I know I've gone a bit quiet, but things are still proceeding - if slowly! I made it to the quarter-century mark last week and then got a bit bogged down in an exploration of mass global unemployment in the near future. The problem with these big issues is how to treat them in an intelligent, interesting, and succinct way. I am beginning to think that this is even more of a challenge than what I first envisaged, but hey, that's life!

I also wanted to give you all a heads-up on a few things. Firstly, the workshops with the British Museum have gone very well and I hope to show you some videos and material from them in the near future. Secondly, plans are underway for an 'adult' event related to History of the Future, and you will hear about it first here! Thirdly, I'm going to the Sudan for a two week trip from Monday, so I may be a bit quiet.

Finally - I have decided that as soon as I hit 30 objects, I will stop writing new ones for the moment and just focus on getting the first 30 published online. This will mean there'll be another big pause before the next chunk gets done, but I think that having a bunch of objects out there in the 'real world' (rather than just stuck on my computer) will help me write faster. I'm not really used to writing so much stuff without putting it in front of an audience and I have to admit that it's not brilliant for my motivation. But this may be able to fix it.

Thanks for your patience, all!

Adrian

This Saturday (and next Saturday), I'm helping run a workshop at the British Museum for kids aged 9+ where they'll come up with watches, clocks, and timepieces of the future.

We'll be looking at clocks from the British Museum's collection as well as from science fiction and fantasy clocks (think of the Harry Potter clock that tells you whether you're family's in danger/sleeping/working/etc, or the Martian timeslip), and the kids will turn their inventions into drawings and 3D objects that'll be added to an augmented reality gallery within the British Museum itself.

You can get more info from http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/events_calendar/samsung_events/a_history_of_the_future.aspx about how to sign up (it's free!)

It's a really exciting workshop and we're hoping to run it a few times over the next few months. It goes without saying that this wouldn't be happening if it weren't for your support, so please give yourselves a well-deserved pat on the back for helping kids learn about the past, the future, and the present!

I'm hoping to post a writeup of how it went here afterwards, along with maybe a video of the day. And of course, I will be posting more objects as well (I'm halfway through one about cloned meat, in fact, and I had an interesting idea about oaths based on a recent episode of Radio 4's In Our Time)...

Cheers,

Adrian