Lobster Books is linking me up with a few authors to do some cross-pollination. Kicking it off, here is an interview with John Briggs a 33 year old author who hails from Canada:
Science fiction authors necessarily spend a lot of time thinking about what might happen. A few standard tropes tend to make their way into the public mindset as well. Of the following more common tropes, which do you think will chronologically come first, and why? Tropes: first contact with aliens, instant (ansible) communication across unlimited distances, teleportation, deep space travel with humans in stasis, colonizing other planets.
Given our progress in technological development, I’d have to say that colonization would come first, followed by deep travel with humans in stasis. These are the most plausible and the least complicated or resource intensive. Teleportation may come next, though I don’t enjoy the idea of being torn apart at the molecular level and reassembled (or having a transporter accident). We’ve made some progress with transporting light but the power costs and the tech to reassemble someone across large distances will be a major hurdle. First Contact will come before instant communication: it’s more likely we’ll attract the attention of another species before we manage to send an instant text across thousands of light years. Though, FC seems unlikely at this rate.
When huge changes in technology occur, they are always accompanied by massive shifts in social aspects of humanity as well. What kind of social impact do you think will happen alongside the next major technological discovery?
Well, let’s hope we fix the current societal issues before we create new ones! On a more serious note, I suspect that the next new societal issue will be shifting our dependence on fossil fuels to cold fusion plants. The cost of which could be rather high until it becomes more efficient, and the energy industry will be thrown for a loop to be sure.
Many sci-fi books and movies rely on a unified Earth government in the face of an alien threat. Do you think something like is possible? Are humans capable of coming together to face an external threat or will our inability to get along en masse be our undoing?
If they value their survival, they will. Though, if we have a more insidious foe, we may see nations defecting to their side in exchange for alien technology. That’s happened way too many times on my Xcom runs.
A unified Earth government though? Not as a singular entity. Mega organizations haven’t really worked out in our history, and all it takes is one bad idea from that government to either screw things up royally or trigger a rebellion. Not something we can afford during an alien invasion. A council of nations is more appropriate.
What kind of futuristic technology that’s currently being researched fascinates you the most? (Thinking of mentally controlled prosthetics, quantum entanglement, private space flight / tourism, brain augmentation, etc.)
Transhumanism is one subject that fascinates me. Imagine being able to replace defective limbs or organs, or to be able to walk again after a spinal injury. We still need to fix the neural delay and allow subjects to control their limbs without so much exertion on their part.
Finally, where can we find more about your work?
I’ve written a military science fiction novel called “Instruments of War”, currently in its second edition. You can find it here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07W95JNL1 .
I can also be found on twitter @JohnBriggs2018, and on Facebook @JohnBriggs2018.
The sequel is also in the works. Hopefully school won’t interfere too much, and if everything pans out, I should have a first draft done by spring of next year. Keep an eye out!
Awesome! Thanks for doing this interview!