Category Archives: Transhuman News

It's been 10 years since Futuristic announced his arrival on the hip-hop scene with an album whose title served as something of a mission statement: "Dream Big."

He's spent the years since thensteadily growing his brandas one of Arizona's most successful rappers, with more than 800,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, where several of his biggest songs have pulled in more than 40 million streams.

He's released 10 solo albums, two collaborative albums (with Devvon Terrell and Michael Minelli), three EPs and countless singles.

And that's notcounting all the CDs he madein his father's basement studio to sell at school as a talent show regular as early as the fifth grade.

In 2015, he appeared on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon."Two years later, hespent the summer as the only rapper on the Warped Tour.

Interview:How tragedy helped Phoenix rapper Mega Ran embrace his inner nerd and stress the positive

Now, Futuristic wouldlike to introduce youto the other side of who he says he's always been a kid who grew up listening to Blink-182 as much as Ludacris or Eminem on an album of pop-punk songs he's hoping to release before the year is out titled "Never Too Late."

"I've been rapping for 25 years," he says.

"It just doesn't excite me. It really doesn't. Hopefully, I get that excitement back for rap after I do this. But as of right now, rapping just does not excite me."

The Tempe musicianhas already shared two singles from "Never Too Late" an existential pop-punk anthem devoted to making the most of the time you've got called "Highs & Lows" andaneffervescent adrenaline-rush called "Gucci."

Both tracks feature rapsbut those chugging guitars and sugar-coated chorus hooks are straight-up pop-punk.

"I grew up with all sorts of musical influences," Futuristic says.

"I'm one of nine kids. And all my siblings play instruments, sing, whatever. So when I started making music, it was a little bit of everything. I did show choir as a kid."

When Futuristic started playing in Arizona, where his family moved from Illinois when he was 15, it was with a full band.

"The whole point of the band was basically to play every genre," he says."We did reggae. We did heavy metal. We did rap.

"The only reason that stopped was because I started getting some notoriety and started touring. And it's like, 'There's no way I can take these five guys on tour;I'm getting paid $250, $300 a show.'"

Since 2017, he's done an R&B project and a couple other more experimental efforts.

"I did one album where I made every beat from scratch with household items, basically," he says. "So I've just always messed around with lots of different things."

'Funky Broadway': How 1 night at a Phoenix Elks Club changed the history of funk

When he turned his attentions to making a pop-punk album, he says, "It just felt really good. And it felt right. It felt like this is what I was probably supposed to be doing the whole time."

There's an energy he brings to his performances that fit right in that summer on the Warped Tour.

"I've always had a wild show, from the mosh pits to the crowd surfing," he says.

"I do this thing called the crowd dunk, where my DJ goes in the crowd, they hold him up by his feet, he holds up a basketball hoop, like a nerf hoop, and I jump off stage, dunk it and surf the whole crowd."

His go-to pop-punk inspirations are the sort of acts you'd expect an artist born in 1991 to favor.

"I can't lie and say I was ever, like, a crazy pop-punk fan, as far as diving deep and knowing all the unheard-of bands," he says.

"Just your normal, you know, Blink-182, Good Charlotte, Sum 41. Those type of bands are definitely, like, you grew up and you knew all their songs."

That music spoke to him the same as any hip-hop songs in third or fourth grade.

"The attitude and the energy are kind ofthe same," he says.

"And rappers were like the new rock stars, putting on crazy shows, doing wild stuff, getting known for what they were doing outside of music. Even the subject matter. All music country, rap, rock we're all talking about the same things, just in different ways."

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As Futuristic has grown and matured, the way he talks about those same things has evolved with each release.

"That first record, I don't love it," he says of "Dream Big" 10 years later.

"Some people will say that's their favorite from me. So it is what it is. ButI think every album has progressively gotten better, in my opinion. It's just being aware of myself, I think, over time."

"Dream Big" was a step up from the CDs he was selling to his classmates back in fifthgrade.

"They are so bad," he says, with a laugh. "My voice doesn't even sound like me. And I'm talking about stuff I knew nothing about because I'm hanging out with all my older brothers and their friends. Butthat was childhood, I guess, for me."

He was in fifth grade when his parents split, and every time he visited his dad, he and his brother would retire to the basement and record more music.

"I performed at all the talent shows," he says."That was my hustle as a kid.

"And beinga 7-year-old rapper, I was definitely gonna get first, second or third no matter what. So that was my grind. Then after I performed, I'd walk the crowd and sell CDs. As a fifth grader, I would do a show and literally make 500 or 600 bucks."

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Those formative experiences shaped the way he's always looked at his career.

