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steal this pitch

Where Is The Posthuman Bertie Wooster?

Sometime soon — maybe in our lifetimes — we humans will finally exceed our design limitations. We'll interface with artificial intelligences, extend our lifespans, and gain the ability to modify our bodies far beyond our current understanding of prosthetics. And when that happens, our capacity to make total idiots out of ourselves will be increased a thousand-fold. But sadly, there's never really been a posthuman Bertie Wooster. Here are a few pointers on how to write the transhuman fool's progress. More »

Feature

9:00 AM on Wed May 7 2008
By Charlie Jane Anders
2,807 views, 44 comments

Latest by napthia9: @Lizfu: Ooh, that's very interesting. Especially since the automatic thing most people think about when they think of "Hired Help Of the Future" is robot companions! Yet the humans currently working as servants or otherwise non-idle semi-aristocrats are hardly mindless more »

star trek

Captain Wesley Crusher, Starfleet Investigative Services

The Star Trek franchise has always been about "big picture" stories, but the next Trek series should take the opposite approach, narrow the scope and focus on a few well-developed characters - primarily Wesley Crusher. Yes, the much maligned ensign should be brought back as the captain of a Starfleet science vessel that warps around the Alpha Quadrant solving mysteries for the Federation. Think of it as CSI . . . in space! Here's how it would work.
More »

8:00 AM on Mon May 5 2008
By Ed Grabianowski
12,235 views, 69 comments

steal this pitch

How To Bring The Weird In Your Near-Future Stories

Everybody says we're living in a science fictional era now. Your grandma's poodle is on Facebook, your whole social life is on your iphone, and mega-corps know everything about you. But if you think the world is futuristic now, just wait another twenty years. The weirdness will swarm exponentially, making the world of 2028 easily as jarring as 2008 would seem to a visitor from the Reagan era. So how can we, as writers and storytellers, create a believable medium-near-future world? More »

Feature

9:12 AM on Wed Apr 23 2008
By Charlie Jane Anders
2,473 views, 32 comments

Latest by timberwolf4545: @Charlie Jane Anders: Charlie Jane, Do you know what sort of publishing platform the site currently runs on? (It's probably a blogging platform like Wordpress or something) Wordpress up, Timber more »

steal this pitch

Time to Make a Movie Version of "Astronauts in Trouble"

In a world where it seems as if every comic ever made has had their movie rights optioned, the lack of news about a future Astronauts in Trouble movie feels more and more like a failure on Hollywood's part. The indie series of graphic novels centering around TV news crews and astronauts getting in and out of - you guessed it - trouble seems custom-built for a multiplex near you. More »

11:44 AM on Wed Apr 16 2008
By Graeme McMillan
1,149 views, 12 comments

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The Coming War Between Religion And Super-Science

The 21st century may well see a final showdown between scientific rationalists and religious fundamentalists. We'll see more and more conflicts — like Dawkins vs. creationists, or Bush vs. stem cells — as scientists discover more facts that challenge religious beliefs. But I've been racking my brains to think of science fiction stories that depict the conflict between science and religion in a compelling way. Why don't we see more stories that deal with this? And how can you (yes, you!) write about these conflicts in a smart, interesting way that doesn't resort to caricatures? More »

Feature

9:45 AM on Wed Apr 9 2008
By Charlie Jane Anders
7,475 views, 255 comments

Latest by RAHfanboy: @jesustonight: Ripped from tomorrow's headlines. more »

steal this pitch

How To Make Superman/Batman Team-Ups Rule, For A Change

Any comic called Superman/Batman should really be the most astounding piece of reading material since Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. And yet, sadly, DC's monthly comic about the adventures of its two most famous characters has been a bit dull for a few years now. I've been obsessing, during my rare downtime, about how I would restore Supes/Bats to its former spiffiness, if Dan DiDio was somehow afflicted with brain damage and chose to let me write it. Here are my thoughts. More »

Feature

9:06 AM on Wed Mar 26 2008
By Charlie Jane Anders
4,784 views, 42 comments

Latest by Pope John Peeps II: That's a terrible idea, and totally ruins Batman. Why would you make him out to be an unprepared douchebag? more »

steal this pitch

8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories

Short fiction is the "garage band" of science fiction, claims Tor Books editor Patrick Nielsen Hayden, so it's time to step on that fuzzbox and thrash as hard as you can without knocking over your mom's weed-trimmer. Actually, I think Nielsen Hayden was referring to the fact that you can try more crazy experiments in short SF than in novels, because of the shorter time commitment of both writer and reader. But how can you become a super-master of the challenging form of short fiction? Here are a few suggestions. More »

