Strange Future

The Zoo Bikers

2009-08-11T09:33:00.000-07:00

While working at the library yesterday I helped out a cool dude trying to upload photos onto his blog. Library security is pretty tight so he couldn't preview what he was uploading.

Turned out him and his friends were biking across America. Last stop was Astoria, Oregon; where I lived for the last two years.

They're at the end of their journey and will be taking a train back. Sorry Heidi, they won't be heading your way ;]

So check out Zoo Across America and read their story. It's very interesting and very inspiring. Makes me want to check out the Grand Tetons at some point in my life :]

Dense Memories

2009-08-09T15:43:00.000-07:00

Sony has released/leaked specs for a 2 terabyte memory card. Before I hype things up though, that doesn't mean that a 2 terabyte card will be out soon - that just means that they've figured it out and it might happen someday. The next step will be to release flash cards with high capacities like 64 GB and higher.

I used to have a PSP and over time I managed to collect quite a few of Sony's Memory Stick Pro Duos. It's pretty amazing holding a little piece of plastic thinner than a piece of cardboard and only a little larger than my thumbnail that also holds several movies, games, pictures, and music.

My PC's hard drive is only 250GB, I have another external hard drive that has another 250GB. Neither hard drive is full yet. The external hard drive has about 50GB worth of ebooks.

A 2 Terabyte flash card smaller than your thumb is moving into the realm of adding expansion to the mind. I don't think it's known how much 'hard drive' space the brain has but why would it matter when you can plug a few microsofts into your brain with an entire library built in? Forget memorizing books so you can recite them, just carry the library of congress with you!

Via SonyInsider

The Kindle Turns Books Into... Kindle?

2009-08-02T22:20:00.000-07:00

Is this the future? Are books really finally disappearing?
A few years ago E-Readers were a novelty gadget. Nifty but not very common or useful. Suddenly, however, it seems as if every company is scrambling to get a piece of the cake. Amazon, Sony, Barnes and Noble, and others, are trying to get the biggest slice.

Newspapers are struggling with the growth of the internet and many may soon fade. Unfortunately it seems like journalism is entering an electronic era and newspaper stands are probably going to disappear. Internet TV is becoming more common with 'internet only' TV shows that will begin to put pressure on even television. TV killed the radio star? Maybe someday it will be the Internet killed the sitcom star.

The great thing about some of the newest ereaders is their internet capability. Sony missed out with their latest generation but Amazon is using the Sprint network and the PlasticLogic is using AT&T's network to bring you your very own hitchhiker's guide. Make sure you've bookmarked all your favorite wiki's and you've got no reason not to know something.

Continuing Amazon's attempt to burn paper media, you can get some newspapers delivered daily to your Kindle. Coupled with the ability to view blogs, a few thousand books... why should we keep printing on dead trees? E-readers are smooth, futuristic, and even green.

I doubt that ereaders will completely destroy printed media. We still have radio shows even though we've got television, and we've still got libraries even though books are cheap and mass produced now. We may begin to see more 'digitally exclusive' books soon though. I imagine novellas and short stories may become more common too. They can be turned out and distributed much faster than thick hardback novels. Just write it up, get an ISBN, and contact amazon to start distributing.

What Amazon REALLY meant by calling it the 'Kindle'

Back and with Robots!

2009-07-21T12:14:00.001-07:00

I've been gone for awhile while I made some changes to the site and decided to wait to update until I was connected to mystblogs again.

So now that I'm back let's cut to the chase - robots.

The video suggests these life-like robots could be used as teachers in the future... I really don't see a practical application for teaching but definite use as entertainment!

Another great application of this would be more realistic robotic pets. Understanding human face muscles and subtleties are things humans are experts at. As we get better at making human-like robots we can expect to see the animal-like robots getting more realistic as well.

Plug in one of those laminated mouse brains and you've got a genuine pet!

And let's just be honest... the obvious real application for human-like robots is sexbots.

From Disturbingly Real Replicants via Digg

Strange Future Roundup 1

2009-06-17T11:45:00.000-07:00

Starting a new feature post today: Strange Future Roundup... I'll post several things I find interesting as opposed to the usual one topic.

First up: The Ratborg

My favorite cyborg engineer, Kevin Warwick is at it again. I've been very interested in his recent creations using brain cells to make 'artificially' intelligent robots. I say 'artificially' because they're not really artificial at all. They're natural rat brain cells they just live in a robotic body. This technology is very exciting because it means we could potentially host 'brains-in-a-jar' and give them bodies... or at the very least make really cool robotic robots.

