My book is getting some encouraging feedback so I’ll be posting bits as often as I can. My publisher has also agreed to let me send out the whole of chapter one as a pdf on Sept 3 so watch this space if you want more. Here’s the latest little snacklet..

Another more immediate example of the shape of things to come will be our relationship with objects. In the past objects were neutral. They were not intelligent and did not possess a state of mind. If they had a personally this was given to them by their designers and was entirely skin deep. Otherwise we imbued personality into objects through the application of our own imagination. This will not be the case in the future. Take children’s dolls for instance. Historically these were inert, rather poor representations of the human form. They are already becoming more realistic and more intelligent. Owners of the ‘Amazing Amanda’ can already chat with their doll and ‘intelligence’ is available in the form of facial recognition, speech recognition and RFID impregnated accessories. If you’re a bit older (and presumably no wiser) you can even buy a physically realistic, life-sized ‘love partner’ for US $7,000 from a company called realdoll.com if you’re that way inclined. But you ‘aint seen nothing yet.