Category Archives: Posthuman

Pick of the weekStranger ThingsNatalia Dyer and Maya Hawke in Stranger Things. Photograph: Netflix

A gruesome flashback to Dr Brenners lab cuts to sunny guitar pop and a teenage diary entry. Straight away, were back in the universe of Stranger Things, where the fantastical and the commonplace bleed into each other. This ordinariness has always been one of the shows strengths but, at times, it has felt as if were simply watching a likable, slightly aimless teen drama with the supernatural elements spread thinly. Still, the characters remain nicely realised: the messiness of adolescence is causing Jane/Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) to lose friends and Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) to think of finding some new ones. But, as always, the Upside Down is waiting for a likely conduit. Netflix, from Friday 27 May

The Jedi code is like an itch. We cannot help it. This long-awaited series a prequel to the original films but set in the aftermath of the later trilogy fills another gap in the elastic time frame of the Star Wars universe, positing Jedi status as more of a curse than a blessing. It finds Ewan McGregors Obi in a more vulnerable place, broken by his experience of Order 66 and living in hiding after the fall of the Republic. Furthermore, Darth Vader (Hayden Christensen) hasnt finished with our hero hunting down the Jedi because they represent both opposition to his rule and a hated part of himself. Disney+, from Friday 27 May

We are used to David Attenborough explaining natural history to us, but can the nonagenarian explain prehistory? This series exploits a combination of the gravitas conferred by Attenboroughs voice and some stupendous visuals to present a startling vision of the Cretaceous period. With an episode every day this week, this collaboration between the BBCs Natural History Unit and The Lion Kings photorealist effects team MPC is essentially a classic BBC-style nature epic, transferred to a new menagerie of biting, roaring and scampering creatures. Apple TV+, from Monday 23 May

The first season proved divisive, thanks mainly to the design of its animation, which abandoned the classical manga aesthetic of the original comics for a flashy but more generic-looking CGI style. The same gripes remain albeit with an added layer of irony in a series where the narrative now explores the implications of out-of-control AI leading to a homogenised, posthuman condition. However, the story is developed in complex and interesting ways, dealing with the Orwellian concept of sustainable war and the possible end point of evolution. Netflix, from Monday 23 May

That was irony. Theres going to be a bit of that throughout the show. Thats when I say something I dont really mean, for comic effect. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Stewart Lee will be thrilled at having been such a source of inspiration for Gervaiss new hour-long standup special. Or maybe he wont; in Gervaiss hands, irony often seems the default mode of a man simply wanting to have his cake and eat it railing against the notion of taboos while relying on them for laughs. Still, hes undeniably a gifted comic brain, albeit often on autopilot. Netflix, from Tuesday 24 May

A fifth season of vicarious travel and food adventures in the company of Everybody Loves Raymond creator Phil Rosenthal. The shows secret is Rosenthals evident delight throughout, not just in the food he tastes but also the people he meets and the regional and national identities he explores. This will be Rosenthals first post-Covid series (The world is opening up again and so is my mouth) and hes evidently happy to be back on the road, sampling, among other things, the best sausages in Lisbon and a classic Mexican cantina. Netflix, from Wednesday 25 May

The propulsive, multidimensional Nigerian musical phenomenon has long gone global, with Grammy nominations for several of its leading lights. But this success has been years in the making and film-maker Ayo Shonaiya has been there from the start. Beginning in 1999, this series tracks the emergence of scene pioneers such as Burna Boy and DBanj, and tells a wider story of Nigerian growth, development and national self-actualisation. Shonaiya accurately describes this labour of love as a history lesson with a musical soundtrack. Netflix, from Friday 27 May

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Stranger Things to Obi-Wan Kenobi: the seven best shows to stream this week - The Guardian

If you've been waiting to see Major Kusanagi and Batou in action in Season 2 of 'Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045', you might have to hold out until the premiere of the season. However, to stay up to date about the events of Season 1, 'Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 Sustainable War' is here. In the movie, which is essentially a retelling of season 1, Major Motoko Kusanagi and Batou encounter the emergence of posthumans, a seemingly impossible threat to stop.

If you're looking for other anime series on Netflix, you might want to consider -- 'Record of Ragnorok', 'Yasuke', 'Seven Deadly Sins' and 'Eden'.

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As seen in the movie and in Season 1, posthumans are extremely intelligent and have extreme physical powers, making them impossible to stop. As Kusanagi goes back to Japan to deal with three posthumans, they also encounter a string of deaths taking place across the country. While these deaths seem random as first, they soon realize that it is all connected via Thinkpol, a programme that allows the public to act as judge and executioner -- where people are allowed to deliver punishment to those they believe are criminals or who deserve it.

They soon realise that the programme was developed by a posthuman named Takashi Shimura, a high school student. As with all posthumans so far, they seem to be determined to deliver their brand of absolute justice and will go to any means to achieve it. Determined to find out what led to Shimura becoming a posthuman, Batou and Togusa go to investigate his aunty and uncle's home in Kyoto which has long been abandoned.

It is here that Togusa alone is able to discover what shaped Shimura into the person he is -- the death of his cousin had a profound impact on him, along with George Orwell's book, 1984. Followed by the suicide of his classmate, Shimura was now ready for an ongoing war. While Togusa believes he's a spectator of the events of the past, Shimura acknowledges his presence and asks him to join him. With Togusa mysteriously gone, Batou and Kusanagi are yet to deal with the rise of the posthumans and the motives of Suzuka Mizukane, which is yet to be revealed.

'Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 Sustainable War' premieres on Netflix on May 9, 2022. The movie will be followed by the release of 'Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045' Season 2 on May 23.

More:

'Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 Sustainable War' Ending Explained: Is Togusa compromised? - MEAWW

Surrogacy has an altruistic yet tragic aspect to it. Lifetime's new thriller 'A Baby at Any Cost' revolves around a couple who hire a surrogate as a nanny, and their bond strengthens, making the sister-in-law envious. Soon, the three women are entangled in a web of suspicion, lies, and mystery, leading to risks and near-death experiences when one of them crosses the line to get the kid, husband, and suburban life she has always desired.

