Futuristic Fiction: #Research for #Writers, Part 10, Beauty.

You’ll find the introduction to this series here. This post looks at Beauty. Beauty, according to an ancient aphorism, lies in the eye of the beholder. Experience suggests this is so, most of the time. But will our future produce different standards of beauty? We know fashions, trends, local traditions, and beliefs all impact on …

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Futuristic Fiction: #Research for #Writers, Part 9, Banking.

You’ll find the introduction to this series here. This post looks at Banking. Money, cash that is, will probably disappear in time. Currencies may also become a thing of the past when most transactions are completed online. What effect would such changes have on the banking industry and the customer’s need and experience of it? …

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Futuristic Fiction: #Research for #Writers, Part 8, Authority.

You’ll find the introduction to this series here. This post looks at Authority. Most dictionary definitions of authority include references to legitimacy, but modern usage incorporates, and indeed often prefers, the more pejorative definition including the abuse of power. Authority, originally an attribute of tribal leaders, later taken over by various religious organisations, and eventually …

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Futuristic Fiction: #Research for #Writers, Part 7, Art.

Free photo 16872076 © SaÅ¡a Prudkov - Dreamstime.com You’ll find the introduction to this series here. This post looks at ‘Art’. What art is can’t be defined adequately in a post of this type, and that isn’t the purpose of this piece anyway. Let’s, for the sake of this small post, decide that art is …

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Futuristic Fiction: #Research for #Writers, Part 6, Animals, as Pets.

A neighbour's pet dog. You’ll find the introduction to this series here. This post looks at ‘Animals, as Pets’. Bet this’ll prove a contentious post: people often treat their pets with more love and care than they do their children and siblings. As someone who’s had pets as varied as goldfish, rabbits, and dogs, I’ve …

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Futuristic Fiction: #Research for #Writers, Part 5, AI.

https://www.piqsels.com/en/public-domain-photo-jcurz/download   You’ll find the introduction to this series here. This post looks at ‘Artificial Intelligence’. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an area still under development and, in common with almost all new technologies, it has an undefined future. This makes it both a dream and a nightmare when it comes to science fiction. Several big names …

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Futuristic Fiction: #Research for #Writers, Part 4, Agriculture.

Photo Credit: https://www.needpix.com/photo/1877200/ You’ll find the introduction to this series here. This post looks at ‘Agriculture’. Why do we farm, and produce food the way we do? There’s a long history of human agricultural activity going back around 10,000 years. In the past, in many cultures, the majority of the population was involved in creating …

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Futuristic Fiction: #Research for #Writers, Part 3, Advertising.

If you want to read the introduction to this series, you’ll find it here. This post looks at ‘Advertising’. Why advertising? Who does it benefit? How will future advertising be presented? How will it look, feel, sound? At present, advertising, marketing, promotion, call it what you will (they’re all methods of persuading people to buy), …

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Futuristic Fiction: #Research for #Writers, Part 2, Activism.

Photo by Vanessa on Unsplash This is a series on writing futuristic fiction, research in pursuit of facts, and questions asked to make ‘predictions’ as accurate as possible. A novelist and short story writer, I always start tales with characters, since character-driven stories best present the narrative. Most stories also have one or more themes under exploration. It’s …

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Futuristic Fiction: #Research for #Writers, Part 1

https://www.dreamstime.com/creativecommonsstockphotos_info This is the first of an intended series on writing futuristic fiction, and the research performed in pursuit of the facts, to make any ‘predictions’ as accurate as possible. A novelist and short story writer, I always start with characters, since character-driven stories best present any narrative. Most also have one or more themes …

Continue reading Futuristic Fiction: #Research for #Writers, Part 1

Our Future Earth, by Curt Stager: #BookReview.

320 pagesGlobal Warming and Ecology/Ecological Pollution/Higher Education in Geography. Subtitled, The Next 100,000 Years of Life on the Planet, this book takes the view of that future as seen through the eyes of a paleoecologist, a term so new it doesn’t even appear in my edition of my usual go-to dictionary, the SOED. It describes …

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