"It's been a business to me from the jump," he says.

When iTunes came along, he figured out how he could sell the most on iTunes. As he learned whatblogs were, he was targeting specific records to specific blogs.

"What I realized was that every song needs its own platform," he says. "If I'm making a song that sounds a certain way, it's always 'How do I get this song to that demographic?' That's how I just thought about everything."

If he made a track that had more of a rock feel, he says,"I thought, 'OK, I need to get this on the rock blogs.' And I need to then open a show for a rapper that has a rock influence. I need to open for Machine Gun Kelly. Or Yelawolf."

If he wrote a fast rap, he'd reach out to Tech N9ne or Hopsin to get them on the track.

"My whole career has been based on kind of using different platforms to catapult me," he says. "Now I've become the platform."

It's a strategy that's helped him grow his fan base through the years.

"My thing is, you're gonna snatch fans from every little pocket and some of those fans will stay and some of them will only like that song," he says. "But you've just got to snatch here, there and everywhere. That kind of makes your melting pot of fans."

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He realizes that melting pot includes some fans who may not want to hear him do a pop-punk record. That's part of the reason he's been rolling out the music one song at a time.

"I'm gonna drop the album in December because I know it's gonna take some time to get them acclimated," he says. "So far it's been, I'd say, 65, 35. Sixty-five percentof them are receiving it well and 35 percentare like, 'What the hell are you doing? Please stop.'"

The way he sees it, he's been losing a certain percentage of fans this whole time, yet his fan base just keeps getting bigger.

"I guess the reason why I wasn't tripping too much is I ask my fans at every show, 'Who here it's their first time seeing me?'" he says.

"And 50 percentof the crowd, at least, it's their first time. No matter how many times I've been to a market, how many times I've sold out the same place, it's never the same 500 people as the last time I played Utah."

Exclusive: Mr. Lucky's has sold. This is what made the concert venue iconic and what's next

He's hoping to roll out his new pop-punk era in those markets in two stages.

"Ideally, I would want to open fora bigger rock tour in the spring and probably drop another project midsummer, maybe, of next year, and domy headline tour next fall," he says.

And that next project will be punk-pop.

"I think I'd be doing myself a disservice to just put out one and then go back to rapping," he says. "No offense to my rap roots.I feel like I write much better songs in this lane. I sayhalf the words but say more at the same time."

"Never Too Late" was produced by local pop-punk band This Modern in their home recording studio with guest appearances by FigureItOut and the Color 8 guitarist Kal.

"We made three songs the first day and I was like, 'Yo, I haven't felt this good making music since maybe forever," Futuristic says.

"And then, the concepts just flowed out of mefor two weeks, every day, making two or three songs. And that was the whole project. It was liberating."

He found himself addressing aspects of his life in ways he'd never rapped about those feelings.

"I've been rapping for 25 years, and I don't have a song about me and my dad's relationship like this, or me and my ex, or me and my girl or me and my cousin," he says.

"I don't know why or how, but the music itself brought new things out of me that I didn't know were in there."

He's quick to credit This Modern for helping him tap into that energy.

"They've just been been helping me the whole time," he says. "Even the lead singer, there's no reason for him to be there. But he's there at every session. And it's really, really dope. I've made great friendships with those guys."

There is a chance he'll come up with a different title by the time the album drops, but at the moment, he feels pretty good about"Never Too Late" and what it says about the essence of this record.

"I just think in life, it's never too late foranything," he says.

"Like for me and this album. It's never too late to make the switch. It's never too late to do something you love. It's never too late to move in a new direction. It's never too late to follow your dreams."

Reach the reporter at ed.masley@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4495. Follow him on Twitter @EdMasley.

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Does Futuristic still rap? Here's the latest on his career - The Arizona Republic

Are we one step closer to remote controlling human brains?

According to a peer-reviewed study published in the journal Nature Materials, we just might. A team of researchers at Rice University have officially been able to hack into the brains of fruit flies and successfully command them to make a specific movement with just a click of a wireless remote control.

The team an assemblage of experts in genetic engineering, nanotechnology, and electrical engineering first created genetically modified flies bred to express a specific heat-sensitive ion channel which, when activated, caused the insects to spread their wings.

They then injected the gene-hacked buggos' brains with a heat trigger: magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles, which quickly heat up in the presence of a magnetic charge.

Then, by switching on a magnetic field, the scientists were able to warm those iron oxide nanoparticles and in turn, those heat-sensitive, wing-specific ions.

In other words, the study showed that within half a second of a human clicking a button, the bugs would spread their wings.It's a crude hack, but an intriguing proof of concept for altered animals controlled by technology.

