I haven't posted in ages. Been busy writing, aging, shouting at clouds, exploring exciting new donut flavors, writing, thinking about writing, writing, and not posting. Then a friend passed along a real head-kicker, and I had to share. Tokyo's A-Lab Co and the Kodaiji Temple in Kyoto unveiled a robot modeled after Kannon Bodhisattva, designed to educate visitors to the temple about Buddhism. The video below sent my brain spinning in a way few bits of futurism news do these days. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKhgSCc6OAE The video shows monks bowing to a robot as it explains the … [Read more...]
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Robots and Cats
It's the roundup—all the happenings that sparked enough of my interest this week to inspire a blog post. I wage a constant battle NOT to notice things so that I can get more novel-writing done, so this list represents a tragic defeat by the forces of fascination. The war against distraction is real, my friends. Walking Stoically Through a European Rave I saw the new Mission Impossible. I think this installment is called…Falling from High Places Really Fast While Fighting? It was fantastic, a great time, highly recommended if you are a fan of fun. I like fun. The film hooked me … [Read more...]
The Future is For Optimists
Optimism is hard. For most of us, thinking good thoughts about the future doesn’t come naturally. Even trying to be optimistic about the next few months feels like running uphill (and I hate running). These days, optimism in one particular subject—the effect of technology on our collective future—can feel downright impossible. There’s a good reason you don’t see happy movies about the future. Off the top of my head, the only one I can recall is The Fifth Element, and that’s more fantasy than sci-fi. Even the new Star Trek (from what I’ve read) has traded cerebral hope about the good of … [Read more...]
The Roundup: Space Rock Edition
Interstellar Asteroids are Wonderfully Weird If you'd told me last week that before now, we had never witnessed an interstellar object of any kind enter our solar system, I’d have said “Let's get lunch. I’m hungry.” Then I would have said, “I’m not finished watching season two of Stranger Things, so we can’t talk about that.” THEN I would have said “Seriously? Nothing from outside our solar system, ever?” If you’re a non-scientist/barely casual space watcher like me, then you probably had no idea either. But it’s true. The newly-arrived asteroid “Oumuamua”—Hawaiian for “scout”—is the … [Read more...]
Blade Runner Redux: New Toys and Old Toys
I saw Blade Runner 2049 on opening night. Now, a full week on, several friends have expressed surprise that I haven’t at least made a Facebook or Twitter mention of my impressions. I don’t think I will because I recognize that I’m uniquely unqualified to judge the film on its own merits. The original has meant too much to me. I couldn’t give an objective review its 35-year later sequel if I tried. But I can’t say nothing about it, so I’d like to praise a bit of continuity world-building they brought forward from the original film into this one. It’s the wonderful juxtaposition of shiny new … [Read more...]
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