** Introduction /In 2013 at Institute for the Future <http://www.iftf.org/fanfutures/>, the non-profit forecasting thinktank where I'm a researcher, we explored what we're calling the Coming Age of Networked Matter. Over the next few decades, a confluence of breakthroughs in physics, engineering, biology, computation, and complexity science will give us new lenses to observe the wondrous interconnections surrounding us and within us. In the future we're moving toward, we won't only observe complex systems, we'll also modify and even create them /in vivo/ and with purpose. It will be an era of huge possibility, daunting pitfalls, and high weirdness. / /To help make this future tangible, we commissioned some of our favorite writers of speculative fiction -- Cory Doctorow, Rudy Rucker, Ramez Naam, Bruce Sterling, Madeline Ashby, and Warren Ellis -- to write short stories tied to our research theme. The anthology, titled An Aura of Familiarity: Visions from the Coming Age of Networked Matter, contains six stories all released under a Creative Commons license. The accompanying art is by Daniel Martin Diaz. / /We are thrilled to premier these stories on Boing Boing. At IFTF's site <http://www.iftf.org/fanfutures/>, you can watch an animated author interview and find out how to win <http://www.iftf.org/fanfutures/sterling/#contest> a limited edition print copy of the book and a t-shirt. In August, the entire book will be available as a free PDF at IFTF.org <http://www.iftf.org/fanfutures/>. -- David Pescovitz/ *Beyond the Coming Age of Networked Matter* By Bruce Sterling I wasn't too chuffed about the weird changes I saw in my favorite start-up guy. Crawferd was a techie I knew from my circuit: GE Industrial Internet, IBM Smart Cities, the Internet-of-Things in Hackney hackathons. The kind of guy I thought I understood. I relied on Crawferd to deliver an out-there networked-matter pitch to my potential investors. He was great at this, since he was imaginative, inventive, fearless, tireless, and he had no formal education. Crawferd wore unlaced Converse shoes and a lot of Armani. He had all the bumbling sincerity of a Twitter Arab Spring. [...] Continua qui: http://boingboing.net/2013/07/16/bruce-sterling-from-beyond.html