"Future tech can only be predicted short-term-say, 10 or 15 years ahead," states .

Kress is the author of 25 books, including 16 science fiction or fantasy novels, two thrillers, four story collections and three books on writing. Her most recent books are Nano Comes to Clifford Falls and Other Stories and the present-day bio-thriller Dogs. Forthcoming is Steal Across the Sky, "an SF novel of galactic crime, genetic engineering and alien atonement." Kress has won every major award in science fiction, including four Nebulas given by the Science Fiction Writers of America.

Yes, Clarke got communication satellites right, Kress says "-but he missed computers in, say, the classic Childhood's End. When writers extrapolate from existing trends, that leaves out the wild card, which is where the most interesting tech often comes from-Alexander Fleming noticing a contaminant on lab bacteria, ."

Talking lobsters? Post-singularity hyper-tech? Inherited parallel world-hopping? Bank robberies in virtual reality? Who else could this be but ? In addition to dozens of articles for Computer Shopper and other computer publications on the subjects of Linux, and other topics, Stross has written dozens of stories and 16 science fiction novels to date, including Saturn's Children, Halting State and his Merchant Princes series.

" was right," states Stross. "That is to say, his point about the known unknowns and unknown unknowns nailed the problem of predicting the future spot-on. We can point to extrapolations of current technological and social trends, but we can't extrapolate on the basis of stuff that hasn't been discovered yet. For example: In 1962 it was possible, just about, to see the future of integrated circuitry (and even, if you were very far-sighted, to glimpse and its implications), but the CD player was right out of the picture- solid state lasers lay at least a decade in the future."