With every ticking second, a machine has come one step closer to taking your job. With each sweep of the minute hand, a computer algorithm successfully completes a new task for the first time. Each hour, new robots of such complexity come online, formerly only the imaginings of science fiction. Each day, mankind inches closer to quantum computing. Month by month, year by year, we are working diligently, tirelessly, to design and build that which will replace us.

This isn’t some pie in the sky, someday maybe, pipe dream. The ultimate rendition of computational prowess, artificial intelligence, does not have to even factor in to the progress that is being made in everyday software. This is the software being adopted by financial institutions, by medical facilities, by defense contractors, by governments. These advances are becoming more prevalent, and they’re moving into places that were once though safe from the intrusions of technology.

Yes, we can buy a robot to replace John who welds mufflers. Why wouldn’t we? But how about a piece of code to replace Malcolm, a middle manager with corporate aspirations? Why don’t we remove him and put in in place something that isn’t even physically real. There’s a reason why the BBC, Forbes, and the Harvard Business Review have all run articles on this topic. The code is coming, and it’s going to change how we do business on a day to day basis. As the technology creeps upwards, more and more workers will have to adapt or die.

These articles, however, are limited in scope, offering suggestions on how to cope with this shift in the workplace and how to remain relevant. But here’s the thing about technology: we have made it relentless. We have created something unstoppable. We have decided, much as we did during the gold rush, during Manifest Destiny, during the Roaring ‘20s, during the Dotcom Boom, that growth for the sake of growth is something to be pursued, to be worshiped. We are designing and building our own obsolescence.

The cold, hard truth is that technology is a type of Pandora’s Box. What is interesting, though, is that despite the speed at which it moves, we seem to accept it more readily. Rather than forming a greater resistance as the pace of change increases, we seem to accept our fate, or else simply ignore it. It’s probably safe to surmise that the scale on which these changes are happening is beyond what people are willing and able to process in their everyday lives, and so it goes on unnoticed. An SVP has an idea for a new piece of trading software, engineers are put to the task, and the next thing you know that SVP is wondering when the computers took his decision making away from him, along with his job. We seem incapable to trace the links back to the source.

Without sounding too depressing, I would even put forward that we may have reached a state of permanent technoshock, one so deep seated and omnipresent that we have no choice but to put our heads down and ignore it. For the number of people I’ve seen go on medical leave for stress, I would say the anxiety of technological advancement is simply outpacing the ability of their brains to keep pace. In the future we may not have to work anymore because of robotics, hardware, and software. In that same future, we may find ourselves wishing we were allowed to work.


A.C. Harrison is the author of "Jupiter Symphony" and promised to have this article up last Wednesday, but he’s a liar and/or a piece of software designed to mimic a human.
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Hello all.

As you may have noticed, I did not make a blog post this Sunday. As it happens, I've managed to treat my hands rather poorly while remodeling my house, resulting in several cuts and burns that make typing a bit of a chore. I am also going to be out of town this upcoming weekend, returning Monday.


Therefore, I am declaring this week my summer vacation. KIT, BFFs!


Normal programming (heh, like code, get it?) resumes next Wednesday, June 24th. If you need something to read while you wait, there's a novel I can recommend.




A.C. Harrison is the author of "Jupiter Symphony" and managed to pour ABS primer in an open wound recently. It burned. A lot.
Like what you see here? Spread the word and support indie authors! Follow me on Facebook or Twitter. Find me on Smashwords and Kindlemojo.

Confession: I wore glasses in grade school and I absolutely hated them. I switched to contact lenses as soon as I could, and kept the frames for only those times right after I wake up and just before bed. If the technology that exists now had been around back when I was rocking spectacles, though, I would be hard pressed to give them up. What we’re talking about is augmented reality, it’s development, and the impact it can have on our future. I won’t sugar coat it: AR is bad ass.

Let’s just get the easy part out of the way and answer the basic question: what is augmented reality? In layman’s terms, augmented reality is viewing the real world with an extra virtual layer that adds extra information to the benefit of the user. A more archaic example would be a HUD on an aircraft, but that isn’t exactly a wearable device you can take to dinner. In reality, we’re looking for data displays that can be worn inconspicuously, or at least comfortably, and that can deliver large quantities of information to the user. That information may or may not be customizable, and the augmented reality unit itself can come in various form factors. In modern media, there are two big examples of augmented reality that we can look at to further explain.

The most known and famous is likely Google Glass, which is simply a glasses frame fitted with an optical head-mounted display, or OHMD. Using voice commands, the device can perform many of the functions users typically do on their smartphone, but without the need to take a device out of one’s pocket or look away from a task at hand. A touchpad supplements the voice command software, and a camera is also integrated for shooting of photos and videos.

Now while Glass is a thrilling piece of tech, it is still just a baby step into the world of augmented reality. The software is limited, the price is high, and the competition is nil. In short, it’s a fun toy, but doesn’t serve much purpose beyond that. It is, though, a necessary stepping stone.

