David Brin

Author (The Postman, Earth, Existence, The Transparent Society)

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davidbrin_at_mastodon.social@mostr.pub

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Last Notes

2024-10-01 02:09:49

Attempts to figure out dark matter have pinned hopes on the possibility that the dark… bits… whatever they might be… interact with regular matter in some way – even very slightly – beyond just gravity.
https://www.sciencealert.com/dark-matter-may-interact-with-regular-matter-beyond-gravity-study-finds

2024-09-27 21:42:43

Today only. STARTIDE RISING and THE UPLIFT WAR e-books are $1.99 on Kobo and B&N and Amazon. Start here and have fun on the adventure!
https://www.davidbrin.com/startiderising.html

2024-08-18 16:15:33

Today on Kobo and Barnes & Noble (and yeah Amazon)... EARTH, my epic of the near future, is (e-book) on sale for $1.99.
https://www.davidbrin.com/earth.html

2024-08-07 20:29:44

This by Anton Petrov is interesting, re the impudent proposal that complex (multicellular) life forms had a brief start during an oxygenization event around 2.1 billion years ago, only to die off and reappear a billion later.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzGhU6e33lE

2024-07-27 17:38:43

A fine article about my friend & colleague (and half of a mighty fencing team) Geoff Landis, epic scifi author and incidentally superstar NASAS scientist, proposing ways to explore Venus.
https://www.clevescene.com/news/a-nasa-engineer-spent-years-writing-fiction-about-venus-now-he-wants-to-send-a-mission-there-for-real-44749607?

2024-07-11 22:13:36

Aw man. It's reported Ukrainian forces attacked and damaged the Russian Long-Range Space Communications center near Yevpatoria in Crimea. A legit target in war... but featuring a top radio astronomy dish that used to do SETI work, before Russia invaded. War sucks.

2024-07-03 01:15:42

Remember this guy? How savagely the GOP swarmed to shut him up and eject him? Political death over a casual remark. It could only draw such a reaction if true re rampant sexual lures+blackmail all across the party. And the SC's majority is explained.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/30/madison-cawthorn-washington-orgies-cocaine-claims

2024-07-01 02:58:37

I waited for the debate dust to settle. But today's post is my proposal for the ONE thing JoeB might do that'd devastate old Two Scoops, leaving him utterly cornered. It comes down to recognizing what the mad Kremlinites hate and fear most. Facts.
https://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2024/06/bidens-judo-moves-part-one-who-is-big.html

2024-06-15 19:57:29

Kindle e-book of HEAVEN'S REACH is briefly $1.99, today. Yes, it's book #3 of the Uplift Storm Trilogy. But guess what? Book #1 BRIGHTNESS REEF will be on sale on Tuesday the 18th. You want aliens? I got yer aliens for ya, right here!
https://www.davidbrin.com/heavensreach.html

2024-06-14 18:45:50

Cultists howl that DTrump is 'religious,' though never seen attending church or answering a single question about faith. A jpeg can be worth 1000 words. Alas, Democrat pols or nonpartisan pundits fail ever to perceive polemical jugulars.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/616/456/054/387/264/original/938fd3bf9f8e2b38.png

2024-06-09 02:21:15

Weekend posting gets back to a dire essential that might kill us all- or so demolish this forward-moving civilization that we return to 6000 years of feudalism and lose all chance at the stars. Not to depress anyone. In fact, the fight isn't lost!
https://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2024/06/enemies-so-desperately-want-us-civil-war.html

2024-06-06 20:02:14

Today only, this lovely new e-edition of EARTH is just $1.99. Called the "Moby Dick of the Whole Earth Movement," it warned early of many dangers to our beloved planet. And what a planet! (I use it every day!) And amazing possibilities.
http://www.davidbrin.com/earth.html

2024-06-04 19:07:34

Alas, only on Amazon, not Kobo etc. But the kindle of THE UPLIFT WAR is today only $2.99.
http://www.davidbrin.com/upliftwar.html

2024-05-30 19:21:18

There has not been a Supreme Court like this one since the 1850s, when Roger Taney's monstrous panel supported and expanded the Fugitive Slave Act, leading to violent slave-catcher raids that radicalized abused Northerners into electing Lincoln.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/30/politics/john-roberts-ethics-alito-flag-supreme-court-durbin/index.html

