Another Feature of the Brave New World

Idea for a scene in upcoming futuristic sci-fi Hollywood flick.

It's a typical day in the life of a middle class business man named Jack. Jack's trip to the office begins with getting situated in his self-driving car, then putting on and adjusting his VR goggles. As his car passes through slums and tenements, he only sees happy faces and cheerful neighbors, suburban lawns, fountains and flower gardens. It's the ultra-modern techno-version of the brain-in-the-vat supra-pleasing stimuli-feed. Whatever your station in life you can now live in the right neighborhood.

He's wearing an Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, version 9.01. The original had been launched in 2016, but had some kinks and was somewhat pricey. Now, 15 years later, they were $39.95 and available everywhere, with a version even available in Wal-Mart. Originally developed for Gamers, the units have been a standard feature in self-driving cars for the past three years.

On his way to the office Jack can go anywhere in the world, from Google Adventure to Google Zoo. It's Google Augmented Reality at its finest. He never has to push a button; he simply mutters commands.

One of the cool parts of going to Google Zoo is that there are no cages for the virtual animals. The park is packed with all kinds of creatures, including numerous species that have now disappeared from the planet. Google Sea also has similar features. The whale may be part of the past in real life, but here in Google Sea you still get the opportunity to hear them, and get near them. If you're lucky you can even touch one. And if you're really lucky you can participate in saving a beached whale and feeling really good about it.

Yes, the experiences are virtual, but the feelings are real. We certainly want to feel good, and nothing feels better than helping others, even if it's only virtual.

Google Adventure is a project that began in the early 2020s, transforming Hollywood classics into 3-D VR in which you get to become a character. After purchasing the entire library of Universal Studios, and signing a licensing agreement with Ted Turner, Google began converting the films from entertainment to participatory experience. In many cases, as with early Hitchcock films, you can choose to experience your role in color or black & white.

It may be that your job entails mindful attention and mental preparation rather than diversion as you commute. Many executives will choose Tony Robbins and other success workshops instead. You can even overcome fear on the Firewalk, and dare to be great.

* * * *
I decided to pass over Throwback Thursday and throw in a few Throw-Forward thoughts after reading about the current status of VR and last week's Oculus Rift Game Developers Conference.

Meantime, life goes on all around you. Or does it?

All trademarks, such as Oculus Rift and Google, are property of their respective owners.

Wordless Wednesday: Steampunk Style

If you like futuristic stories with a sci-fi theme, Download FREE my eBook Intergalactica (which I co-produced with Kate Dupre and Patty Mahnke) from the Apple Store. Don't have an iPad? Download our PDF version here.

Lessons In Collaboration ~ Intergalactica

Discovery

Collaboration. It's something musicians do all the time. Think John, Paul, George and Ringo. Each brought something different to the group. And the music they created would never have existed had they not learned how to collaborate. Each had talent that was recognized and respected by the others, but in order to be The Beatles they also had to have an additional talent: the ability to collaborate.

Theater is another collaborative experience. The range of skills required is vast, from playwright to director to set designers, casting, actors and all the technical facets of sound and lighting in order for the audience to receive the full force of the production.

By way of contrast, artists and poets have historically been soloists. Walt Whitman, Claude Monet, Robert Frost, Salvadore Dali... They did what they did. They associated with others, bounced ideas off others, but they usually worked alone. Like writing this blog, or a daily diary, painting or drawing is usually a soloist pursuit...

The Beginning
Artist Kamikaze has been an annual Twin Ports event in which artists who work in different media and genres are paired with the aim of producing a work of art on a given theme. It's a competition, invented by Limbo Gallery and Eris Vafias, which results in art for display each year at Pizza Luce.

Last year for Artist Kamikaze IV I was paired with Steampunk fashion artist Patricia Mahnke. Intergalactic was the theme. We initially decided was to create a character and costume, that I would subsequently paint. Eventually this evolved into two characters and costumes, and ultimately a narrative. Our ideas kept expanding and the desire for a third team member with photography and Photoshop skills was fulfilled when Kate Dupre joined the team.

