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AUSTIN, Texas—"Did you like the movie?"

Twelve seconds after I've introduced myself to Bill Nye, under the auspices of interviewing him, I find myself receiving the questions. He's TV's "The Science Guy," after all, and he has reason to ask that opening question: his entire life was just put under a documentarian's microscope. He had not seen Bill Nye: Science Guy until the night before (nor had pretty much anyone else, since it was the film's world premiere). Already, it's time for peer review.

I offer my own succinct statement—"I really liked it"—and Nye fills the following brief pause with all of the thoughts he's come up with in the past 12 hours. He appreciates how the film talked about the congenital condition on his father's side of the family; wishes the film offered more context for a story about his early career; is happy about new footage of one of his science-debate opponents mulling a change of heart. "That's surprising and cool!"

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Twitter wants to make it as easy as possible for companies to live stream video on its platform. According to a report from The Information, the company is set to announce next week that it will open up its live-streaming API to allow media companies to livestream to Twitter. This would let companies use Twitter software directly to livestream video; currently companies have to sign deals with Twitter in order to use this feature or use Twitter's live video app Periscope.

This would be the biggest effort by Twitter to promote livestreaming on its platform we've seen in a while, arguably since the launch of Periscope. Any livestreaming directly to Twitter currently requires planning and negotiations with the company, and Twitter continues to sign deals that bring more live content to the social media site. Last year the company streamed 10 NFL Thursday Night Football games, it struck a deal to stream over 15 e-sport tournaments this year, and most recently, it signed a two-year deal with the National Lacrosse League to live-stream an NLL Game of the Week and additional highlights.

It appears the new open API for live-streaming directly to Twitter will supplement Periscope. The report suggests the open API would only be available to media partners and not regular Twitter users, so we laypeople will likely be left with Periscope for our daily live-streaming needs.

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The launch of YouTube Red last year wasn't an immediate "take my money" moment for me. YouTube's first subscription service (it costs $10 per month) offers a few features that improve the viewing experience. But it also banks on a subscriber accepting new things, particularly new YouTube-y things. I eventually signed up. After a few weeks of use, I couldn't imagine a YouTube experience without Red.

But after six months, I cancelled my subscription—and I found that going back to the old, ad-filled YouTube wasn't that much of a shock.

What you get with Red

First, let's take a look at the features of YouTube Red.

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This essay was written in 1990 and updated in 1996 by Robert J. Sawyer, the sci-fi author writer behind such novels as Flashforward and more recently Quantum Night. 27 years later, he's still using WordStar.

As recently as 2014, George R. R. Martin, of A Song of Ice and Fire fame, used a DOS-based version of WordStar, and probably still does today.

I'm not sure why they don't just use Emacs or something. Enjoy this walk down memory lane...

Many science fiction writers—including myself, Roger MacBride Allen, Gerald Brandt, Jeffrey A. Carver, Arthur C. Clarke, David Gerrold, Terence M. Green, James Gunn, Matthew Hughes, Donald Kingsbury, Eric Kotani, Paul Levinson, George R. R. Martin, Vonda McIntyre, Kit Reed, Jennifer Roberson, and Edo van Belkom—continue to use WordStar for DOS as our writing tool of choice.

Still, most of us have endured years of mindless criticism of our decision, usually from WordPerfect users, and especially from WordPerfect users who have never tried anything but that program. I've used WordStar, WordPerfect, Word, MultiMate, Sprint, XyWrite, and just about every other MS-DOS and Windows word-processing package, and WordStar is by far my favorite choice for creative composition at the keyboard.

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Here, in reality, we live in a period of unprecedented introspection with regard to robots and automation. Hastening developments in the fields of artificial intelligence and cybernetics are converging on the creation of machines that are independent from human oversight. A recent commission from the European Parliament demanded a set of regulations be drawn up to govern the creation, use, and even rights of robots. Luminaries such as Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk have warned that AI presents the greatest existential threat to mankind.

NieR: Automata, a hyperactive action game from the idiosyncratic Yoko Taro—the closest Japan has to a Tim Burton—winds the clock forward to a time when humanity has been driven from Earth by their robotic creations. We have, in Taro’s fiction, been forced to take refuge in the stars. Only robots and androids, two distinct mechanical species, walk our now overgrown cities. They exist in perpetual war.

You play as YoRHa No. 2 Model B (hereafter 2B for brevity and sanity’s sake), a combat droid deployed by the human survivors who live on a spaceship circumnavigating Earth. 2B has been built in the shape of a waifish girl with a short, blonde bob and a taste for black clothing. Appearances deceive: 2B is whip-quick and deadly, able to wield two melee weapons (which she switches between depending on the ferocity of your attack) as well as an orbiting drone, which adds back-up fire as well as providing a floating support for when 2B performs a giant leap and needs a handhold for a gentle landing. 2B is supported by 9S, a boyish droid who, as well as providing AI-controlled backup, supplies a steady stream of quips to counter 2B’s rather stern outlook on life.