Lifetime has already carved out a niche for itself with some quality thrillers. If you're looking for more, check out 'The Walls are Watching', Fallen Angels Murder Club: Heroes and Felons', and Greed: A Seven Deadly Sins Story'.

READ MORE

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Sarah Fisher is best known for her role in the award-winning Canadian drama 'Degrassi' as Becky Baker. She earned "Best Actress Feature" at the Flagler Film Festival in Florida for her role in the feature film 'Kiss & Cry' (2016). The film was presented at film festivals all around the world and received several honors, including the 2018 Kids Screen Award for "Best One-Off, Special, or TV Movie Tweens/Teens."

Fisher studied acting at the Armstrong Acting Studio and Second City in Toronto, as well as the Ivana Chubbuck Studio in Los Angeles. She is also an accomplished singer and composer. She has an original song on the hit television show 'Degrassi' and another original song in the NBC film 'Full Out'.

Christy Tate is known for roles in movies like 'The Posthuman Project', 'Dinosaur World', and 'Missing Persons'.

Ryan Francis has worked in the entertainment industry for almost 35 years. In 'Hook', he worked alongside Academy Award winners Steven Spielberg, Robin Williams, Gwyneth Paltrow, Maggie Smith, and Dustin Hoffman, as well as with Emmy Award winners Sela Ward and George Clooney on NBC's 'Sisters', where he was a series regular for the whole six-year run. He's also starred in over a hundred national commercials, promoting brands like Subaru, Coors Lite, and Twix.

Colleen Elizabeth Miller is a Los Angeles-based actor, and filmmaker. She is well renowned for her natural comic abilities, which she has demonstrated on stage and screen. Miller moved to Los Angeles in 2014 after entertaining audiences in Chicago with improv comedy and appearing in several critically acclaimed plays and indie feature films. At the 2020 Hardcore Horror Film Festival, her performance in the feature film 'Drifted' won Best Actress.

'A Baby at Any Cost' releases on May 13, 2022, and can be watched on Lifetime Movie Network.

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'A Baby at Any Cost' on Lifetime: 5 things you didn't know about Sarah Fisher - MEAWW

Singapore, 14th April 2022, ZEXPRWIRE,Punishing: Gray Raven is a fast-paced ultra-stylish Action-RPG, published in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan in August 2020 by the biggest Asian-wide mobile game developer Dino Game, subsequently published in Japan and South Korea, etc.

TOP Posthuman Style Action-RPG Game Attracted 50 Million Players

The game tells an engaging backstory with a strong cyberpunk style, which takes place in a post-apocalyptic world overwhelmingly occupied by an unearthly virus called Punishment. The stunning market response confirms the high quality of this game, which has accumulated more than 600,000 pre-orders before its launch in Japan and topped the App Store and Google Play free charts on the first day. Today, the cumulative number of registered users worldwide already exceeds 50 million. This success has allowed Dino Gameto win the recognition of players again, further consolidating its dominant position in the global game market.

High-quality and Engaging Gameplay Highly Praised

The innovative gameplay and combat system also received generally favorable reviews. Players will take on the role as the commandant to deploy and control a squad of up to three characters, with the goal of fighting against the opposing forces. During the combat, players can obtain Pings of different colors, which will trigger different skills. Chiniang 3 Pings of the same color will execute a powerful version of that skill. Players may also evade the attacks with a bullet time effect that will be triggered after successfully evading, allowing the player to land additional hits. Dino Games insistence on improving game quality has made players and peers around the world see more possibilities.

The NEW Version is Available to Play!

Punishing: Gray Ravens latest Promotion Video on YouTube revealed the new game version named The Survival Lucem, which had already been launched. The first S-class amplifier character Livwas unveiled, as well as the new coating and weapons. More related information will be updated on the official Website, Discord, and Facebook.

More about DINO GAME

DINO GAME, with years of experience as a world-class game developer, is bold to produce more epoch-making games and provide players with the best service. More popular games published by Dino Gamelike Crisis Action, Utopia: Origin, Soul Tide, MU: Awakening, Sangokushi Taisen, Basketball Herohave been hugely successful. Crisis Action, released in 2015, is known as the No.1 mobile game of the FPS category in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau with over 60 million registered users. It is recently reported that Dino Gamewill enter the sphere of Web3.0 play-to-earn game, which may be the next important opportunity for this traditional game developer to explore the metaverse.

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The Biggest Asian-wide Mobile Game Developer DINO GAME Released A New Version of the Sci-Fi Action-RPG Punishing: Gray Raven - Digital Journal

Claire Boucher, better known as Grimes, has never believed in quiescence. Like Lady Gaga, Madonna, or David Bowie, shes a shape-shifting artist constantly reinventing her music, fashion, and public persona.

But lately, its as if she upgraded the breakneck speed of her reinventions to 5G. She and her boyfriend Elon Musk broke up. Then in a recent Vanity Fair profile, she admitted she was back with the billionaire memester but living separately and hiding a secret baby with a name that sounds fit for a Sith Lord: Exa Dark Siderl Musk. Now theyve broken up again, and shes maybe dating Chelsea Manning?

Meanwhile, Grimes has adopted the anime-like visage of a dark cybernetic fairy queen in some photoshoots and music videos, like a retro-futurist Heavy Metal magazine cover made flesh. Last week, she even donned brightly hued luxury NFT crypto-clothing during a virtual musical performance for the metaverses first-ever fashion week floating above a stage in Decentraland as a crowd of avatars looked on.

Grimess vibe shift toward transgressive whimsy is at once exhilarating, exhausting, and disappointing. The disappointment has little to do with her music (theres no denying her latest single Shinigami Eyes is a banger) and everything to do with her heel turn away from the political left toward a kind of Silicon Valleyfriendly libertarianism more associated with her ex-boyfriend.

When people say Im a class traitor, that is not . . . an inaccurate description, she told Vanity Fair. I was deeply from the far left and I converted to being essentially a capitalist Democrat. A lot of people are understandably upset.

