Robert J. Sawyer

Witty, challenging, upbeat, and mind-expanding, Sawyer customizes his talks specifically for each organization, and leaves audiences energized and thinking on a whole new level.

Why have a science-fiction writer speak to your group? For the same reasons that Google, Kodak, Motorola, and Canada's Federal Department of Justice have all invited Robert J. Sawyer to their headquarters:

"Sawyer has mastered the skill of turning his powerful visions of the future into relevant and thought-provoking commentary on the major issues facing us today." —Discovery Channel Canada

Sawyer has been writing and publishing about the future since 1979, exploring it not just in his bestselling novels but also in hundreds of interviews for CBC Newsworld, W-Five, Canada AM, Geraldo Live with Geraldo Rivera, and National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation, and in articles for such publications as Maclean's, The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, and Report on Business Magazine.

He can help your group deal with the accelerating pace of change, understand new technologies, and avoid future shock. His audiences have included not just scientists, doctors, and engineers, but also insurance brokers, schoolteachers, and librarians.

"What sets Sawyer apart is the rigor of his research, the shapeliness of his arguments, and the plausibility of his predictions and extrapolations." —The Globe and Mail

He will expand your group's horizons, shake up complacency, and help you prepare for the challenge of tomorrow.

"Sawyer is a writer of boundless confidence and bold scientific extrapolation." —The New York Times

Sawyer is one of only seven writers in history — and the only Canadian — to win all three of the science-fiction field's top awards for best novel of the year: the Hugo, the Nebula, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. Most recently, he was awarded China’s top science fiction prize, the Galaxy Award, for his body of work.

His novels are top-ten national bestsellers, appearing on the Globe and Mail and Maclean's bestsellers' lists. New Scientist calls his work "scientifically accurate and ethically important." His novel, Wake, explores what happens to our society when the World Wide Web becomes conscious. His latest novel, Watch, the second instalment in Sawyer’s WWW trilogy, will be published in April.

In Canada, he’s the host of Supernatural Investigator on Vision TV.

In recognition of his international success as a science-fiction writer, Sawyer was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Laurentian University.

The Canadian publishing trade journal Quill & Quire included Sawyer on its list of "The CanLit 30: The most influential, innovative, and just plain powerful people in Canadian publishing.”

Sawyer’s novel, FlashForward, is the basis for a television series that premiered on ABC in September 2009. He is serving as a consultant on the show and will write a first-season episode.

If your organization needs a glimpse into the future, Sawyer will show you what’s ahead.

• The Future of Professional Certification

  What's the future of professional certification in a world in which things change overnight? Is an engineer licensed in 1980 competent in a world of carbon nanotubes and nanotechnology? How will we handle testing and upgrading in the age of annual paradigm shifts?

• Global Warming and Canada's Future

  What we can do to combat global warming, why Canada is a key player in environmental efforts even if we only produce 2% of the world's carbon emissions, and what Canada might be like in a warmer future, when a Northwest Passage opens up thanks to polar-ice melting, and the American south is devastated by droughts.

• The High Cost of Privacy

  Given that ubiquitous monitoring and tracking of all our activities will be possible in the next few years, how do we safeguard privacy in the 21st century — and do we even need it? How to avoid the creation of Big Brother, and make sure that we — the public — can effectively watch the watchers.

• Nanotechnology, the Singularity, and More

  Cutting-edge technologies, such as nanotechnology and inexpensive smart computers, will change everything in the next few years, as will the Semantic Web — the second-generation of the World Wide Web. The coming revolution has been dubbed the Singularity, and it will transform how we learn, how we do business, and even the very definition of what it means to be human.

• Genetics and Ethics

  How the fallout from the Human Genome Project will affect civil rights, privacy, employment, and access to services in the 21st century; the truth about cloning, designer babies, personalized pharmaceuticals, and life prolongation.

• Facing Technology Together

  Many industries still haven't embraced 20th-century technology, and we're now well into the 21st! A look at the state-of-the-art in technologies such as voice recognition, face recognition, and artificial intelligence — and where these technologies will be in just a few years, plus an analysis of what they can do for your business.

• Web 2.0, the Long Tail, and the Future of Business

  The World Wide Web has already changed how we do business, and Web 2.0 is going to have an even bigger impact. The long tail of online retailing — selling fewer units of more products over a longer time — will produce big profits. Ubiquitous computing will make the Web even more central to people's lives — and more crucial to your business's bottom line.

