Reader Question: Future Definitions
Bowie of Young Writers Online was on a role when he was asking questions. Here goes: Realistically speaking, would we consider a “holo-vid” a television or would we somehow adapt to calling it a “holo-vid”? Most likely we would call it a hol0-vid, or whatever term was created to describe that new technology. New advances in technology produce new devices that may provide the same services as something before it, but in new and unique ways. Historically speaking, we tend to refer to these new technologies by their new names. We don’t call PDAs by anything other than PDA or handheld device, despite it being a miniature computer w/o a keyboard. An iPod is not a Walkman and even a laptop/notebook computer is often referred to as a laptop/notebook computer rather than as a portable computer or just a computer. While we may acknowledge that new technologies are “genetically” linked to older ones, we still take liberties with naming and stick with what is new, going back to old terminology only when we need to explain something in greater detail or for some other purpose. Right now, I’m writing on a laptop or notebook computer, whichever name best suits you. When the future rolls on through, it will bring with it a lot of new gadgets that will have different names and terminology. Unless those items are quite clearly derivations of something before (i.e. a 2nd generation iPod is still just an iPod, even though it’s technically more advanced and more functional than the previous generation), we tend to rename them. Human beings are remarkable at adopting new language. As an example, we can look at slang. When I was in high school, all those years ago, I remember the word “sick” coming into play (for those that don’t know, “sick” is sort of like saying “cool,” but in a more “cool” way). Within a couple weeks it was across the entire campus, and by the time I had finished my school year, that word had traveled to my previous home in Washington (across two states) and had been readily adopted. That’s the fascinating thing about language. It always changes with us human beings. Always. The same is true for technology, and as we progress we will see the language change. Ten years ago we didn’t have an iPod. Everything was by CD and mp3s were still becoming the dominant form over .wav and other formats. Now? If you don’t know what an mp3 is, you’re perceived as an idiot who has been living in the jungle, or really old, and if you don’t know what an iPod is, well, you’ll end up getting some looks until you can explain why. That’s the nature of language. Always changing, always adjusting, and always progressing. What about you, the readers? Do you think we will call holo-vids by what they are, or will we simply refer to them as TVs? ————————————————- If you have a question about science fiction, fantasy, writing, or anything related you’d like answered here, whether silly or serious, feel free to send it via email to arconna[at]yahoo[dot]com, tweet it via Twitter to @shaunduke, or leave it in the comments here. Questions are always welcome! If you liked this post, consider stumbling, digging, or linking to it!
GFTW’s SF/F/H Book Reviewer Meme, 2nd Edition
John Ottinger of Grasping For the Wind has posted an updated version of his famous SF/F/H book reviewer meme. And now I’m posting it here so you all can check some of these great reviewers out. You’ll have to click the read more in order to see the list, because the darn thing is too long for me to post on my homepage. Anywho, here goes:A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZRomanian French Chinese Danish Portuguese German A 7 Foot Shelves The Accidental Bard A Boy Goes on a Journey A Dribble Of Ink Adventures in Reading A Fantasy Reader The Agony Column A Hoyden’s Look at Literature A Journey of Books All Booked Up Alexia’s Books and Such… Andromeda Spaceways The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent. Ask Daphne ask nicola Audiobook DJ aurealisXpress Australia Specfic In Focus Author 2 Author AzureScape B Barbara Martin Babbling about Books Bees (and Books) on the Knob Best SF Bewildering Stories Bibliophile Stalker Bibliosnark Big Dumb Object BillWardWriter.com The Billion Light-Year Bookshelf Bitten by Books The Black Library Blog Blog, Jvstin Style Blood of the Muse The Book Bind Bookgeeks Bookrastination Booksies Blog Bookslut The Book Smugglers Bookspotcentral The Book Swede Book View Cafe [Authors Group Blog] Breeni Books C Cheaper Ironies [pro columnist] Charlotte’s Library Circlet 2.0 Cheryl’s Musings Club Jade Cranking Plot Critical Mass The Crotchety Old Fan D Daily Dose – Fantasy and Romance Damien G. Walter Danger Gal It’s Dark in the Dark Dark Parables Dark Wolf Fantasy Reviews Darque Reviews Dave Brendon’s Fantasy and