The researchers are hopeful that this newfound success with genetically targeted cells will be a gamechanger for studying human brain function.It could lead to new treatments for a number of neurological diseases, they say,and even new brain-machine communication devices.

"To study the brain or to treat neurological disorders the scientific community is searching for tools that are both incredibly precise, but also minimally invasive," said coauthor Jacob Robinson in a press release. "Remote control of select neural circuits with magnetic fields is somewhat of a holy grail for neurotechnologies. Our work takes an important step toward that goal because it increases the speed of remote magnetic control, making it closer to the natural speed of the brain."

Notably, Robinson is the principal investigator for the US military's DARPA-funded project MOANA. Shorthand for "magnetic, optical and acoustic neural access," MOANA is currently working to create wireless headsets that, through nonsurgical means, facilitate brain-to-brain communication.

If all goes to plan, the MOANA headsets will be able to decode the neurons in one individual's mind, then download that information into the mind of another. So, essentially, Bluetooth telepathy. Spooky!

But even with millions from the Department of Defense behind them, Robinson says that goal is still far off.

"To get to the natural precision of the brain we probably need to get a response down to a few hundredths of a second," he continued. "So there is still a ways to go."

More on neuroscience breakthroughs: Scientists Say Brain Implant Let Completely Paralyzed Man Communicate Again

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Scientists Hijack Fruit Fly Brains to Remote Control Their Wings - Futurism

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In news that seems like it just might lead to a strange new superhero, Japanese scientists say cultured human muscle cells can stay swole with an injection of, well, bear serum.

The secret, according to a press release from the University of Hiroshima, is bears' ability to hibernate for extended periods of time without losing muscle mass.

Humans live with a "use it or lose it" rule when it comes to muscle gain and physical activity, but bears don't have the same problem. Hibernating bears bunker down for months without eating or drinking, yet they don't lose significant muscle mass or strength when they wake up. Humans start losing muscle mass after three weeks of inactivity, and prolonged bouts of lying still without eating or drinking can lead to serious health problems or even death.

A team of researchers from the university published a study on their findings in the journal PLoS ONE earlier this year.

"Hibernating animals are likely better described to be under the 'no use, but no lose'phenomenon, in that there is potential resistance to muscle atrophy during continued disuse conditions," study author Mitsunori Miyazaki said in the press release.

Scientists still don't know exactly what causes the proteins and compounds in bear muscles to react to hibernation the way they do, but the answer could be a key to improving the quality of life for humans.

"By identifying this 'factor' in hibernating bear serum and clarifying the unexplored mechanism behind 'muscles that do not weaken even without use' in hibernating animals, it is possible to develop effective rehabilitation strategies in humans and prevent becoming bedridden in the future."

Sure, getting jacked and lifting a ton of weights is cool. But maybe someday we'll be able to supercharge our muscles in a whole new way.

More on the amazing human body: "Game of Thrones" Star Emilia Clarke Had "Quite a Bit" of Her Brain Removed

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Scientists Supercharge Human Muscle Cells By Injecting Them With "Bear Serum" - Futurism

Craft Recordings proudly announces a 60th-anniversary edition of The Futuristic Sounds of Sun Ra. A standout title in the Afrofuturism pioneer and innovative jazz artists extensive catalog of recordings, the 1962 album marks Sun Ras first recording with his band, The Arkestra, in New York after relocating from Chicago. Produced by Tom Wilson (whose credits include titles for Bob Dylan, the Velvet Underground, and the Mothers of Invention), The Futuristic Sounds of Sun Ra has long been considered one of the avant-garde artists most accessible albums.

This special reissue features all-analog re-mastering by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio, while the LP has been pressed on 180-gram vinyl at RTI. As a bonus, the CD and LP packages include Tom Wilsons original liner notes, plus insightful new essays by jazz historian Ben Young, as well as by Irwin Chusid, who not only administers the musical estate for Sun Ra, but is also a journalist, radio personality, and the author of the forthcoming book, Sun Ra: Art on Saturn The Album Cover Art of Sun Ras Saturn Label. Landing in stores on September 16, this edition will also be released in stunning hi-res digital audio.

Arriving on this planet long before his timeor perhaps at the very right momentSun Ra (19141993) was one of the most unique talents in the history of recorded music. A bandleader, keyboardist, composer, arranger, poet, philosopher, and dreamer, Ras creativity knew no bounds. Frequently accompanied by The Arkestrahis loose, musical collectivethe imaginative artist kept fans on their toes with his breadth of musical styles, his use of new audio technology, and his otherworldly costumes throughout his four-decade-long career. In his essay, Irwin Chusid delights that Sun Ra was many things, but consistent and predictable dont apply.

