Jon: Welcome to episode 177 of The Digital Life, a show about our insights into the future of design and technology. I'm your host Jon Follett and with me is founder and co-host, Dirk Knemeyer.

Dirk: Hello, listeners.

Jon: For the podcast this week, we're going to discuss my new sci-fi horror novel for kids which was published by Scholastic, and I wrote in conjunction with Matthew Holm. The name of this book is Marvin and the Moths, and it incorporates a number of emerging technologies into the science fiction portion of it. It's also a bit of a comedic novel so there's that element to it as well.

Dirk, you've seen me go though the process of creating this book over the past ... I don't know. It took 12 years to do. I'm sure one of your questions is why spend 12 years on a project, but what are other questions that you may have had during the book creation process?

Dirk: Well, first, I think it's a remarkable achievement. Congratulations. I mean you're now a science fiction author in addition to being an emerging tech author and in addition to your other accomplishments. You're very diverse in your creative activities. A lot of people try their whole lives to be a published author and never get there, but you've managed to do that on top of all your other stuff. Congratulations for that. Also, what is it that draws you to these diverse creative projects?

Jon: Yeah. Thanks so much for that. I know you've borne witness to all of the different things I'm working on. I really appreciate that comment. I think in terms of the diversity of the projects that I pursue, creative research, things like that, I ....

Did we lose? Darn it.

Hey Dirk.

Dirk: Hey. I think your stuff looks like you're victimized by the Janke Studio internet.

Jon: Really. All right. What we'll do then is ... We'll continue with this recording. If it drops the call again, then I will go reset the router or take some action to try to deal with it. Yeah. I think you're right. I am in my office, and it's funny, I usually record these things at home so I don't run into that problem. Okay.

Dirk: If you fully answered that question, even though I couldn't hear it, I can move onto another question or you can just start over with your answer.

Jon: No. I'm going to restart with my answer, and Michael you can cut it here. Dirk, thanks so much for that comment. You've borne witness to my many creative endeavors whether they be design or research or writing. I think you have a good perspective on the diversity of projects I take on. I actually look at all of these creative projects as being one in the same in terms of ... I mean granted, the outputs are very different. The emerging tech books that I did with O'Reilly is quite different from this book that I did with Matt for Scholastic. At its core, it's about creating my reaction to circumstances in the world, and technology is really one of those inputs that influences me in major ways. You can see the technology as input into the emerging technologies book is an obvious thing: how we look at the future, where are we going, what is society going to be like, how do we design for this, how do we influence the future of humanity in a positive way. In the Scholastic book, it's more about looking at it from a personal side and the confusion that comes along with and in this case the main character is in middle school and how he encounters the world and its changes, and the weird things that come out of technology.

I do view them, both of those projects and my other projects as well, as being my reaction to the world around me. From that perspective, it feels like very much the same kind of, at least initial foray, it's the same thing and then the outputs of course are suitable for the mediums. The emerging technology book is suitable for the professional audience whereas the Scholastic book clearly is geared more for the kids.

Dirk: Why did you pick young adult? Why did you go for a ...