My interests are engineering, writing, martial arts, history, roleplaying, philosophy, military science, political theory, and quite a few other fields. I am certainly no expert in all of them, but I do consider myself fairly well read on a good number of them. So, feel free to ask any questions.
As for me, I won't let anything personal go, save I am male engineering student with an interest in biomedical technology and brain-computer interfacing, but here's some information you might be interested in:
For politics, you could call me a centralist technoprogressive with a solid helping of libertarian. I am relatively moderate and innately distrustful of all politicians, but I do enjoy learning about military science and technology. I am an ardent believer in political decentralization against bloated bureaucracies, as well as socio-technical trends that can help lead to beneficial decentralization. An organization I founded, Symbiotry International, has this as our agenda (essentially extropianism).
I have friends on both sides of the whole "right-left" spectrum, and many fall in the middle. The whole rotten right-left spectrum dumbs down politics and polarizes the nation. It originated in France, so that should be reason enough to dislike it. I'm extremely pro-science and pro-technology, especially with regards to bionics, desktop manufacturing, and biotech. Politics is currently playing catch-up to technology and science.
I am an unapologetic modernist and realist. That means I hold that basing actions on a realistic assestment beats blind ideology. Some day, I want to work on bionanotechnology, neural-computer interfacing, and various biomedical engineering devices. That means, essentially, machines you can connect with your nervous system for medicine, fun, and profit.
Yes, that's right. Fun.
I'm also into transhumanism, or upgrading ad hoc biological creatures (such as ourselves) with better parts (once, of course, ones better than the "natural" ones come out). We humans are naturally curious and inventive, and the genome and our own bodies are logical places to tinker next.
While it may seem sci-fi, it's already started. Take the recent case of a woman with two prosthetic legs denied entry to the Olympics. It was determined that her prosthetics would give her an "unfair advantage" due to being made of a new material. Is it really a prosthetic if it is better than the old one? Human enhancement is arguably even working out, learning, and growing as a person. Why not expand the opportunities to grow? The disabled are going to be first in line for all these cool toys, since they have the most need. "The meek shall inherit the Earth" suddenly takes on a whole new dimension.
I like getting in-depth reviews, and if you want, I'll review something of yours. If you like my stuff, I do enjoying talking with fellow writers. Direct discussion has helped brainstorm and exchange ideas several times.
I guess you expect I'm going to put some quotes from actors or philosophers here. Well, get this: Actors don't write their own text, and philosophers aren't always right. Likewise, It's a good idea to watch who you quote.
Actors and most politicians don't write their own lines, and philosophers can be wrong. Take Aristotle's assumption the universe is unchanging as an example... But, if you still insist on me giving quotes from people I like or agree with on a good number of matters...
"There is no such thing as a unique scientific vision, any more than there is a unique poetic vision. Science is a mosaic of partial and conflicting visions. But there is one common element in these visions. The common element is rebellion against the restrictions imposed by the locally prevailing culture, Western or Eastern as the case may be. It is no more Western than it is Arab or Indian or Japanese or Chinese. Arabs and Indians and Japanese and Chinese had a big share in the development of modern science. And two thousand years earlier, the beginnings of science were as much Babylonian and Egyptian as Greek. One of the central facts about science is that it pays no attention to East and West and North and South and black and yellow and white. It belongs to everybody who is willing to make the effort to learn it." -Freeman Dyson, "The Scientist as Rebel"
"I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do." - Robert A. Heinlein
"Without laws or compulsion, men would dwell in harmony." -- Lao Tzu, Tao-Te Ching
"The progressive development of man is vitally dependent on invention." -Nikola Tesla
"Ipsa Scientia Potestas Est." -Sir Francis Bacon
"Creationists make it sound as though a 'theory' is something you dreamt up after being drunk all night." -Isaac Asimov
"It is the duty of every true deist to vindicate the justice of God against the evils of the Bible." -Ethan Allen
"To desire an ordinary life to is to deny yourself the ability to lead an extraordinary life." -Brother Charles Lazar
"When you gaze long into the abyss... the abyss also gazes into you." - Frederick Nietzsche
"What is great in man is he is a bridge and not a goal." -Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra
"I live in my own place have never copied nobody even half, and at any master who lacks the grace to laugh at himself - I laugh." -Quote inscribed over the door to Friedrich Nietzsche's house
Schadenfreude ist die schönste Freude."
"People talk about the middle of the road as though it were unacceptable. Actually, all human problems, excepting morals, come into the gray areas. Things are not all black and white. There has to be compromises. The middle of the road is all of the usable surface. The extremes, right and left, are in the gutters." -Dwight D. Eisenhower
"The only way they'll ever get me into church will be feet first." -Dwight D. Eisenhower
"Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung." -Voltaire
"Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the ark of the Covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment... laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind... as that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, institutions must advance also, to keep pace with the times... We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain forever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors." -Thomas Jefferson
More from Ike:
"When people speak to you about a preventive war, you tell them to go and fight it. After my experience, I have come to hate war."
"I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its stupidity. War settles nothing."
"Here in America we are descended in blood and in spirit from revolutionists and rebels - men and women who dare to dissent from accepted doctrine. As their heirs, may we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion."
"If all that Americans want is security, they can go to prison. They’ll have enough to eat, a bed and a roof over their heads. But if an American wants to preserve his dignity and his equality as a human being, he must not bow his neck to any dictatorial government."
-Dwight D. Eisenhower
As for my personal thoughts? Read my stories. They're in there. Speaking of stories, here's a few projects I'm working on now and plan to do in the future (subject to change at any time).
Current Projects:
Current Realistic Fiction:
Infoduel: The sequel to Infowar. As the Infowar expands to new countries, the international Network of techno-subversives faces their greatest challenge from within. A splinter faction wants to use the new technologies to dominate the world economy. In a world where desktop manufacturing is emerging as a politically sensitive issue, and private military contractors are used to minimize political consequences, things can only get more complicated. As the covert world war extends to new fronts in Brazil, China, Israel, Australia, Russia, and India, the fate of the future lies in whoever wins the hearts and minds of the next generation.
Ongoing:
Science Fiction For Dummies: This is my column on writing fantastic fiction of all sorts: science fiction, fantasy, technothrillers, speculative fiction, and everything in between. It's been going strong for over three years, and updated whenever I feel a need to, as well as when there's a special requests. I've covered everything from hard sci-fi to superheroes to steampunk to real life technology and science and then some. If you want my feedback on an idea, or just want to talk about the column, feel free to stop in the official forum. Dummy or not, feel free to check it out!
Role Playing Campaigns:
Sins of San Dorado: In the fictional California city of San Dorado, radical new technologies become the targets of several underworld factions. An existentialist crime drama with technothriller elements, Sins of San Dorado's plot is unveiled in story arcs, like a comic series. The action of the party will determine the next arc, leading to several adventures based on player character choice. San Dorado has been running non-stop since March 2007, so feel free to check it out. We even have a joint account among our main players where we write backstory for the city, culture, and characters of San Dorado. Hope to see you in San Dorado!
Future Fantastic Fiction:
Tabernacle: A hard science fiction space opera with religious and political elements. In the far future, an extragalactic colony of humans and their cousins face internal strife and imminent total annihilation. A galaxy-destroying von Neumann machine is heading their way, threatening even the most advanced posthuman civilizations. How should they react against a self-adapting superweapon that has destroyed civilizations more advanced then their own?
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