Feature

9:35 AM on Wed Mar 12 2008
By Charlie Jane Anders
14,243 views, 44 comments

Latest by itsburnsie: Aboslutely perfect, bang-up job as always Charlie Jane. Posts like this make io9 one of my favorite stops on the web. Maybe I'll put these tips to work this weekened :-) more »

doomlord

What The World Needs Now is Doomlord

While Marvel Comics try and get the world excited about their summer shapechanging alien invader storyline Secret Invasion, it's perhaps time to consider reviving Britain's very own little-known human-hating, shapechanging alien comic character Doomlord. With a name like that and writing from Judge Dredd and Batman veterans John Wagner and Alan Grant, you know that quality sci-fi schlock is on the menu. Find out more about the aliens that threatened all human life without you knowing about it in the 1980s after the jump. More »

7:30 AM on Wed Mar 5 2008
By Graeme McMillan
1,111 views, 6 comments

Latest by davetech7474: I loved the Doomlord because he rented a room in a BB and lived there and nobody realised he was an alien! Excellent! Did he have something to do with the Meekon? There was a bloke in my class in more »

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Your Face Cream Will One Day Eat The World

Artificial intelligences aren't going to take over Earth by building a bunch of robotic fashion models to karate-chop us to death. Instead, the A.I. takeover will come from a nasty nano-tech sludge that consumes all matter in its path to recreate itself endlessly. This "gray goo" scenario has popped up in novels by Walter Jon Williams, Rudy Rucker and Greg Bear, but it hasn't yet appeared in any major movies. Here's how we would tell a Hollywood-friendly "gray goo" story. More »

Feature

9:00 AM on Wed Feb 27 2008
By Charlie Jane Anders
1,289 views, 22 comments

Latest by radio1: I'd love Bloom or Blood Music to be a movie... more »

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Aliens Want To Know What We Did With Their Fossil Fuels

The end of fossil fuels on Earth is coming, probably within the next century. This is a unique event in the history of our planet, but one that science fiction hasn't dealt with all that much. Our sophisticated global civilization is built on the the foundation of cheap, readily available oil. So what happens when we start to run out of it? And what if there are aliens watching us right now to see how far we progress before our fuel runs out? More »

Feature

9:40 AM on Wed Feb 13 2008
By Charlie Jane Anders
1,260 views, 32 comments

Latest by twic: @gyrus: Synthetic helium? Please tell me more. Is this a refined byproduct of nuclear fusion, perhaps? The whole 'running out of oil will clobber the chemical industry' thing is a red herring. We aren't going to run out of oil - more »

steal this pitch

There Are 200 'Real' Superheroes In The United States

This story is perfect for Hollywood: real people who lead ordinary lives by day, but like to put on leotards and spandex briefs at night and actually fight crime. People like Geist, The Emerald Enforcer, Black Arrow, and Mr. Silent fight baddies in major cities across the country, meaning you probably have one somewhere nearby as you read this. They carry weapons like smoke grenades and big sticks, and they even have their own group name: "The Reals." More »

1:30 PM on Fri Feb 1 2008
By Kevin Kelly
6,271 views, 41 comments

Latest by SF Guy In Korea: I wanted to save people, wear a mask, and cool looking tight suit. Then I got this amazing idea, get trained as a scuba rescue diver for my weekend gig. No one calls me an idiot, I don't need a more »

steal this pitch

How The Justice League Movie Could Still Be Saved

We all felt relieved when the Justice League movie was put on ice, maybe for good. After all, everything we'd heard about the movie's storyline sounded hokey and convoluted, with way too many random plots from the comics. (Not to mention the kiddie cast.) But putting together a JLA that doesn't feel scattershot would be a massive challenge for any writer. Here are some ideas for making it work. More »

Feature

9:00 AM on Wed Jan 30 2008
By charliejane
3,036 views, 32 comments

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How To Make "Sarah Connor" More Like "Sopranos"

Everyone agrees it'll be tough to make Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles stretch out over five or six years of killer-robot-of-the-week episodes. Zap2It's Daniel Fienberg has a suggestion: Make it more like The Sopranos with killer robots, a show about ordinary, fucked-up people living with the constant fear of death. In that spirit, here are some possible storylines for Terminator: The Soprano Chronicles. No spoilers, unless you haven't seen the first two episodes. More »

Feature

9:00 AM on Wed Jan 16 2008
By charliejane
2,048 views, 17 comments

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Help! My Nervous System Has Been Remapped!

Neuroscientists announced yesterday that they can do something extremely creepy with your nervous system. Using delicate surgery, they can make you feel your hands in your chest. That's right — they move your nerves around so that when somebody touches your chest, it feels like they are touching your hand. There are real applications for this, such as allowing amputees to remap sensation to their artificial limbs, but all I could think about were the fucked up applications like torture and mind control. More »

10:00 AM on Wed Nov 28 2007
By Annalee Newitz
218 views, 1 comment

Latest by bubbagrump: that could be a fantastic solution for guys with E.D. more »