Author

Best-selling, award-winning novels and books explore our changing world.

Scientist

NASA adviser, astrophysicist, futurist, tech-pundit, forecaster.

Speaker

300+ science and business speeches, from privacy to national security.

Problem Solver

Media, art, design, philosophy & our bold Age of Amateurs!

scientist, best-selling author, tech-consultant and speaker

David Brin

David Brin is best-known for shining light — plausibly and entertainingly — on technology, society, and countless challenges confronting our rambunctious civilization. His best-selling novels include The Postman (filmed in 1997) plus explorations of our near-future in Earth and Existence. Other novels are translated into 25+ languages. His short stories explore vividly speculative ideas.

Brin's nonfiction book The Transparent Society won the American Library Association's Freedom of Speech Award for exploring 21st Century concerns about security, secrecy, accountability and privacy.

As a scientist, tech-consultant and world-known author, he speaks, advises, and writes widely on topics from national defense and homeland security to astronomy and space exploration, SETI and nanotechnology, future/prediction, creativity, and philanthropy. Urban Developer Magazine named him one of four World's Best Futurists, and he was cited as one of the top 10 writers the AI elite follow.


Here you will find the latest news about DAVID BRIN, including his newest books, articles, appearances and speeches.

newest book releases

Chasing Shadows

Chasing Shadows

newest anthology

The authors contributing stories and essays to Chasing Shadows explore their own visions of what might propel — or obstruct — a world civilization awash in the light of transparency. find out more

Via Locus Online, eminent critic Paul Di Filippo offers an insightful, thorough and positive appraisal of CHASING SHADOWS. If you were wavering, this might put the book on your Get List!

Insistence of Vision

Insistence of Vision

newest story collection

Visit a chillingly plausible tomorrow, when prisoners may be sent to asteroidal gulags. Or might prisons vanish and felons roam, seeing only what society allows? Suppose, amid lavish success, we gain the superpower to fly! Will we even appreciate it... or will we find new reasons to complain? find out more

Existence

Existence

newest novel

Billions of planets may be ripe for life, even intelligence. So where is Everybody? Do civilizations make the same fatal mistakes, over and over? Might we be the first to cross the mine-field, evading every trap to learn the secret of EXISTENCE? find out more

DAVID BRIN's latest news, activities & upcoming appearances

latest news

Thomson Reuters just published one of David Brin's best interviews about Artificial Intelligence and ways to get a "soft" singularity. Good questions and editing by Paul Thies. Brin's proposal re AI is (alas) not offered anywhere else, though it's the only one that can possibly work... because it already has worked, increasingly well, for 200 years.
read it here

David was interviewed about transparency, freedom and the future by the Indian magazine Factor Daily, with emphasis on India's ambitious Aadhaar Program to digitize all billion of the nation's people.
read it here

David Brin updates his call to end gerrymandering, in "The 'Minimal Overlap' Solution to Gerrymandered Injustice."
read it here

David Brin appears on onanalytica.com's list as the top individual influencer on Artificial Intelligence in its 2017 survey.
read it here

OMNI Online listed The Postman as one of ten science fiction books that changed the genre forever.
read it here

David Brin has been named a Top Quora Writer for 2017 (second year in a row).
follow him on Quora

A cool, fun interview: Brin answers questions about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and why it is possible that these new, genius offspring of humanity may decide not to treat us badly.
read it here

speaking & consulting

David is asked to speak and/or consult with businesses, groups, organizations and agencies, helping them think through both near- and long-term opportunities, along with challenges our rambunctious civilization may confront in coming decades.
email for more info

novels offering plenty to think about

Characters, action, and vivid plots? Check. But does a gripping story have to exclude ideas? Come sample novels, story collections and nonfiction books set 10, 100, or 1000 years from now, or in the present or past.
find out more here

or short fiction, a la carte

Short stories and novellas have different rhythms and artistic flavor than a novel. Some are available (free or cheap!) to read here or on your ebook.
find out more here

upcoming appearances

contact information

for journalists: press kit
major interviews: print, podcast & video

complete professional biography
compilation of media: films, radio & TV
Brin quotes and frequently asked questions

favorite social media hangouts
email me for more information

newest articles & interviews: so many, so little time!

recently published articles; major interviews; topical blog posts

Third Millennium Problem Solving

third millennium problem solvers

Urban Developer Magazine named David Brin one of four "World's Best Futurists" — in august company with Kevin Kelly, Michio Kaku and Ray Kurzweil.

Brin was recently cited as one (#5) of the "Ten people the AI elite follow on Twitter." (Do you follow @DavidBrin?)

See Brin's calendar of future appearances.

what will we become?

is the web helping us evolve?

Optimists point out how much more knowledge the average person can access, predicting better minds and savvier citizenry. Pessimists perceive a dumbing-down effect that spreads users too thin, resulting in shallowness that could be detrimental to politics and clear thinking. This David Brin essay (available as an audiobook on Amazon and iTunes) weighs the evidence and ponders whether it may be possible to profit from this revolution of vision and memory — as we did from others that came before.

Talk Universe podcast

why should we mine asteroids?

Talk Universe has posted a four-part audio interview on asteroid mining and the space industry.

See the podcast page for more.

a brief intro to science fiction author DAVID BRIN

To learn more, visit his books page, or see his "about me" page or detailed biography.

