The Health Care Industry Apocalypse In ‘Repo Men’
Annalee Newitz reviews Repo Men on io9.com:
With health care a source of fierce debate in America, a movie like Repo Men was bound to be made. A bloody satire of the marriage between medicine and capitalism, it’s about repo men who collect on overdue artificial organs.
A cult musical about this same topic, called Repo! The Genetic Opera, came out last year, though Repo Men itself was based on a novel called The Repossession Mambo. The idea of scary semi-serial killers who kill to repossess mechanical organs seems to be in the air. Indeed, one of the best parts of Repo Men is the way it captures the sentiments of millions of people who feel dicked over by hospitals and medical insurance companies right now. But the movie’s strength is also its problem: Evil medical corporations are a pretty easy target, and Repo Men gives us a black-and-white view of a problem that is in reality all shades of gray.
Genetically-Engineered Human Have Already Been Born
Here is another chapter from Russ Kick’s classic bite-size Disinformation book 50 Things You’re Not Supposed to Know, published in 2003.
For more on Russ Kick, check out his website, The Memory Hole.
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The earthshaking news appeared in the medical journal Human Reproduction under the impenetrable headline: “Mitochondria in Human Offspring Derived From Ooplasmic Transplantation.”
The media put the story in heavy rotation for one day, then forgot about it. We all forgot about it.
But the fact remains that the world is now populated by dozens of children who were genetically
engineered. It still sounds like science fiction, yet it’s true.
Smart Phones May One Day Be Universal Translators
Sure beats inserting a Babel Fish into the ear. Ryan Kim writes in the San Fransisco Chronicle:
In science fiction, characters often turn to a portable universal translator to help bridge the linguistic divide, either among humans or with aliens.
But the concept doesn’t just exist in the imagination of “Star Trek” writers or the pages of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” Researchers are actually closing in on the technology and foresee its application in the coming years in a very familiar device: the smart phone.
Imagine walking into a restaurant in Beijing and ordering off the menu and talking with waiters in Chinese. It’s a future that is on the way to becoming a reality.
Philip K. Dick Contacted FBI to Warn of Secret Neo-Nazi Plot to Start World War III
This is a great story for PKD fans and others alike. Read Nick Redfern’s “The Strange Tale of Solarcon-6″ in the current issue of Fortean Times:
Undoubtedly, one of the prime reasons why Dick attracted attention from the FBI was a series of bizarre letters he penned to the Bureau in the early 1970s, in which he described his personal knowledge of an alleged underground Nazi cabal that was attempting to covertly manipulate science fiction writers to further advance its hidden cause.
And the nature of that cause was even more bizarre: to initiate a Third World War by infecting the American population with syphilis. On 28 October 1972, Dick wrote to the FBI and outlined his distinctly odd beliefs:
“I am a well-known author of science fiction novels, one of which dealt with Nazi Germany (called MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE, it described an ‘alternate world’ in which the Germans and Japanese won World War Two and jointly occupied the United States).
“This novel, published in 1962 by Putnam and Co., won the Hugo Award for Best Novel of the Year and hence was widely read both here and abroad; for example, a Japanese edition printed in Tokyo ran into several editions. I bring this to your attention because several months ago I was approached by an individual who I have reason to believe belonged to a covert organization involved in politics, illegal weapons, etc., who put great pressure on me to place coded information in future novels ‘to be read by the right people here and there’, as he phrased it. I refused to do this.”
The Science (Fiction) Of Embodied Cognition
John Pavlus writes on io9.com:
Science fiction has long played with the idea of projecting unified personalities/minds/”souls” into different bodies. The premise is baked into the plots of stories like Avatar and Caprica. But how would it work in the real world?
That’s what the science of “embodied cognition” is all about. The basic idea in this new(ish) research area (which overlaps with cognitive psychology, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, robotics, and others) is this: Your mind is defined by your physical form. Not just in terms of “the mind is what the brain does”-we all are pretty down with that already. This takes it further to encompass the whole enchilada: your mind-your “I”-is a function of a cephalized, bipedal, plantigrade, bilaterally symmetrical body between 1.5 and 2 meters tall with two arms terminating in five-fingered…
Let Doctor Who Explain This Supernova…
Choose your favorite doctor for this story … since David Tennant recently left the role (and did a fine job in my opinion) will pay dues in the graphic. Here’s to expressive scientists and thanks to Charlie Jane Anders for writing about this story on the must visit site io9.com:
Astronomers witnessed a supernova in progress, observing jets of material moving at relativistic speeds: up to half the speed of light. Scientist Megan Argo wanted to explain this exciting discovery to the public, so she wrote a Doctor Who story.
As the highly technical press release explains, scientists were able to detect “relativistic outflow” in a supernova for the first time, thanks to unprecedented cooperation between radio telescopes using Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI). They discovered that one narrow bipolar jet of material was moving at half the speed of light.
