Cryptos, the blockchain game, and Atoma

​Can you recall as far back as the late 1980s? That time when we didn't have cell phones, let alone the Internet, and we hand wrote or typed letters and cards and we posted them to each other at a post box? Yes, I’m that old. Unbelievable isn't it? 

It wasn’t until the 1990’s that the Internet appeared, and in case you don’t remember or you weren't around, let me just say this, the Internet back then was nothing like it is today. It was by comparison with what we have now, um, kind of clunky. However, we were able to access all kinds of information we had never encountered before. Within a decade or so we could email each other and we could even buy stuff online. Wowee! Another decade later (hey, it's my blog and not an article for a journal) and we could connect to the Internet using smartphones linked to satellites, so we could do that virtually anywhere, from any location, and we could even find where we were on a google map. We could actually make a video phone call. 

All of this, people take for granted these days. But, imagine a world where all of this was little more than science fiction? Outside of an SF story it probably wasn't happening in our lifetime.

We’ve gone from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0. Or are we already using Web 4.0? Sure, these are marketing labels but for the sake of agreeing to call it something let’s use those terms for now.

It truly amazes me how we can create technology that changes our world, and that in so doing changes our behavior to the point we are driven to create new technology that changes our world, and, yes, well, you get the picture, so on and on it goes. The Internet has changed us. It has informed us, and like it or not it is used to control our behavior. So, it’s not all good news. There’s a dark side if you like. Social media can and is used to limit the subjects we discuss, and unfortunately, more directly it is used to misinform us. Okay, I’m talking propaganda here. You know the stories we are told that must be true or they wouldn’t be telling us, right? I just saw the pictures, so it's true. But that is total paranoia… of course.

Back in the 1990s, and even in the early years of the following decade it was common enough to hear how the Internet was a bubble that was going to eventually go pop - eventually. I am simplifying things, and yes there was a dot com crash, but the Internet kept going, and so did the technology associated with it. And, yes, it has changed us and our behavior. Sometimes those we think of as authority don’t like the way we change. But, I would say that particular genie has long escaped the bottle and it is way too late to mess about trying to get the damn cork back in.

We are about to experience the next iteration of Internet-based technology. It's already changing things. It's changing us.

Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, along with the blockchain technology they are based on are not well understood by the vast majority of us. It seems to me those who show the most interest in the area is the under-35s. Yet, this technology is changing the world in ways most of us could never imagine, even as I type. I should just title today’s blog ‘changing us’ but that would be way too repetitive. Yes, few of us know anything about this new technology, and yet it’s heading our way like a train coming down the tracks we are tied to. There are questions we should be asking, but we are not because we don’t know to ask them. These are the how, why, where, and the who kind of question. I mean, rather than the simple 'what is it?'  

I was thinking about all this and I thought, hey, I could write a book for those who stand at the forefront of the brave new world of Cryptos, Blockchain, Hashgraph, et al. That's all of us by the way, but yes, I am pointing at you with your eyes open. I thought, why not write a series exploring both the good and the bad of this new technology, including the brain exploding scenarios that only good SF could possibly do justice to? 

A series for teens and young adults (and we know a fair number of older readers enjoy YA books and the movies based on them) with a good dose of humor and romance, as well as action and adventure, mystery and suspense. Yeah, I'm talking the whole enchilada! A science fiction set in the near future. 

In case you haven’t guessed by now, that’s how I came up with my new series Atoma and the Blockchain Game. I really hope you enjoy the story as I publish it over the next year. At this stage, it's a five book series. It's been fun to write and the tale is not yet set in stone, although I have a fair idea where I'm going with it. 

Wild days ahead.