All posts by Paul Raven

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Ethics and embryology – should deaf parents be allowed to choose a deaf child?

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So, riddle me this: a deaf couple want a second child, and because of the woman’s age they’ll probably need to use in-vitro fertilisation techniques. No problem so far … until you find that the parents want to be able to select for a deaf child, and the UK government’s recent embryology bill will not allow them to do so.

This is a textbook ethical dilemma, but it’s the sort of thing that advances in reproductive technology and genetic engineering are going to make more commonplace. I find myself (unusually) wanting to side with the government on this one – but then I’m not a parent, and I imagine that changes your perspective quite severely.

I’ve sat here at the keyboard for about half an hour trying to formulate an argument for either side, but I can’t find anywhere I’m entirely comfortable – what do you think?

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Schneier shreds the Transparent Society

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CCTV-warning-sign Regular readers will know I’m fond of citing David Brin’s Transparent Society concept as a potential solution to the escalating level of surveillance in our cultures. [image by takomabibelot]

However, it looks like I may have to reconsider the idea in light of an essay from security maven Bruce Schneier. The problem is that mutual disclosure doesn’t take into account the amount of power you have before a transaction begins:

“An example will make this clearer. You’re stopped by a police officer, who demands to see identification. Divulging your identity will give the officer enormous power over you: He or she can search police databases using the information on your ID; he or she can create a police record attached to your name; he or she can put you on this or that secret terrorist watch list. Asking to see the officer’s ID in return gives you no comparable power over him or her. The power imbalance is too great, and mutual disclosure does not make it OK.

You can think of your existing power as the exponent in an equation that determines the value, to you, of more information. The more power you have, the more additional power you derive from the new data.”

That said, Schneier is still definitely on-side with an increase in “watching of the watchers” – our ability to keep tabs on those who keep tabs on us is the difference between control and liberty. I just hope that, in light of the UK police’s increasingly Orwellian PR efforts, we haven’t already gone too far in trading freedom for supposed security.

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Friday Free Fiction for 7th March

It’s that time of week again, ladies and gents …

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A fistful from Manybooks.net:

Plus a bonus for any Dutch-speaking readers:

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John Joseph Adams has released six stories from his Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse anthology, free to read at your leisure right here on the intarwebs:

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Cosmos Magazine presents: “Untangling the Future” by Ingrid Banwell

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From the Subterranean Press posse:

“Over at Subterranean Online, we’re closing out the Winter 2008 issue in fine style, with The Voyage of the Proteus, a delightfully sardonic novelette from the acid dipped pen of Thomas M. Disch. As the limited edition of Voyage has already sold out, we wanted to share this tale of today and deep in the past with as many readers as possible. We’ll be posting a new chapter every other weekday during March. Enjoy.”

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[link expunged]

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Via John Joseph Adams and many other venues: Night Shade Books is releasing the entire text of Richard Kadrey‘s novel Butcher Bird: A Novel Of The Dominion as a DRM-free download, in a wide variety of formats.

“The world of Butcher Bird is one where angels and devils brawl in the streets, where the Black Clerks charged with keeping the Dominions in check have developed their own dark agenda, where the swordswoman known as Blind Shrike battles monsters in deadly combat, where a civil war has broken out in Hell, and where Spider Lee, an unassuming San Francisco tattoo artist, and his drinking buddy LuLu Garou, have been dropped right smack into the middle of the action.

Richard himself describes the book as “the Gnostic Gospels meets Wild at Heart.” Butcher Bird is an odyssey that will take you from the San Francisco underground to decadent palaces to the very gates of Hell… and beyond!”

Crikey.

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“Knock on Coffins” is the second instalment of the collaborative fiction project Shadow Unit; Elizabeth Bear took the duties on this one.

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Occasional Futurismic contributor and all-round nice guy Jeremiah Tolbert has updated his online bibliography, which includes lots of stuff that’s free to read.

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Well, hark at Jonathan Lethem getting all posh and literary on us; he went and got “The King of Sentences” published in The New Yorker!

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Paolo Bacigalupi is also in the mood for giving it away:

“I’ve added some sample stories under the PUMP SIX header. In addition to “The Tamarisk Hunter” I’ve also added the Hugo and Nebula nominee “The People of Sand and Slag” and just for grins, I also posted the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award finalist “The Fluted Girl.” That should give people enough of an idea about my writing to either love it or hate it.”

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From Mike Brotherton:

“My new novel Spider Star is officially released today … I’ve uploaded what I hope is very close to a final version of the prologue and first four chapters.”

