'Earth' may be the densest source of Brin's predictions about what the future may hold for humanity, but it's hardly the only one! After all, it's nearly twenty years since the novel was released!
Lots to add in here. (So what else is new?)
(Append any general junk for this page at the bottom)
Sundiver (1980)
Sunghosts from SUNDIVER? The new computer simulations suggest that in the gravity-free environment of space, the plasma particles will bead together to form string-like filaments that then twist into corkscrew shapes. The helical strands resemble and are themselves electrically charged and attracted to one another. The computer-modeled plasma particles can also divide to form two copies of the original structure and even "evolve" into more stable structures that are better able to survive in the plasma. "These complex, self-organized plasma structures exhibit all the necessary properties to qualify them as candidates for inorganic living matter," said study team member V.N. Tsytovich of the Russian Academy of Science.
In SUNDIVER (1980) Brin forecast the use of eye-gaze tracking as a method for psychological diagnosis, personality profiling or even lie-detection, since the eye subconciously scans and reacts to a scene for many milliseconds before the person becomes consciously aware of what he or she is looking at -- a period when feigning is inherently impossible.
Almost thirty years later, the cover story of the September 2007 Scientific American says that saccades (tiny eye movements) not only allow us to see, but quantify on what we are focused when looking at a scene. Is Citizen-testing far behind? According to Brin: "This tool is either an empowerment for Big Brother, or for the masses. If we all get it, then there will be social problems to solve, but never will tyrants stand a chance, ever again."
Heart of the Comet (1984)
One of the characters, a physician aboard an expedition to Halley’s Comet, routinely dispenses infectious organisms like rhinoviruses, in order to “challenge” the immune systems of the one hundred astronauts and, thus keep them healthy. This concept, extremely obscure back in 1985, became hot in the 21st Century, leading some to forecast that such challenges might even spur immune system rejectiq< of cancer tumors.
Tank Farm Dynamo
"A Japanese brewery Tuesday said it was planning the first "space beer," using offspring of barley once stored at the Space Station. Researchers said the project was part of efforts to prepare for a future in which humans spend extended periods of time in space -- and might like a cold beer after a space walk."
Well, it’s not exactly the “Slingshot” brew described in the Brin short story “Tank Farm Dynamo,” but still....
The Uplift War (1985)
Ezra Ekman wrote:
“However, your extraordinary literary skills were not the reason for my writing this message to you. Your talent for clairvoyance is. In THE UPLIFT WAR, you envisioned the concept of a network of vegetation through which chemical messages could be sent. Ah, if only we lived on an alien world... but wait! It has recently been discovered that a certain species of clovers can do that very thing! And not merely in an inert fashion; they also do so as a method for warning their neighbors of an eminent enemy attack, such as from caterpillars or other predators. A creationist might argue that it makes perfect sense. An evolutionist could say that it was bound to happen eventually. In either case, you sir, are a genius of foresight.”
(Acacias do a similar thing. Bruised leaves release chemicals which stimulate nearby plants to produce bitter tasting chemicals. The effect is sufficiently noticeable that grazing elephants habitually work their way *upwind*)
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- The Partition of the Soviet Union, didn't quite make it into the novel EARTH in a highly explicit form. Still, it is among the few novels from 1989 that IMPLIED a coming breakup.
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http://arstechnica.com/journals/science.ars/2007/05/18/black-holes-for-everyone
Is David some sort of time traveller from 10-20 years in the future, or just freakishly prescient? Readers of Earth will find the following eerily reminescent.
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Cooperation and Competition in evolution.NYTimes article reminded me of "Earth".
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/31/science/31prof.html
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http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=834
UK Officers Wear Brin's Tru-Vu Lenses.
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You mention at one point that Daisy McClennon's income comes from digital restorations of old movies, and also editing some old "languid classics like The Terminator or Delieverence" into shorter films to fit the time spans of the modern person. So imagine my surprise when I found "The 10 Minute Theater" and its version of The Terminator.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jazlLFg8cXk
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"A quarter-century ago, American rocket scientists proposed the "Star Wars" defense system to knockout Soviet missiles with laser beams. They are now aiming their lasers at another airborne threat: the mosquito. In a Seattle lab, researchers watched a glass box of bugs. Every few seconds, a contraption 100 feet away shot a beam that hit buzzing mosquitoes, one by one, with a spot of red light. This particular test used a non-lethal laser. But the Cold War missile-defense strategy will soon be reborn as a WMD: Weapon of Mosquito Destruction. [...] Technology might one day draw a laser barrier around a house or village that could kill or blind the bugs...." EXACTLY AS PORTRAYED IN "EARTH" (1989)
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http://www.taserpromo.com/evidence-com/
Taser has launched a wearable computer, called Axon, that will let cops record every minute of their day and upload it to a secure website. From there, they can share their favorite memories with friends, family, and jurors.<i> "Our Axon and Evidence.com technology will be a lifeline to protect truth," says Steve Tuttle, the VP of Taser. For years, cops around the world have been accused of being a little too eager to reach out and stun someone. The new camera is head mounted, so it will record everything the user lays his eyes on. Each headset plugs into a Linux powered computer or just plug the recorder into the Synapse docking station, and all of the evidence will be automatically uploaded to Taser. </i> Explicitly predicted in both EARTH and The Transparent Society.
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