Ra (born Herman Poole Blount in Birmingham, AL) began his career in Chicago in the 1940s, where he spent much of his time playing in and arranging for jazz ensembles, R&B bands, and vocal groups. In 1952, the artist rechristened himself as Le Sonyr Ra (later shortening it to Sun Ra), after the Egyptian sun god, Ra. Along with his new name, Ra developed a fantastical backstory, claiming to have arrived from Saturn, with a mission to bring peace to the people of Earth. In 1957, he released his debut album, Jazz by Sun Ra, working alongside a fresh-out-of-Harvard Tom Wilson, who not only produced the record, but also released it on his label, Transition Records.

Five years later, Ra found himself disenchanted with the scene in Chicago, and drove east with several Arkestra membersfirst to Montreal and then to New York. Wilson, meanwhile, had also relocated to Manhattan, where he became an in-house producer at Savoy Records. The two men reunited within a month, booking studio time for a new album at Newark, NJs Medallion Studios.

Engineered by Paul Cady, the sessions featured nine players, including Ra on piano, Bernard McKinney (later known as Kiane Zawadi, on trombone and euphonium), Marshall Allen (alto sax, flute, among other reed instruments), John Gilmore (tenor sax, bass clarinet), Pat Patrick (bass saxophone), Ronnie Boykins (bass), Willie Jones (drums), Leah Ananda (conga), and Ricky Murray (vocals). Noting the groups broad instrumentation, Chusid writes, the octet-plus-vocalist format mirrored what Ra had often presented in Chicago. They employed an arsenal of percussion, including bells from India, Chinese wind chimes, wood blocks, maracas, claves, scratchers, gongs, cowbells, Turkish cymbals, and castanets.

Recorded in just one day, on October 10, 1961, The Futuristic Sounds of Sun Ra featured 11 tracks. As Ben Young describes in his essay, this is a set of miniaturesreductions of what the band offered in performance. He continues, as Sun Ra was casting about for work on McDougal and Bleecker Streets in the months after Futuristic Sounds was recorded, it would be useful to drop a copy of the record to represent this is what we do. Or can doa little bit of everything, in short manageable, segments. The whole smorgasbord of Sun Ra.

Among the selections is the Latin-influenced opener, Bassism, the bluesy Of Sounds and Something Else, and the aptly named, Whats That?, which Young describes as an oddly shaped scramble. The track, which breaks into a four-saxophone improvisation, stands out as an example of Ras early experimental work. Young explains, Futuristic Sounds represents the beginnings for Sun Ra of turning away from mapped music to a sound coordinated more spontaneously or organically. Make no mistakethis is organized music, but it has sections that are highly heterophonic and undetermined.

Another example of Ras free-flowing work is The Beginning, which, for the talented members of The Arkestra raises the issue of what it meant to be proficient in an open-field world of soundthat is, one thats generally not determined by song frameworks, Young notes. The album also includes Tapestry from an Asteroid, a ballad that became one of Ras most-performed works. Interestingly, out of the ten original selections on the album (Victor Youngs China Gates was the sole track not penned by Ra), Tapestry from an Asteroid would stand as the only work that the artist would ever revisiton stage or otherwiseagain.

Futuristic Sounds, Chusid argues, was Sun Ras last fully File Under: Jazz album. Once firmly ensconced in New York, his releases of new material became increasingly innovative, often featuring compositions and arrangements that only tangentially resembled jazz, and often were something stylistically uncategorizable. It was at this stage of his career that the icon of Afrofuturism achieved total liftoff.

And while Wilson and Ra would only work on two more projects together (neither of which were led by Ra), its clear that the producer not only held the musicians artistry in the highest regard, but also understood his vision completely. In his original liner notes, Wilsons enthusiasm is palpable, as he praises Futuristic Sounds as a long overdue voyage into new dimensions of jazz where rhythms have become super-rhythms, where trite arrangements and instrumentation have given way to exotic sound pictures combining distant rumblings from the primeval past of all music with strange strains from the future.

Turning his attention to the bandleader, he writes, Sun Ra is a man of many paradoxes. He is at one and the same time an avowed modern jazz purist and an unabashedly commercial showman who knows how to sell himself to any kind of a musical audience. Though he is well aware of the commercial impact of the space costumes of his group, he is yet sincerely dedicated to the belief that the dawning of the Space Age offers mankind one last chance to achieve harmony, unity, and peace.