But Argo, who works at Curtin University, came up with a much cooler way to explain this discovery to the public, the story called “Doctor Who And The Silver Spiral.” David Tennant’s Doctor, accompanied by Martha, visit this supernova up close and personal, and get caught up in the very same shock wave that astronomers just discovered. Argo does a great job of capturing the Tennant Doctor’s verbal tics.
A Sneak Peek at Upcoming Philip K. Dick Movie ‘Radio Free Albemuth’
Scott Timberg writes on io9.com:
A new film based on Philip K. Dick’s posthumous, roughly autobiographical novel, Radio Free Albemuth, has begun some informal screenings around Los Angeles. We saw the film, and spoke to writer/director John Alan Simon about representing the author’s ambivalent life.
Radio Free is very independent in spirit as well as in style; it’s hard to recall a feature film made with so few frills and so apparently small a budget. This may suit the material: The novel is one of Philip Dick’s most personal but least well known, and offers not one but two characters who stand in for Dick himself. One, skeptical and hard-bitten, is played by an actor (Shea Whigham) who resembles the author almost uncannily — a working-class autodidact with a touch of Kerouac. The…
Philip K. Dick’s Final Years in Orange County
The Berkeley boho spent his final years in Orange County, which suited him fine, his daughter says. Scott Timberg writes in the LA Times:
When, one evening in 1976, Philip K. Dick invited Tim Powers to his Fullerton apartment, the Cal State student expected the kind of night he often passed with the science-fiction titan: a wide-ranging conversation, fueled by wine and beer, about religion, philosophy and Beethoven.
The night began the usual way. But it took a strange turn as Dick’s wife, Tessa, and her brother began grabbing lamps and chairs. “She and her brother were carrying things out of the house,” recalls Powers. “I said, ‘Phil, they’re taking stuff, is this OK?’ ”
” ‘Powers, let me give you some advice, in case you should ever find yourself in this position,’…
A Tool to Deceive and Slaughter: Is This How Artificial Intelligence Begins?
Very weird. I agree with the author of this article, does sound like it came from the mind of William S. Burroughs. Scott Timberg writes on io9.com
A devious device looking suspiciously like the pain box from Dune — or a minimalist sculpture from the ’60s — is now selling on eBay. In fact, that’s all it does. This robot sells itself on eBay every week.
Called “A Tool to Deceive and Slaughter (2009),” by the artist Caleb Larsen, the imposing cube has a mind of its own, literally:
Hooked up to the internet, it will put itself up for sale every seven days. Right now — the auction lasts until Thursday — you can land it for just north of four grand. But a week later, the cube will offer itself up for sale…
Why Does Harlan Ellison’s Name Appear in the Credits of ‘The Terminator’?
“Writers are exorcists of their own demons.” —Mario Vargas Llosa
The documentary Dreams With Sharp Teeth, really answers the above question on the nature of this brilliant, cantankerous science fiction master. Below is a clip from this documentary, but if you’re looking for a direct answer to the above question, here’s the answer.
Avatar’s Pandora May Be Real
Several news outlets are running a story about the likelihood of there being habitable moons like the one in the revolutionary movie Avatar. [As an aside, if you have the slightest interest in moviemaking, or just plain filmed entertainment, go and see Avatar on the biggest 3D screen you can find, preferably IMAX; it really does live up to the hype.] From Discovery News:
As James Cameron’s animated sci-fi movie Avatar goes on general release, astronomers point out that the movie’s habitable moon called “Pandora” may exist in reality.
Although none have been found to date, “exomoons” orbiting exoplanets are sure to exist. Could an exomoon be detected? If so, could that exomoon’s atmosphere be probed? Yes and yes, according to today’s announcement by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), Mass.
Did Google Steal From Philip K. Dick’s Brain?
Great observation from Charlie Jane Anders of io9.com:
Philip K. Dick’s daughter, Isa Dick-Hackett, is considering suing Google because their phone handset may be called the Nexus One.
The Replicants in Dick’s Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? were Nexus-6 models.
Would you want a Roy Batty phone?
Read More on io9.com
Do Conservatives Hate ‘Avatar’ for Being Science Fiction With a Brain?
