Later that same day, Page, who turns 40 in March, announced a new philanthropic venture. After observing epidemiological behavior via Google Search’s flu-tracking service, he decided to pay for free flu shots for kids in the entire Bay Area.

Read more

How To Become A Science-Fiction Scholar (Audio)

wolvensnothere:

Good morning, everyone! The Comics & Popular Arts Academic Conference at Dragon-Con A/V train just keeps on a-rollin’! Today, we have Damien Patrick Williams (Me!) and Vickie Willis in “How To Become A Science-Fiction Scholar”: A discussion of how one becomes involved in the field SF and SF-related studies, including finding a friendly or thoughtfully amenable graduate program, researching, writing, and presenting at SF conferences.

You may also find that discussion of a) the nature and the “purpose” of science-fiction, as relates to women, minorities, and other systematically oppressed groups and b) the nature of and fact THAT systematized structures of bias, imbalance of social power, and oppression even EXIST becomes pertinent. Necessary, even.

Do enjoy the audio, and tell your friends!

How To Become A Science-Fiction Scholar (Audio)

Read more "How To Become A Science-Fiction Scholar (Audio)"

1. There is no one Singularity. Any area of scientific inquiry, pushed far enough, could provide its own native version of a cataclysm: biological, cognitive, mechanical, cybernetic, you could name it. If man is the measure of all things, then there probably is no measure by which we can’t be made more than human.

2. A Singularity ends the human condition (because that is its definition), but it resolves nothing else. It would almost certainly be followed by a rapid, massive explosion of following Singularities. These ultra — cataclysmic events would disrupt the first Singularity even more than the first Singularity disrupted the human condition.

3. The posthuman condition is banal. It is crypto — theological, and astounding, and apocalyptic, and eschatological, and ontological, but only by human standards. Oh sure, we become as gods (or something does), but the thrill fades fast, because that thrill is merely human and parochial. By the new, post Singularity standards, posthumans are just as bored and frustrated as humans ever were. They are not magic, they are still quotidian entities in a gritty, rules — based physical universe. They will find themselves swiftly and bruisingly brought up against the limits of their own conditions, whatever those limits and conditions may be.

4. Messy, embarrassing, reversible, goofy, catch — as — catch — can posthumanism is politically preferable to sleek, streamlined, sudden, utter, Final Solution posthumanism. The best way to encounter a Singularity would be to nick over the event horizon for a minute or two and have somebody else yank you back. Then the rest of us would be able to debrief you, and see if you could still write as well as Jaron Lanier.

Read more

In five billion years, all humans will have become extinct or evolved into other beings, none of our artifacts will have survived on Earth, the continents will have become unrecognizably altered or destroyed, and the evolution of the Sun will have burned the Earth to a crisp or reduced it to a whirl of atoms.

Far from home, untouched by these remote events, Voyager I and II, bearing the memories of a world that is no more, will fly on.

Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot (via whats-out-there)

See this is why I get excited about Space. Because Space is Mythic. Because the universe is vast and full of wonders abd we are barely opening the damn door, let alone sitting on our doorstep, wondering what’s over the next interstellar hill.

It might kill us. It might change us beyond all recognition. Journeys do that. That’s what they are for.

That’s the thing though. We as a species have yet to explore our whole house. We haven’t gone through the rainforest-attics or rummaged through the vasty deep places of oceanic-cellars.

We can barely stand to examine ourselves in the mirror, let alone look under the bed to see what nocturnal things lie inside our minds and dreams.

No, we’re too busy fighting who gets over the comfy chair with the best view of the TV, or the warmest spot in the kitchen.

We don’t even have, as a species, the childlike sense of wonder that makes us want to explore everywhere we can.

We’re weary hipster teens more concerned with being ironic and cynical and cool, a collection of sharpsuited-fedora-bros-andgirls who claim it’s a waste of cash, and we should get the best new piece of consumer tech.

We can’t afford space-travel, we say. It’s not economical. It doesn’t enable us to drink coffee and mock others dreams as juvenile. It doesn’t allow us to throw our weight around, or feel superior.

“Cool story bro.” says homo sapiens hipsterus, and the world rolls on, herd mentality running like a species-wide highschool dynamic.

And yet, all across the world, there are the ones who feel uncomfortable with that. Who want to learn, to understand, to dream, and work out what it will take to prepare, to explore every avenue, every realm and way of being there might be.

Those of us with existentially, ontologically itchy feet.

You’re not alone – just sayin’.

Because it is a Cool Story. It’s the Coolest & Oldest Story there ever was. It’s the story of Humanity. (via coldalbion)

Read more

*New York City photographers*

Here, Marc A. Hermann (r.) and his colleagues of 70 years prior get caught in a rare moment on the opposite side of the camera lens. Hermann began this photo project because of his love for history and it has since blossomed into a series that reminds us all that there has been bustling life in the Big Apple for decades. “New York is constantly changing and transforming, and tragedies that affected individuals’ lives are forgotten. We may stand on what was once the site of a horrific murder and not even know it, simply because life goes on,” says Hermann. Now you can relive these historic moments in present-day.

http://fstoppers.com/vintage-crime-scene-photos-superimposed-on-modern-ny-streets-warning-graphic

Read more

Billionaires’ battle for historic launch pad goes into overtime – NBC News.com

The competition demonstrates two kinds of clout at work: Musk’s SpaceX was once seen as an upstart challenger to the space establishment — but after a string of successes, it now plays a leading role in NASA’s vision for commercial spaceflight. Bezos’ Blue Origin doesn’t have as much of a track record in spaceflight, but it does have powerful allies in the launch industry as well as in the halls of Congress.

Billionaires’ battle for historic launch pad goes into overtime – NBC News.com

Read more "Billionaires’ battle for historic launch pad goes into overtime – NBC News.com"