Thought of the day 10.6.12 David Brin

“When it comes to privacy and accountability, people always demand the former for themselves and the latter for everyone else.”
—David Brin

[Image courtesy: Scientific American.com]

Brin is a graduate of the California Institute of Technology where he majored in astrophysics. He earned a Masters in applied physics and Doctor of Philosophy in space science from the University of  California, San Diego.

He is a consultant for NASA and the writer of  hard science fiction.

Brin serves on advisory committees dealing with subjects as diverse as national defense and homeland security, astronomy and space exploration, SETI and nanotechnology, future/prediction and philanthropy. His non-fiction book — The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us to Choose Between Freedom and Privacy? — deals with secrecy in the modern world. It won the Freedom of Speech Prize from the American Library Association. [The Worlds of David Brin]

Some of Brin’s book covers. [Image courtesy: The worlds of David Brin]

Brin won two Hugo Awards for his Uplift series. The “Uplift Universe explores a future when humans genetically engineer higher animals like dolphins to become equal members of our civilization.” [The Worlds of David Brin] The books in the series are: Sundiver, Startide Rising (which won the Hugo, Locus and Nebula awards,) The Uplift War (which won the Hugo  and Locus awards) and The Uplift Trilogy: Brightness Reef, Infinity’s Shore and Heaven’s Reach.

Other books he’s written include:

• The Postman (which won  a Campbell and Locus Award and — after some major reworking– was made into a movie starring Kevin Costner.)
• Earth (which ” foreshadowed global warming, cyberwarfare and near-future trends such as the World Wide Web” [The Worlds of David Brin])
• Kiln People (“a fast-moving and fun noir detective story, set in a future when new technology enables people to physically be in more than two places at once.”[The Worlds of David Brin])
• Foundation’s Triumph (a book that “brings a grand finale to (Isaac) Asimov’s famed Foundation Universe.”  [The Worlds of David Brin]
• Sky Horizon (Winner of the Hal Clement Award for Best Sci Fi for young readers.)
• Existence (“Existence – is set forty years ahead, in a near future when human survival seems to teeter along not just on one tightrope, but dozens, with as many hopeful trends and breakthroughs as dangers… a world we already see ahead.” [Amazon.com]

He has a trio of Graphic Novels on the shelf: Forgiveness (A Star Trek the Next Generation graphic novel), The Life Eaters (a graphic novel that loooks at what the world would be like if WWII had ended differently) and Tinkerers.

On the nonfiction front Brin has written : The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us to Choose Between Privacy and Freecom?  (Won the Freedom of Speech Award) and Star Wars on Trail: Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Debat the Most Popular Science Fiction Films of All Time.

[Image courtesy: The Worlds of David Brin]