I’m posting part of this idiotic review from Big Hollywood here because no matter how badly the Democrats screw up, Republicans have to deal with voices like this in their Party:
Set in 2154, Avatar is a thinly disguised, heavy-handed and simplistic sci-fi fantasy/allegory critical of America from our founding straight through to the Iraq War…
…Visually Avatar doesn’t break any new ground. It looks like a big-budget animated film with a garish color palette right off a hippie’s tie dye shirt. Never for a moment did I believe the Na’vi or the world of Pandora was something organic or real…
So Big Hollywood prefers entertainment that doesn’t question any societal norms or human history … no matter where you go, there you are. What a terrible turn for society for Cameron to have this in mind … let’s listen to the big “liberal” himself talk about his new film on the Today Show:
Science fiction with “thinking” — how strange — that’s what I have always enjoyed about it…
Philip K. Dick: Prophet of the 21st Century
From Chris M. at Black Sun Gazette:
Philip K. Dick is sci-fi’s most imaginative seer. I know that’s a pretty strong statement, but it’s from the heart. Everybody has a favorite author and he’s one of mine. All though his life was relatively short (1928–82) he wrote hundreds of short stories and four dozen novels. He worked in obscurity, with the exception of a 1963 Hugo Award for Best Sci-Fi Novel, and didn’t recieve mainstream attention until shortly before his death.
In 1981 his novel Do Androids Dream of Electronic Sheep was adapted as a film called Blade Runner. It’s a brilliant film by Ridley Scott, starring Harrison Ford and Rutger Hauer, which still holds up today and one of the few faithful from book to Hollywood movie success stories. But after the…
$500 YouTube Short Gets Unknown Filmmaker $30 Million from Hollywood
Hard to believe this only cost $500. Amazing. Posted on News Lite:
An unknown filmmaker from Uruguay has been given $30m by Hollywood studio bosses — to turn his $500 YouTube video of a giant robot invasion into a movie Would-be director Federico Alvarez, who runs a post-production visual effects house in Uruguay, filmed ‘Panic Attack’ with a budget of just $500 in his free time.
The five minute clip — which he then uploaded to YouTube — shows an invasion of Montevideo by giant robots and had special effects which could rival many big budget movies. Once online it got the attention of thousands of movie fans… and (not surprisingly) studio bosses who wanted to meet with Alvarez to talk about his movie.
The 30-year-old was whisked to LA where he was offered a $1 million directors fee and up to £30 million to make the film, by Mandate Pictures. The plans for the movie are said to have a “compelling original story” beyond big robots blowing stuff up.
Alvarez has also been put up in a new apartment, given a new car and will work with Spider-Man director Sam Raimi on developing the film. (Read More: News Lite)
Alternate-Universe Sci-Fi Channel Show Asks What Would Happen If Germany Lost War
Via The Onion:
NEW MUNICH—The new Sci-Fi Channel series Fallen Axis, which eerily depicts a world in which Germany actually lost the Second World War, premiered Tuesday evening to high ratings in an alternate universe to our own.
The much-anticipated television event is said to be the most ambitious ever produced by the science-fiction-themed network, which is a subsidiary of the Aryan Broadcasting Company. According to the early response, audiences in the alternate realm have been riveted by the show’s vision of an inverted existence wherein a defeated Germany has been completely neutered by the Allied powers.
“Imagine, if you will, a world in which Hitler’s glorious master plan had instead ended in ignominious failure, and the Allies had somehow emerged the victors,” the show’s creator, Leonhardt Riefenstahl, said during an appearance on…
How Osama Bin Laden May Have Been Inspired by Isaac Asimov
Giles Foden writes in the Guardian:
In October last year, an item appeared on an authoritative Russian studies website that soon had the science-fiction community buzzing with speculative excitement. It asserted that Isaac Asimov’s 1951 classic Foundation was translated into Arabic under the title “al-Qaida”. And it seemed to have the evidence to back up its claims.
“This peculiar coincidence would be of little interest if not for abundant parallels between the plot of Asimov’s book and the events unfolding now,” wrote Dmitri Gusev, the scientist who posted the article. He was referring to apparent similarities between the plot of Foundation and the pursuit of the organisation we have come to know, perhaps erroneously, as al-Qaida.
The Arabic word qaida — ordinarily meaning “base” or “foundation” — is also used for “groundwork” and “basis”. It is…
Is ‘V’ Anti-Obama Propaganda?
Didn’t have a chance to see the premiere, but sure do remember the original series, it was creepy TV for a kid to watch. Last I checked David Icke wasn’t running ABC, but then again, that’s the rub, we can’t tell who the lizard people are, only he can…
Jason Linkins writes on Huffington Post:
Tonight, on the teevee, ABC will relaunch the V franchise, because it sure beats having a new idea! The series’s first incarnation — which debuted on NBC as a mini-series back in 1983, spinning into a regular series that ran until 1985 — told the story of alien visitors, who arrived on our planet talking a good game about goodwill and peace, but were actually hamster-devouring creatures bent on stealing the Earth’s water, eating people, and reminding people of Nazis. By a stroke of luck, the Visitors came to Earth in uniforms with precisely the sort of epaulets and hairstyles that they needed to earn our early-1980s trust.
Now, this new series is set to launch, and with it comes the enormous fear that somehow, ABC intends it as covert anti-Obama propaganda. YES, THIS IS A TRUE THING, HAPPENING IN OUR LIVES.