Social media exploded in wonder and outrage in mid-2018 when it learned that Elon Musk and Grimes had paired up after a Twitter meet-cute. After all, he was a union-hating oligarch well on his way to becoming the richest man in the world. Musk never went full MAGA, but he instead embodied a Big Tech upgrade on the old Donald-Trump-as-celebrity-CEO model, a media-savvy showman who thrived off the labor and innovation of the workers he exploited yet ruled over Reddit rather than glitzy real estate properties in New York, Florida, and Las Vegas.

Before she became one half of our very online generations James Carville and Mary Matalin, Grimess alignment was something closer to chaotic good.

She was a feminist indie-pop star who supported Bernie Sanderss presidential campaign in 2016 and even unfurled a massive Sanders banner as a background for her Coachella set that year. Her old Instagram avatar was an image of Karl Marx, and anti-imperialist appeared in her profile bio.

Those images were erased soon after she began dating the worlds richest man and started to raise Musks banner alongside Bernies, metaphorically speaking. When I look at the aims of my boyfriend and I look at the aims of Bernie, like, their end goals are very similar. Fix environmental problems, reduce suffering, she said in early 2020.

Perhaps thats true if you squint hard enough, but Bernie wants the government to pass the Green New Deal and tax billionaires like Musk out of existence to help end climate change and human suffering. The Tesla CEOs market-friendly solutions involve expensive electric cars with a questionable carbon footprint and colonizing Mars. Musk and Sanders are not on the same planetary orbit, as highlighted by their recent Twitter spats.

Grimes has drifted further right in the last couple of years. In 2020, she implied that shed broken up with socialism for a newfound love of free markets. She claimed she was a bit of a socialist, but not economically. Thats the loose equivalent of saying Im a chef, but not with food.

But what about last fall when tabloids photographed her reading the Communist Manifesto while dressed like an extra from Lord of the Rings? Grimes later confessed that was a stunt meant to troll the media. Shes clarified in an Instagram post that while Marx had some good ideas, theyre no match for Dogecoin. Im more interested in a radical decentralized UBI that I think could potentially be achieved thru crypto and gaming but I havent ironed that idea out enough yet to explain it.

In her most recent interview, its clear that shes shifted her philosophy to match her otherworldly Bride of Pinbot aesthetic. Shes now a techno-optimist who believes the future is postdemocracy and posthuman. Like with the internet and everything, whats happening is that were all becoming individual neurons in some kind of super-brain, she said in a recent interview. And I cant help but feel like theres this super-intelligence developing where were all these individual parts of it.

Had Grimes played more Nintendo, shed realize that sounds a lot like Mother Brain, the evil artificial intelligence from the Metroid series. The truth is, we dont need boundless AI, NFTs, or spacefaring capitalist ex-boyfriends to invent a better world. True democracy, including a democratically economy, is a dream not worth giving up.

Excerpt from:

Sorry Grimes, Your Ex-Boyfriend Won't Save Us - Jacobin magazine

School of Humanities, Social Sciences, and Management

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY BHUBANESWAR

in association with

Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute, New Delhi

Invites you to join

the Virtual International Symposium

on

Mapping Memory in the Wake of the Posthuman: India and Canada

25-26 March 2022

Concept Note: Since the onset of Gutenbergs print culture in 1440, the human presence has been central to the existence of social, political, cultural contexts of recorded imagination on planet earth. For centuries now, western thinkers have dwelled upon the human condition; the seemingly innocuous universalization of epistemological engagement emanating thus, has found recurrent encouragement from conventional sources of wisdom. Sociologist Maurice Parmelee in her 1916 essay titled Poverty and Social Progress first propagated the possibility of the Posthuman. However, Ihab Hassans declaration of the rise of the Posthuman in the later part of the eventful twentieth century (1977) and the subsequent onset of the postmodern, upset held conventions as well as paved way for a dramatic recapitulation of the world as it was conceived till then. While it is indeed challenging to express the Posthuman in concrete and definite terms, Donna HarawaysA Cyborg Manifesto and Cary Wolfes What is Posthumanism? with their striking observations of the concept tell us that the idea of the Posthuman not only decentralizes human beings from a hitherto grand narrative and replaces them with other nonhuman/inhuman possibilities such as nature, animals, cyborgs, robots and such like, but also opens a minefield of discourse that can potentially negate all kinds of hegemonic signifiers currently in circulation. The most palpable outcome of the emergence of the Posthuman, quite similar to what the Postmodern brought in for the modern, is that humanism, as we knew it for quite some time in recorded history, is about to witness an irreversible change. When Hayles amalgamated the postmodern and hallucination, cybernetics and informatics in her interpretation of the Posthuman, little did one realise that the Posthuman in no more to be dismissed as forever suspended in future, that the Postmodern is both immediate and intimate in the temporal as well as spatial sense, that it exists here and now.In the wake of the Posthuman then, how does one make sense of a world perforated by long drawn conflicts, war zones, forced displacements and voluntary migrations, and diseases? Is the Posthuman likely to emerge from a degenerative space inherited by a depleted earth or is it likely to create a more thanhuman existence, a utopian occurrence that lay hitherto unimagined? What lies ahead and how is it plausible to negotiate memory from what has passed by? How do India and Canada, diverse in terms of their populations, communities, cultures, and geopolitical realities, deal with this inevitable onset of the Posthuman? What prepares these two diverse democracies of the world for what is about to appear? How will it impact their narratives of existence and sustenance? What ruptures and continuities are these two giant nations of our interest likely to experience owing to the sweeping changes brought in by an ever expanding possibility of the Posthuman? The two day Symposium seeks to invite papers from Faculty, research scholars, independent researchers, students and other interested professionals in the following areas to deliberate upon: The human and the posthuman Speculative fiction Resistance Literature Utopia and dystopia Memory and the posthuman Borders and the Posthuman Animal Studies Disease and the Posthuman Displacements and Migrations Conflicts and warzones Human, inhuman and nonhuman Indigeneity and foreignness Home and exile Memory and trauma Select papers from the symposium will be published after peer review with a publishing house of repute.

Keynote Address by: Dr. Rijuta Mehta, Asst. Professor of English, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.