DAVID BRIN author

novels

David Brin's science fiction novels have been New York Times Bestsellers, winning multiple Hugo, Nebula and other awards. At least a dozen have been translated into more than twenty languages. They range from bold and prophetic explorations of our near-future to Brin's Uplift series, envisioning galactic issues of sapience and destiny (and star-faring dolphins!). Learn More

shorter fiction

Short stories and novellas have different rhythms and artistic flavor, and Brin's short stories and novellas, several of which earned Hugo and other awards, exploit that difference to explore a wider range of real and vividly speculative ideas. Many have been selected for anthologies and reprints, and most have been published in anthology form. Learn More

Contrary Brin blog

Since 2004, David Brin has maintained a blog about science, technology, science fiction, books, and the future — themes his science fiction and nonfiction writings continue to explore. Learn More

social media influencer

Who could've predicted that social media — indeed, all of our online society — would play such an important role in the 21st Century — restoring the voices of advisors and influencers! Lively and intelligent comments spill over onto Brin's social media pages. Learn More

DAVID BRIN scientist

scientist

David Brin's Ph.D in Physics from the University of California at San Diego (the lab of nobelist Hannes Alfven) followed a masters in optics and an undergraduate degree in astrophysics from Caltech. Every science show that depicts a comet now portrays the model developed in Brin's PhD research. Learn More

transparency expert

Brin's non-fiction book, The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us to Choose Between Freedom and Privacy?, continues to receive acclaim for its accuracy in predicting 21st Century concerns about online security, secrecy, accountability and privacy. Learn More

speaker & consultant

Brin speaks plausibly and entertainingly about trends in technology and society to audiences willing to confront the challenges that our rambunctious civilization will face in the decades ahead. He also talks about the field of science fiction, especially in relation to his own novels and stories. To date he has presented at more than 200 meetings, conferences, corporate retreats and other gatherings.Learn More

future/tech advisor

Brin advises corporations and governmental and private defense- and security-related agencies about information-age issues, scientific trends, future social and political trends, and education. Urban Developer Magazine named him one of four World's Best Futurists, and he was cited as one of the top 10 writers the AI elite follow. Past consultations include Google, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, and many others. Learn More

other points of departure

visit other pages on this website

pages about DAVID BRIN

  • latest news and activities
  • information about DAVID BRIN
  • public speaking and consulting & popular topics
  • speaking/consulting references and testimonials & a list of past appearances
  • lists of interviews and podcasts
  • video interviews and talks
  • Brin's presskit and complete biography
  • traditional media and social media
  • Brin quotes and frequently asked questions

    • pages about BRIN's science fiction

  • Brin's novels and books
  • Brin's short stories and novellas
  • all about Brin's uplift universe
  • a selection of book reviews
  • Brin's special-order books for sale
  • Brin's advice for new writers
  • Brin reviews sci fi films — including The Postman
  • a compilation of great sf books to read
  • recommended sf films
  • science fiction that teaches

    • BRIN's nonfiction explorations

  • THE TRANSPARENT SOCIETY
  • privacy, security, accountability and transparency
  • designing and crafting our amazing 21st Century
  • predicting and projecting our near and far future
  • leading and following our politics and economy
  • keeping track of changes in science and technology
  • scanning our sky for habitable (inhabited?) worlds

    • Contacting BRIN

    All the Ways in the World to Reach David Brin

    an ornery, contrary BLOG, and other insightful wormholes!

    Do not enter if you want a standard "Party" line! Contrary Brin's incendiary posts on science, sci-fi and politics and its engaged, opinionated community poke at too-rigid orthodoxies, proposing ideas and topics that fascinate — and infuriate. See for yourself, and if you like — subscribe for more.

    Questions? Concerns? Email DAVID BRIN

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    endorsements and recommendations

    George B. Dyson, author of Darwin Among the Machines

    "As David Brin details the inevitability of ubiquitous surveillance, your instinct, as an individual facing this one-way mirror, is to hope that he is wrong about the facts. As you follow his argument for two-way social transparency, you realize your only hope is that he is right."

    Rob H. Bedford, SFFWorld.com

    "I would consider Existence to be a triumphant, epic Science Fiction novel on many levels. It stayed with me after I set it aside for the day, continues to simmer in my mind now that I've finished reading it, and has opened up a gateway to Brin's novels I'd wanted to enter for a while. Brin achieved an excellent gestalt of character, big ideas, and narrative energy."

    Alex Good, TheStar.com

    "The fiction of David Brin is informed by a central recurring theme as well, in his case the operation of various kinds of evolution: organic and synthetic, directed and undirected, fast and slow. This interest in dynamic change feeds into his vision of SF as an essentially optimistic form: not because he believes in 'progress' but because he believes in the ability of humankind to improve its condition."

    J. Bradford DeLong, Professor of Economics at UC Berkeley

    "If enough people read Brin's book [The Transparent Society], or are brushed by the currents of thought in represents, then it may turn into a self-negating prophecy: a warning of dystopia that by virtue of the horror it paints helps avoid that horror. That was the function of George Orwell's 1984. That is an honorable role for anyone's book."

    final thoughts ...

    ... for this page, at least ...

    I am a member of a civilization

    It's good that we have a rambunctious society, filled with opinionated individualists. Serenity is nice, but serenity alone never brought progress. Hermits don't solve problems. The adversarial process helps us to improve as individuals and as a culture. Criticism is the only known antidote to error — elites shunned it and spread ruin across history. We do each other a favor (though not always appreciated) by helping find each others' mistakes.

    And yet — we'd all be happier, better off and more resilient if each of us were to now and then say:

    "I am a member of a civilization." (IAAMOAC)

    Step back from anger. Study how awful our ancestors had it, yet they struggled to get you here. Repay them by appreciating the civilization you inherited.