Following the release of Futuristic Sounds, which marked Ras sole album under Savoy, the artist and the Arkestra enjoyed a fruitful period in New York and Philadelphia. In 1969, Ra graced the cover of Rolling Stone, while in the early 70s, he became an artist-in-residence at the University of California, Berkeley.

Later in the decade, back in New York, his shows would attract a new generation of fans, including the Velvet Undergrounds John Cale and Nico, John Lurie of the Lounge Lizards, and Blondies Debbie Harry. As he grew older, Ras influence only continued to grow, with bands like Sonic Youth inviting the artist to open for them. During his lifetime, Ra also built one of the most extensive discographies in history, which includes more than 100 albums (live and studio) and over 1,000 songs. Nearly 30 years after his death, the legacy of Sun Ra lives on through the ever-evolving Arkestra, which continues to record and perform today.

Pre-order The Futuristic Sounds Of Sun Ra.

The Futuristic Sounds of Sun Ra tracklist (CD/Digital):BassismOf Sounds And Something ElseWhats That?Where Is Tomorrow?The BeginningChina Gates (Victor Young)New DayTapestry From An AsteroidJet FlightLooking OutwardSpace Jazz Reverie

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The Futuristic Sounds Of Sun Ra Celebrates 60 Years With New Reissue - uDiscover Music

Google is bringing back Google Glass well, sort of. The Silicon Valley tech giant has announced that it will be testing out its prototype AR smart glasses in the public starting next month.

The company gave a sneak peek of the prototype AR glasses at Google I/O 2022 back in May, where it said the glasses are designed to serve as a visual aid to people navigating different environments, especially if someones visiting other countries or communicating with family members who speak a different language. On Tuesday, Google wrote in a blog post that it will be sending the AR glasses to a few dozen people and trusted testers to use them in select public settings.

The purpose of field-testing the prototype AR glasses is to help Google program features that will help users in their daily lives, including translation, navigation, transcription, and visual search. The glasses will come with built-in cameras, microphones, and in-lens displays to help recognize environments and languages through A.I. However, they wont be able to take photos or videos. The only thing theyll do is provide image data to enable translations, transcriptions, and directions in the testers field of vision in real-time. For example, theyll translate the menu of a Spanish restaurant into English or provide directions to the nearest coffee shop (or Starbucks, for that matter).

As for where testers can use the prototype glasses, they cant use them in schools, places of worship, government buildings, hospitals, places where children gather (i.e. playgrounds), rallies or protests, and other similar locations. Google also isnt letting testers use the glasses while driving because, obviously, thats dangerous.

Googles field-testing of its AR glasses comes nearly a decade after the release of Google Glass, which wasnt the most popular piece of digital eyewear due to privacy concerns. It was even parodied in The Simpsons episode Specs and the City, where Mr. Burns gives the glasses to Homer and his other employees for Christmas only to use the glasses to spy on them, which is how Homer discovered Marge was seeing a therapist to vent about him. However, it made great strides in helping autistic children improve their life and communications skills, thanks to the Brain Power software.

When Google will make its new AR glasses commercially available is currently unknown. But if real-world testing is already happening, one can hope that day isnttoofar off.

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Google is bringing its futuristic AR glasses to the real world kind of - Digital Trends

This is getting kinda... meta.Identify Theft

Meta is now suing Meta.

That may sound like a bit of a head-scratcher, but a smaller company known as Meta has announced that it's filing a lawsuit against the well known Metathat is Facebook's parent company, as spotted by The Verge.

Founded in 2010, the smaller Meta creates and promotes live, multi-sensory art experiences sometimes featuring virtual and augmented reality tech and has catered to clients ranging from National Geographic to Intel.

"On October 28, 2021, Facebook seized our META mark and name, which we put our blood, sweat, and tears into building for over twelve years," reads a pop-up announcement on the companys website. "One of the most powerful companies in the world took our identity without notice."

"Today, after eight months of trying to negotiate with Facebook in good faith to no avail, we were left with no choice but to file a lawsuit against them," the notice reads.

In October of last year, Facebook CEO and accused robot Mark Zuckerberg announced that the parent corporation was renaming itself to "Meta" in a major and perhaps faltering push into the virtual reality market.

Facebook doesnt exactly have the greatest track record with the public to begin with, especially when it comes to protecting users' privacy. The company's dystopian and hilariously janky efforts to establish "the Metaverse" haven't helped its image, either.

With that in mind, it's not exactly surprisingthat the smaller Meta doesnt want its name associated with any of that.

In a complaint filed with a US district court,the smaller Meta claims that "it can no longer provide goods and services under the META mark because consumers are likely to mistakenly believe that Metas goods and services emanate from Facebook and that Meta is associated with the toxicity that is inextricably linked with Facebook."

