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Tag Archives: future

Books are Dead – Long Live Stories

15 Wednesday Mar 2017

Posted by Jay Magidson in books, fiction, Science Fiction, Threshold of the Mind, Virtual Reality

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audiobooks, creativity, future, libraries, Sci Fi, Virtual Reality

Long_Room_Interior,_Trinity_College_Dublin,_Ireland_-_Diliff

I love books.  I have hundreds in my library, have read hundreds more.  I get a warm comfortable feeling when I go to a bookstore or public library.  But I also know that the end is near for books.  I’m not sad or nostalgic about any of it.  Things change.

Tens of thousands of years ago, long before speech, man told each other stories through pantomime and play acting.  They acted out their hunting adventures or mishaps, probably laughed when Grog hit his head on a rock.  You can feel the truth in this, have this genetic memory as I do.

tapestry_design_apollo_in_his_chariot_led_by_aurora

Thousands of years after that, our brains developed speech and the stories got more sophisticated, more detailed.  They were passed around, embellished, exaggerated until they became myths and legends.  Really exaggerated, like Atlas holding the world on his shoulders and Apollo pulling the sun across the sky.

Mankind lived on the earth for hundreds of thousands of years telling stories without books.  Then some clever fellow in Mesopotamia scratched symbols in the dirt and invented writing.  Someone else smeared these symbols onto parchment (no fun for the lamb by the way) and presto we have scrolls, and if they are long enough, are really just rolled up books.

parchment

Thousands of years after that, Gutenberg figured out a way to make multiple copies of the bible and by the 20th Century, we’re neck deep in books.  Millions and millions of them.  Even Hitler couldn’t burn enough to make a dent in the growing pile.

But if you look at the bigger picture, the history of humankind at approximately 500,000 years, books are still pretty new.  Writing is barely 5,000 years old, printed books only about 600 and the novel as we know it, less than 300.  And sad, though it may appear, books are going to disappear, are already disappearing, or more accurately, evolving.

Do you have children?  If not, have you ever seen one?  They love video.  In my day it was TV, “Gilligan’s island, Lost in Space.”  Horrible stuff.  Now it’s six second vines.  Amazing really, that you can tell a story in only six seconds.  YouTube, Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, Vimeo, Facebook, video is king.  We love them, devour them like chocolate on Easter.  They’re stories.

shutterstock_146935070

Oh I know the argument, video and movies do the imagining for us.  Books make us create the pictures in our own head.  “The movie was pretty good, but the book was great.”  But someone had to create those stories, imagine them and how to present them.  Grog didn’t worry about that when he acted out a good hunt in front of the fire half a million years ago.  Plays are high art and movies are not?  Nonsense.  It’s all just human beings telling stories to each other.  And that’s what matters.

shutterstock_30799201

Not long from now, we’ll agonize over the displacement of video and movies too.  We’ll watch and interact with Virtual Reality or maybe someday images will be beamed directly into our minds.  We can’t live without stories.  Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase, “The medium is the message.”  I think it misses the point.  We are not that different from Grog in front of the fire, maybe no different at all.  I think we’re all just kids begging dad to tell us a goodnight story and don’t really care how it gets into our heads.

Threshold of the Mind by Jay Magidson

Threshold of the Mind by Jay Magidson a novel about  mankind addicted to Virtual Reality in the near future.

Available on Amazon.com in print, kindle and audiobook.  Buy it today!

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New Video and Book Updates

19 Saturday Oct 2013

Posted by Jay Magidson in books, ebook, fiction, new release, Threshold of the Mind

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distopia, future, genetic engineering, New Books, Sci Fi, Science Fiction, Strange Video

I made this brief video promo of Threshold of the Mind.  I think you will enjoy it: Video of Threshold of the Mind.

New Name – Same Great Story

Threshold-FrontCoverOK, that brings up something very important.  I changed the name of my book from In the Image of God to Threshold of the Mind.  It is the same in every other way, just a new title.  I debated long and hard about this.  It is not a small thing to change the name of your book.  It is like changing your own name.  Unfortunately, the old name was getting associated with religious books.  Of course, it is not about religion in any way.  So I changed it to Threshold of the Mind.  But it is not just changing the title, the book had to be republished in every form: that means in print, kindle, ebooks, new ISBN number, everything.  It took a few months, but the process is complete.  So I made a video to celebrate the new title, because I think it is awesome, just right, Sci-Fi, hi-tech, genetic engineering.

So, if you have a book with the old name, hang on to it, it will be a collectors item.  But you should also buy a new one, so you can be cool and up to date.

Here’s where you can get it:

On Amazon
On Smashwords (ebook/pdf/etc)

On iTunes: do a search for “Threshold of the Mind” + “Magidson”
On Barnes & Noble

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My New Book – In the Image of God – is now Available!

14 Thursday Feb 2013

Posted by Jay Magidson in books, fiction, In the Image of God

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Colorado Author, distopia, future, genetic engineering, genetic manipulation, jay magidson, New Books, Science Fiction

In the Image of God is now available on Amazon in print and kindle versions.  This was a long ride.  I began writing the book about 14 years ago.  It has gone through many edits and changes.  Here it is, released to the world.  Fly little birdie, fly.

In the Image of God by Jay Magidson, now available on Amazon

In the Image of God

I want to give a special thank you to my family for their support through the process – I love you.

Here is the description from the back of the book:

The year is 2080 and the world is crowded. To feed the nearly 17 billion, the earth has been divided into agriculture or city. There is no in between, no margin for error in this high-tech world. Farms are ultra-efficient enterprises using the latest engineered crops, enormous plants manipulated to grow in any season and produce fantastic yields. Cities are dense and overcrowded, stuffed with men and women working endless hours to pay for their needs. Their only relief is Virtual Reality – a synthetic world where any fantasy is possible – where a person can look like anyone, be anywhere. It is no wonder people spend every waking hour “jacked in” to this imaginary world.

Access to Virtual Reality is controlled by one company, owned by one man. Tatsuo Hamachi has accumulated vast wealth, but his desire for power is greater. Now, he has discovered a way to connect human minds directly, without the need of Virtual Reality headsets, where thoughts can flow as easily as electricity through a wire. When every human mind is connected – he stands to be leader of them all.

There are a few who have rejected technology for a simpler life. Their only desire is to be left in peace. When Alvar, their leader, becomes an unwilling guinea pig for Hamachi’s experiments, he must fight not only for his own mind, but those of the entire world.

Now go get one and read it!

Order the Print Version on Amazon Here

Order the Kindle Version on Amazon Here

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