Neuromancer + 30 Years
Well, I didn’t read Neuromancer until the late 80’s, might have even been 1990, but it’s been an inspiration since. There’s nothing that I can add that so many haven’t said already. Great article over here at TheGauardian.com The Man Who Saw Tomorrow.
On its release, Neuromancer won the “big three” for science fiction: the Nebula, Philip K Dick and Hugo awards. It sold more than 6m copies and launched an entire aesthetic: cyberpunk. In predicting this future, Gibson can be said to have helped shape our conception of the internet. Other novelists are held in higher esteem by literary critics, but few can claim to have had such a wide-ranging influence.
Congratulations Bill, it’s as good a read today as it was 30 years ago. That’s an amazing feat in science fiction.
This is a photo of my 1st Edition copy. Thanks Josh.
Modern Polaxis – by Sutu
This is an awesome new project by Sutu, the artist behind the amazing artwork in the first Gatecrashers comic series – A Night of Gatecrashing.
Check out more animated GIFs on Sutueatsflies.tumblr.com
and be sure to go give some money to his kickstarter.
London’s Heathrow as a City
Check out this article over at The Verge where London Mayor Boris Johnson proposes to close Heathrow and build a new airport, thus redeveloping Heathrow as a city.
Forget GMO’s, Genetically Engineered Humans are Here
The first strains of Genetic Engineering have taken hold.
In August 1996, at St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, N.J., a 39-year-old mechanical engineer from Pittsburgh named Maureen Ott became pregnant. Ott had been trying for almost seven years to conceive a child through in vitro fertilization. Unwilling to give up, she submitted to an experimental procedure in which doctors extracted her eggs, slid a needle through their shiny coat and injected not only her husband’s sperm but also a small amount of cytoplasm from another woman’s egg…
Hat tip to @SilkyD67 from NYTIMES.com via TheVerge.com
Photograph from the New York Stem Cell Foundation.
Grinders and DIY Transhumanists
Cool article just came over the transom via Diana, from Slate.com
Choose Your Own Sixth Sense
DIY superpowers for the cyborg on a budget.
excerpt: Anonym described her first foray into grinding thusly: “I sat down in my kitchen with a vegetable peeler, I shit you not, and I decided to put things in my hands. … The first time I ever sat down, it went horribly, horribly wrong. The whole thing went septic, and I put myself in the hospital for two weeks.”
There are a couple other good articles linking out of the Slate article. Including this youtube clip of Anonym.
Flickr Photo Credit: quinnums
Healthy Faux Eggs
This appears to be where the seeds of PIM will originate for The Gatecrashers. In the Gatecrashers,Protein Infused Meal (PIM) is a state funded foodstuff which becomes the defacto diet of the entire city – or at least those that can’t afford to eat the real thing.
Check out this article in Bloomberg about Faux eggs and salt being created right now.
The founder of a startup called Sand Hill Foods, Patrick Brown, told NPR last year that his company wants to “produce stuff that will compete by being substantially cheaper and every bit as good and essentially indistinguishable to a consumer who loves meat or dairy.”
The venture capitalists behind these startups believe that climate change and the planet’s dwindling natural resources will put more pressure on the food chain and that the food industry will require sustainable alternatives. It sounds reasonable, though venture investors placed similar bets on failed clean- tech plays Solyndra LLC and Fisker Automotive Inc. The clean- food startups will face a different set of challenges, including the reluctance of consumers to give up familiar dietary fare.
Kowloon The Walled City
Of course the Walled City is a huge influence and reference for the storyworld of the Gatecrashers. I just had the pleasure of meeting with Roger Hom, who shared a short film he made about the Walled City. Check it out.
Expired Drugs, a Way of Life
When paramedics ran out of a critical drug used to treat irregular heartbeats, the Bend Fire Department in Central Oregon dug into its stash of expired medications, loaded up the trucks and kept treating patients.
Paramedics reported asking some of those facing medical emergencies: “Is it OK if we use this expired drug?”
Emergency responders in various jurisdictions have reported turning to last resort practices as they struggle to deal with a shortage of drug supplies created by manufacturing delays and industry changes. Some are injecting expired medications or substituting alternatives. Others are simply going without.
Read more at katu.com
The Shard
This is how it happens. Read on at the Guardian.
“Consider again the story of the Shard. This is a high-rise that has been imposed on London Bridge despite protests from residents, conservation groups and a warning from Unesco that it may compromise the world-heritage status of the nearby Tower of London. What’s more, its owners and occupiers will have very little to do with the area, which for all its centrality is also home to some of the worst deprivation and unemployment in the entire city. The building is 95% owned by the government of Qatar and its developer, Irvine Sellar, talks of it as a “virtual town”, comprising a five-star hotel and Michelin-starred restaurants.”