Category Archives: Futurism

Book Review | The Anatomy Of Steampunk: The Fashion Of Victorian Futurism
BOOK REVIEW OF YOUR FAVORITE BOOK =--- Where to buy this book? ISBN: 9781937994280 Book Review of The Anatomy of Steampunk: The Fashion of Victorian Futu...

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Its the quintessential college experience: late nights, pizza, and heady intellectual conversations. And then there was that one friend, whose philosophical musings would bring unconnected thoughts together into a stream of mellifluous prose; it all sounded pretty convincing at the time even if the specifics were hazy leaving us with the sense of fertile pastures just outside our mental grasp.

Jason Silva is the polished, better-sourced, hipper version of that roommate, one that can walk the walk in addition to talking the very frenetic talk. As the creator of the Shots of Awe video series (see an example at the end of this post) and host of National Geographics Brain Games, Silva has made a name for himself as a leading science evangelist and technology enthusiast.

But unlike the professorial Bill Nye or the authoritative Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Silva takes a different communications tack, guiding us through a journey of wonder rather than telling us precisely how it is. Its a refreshing antidote to the jaded, nothing-but-the-facts approach taken by scientists who feel they have the moral high ground, an approach that only serves to propagate a culture war. Im interested in exultation, wonderment, inspiration, and content that acts as a decentering experience, says Silva, using language that could just as easily apply to a religious experience. And in many ways, thats just what the modern world is to Silva, with its delivery and continued promise of new knowledge and techno-futurism.

To Silva, the sequence of events that, as he puts it, took a naked ape and put him on the Moon, required a carefully calibrated balance of human instincts. We are naturally curious explorers, certainly, but unbridled wanderings without focused expertise isnt particularly productive. On the other hand, ceaseless technical development and capacity building without an inspired objective leads to products with subpar utility. We love security and ritual and routine, Silva reflects, but also mystery and danger. We need to find a way to dance between these two modes, and I think thats a tough skill to develop. Theres got to be a functional output.

Silvas projects cover a wide range of subjects and flavors of functional output. His Shots of Awe are a way to eternalize fleeting epiphanies, two-minute serums meant to inspire and develop questions rather than to provide detailed explanations. Silva himself is involved with every aspect of production, from video clip curation to music selection and editing, and with a new video every week its an ambitious schedule. Brain Games* is a larger enterprise, a surprise hit for the National Geographic Channel that has offered a glimmer of educational hope as lifestyle shows dumb down other corners of the cable universe. Silva credits the shows production and writing teams, who combine triple-vetted science with a screenwriters instinct for pacing and storytelling.

If too-cool-for-school detachment seems to be on its way out as a cultural sensibility as presaged by empathy-bolstering websites like Upworthy, and Humans of New York then earnestness is a growth stock and Silva is a blue chip. By his own admission, Silva is terrified of boredom, which he characterizes as a coping mechanism to gird ourselves from the exhausting state of constant mental engagement with the world. By chasing novel connections and challenging viewers, Silva hopes to scramble previous mental models and demand a fruitful, if challenging, reconstruction. When you lose your center, you have to reconstruct your beliefs and understanding about the world, he notes. Any engagement that is potent must first disrupt.

*Brain Games airs Mondays at 9pm ET on National Geographic Channel.

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Is this the Earnest, Fast-Paced Future of Science Communication?

Tech Up S2E4 - News From Futurism [DNA in space, touchable holograms and underwater cities]
TechUp S2 Episode 4 premiers in January on Bell Aliant Community One. For full episodes you can visit: http://www.techup.tv/watch Follow us on Twitter - http...

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Tech Up S2E4 - News From Futurism [DNA in space, touchable holograms and underwater cities] - Video

TONY MACALPINE ~ FUTURISM 1995
TONY MACALPINE ~ FUTURISM ALBUM Evolution 1995 The name Tony MacAlpine is synonymous with modern musical virtuosity. Whether performing as a solo artist, ban...

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TONY MACALPINE ~ FUTURISM 1995 - Video

KopyKat - Wanted Love (Original Mix)
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KopyKat - Wanted Love (Original Mix) - Video

Inventors get ripped off way more than you think. So we wanted to create a safe haven for them.

That, Akos Jankura explained to me, is the core idea behind My Cool Inventions, a talk radio program that he co-hosts with John Cremeans. The format of the show is pretty simple: the hosts bring on five new inventors a week who talk about their products. As they talk about the product, the two hosts also share some thoughts and insights for the inventor to improve his product and/or business strategy.