I found the end result -- costumes and five pieces that included two original paintings and over 700 photos -- so exhilarating that I felt it should be shared with a wider audience. That was the impetus behind producing the eBook Intergalactica. 

Here are some of the lessons I learned through this experience.

Trust

Intergalactic Contact

I had no pre-conceived notions on where to take our project, but when Patty and I first met she showed me some ideas for costumes that she'd sketched. She envisioned more than one character, as in a story. My skeptical response, when she described the first character was, "Can you do this?" She replied yes with much confidence.

Lesson One in collaborations is Trust. I was impressed by Patty's imagination and had to trust her capabilities. Being a painter my initial thought was that she would make the costumes and I would paint the characters wearing them. But Patty asked me to decorate one of the dresses, right on the material. I'd never painted on material in this manner and was insecure. But she was confident. And she trusted me as well. The final costume for Aurora was a true collaboration.

Confidence
Confidence is a plus in any endeavor, and Patty had it in spades. In basketball you give the ball to your star player at the end of the game because he is confident that he can make that final shot.

Serendipity was also working in our favor. Napolean Bonaparte stated that in planning a battle one is wise to include spaces in the plan to allow serendipity, the unexpected, to happen.

Njall

As a team the three of us brainstormed to develop a story line. That week I wrote a first draft. I was encouraged when they liked the foundation I fleshed out. In a subsequent meeting Patty and Kate expressed the thought that the names didn't work. The story was good. Together we generated ideas for names, searching online for Danish, Icelandic and other name sources which would sound foreign to us but have a cool ring to them. Names of characters and planets emerged. And a sense of mutuality began to build. It was not one person’s project, but began to have its own life to which we were all connected and to which we were all contributing.

This is an important part of team collaboration. In projects like this, everyone needs to feel part of the project, have a voice. But there was another important factor at work here, the ability to lay aside ego for the greater good. I created names in the initial story, but when Patty and Kate weighed in I let go of what I originally proposed. The suggestions they offered strengthened the story.

Planning 
The photo shoot would be an important part of the final presentation so we had to set a date for accomplishing this. It would have to give Patty enough time to produce the costumes she conceived and would be far enough from the deadline to create the final pieces we were to display, which was a collage of images, two paintings and a fabulous shot which required amplifications via Photoshop by Kate. The date was set for May 19.

Personal Sacrifice
Making the time commitment was challenging for we each had exceedingly busy schedules. But Kate made a comment that especially fired me up to not pull back on my end. She expressed her concern that what we end up with might look like a high school art project, that we must take this project to another level. This was precisely the prod I needed to go all out, to put in the extra hours required to embellish the paintings with essential details. The best teams are those in which everyone is making the same kind of all out effort.

The night of the show three other teams garnered more votes for their work, but I felt truly gratified by what we had accomplished. It was a privilege to be part of such a dedicated team.

Over the past eight months I have been working with TJ Lind, my ePublishing collaborator, to create an eBook version of our story so it could be shared with a wider audience. The art show is long gone, but the fruit of it is now available as a FREE DOWNLOAD called Intergalactica from the Apple iTunes Store. Check it out. You can't beat the price. 

Don't have an iPad or iTunes, here's a link where you can download the PDF.

Author Eddie Upnick and Time Will Tell

Once confined to fantasy and science fiction, time travel is now simply an engineering problem.
~Michio Kaku, Wired Magazine, Aug. 2003  

Because of this blog I am offered review copies of books on a fairly regular basis. I try not to take very many because my reading stacks are fairly backed up. Of those I do take I don't read as many as I'd like because, as the saying goes, "my eyes are bigger than my stomach."

Nevertheless, the concept in Eddie Upnick's Time Will Tell was interesting on two counts. First, because I have written a few stories related to time and alternate histories (see Unremembered Histories ) and because of my father-in-law's own superb volume about his World War II experiences, a second theme of Upnick's story.

