Describe your book in one sentence. 2084 and Beyond, a reminder of George Orwell’s 1984, offers scientific and cultural solutions for the ever escalating possibility of humans’ use of weapons of mass destruction.
What is the most important thing you have to do as an author of nonfiction vs. fiction? 2084 and Beyond, both nonfiction and fiction, offers documented solutions to eradicate the deadly trinity of aggression, violence, and weapons. A fictional character illustrates the extraordinary genetic and cerebral progress that is probable.
What made you want to share your story and write this book? My book coalesced from my youth spent on the high plains experiencing nature and the culture of a small rural town. With a degree in psychology, I continued my notes as I moved from the plains to the Pacific to serve as a Navy officer in Vietnam. Adding experiences with Navy intelligence, the emerging Internet, the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C., a Federal Reserve Bank senior officer, and a twenty-year career as an international businessman and lecturer, my notes brought together an overarching view with current scientific research offering changes from world citizens’ rush to eradicate each other.
Did your research for this book lead you into any other interesting discoveries? I felt compelled to capture quotes and observations all my life. However, becoming an international lecturer on Internet architecture and protocols motivated me to write. I wrote 35 books (seven foreign editions) to support the complexity of teaching international corporate leaders. Once I started writing, I discovered it filled an inherent need to express issues and ideas, and to capture moments in time such as my growing-up-years on the plains, The Light Side of Little Texas, which won the Historical Society of New Mexico 2012 Centennial Award for the best depiction of domestic life in New Mexico. A Swimmer’s Odyssey: From the Plains to the Pacific, a motivational book, captures my abrupt change in career goals from continuing as an Underwater Demolition Team (now SEAL). The Nearly Perfect Storm: An American Financial and Social Failure defines reasons from both sides of the aisle for the 2008 financial melt down (my book details issues in the movie, The Big Short with Brad Pitt and Christian Bale). Then, it seemed time to finalize 2084 and Beyond, which had been in process for years.
What steps did you take to prepare for writing this book? My inherent curiosity about nature and humanity supported by constant note taking.
What resources or tools did you find useful in writing this book? Meticulous note taking that included documenting the sources.
How long did it take you, beginning of research to final product, to complete this book? It grew from my childhood to my retirement, all the time reading printed materials, observing people internationally in corporate settings as well as the people on the street around the world.
What do you want people to take away from reading this book? My book gives possibilities, even probabilities, for change from a constant promotion of aggression, revenge, and use of more deadly weapons.
How did you become involved with the subject or theme of your book? I am an optimistic person who believes that if people work toward a common good, it can happen. However, presenting the ideas for change must reach the average citizens on the street. My book is written for those citizens who are seeking answers.
Why did you choose to write in your particular field or genre? I selected the nonfiction-and-fiction narrative to reach average citizens who are power sources for change.
What do you think most characterizes your writing? 2084 and Beyond, using a theme that could be difficult to read, uses the language of the people. I would have defeated the goal for my book if I had written in academic jargon.
What was the hardest part of writing this book? Integrating scientific research, ideology, geopolitical issues focused on problems in the Middle East, using language and scenarios that would be appealing to a broad spectrum of readers.
What did you enjoy most about writing this book? This book had been fomenting in the recesses of my mind for many years, so producing those ideas on paper gave me a sense of having given my message to the world.
For those interested in exploring the subject or theme of your book, where should they start? The vast documented information in the endnotes and bibliography in my book will give direction to anyone who wishes to explore subjects found in the narrative.
What projects are you working on at the present? I have completed a book that will be available in 2016, The Internet and Society: What the Present is bringing to the Future. It captures my experiences (with technical notes) from my years during the initiation of the Internet reaching to current issues of privacy, piracy, usage of bandwidth, and more. I do investigative research and writing for Op-Eds in newspapers and magazines as well as making them available on my blog.uylessblack.com.
What do your plans for future projects include? I am doing research for a book tentatively titled: Cold Wars, Hot Warms, and America’s Warm War.
What question do you wish that someone would ask about your book, but nobody has? Write it out here, then answer it. How can I help spread the word about the possibility of change in our culture that will help slow the progress toward use of weapons of mass destruction? Change starts with a few people speaking about possible solutions, solutions found in my book.
What advice would you give to writers just starting out? First, take notes about things that move you to take notes, to capture the ideas, knowing that you have a message to give to the world.
What is the most useful writing advice you ever received? The least useful? Listen to others, consider the focus, be curious, find your voice. Become aware that when others suggest changes to you, assess them being brave enough to know yourself and your message.
Uyless Black completed his undergraduate work in psychology, later earning graduate degrees in computer systems and banking/finance. As an officer in the U.S. Navy, he won the Navy Commendation Medal for his actions in Vietnam. He served w
ith the submarine warfare between America and Cold War enemies. After leaving the Navy, Black founded several computer network firms, became an international lecturer, and wrote thirty-five books on the emerging Internet technology. For this past decade, he has devoted himself to investigating and reporting on the social, political, economic, and military climate of America.
Uyless is an accomplished, award-winning author who has written thirty-nine books. It is a book that posits reasons such as aggression and revenge and how it is playing itself in our world events today. He uses as examples the Middle East issues; however, he gives plausible solutions for change. The change solutions can only happen if people recognize that change is possible. His book is documented. It is a much-needed document to promote world peace.
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The cessation of the Cold War, an event that was predicted to reduce tensions and dangers in the world, moved the setting of humans’ deadly aggressive nature to another stage. From Cold-War mega-powers confronting each other, the post Cold-War stage is set with humans acting out their aggressions under the guise of righteous religious and political credos. But not with mega-nation states; with diffused national tribes, those that have existed for centuries. The humans’ tendency for pointless aggression has taken on a new dimension: The possibility of ideologically driven parties—attempting to fulfill their long-held wish for their tribal hierarchies to succeed—using weapons of mass destruction on the human race. 2084 and Beyond positions the reader into the future. The reader is looking back to the early years of the twenty-first century: today’s world. By studying the Human Archives, the reader learns how humans, facing dangers to their existence, decided to make accelerated changes to their genetic and mental makeup. They had begun to use weapons of mass destruction on themselves. If left undone, the humans were racing toward a world of chaos and destruction. Their use of these weapons to vent humans’ revenge and aggression was proving to be devastating to their societies. This triad formed a deadly trinity and had placed the humans’ future on earth in peril. But the situation could be changed. Extraordinary progress was being made in treating the genetic and cerebral underpinnings of violent, pathological behavior: the basis for self-destructive acts. Black tells the story of how humans realize they had to eradicate this deadly trinity of weapons, revenge, and aggression from their makeup before the deadly trinity eradicated them. He describes how the humans dedicated themselves to save their cultures and their way-of-life. In so doing, they underwent changes to their DNA and brain—a process that is underway today—to become a significantly altered race; one that was dedicated to defeat the deadly trinity. The humans established 2084 as a milestone for having conquered the deadly trinity. This date was chosen a century after George Orwell, the author of 1984, had laid down the gauntlet for ending perpetual war. Did they succeed? The reader, our future relative, turns to the next page of the Human Archives to find out. So shall we.
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