Genetically modified...

According a recent MacLean's article, "Canadians ate 4.5 tonnes of unlabelled GM salmon without knowing it this past year"

The world has not been able to unite on the issue of genetic modification.  There's no consensus on whether or not genetically modifying our food sources is safe, or how informed consumers should be, how it should be labeled, and whether or not it should even be occurring. 

Some say tinkering with nature is sure to lead to disaster while others are enthused that science is finding a way to safely feed a burgeoning world population. Who are we to believe? Who are we to trust? 

Is it true that selective-breeding programs and other farming practices down through the ages, and even the natural selection processes of evolution, shows us that genetic modification has been going on since the beginning of life on our planet? Is it only our legends and lore and imaginations that make the whole field of GMO seem so apocalyptic? In truth, emotions aside, is it a rational, safe and scientific endeavor?

Are our fears about 'where will it lead?', unfounded in fact and merely incubating in ancient stories of monsters and critters half man and half beast? 

Now that we can read human DNA are we going to disastrously tinker with it and make ourselves unbelievable villains or super heroes? Disease-free. An immortal, burgeoning population surviving on mass-produced GMO organisms?

Do we need some laws in this regard? Some international standards, perhaps?

In my upcoming trilogy, Project W. Olf, I look at the results of some fictional human genetic manipulations, and the role activists and governments, communities and companies need to play to keep us safe. Because if we don't act now, we will be so behind with our laws, criminals will have a strangle hold on GMO processes and commercialization and laws will be useless--much like what has happened in cyberspace. 

The need for moral and ethical standards is clear. 

Genetically Modified has been brought to you by DISPASSIONATE LIES 

Who controls cyberspace?

#DeleteFacebook

Yes, I'm still on Facebook despite the kerfuffle in the news about the role Facebook data may have played in Cambridge Analytica and AggregateIQ's efforts to sway elections.

I'm having a hard time believing anything I said or did affected Brexit, Trump's election, or even Trudeau's election.

I'm just not able to get upset that fb shared what I said and/or did or their site Perhaps my dispassion is because I, too, use Facebook for 'nefarious' reasons--like selling my books. The more my posts and name gets shared around the world, the happier I am. The more my friends become your friends and your friends, mine--the more we get together the happier I am. Free advertising and all that jazz.

Yeah, Facebook! A platform that reaches billions and doesn't cost me a penny.

I'm clever enough to realize the best things in life are not free, and that facebook makes money from my presence. It has to make money or it wouldn't exist for long unless it was funded by government or philanthropists. It doesn't bother me, it's the price I'm quite willing to pay in order to have a platform that reaches billions and doesn't cost me a penny.

As long as Facebook's profit doesn't involve stealing, killing, sharing or reselling my copyrighted materials--which there's no indication it has done--I'll play their game.

I've always understood the nature of this beast with which I've joined forces and followed these rules:

• I have never posted anything that I wouldn't mind sharing with the world.
• I've never relied on Facebook as my news source.
• I've never liked things on Facebook when I didn't know their source.
• I've never posted, liked or shared anything promoting intolerance or hatred.
• Anything I want to say but would hesitate to say in person in public gets put in phone calls or offline messages.
• I'm not myself on Facebook, I'm an author with seven published novels looking to sell them.

That's not to say I don't chat on Facebook, connect with family and friends, offer opinions and encouragement and sometimes rebuke.  I'm honest online, I'm not hiding behind a pseudonym or caricature. But my online personae is only the public side of me, the side of me that might conceivably help me sell books, the side of me that isn't going to affect a U.S. election or a U.K. plebiscite.

The downside of all this, though, that I must consider is that my Facebook friends may not have bought into my scenario, yet they apparently are at risk of world-wide exposure and malicious manipulation simply because they're my friends.

I advise my friends and all other Facebook users and social media users in general:

• beware of fake news, ads, and manipulations
• don't share private things online
• respect others' privacy
• use the power of social media to make the world not only a more interesting place, but a safer and kinder one.

#DeleteFacebook has been brought to you by Dispassionate Lies --in the near future, the World Wide Web collapses.

It's a matter of time...

The world has plunged into cyberspace oblivious to the dangers and totally unaware of who created it, who owns it, and under whose control it remains. Governments, banks, militaries, law enforcement...trusting their data and their secrets to the ether.

If, as recent headlines prove, hackers can crack into government data bases, nuclear facilities, and retailer computers, it is only a matter of time until...

• gangsters hack into forensic laboratory computers and alter fingerprint/DNA/blood spatter analysis to avoid prosecution
• mobsters layout an electronic trail of phony emails and photos to divert guilt and exact revenge
• criminals invade and alter digitally-stored records to delete their criminal history

It is only a matter of time...

until the total collapse of internet security renders it impossible to know who is guilty and who is innocent

My new adult SciFi, DISPASSIONATE LIES looks at our world in 2035--the technology, the materials, the chaos. NOW AVAILABLE IN PAPERBACK!

