Futurism Staff

Author K.E. Lanning is a scientist and writer—visualizing subterranean faults and those of imagined characters. As she describes, “Physics trains the mind to analyze and deduce theories, similar to developing the story line of a novel–both take creativity and hard work.” Lanning's expertise and passion for both art and science set her on a natural course towards writing science fiction. This big-picture thinker has proven proficient in the craft of making esoteric knowledge more palpable for the rest of us, and her recurring OMNI interview series In the Author’s Universe is only one of many such examples. Writing is her passion, and her upcoming novel, A Spider Sat Beside Her, weaves a story of betrayal of the human spirit and the Earth. It's about time this knowledge-excavator got some digging of her own; in advance of her debut novel, OMNI checked in with K.E Lanning for an enlightening interview about her work, writing, motivation, and worldview.

This article originally appeared in Variety by Dave McNary on June 27th, 2017. Jared Leto is partnering with Omni Magazine in a deal to produce original content, Variety has learned exclusively.

It's rather fitting that Dr. Louis Rosenberg, an individual wholly dedicated to preparing humans for the immediate and distant future, is featured in a project titled Year Million, National Geographic Channel's six-part documentary series that explores and postulates on the future of humanity; on what it will be like to be human one million years into the future.

What does an Academy Award winning visual effects specialist do at the culmination of 25 years of career successes and a prolific filmography? If you're the UK-born Paul J. Franklin, you set your certifiably keen eye on a new challenge and go after it full force.

After 25 years off the airwaves, OMNI: The New Frontier is back and online for your digital viewing pleasure on Vimeo. For those growing up in the early 80s, this may trigger memories of nostalgia, of visions of the future unlike anything you had ever seen. Illustrations of advanced spacecraft. Brilliant scientists transcending all environmental and bodily limitations. Dreams of colonies on space. Fantasies of robots revolutionizing society.

James Barrat is the author of Our Final Invention: Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era, an equal parts fascinating-and-terrifying book which explores the perils associated with the heedless pursuit of advanced artificial intelligence.