2024-05-27 00:16:33

This weekend's brief posting is about science! Great stuff going on.
https://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2024/05/updates-science-robotics.html

2024-05-23 15:54:19

J. Roberts's top job for his masters: protect gerrymandering. A Dem win will let Hakeem Jeffries pass (and Biden sign) a renewed Voting Rights Act. They hope flakes on our side will scamper to the next Nader-Stein Kremlin agent. Or a Reichstag fire.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-rules-gop-south-carolina-redistricting-case-rcna127946

2024-05-21 02:35:49

Donation #104 today, completing gallon #13. It's not for everyone. But if you feel okay about it, well, it does some good. And I think it vitalizes the donor! (I use my local blood bank, not Red Cross, but it amounts to the same thing.)
www.redcrossblood.org

2024-05-19 18:27:09

Never underestimate Peter Diamandis! XPrize is world-changing. His Abundance book +blog are tonics vs modern gloom fetishes. Peter’s latest prediction- we’ll grow complete replacement organs by 2030! (I deem it quite plausible.)
https://www.diamandis.com/blog/3-approaches-to-organ-abundance?

2024-05-16 16:30:05

“Natural iron fertilization of the Southern Ocean by windblown dust has been suggested to enhance biological productivity and modulate the climate.” This needs carefully graduated experimentation NOW.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07366-4

2024-05-16 15:32:39

Today only, the e-book of Heaven's Reach is just $1.99 on Kobo and other fine sources.
http://www.davidbrin.com/heavensreach.html

2024-05-09 00:54:45

“It reads like a scene from your "Earth" when the ivory collectors are pursued by the UNEPA.” So say people writing to me about the bust of an eco-hoarder-criminal against Mother Nature.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/07/22/operation-easter

2024-05-02 22:50:45

Soon, a lovely edition of SUNDIVER, 1st hardcover of my 1st novel. But meanwhile, if you need a fine gift for someone deserving, consider this gorgeous edition from Subterranean? The best... of Brin.
https://www.davidbrin.com/bestofdavidbrin.html

2024-05-02 16:01:20

Anyone notice Jimmy Fallon again wore a GREEN SUIT! Used to be (in my dad's day) a metaphor for trying something that the customers probably won't buy. Didn't seem to hurt Jimmy none, though.

2024-04-27 01:57:25

Fragmented crater near a CO2 icecap on Mars offers another “Gosh!” image from Red Planet. Spiders & Inca cities! Alas all of it explained by science. MY science -my doctoral dissertation re similar acts on comets. Way-kewl, even if not alien spiders!
https://www.livescience.com/space/mars/hundreds-of-black-spiders-spotted-in-mysterious-inca-city-on-mars-in-new-satellite-photos

2024-04-26 18:51:41

Today EARTH (e-book) is just $1.99! Hugo Award runner-up that's on every top10 predictive novels list and honors Earth Day! And Monday (4/29) the whole Uplift Storm Trilogy will be just $4.99. (e-book.) Vast, vast adventure.
https://www.davidbrin.com/earth.html

2024-04-26 02:48:44

Survival of the richest: "Wealthy U.S. families are applying for 2nd citizenships to hedge." Parasite preppers who yearn for feudalism after an 'Event' are not fellow citizens. Know that the nerds they despise will always know where they are. Always.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeZyLkSVoWE

2024-04-21 18:37:17

The tachyon cosmological model is unlikely to pass rigorous experimental tests, given the unlikely nature of tachyons - particles that (in a weird aspect of relativity) might (notionally) move ONLY faster than light.
https://www.livescience.com/physics-mathematics/dark-matter/the-universe-may-be-dominated-by-particles-that-break-causality-and-move-faster-than-light-new-paper-suggests

2024-04-19 23:56:05

In NAUTILUS Namir Khaliq interviews me, Docrorow, Bujold, Stross, Jemison & Weir about how science influences science fiction, especially in a time of looming AI. Come for insights.
https://nautil.us/does-science-fiction-shape-the-future-543468/?