It's a lawsuit with David versus Goliath odds. Whilethe smaller Meta may have a decent case after all, it was founded long before Facebook changed its name it will be far from easy to topple a giant like Facebook in a legal battle.

In other words, it's safe to say that the two companies aren't going to be metamates anytime soon.

More on the metaverse: Man Uses Life Savings to Buy Nonexistent Metaverse Land

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Another Company Called Meta Is Suing Facebook's Parent Company for Changing Its Name to Meta - Futurism

As summer rages through the world, everyone is flocking indoors to stay cool. And with the Summer Steam Sale, theres no better indoor activity than gaming on a powerful, specced-out desktop PC. Tower-style gaming powerhouses are still the most popular choice for choosy PC gamers, and there are a handful on sale for hefty discounts, no less. If Prime Day sales left you cold, or youre just looking to finally upgrade your rig, this sale on gaming desktop PCs simply cant be missed.

I assure you, the Skytech Prism II is as powerful as it looks. Within the exposed guts of this system are the unfathomably powerful AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 8-Core 3.8 GHz CPU (which maxes out at 4.7 GHz, in fact) and a GeForce RTX 3080 Ti 12GB GDDR6X graphics card. This adds up to speed and performance like youve never seen, even on more demanding titles like Cyberpunk 2077 or Forza Horizon 5. And speaking of summer gaming, Prism II stays cool under pressure, with a built-in AIO Cooler and 6 RGB Fans. This pre-built PC is made in the US and without a single kilobyte of bloatware. Its also 4K ready, and even comes with a one-year warranty, not to mention, a massive $370 discount.

Skytech Shiva Gaming PC DesktopIntel Core i5 12600K 3.7 GHz, RTX 3060 Ti, $1,679 (Was $1,899)

CYBERPOWERPC Gamer Xtreme VR Gaming PC, Intel Core i9-12900KF, $2,019 (Was $2,299)

Acer Predator Orion 3000 PO3-630-UA15 Gaming Desktop, 11th Gen Intel Core i7-11700F 8-Core, GeForce RTX 3070, $1,519 (Was $1,699)

iBUYPOWER Pro Gaming PC Computer Desktop SlateMR 215a, AMD Ryzen 5 5600G 3.9 GHz,AMD Radeon RX 6600XT, $1,159 (Was $1,299)

CYBERPOWERPC Gamer Xtreme VR Gaming PC, Intel Core i5-11400F 2.6GHz, 8GB DDR4, GeForce RTX 2060 6GB, $914 (Was $1,014)

Alienware Aurora R10 Gaming Desktop, AMD Ryzen 7 5800, $1,329 (Was $1,599)

This post was created by a non-news editorial team at Recurrent Media, Futurisms owner. Futurism may receive a portion of sales on products linked within this post.

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Save Hundreds with These Amazing Deals on Gaming Desktop PCs - Futurism

Ever since Space Invaders took over arcades on two continents back in 1978, space has been the backdrop for games big and small. The Nintendo Switch hosts tons of great space games that span tons of genres, from action-packed cinematic adventures to cozy exploration sims. And because theyre on the Switch, you can experience the glory of the stars anywhere. Heres a selection of our favorite picks.

Key Selling Point: A new Metroid adventure that combines the glorious gameplay of the past, with modern, breathtaking visuals.

This space game isnt simply a great entry in the popular Metroid series, its also the stuff of legend. Metroid Dread was rumored to be in the works way back as far as 2005, but its status in development purgatory lasted more than fifteen years. It was more than worth the wait, especially because the game plays much like a classic Metroid, 2D plane and all. That doesnt mean the graphics arent amazing and immersive, complete with some seriously dreadful stealth segments. Whether youre a Samus Aran fanatic or new to hunting brain-sucking aliens, Metroid Dread isnt just a great space game on Switch, it's one of the console's best games period.

Key Selling Point: Some of the best sci-fi RPG storytelling, with plenty of replay value.

I forget who said it, but space truly is the final frontier. When you consider how vast it is, its also ripe for exploration and colonization. In Outer Worlds you are one such explorer, who wakes up on the edge of the interstellar frontier. Like any great RPG, you make choices building different abilities, fighting enemies head-on or developing stealthier paths to victory, and even develop technical prowess in the fields of science, medicine, and engineering. A story unfolds as you explore and grow, but what happens totally depends on you. If youre looking for story-rich gameplay across some seriously scenic sci-fi backdrops, Outer Worlds cant be beat.

Key Selling Point: The king of modern party games plays great on Switch, alone or with friends.

