Category Archives: News

Brain zappers, artists, academics and me.

Brain hackers, brain professors, brain artists, the human brain project, a brain curious audience and me.

We were all there for the Virtual Futures Salon about NeuroStimulation.

It was my first ‘gig’ as the Author in Residence and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it. The venue was a bar in Soho, London and the place was buzzing with conversation, debate and towards the end with electricity being zapped through some willing brains.

My story, written especially for the evening, is set in a call centre of the future and based on the notion that NeuroStimulation has become the everyday way of boosting your brain.

Check out the event and read my story – Everyday Stims – on the Virtual Futures’ website.


Boost the brain with a quick zap. Is this the future of the workplace? #SciFi #FlashFiction Click To Tweet

Can fiction shape our future?

I was a guest on The Artist Unleashed blog recently where I posed the question: ‘How good do you think fiction is as a bridge between the experts and the public when it comes to creating debate on ethical issues?’

When I published my three recent stories, Human Enhancement: Sex, Drugs and Marriage, it was partly my intention to prompt debate, and partly to have a bit of fun. They’re free, for now, and you can download them as an eBook or a PDF. I’d love to hear what thoughts they spark in you.

And, if you think fiction can create debate then you might also want to read and comment on The Driverless Car’s Dilemma. It’s a piece of flash fiction about the ethical choices manufacturers of driverless cars will have to make in the future. For example, if an accident is about to happen and the car has to choose between its passengers and nearby pedestrians, who should it choose?

Over to you…


Can fiction prompt ethical debate and shape our future? #SciFi #Ethics Click To Tweet

Sign up to Stephen Oram’s Readers’ Group and receive a free stand-alone short story set in the speculative near-future of Fluence.


photo credit: 1111_Thinking Blue_019 via photopin (license)

Would anarchy maintain the status quo?

A couple of weeks ago I spoke at the Greenbelt Festival on whether a mature and confident society should encourage people to opt-out; if we have a successful and attractive way of living (capitalism and consumerism) then the number of people wanting something different would be insignificant and we should go out of our way to accommodate them, rather than bully them into our way of thinking.

Exploring this idea led me down a number of paths you might find interesting: Continue reading