Unabashed

As I’m thinking about the direction of this site (in the past tense, not in the future), it looks like I’ve spent a whole lot more time discussing green power and the environment than I have my writing. Since the site is called “mattmitchellfiction.com,” that lines me up for a misnomer award. But I’m not fretting; if there’s one thing I make clear on the about page, it’s that I’m liable to discuss anything at all here, and I feel like I’ve kept my promise on that end. Besides, there hasn’t been much to talk about on the writing front anyway. I’ve collected a half dozen rejections this year for various stories, all which were submitted to SFFWA markets. And I’m not particularly down about it, because I’ve got my hand stirring other pots right now, including the one Super Sekrit Projeckt that I might as well go ahead and tell you about, because though it might not be a revolutionary idea, it is a remodeling of things that are, to better fit in line with where I think things want to go. To explain further….

Social networking is what it is, and a lot of people mess around with it. But MySpace and Facebook and the like have just grown to such gargantuan size, and friending has grown so rampant, that it’s become cumbersome to use them. Not to mention the fact that if you’re a guy of a certain age and you use it a lot you’ll get the perv stamp applied to your forehead. Some people are forecasting that social networks are going to shrink down in size and become modeled more for specific groups of like-minded people. When I first started reading about that, it made me kind of excited, because that’s exactly what I’ve had planned for some time now. And I’m not talking about making a little ning carbon-copy-type network, I’m talking about a full-blown SN site with all the bells and whistles and a few tambourines and jingle jangles that aren’t being done at all right now. Something to send social networking into a different direction.

As you can probably guess, since I spend so much time ruminating about the state of the environment, being eco-friendly, green energy and just the outdoors in general, you might ascertain what the general mindset of folks who might use my SN will be tempered like. But it’s much bigger than that. To what extent, I can’t really say yet. Like I said, it might not be revolutionary (I think it is), but it is at least a remodeling of the way SN is done. It’s something that I’d like to get a lot of attention. It’s something that I feel will potentially be a positive source of forward-thinking for the world, for society and civilization as a whole. Yes, I’m thinking big, but I’m a big thinker…so.

The site will go live on or near September 8th, 2008. Me being a big fan of 8s, you might remember, and this being my year, this is a day that may live in glory. It would have been great to go live on 8-8-08, but my network people assure me that’s a practical impossibility. But still, 8-8-08 will be a day of importance, because that’s the day I hope to begin recruiting a group of beta testers (I’m going to call them “trailblazers”), who will receive a free lifetime membership in what I hope will become a very large and successful social networking site. So: the beans have been spilled (at least to the extent at which my business partner has allowed me to spill them), and the project is now out of the closet (er, so to speak), unveiled right here on Unabashed. I’m frankly tickled about it, and I hope some of you will be, too. If you’d like to be a trailblazer for [Re]Evolver, just let me know in the comments of this post or in email (mattmitchell8 at gmail dot com). There are going to be a limited number of slots available (to the tune of around a hundred), so it’ll be best to get your name in quick.

Want more specifics? Fine. Here’s what I can tell you now:

The site has a home already at reevolver.com. There’s a splash page up that I made myself, so don’t expect the end result to look even remotely similar. I’ve contracted a pro to build the site (a pro, who I might add, likes the idea so much he’s asked for a partnership).

[Re]Evolver is just how I wrote the name when I first thought of it (Imagine my surprise to find that the .com, .org and .net URLs were all available!), but it looks like the official logo will be similar to that in form, at least.

And what is Re-evolver, exactly? Re-evolver is a term for the human tribe. It is based upon the principle that we’ve evolved into a separate entity from the environment, and that it is now time to re-evolve into a more beneficially symbiotic organism that can work with Earth’s ecosystem rather than against it. But it’s not preachy, dogmatic or unrealistic, it’s (what I hope will be) a fun approach to educating people on eco-friendly principles, promoting sustainability and a back-to-basics, back-to-Earth mentality.

There will be activities.

There! I’ve said too much. Let me know what you think.

Oh, and if you’re wondering about the future of Unabashed, never fret. This is my personal blog and it’s going to stay right here for the foreseeable future. And besides, ReEvolver might not be a book getting published, but it’s because of my writing that it exists at all; that little habit I have of jotting down ideas finally resulted in a project with momentum. And by the time I’m through with it, I think it will be the size of a book. Anyway…

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: Future, networking, re-evolver, reevolver, social

I am really loving io9. If you don’t read it, get on over there because they are consistently putting out great content. Today, for instance, they’ve posted a little space porn, some comics industry opinion, and this bit of writing advice, on “how to bring the weird” in your near-future SciFi stories. This is another one of those posts I want to print and paste to the wall by my desk, one of those I wish I’d written. Apologies for posting this word for word, but it is really all excellent and I want it filed away in my little internet brain for future reference:

Extrapolate from current trends…

Certain things happening now will probably carry on, and even accelerate, over the next two decades. The icecaps will keep melting, natural disasters will probably come more often, and droughts may affect more regions. Rich countries will become fortresses of the elderly, with fewer young people who aren’t immigrants. Corporations will probably keep becoming more powerful and diversified, unless the next economic meltdown actually weakens their power somehow. There will be less oil, and more fighting over oil. Food prices will keep going up for third-world countries. China and India will be economically resurgent, unless they fuck up. Some forms of social deviance will be marginally more accepted, within wealthy societies at least.

