I had a weird dream a few days ago. It has started fading out already, but I was meaning to journal it and so I have a memory of a summary. I was boarding a plane to Alaska. The plane took off, then I started fidgeting and realised Alaska wasn’t where I was supposed to be going. Somehow I took off from the plane, and landed over Ireland with frost ( Read more... )

I normally shun stories involving time travel. However Charles Stross could be writing Teletubbies fanfic and I'd read it. Palimpsest is a novella (27k words) about the Stasis, a project for the long-term survival of Earth in a universe several times older than it is now. It has been nominated a few weeks ago for the Hugos, and made available ( Read more... )

I just read counting heads (2005), a fun sci-fi novel revolving around the rise and fall of a handful of people in a busy future society, with detailed and interesting world-building.

Let's get the technology out of the way. There are quite a few quasi-magical technologies, where I'd have preferred leaving some out in exchange for more realism. ( Read more... )

I got interested in the European legislative process a few years back, at the time software patents were being debated (text+history context context pro anti anti planet). The process involves drafts of laws directives being drawn up by the European Commission, then being amended back and forth by the Parliament and the Council of Ministers 1. Of ( Read more... )

Kluge is a book dedicated to the interesting idea that the mind is an ugly hack; that it works OK in a pinch but is full of errors otherwise. While the title looks like a deliberate typo, it is a legitimate, German-derived spelling. The book illustrates just how imperfect the mind is in various areas; memory, belief, choice, language, pleasure, and ( Read more... )

After a nuclear Armageddon, Californians live in primitive conditions on the ruins of a glorious and mythical American civilisation. Some live in small villages, of fishing and various agricultural activities. Scavengers are nomads among the radioactive ruins, they have kept some luxuries and class. The past is unequally remembered and generally ( Read more... )