We're all familiar with H.G. Wells' classic The Time Machine, and who has not enjoyed Hollywood's three part Back to the Future series? Here's Upnick talking about why he wrote this book.

EN: What prompted you to write this book? 
Eddie Upnick: I wrote Time Will Tell because of a chance meeting I had with a man named Sidney Dowse in 1995 in Antigua. Mr. Dowse was one of the men who escaped from Sagan, the prison camp portrayed in the 1963 movie The Great Escape. He was one of 76 men who escaped from the German prisoner of war camp. 50 of the men were murdered by the Gestapo, Sidney was recaptured. The stories that Mr. Dowse finally shared with me, after three days of trying to get him to talk, were amazing. Before the war started, Sidney Dowse worked with Stewert Menzies, who headed up MI-6, British intelligence. Menzies had daily meetings with Churchill. The shocking hidden details of World War Two history were the reason I wrote Time Will Tell.

EN: Having written a book titled Future Tense, you are obviously fascinated with time. When did this kind of interest emerge in your life? 
EU: I was influenced in early childhood by Rod Serling's Twilight Zone and the Outer Limits series. Rod Serling was my greatest writing influence. His Twilight Zone episodes fascinated me a child. Gene Roddenberry was also a strong influence with the original Star Trek series. I hope readers will be both entertained by the story and learn a little lost history as well.

EN: Your book was finished in 2009. Were you surprised when Stephen King published a time travel novel about a man trying to alter the Kennedy assassination? What was you reaction to that?
EU: Stephen King's novels are interesting to me, but they had no influence on me or my writing style at all. All of his novels that relate to time keep the genre alive and well. So I wish him well.

EN: I suppose you'd like to see this as a movie. How would you compare this story to 13 Monkees with Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt? 
EU: Yes, I think all three books in this trilogy would make for great movies. 13 Monkees was certainly an interesting, yet dark film with a time travel theme. I would envision my "movies" as more uplifting and humorous.

EN: What are the biggest challenges in writing this kind of fiction? 
EU: I call my writing style reality-based science fiction. Beginning each book with a real life premise and slowly morph into the Sci-Fi elements keeps the books believable and entertaining.

2052, the final book deals with the end of life on Earth and how our heroes attack the problem, battling enemies and getting help from allies in outer space. 2052 answers all the open questions left from the first two books.

40 years of stories told to me by top level people in many industries helped me piece this trilogy together. These novels are a fast read, that much I can promise your readers.

* * *

EdNote: Though the book will never be considered classic literature there are readers who will enjoy the game. It's always interesting to see where another person's unrestrained imagination will take a reader if they choose to follow. Like all fiction of this type the enjoyment requires the usual suspension of disbelief. There is a lot of improbable to impossible here, but isn't that a given in time travel stories? The book is available in paperback as well as the digital version on Kindle. Download the beginning free and if it grips you, go for it.

In the meantime, make the most of your weekend.

Artist Kamikaze Teaches Lessons In Collaboration

Lessons I learned from this year's Artist Kamikaze experience.

Kate Dupre as Prof. Minerva Delphina Wonderborn w/automaton Aurora.

Collaboration. It's something musicians do all the time. Think John, Paul, George and Ringo. Each brought something different to the group. And the music they created would never have existed had they not learned how to collaborate. Each had talent that was recognized and respected by the others, but in order to be The Beatles they also had to have an additional talent: the ability to collaborate.

Theater is another collaborative experience. The range of skills required is vast, from playwright to director to set designers, casting, actors and all the technical facets of sound and lighting in order for the audience to receive the full force of the production.

Patty Mahnke's initial sketch of Aurora.

By way of contrast, artists and poets have historically been soloists. Walt Whitman, Claude Monet, Robert Frost, Pablo Picasso... They did what they did. They associated with others, bounced ideas off others, but they usually worked alone. Like writing this blog, or a daily diary, painting or drawing is usually a soloist pursuit...