…but don’t be their bitch.

Don’t assume that every current trend will continue in a straight line — it’s never worked that way in the past, and it’s unlikely to start now. New technologies will help stem some of the negative trends we’re dealing with right now. And unimaginable disasters will spark new cycles of misery that will sweep us all down. Nobody in 1988 could have predicted 9/11 or the girl who hanged herself because her MySpace friends turned out to be mean grownups. (How would you even explain the “MySpace hoax” to someone in 1988?)

The technologies of tomorrow already exist.

Nanotechnology is already turning up in socks and medical devices, and everyone’s predicting it’ll replace basic circuitry and lead to miracle cures within a few years. People are already chuffed about home robotics, and robots are already helping us fight our wars. There’s a lot of talk about amazing replacement limbs that will use nanotech, and even be able to interpret signals from your brain. And there’s a lot of reason to be optimistic about gene therapy.

Don’t just pick one technology to update.

One of my pet peeves is the near-ish future story where everything’s more or less the same, except that there’s one miraculous new technology that is transforming the world. It’s way more likely that there’ll be half a dozen semi-miraculous technologies that will be nudging the world in different directions. (And we can’t discount the possibility that things will go to shit so badly that none of those amazing new technologies will come to fruition.)

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: Fiction, Future, sci-fi, scifi, writing

I’ve been ruminating on a short essay I wrote in January, 1998. At the time I was beginning work on my second novel (the first one I would complete, but it is sadly unreadable) and had just completed work on my first website. I have had an Internet presence ever since, in various degrees. I’ve never had a particularly popular website, but then I haven’t worked at it very hard, either. It’s just something I’ve done because I enjoy the design and the creation, much like I enjoy writing. Anyway, the State of the Web Address was one of the first journal entries I posted, and I wrote it in raw HTML (at the time we called them journals, not blogs). The writing is very stiff and not very good (my skill in this area has gained considerably, even though I still have a long way to go before I might be considered “literary”) but it’s interesting to look now, ten years later, at what I thought then, when the Internet was really just starting out. So I’ll post it, and hope you enjoy it, realizing it was written by me, sitting in a dark room in deep winter in my home at the time which was out in a deep forest, long before I had very much skill or craft at writing.

The State of the Web Address

I once had the opportunity and honor to see a fledgling bald eagle testing out its wings. It had been in the nest for some while and was coming of age to fly. The young bird would spread its wings wide and leap into the air, wildly flapping in an attempt to stay aloft. Within a few hours of constant jumping and flapping, the eagle finally decided to take the big step and, under close scrutiny by its mother, leapt off the edge of the nest and began tumultuously flapping its wings. It paid off, for after a brief moment of shear terror (by human standards), the eaglet caught an updraft and launched itself up to the top of a neighboring tree, followed by another scare when it couldn’t seem to find a suitable perch atop the tree and fell down a few limbs before finding a grip. Of course, occurrences like this aren’t unordinary in the wild, and with a little practice, the young eagle is sure to be soaring with the great aerial skill for which eagles are renowned.

The state of the Web right now sometimes reminds me of that eaglet. The Web is young, and has a body that it must grow into, just as do all youths. But the body of the Web is massive, and growing still, and it will take a very long time for it to grow into its body. Right now, the web is being filled with so much information that it may have trouble at times keeping up, and making matters worse, a lot of the information is of a sort that need not be published in any medium. Yet still, the cup fills. Soon enough, there will be billions of users of the web, and the web will likely play a role in transforming all forms of communication, from radio to TV to newspapers, and could possibly consume all other forms of communication. The fact is, the web is an entity of the like this world has never seen, and when it is all said and done, will be the number one media medium in the world. It all contributes to our own evolution. The dark, gothic future that has been predicted by so many films and books will never come to pass. The web will not allow it. I’m not saying the sun will shine brighter because of it, nor am I claiming that the future will not hold corruption or infirmary; I am simply stating that the Web will become the unifying force of the world at large. Governments and despots have tried to conquer the world many times before, but they have always failed because ultimately the people would not allow it. I believe the people of Earth will allow the Web to unify them. Peace might be achieved through the Web, and that’s something that no man, woman, child, government or army has ever been able to do.
The regulations that the government is being influenced to impose on the Internet will not pass, for when the web grows into its own, it will need no guidance. It will take care of itself and its citizens, the unified citizenry of the world.

Perhaps in years to come we will look back on this tumultuous time with reverence and awe, perhaps we will see the now as a dark and gothic age. If we will allow it, and I think we will, the web will end hate, greed, and hunger. It will find its wings and fly, and we will fly with it, in a way that we never have before.

8Jan1998
Matt Mitchell

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: Future, Internet, web