Saturday, April 12 is Yuri's Night, the commemoration of Yuri Gagarin's first flight to space.  All over Earth, parties will celebrate the legacy and hope of spaceflight, from Alaska to Antarctica.  In Second Life, party central is Extropia!

We'll host a full day of events, but the cornerstone will be a special appearance as Spotlight Guest at Sophrosyne's Saturday Salon by novelist, futurist and gadfly David Brin!  Soph will interview David in an open discussion event in the Central Nexus in Extropia Core, from 1 to 2:30 PM Pacific Time.

David Brin is a scientist, speaker, technical consultant and world-known author. His novels have been New York Times Bestsellers, winning multiple Hugo, Nebula and other awards. At least a dozen have been translated into more than twenty languages.

His 1989 ecological thriller, Earth, foreshadowed global warming, cyberwarfare and near-future trends such as the World Wide Web*. A 1998 movie, directed by Kevin Costner, was loosely based on The Postman.

Brin serves on advisory committees dealing with subjects as diverse as national defense and homeland security, astronomy and space exploration, SETI and nanotechnology, future/prediction and philanthropy. His non-fiction book -- The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us to Choose Between Freedom and Privacy? -- deals with secrecy in the modern world. It won the Freedom of Speech Prize from the American Library Association.

As a speaker and on television, David Brin shares unique insights -- serious and humorous -- about ways that changing technology may affect our future lives. Brin lives in San Diego County with his wife, three children, and a hundred very demanding trees.