Organizer:

Dr. Punyashree Panda

Asst. Professor

School of Humanities, Social Sciences and Management

IIT Bhubaneswar

Email: ppanda@iitbbs.ac.in , punyashreepanda@gmail.com

Contact Details of Team Members:

Ms. Trina Bose, Research Scholar, School of HSSM, IIT Bhubaneswar (Email: tb15@iitbbs.ac.in) (Call: 91-6294945611)

Ms. Sayani Konar, Research Scholar, School of HSSM, IIT Bhubaneswar (Email: sk90@iitbbs.ac.in) (Call: 91-8906750724)

Mr. Sanarul Haque, Research Scholar, School of HSSM, IIT Bhubaneswar (Email: sh23@iitbbs.ac.in) (Call: 91-9775445313)

Important Dates

Deadline for Abstract Submission: 10 March 2022

Notification of Abstract Acceptance: 12 March 2022

Deadline for Submission of Full Paper: 20 March 2022

Deadline for Registration: 15 March 2022

Symposium Dates: 25 - 26 March 2022

To join:

Link to register: https://forms.gle/JKt3FF812mimuC6CA

Link to submit abstract: https://forms.gle/F1Ku3PQdP84Yhcgv5

Registration fees: INR 500/- (Indian Rupees Five Hundred only)

Bank Details

Institution Account Name: CEP, IIT Bhubaneswar

Account No. : 24282010001960

IFSC Code : CNRB0017282

Bank Name: CANARA BANK Branch Name: IIT BHUBANESWAR, ARGUL BRANCH

MIRC No. 752015014

Branch Address: IIT Bhubaneswar, Argul, Jatni, Khorda- 752050

Telephone No. of Bank: 91-9437112821

Link:

Mapping Memory in the Wake of the Posthuman: India and ...

The imagery associated with these devices is all about terror and dystopia. In the Metalhead episode of Black Mirrors fourth season, released in 2017, stray robot dogs resembling Spot embody the nightmare of a posthuman society dominated by machines. However, the negative perception of the robot dog is, as is often the case, primarily a cultural and local construct, which should not be considered universal. The South China Morning Post reports that robot dogs are very popular in China, both on the streets and on social media, and in an article, journalist Yingjie Wang wonders whether they will somehow replace pets. A popularity that owes a lot to Xiaomis CyberDog, launched with a quite affordable price: 9,999 yuan, about 1,600 dollars, more or less the price of a high-end mobile phone, a long way from Spots approximately 75 thousand dollars. At the same time, it brings us back to a phenomenon of years gone by as well, when thinking the robot dog would be mens best friend of the future seemed normal.

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The rise of robot dogs - Domus

Proposal that reality could be a computer simulation

The simulation hypothesis is a proposal regarding the nature of existence which posits that all of existence is an artificial simulation, such as a computer simulation.[1] Some versions rely on the development of a simulated reality, a proposed technology that would be able to convince its inhabitants that the simulation was "real".[2]

The simulation hypothesis bears a close resemblance to various other skeptical scenarios from throughout the history of philosophy. The hypothesis was popularized in its current form by Nick Bostrom. The suggestion that such a hypothesis is compatible with all human perceptual experiences is thought to have significant epistemological consequences in the form of philosophical skepticism. Versions of the hypothesis have also been featured in science fiction, appearing as a central plot device in many stories and films.[3] The hypothesis popularized by Bostrom is very disputed, with, for example, theoretical physicist Sabine Hossenfelder, who called it pseudoscience[4] and cosmologist George F. R. Ellis, who stated that "[the hypothesis] is totally impracticable from a technical viewpoint" and that "protagonists seem to have confused science fiction with science. Late-night pub discussion is not a viable theory."[5] A bigger proposal that builds on this idea is that Earth could be the end of a long stack of simulations.

There is a long philosophical and scientific history to the underlying thesis that reality is an illusion. This skeptical hypothesis can be traced back to antiquity; for example, to the "Butterfly Dream" of Zhuangzi,[6] or the Indian philosophy of Maya, or in Ancient Greek philosophy Anaxarchus and Monimus likened existing things to a scene-painting and supposed them to resemble the impressions experienced in sleep or madness.[7]

Aztec philosophical texts theorised that the world was a painting or book written by the Teotl.[8]

Nick Bostrom's premise:

Many works of science fiction as well as some forecasts by serious technologists and futurologists predict that enormous amounts of computing power will be available in the future. Let us suppose for a moment that these predictions are correct. One thing that later generations might do with their super-powerful computers is run detailed simulations of their forebears or of people like their forebears. Because their computers would be so powerful, they could run a great many such simulations. Suppose that these simulated people are conscious (as they would be if the simulations were sufficiently fine-grained and if a certain quite widely accepted position in the philosophy of mind is correct). Then it could be the case that the vast majority of minds like ours do not belong to the original race but rather to people simulated by the advanced descendants of an original race.

Nick Bostrom's conclusion:

It is then possible to argue that, if this were the case, we would be rational to think that we are likely among the simulated minds rather than among the original biological ones.Therefore, if we don't think that we are currently living in a computer simulation, we are not entitled to believe that we will have descendants who will run lots of such simulations of their forebears.

In 2003, philosopher Nick Bostrom proposed a trilemma that he called "the simulation argument". Despite the name, Bostrom's "simulation argument" does not directly argue that humans live in a simulation; instead, Bostrom's trilemma argues that one of three unlikely-seeming propositions is almost certainly true:

The trilemma points out that a technologically mature "posthuman" civilization would have enormous computing power; if even a tiny percentage of them were to run "ancestor simulations" (that is, "high-fidelity" simulations of ancestral life that would be indistinguishable from reality to the simulated ancestor), the total number of simulated ancestors, or "Sims", in the universe (or multiverse, if it exists) would greatly exceed the total number of actual ancestors.

Bostrom goes on to use a type of anthropic reasoning to claim that, if the third proposition is the one of those three that is true, and almost all people live in simulations, then humans are almost certainly living in a simulation.

