{"id":7370,"date":"2018-07-19T07:38:27","date_gmt":"2018-07-19T11:38:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=7370"},"modified":"2018-07-19T07:38:27","modified_gmt":"2018-07-19T11:38:27","slug":"your-next-thriller-idea-goldmine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=7370","title":{"rendered":"Your Next Thriller: Idea Goldmine"},"content":{"rendered":"

The July 2018 issue of Wired <\/em>is a treasure trove of ideas for thriller writers. Here are the ones that got my creative juices flowing.<\/p>\n

\"satellite

photo: Alexas_Fotos, creative commons license<\/p><\/div>\n

Space Wars and Daily Life
\n<\/span><\/strong>\u201cThe Outer Limits of War,\u201d by Garrett M. Graff, which bears the provocative subhead \u201ca new arms race is threatening to explode\u2014500 miles above our heads.\u201d A parenthetical factoid declares that 14 out of the 16 \u201cinfrastructure sectors designated as critical by the Department of Homeland Security, like energy and financial services, rely on GPS for their operation.\u201d Things you might not expect, like ATMs, cellular networks, and credit card systems depend on GPS. And the satellite array that makes GPS possible is highly vulnerable to deliberate attack, not to mention the 500,000 pieces of debris, marble-sized and up, currently orbiting earth at up to 17,000 mph.<\/p>\n

The All-Seeing Eye<\/span><\/strong>
\nIn Steven Levy\u2019s \u201cThe Wall,\u201d Palmer Lucky\u2019s portable surveillance towers use radar, cameras, and communications technologies to identify moving objects up to two miles away. The virtual reality component of the system tags objects as people or coyotes. Then it reports in to those who will do something about it. Such systems would have military uses, scanning the battlefield, and are being tested at the U.S.-Mexico border. Lucky\u2019s virtual wall would cost about one-fiftieth of the proposed 30-foot high concrete structure under consideration at the border, with all its security, wildlife disruption, aesthetic, and property infringement downsides.<\/p>\n

\"Bitcoins\"

photo: Mike Cauldwell, creative commons license<\/p><\/div>\n

Cryptocurrency<\/span><\/strong>
\n\u201cThe Blockchain: A Love Story; The Blockchain: A Horror Story,\u201d by Gideon Lewis-Kraus. How the Tez went bad. Leaving aside the particulars of this long piece, a good thriller writer can expertly decode the most opaque problem. So I hope you\u2019re working on a novel about cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, so I can finally understand it.<\/p>\n

Mission Possible?<\/span><\/strong>
\nOh, and the Mission Impossible<\/em> movie franchise technologies that have\u2014and have not\u2014achieved reality. Gecko gloves, yes. Covert subdermal implants, no.<\/p>\n

That Plastic Gun Isn’t a Toy<\/span><\/strong>
\nFinally, check out this chilling video<\/a> on the Wired<\/em> website headlined \u201cLegal Win Opens Pandora\u2019s Box for Weapons.\u201d Forget age requirements. Forget background checks. Forget gun control altogether. Thank you, DoJ.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The July 2018 issue of Wired is a treasure trove of ideas for thriller writers. Here are the ones that got my creative juices flowing. Space Wars and Daily Life \u201cThe Outer Limits of War,\u201d by Garrett M. Graff, which … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Your Next Thriller: Idea Goldmine - Is technology solving or creating problems? Both.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[174,5,35,453,186],"tags":[1367,1365,166,402,1366,1368,129],"class_list":["post-7370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-first-draft-blog","category-imagination","category-real-life","category-science-fiction","category-technology","tag-3-d-printing","tag-blockchain","tag-creativity","tag-guns","tag-satellites","tag-surveillance","tag-wars-and-conflicts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-1US","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7370"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7372,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7370\/revisions\/7372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}