Category Archives: Futurism

2018s Black Panther swept the box offices worldwide, earning more than $1.3 billion, simultaneously proving that a primarily Black cast could attract blockbuster-scale momentum. Beyond crushing box office sales, the movie received a generally favorable critical response for its appreciation of the richness and depth of the Black experience from a trans-continental perspective while also making solid references to social justice issues Black people have endured from the onset of the slave trade to today. The movie also brought tons of incredible beauty to the silver screen and paved a broader path for Afrofuturism in the Mainstream.

Nnedi Okorafors Who Fears Death, currently in the pre-development stage at HBO, is hoping to do something similar from a world-building perspective. Who Fears Death will be an adaptation of the same-name novel, written by Okorafor, which, published in 2010, earned the Nigerian-born writer a Carl Brendon Kindred Award for an outstanding work of fiction dealing with race and ethnicity.

The novels narrative is set in a post-apocalyptic future version of Sudan, where the light-skinned Nuru oppress the dark-skinned Okeke. The novels protagonist, Onyesonwu (which translates as who fears death from the Igbo language), is an Ewu, a child of an Okeke woman raped by a Nuru man. Upon reaching maturity, Onyesonwu goes on a quest to find and defeat her father, the sorcerer, using her own magical powers.

While Okorafors novel draws inspiration, at least in part, from news articles that discuss sexual violence to women of color, HBO is primarily looking to cash in on the fantasy aspect of the novel. In truth, although the massively successful Game of Thrones has its fair share of war crimes and gruesome depictions in its books as well as in its HBO adaptation, it was the fantastical and magical elements combined with George R.R. Martins revolutionary writing that drew the audience to the show in the first place.

Okorafors novel and subsequently the television adaptations plot sound incredibly interesting in their own right. However, what makes the adaptation so noteworthy is the addition of George R.R. Martin to the board of executive producers for the show since the adaptation was announced. Okorafor herself is the shows co-producer, while Luke Cage writer Aida Mashaka Croal serves as the adaptations showrunner, writer, and executive producer. Furthermore, Deadlines report suggests that Tessa Thompson, known for her work in the MCU and on the Westworld television series, is also coming on board as an executive producer for the show.

Who Fears Death is still in its early development stages, though it already cast some impressive talent behind the camera. But yet again, HBO was previously on the cutting edge of the fantasy genre when it took a gamble on Game of Thrones, so we can only hope that theyre working off of a similar instinct as it relates to Who Fears Death. If the adaptation turns out to be successful and the involvement of high-profile individuals remains steady, it could surpass Black Panther financially and make positive strides towards broadening the length of Afrofuturism in the mainstream.

For those unfamiliar with the term, Afrofuturism was coined by Mark Dery in 1993 in his essay Black to the Future: Interviews with Samuel Delany, Greg Tate, and Tricia Rose. The term represents a cultural aesthetic, philosophy of science, and history that addresses themes and concerns of the African diaspora, predominantly African-Americans, through technoculture and speculative fiction, most notably science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, and magic realism. Many described it as an intersection between imagination, technology, the future, and liberation.

However, in 2019, Okorafor published an essay titled Defining Africanfuturism, in which she strongly rejects the term Afrofuturism as a label for her work and works like hers. The essay defined Africanfuturism and Africanjujuism as a sub-category of science fiction thats directly rooted in African culture, history, mythology, and point of view without privileging the West. As such, it often centers on people of African descent while remaining rooted in the African continent, only extending to the Black diaspora. Africanfutursm narratives are, because of their African point of view, often akin to science fiction with mystical elements rather than fantasy. Africanjujuism, on the other hand, is more akin and arguably a parallel term for fantasy.

Looking at it through the prism of Africanfuturism, its quite clear that Okorafors Who Fears Death depicts liberation through the shedding of fears and old practices within different societies and ethnic groups while simultaneously addressing severe social issues through a fantasy setting. One such example is, in fact, Black Panthers depiction of Wakanda a prosperous country whose mastery of technology wasnt gained at the cost of its peoples ethnic identity and culture. It also depicts what Africa couldve been without colonization and the perpetuation of false narratives, which falls under the Afrofuturism sub-genre.

