An Optimistic Future

Over on his blog literary agent Nathan Brasnford has instituted a week of optimism. Recently, he penned a non-apocalyptic vision of the book industry. Thank you! Thank you! Not for wondering about the potential for a non-threatening future, but for stating simply and logically that there are advantages to technology and that while we may move away from paper we will never fully leave it behind. Basically, thank you for not jumping on the doomsday wagon.

The short story's already supposed to be dead three times over, books relics, paper obsolete, cars flying and we all own domestic service robot s-- and the Roomba wasn't exactly what I was thinking of; all it can do is vacuum. Oh, and we were all supposed to have killed each other with nuclear technology when the Cold War went hot because few people could imagine the Cold War ending any other way.

So, nope. No flying cars -- hybrid cars, but none of them fly. No lack of paper or of books, or of people wanting to buy paper and write books. And the only robot in our lives is a giant cat toy.