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Embrace the Decay

Category: science/fiction

info from the NEWSgrist newsletter

Embrace the Decay
by Bruce Sterling

(unfortunately you would need the infamous Makkkkromedia plugin)

MOCA DIGITAL GALLERY
Launch date: September 2003

Embrace the Decay is an interactive, web-based project about the
destructive relationship between computers and typewriters. The
artwork turns the web-surfing computer-user into an unwilling
typewriter clerk. But the era of the typewriter is over and beyond
all retrieval: the dead machine rusts and crumbles, its pages fade
and rot in surprising ways, and it is finally, ritually entombed.

“Viewers will feel an ache of pain and wonder as the once-glorious
typewriter and all its works are methodically destroyed by electronic
means,” says Sterling.

Bruce Sterling is the author of nine novels, three of which were
selected as New York Times Notable Books of the Year. He has
published short stories and works of nonfiction, as well as contributed
regularly to Wired magazine since its inception. His most recent book,
Tomorrow Now: Envisioning the Next Fifty Years, was published 12/02.

Heinlein

Category: science/fiction

today in the bus, I was reading the excellent “American Science Fiction And The Cold War” by David Seed.

the book

I was beginning the chapter dedicated to Robert Heinlein(definitively more to say about him). Back home, a Google search has lead me to a quiz that pictures your profile as an Heinlein characters.
The result:

Starship Troopers
You belong in Starship Troopers. Your idea of a
good time is bouncing across an alien
battlefield blasting the foes of humanity into
extinction.

Which Heinlein Book Should You Have Been A Character In?
brought to you by Quizilla

Inutilologie 2 : clouds

Category: Uncategorized

Code, clouds, opening a NES cartridge
CLIPOFF.jpg

Space Noise

Category: science/fiction

How the noise of a Romulan ship leads to interesting meditation over enhanced reality :

“So it occurred to me (while watching some dumb sci-fi TV series set in space) that maybe spaceships that make noise in a vacuum isn’t such a dumb idea after all. I mean, obviously they wouldn’t (couldn’t) make any noise, but there would be all kinds of reasons why it would be in the best interest of neighbouring ships to simulate the sensation. After all, noise can convey all kinds of useful information – different guns make different noises, different engines make different noises, you can tell the location – perhaps even the speed – of an object by pure noise alone. If we were to assume that – in space – the computers and sensors on ships would most likely be taking in much more information than a human could easily assimilate through a visual interface, then it makes total sense that you’d try to deliver some of it through sound. In fact it seems astonishing that you wouldn’t!”

read the rest in the wonderful Plastic Bag.

but in a commercial context

Category: Uncategorized

Food for thoughts, some reading materials about blogs, P2P companies, …
In the beautiful headmap

broken new york

Category: Uncategorized

005.jpg
BNY: will it be fixed anytime soon?
doorman: no…

go

le son du jour

Category: Uncategorized

une idée comme on voudrait l’avoir eue avant tout le monde:

http://www.lesondujour.com/le_son_du_jour.html

czech this out

Category: Uncategorized

KIT3.jpg

granted my title is very very bad, but try it anyway:

www.davidcerny.cz

droplifting

Category: Uncategorized

droplifting.jpg

well, i had to ask….
after seeing the word and concept discussed at great length
on discussion lists like microsound or empyre, i finally had
to ask what “droplifting” meant

the answer is here:
http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/32/droplifting.html

Gaseous guinea pigs

Category: science/fiction

The New Scientist website these days is full of wonder. Learn everything about new gaseous life forms that can replicate and communicate. And discover the Buffalo sized guinea pigs. They would be a tremendous star for a prehistoric movie (there is a picture).