Nnedi Okorafors Who Fears Death is another significant step towards spreading Afrofuturism in the mainstream, and subsequently, Africanfuturism and Africanjujuism.

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What Nnedi Okorafor's 'Who Fears Death' Coming to HBO Could Mean for the Acceptance of Afro-Futurism in the Mainstream Black Girl Nerds The pink...

Texas governor Greg Abbott told CNBC on Thursday or at least heavily implied that Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk had private expressed support for the states draconion new abortion law.

The law amounts to a de facto ban on abortion in the state, and has been condemned by many as an egregious overreach, a contradiction of legal precedent, and an active assault on personal freedoms.

But the topic of womens reproductive rights seems to be of little concern to Musk.

In general, I believe government should rarely impose its will upon the people, and, when doing so, should aspire to maximize their cumulative happiness, he wrote in a reply to the CNBC interview. That said, I would prefer to stay out of politics.

Its hard to get a read on Musks terse statement. Is the billionaire arguing that reversing Abbotts abortion ban would result in the maximizing of cumulative happiness? Is he trying to maintain his cozy relationship with Texas political leadership?

Maybe the most likely interpretation is the most obvious: that his tweet was carefully worded to say almost nothing at all.

Rather than wade in to the debate, Musk is choosing to stick his headin the sand. The least he couldve done is to decry the move as an overreach of government, something hes been complaining about nonstop, especially since moving to Texas last year.

After all, hes a guy whos voiced loud opinions about the threat of artificial intelligence running amok, the irrelevance of personal wealth and even the Free Britney movement earlier this year, throwing his support behind the musicians right to make her own life choices.

But when it comes to social policies, Musk has rarely said much. His view that the governments regulations and bureaucracy hinder freedom seem to not apply.

Or maybe he only opposes government intervention when its inconvenient to his own business interests.

In 2020, Musk opposed lockdown measures imposed to ensure the safety of American workers during an unprecedented pandemic. But this year, when a womans right to choose is under threat, Musk is keeping his mouth shut.

Effective family planning resources are also just good policy. Access to legal and safe abortion is key to ensuring the reproductive health of a population. And Musk, as a numbers-driven leader, almost certainly knows that.

Its a striking double standard coming from a man who wants to make humanity interplanetary. Would Musk support an abortion ban in his city on Mars, where carrying out an unwanted pregnancy could endanger a carefully balanced artificial ecosystem?

Maybe Musk has just given up on humanity back on Earth. His unwillingness to speak out certainly seem to suggest that.

READ MORE: Elon Musk Backs Texas Abortion Ban, Claims Governor, to No Objection [CNBC]

More on Musk: Elon Musk Joins Call to Free Britney Spears

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Elon Musk Carefully Says Nothing About Texas Abortion Ban - Futurism

A pseudonymous security researcher says they're already mass producing the cables.Plug and Play

Next time you buy a USBcord or take a free one from a kiosk at an event youll want to make sure it doesnt spy on every single thing you type.

A cable that can do just that is now available, thanks to a pseudonymous cybersecurity researcher who goes by MG. MG told Motherboard that the so-called OMG cable looks just like any other, except for a tiny computer that can automatically record every single keystroke you take while its plugged in and transmit them to a hacker.

There were people who said that Type C cables were safe from this type of implant because there isnt enough space. So, clearly, I had to prove that wrong. :), MG told Motherboard.

MG has already started to mass-produce the OMG cable and sell it through the hacking community shop Hak5 ostensibly for security research purposes rather than anything willfully malicious. As the product listing describes, the cable contains a web server, radio, and tiny processors all hidden within the wire itself.

In a test run, Motherboard reporter Joseph Cox used the OMG cable specifically a USB-C to Lightning cable to connect his keyboard to his Mac computer. A demo video shows a phone running the cables interface capturing every word that he typed.

MG told Motherboard that a hacker can run the interface from any web browser after connecting to the cables WiFi hotspot a process that seems alarmingly straightforward for how much information it could expose. Needless to say, Apple,which developed lightning cables,ignored Motherboards request for comment.

