Welcome to Option X!

You’ve just tripped and fallen onto a path I’ve taken to find option x. One of many available paths.

What is this “option x” I’m looking for? Hard to say! The future offers infinite possibilities, or options. We — I’m hoping you’ll join me — need to find the best one. Or at least try to. One might argue that it’s unlikely we’ll ever come up with an optimal solution. But perhaps finding the right answer, if “right” even exists, isn’t as fundamental as is the genuine attempt to do so.

The more people pitch in, the better. (Mind you: option, solution, possibility, and answer are terms I tend to use interchangeably.)

This publication, then, is a creative space for imagining possible future scenarios based on emerging technologies and advancements in science. Expect fictional, visually-guided scenarios.

Here’s one such scenario concerning drone applications.

Above: Similar to the no-dogs-allowed sign of our time, this is a sign public spaces might display in the near future. Service drones will, as a simple example, guide the blind.

Below: Personal drones, or PDs, could be both assistants and pets. A central character in my Sci-Fi manuscript is named Zip. It (stay tuned for more on genderless AIs in another post) is a PD whom my writers’ workshop classmate called a “flying puppy”. Might they adopt the name of, say, “drogs” or “druppies”?

A little about me, the literal metalhead below:

I have been researching drones, artificial general intelligence (AGI), [insert list of terms we’ve been haphazardly squirting into one another’s ears, such as the Internet of Things, the blockchain, big data, cryptocurrencies, biohacking, the human-computer interface, etc.] with increasing intensity as I progress through my Sci-Fi manuscript of the same name, Option X. The process has prompted me to create thought experiments and speculative scenarios in order to push current technologies into either plausible or rather outrageous manifestations. And everything in between.

Then it hit me: why keep these musings to myself? Why not create a community of thinkers to join in on all the fun I’ve been having? It could become a network of thoughts ranging from serious to comedic. Pessimistic to optimistic. Mundane to fantastical.

Are you ready? Buckle up!

P.S. Please visit optionxbook.com to join the mailing list for my Sci-Fi manuscript’s imminent release! This beast can’t wait to step into the light.