Tuesday, 18 June 2013

GUEST POST - THE FUTURE AIN'T WHAT IT USED TO BE BY PETER BOLAND

I also asked the Author of the Spiral Arm, Peter Boland
 why he writes the genre he does. 
Here's what he had to say.



The future ain’t what it used to be.
by
Peter Boland

Phew, it’s hard work writing about the future. Much harder than writing about the past or the present. Writing’s difficult enough at the best of times but when you have to invent a believable futuristic world, that’s quite a big ask. I’m jealous of historical and contemporary novelists. Okay, I’m sure they have to do a ton of research, but I bet they don’t spend days thinking up futuristic gizmos. And it’s getting harder. You can’t just stick in flying cars and jetpacks. People want to see something new.
Today, some cybernetics are already starting to creep into society. So for the Spiral Arm it wasn’t a massive leap to think that in the future, the internet would be implanted in our hands in the form of a ‘com chip’. The chip would also project a holographic screen above our wrists so we could browse the net and message people - the ultimate in computer portability. I wish we had them now, it’d be a lot easier than fiddling around with a smart phone.

Language, like technology, evolves. So you need to come up with new futuristic phrases.  You can’t really use ones we use today, otherwise it destroys the illusion of being in the future. On the other hand, inventing new language can be difficult to pull off, as it can sound unfamiliar and just plain odd. For the Spiral Arm I compromised. Awesome is something everyone says these days, so what would they say in years to come? Beyond awesome of course! 

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