Sci-Fi Weblog Dead Book Darling Dear Author The Deckled Edge The Doctor is In… Dragons, Heroes and Wizards Drey’s Library The Discriminating Fangirl Dusk Before the Dawn E Enter the Octopus Erotic Horizon Errant Dreams Reviews Eve’s Alexandria F Falcata Times Fan News Denmark [in English] Fantastic Reviews Fantastic Reviews Blog Fantasy Book Banner Fantasy Book Critic Fantasy Book Reviews and News Fantasy By the Tale Fantasy Cafe Fantasy Debut Fantasy Dreamer’s Ramblings Fantasy Literature.com Fantasy Magazine Fantasy and Sci-fi Lovin’ News and Reviews Feminist SF – The Blog! Feybound Fiction is so Overrated The Fix The Foghorn Review Follow that Raven Forbidden Planet Frances Writes Free SF Reader From a Sci-Fi Standpoint From the Heart of Europe Fruitless Recursion Fundamentally Alien The Future Fire G The Galaxy Express Galleycat Game Couch The Gamer Rat Garbled Signals Genre Reviews Genreville Got Schephs Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review Grasping for the Wind a GREAT read The Green Man Review Gripping Books H Hasenpfeffer Hero Complex Highlander’s Book Reviews Horrorscope The Hub Magazine Hyperpat’s Hyper Day I I Hope I Didn’t Just Give Away The Ending Ink and Keys Ink and Paper The Internet Review of Science Fiction io9 J Janicu’s Book Blog Jenn’s Bookshelf Jumpdrives and Cantrips K Kat Bryan’s Corner Keeping the Door King of the Nerds L Lair of the Undead Rat Largehearted Boy Layers of Thought League of Reluctant Adults The Lensman’s Children Library Dad Libri Touches Literary Escapism Literaturely Speaking ludis inventio Lundblog: Beautiful Letters M Mad Hatter’s Bookshelf and Book Review Mari’s Midnight Garden Mark Freeman’s Journal Mark Lord’s Writing Blog Marooned: Science Fiction Books on Mars Martin’s Booklog MentatJack Michele Lee’s Book Love Missions Unknown [Author and Artist Blog Devoted to SF/F/H in San Antonio] The Mistress of Ancient Revelry MIT Science Fiction Society Monster Librarian More Words, Deeper Hole Mostly Harmless Books Multi-Genre Fan Musings from the Weirdside My Favourite Books My Overstuffed Bookshelf N Neth Space The New Book Review NextRead Not Free SF Reader Nuketown O OF Blog of the Fallen The Old Bat’s Belfry ommadawn.dk Only The Best SciFi/Fantasy The Ostentatious Ogre Outside of a Dog P Paranormality Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist Patricia’s Vampire Notes The Persistence of Vision Piaw’s Blog Pizza’s Book Discussion Poisoned Rationality Popin’s Lair pornokitsch Post-Weird Thoughts Publisher’s Weekly Pussreboots: A Book Review a Day Q R Ramblings of a Raconteur Random Acts of Mediocrity Ray Gun Revival Realms of Speculative Fiction Reading the Leaves Review From Here Reviewer X Revolution SF Rhiannon Hart The Road Not Taken Rob’s Blog o’ Stuff Robots and Vamps S Sandstorm Reviews Satisfying the Need to Read Science Fiction and Fantasy Ethics Science Fiction Times ScifiChick Sci-Fi Blog SciFiGuy Sci-Fi Fan Letter The Sci-Fi Gene Sci-Fi Songs [Musical Reviews] SciFi Squad Scifi UK Reviews Sci Fi Wire Self-Publishing Review The Sequential Rat Severian’s Fantastic Worlds SF Diplomat SFFaudio SFFMedia SF Gospel SFReader.com SF Reviews.net SF Revu SF Safari SFScope SF Signal SF Site SFF World’s Book Reviews Silver Reviews Simply Vamptastic Slice of SciFi Smart Bitches, Trashy Books Solar Flare Speculative Fiction Speculative Fiction Junkie Speculative Horizons The Specusphere Spinebreakers Spiral Galaxy Reviews Spontaneous Derivation Sporadic Book Reviews Stainless Steel Droppings Starting Fresh Stella Matutina Stuff as Dreams are Made on… The Sudden Curve The Sword Review T Tangent Online Tehani Wessely Temple Library Reviews Tez Says things mean a lot Tor.com [also a publisher] True Science Fiction U Ubiquitous Absence Un:Bound undeadbydawn Urban Fantasy Land V Vast and Cool and Unsympathetic Variety SF Veritas Omnia Vincula W Walker of Worlds Wands and Worlds Wanderings Wendy Palmer: Reading and Writing Genre Books and ebooks The Weirdside The Wertzone With Intent to Commit Horror The Wizard of Duke Street WJ Fantasy Reviews The Word Nest Wordsville The World in a Satin Bag WriteBlack The Written World X Y Young Adult Science Fiction Z Romanian Cititor SF [with English Translation] French Elbakin.net Mythologica Chinese Foundation of Krantas The SF Commonwealth Office in Taiwan [with some English essays] Yenchin’s Lair Danish Interstellar Ommadawn.dk Scifisiden Portuguese Aguarras Fernando Trevisan Human 2.0 Life and Times of a Talkative Bookworm Ponto De Convergencia pós-estranho Skavis German Fantasy Seiten Fantasy Buch Fantasy/SciFi Blog Literaturschock Welt der fantasy Bibliotheka Phantastika SF Basar Phantastick News X-zine Buchwum Phantastick Couch Wetterspitze Fantasy News Fantasy Faszination Fantasy Guide Zwergen Reich Fiction Fantasy A B C D E