LTUE - The Dramatic Downside of Technology

That was the topic for one of my panels last week. Not only did I think this was a lame topic, but the other panelists felt the same. So we decided to play a game instead. James Wymore was the moderator and it was his idea to play the game. The other panelist was Natalie Whipple. Both of them are successful authors.

What is that, a cap gun?

The game was a contest to see who could come up with the best end-of-the-world scenario that included the use of technology. The scenario James came up with involved a blood-thirsty artificial intelligence. Natalie's scenario involved genetically-enhanced wild boars (think scary stuff in Russia).

That was my competition.

I don't want to brag, but my scenario totally rocked. Sure LTUE is a sci fi/fantasy symposium, but I wanted to come up with something believable, something the common man could relate to. I envisioned a near future where every man, woman, and child has Google Glass wet-wired into their brain and a computer virus enters the system and forces all of humanity to watch a continuous string of cat videos until everyone loses their mind and jumps off the nearest skyscraper.

Hey, that not only seems believable, it seems imminent, right? I mean, take just this week, how many friends have forwarded you a cat video? Try and imagine the hell of experiencing that for an hour. Two hours. Two days. Two weeks.

Yeah, we'd be dead for sure.