Another piece of kit that people may not consider to be augmented reality is Oculus Rift, the much hyped gaming accessory that looks ready to make us swivel our heads about in dark rooms instead of using computer monitors. However, with the simple fitment of a camera, Oculus is transformed into a stereoscopic augmented reality display that can function from ways mundane to extreme. Because the focus is on the hardware, developer kits allow programmers to create software that is much more in depth and robust. Known applications include virtual tourism, education, modeling, mechanics, therapy, and medicine. A surgeon using Oculus Rift or a similar unit could have all your vitals on display at all times while simultaneously viewing your body with overlayed MRIs, all before even he starts cutting.

But what if we don’t want a large unit strapped to our heads, or can’t do so because of spatial or physical limitations? Well, science and science fiction have the answer in LED display contact lenses. The excellent io9.com has a very excellent write up on the technical details, but the basics can be summed up as follows: an integrated circuit is embedded into a lens that also includes an LED and an antenna. The antenna receives RF transmissions which control the tiny LED that functions as a single pixel.

Now, as opposed to Oculus rift, a single pixel can only display a binary data set, but it is only the beginning of wearable bionics. Upgrades would include a focusing lens (because staring at a single pixel directly in front of your eyeball can’t be healthy), as well as a multi-LED display. What you would end up with is a perfect meshing of the real world and augmentation software, displaying everything from traffic warnings to impending weather, from FLIR images to see at night to your Twitter feed. Or you could use any combination of the above so you can drive through a storm at night while tweeting. I can just picture the police report now.

What we have, then, is a very useful technology that is still in its infancy. Like the internet in the late ‘90s, we’re not quite sure how things will shape up yet, how we’ll accept these devices in terms of privacy, and exactly what we’re supposed to do with them. What we do know is that the technology will likely take several different routes based around user needs, and that our advancement should accelerate as prices come down and the equipment becomes more prolific. As we love to say in cyberpunk, the street finds a way. New things are coming, and they’ll be coming from new places. That should hold us over until we jump to bionic eyes, anyway.

A.C. Harrison is the author of "Jupiter Symphony" and may or may not want to put his brain in a robot body.
Like what you see here? Spread the word and support indie authors! Follow me on Facebook or Twitter. Find me on Smashwords and Kindlemojo.

As a shift from standard blog postings, I want to introduce a fun though experiment I’ve been playing with recently, one which has managed to keep my sane at work for most of last week. The game goes like this: if you received a phone call right now telling you that your novel had been optioned for a feature length Hollywood production, what song would play over the trailer? This started as a bit of fun pipe dreaming, but I came to realize that knowing what music matches your text is important in understanding the mood and message of your story. Also: who doesn’t like to dream about their names rolling in the credits to a blockbuster hit?

So what began as just toying with flashing images in my head derailed into full-fledged storyboarding, to the point that a book trailer could indeed be in the works, one that would really capture the essence of “Jupiter Symphony,” summing up the themes without words, but with strong visual imagery. The dark future, the corporate control, the government indifference, the struggle for the common man to survive, the death of the middle class, rising up, taking the power back. Even just the basic, Neolithic instincts that come with trying to stay alive in 2120. Eat. Sleep. Run. Hide. Kill.

Eventually I realized that the song which would make for a most epic movie trailer to “Jupiter Symphony” is the Rage Against the Machine rendition of “The Ghost of Tom Joad.” Funny enough, I never really liked “The Grapes of Wrath” or John Steinbeck, but the song itself, especially the RATM version, captures the frustration, the despair, and ultimately the anger and lashing out that comes with a society which is being trampled by the boot heel of those of power. It’s everything that was promised and then betrayed, the rage collective rage we all seem to feel more and more in today’s society. See for yourself, but be WARNED that this video contains some graphic and violent images:

Of course, I couldn’t help myself and therefore refused to stop at just one novel. Even though the book is still gestating while I edit “Unto Persephone,” I have an image in my head of the ending to “The Long Night” that I just can’t shake off. Instead of letting this thought drive me (more) insane, though, I suddenly hit on a track that would make for a beautiful and artful ending to any movie adaptation of the book, rolling right into the credits. So now I still have the same image stuck in my head, only it’s set to “Words on Signs” by Archive. If the book turns out to hold any bit of the gravitas and eloquence of the scenes I can picture behind closed eyes, then good things are coming.

Interestingly enough, no track has come to mind when thinking of my second book, “Unto Persephone,” but I’ll chalk that up to the fact that I’m currently editing that manuscript and thus believe it to be the devil. I’m sure something will come to me when I can be excited about my book again and am not restructuring a sentence for the fifth time.

That said, excitement is exactly what this is about. We should be proud of our work and happy to share it. If you have a book you love to read, I’m sure you have a musical pairing that complements. Authors, I know you’ve thought about that phone ringing and a movie producer being on the other side. This is all about having some fun and indulging, of trying to distill a piece of literature that (for me) is 150,000+ words down into a pure essence of punctuated thought and emotion. So if you have a book/song pairing, or if you would like to send me all the money to have my Hollywood quality trailer made for “Jupiter Symphony,” then drop a line in the comments or reply on Twitter. I’d love to hear what great mash-ups result.