2024-03-30 21:36:58

This weekend's posting is 90% a draft I prepared in 2022 about economic inequality and what we can do about it. Then how the re-industrialization of America - going on right now(!!) has proved that Keynes was right and Laffer totally wrong.
https://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2024/03/do-rich-have-too-much-money-neglected.html

2024-03-11 03:50:17

Now that you've re-evaluated your dark worries about old man Biden, consider a few more revisions? Here are 66 good news stories from 2023 - reasons for optimism. Snap… out… of… the funk. It cripples much-needed action!
https://futurecrunch.com/goodnews2023/

2024-03-07 00:54:35

Last time I showed you how lucky I am in my traveling companion. Here, she snaps me in front of the NEW Panama Canal canal locks that opened 2018, with sliding gates, able to convey the big Panamax ships... note the reservoirs to re-use water, just beyond.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/051/674/974/646/682/original/713e54f20bbabaa3.jpeg

2024-03-03 18:16:42

Deeply worrisome... and... Almost exactly my "Probationers" in SUNDIVER! Not a joke or a satire.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-justice-minister-defends-house-arrest-power-for-people-feared-to/
Arrest people feared to commit a hate crime in future. But don't worry! The government won't misuse this power! Trust us!
I wrote Sundiver in 1978.

2024-02-23 01:31:38

Deem yourself a pretty good essayist? How about an Essay contest with a $25,000 prize? These folks are the real deal.
https://berggruen.org/essay-competition

2024-01-24 22:40:06

Andrew Fraknoi has compiled a pretty good list of sci fi stories and novels that relate good astronomy. My short story "Reality Check" appeared in Nature with an odd solution to the Fermi Paradox. https://www.nature.com/articles/35005182 Andy’s list is available at https://www.fraknoi.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Science-Fiction-with-Good-Astronomy.pdf

2024-01-21 04:46:44

Eureka! A great sci fi series you might at least like to see summarized. One of the few (ever) that started and continued in a general attitude of optimism and belief in us.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pf6_rSIPFA

2024-01-20 21:13:12

Today's post will make some sigh: "Again, Brin?" But a few are actually trying this tactic and finding that it half-works! Half? It will NOT make you money; the coward blowhards never step up and bet. OTOH it does seize from them the Macho High Ground.
https://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2024/01/again-my-rant-demand-for-wagers-over.html

2024-01-19 03:03:41

Prisons banning "fantasy and SF materials" - A new PEN America report shows that the number of books banned in prisons by certain states outpace all other book censorship in school and public libraries.
https://pen.org/report/reading-between-the-bars/

2024-01-18 18:21:37

Humans have among the most precise sense of musical tonality and rhythm. Apes have some, e.g chimp 'storm dances' I portrayed in Uplift War! Newborn infants can heed the beat and notice when it falters, arguing for an evolved biological foundation
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/it-turns-out-we-were-born-to-groove/

2024-01-15 19:13:38

See a short movie of Kurt Vonnegut's biting "Harrison Bergeron" called "2081." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEgOuZzjI8o
Like Orwell as a 'man of the left' KV thought folks would appreciate his warnings about excesses and failure modes that hurt the cause. He was wrong, alas.

2024-01-08 21:29:31

jeez seriously? I'll use this as an excuse to plug HEART OF THE COMET. And yes, my doctoral work was about this beast! But still, passing aphelion to begin the long (40+ year) swoop is not exactly "it's coming!"
https://en.softonic.com/articles/halleys-comet-returns-to-earth

2024-01-04 22:16:46

Glynnis Johns –RIP at 100– was amazing in the 50s, from Court Jester to Mary Poppins. “Other actresses are girls men dream about. I’m the one they invite to meet Mother.” My favorite=No Highway in the Sky + Jimmy Stewart, extolling heroic-nerdy competence.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/glynis-johns-dead-mary-poppins-1235779586/

2023-12-30 21:16:54

I finish the year with a missive on practical tips and tricks for writing fiction! Some of you may add a few skills... and thus proceed to write something truly glorious that opens millions of eyes to the myriad wonders that lie almost within our grasp!
https://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2023/12/advanced-tips-for-rising-writers.html

2023-12-29 19:24:21

Murders fell sharply across the U.S. in 2023, according to the F.B.I. Detroit is on track to record its fewest homicides since the 1960s. Oh but those are things called 'facts', of little interest to the far-left or today's mad ENTIRE US right.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/homicide-numbers-poised-hit-record-decline-nationwide-americans/story?id=105556400

2023-12-28 18:46:12

Midweek posting - the title tells all. There are reasons John Roberts might - or not - obey orders to dump Trump. Weigh them for yourself! And Cory D is both very right and very wrong about AI.
https://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2023/12/will-supremes-dump-donald-and-doctorow.html

2023-12-28 00:28:39

My favorite optimist - Peter Diamandis - has helped change the world for the better with his XPrize movement. Here he talks about how today's dismal pessimism is the ONLY thing that might endanger us, by undermining our problem-solving confidence.
https://www.diamandis.com/blog/age-of-abundance-30-buying-back-time?