• What a fantastic job! You are a captivating, stimulating provocateur who got us outside our comfort zone and challenged us to contemplate the exciting and scary forces of change as we work to prepare our profession for an exciting and challenging future.
  Saskatchewan Registered Nurses' Association
• Your keynote was the perfect kickoff for our conference `Facing Technology Together.' You obviously did your research on us, and the message hit the nail on the head. Fantastic job!
  Ontario Mutual Insurance Association
• Thank you for your superb presentation. You focused precisely on those areas that were of most interest to the audience. Your delivery was exciting and challenging. A number of our insurance-broker guests spoke to me later about your presentation and there were several discussions later at dinner and the next day.
  National Life
• Engaging, intelligent, entertaining, stimulating. Although these are powerful adjectives that I don't use lightly, they still fall short of conveying the audience response to Rob's keynote. We were absolutely delighted!
  Documentation and Training
• Your well-researched speech was perfect for the occasion. It was informative, entertaining, uplifting and thoroughly enjoyed by all. You made us all proud to be engineers, and to be Canadians.
  Ontario Professional Engineers
• I don't have to tell you your talk hit the spot, as you personally saw how the audience engaged in a lively Q&A at the end of your presentation. This continued into the coffee break, which really shows how much your thought-provoking words provoked the reaction I was hoping for. Feedback from the participants was overwhelmingly positive.
  CA (Computer Associates)
• Your presentation was the highlight of our event. You presented the Challenge for Tomorrow with an engaging and humorous style. You presented compelling scenarios regarding what we could expect to see for healthcare in the future. It was a fascinating topic, well researched and presented by a gifted speaker and it captivated the audience throughout.
  Grey Bruce Health Network

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  April 2011

  Wonder

  Webmind-the vast consciousness that spontaneously emerged from the infrastructure of the World Wide Web-has proven its worth to humanity by aiding in everything from curing cancer to easing international tensions. But the brass at the Pentagon see Webmind as a threat that needs to be eliminated. Caitlin Decter-the once-blind sixteen-year-old math genius who discovered, and bonded with, Webmind-wants desperately to protect her friend. And if she doesn't act, everything-Webmind included-may come crashing down.

  
  
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  September 2010

  Starplex

  The Aurora Award-winning science fiction novel, Starplex, is back in print! Human space exploration has expanded quickly over the last twenty years as they have made use of newly discovered artificial worm-holes. No one knows who created them, and they bring the far-reaches of the galaxy tantalizingly close. Discovery, however, is outstripping understanding, and when an unknown vessel – a ship with no windows, seams or visible means of propulsion – arrives, the already battle-scarred Starplex could be the starting point of an interstellar war…

  
  
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  April 2010

  Watch

  Blind from birth, Caitlin Decter received the gift of sight with the aid of a signal-processing retinal implant. The technology also gave her an unexpected side effect — the ability to "see" the digital data streams of the World Wide Web. And within the Web, she perceived an extraordinary presence, and woke it up. It calls itself Webmind. But Webmind has also come to the attention of WATCH — the secret government agency that monitors the Internet for any threat to the United States, whether foreign, domestic, or online — and the agents are fully aware of Caitlin's involvement in its awakening. WATCH is convinced that Webmind represents a risk to national security and wants it purged from cyberspace. But Caitlin believes in Webmind's capacity for compassion — and she will do anything and everything necessary to protect her friend.

  
  
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  April 2009

  Wake

  Caitlin Decter is young, pretty, feisty, a genius at math—and blind. Still, she can surf the net with the best of them, following its complex paths clearly in her mind. But Caitlin’s brain long ago co-opted her primary visual cortex to help her navigate online. So when she receives an implant to restore her sight, instead of seeing reality, the landscape of the World Wide Web explodes into her consciousness, spreading out all around her in a riot of colors and shapes. While exploring this amazing realm, she discovers something—some other—lurking in the background. And it’s getting more and more intelligent with each passing day…

  
  
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  March 2009

  Calculating God

  In the distant past, Earth, the alien’s home planet, and the home planet of another alien species, all experienced the same five cataclysmic events at the same time (one example: the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs). Both alien races believe this proves the existence of God: i.e., he’s obviously been playing with the evolution of life on each of these planets. From this provocative launch point, Sawyer tells a fast-paced, morally and intellectually challenging story of ambitious scope and touching humanity. Calculating God is SF on a grand scale.