A.C. Harrison
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            “As if intergalactic robotic invaders had crash landed on Earth, the six suits of power armor were nightmares to behold in the dark storm. Bolts of lightning allowed quick glimpses of their forms--though humanoid in the sense of having two arms and two legs, their proportions were distorted, with joints out of place and various bulges and protrusions erupting from the bodies at strange angles. Oversized feet gave way to sturdy legs, atop which a bulky torso sat, a variety of sensors, systems, and ammunition storage magazines giving the torso a blocky, modular appearance. The arms varied from model to model, with different roles requiring different weapons, many of which were built directly into the forearms or shoulders. The head was almost comically small, given the power lifter’s body below it, but the various faceplates and visors, studded with sensors to collect data from all across the electromagnetic spectrum, were menacing and unearthly. On the backs of the suits were the armored power packs that allowed the pilots to operate without extension cords. The entire package was wrapped up in intricate layers of overlapping armor plates of a mottled gray coloration, the composition of which was highly classified and extremely effective. Any pilot lucky enough to qualify PA was effectively a walking tank, able to shrug off small arms fire, deliver a withering offensive volley, run at vehicular speeds, and fight hand to hand against a polar bear legion and win without breaking a sweat.”

So goes the early chapter of “Unto Persephone,” my second novel which exclusively follows a power armor pilot as he becomes mired in conspiracy and his own personal downfall.

Whether you call it power armor, powered armor, or a powered exoskeleton, the trope has been present in science fiction since at least the late ‘40s in E. E. Smith’s “Lensman” series, but “Starship Troopers” by Robert A. Heinlein truly gave rise to the concept of military power armor. “Starship Troopers” is an amazing read, and I make no bones about owing a great debt to Heinlein and his genius. Without it, we wouldn’t have modern favorites such as the power armor featured in the Fallout video games, the Space Marines and Tau of Warhammer 40,000, and, of course, the MJOLNIR armor worn by Spartan soldiers in the Halo video game franchise.

Though you can read about power armor in my first novel, “Jupiter Symphony,” the armor is a plot device, a sort of Terminator that threatens the protagonists at the worst possible time. I was, however, taken by the character and the concept, and so when I wrote “Unto Persephone” I decided to make the story revolve around a team of power armor pilots and their exploits, placing them in wild but realistic situations, crafting a squad of men that would are akin to giving Navy SEALs their own tactical nuclear warheads. But just how far off from reality is the power armor featured in books like “Unto Persephone” and “Starship Troopers”?

It’s no secret that various branches of the military, including DARPA, are developing powered exoskeletons for use in the armed forces. The benefits are obvious: increased speed, strength, and accuracy. Decreased fatigue and mortality. Each soldier becomes a squad unto himself. The negative? There is no power supply robust or deep enough to keep such a unit functioning for any realistic period of time. So you can have your super soldiers, but they come with extension cords. On bases and ships this may actually be feasible, with “loader” suits allowing soldiers and sailors to move heavy equipment and munitions without risking personal injury and greatly speeding up physically demanding tasks. Fire and emergency rescue could also benefit, potentially in the civilian world. Suits of power armor hooked up to the diesel engine of a fire truck could allow firefighters to brave otherwise impossible blazes and simply clear debris with their mechanical arms or else using the tools embedded in the limbs of their suits.

But how to cure that pesky power supply problem? In my own novel the suits rely on a hybrid system of advanced batteries with backup generators that kick in only during extended operations. Running around with a nuclear backpack is not necessarily ideal for battlefield conditions, though, so speed, stealth, and planning are essential elements to the survival of any power armor squad.

In more advanced suits of armor, the advances I’ve covered in bionics/cybernetics would most certainly be applicable. Take, for example, the Japanese developed Hybrid Assistive Limb suit. Though designed for utility rather than combat, the unit boasts an amazing feature: signals sent from the brain are read by the skeleton’s onboard computer and then relayed to the limbs faster than the human nervous system can react, making the suit actually faster than the wearer.

Such technology, coupled with a reliable power supply, augmented reality, and possibly an onboard AI, and you’ve got all the ingredients for the Mark IV Hades armor that turns up to raise hell in “Unto Persephone.” And if that soldier inside becomes too valuable (or too troublesome) we could always just lean on that AI to send a highly advanced killer robot into a battlespace. I’d say this last part is farfetched, but the CIA did just recently name one of their internal systems “SkyNet,” so there’s that.

The basic truth behind all this is that power armor is an emerging technology, one that is a cumulative effort between different fields. If we develop a power supply that is small and robust enough to be mounted to armor, then there’s no question we will see soldiers operating in theater with powered exoskeletons, effortlessly lugging .50 BMG rifles over mountains without even breaking a sweat. As for those of you hoping that giant robots would come into play here, I have a sad truth to reveal: the physics just don’t allow for it to happen. Giant robots are a huge fetish for me as well, but because volume increases at a cubed rate to area, you just end up with a massively heavy pile of parts that won’t be fighting anywhere.


A.C. Harrison
Like what you see here? Spread the word and support indie authors! Follow me on Facebook or Twitter. Find me on Smashwords and Kindlemojo.