Bostrom claims his argument goes beyond the classical ancient "skeptical hypothesis", claiming that "...we have interesting empirical reasons to believe that a certain disjunctive claim about the world is true", the third of the three disjunctive propositions being that we are almost certainly living in a simulation. Thus, Bostrom, and writers in agreement with Bostrom such as David Chalmers, argue there might be empirical reasons for the "simulation hypothesis", and that therefore the simulation hypothesis is not a skeptical hypothesis but rather a "metaphysical hypothesis". Bostrom states he personally sees no strong argument as to which of the three trilemma propositions is the true one: "If (1) is true, then we will almost certainly go extinct before reaching posthumanity. If (2) is true, then there must be a strong convergence among the courses of advanced civilizations so that virtually none contains any individuals who desire to run ancestor-simulations and are free to do so. If (3) is true, then we almost certainly live in a simulation. In the dark forest of our current ignorance, it seems sensible to apportion one's credence roughly evenly between (1), (2), and (3)... I note that people who hear about the simulation argument often react by saying, 'Yes, I accept the argument, and it is obvious that it is possibility #n that obtains.' But different people pick a different n. Some think it obvious that (1) is true, others that (2) is true, yet others that (3) is true."

As a corollary to the trilemma, Bostrom states that "Unless we are now living in a simulation, our descendants will almost certainly never run an ancestor-simulation."[9][10][11][12]

Bostrom argues that if "the fraction of all people with our kind of experiences that are living in a simulation is very close to one", then it follows that humans probably live in a simulation. Some philosophers disagree, proposing that perhaps "Sims" do not have conscious experiences the same way that unsimulated humans do, or that it can otherwise be self-evident to a human that they are a human rather than a Sim.[10][13] Philosopher Barry Dainton modifies Bostrom's trilemma by substituting "neural ancestor simulations" (ranging from literal brains in a vat, to far-future humans with induced high-fidelity hallucinations that they are their own distant ancestors) for Bostrom's "ancestor simulations", on the grounds that every philosophical school of thought can agree that sufficiently high-tech neural ancestor simulation experiences would be indistinguishable from non-simulated experiences. Even if high-fidelity computer Sims are never conscious, Dainton's reasoning leads to the following conclusion: either the fraction of human-level civilizations that reach a posthuman stage and are able and willing to run large numbers of neural ancestor simulations is close to zero, or some kind of (possibly neural) ancestor simulation exists.[14]

Some scholars categorically rejector are uninterested inanthropic reasoning, dismissing it as "merely philosophical", unfalsifiable, or inherently unscientific.[10]

Some critics propose that the simulation could be in the first generation, and all the simulated people that will one day be created do not yet exist.[10]

The cosmologist Sean M. Carroll argues that the simulation hypothesis leads to a contradiction: if humans are typical, as it is assumed, and not capable of performing simulations, this contradicts the arguer's assumption that it is easy for us to foresee that other civilizations can most likely perform simulations.[15]

Physicist Frank Wilczek raises an empirical objection, saying that the laws of the universe have hidden complexity which is "not used for anything" and the laws are constrained by time and location all of this being unnecessary and extraneous in a simulation. He further argues that the simulation argument amounts to "begging the question," due to the "embarrassing question" of the nature of the underlying reality in which this universe is simulated. "Okay if this is a simulated world, what is the thing in which it is simulated made out of? What are the laws for that?"[16]

It has been argued that humans cannot be the ones being simulated, since the simulation argument uses its descendants as the ones running the simulations.[17] In other words, it has been argued that the probability that humans live in a simulated universe is not independent of the prior probability that is assigned to the existence of other universes.[18]

Some scholars accept the trilemma, and argue that the first or second of the propositions are true, and that the third proposition (the proposition that humans live in a simulation) is false. Physicist Paul Davies uses Bostrom's trilemma as part of one possible argument against a near-infinite multiverse. This argument runs as follows: if there were a near-infinite multiverse, there would be posthuman civilizations running ancestor simulations, which would lead to the untenable and scientifically self-defeating conclusion that humans live in a simulation; therefore, by reductio ad absurdum, existing multiverse theories are likely false. (Unlike Bostrom and Chalmers, Davies (among others) considers the simulation hypothesis to be self-defeating.)[10][19]

Some point out that there is currently no proof of technology that would facilitate the existence of sufficiently high-fidelity ancestor simulation. Additionally, there is no proof that it is physically possible or feasible for a posthuman civilization to create such a simulation, and therefore for the present, the first proposition must be taken to be true.[10] Additionally there are limits of computation.[9][20]

Physicist Marcelo Gleiser objects to the notion that posthumans would have a reason to run simulated universes: "...being so advanced they would have collected enough knowledge about their past to have little interest in this kind of simulation. ...They may have virtual-reality museums, where they could go and experience the lives and tribulations of their ancestors. But a full-fledged, resource-consuming simulation of an entire universe? Sounds like a colossal waste of time." Gleiser also points out that there is no plausible reason to stop at one level of simulation, so that the simulated ancestors might also be simulating their ancestors, and so on, creating an infinite regress akin to the "problem of the First Cause."[21]

In physics, the view of the universe and its workings as the ebb and flow of information was first observed by Wheeler.[22] Consequently, two views of the world emerged: the first one proposes that the universe is a quantum computer,[23] while the other one proposes that the system performing the simulation is distinct from its simulation (the universe).[24] Of the former view, quantum-computing specialist Dave Bacon wrote,

Elon Musk firmly believes in the simulation hypothesis.[26] In a podcast with Joe Rogan, Musk said "If you assume any rate of improvement at all, games will eventually be indistinguishable from reality" before concluding "that it's most likely we're in a simulation."[27] He also stated in a 2016 interview that "there's a one in billions chance we're in base reality".[26]

Another high-profile proponent of the hypothesis is astrophysicist Neil Degrasse Tyson, who said in an NBC News interview that the hypothesis is correct, giving "better than 50-50 odds" and adding:[28]

"I wish I could summon a strong argument against it, but I can find none."

