Read moreAcross the U.S. as a whole, approximately 50 percent of the warming that has occurred since 1950 is due to land use changes (usually in the form of clearing forest for crops or cities) rather than to the emission of greenhouse gases.
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Johnston’s ability to, essentially, stealth-worldbuild is impressive, making the growth of the story past the central mystery of Abi and Michael seem both natural and effortless, drawing the reader in without tipping his hand about what he’s doing, or even where he’s going next (Within the 300+ pages of the Apocalyptic Edition collection, there’re a couple of reveals that surprise but make sense and stand up to re-readings). Making the characters recognizable without making them too familiar – and, thankfully, staying clear of cliched fake-swearing or language which shows that the writer is trying a little too hard to tell us that this world is different, really – he manages to pull our sympathies towards his characters while still giving them the space to surprise and make the wrong decisions without losing our interest or empathy.
Wasteland Impresses With Its Subtle Worldbuilding
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Read moreWhen comparing another entity’s sentience to ours, then, we must take into account similarities and differences. We cannot sense the Earth’s magnetic fields the way birds or cockroaches can, nor do we have any idea what the cells of our stomach are experiencing most of the time. As we develop non-human intelligence, there will be even more categories of perception that do not fall within our level of sentience. Intelligent robots will be able to perceive more of the EM spectrum, sense electrical conductivity, or detect exotic particles.
Going into a posthuman future, we should not base sentience on our anthropocentric limitations but on the concept of mutual sentience. That which we can perceive we can usually impart. Through description, song, or art we are able to transmit to others of our kind the meaning behind a particular perception. Thus if two entities have overlapping categories of perception, they may be able to communicate with each other. Without overlap, two entities may still be sentient but not mutually sentient, and as such unable to communicate.
Read more..the near-certainty that the technologies of human intelligence augmentation will continue apace. The technologies that may be dead-ends for efforts to construct a self-aware artificial mind could easily be of great value as non-conscious assistants to human minds.
The notion that creating “real” AI may turn out to be extraordinarily difficult, and the idea that human intelligence augmentation could itself turn out to be a more promising line of research..
Read moreI incorporated steampunk into my apartment as well. Plus, “style” for me was also a lifestyle. My steampunk has a lot of positive, future-looking attitudes to it, and the DIY movement gets picked up there as well. I felt a lot better upcycling old tights into arm coverings, fixing battered chairs I might otherwise throw out, and even growing a garden on my apartment’s tiny deck. These things are not what people view as steampunk, but being in that style and mindset, I wanted to know more about how my world worked, and how I could do things myself. I felt more positive all over.
Read moreCOILHOUSE is a love letter to alternative culture, written in an era when alternative culture no longer exists. And because it no longer exists, we take from yesterday and tomorrow, from the mainstream and from the underground, to construct our own version. We cover art, fashion, technology, music and film to create an alternative culture that we would like to live in, as opposed to the one that’s being sold or handed down to us.
Read moreAn artificial appropriation of different styles from different eras, the hipster represents the end of Western civilization – a culture lost in the superficiality of its past and unable to create any new meaning. Not only is it unsustainable, it is suicidal. While previous youth movements have challenged the dysfunction and decadence of their elders, today we have the “hipster” – a youth subculture that mirrors the doomed shallowness of mainstream society.
Read moreI just couldn’t help thinking that maybe through some ironic accident a bunch of Ralph Lauren models may end up becoming cyborgs that live forever. Or at least a really long time. It’s kind of cinematic.
Let’s go through the checklist here. In order to make it to the Singularity you need to be as healthy/preserved as possible in 2045 so you can take advantage of nanobots and technology.
From what I have gathered you need to: Hardly eat anything on a calorie restriction diet; Drink tons of Pinot Noir; Not be adverse to radically altering your body (ie plastic surgery); Marry a rich guy who can afford Cadillac cyborg health care in the future.
The Committee to Nuke Elysium 