Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Living in yesterday's SciFi

If you stop to think for a minute, you'll notice that we're all effectively (if not biologically) cyborgs. Technology has infiltrated our way of life to an extent at least equal to the hallowed stories golden age of SciFi books, even if not exactly in the way those writers predicted.

It's an exciting time to be sure, but I'm a trifle worried that we're picking the wrong books. We look to be leaning towards the stories that were about the dangers of technology, rather than the more Utopian visions of the future. We've got the scary proposition of any EU government being able to follow someone all across Europe with camera surveillance, and a group of scientists teaching robots to deceive us (which goes against Isaac Asimov's essential three laws of robotics).

I love SciFi stories, but that doesn't mean I want to live in a world ruled by the Terminator.... even if I think Arnie would make a good US president.

In the News:

Self-Assembling Photovoltaic Tech From MIT - Clean power is good. And machines building themselves is cool. 'nuf said.


Zombie 101 - A forward thinking institution of higher learning is giving a course in Zombies.... sign me up!

Mars organics may still be there - Turns out the  Mars rovers' method of collecting and testing material for signs of life may be killing off the very organisms they're testing for... but NASA has a plan.

Scientists Cut Greenland Ice Loss Estimate By Half - Good news! We've got a little more time before we drown ourselves.


There's another post. Hope you enjoyed it. If you come across any cool Tech news, please drop me a line.

-Odd


"Eccentricity is not, as dull people would have us believe, a form of madness. It is often a kind of innocent pride, and the man of genius and the aristocrat are frequently regarded as eccentrics because genius and aristocrat are entirely unafraid of and uninfluenced by the opinions and vagaries of the crowd."  - Edith Sitwell

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