So when Artist Kamikaze was conceived, it challenged some of the dynamics in how artists work. I paint or draw by myself. But in the Artist Kamikaze artists are paired or teamed together with other collaborators wholly unlike themselves. Think Ringo Starr and bluegrass legend Doc Watson, or John Lennon and Yo-Yo Ma.

As in years past, a theme is conceived and teams established. Like the launch of any new project in business there is also a time frame set with a deadline. This year's show was slated for July 7.

My randomly selected partner in this venture was Patricia Mahnke, who does costume art and is active with a loose collection of artists called Friends of Industry. She met her husband Wally through theater, hence the theatrical aspect of conceiving and designing clothing for Steampunk events these past few years is a natural outgrowth of these interests.

In our first meeting we discussed concepts for our project. The Artist Kamikaze theme this year was Intergallactic. I had no pre-conceived notions on where to take our project, but when Patty and I met she showed me some ideas for costumes that she'd sketched. She envisioned more than one character, as in a story. My first response, when she described the one character was, "Can you do this?" She replied yes with much confidence.

Aurora in transport.

LESSON ONE in collaborations is Trust. I was impressed by Patty's imagination and had to trust her capabilities. Being a painter my initial thought was that she would make the costumes and I would paint the characters wearing them. But Patty asked me to decorate one of the dresses, right on the material. I'd never painted on material in this manner and was insecure. But she was confident. And she trusted me as well.

Confidence is a plus in any endeavor, and Patty had it in spades. In basketball you give the ball to your star player at the end of the game because he is confident that he can make that final shot.

As the project evolved, we felt it would be valuable to do a photo shoot once the costumes were designed. We asked Eris Vafias, who is the initiator/inventor of the annual Artist Kamikaze events, if we might be permitted to have a professional photographer do pictures of what we create. As luck would have it Eris said there was a photographer who wanted to participate and had no partner. Kate Dupre would become the third member of the team. Serendipity was at working in our favor. Napolean Bonaparte said that in planning a battle one is wise to include a space in the plan to allow serendipity, the unexpected, to happen.

We brainstormed to come up with a story. I took notes and wrote a first draft. In a subsequent meeting Patty and Kate thought the names didn't work, but the story was good. 

As a team the three of us brainstormed to come up with a story line. I took notes and wrote a first draft. They liked the foundation I fleshed out. In a subsequent meeting Patty and Kate expressed that though the names didn't work, the story was good. Together we generated ideas for names, searching online for Danish, Icelandic and other name sources which would sound foreign to us but have a cool ring to them. Names of characters and planets emerged. And a sense of mutuality began to build. It was not one person’s project, but began to have its own life to which we were all connected and to which we were all contributing.

This is an important part of team collaboration. In projects like this, everyone needs to feel part of the project, have a voice. But there was another important piece at work here, the ability to lay aside ego for the greater good. I created names in the initial story, but when Patty and Kate weighed in I let go of what I originally proposed. The suggestions they offered strengthened the story.

Planning was another major issue. The photo shoot would be an important part of the final presentation so we had to set a date for accomplishing this. It would have to give Patty enough time to produce the costumes she conceived and would be far enough from the deadline to create the final pieces we were to display, which was a collage of images, two paintings and a fabulous shot which required amplifications via Photoshop by Kate. The date was set for May 19.

Making the time commitment was challenging for we each have had exceedingly busy schedules right now. But Kate made a comment that especially fired me up to not pull back on my end. She was concerned that what we end up with might look like a high school art project. This was precisely the prod I needed to go all out, to put in the extra hours required to embellish the paintings with essential details. I think when you go back and study any great achievement in the arts, or in human history for that matter, you will see that there were personal sacrifices involved.

The night of the show three other teams garnered more votes for their work, but I felt truly gratified by what we had accomplished. It was a privilege to be part of such a dedicated team. The show is coming down today, but what we created will remain one walls or personal spaces for a long time, I am guessing. We may even produce a book. Kate shot over 600 great photos and the story will be as fun tomorrow as it was last week.

What lessons have your learned from your most recent collaborative venture? 

Patty Mahnke as Aurora. Phot and Photoshop work by Kate Dupre.