READ MORE: This Seemingly Normal Lightning Cable Will Leak Everything You Type [Motherboard]

More on hackers: Electric Vehicle Chargers Are Shockingly Vulnerable To Hacking

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New USB Cable Contains Tiny Computer That Spies on Everything You Type - Futurism

A team of scientists from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology says its found a way that to reverse the natural aging of immune system cells and potentially make the elderly far more resistant to COVID-19 and other infections.

The researchers identified the molecular pathway that the human body uses to create B cells, The Jerusalem Post reports, which the immune system uses to identify and produce antibodies against new pathogens. Typically, your body stops making as many B cells later in life, but suppressing a particular hormone can trigger production, theoretically giving an older persons immune system the same robustness it had earlier in life, according to research published last month in the journal Blood.

While the team still needs to conduct clinical trials, their work hints at a future in which the elderly can fight off pathogens just as well as younger generations, enjoying better health well into old age.

Typically, B cells only live for a short time before they die and are converted into long-lasting memory B cells (MBC), which your immune system uses as a sort of record of previous infections. If a B cell dies before it becomes an MBC, it will be replaced by a brand new one. But that cell production grinds to a halt when there are more MBCs taking up space, according to the study, making it harder for an older persons immune system to learn how to fend off new pathogens like the coronavirus.

When you are young, you have young cells, and young cells have a very diverse ability to recognize anything [pathogenic] that comes into your body, Technion-Israel researcher Doron Melamed told The Jerusalem Post.

In order to find a way to trick the body into making new B cells, the researchers probed one of the ways that the body naturally replenishes its supply. Patients undergoing treatment for multiple sclerosis had their MBC stock depleted, at which point their body rapidly started to produce new B cells.

The team identified the specific hormones that shut B cell production down again once stores were replenished, and realized that deactivating the hormone results in the body producing extra B cells left and right. And going forward, they hope to turn that hormonal trick into a new rejuvenating treatment for the elderly and immunocompromised.

We found specific hormonal signals produced by the old B cells, the memory cells, that inhibit the bone marrow from producing new B cells, Melamed told The Jerusalem Post. This is a huge discovery. It is like finding a needle in a haystack.

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Doctors Claim to Have Discovered How to Reverse Cell Aging - Futurism

It's free to attend, but donations are welcome.Virtual Burning Man

The iconic desert festival Burning Man has moved entirely online for 2021 over COVID concerns, allowing attendees to roam the art-laden landscapes from the comfort of their own home and inside virtual reality, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Its not the first time the festivalhas moved online. Last year, a VR experience had to be put together in record time as the pandemic was only getting started. An estimated half a million people attended the virtual event at the time, according to the WSJ, over five times the amount that attended the in-person Burning Man back in 2019.

Attending this years event is also free, though donations are accepted. You can check out an overview of the virtual space for yourself here, straight from your browser.

Its a major shift for the many Burners who are usually willing to travel long distances to attend the event, normally held in the Nevada desert. This time, all they will have to do is strap on a VR headset to get their Burning Man freak on.

The event, called Virtual Burnthis year, is themed around decommodification, free expression, and self-reliance.

The events theme is The Great Unknown perhaps a nod to our uncertain future in the midst of a global pandemic and will include the traditional burning of a giant wooden effigy, the eponymous Burning Man. A real effigy will actually be lit in the desert, but the lighting will be livestreamed over VR as well, the WSJ reports.

COVID isnt keeping all physical Burners away. An unofficial event called Renegade Burn being held in the Nevada desert is expecting some 10,000 people gathering at the site, according to Billboard.

Similarly, last year saw a large group of people attend a Not-Burning Man for their own unofficial event.

But at least organizers are trying their best to make virtual Burners feel like theyre attending the real thing this year. They programmed in a rainstorm in the desert, causing hours of virtualized delays just like it did in real life back in 2013.

READ MORE: How Could Burning Man Get Weirder? When Its in Your Living Room. [The Wall Street Journal]

More on Burning Man: Neuralink Co-Founder Has an Idea for a New Religion

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Burning Man Is Completely in Virtual Reality This Year - Futurism

Well, this thing sure looks familiar.Copy Cat

Where have we seen this one before?

