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BRENDA COOPER
The Washington Post
said
If we could Google a crystal ball and predict where our lives will be in
10, 20 or 100 years, what would it say? Take a glimpse with noted
futurists and Washington Post reporters.
About this series:
Beyond the Future is a weeklong series of live Web
chats with noted experts and Washington Post reporters examining the
kinds of technological advancements the world could see in 20, 50 or even
100 years. Related news on the subject can be found on the
Science and
Tech Frontier pages of washingtonpost.com.
The
chat began with
Brenda Cooper: Good morning from the west coast. As a science fiction
writer and a futurist, I know that neither writers or futurists are
terribly good predictors. After all, we still don't have rocket-packs or
aircars or large underwater cities. But every once in awhile we get
something right or can start a discussion that leads to future
innovations. I'm looking forward to this chat.
Rockville, Md.: What I really hate to read in a discussion is "That is
not real. It is science fiction." I came from an era of SF when writers
were like Heinlein and Clarke and knew science and fiction and wrote to
get us ready for a future. Not "THE" future, but ready for what was on
the way. Now we need good science fiction even more to explain our world
and our choices. But where is it in the mainstream? All I see are people
in rubber faces. Who wants to have a realistic go at global warming and
perhaps a character who says "Wait a minute. We are getting warmer. Is
that good or bad?"
How about spelling out energy choices and showing what it would be to
live with hydrogen as fuel? Lots to be done? Where is today's Heinlein or
Clarke or even Philip K. Dick?
Brenda
Cooper is the
CIO for the City of Kirkland, Washington.
She started her technology career in aerospace, at
Douglas Aircraft.
There, one of her projects was working on
knowledge engineering in the
very early days of artificial intelligence research. She has been in the
public sector for the last thirteen years, first at the
City of Longview
for seven years, and now at the
City of Kirkland for seven. Her
technology interests include
municipal connectivity deployments and
regional collaboration for service delivery.
She earned a B.A. in Business with an emphasis in
Management Information Systems
from
California State University at Fullerton.
Brenda writes articles for Glen Hiemstra's Futurist.com and is part of the
Futurist.com speaking team, delivering a wide range of talks from
keynote
addresses for conferences to small group facilitations about the future.
Key values at Futurist.com include a belief in the ability to create a
positive future.
A published science fiction writer, her short stories have appeared
in
Analog,
Oceans of the Mind,
Strange Horizons, and various
anthologies.
Brenda's collaborative fiction with Larry Niven has appeared in Analog
and Asimov's. She and Larry have a novel,
Building Harlequin's Moon about which Publisher's Weekly said
Fans of both hard and softer, psychological SF will welcome veteran Niven
and newcomer Cooper's well-written tale of a 60,000-year layover in
space, in which physical challenges of world building are matched by
social challenges of collaboration among disparate groups. After arriving
in an inhospitable solar system, the Earth Born, colonists on an
interstellar journey, need to refuel their ship, John Glenn, with
antimatter. Since they lack laborers, the Earth Born construct a moon
where they can build a particle collider and raise a work force, the Moon
Born. Destined to be abandoned, the Moon Born struggle to gain as much
knowledge and technology as they can before the Earth Born depart. Some
of the technology includes artificial intelligences, whose unrestricted
use caused the Earth Born to flee Earth in the first place. Niven and
Cooper provide complicated characters, particularly the AI, which
struggle with realistic moral dilemmas...
Her publications include
The War of the Flowers,
Free
Floaters,
The Trellis,
Ice and Mirrors,
Dawn of Sorrows,
Black Armbands,
A Lingering Scent of Bacon,
The Horses of the High Hills,
The Terror Bard,
Savant Songs,
Space Ship One:
One Small Step for Commercial Space,
California — the Golden State`s Choice is Good for
America,
Pro-life,
Ordinary Words,
Animals,
and
Tea Time.
Her first solo novel,
The Silver Ship and the Sea, is coming out from
Tor Books in
March 2007.
Read Brenda's
blog!
Print bio!
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