However, in a subsequent interview with Chuck Nice on a YouTube episode of StarTalk, Tyson shares that his friend J. Richard Gott, a professor of astrophysical sciences at Princeton University made him aware of a strong objection to the simulation hypothesis. The objection points out that the common trait that all hypothetical high fidelity simulated universes possess is the ability to produce high fidelity simulated universes. And being that our current world does not possess this ability it would mean that we are either the real universe, and therefore simulated universes have not yet been created, or we are the last in a very long chain of simulated universes, an observation that makes the simulation hypothesis seem less probable. Regarding this objection Tyson remarks "that changes my life."[29]

Economist Robin Hanson argues a self-interested occupant of a high-fidelity simulation should strive to be entertaining and praiseworthy in order to avoid being turned off or being shunted into a non-conscious low-fidelity part of the simulation. Hanson additionally speculates that someone who is aware that he might be in a simulation might care less about others and live more for today: "your motivation to save for retirement, or to help the poor in Ethiopia, might be muted by realizing that in your simulation, you will never retire and there is no Ethiopia."[30]

A method to test one type of simulation hypothesis was proposed in 2012 in a joint paper by physicists Silas R. Beane from the University of Bonn (now at the University of Washington, Seattle), and Zohreh Davoudi and Martin J. Savage from the University of Washington, Seattle.[31] Under the assumption of finite computational resources, the simulation of the universe would be performed by dividing the continuum space-time into a discrete set of points. In analogy with the mini-simulations that lattice-gauge theorists run today to build up nuclei from the underlying theory of strong interactions (known as quantum chromodynamics), several observational consequences of a grid-like space-time have been studied in their work. Among proposed signatures is an anisotropy in the distribution of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays, that, if observed, would be consistent with the simulation hypothesis according to these physicists.[32] In 2017, Campbell et al. proposed several experiments aimed at testing the simulation hypothesis in their paper "On Testing the Simulation Theory".[33]

In 2019, philosopher Preston Greene suggested that it may be best not to find out if we're living in a simulation since, if it were found to be true, such knowing may end the simulation.[34]

Besides attempting to assess whether the simulation hypothesis is true or false, philosophers have also used it to illustrate other philosophical problems, especially in metaphysics and epistemology. David Chalmers has argued that simulated beings might wonder whether their mental lives are governed by the physics of their environment, when in fact these mental lives are simulated separately (and are thus, in fact, not governed by the simulated physics).[35] Chalmers claims that they might eventually find that their thoughts fail to be physically caused, and argues that this means that Cartesian dualism is not necessarily as problematic of a philosophical view as is commonly supposed, though he does not endorse it.[36] Similar arguments have been made for philosophical views about personal identity that say that an individual could have been another human being in the past, as well as views about qualia that say that colors could have appeared differently than they do (the inverted spectrum scenario). In both cases, the claim is that all this would require is hooking up the mental lives to the simulated physics in a different way.[37]

Skeptical arguments have historically played a role in the evolution of philosophical discussion, particularly in the fields of ontology, metaphysics, the theory of knowledge and the philosophy of science. The fallibility of perception, knowledge and thought have been made obvious employing several arguments.[38] Solipsist scenarios, a common ground of debate in this fields, are extreme cases prompting these dilemmas for further discussion.

In virtue of computational simplicity, achieving this last kind of simulations with equal resolution seems much more undemanding than assembling a super simulator that runs a complete reality, including multiple participants. If humanity was being simulated, as noted by Lorenzo Pieri, it is more "likely to be one of such Brain-in-a-Vat or solo players, as it is much easier to simulate the inputs to the brain than the full-blown reality".[39]

This probabilistic argument deferring to parsimony, is based on the idea that "if we randomly select the simulation () the likelihood of picking a given simulation is inversely correlated to the computational complexity of the simulation".[39]

Science fiction has highlighted themes such as virtual reality, artificial intelligence and computer gaming for more than fifty years.[citation needed]Jokester (1956) by Isaac Asimov explores the idea that humor is actually a psychological study tool imposed from without by extraterrestrials studying mankind, similarly to how humans study mice. Simulacron-3 (1964) by Daniel F. Galouye (alternative title: Counterfeit World) tells the story of a virtual city developed as a computer simulation for market research purposes, in which the simulated inhabitants possess consciousness; all but one of the inhabitants are unaware of the true nature of their world. The book was made into a German made-for-TV film called World on a Wire (1973) directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. The film The Thirteenth Floor (1999) was also loosely based on this book. We Can Remember It for You Wholesale is a short story by American writer Philip K. Dick, first published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in April 1966, and was the basis for the 1990 film Total Recall and its 2012 remake. In Overdrawn at the Memory Bank, a 1983 television film, the main character pays to have his mind connected to a simulation.[citation needed]

The same theme was repeated in the 1999 film The Matrix, which depicted a world in which artificially intelligent robots enslaved humanity within a simulation set in the contemporary world. The 2012 play World of Wires was partially inspired by the Bostrom essay on the simulation hypothesis.[40]

In the animated sitcom Rick and Morty , episode 01-04 titled M. Night Shaym-Aliens! demonstrates a low-quality simulation that attempts to trap the two titular protagonists; because the operation is less realistic than typically-operated reality, it becomes obvious. This infers one of two options for the hypothesis: either, our perceivable reality is an almost flawless, detailed and unnoticeably computed simulation that compares relatively highly, or its relatively minimal but reality is all oneself would recognise and would have no comparative rival to differentiate between.

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ArtReview editors on what to look forward to in this months shows, screenings, videogames and books (and if all else fails, reboot your creativity with a stack of Marina Abramovi Method cards)

Made in XKunsthal Extra City, Antwerp, 4 February 29 May

While many western artists and curators wring their hands over decolonising art, its institutions and collections, those debates have, perhaps inadvertently, turned attention away from the bigger, still-unequal extractive relationships between the rich industrial north and the poor, raw-materials-producing south. Giving old colonial-era artefacts back to the global south has a hollow ring when youre still consuming commodities produced by postcolonial dollar-a-day labour. So Kunsthal Extra Citys timely exhibition brings together artists from both north and south including the DRCs plantation workers-turned-sculptors CATPC and Sammy Baloji, Indias Raqs Media Collective and UK-based Yelena Popova to tell tales about these basic materials, and their circulation, on which our our consumption and lifestyles rely copper, iron, cocoa, oil, gold and uranium (not forgetting verbena leaves, of course). Art might be indivisible from prosperity and leisure, so art that connects that consumption back to the sources of the wealth that enables it (and us) reminds us of the ethics and politics of our relative places in the global value-chain. J.J. Charlesworth