2023-12-25 19:29:04

Terrific interview with experts on Russia about how its destiny unfolded since the 1980s and may unravel in the future.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JJsbs_7lW0

2023-12-24 22:20:40

Will 2024 unleash hell - or at least heck - across the land? It will, if the calmer-sane side of this phase of civil war lets itself be lured into the other side's expert condition - sanctimonious rage. Yeah. Weekend post is back to politics. https://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2023/12/patterns-and-tactics-that-debase-our.html

2023-12-10 21:25:02

My bro the great science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson - one of the world's wise-guys - explains that good SF always takes into account the one story - the one that matters... that made us, rife with wretched errors (and a few triumphs) to learn from and extrapolate. Human history.
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/reidhoffman_all-art-has-a-political-aspect-to-it-but-activity-7139653348495867904-LcQR?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

2023-12-08 22:41:22

I hope this book is better than the chaotic and ignorant reviewer, who gets almost everything wrong in almost every paragraph. Including the absurd (if all too commonly held) notion that Adam Smith supported steep inequalities of wealth and power. Diametrically opposite to truth. Then there's his asserted notion that all of prehistory was a realm of fatuous agreement among pre-historians. That is a howler of unbelievable, credibility-damning hilarity.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/oct/23/the-dawn-of-everything-by-david-graeber-and-david-wengrow-review-inequality-is-not-the-price-of-civilisation

2023-11-22 21:16:38

One of my biggest failures! In 2019 I took 6 monthsto compile new tactics for politicians etc on the sane/Union/blue side of the 250 year U.S. Civil War. >100 ways to change a frozen political landscape. Result? Crickets. Alas.
http://www.davidbrin.com/polemicaljudo.html

2023-11-15 20:46:50

With the passing of Greg Bear and the sad debilitation of most other Killer Bs, I am reminded that age comes stalking us all. But it hurts - still - to get news about the passing of Michael Bishop, one of the finest writers I ever knew.
https://locusmag.com/2023/11/michael-bishop-1945-2023/

2023-11-14 19:47:47

I just finished re-editing EARTH after 30 years. (Dang that young feller could write...) And today's midweek posting offers a couple of snippet-extracts. I'll be doing more. Don't worry about 'spoilers'! In this novel, there's (almost) no such thing!
https://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2023/11/more-extracts-from-earth.html

2023-11-03 02:46:26

They demand 1 thing- for aiding Ukraine, or Israel, to fund the US government or pay our bills - defund the IRS. The GOP masters are in panic lest skilled accountants uncover trillions in cheats that could balance the budget and lower taxes for citizens.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/11/02/house-israel-aid-mcconnell-schumer-biden/71393928007/

2023-11-01 20:40:12

NASA heads ask: have any scifi authors used technologies in their work that were first explored by NASA's Innovative &Advanced Concepts (NIAC)? Any of YOU colleagues? Skim amazing, innovative projects I've helped to critique across the last 12 years, at: www.nasa.gov/niac

2023-09-24 22:08:12

My new posting: An update on Science Fiction from several angles! New things! Great old stuff. And projects by which SF fans might even save the world… Only readers are welcome. Fortunately, that appears to include all the AIs. Come on by, sapient folks!
https://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2023/09/sci-fi-news-roundup.html

2023-09-23 17:45:09

I just returned from the annual NIAC (NASA’s Innovative & Advanced Concepts program) symposium in Houston. Concluding 12 years of service to NASA’s most amazingly forward looking endeavor – funding and stimulating projects that mix almost science fictional, what-if visions with soundly and scientifically based practicality.