Join me in celebrating my latest release by entering to win an autographed copy of SCHRODINGER'S CAT and see how quantum mechanics' multiple universes affects justice...
ONLY 3 days left to enter!

Enter below or for more details visit Magic of the Muses:

 a Rafflecopter giveaway



Eileen Schuh, Author
DISPASSIONATE LIES
FIREWALLS
FATAL ERROR
Schrödinger's Cat
THE TRAZ

Digital data compromised...

News headline: Dean Del Mastro denies sending series of emails, trial hears.

In real life in 2014, it starts with the defendant denying he sent the emails but where does it end? 

Nearly 100 per cent of computer attacks are criminal in nature, say experts.Can a defendant argue the lab results were compromised? The police reports altered? The DNA analysis fixed? 

News headline: Malware threats making anti-virus software 'totally useless' 

Can organized crime hack into police computers? Pay someone to compromise forensic lab results? Force someone through blackmail or threats to fudge results? Can those with money and clout alter digital data to clear someone or, alternately, to make it seem their enemies are guilty? 

How safe is a forensic lab computer when hackers have been known to breach the computers of nuclear facilities? Hack attack on Iran's nuclear facility easier than thought 

There is an entire section at the back of my new near future release DISPASSIONATE LIES that outlines the news, technology and science headlines that inspired the story about the collapse of the internet, the global economy and the judicial system. It was written to provoke discussion and spark preparation for new technologies and their abuses and uses. 

 

"...brilliant storyline..."

"...a fast-paced and enjoyable read"

“Romance, suspense and technological thrills round out this wonderful sci-fi novel.”

"A highly recommended read to all fans of futuristic fiction."

 

DISPASSIONATE LIES

Official Launch price ONLY $1.99

July 13 -26, 2014

on Amazon and Smashwords (Use coupon code GS42H on Smashwords for the eFormat of your choice.)

SCHRÖDINGER’S CAT joins the celebration at only 99₵ on Amazon and Smashwords!

Smashwords coupon JU57W 

To enter the rafflecopter draw for multiple e- and print books visit my blog Magic of the Muses 

Imagine the chaos...

UPDATE: Now on Amazon!

It's 2035 and hackers have collapsed the internet. Economies teeter. Governments struggle.

The judicial system is in chaos as defense lawyers argue all evidence is tainted...police records, lab results, criminal records.

Sifting through compromised digital data, Ladesque tries desperately to find out the truth about her past while simultaneously designing the high-tech recovery of cyberspace.

"The world was depending on her; she had promises to keep..." --so begins my new release... DISPASSIONATE LIES.

More information about the novel and more of the cover revealed on Magic of the Muses

Eileen Schuh, Author
DISPASSIONATE LIES
FIREWALLS
FATAL ERROR
Schrödinger's Cat
THE TRAZ

Futuristic Legalese

Science Fiction writers, if not looking to the stars, are often looking to the future. The fantastical that may one day be ours is a fertile field in which to wallow.

Futuristic technology, social norms, politics, fashion, weapons and time travel are common themes of the genre. Futuristic legalities? Not so much. However, I may have found a way to make even that fun.

In my first sci fi SCHRÖDINGER'S CAT I take a stab at explaining differences in eyewitness accounts--perhaps our consciousness is shifting between alternate universes, we may not all have exactly the same shared past. I think Chorie's lawyer summed it up best when he told her there was no fricken way he was arguing an alternate universe theory before the court. They'd both be judged insane and she'd for sure lose custody of her dying daughter. Yeah...that did stretch it a bit, didn't it?

But, suppose the year is 2035 and all other universes are tucked neatly away and inaccessible, as they ought to be. What will our legal system look like then? Suppose hackers and criminal organizations decimated the world wide web, corrupted the internet beyond salvation. Suppose this corruption reached into police files, lab results, court orders, all things digital and transferred, stored, or otherwise exposed to the internet.

What then, my friend? What good defence attorney would not argue DNA results that proved guilt, might very well have been corrupted? What good gangster would not have hired a techie to alter a police report prior to trial? What terrorist would not have invaded government systems to drain dollars?

Ah, yes, the year is 2035 and computer whiz Ladesque is charged with getting the world back online with a system immune to attack, perhaps a task almost as impossible as hunting through corrupt data to find the truth about the pharmacological screwup that stole her generation's fertility and libido.

DISPASSIONATE LIES, coming later this summer from WolfSinger Publications.

Perhaps we ought to be more concerned about who's inventing the quantum computer than who has nuclear capabilities. Perhaps.


Eileen Schuh, Author
FIREWALLS
FATAL ERROR
Schrödinger's Cat
THE TRAZ