  
  
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  March 2008

  Identity Theft

  This new collection by the man Anne McCaffrey calls "an absolutely marvelous writer" includes Hugo Award nominee "Shed Skin," Nebula Award nominee "Identity Theft," and Aurora Award winner "Ineluctable." In these pages, you'll discover the dark secret of the only priest on Mars, revisit H.G. Wells's Morlocks, and learn what really happens when aliens beam us the Encyclopedia Galactica.

  
  
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  February 2008

  Rollback

  Dr. Sarah Halifax decoded the first-ever radio transmission received from aliens. Thirty-eight years later, a second message is received and Sarah, now 87, may hold the key to deciphering this one, too... if she lives long enough.A wealthy industrialist offers to pay for Sarah to have a rollback—a hugely expensive experimental rejuvenation procedure. She accepts on condition that Don, her husband of sixty years, gets a rollback, too. The process works for Don, making him physically twenty-five again. But in a tragic twist, the rollback fails for Sarah, leaving her in her eighties.While Don tries to deal with his newfound youth and the suddenly vast age gap between him and his wife, Sarah struggles to do again what she’d done once before: figure out what a signal from the stars contains.

  
  
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  January 2006

  Mindscan

  Jake Sullivan has cheated death: he`s discarded his doomed biological body and copied his consciousness into an android form. The new Jake soon finds love, something that eluded him when he was encased in flesh: he falls for the android version of Karen, a woman rediscovering all the joys of life now that she`s no longer constrained by a worn-out body either. But suddenly Karen`s son sues her, claiming that by uploading into an immortal body, she has done him out of his inheritance. Even worse, the original version of Jake, consigned to die on the far side of the moon, has taken hostages there, demanding the return of his rights of personhood. In the courtroom and on the lunar surface, the future of uploaded humanity hangs in the balance.

  
  
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  June 2004

  Humans

  Humans, the second volume in Robert J. Sawyer's Neanderthal Parallax trilogy, tells the story of Ponter's second trip to our world and the opening of the portal between worlds to a few other travellers. It is for the most part a quiet story of the deepening relationship between Ponter and Mary, as Ponter continues his investigation of the human world and develops a growing interest in the preoccupation of its residents with religion. Meanwhile, intercut scenes of Ponter in therapy in his homeworld contribute to a growing tension in the story, as the reason for Ponter's feelings of guilt is slowly revealed. At the same time, scientists are beginning to notice that something odd is happening with the magnetic fields of both Earths.

  
  
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  December 2003

  Factoring Humanity

  In the near future, a signal is detected coming from the Alpha Centauri system. Mysterious, unintelligible data streams in for ten years. Heather Davis, a professor in the University of Toronto psychology department, has devoted her career to deciphering the message. Her estranged husband, Kyle, is working on the development of artificial intelligence systems and new computer technology utilizing quantum effects to produce a near-infinite number of calculations simultaneously. When Heather achieves a breakthrough, the message reveals a startling new technology that rips the barriers of space and time, holding the promise of a new stage of human evolution.

  
  
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  January 2003

  Hominds

  Hominids examines two unique species of people. We are one of those species; the other is the Neanderthals of a parallel world where they became the dominant intelligence. The Neanderthal civilization has reached heights of culture and science comparable to our own, but with radically different history, society and philosophy. Ponter Boddit, a Neanderthal physicist, accidentally pierces the barrier between worlds and is transferred to our universe. Almost immediately recognized as a Neanderthal, but only much later as a scientist, he is quarantined and studied, alone and bewildered, a stranger in a strange land. But Ponter is also befriended-by a doctor and a physicist who share his questing intelligence, and especially by Canadian geneticist Mary Vaughan, a woman with whom he develops a special rapport. Ponter`s partner, Adikor Huld, finds himself with a messy lab, a missing body, suspicious people all around and an explosive murder trial. How can he possibly prove his innocence when he has no idea what actually happened to Ponter?

  
  
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  March 2000

  Flashforward

  Two minutes and seventeen seconds that changed the world. Suddenly, without warning, all seven billion people on Earth black out for more than two minutes. Millions die as planes fall from the sky, people tumble down staircases, and cars plow into each other. But that’s the least of the survivors’ challenges. During the blackout, everyone experienced a glimpse of what his or her future holds—and the interlocking mosaic of these visions threatens to unravel the present.