The Marina Abramovi Method: Instruction Cards to Reboot Your LifeLaurence King Publishing, released 17 February 2022

If youve had a tough couple of years during pandemics and lockdowns, you might be finding your creativity at low ebb. But with an internet awash with online meditation apps, life-hack gurus and those weird ASMR videos about stroking towels, its hard to know where to turn to rediscover your centredness and de-negativise your positivity. Search no further, however, since art-star Marina Abramovi the visionary who movingly sat still in a gallery for 750 straight hours while staring at the audience will tell you what to do. The great teacher has released her method, distilling her approach to generating optimum creativity into a pack of instructional cards, which, when randomly selected when youre in a funk, guide you to actions such as drink a glass of water as slowly as you can, count each grain of rice and lentil and, crucially, step on the ground first thing in the morning. Have your partner aim a loaded bow and arrow at your heart didnt make the cut, apparently. J.J. Charlesworth

Gabriel Giucci: CHURASCOGaleria Leme, So Paulo, 19 February 26 March

If Gerhard Richter in his figurative moments swapped the hazy grey of Germany for the sun and colour of Rio de Janeiro, the results might look something like Gabriel Giuccis work. The Brazilian artist will show over 60 of his diminutive (so this is where the Brazilian artist departs from the German) paintings, in which he depicts the landscape, animals and monuments of his home country, alongside portraits of politicians and scenes culled from recent press photography. Yet despite the bright palette theres Richterian melancholia to the paintings, perhaps understandable given theyre intended as a state-of-the-nation portrait: Brazils beaches are shown lifeless and empty; the rivers wide and depopulated. There is a painting of a political advisor who has been mired in a corruption scandal, sat slumped and dejected under house arrest; another showing the Brazilian flag, its motto Ordem e Progresso replaced by the Portuguese word for barbecue, misspelt. Oliver Basciano

Centenary of Semana de Arte ModernaVarious venues, So Paulo

For one week in February 1922 the municipal theatre in So Paulo saw an explosion of avant-garde activity: the Semana de Arte Moderna was designed by a group of artists, writers, architects and composers as a rebuke to the conservative cultural establishment. The festival has now gone down in history as when Brazilian Modernism became the dominant force in the country. Marking the centenary of this radical moment is a host of exhibitions and events across the citys institutions, not least at the theatre itself which will present all nine suites of Heitor Villa-Loboss Bachianas Brasileiras (1930-1945), in which the composer fused Brazilian folk tradition with the European classical tradition on an equal footing. Pinacoteca will stage an exhibition of modernist work from its collection, the centrepiece being Emiliano Di Cavalcantis strange, haunting Amigos (1921), a painting which debuted at the original festival, an example in its simple composition of how the artist sought to shrug off European influences. Di Cavalcanti was based in Rio de Janeiro, which alongside So Paulo, was Brazils avant-garde powerhouse. At SESC 24 de Maio, a group of curators from elsewhere in the country have come together to stage Raio-que-o-parta: Modern Fictions in Brazil: a huge, sprawling exhibition of work rarely seen beyond local institutions that demonstrates how the modernist revolution arrived in different states, from Rio Grande do Sul to the Amazon, at different times, in different guises. Oliver Basciano

ChimPom: Happy SpringMori Art Museum, Tokyo, 18 February 29 May

If February is looking a little dreary for you, ChimPom will sort that right out. The Japanese collectives first retrospective, titled Happy Spring, will bring together a mixture of past major works ones that humorously tackle themes ranging across cities and consumerism to gluttony and poverty, Japanese society, the atomic bomb, earthquakes, images of stardom, the mass media, borders, and the nature of publicness within the context of modern Japanese culture. Alongside works like Gold Experience (2012), a giant trash bag that pokes fun at the concept of public acceptability, and Dont Follow the Wind (2015-) an inaccessible exhibition in the Fukushima exclusion zone, Happy Spring will show new site-specific projects including a childrens nursery that addresses childcare issues faced by ChimPoms generation. All of which is arranged by theme (rather than chronologically) and presented via an exhibition design rich in creative ingenuity that hints at shedding new light on the ever-surprising world of ChimPom. Fi Churchman

Andrew Doig, This Mortal Coil: A History of DeathBloomsbury, published 3 February 2022

Ever wondered how or when you might kick the bucket? It might not be the central preoccupation of Andrew Doigs new book, but This Mortal Coil the very one that Shakespeares Hamlet considers shuffling off looks at the ways in which causes of death have altered over time, from environmental triggers (plagues and famine) to genetics (heart disease and stroke), who suffers from them and what these reveal about how our ancestors lived and died. On the bright side, Doig also tracks the various ways in which diseases have been controlled (the discovery of vitamin C, and the setting up of the 1592 Bills of Mortality during the second plague in London, for example), the impact of social healthcare and the development of medical knowledge. Fi Churchman

Homeland: Films by Australian First Nations directorsBarbican Cinema, London, 223 February

This new curated season screening at the Barbicans cinema features an eclectic selection of films by Indigenous Australian film directors spanning the last two decades, that speak to the diversity and sheer originality of the scene. The selection casts far and wide across genres, drawing on history and mythology, from Rachel Perkinss 1998 Radiance, portraying the relationship between three sisters, reluctantly reunited after the death of their mother, and The Drovers Wife (2021), a feminist revenge western directed by and starring Leah Purcell, to We Dont Need a Map (2017), a documentary by Warwick Thornton (who directed, among others, the critically-acclaimed drama Samson and Delilah, 2009) on the Southern Cross constellation, an important symbol for Indigenous Australian people that has over the past century been appropriated by various movements, including racist nationalists. Other remarkable if uncategorisable highlights include beDevil (1993), Tracey Moffats first and only feature film (and the first to be directed by an Aboriginal woman) that functions as a haunting triptych of ghost stories rendered by the artist in a striking, supernatural style, and an epic retelling of episodes from Indigenous Australian history through dance and music by Bangarra Dance Theatre director Stephen Page (Spear, 2015). Louise Darblay

Max Hooper Schneider: Keep On Rotting in The Free WorldMO.CO., Montpellier, 12 February 24 April