2023-09-17 00:31:43

A dangerously toxic fad among some uber-rich males who dream of emerging from luxury fortresses after some "Event' torches civilization - then ruling over any survivors. This cult could self-fulfill in ways that wind up disappointing them. See more -
https://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2023/09/prepper-lords-intend-to-leave-us-in.html

2023-09-16 02:16:50

Some things just explain themselves.
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-destroy-america-russian-propaganda-1826734

2023-09-09 19:06:32

I must (alas) dive again into the UFO Koolaid that millions slurp. So many absurdities that I dissect here, if you want your interest in 'the alien' to stand on far more solid ground. Not if you're emotional about this voluptuous, fact-free religion.
https://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2023/09/okay-this-time-ufo-mania-isnt-ebbing-so.html

2023-09-05 00:19:10

Doug Rushkoff's TEAM HUMAN podcast dives into an hour with me, discussing a vital Big Picture Question - what method might stand a chance of offering us that 'soft landing' of synergy with AI? Because we've already proved that it works with humans.
https://www.teamhuman.fm/episodes/256-david-brin

2023-08-24 04:33:49

The latest... credible since it is from ISW... is that the plane with Prigozhin and his top commanders was shot down by two S-300 missiles, controlled by the Muscovite Ministry of Defense. The parallel may be the Night of the Long Knives. (Look it up.)
https://www.iswresearch.org/search/label/Ukraine

2023-08-22 05:42:11

WindWings sails are made like windmill blades, but operate as rigid sails on a few freighters, to cut fuel use . I was an investor in an earlier (now alas defunct) avatar of this company. I hope this version does good for the world. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-66543643

2023-08-19 02:44:20

Saturday, Startide Rising and Uplift War e-editions will be on sale, at your favorite online sources. Kobo, B&N and so on...

2023-08-09 23:43:26

ALL economic metrics do better across the span of Dem than Repub administrations! Deficits, employment. Investment.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/110/862/310/016/384/926/original/dac4620258c4ddc1.jpg

2023-08-02 03:04:00

This Forbes journalist back in January did something rare - he asked excellent questions, understood everything I said, and described (condensed) it accurately, in a wide range of topics.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/calumchace/2023/01/25/why-are-ufos-still-blurry-a-conversation-with-david-brin/?sh=666c1f5c1509

2023-07-16 19:07:53

If any of you fall for this blatant effort to repeat the magic of Nader and Stein, handing the USA over to monsters, then shame on you. There are no justifications that aren't just blather lies and incantations to sabotage the only coalition that can save America and the world.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/110/722/074/143/576/172/original/8c62415984540309.png

2023-07-14 23:20:29

Weekend posting goes back to our time of crisis and deliberately-incited 'culture war' - and why the reformers who actually get things done did-so incrementally. Come on by... and see some of you at COMICON!
https://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2023/07/choosing-sides-and-better-tactics-for.html

2023-07-14 23:20:25

60 years I heard these rumors. point#1-Earth now has a millionX as many active cameras yet 'ufo-images' get fuzzier! #2-Crashed ships? We'd've put 1000s of our best folks studying em! I KNOW a big% of our best! None was ever asked! (Some feel snubbed!)
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/110/713/463/303/056/468/original/da70481cb3d4e82b.png

2023-07-06 17:31:37

Been pulled into the Panic/Debate over AI. My *new* WIRED article breaks the 3 standard 'AI-formats' that lead to disaster -slave, blob or 'Skynet'- suggesting a 4th - that AI entities can only be held accountable if they have individuality- even 'soul'.
https://www.wired.com/story/give-every-ai-a-soul-or-else/

2023-06-17 20:39:12

Renowned marine biologist Roger Payne died June 10 at 88. I knew/admired him from FiRe conferences. His 1970s album introduced the world to whale songs, spurring the drive to save them from near-extinction. And a fine fellow.
https://www.vermontpublic.org/local-news/2023-06-14/remembering-roger-payne-whose-recordings-of-whale-songs-changed-the-world

2023-05-23 00:39:38

Fascinating and gorgeous new images of details of the Sun’s surface, especially around sunspots.
https://www.sciencealert.com/captivating-close-ups-show-amazing-details-hiding-in-the-glare-of-the-sun

2023-05-20 03:34:57

In honor of Jim Brown and his greatest acting role, here's that scene in Sleepless in Seattle where Tom Hanks sobs in tribute to him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vCYHpKJZd4