There are games, and then there are pop culture phenomena like Minecraft and Among Us. Despite its lo-fi visual presentation, there are perhaps few modern titles that can rile up distrust and dread this side of Mario Party. You play as one of four to 15 astronauts on a spaceship, and wouldnt you know it, theres an infiltrator in your midst looking to sabotage the mission. Everyone is assigned roles at the start of the game, and everyone playing must uncover who is good, and who is a nasty saboteur. Periodically, everyone playing gets to vote on who to eject into space until either all imposters are dealt with, or the imposters take over. Simple gameplay pairs with real-life negotiating with your friends and family, for a game thats addictive, and pardon the pun, universally good.

Key Selling Point: No, its not an F-Zero game, but it certainly smacks of one.

Samus Aran made her illustrious return with Metroid Dread, but its unlikely Nintendo will be making a new F-Zero game anytime soon. Captain Falcon will be relegated to memes and Super Smash Bros. games from now until the sun goes supernova. Luckily, the F-Zero racing series has its fans in the world of game development, which is where Fast RMX comes in. The same unfathomably fast action-packed racing you love from the F-Zero series can be found in Fast RMX, with tracks in futuristic cities, deserts, and even jungles. No, Captain Falcon and company arent here, but if you squit, the same racing goodness from the long-forgotten series can be had here, and at an affordable price no less. Its got both local and online play to boot.

Key Selling Point: Play through Episodes I through IX, as any hero or villain from the Star Wars film series.

Compiling a list of great Nintendo Switch space games requires at least one game with Star Wars in the title. The latest LEGO Star Wars game may also be one of the best entries yet, and compiles all nine mainline Star Wars adventures in one, spanning The Phantom Menace all the way to The Rise of Skywalker. Better yet, because everything is LEGO, these adventures will feel new again, with cutscenes in between levels that are equal parts hilarious and adorable. Attack the Death Star, explore the jungles of Endor, and play as just about every hero (or villain) from the film series. Thats right, even Salacious B. Crumb. Play alone, or bring a few friends along with its seriously stellar multiplayer.

This post was created by a non-news editorial team at Recurrent Media, Futurisms owner. Futurism may receive a portion of sales on products linked within this post.

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5 Nintendo Space Games That Are Out of This World - Futurism

Protecting children online has never been easy. And with the advent of public-facing facial recognition search engines, that risk is growing.

According to reporting by The Intercept, a startup called PimEyes makes it disturbingly easy to find "potentially explicit" images of children, not to mention almost anybody else.

The face-searching site launched in 2017 and has been a nuisance ever since. It lets users free of charge track down online photos of anyone, and all it takes is uploading just one image of the target person. In other words, it's like a reverse image search except far more intrusive, since it can find photos that aren't anywhere near an exact match.

The tool actually used to be even more invasive. Before developers removed the feature in the wake of public backlash, PimEyes was able to search for photos on social media sites as well. Its owner, Giorgi Gobronidze, even facetiously admitted to The Intercept that the service was "tailor-designed for stalkers," though he rationalized that the company has subsequently cleaned up its act by no longer crawling social media.

While PimEyes claims that it's only meant to be used in self-searches and is "not intended for the surveillance of others," it nonetheless provides paid subscription tiers that allow users to search up to 25 times per day,which seems like a lot of searches per day just to check up on your own face.

"This is just another example of the large overarching problem within technology, surveillance-built or not," Electronic Frontier Foundation staff technologist Daly Barnett told The Intercept. "There isnt privacy built from the get-go with it, and users have to opt out of having their privacy compromised."

Readily providing anyone with an internet connection the ability to traceany person by their photo has troubling implications on its own, but when that also compromises the privacy of children, it dredges up even uglier ramifications.

Child advocacy groups have championed the use of facial recognition tech to combat child trafficking, but when that tech gets into the hands of creeps, it can also provide them with powerful new stalking tools.

The report details several test searches on PimEyes using AI-generated faces of children. Distressingly, the searches yielded photos of actual kids, with potentially identifying details on the websites the found photos were linked to. In The Intercepts testing, PimEyes was able to dig up childrens faces on everything from personal family blogs to school photos.

What was most disturbing in The Intercepts testing was that PimEyes returned images of children labeled as "potentially explicit" while still providing a link to the source website. We dont need to spell out just how easily stalkers and predators could use that function to exploit children.

"The fact that PimEyes doesnt have safeguards in place for children and apparently is not sure how to provide safeguards for children only underlines the risks of this kind of facial recognition service," Jeramie Scott, director of the Surveillance Oversight Project at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, told The Intercept. Participating in public, whether online or offline, should not mean subjecting yourself to privacy-invasive services like PimEyes."