Chinas National Space Science Center (CNNSC) has shown off a prototype for a Mars cruise drone that looks extremely familiar.

The image shared by the science center shows a small rotorcraft with two large blades sitting on a table seemingly heavily inspired by NASAs Ingenuity Mars helicopter, as SpaceNews reporter Andrew Jones pointed out on Twitter.

The fun way to put it would be that it is the opposite of Ingenuity,' Jones joked. More Familiarity than Ingenuity, but more the merrier.

Imitation, after all, is the sincerest form of flattery.

The drone, described in an announcement by CNNSC, will be outfitted with a spectrometer to presumably scan the geographical features of the Martian landscape.

Beyond that, the statement is pretty thin on details. Futurism has reached out to the CNNSC for further comment.

China has extensive plans for exploration of the Red Planet. Earlier this year, China revealed that it aims to send its first crewed mission to Mars as soon as 2033.

Its not all bluster. In an astonishing accomplishment, the country managed to successfully land a rover on the planet in May.

NASA spent several years refining the design of the Ingenuity helicopter, painstakingly reproducing the harsh conditions and gravity of Mars back here on Earth.

The mission has been a massive success, with the small four pound rotorcraft beating every expectation. To date, the aircraft has flown 12 times since its groundbreaking maiden voyage in mid-April.

Perhaps its no wonder China wants in on the fun exploring the surface of Mars from air is just as captivating as it sounds.

More on Ingenuity: NASA Mars Helicopter Flies Super High, Spots Rover Way Down on Ground

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China Appears to Be Working on a Clone of NASA's Mars Helicopter - Futurism

"Moving step by step, we are progressing toward launch while keeping our team as safe as possible."One Small Delay

NASAs Space-Launch System (SLS) rocket, which was supposed to launch the first Artemis Moon missions this year, now probably wont take flight until the middle of 2022.

Publicly, NASA is maintaining the expectation of a 2021 launch for the uncrewed Artemis Is trip around the Moon, but a source at the agency told Ars Technica that tests are so delayed that now the best-case scenario is a launch by spring but more realistically summer 2022.

Faced with those claims, a NASA spokesperson told Ars that yes, the SLS and its accompanying Orion spacecraft are delayed and that COVID-19 is to blame presenting yet another hiccup on the road to finally completing a rocket that was originally supposed to blast off back in 2016.

At the moment, NASA is completing vibration tests that are designed to make sure the SLS can hold together under the extreme conditions of a launch, and clue engineers in to any mid-flight adjustments that they may need to make. The agency hoped those tests would be done by July meaning everything that comes after has had to be pushed back.

The agency continues to monitor the rise of COVID cases in the Kennedy area, which combined with other factors such as weather and first-time operations, is impacting our schedule of operations, NASA spokesperson Kathryn Hambleton told Ars. Moving step by step, we are progressing toward launch while keeping our team as safe as possible.

However, the SLS has already been delayed for years and surpassed budget expectations by billions of dollars. So while the pandemic has certainly thrown another wrench into the works, its not like things were progressing smoothly before the coronavirus struck. Regardless, Hambleton says that NASA should offer a revised schedule soon.

As always, we will fly only when we are ready, she told Ars Technica.

READ MORE: NASAs big rocket misses another deadline, now wont fly until 2022 [Ars Technica]

More on the SLS: We Interviewed the New Head of NASA About SpaceX, China, and Aliens

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NASA Source: No Way Artemis Moon Mission Is Launching This Year - Futurism

No more abstractions.Hitting Home

For many people in America, climate change has long been considered an abstract threat happening to polar bears and people elsewhere in the world.

But thats not the case. Climate change is a threat everywhere, as illustrated yet again by the horrific weather event on Wednesday night. Just look at the devastation of Hurricane Ida, which devastated New Orleans last weekend just to head northeast, causing rampant death and destruction in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania on Wednesday. As Western Carolina University geologist Robert Young wrote in a New York Times op-ed, the unusual destruction it caused is climate change manifested in our own back yards and the situation wont improve unless leaders take urgent steps to stop it.

Ultimately, we must also recognize that the coastal zone will be in ever-increasing peril until we tackle the changing climate in a meaningful way, Young wrote. All this resilience spending is just a Band-Aid, not a cure.

