Bruce Sterling's Blog, page 695
January 30, 2010
Al-Qaeda allegedly defeating itself
*This Washington Times article (they're big cult authorities) offers two interesting logical issues.
*If Al Qaeda is "defeating itself," wouldn't Al Qaeda have defeated themselves *much faster* if the USA had done *absolutely nothing* after 9/11?
*Also, since Ozzie has been swanning around at large and violently molesting the entire planet for decades now, isn't it possible that he's just plain getting old? He's three years younger than I am, but I don't spend every day praying, conspiring...
The Soft Apocalypse genre
*io9 is right, there are an absolute ton of these things. And they're going mainstream fast.
*Soft apocalypses shade into the long-established "cozy catastrophe." As Brian Aldiss pointed out decades ago, the essence of the cozy catastrophe is that the hero should have a pretty good time (a girl, free suites at the Savoy, automobiles for the taking) while everyone else is dying off.
*More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2009/nov/25/cosy-catastrophe-fiction
...
Augmented Reality: downsides and evil applications
*Just kinda the tip of the darkside iceberg here, but what the heck, it's a useful start.
http://www.augmentedplanet.com/2010/01/the-case-against-augmented-reality/
*"BurglAR":
Phuturama
"Is There Anybody Out There?
"Introducing to you out there, my name is Gregor Sedlag, conceptioneer of c-base e. V. and having initiated the upcoming first PHUTURAMA – Sub-conference on Speculative, Fictitious and Futuristic Art and Design [1:] at this year's FUTURITY NOW! transmediale.10 festival for art and digital culture berlin.
"By the kind help of the transmediale artistic director Stephen Kovats and his team [2:], we can give a preliminary test-run to the idea of...
Cultural Preservation at War
*Fantastic tale. Never heard a breath about it before. Has blockbuster movie written all over it.
*And if you think these guys look busy, wait till the Greenhouse seas rise.
http://harvardmagazine.com/2010/01/monuments-men-rescuing-art-stolen-by-nazis
(…)
George Stout was not a typical museum official. Unlike many of his peers, who were the product of the eastern elite establishment, Stout was a blue-collar kid from the small town of Winterset, Iowa. From there, he went straight into the army, ...
A human being is a union of vertebrate and virus
*Or, as Wm Burroughs might have put it, "language is a virus and so are you."
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20527451.200-i-virus-why-youre-only-half-human.html?page=1
The answer to our paradox is now clear: the human genome has evolved as a holobiontic union of vertebrate and virus. It is hardly surprising that researchers who have made these discoveries are now calling for a full-scale project to assess the contribution of viruses to our biology (BMC Genomics, vol 9, p 354).
It is also ...
January 28, 2010
The Influencers
*Here comes trouble… Check out that "IKEA Guillotine."
THE INFLUENCERS
Festival of media action and radical entertainment
February 4-5-6, 2010
Center of Contemporary Culture Barcelona, Spain
http://theinfluencers.org
Featuring: The Yes Men, ZEVS, James Acord, Donkijote, Black Label Bike Club, Joan Leandre Retroyou, Critical Art Ensemble, IOCOSE
The Influencers is an annual cult festival held in Barcelona, Spain, at the CCCB and in various improbable locations around the city. Created and...
January 27, 2010
Near Future Laboratory: Fake for Real
http://www.nearfuturelaboratory.com/2010/01/27/fake-for-real/
Why do I blog this? A curious mish-mash of really fake stuff that outlines the boundaries amongst imitation, flattering imitation, and arguably nasty real fake toys taht don't seem particularly playful. Is it even worth fussing over the clear delineations between real/fake; virtual/digital; really me/avatar me? What are the stakes that make these lines of distinction things to fuss and argue over?
But wait..there's more!
(((I also...
Shapeways interviews Makerbot
*It's a pretty tight scene over in "homemade-fab land" — everybody knows everybody.
Shapeways interviews Bre Pettis (on the right), the Maker in Chief over at Makerbot Industries. Makerbot Industries makes an affordable desktop 3D printer and we and a lot of other people are very excited about them and their Cupcake CNC. We asked Bre about the future of Makerbot Industries and desktop 3D...
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