Iran says'ready for war' Which are Iran's main opposition groups? This past week, Iranian protesters were labelled "terrorists" and "saboteurs" by the state. That rhetoric was accompanied by an internet blackout and a surge in violence, with the death toll still unclear. Simultaneously, tensions between the United States and Iran escalated, raising the stakes in what has become one of the most serious political upheavals in the country in years. In the US, the shooting - in public - of a woman two weeks ago by immigration officers has spiralled into a case of outright lying that is remarkable even by the standards of the Trump administration.

The New Scientist Book Club has various issues with Masud Husain's prize-winning popular science book about neurology The New Scientist Book Club stepped away from science fiction for our October read, turning to the winner of the Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize instead, serendipitously announced just in time for us to start on our next literary adventure. Six books had been up for the award, from Daniel Levitin's to Sadiah Qureshi's . Judges picked Masud Husain's and they praised it effusively, calling it "a beautiful exploration of how problems in the brain can cause people to lose their sense of self", and citing how these medical histories are "skilfully interwoven with Husain's personal story of moving to the UK as an immigrant in the 1960s, where he found himself grappling with his own sense of belonging". Sandra Knapp, chair of the judging panel for the 2025 Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize, explains why neurologist Masud Husain's collection of case studies is such an enlightening, compassionate book The first thing to say is: our book club members are much tougher judges than those on the panel for the Royal Society prize! While I think we were excited to get to grips with this book, and to venture into the world of non-fiction for a change, there were many issues that were raised and picked over by our readers. Let's tackle the positives first.

"What does it really mean to upload your consciousness into intangible space?" In, the characters face an impossible choice: upload your mind into a virtual utopia, or crumble away in the abandoned physical world. Mind-uploading is familiar to us as a science fiction trope, often anchoring relationship dramas and philosophical inquiry. But what does it really mean to upload your consciousness into intangible space? Can the mechanics be extrapolated from our present-day science?

This work licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net.

Cory Doctorow, 49, is a British-Canadian blogger, science fiction author and tech activist. He has held various academic posts and is a visiting professor of the Open University. His latest novel, Attack Surface, was published earlier this month. The protagonist in your new novel tries to offset her job at a tech company where she is working for a repressive regime by helping some of its targets evade detection. Do you think many Silicon Valley employees feel uneasy about their work?

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner is delighted to welcome Cory Doctorow, a pioneering international commentator on internet and digital technology, for a lunchtime PrivacyLive forum.The Office of the Privacy Commissioner is delighted to welcome Cory Doctorow, a pioneering international commentator on internet and digital technology, for a lunchtime PrivacyLive forum. He is co-editor of Boing Boing and the originator of Doctorow's Law: "Anytime someone puts a lock on something you own, against your wishes, and doesn't give you the key, they're not doing it for your benefit." This OPC PrivacyLive Forum is at 1pm on Tuesday 13 March 2018 in the Cable Room at Mac's Function Centre, 4 Taranaki St Wharf. This public event is free. Doctorow will discuss the topic'Machine Learning, Big Data and Being Less Wrong'.

Author Cory Doctorow tells us about a great book he has read this year and why he thinks dystopias are more popular in fiction than utopias. Author Cory Doctorow tells us about a great book he has read this year and why he thinks dystopias are more popular in fiction than utopias. What's it like after our system collapses? After the climate spins out of control, the middle class diminishes to an infinitesimal speck, the very rich grab all the wealth and resources, traditional employment disappears, factories sit empty and hundreds of thousands opt out of society altogether? To Cory Doctorow, it's not that far from where we are now, and not so bad after all.

This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. Imagine a world where the combination of faster computers, networks, and amplified human intelligence could bring about a change so radical that those who follow will no longer be human. Some futurists and science fiction writers envision that world coming to pass, not hundreds of years from now but in the next generation. And they call this event the Technological Singularity. From member station KUSP, Rick Kleffel tries to get a glimpse of an un-seeable future.