Max Hooper Schneiders sculptures and installations read like dioramas of a posthuman future. Its not all doom-and-gloom though, for if what is left of humans are the decaying remnants of our consumer society, other life-forms mollusks, insects, plants, bacteria, etc persist. Both unsettling and mesmerising, these futuristic experimental ecosystems take the form of self-contained gardens or aquariums, the contents of which seem to be informed by the artists background in marine biology. For his first institutional solo in Europe at Montpelliers contemporary art museum titled after a death metal song the American is presenting a selection of his recent projects plus a series of new works developed during his residency involving the collaboration of scientists, artists and artisans; a tentative warding off, perhaps, of our inevitable demise. Louise Darblay

Freud and ChinaFreud Museum London, 12 February 26 June

The art historian Craig Clunas curates a show that explores Sigmund Freuds relationship material and intellectual with China. The exhibition at Londons Freud Museum pivots around Freuds collection of antiquities (smuggled out of Vienna when threatened by Nazi confiscation) from a screen of pierced jade and wood to a lacquered figurine of a Daoist sage and the ways in which his (mis)understanding of the Chinese language and the culture of the Orient (despite never actually travelling to China) impacted his writings on the interpretation of dreams. In turn, Freud and China also explores the history and impact of psychoanalysis in Chinese art and culture. En Liang Khong

Hidetaka Miyazaki and George R.R. Martin, Elden RingBandai Namco Entertainment, released 25 February 2022

The lovechild of director Hidetaka Miyazaki (creator of the famed and fiendishly difficult Dark Souls and Bloodborne games) and the novelist George R.R. Martin, Elden Ring promises all the grand themes of a Wagnerian fantasy. Leaked footage offers a glimpse at cursed jewellery, ravaged lands, and dilapidated fortresses bathing in the light of a giant glowing tree set across a vast open-world map. Say no to that gallery dinner, fire up the Playstation, and hunker down for what promises to be a demonic sword-and-sorcery epic. En Liang Khong

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Neocolonialism, a History of Death and Richterian Melancholia: the Best Arts and Culture this February - ArtReview

Transcendent is the third novel in the Destiny's Children series by Stephen Baxter, and a 2006 Campbell Award nominee.[1]

The story alternates between two timelines: the world of Michael Poole in the year 2047, and that of Alia, a posthuman girl who lives approximately half a million years in the future.

Engineer Michael Poole is recovering from the death of Morag, his pregnant wife. Poole works as a consultant designing space propulsion systems, and dreams of being able to one day explore the stars. However, there are more pressing matters; humanity faces a serious bottleneck, with the Earth reeling from the effects of anthropogenic climate change and resource depletion; automobile production has all but ceased, except for hydrogen-based mass transit, and air travel is limited to the very rich. Due to climate change, the oceans have become dead zones, with rising sea levels and severe weather displacing millions.

While working in Siberia, Michael's son Tom is injured by an explosion of methane gas from previously frozen hydrates, suddenly released from the now-melting tundra. Michael begins to research whether this is an isolated incident or the beginning of something more serious. With the help of an artificial sentience named Gea, he discovers that a potential release of all such frozen greenhouse gasses could destabilise the environment enough to make the Earth untenable for human habitation, in a repeat of the Permian extinction.

Michael consults members of the Poole family, who come together to work on the problem. Tom, John, and the elderly George (a principal character of Coalescent) reunite, and a maverick geoengineering company funds the project. Michael designs a subsurface refrigeration system that could stabilise the frozen hydrates.Meanwhile, Michael continues to be haunted by visions of his dead wife, apparitions he has been seeing his entire life, even before he first met her. He becomes obsessed with discovering the origin of this phenomenon, and his quest for answers drives a wedge between him and his family. Aunt Rosa Poole (from Coalescent), a Catholic priest and ex-member of the Order, helps Michael research the problem, drawing on her vast knowledge, stemming in small part from her relationship with the Coalescent hive and its historical archives. The rest of the Poole family joins the investigation when Morag appears during a trial test of the engineering project. This time, everyone sees Morag, even observing drones recording the event. After the project is bombed by a terrorist group, Morag goes from being an apparition to reincarnating in physical reality. This frightens everyone, even Michael.

500,000 years in the future, the Nord, a generation ship, sails through the galaxy carrying Alia, a young girl, and her family. As part of a government program called the "Redemption", Alia is obligated to witness the life of Michael Poole, from start to finish. Pressured by her family to leave the ship, Alia becomes a candidate for the Transcendence, a collective group of immortal posthumans who are attempting to evolve into a form of godhood, in effect leaving their humanity behind. After travelling the galaxy and observing several posthuman life forms, Alia travels to Earth to meet the Transcendence. Alia learns the Transcendence is attempting to redeem the past suffering of all humans, first by witnessing every single one as Alia witnessed, then by living as every single human and experiencing everything that they experienced. However, since observing is not seen as sufficient for redemption, the Transcendence ultimately desires to erase all suffering in the past, thereby ensuring that every human that could have existed does so. Lastly, if that is seen as too great a task, the Transcendence is prepared to reach back in time and stop humans from ever existing, thereby "erasing" the suffering that they intend to redeem.

Upset about the goals of the Transcendence, Alia makes her way back to the Nord, only to find that it has been attacked in an attempt to get her to go back and face the Transcendence by a group who believes the Redemption is a mistake. Upon returning to the Transcendence, Alia agrees to find a human who can join the Transcendence long enough to debate the Redemption and help them find the best course of action. To do so, Alia projects herself into the past, to the time of Michael Poole. She appears to him as his dead wife, but changes into her true form, that of a different small, hairy primate, a form evolved for low gravity environments.

Alia convinces Michael to face the Transcendence. After an initial period of adjustment Michael makes contact with the Transcendence. Able to see both sides of the argument, Michael forgives the Transcendence for their meddling, but asks that they stop their efforts. Michael is returned to his own time, where he successfully completes the refrigeration project. The Kuiper anomaly, first introduced in Coalescent, disappears, and is revealed to be related to Alia's connection with Michael, having first appeared in the solar system at the time of Michael's birth. In the far future, the Transcendence collapses and the Witnessing program is shut down.

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Transcendent (novel) - Wikipedia