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Via Uncle Nick, news on the latest edition of Clarkesworld Magazine:

“Stephen Dedman writes about Poe’s teeth in “Teeth“, and Ekaterina Sedia discusses the important issues of SUPER-SPERM and PARASITIC FETUSES in our science commentary Evolutionary Arms Race!”

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Jay Lake‘s off at a writing workshop this weekend (lucky devil), but he dropped off another of his frequent freebies earlier in the week:

“The current installment in this series is my short story “The Angel’s Daughter“. At 1,200 words, this originally appeared in the August, 2004 issue of Realms of Fantasy, then reprinted in Fantasy: The Best of 2004. If you like the story, please consider subscribing to Realms of Fantasy.”

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Lise Andreasen from Copenhagen reappears with a story called “Supervision“.

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Jake Freivald wrote to tell us that there’s a new edition of Flash Fiction OnLine, er, online.

It includes a piece from Jim Van Pelt, who as regular readers will know is someone whose writing advice I greatly respect. Naturally, he’s shared his thoughts about (and links for resources concerning) flash fiction before, as it’s a format he’s very fond of.

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Which brings us – by way of a segue that even Howard Stern would remove his hat for – to the Friday Flash Fictioneers!

It’s another slow week for the triple-F crew for an assortment of reasons, but a few of us are still kicking out the jams – Justin Pickard‘s resolve is “Non-Perishable“, and Gareth L Powell doesn’t give a damn when “Life Goes Wrong“. Meanwhile, yours truly is “Leaving Mars” – maybe I should hitch a ride on Neil Beynon‘s second “Elevator“?

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And that would appear to be that for this week – a pretty decent haul, I reckon. Don’t forget to drop us any tip-offs or blatant self-plugs that you may have by way of the Contact page. And in the interim – have a great weekend!

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Smart drugs and body-mods to usher in a new Enlightenment?

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pills Of all the rumours coming in from the O’Reilly Emerging Technology Conference this year (my complimentary tickets for which obviously got lost in the mail somehow, worse luck), I’ve been most intrigued by Quinn Norton‘s talk – and I’ll bet we’ll be hearing a lot about it from the transhumanist bloggers in the next few days, too.

Apparently Norton discussed the potential of new cognitive drugs and body augmentation to produce a “second Enlightenment” – a global stimulation of intellectual pursuits that might encourage seditious thoughts and behaviour, much to the consternation of repressive governments. [image by ninjapoodles]

I can see what Norton is saying, and I have a certain sympathy. But it’s hardly a new idea, though; look back at rave culture in the late eighties and early nineties here in the UK, or Douglas Rushkoff’s early books, and you’ll see similar ideas being advanced. But the internet wasn’t even out of its infancy at that point, so things are arguably different now – if only at a the level of global interpersonal communication.

What do you think – is Norton a harbinger of change, or a wide-eyed techno-utopian?

[ PS – if anyone finds an audio recording or YouTube video of Norton’s talk, please send Futurismic the link via the Contacts page and we’ll put it up here for everyone to enjoy. ]

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A one-way ticket to Mars … or even beyond?

NASA-Mars-base-concept-drawing The technical obstacles and logistical difficulties to sending a manned mission to Mars are large, but by no means insurmountable. One of the biggest issues is the launch from Mars and subsequent return journey … which is just one of the reasons former NASA engineer Jim McLane reckons a Mars mission should be one-person and one-way only. [via SlashDot; image courtesy NASA]

“When we eliminate the need to launch off Mars, we remove the mission’s most daunting obstacle,” said McLane. And because of a small crew size, the spacecraft could be smaller and the need for consumables and supplies would be decreased, making the mission cheaper and less complicated.

While some might classify this as a suicide mission, McLane feels the concept is completely logical.

“There would be tremendous risk, yes,” said McLane, “but I don’t think that’s guaranteed any more than you would say climbing a mountain alone is a suicide mission. People do dangerous things all the time, and this would be something really unique, to go to Mars. I don’t think there would be any shortage of people willing to volunteer for the mission […] That will be the easiest part of this whole program.”

If you met the physical criteria for a mission like that, would you volunteer? I’d certainly consider it, I think, but in truth I don’t think I’m quite that brave.

And while we’re on the subject of planets in our solar system, there may be another one to add to the list. Via Warren Ellis comes news that Japanese astronomers believe they have located an as-yet undiscovered planet that is half the mass of our own Earth.

Of course, this “Planet X” is way out in the Kuiper Belt and orbits the sun about once every thousand years, so it’s not a very likely candidate for exploration. But it makes you wonder how much more stuff there is lurking in the outer reaches of the solar system waiting to be discovered.