The Gaven

I’ve done an interview with Morgen Bailey. Although it covers The Gaven, there is a bit more about me and the other writings and blog that I write. Hopefully, you’ll find it interesting.

Techdirt has a story about Nevada pushing the idea of autonomous cars.

some politicians in Nevada are working hard to court autonomous vehicle manufacturers to its state. They’ve put together a bill that would make it easier to get autonomous vehicles on the road in the state, by setting up a process to “authorize” such vehicles, and allow them to operate on Nevada highways.

More work needs to be done to make autonomous cars a viable option on the road. In The Gaven, they’re fully functional and engrained into daily life.

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In The Gaven, Pelgrem uses a station wagon to deliver items. It’s a modified version of the sneakernet. Apparently, Osama bin Laden utilized a sneakernet as well.

Although bin Laden’s hideout in Pakistan lacked phone and Internet connectivity, the al Qaeda leader used his computers to prepare messages and save them on flash drives, which would be passed to a courier, according to the Associated Press. The courier would head to a far-flung Internet cafe, send the outgoing messages, retrieve the incoming ones, and then return to Abbottabad with the responses.

That physical couriering of data, or sneakernet, helped bin Laden to evade U.S. intelligence agencies, especially the extraordinarily sensitive electronic ears of the National Security Agency, which specializes in intercepting radio and other communications.

It’s very ingenious that bin Laden utilized a sneakernet for passing of messages. It’s also the most logical choice.

Google has been testing it’s driverless car. They expect it to be commercially viable in ten years. Since The Gaven is set in 2047, it’s not so far-fetched anymore.

Here is another story about the use of alcohol detectors in cars becoming the standard.

The American Beverage Institute claims the ROADS SAFE Act could mandate that all cars have a device that could determine if a driver had been drinking, a device which authors of the bill say doesn’t exist today.

In some California counties, the courts mandate convicted drunk drivers install an ignition interlock system that requires drivers to blow into the device before starting the cars. Mechanics who work with the Smart Start system say it is calibrated at .03, below the legal alcohol limit because that is the “warning” level for most drivers.

Opponents of the bill say no matter what device is developed, “it would mean you can’t have a glass of wine with dinner or a beer at a ballgame,” and according to Sarah Longwell of the ABI, “we think people should be able to do that.”

Yep, it’s a minor plot point, but they are in The Gaven.