"Congress needs to act to not only protect our children, but all of us from the dangers of facial recognition technology," Scott added. Services like this should be banned. Thats how you should regulate it.

Read more: Facial Recognition Search Engine Pulls Up Potentially Explicit Photos of Kids

More on facial recognition: Internet Aghast at AI Facial Recognition Used to Identify Dead Russian Soldiers

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Experts Horrified by Facial Recognition Site That Digs Up "Potentially Explicit" Photos of Children - Futurism

It feels like a little magic every time I use the control panel on the right side of my Flexispot E7. The cat arches her back as if shes spotted a genie, while quietly, with minimal noise, the bamboo surface of my generously sized desk smoothly rises up from sit position to stand. The desks lift is so smooth in fact that the little stress ball I keep on my desk doesnt even start rolling.

The Flexispot Pro Plus E7 is a standing desk thats built around the idea that maybe sitting all day, all the time, might not be the best thing for health and productivity. In my estimation, the Flexispot is about the most ergonomic upgrade you can get for a home office. Switching from standing to sitting throughout the day will have you working more productively and feeling better than you ever would with a basic desk.

Standing desks are height-adjustable desks that allow you to go from sitting to standing while using the same piece of furniture. These desks have become very popular additions to home offices, and Flexispot has emerged as one of the leading brands among standing-desk providers. In addition to standing desks, the company is known for standing-desk converters, standard desks, and desk accessories.

The Flexispot E7 is an electric standing desk. Using two motors, the E7 is controlled by a small panel on the front that smoothly raises and lowers the desk-top to the height you want with the press of a button. You can easily program the panel to your taste, with customizable heights, and simple up-down control, which gives you more fluid height control than youd expect.

The Flexspot E7s setup is a significant undertaking for one person. It arrives in two cardboard boxes which are very heavy. In spite of the boxs notice that warns you its a two-person job, I carried both boxes up the flights of stairs to my apartment solo, and regretted that decision by the time I crossed the second-floor landing. The desks build-out would also be better with two people. The steel frame parts are very heavy, and attaching the hardware to the wood-topper is difficult and cumbersome. However, this is to be expected with such sturdy, high-grade motor-columns and heavy-duty supports.

Outside of its weight, the engineering that went into the desks assembly is about as straightforward and solid as one could ask for, with all applicable screws shipping in a convenient multi-pouch plastic-bag that includes the required allen wrench. Only one set of screws uses another tool, as these are meant to be compatible with a drill though I used a Phillips-head screwdriver myself.

The E7 ships with a few options for desktop material, including hardwoods like rubberwood and black walnut, as well as fiberboard, chipboard, and bamboo (I went with bamboo). The desks steel legs and support frame come in a couple of colorways, and are just as sturdy as one could hope for. The company claims a 355-pound load capacity, and I dont think that figure is too grossly inflated. I dont doubt my desk could hold my weight with a decent amount of capacity to spare. The desks fifteen-year warranty provides plenty of leeway should the desk not meet your expectations.

A wire management tray screws on as part of the foundation and keeps the devices numerous wires tucked out of site. You can also increase the functionality of the desk with a range of accessories (I might get this under-desk shelf). The desks standard control panel contains one USB-A charging slot, and the desk must remain plugged in for it to operate.

I recommend the chemical-free bamboo top for your E7, as it wont off-gas harmful chemicals into your home or office. I was also pleased to see that my desk did not feature a California Proposition-65 warning, meaning neither the frame nor desktop contain dangerous levels of carcinogenic chemicals.

I recommend this desk. I write all day most days, and even with a good chair (check out my review of the Branch Ergonomic Chair), I feel the strain of constant desk work in my body. Im 62 and this desk gets high enough for me to lean on as I stand, and easily descends to the right height for me to sit when I need a break.

All in all, the Flexispot E7 is a desk you can believe in. With its 15-year warranty, powerful weight capacity, and non-toxic build, you can feel secure in the quality of the product. Its a great desk for writers, clerical workers, or anyone else who spends their time at a desk. Its also an excellent choice for artists who might want a drafting or painting table thats easily raised and lowered to different heights, (think Chuck Closes famous motorized easel). Whatever you do, If you spend hours at a desk each day, Flexispot is a worthwhile investment to make, both for your work and your body.

This post was created by a non-news editorial team at Recurrent Media, Futurisms owner. Futurism may receive a portion of sales on products linked within this post.

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Flexispot E7 Review: A Standing Desk That Goes Easy on Your Spine - Futurism