They have pretty strong credentials to do so. Both men are decades-long veterans of the home shopping industry and infomercials, between them racking up millions in sales. Jankura has also invented and successfully marketed several products.

We know what it takes to sell a product. We know what it takes to demo a product. We know what it takes to have it somewhere and make money with it, said Cremeans on a recent broadcast.

After talking about the invention for a few minutes, the show then allows the inventor to give a 60 second pitch for his product to the audience, who can then vote online or by text to give a thumbs up or thumbs down to the idea. Once a month, the duo gives away a marketing package worth $20,000 to an inventor selected by the audience.

Its kind of like a huge focus group, said Jankura. And its brutally honest.

The show has a strong audience that, according to Jankura, includes retailers and catalogers. During the live broadcasts, there are 50-70,000 radio listeners, according to Arbitron, along with an additional 25,000 audience members who are listening online.

John Cremeans showing off one of the products featured on the show.

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Finding The Next Great Inventor On The Airwaves

Gorillaz - Feel Good Inc (The SAME x Lalitia Cover)
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Gorillaz - Feel Good Inc (The SAME x Lalitia Cover) - Video

Bad Girl (Futurism 90 #39;s Disco Remix) (feat. Patricia Edwards)
Bad Girl (Futurism 90 #39;s Disco Remix) [feat. Patricia Edwards] Disco Sugar Vamos Music Released on: 2013-03-08 Composer: Chris Lens Featured Artist: Patrici...

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Bad Girl (Futurism 90's Disco Remix) (feat. Patricia Edwards) - Video

SpaceX today confirmed yesterdays reports that it has embarked on a new round of fundraising. The round includes two new investors, Google and Fidelity investments.

The total investment of the two companies is one billion dollars, which SpaceX says means that Google and Fidelity will collectively own just under 10% of the company. That gives the space startup a total valuation of over $10 billion. According to SpaceX, this funding will be used to support continued innovation in the areas of space transport, reusability, and satellite manufacturing.

CEO Elon Musk announced earlier this month that the company is going to be investing in a satellite internet startup to provide high-speed internet to people on Earth, and also provide the backbone for the internet to eventually reach Mars. That announcement came shortly after Richard Bransons Virgin Group announced a joint investment with Qualcomm into internet satellite company OneWeb.

SpaceX has already made one successful launch this month of its Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station, delivering supplies, cargo and scientific experiments. Its next launch is scheduled for February, when a Falcon 9 rocket will deliver the Deep Space Climate Observatory, which is geared towards real-time monitoring of solar wind. The monitoring helps develop space weather forecasts to help protect infrastructure points from radiation.

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SpaceX Raises $1 Billion In A Financing Round With Google And Fidelity

Illustration of Day 1 of the Ross Ulbricht trial. (Illustration by Susie Cagle)

To his family, he was former Eagle Scout Ross Ulbricht. To his housemates, he was Joshua Terrey. To the U.S. government, hes The Dread Pirate Roberts the criminal mastermind who created and operated the billion dollar black market website Silk Road. His trial began on January 13.

The prosecutions story of an exceptionally bright and smart kid who grew up to become the criminal head of a global black market is in itself interesting enough to provide Hollywood with a half a dozen movies. But even if the government proves these allegations, this character arc would actually be one of the more normal and mundane things about this story.

Here are a few of the bizarre twists and turns in the investigation of The Dread Pirate Roberts, Silk Road, and Ross Ulbricht:

An Undercover Agent Basically Worked The Helpdesk For Silk Road

Illustration by Susie Cagle

In July of 2013, Jared Der-Yeghiayan, a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations, took over the account of a Silk Road moderator under the alias cirrus. By the time of Ulbrichts capture, Der-Yeghiayan had been undercover for about two months.

During his time undercover, Der-Yeghiayans worked for 10 to 12 hours each day, and was paid about one thousand dollars in bitcoin from DPRs Silk Road account every week.

Essentially, he was a helpdesk worker for an online black market. But it was his contact with Dread Pirate Roberts that led to a sting operation to arrest Ulbricht. The Federal Government Faked A Hit Ordered By The Dread Pirate Roberts

Curtis Clark Green, a semi-pro poker player in his late 40s, had a second job that his family knew nothing about he was an administrator for Silk Road who was known for frequently shared personal anecdotes and detailed advice on using and dealing illegal substances.

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Faking Murders And Stealing Bitcoin: Why The Silk Road Is The Strangest Crime Story Of The Decade