of the real-world technology that appears in the book.

I’m guessing that a lot of Futurismic reader have read other fiction online or on screen in their time. If you have an opinion or interest in the future of electronic fiction publishing, positive or negative, why not go and cast your vote in GalleyCat’s poll to determine whether or not free ebooks really do act as an effective loss leader?