When it hit the NYC area, Hurricane Ida flooded streets, the subway system, and destroyed homes. Information is still coming in, but The New York Times reports that the storm killed at least 20 people in the northeast to say nothing of the still-rising death toll in Louisiana.

At one point, Central Park recorded 3.14 inches of rain in one hour. Newark Airport in New Jersey recorded 3.24. Such intense, record-breaking rainfall would normally be considered a once-in-500-years event, but as Axios notes, worsening environmental degradation will likely cause this caliber of storm to happen with increasing frequency.

Of course, what may have been a rude awakening for some is far from the first indicator that climate change is hitting the US. The Pacific Northwest has been on fire for months and droughts are plaguing a huge stretch of the country. Deadly floods are just another sign that were in trouble and that urgent, immediate action is necessary.

READ MORE: The Truth Is That You Cant Protect Everything From Every Hurricane [The New York Times]

More on Hurricane Ida: Todays Killer Hurricane Is Linked To Climate Change, Scientists Say

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Last Night's Hurricane Devastation Shows That Climate Change Is Here - Futurism

According to a recent survey of finance industry executives by consulting giant Deloitte, digital assets will likely replace fiat currencies in five to ten years and banks should take notice.

Deloittes 2021 Global Blockchain Survey affirms that banks should embrace their inevitable digital future, the report reads. In a seismic shift, financial leaders increasingly see digital assets as the future.

Some 76 percent of respondents said they believe digital assets will serve as a strong alternative to, or outright replacement for, fiat currencies in the next 510 years.

The report is a strong indication that a digital asset revolution could be soon be upon us and that those who wont follow the trend risk losing out.

More and more money is being permanently stored in the form of digital assets, leading to both institutions and investors looking at ways to adopt new ways to do so.

The report is a strong indication that changes are coming, whether the industry is ready or not.

Participation in the age of digital assets is not an option, it is inevitable, the report concludes. Leaders are left only to decide how to use digital assets and the new global financial service infrastructure to their greatest advantage.

READ MORE: Crypto assets could replace fiat currencies within as little as 5 years, financial execs tell Deloitte [Insider]

More on crypto: Feds Smashed Armored Vehicle Through Wall During Bitcoin Raid

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Banks Warned That Crypto Could Replace Dollar Within Five Years - Futurism

This will help guide future NASA missions to Saturn's largest moon. Titan in a Vial

Scientists have been able to replicate the atmosphere of one of the solar systems most enigmatic moons right here on Earth.

The researchers were able to recreate the chemical composition of Saturns largest moon Titan in tiny glass vials, according to WIRED. The team presented their findings to the American Chemical Society (ACS) fall meeting this week.

Our research revealed a lot about the structures of planetary ices that was previously unknown, said Tome Runevski, an assistant professor of chemistry at Southern Methodist University and the studys principal investigator, at the event.

Want to make some moon atmosphere on your own? Simply dust off that laboratory freezer that can get down to -290 degrees F, gather your glass vials, and follow these instructions:

Typically, we introduce water, which freezes into ice as we lower the temperature to simulate the Titan atmosphere, said Runevski. We top that with ethane, which becomes a liquid, mimicking the hydrocarbon lakes that Cassini-Huygens found.

Runevski and his team made a few interesting discoveries. For example, two molecules typically found on Titan acetonitrile and propionitrile combine into a crystalline form due to the moons sub-freezing temperatures.

These insights and others gathered by Runevski will surely help guide future NASA missions to explore Titan along with similar expeditions to Europa. Itll also help us better understand a very fascinating part of our solar system.

While Titan is roughly a billion miles away from Earth, it shares many similarities to our planet including having lakes, rivers, rainy weather patterns, and an atmosphere. Many scientists hope that such conditions can facilitate life.

READ MORE: Titans Strange Chemical World Gets Simulated in Tiny Tubes [WIRED]

More on Titan: NASA Scientists Spot Really Unexpected Molecule in Atmosphere of Saturns Largest Moon

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Researchers Recreate Titan's Atmosphere on Earth in Glass Vials - Futurism