Second up: Jet Drill

Apparently the goal of this is to bore down to where there is magma so we can create lots of geothermal hotspots for energy. This is in so many science fiction movies I can't even think of them all. Hopefully we won't break the planet apart or anything... since y'know... this is the only planet we have.

Third: The Prosthetic Limbs

One of my friends from college wants to get into this line of work. She once said she wants to create prosthetic limbs so good that "normal people will want to chop off their limbs to get one."
This video is actually very exciting. Just look at those freakin' robot arms! SEXY!
Of course I doubt those limbs are very strong... and of course without the ability to sense where your limb is or any sense of touch at all it's gotta feel a bit like you're controlling a puppet arm. But hell... this is an amazing step!

all found on Technovelgy

Playing in Zero-G

2009-06-11T22:19:00.000-07:00

Remember that... if you're ever on a space station and need to get somewhere fast, quickly give someone a high-five.

found on Technovelgy

Thank you Mr. Orwell

2009-06-08T16:50:00.000-07:00

For inspiring politicians, governments, and scientists everywhere.

We've now invented the Telescreen.

Maybe next we can have a few world-spanning empires.
I honestly don't see a good enough reason for us to have this technology. I'm a huge supporter of all technology, good and evil, but this is one that should be buried and forgotten.

found on Technovelgy

Atomic Bombships

2009-06-04T19:20:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time the military said "We want to use nukes and go to Saturn." NASA said "No way."

So the military worked on doing it anyway.

The ship would have been as big as a skyscraper and would literally use thousands of nuclear bombs to propel it on its journey to Saturn.

As it looked more promising, NASA basically said 'lol this looks promising, let us take over from here' and then they canceled the program and tried to destroy it.

But what if they hadn't?
First of all, there were hundreds of hurtles for them to overcome before it would have even been possible. And even if they did, who in their right mind would volunteer to sit on top of a giant rocket that was about to get nuked a couple dozen times?

Still, if they had, it would've no doubt ushered in a new era of space exploration. To hell with the moon, we'd be able to explore our entire solar system in person. The massive spaceships would have been large enough to carry the equipment to build colonies, biodomes, terraforming equipment. They were close to doing it back then, with todays advances we could have probably become quite the spacefaring civilization by now.

Instead we're still stuck on one rock. I guess if we destroy this one there's always - oh wait. This is the only planet we have. Nevermind.

Evolution of a Homer

2009-06-03T12:14:00.001-07:00

I can't believe I've never seen this before!

A Facebook Story

2009-05-31T21:41:00.000-07:00

I spent the last week or so telling a story through my facebook status. Sorry for the improper paragraphing, but it's how the story appeared as I told it.

There once was a man from the planet of Gargleforzpitt. He was a lonely old man with no relatives or friends. Every morning he'd wake up and eat a breakfast of Klare eggs and go tend to his garden of Cayren roots and hairy corn. For lunch he'd sip on a beer and eat a Elizard steak. Today his lunch was interrupted by a rude knock on his door.

The old man opened the door and was greeted by a young man with slicked back hair. The old man said 'I ought to slay you for interrupting my beer.' the young man apologized and explained, 'Mr. Ribbit, I'm sorry to inform you that your wife has passed away.' 'I never married.' 'I'm afraid you did, allow me to explain.'

the young man asked, 'You once visited the planet of Snottfaze did you not?' 'I did' 'Well, on that planet you once winked at a girl at a party, she sat next to you and whispered sweet nothings in your ear.' 'I vaguely remember that.' 'That was a wedding ceremony. Your wink was your proposal.' 'Damn.' 'Well sir, she left you her estate on Snottfaze.' 'Why?' 'I'll explain if you follow me.'

the young man led Mr. Ribbit to a vehicle and they drove all the way to the capital city of Gargleforzpitt. The young man explained that Mrs. Ribbit was all for a simple marriage and that she didn't fuss that her husband ignored her a lot. She had grown quite wealthy over the years when she inherited a tissue farm from her father. Unfortunately she succumbed to a dreadful disease...

'I'm sorry... what disease did you say it was?' 'Sinus infection.' 'She died from a sinus infection?' 'The worst kind of sinus infection!' 'So she left me her entire estate did she?' 'Well, er, yes.' 'You hesitated.' 'Yes she left you her entire estate... but...' 'But?' 'She wanted you to prove your love to her before you could receive it.'

The old man grasped at his thinning hair and shouted, 'I have to prove my love for a woman I didn't even know?' the young man nodded and smiled 'she had a very specific trial she wanted you to go through to prove your love' he opened the door to his office and approached his desk where he pulled out a box, carved to the top was 'TO MY LOVE: CHARLES RIBBIT

Mr. Ribbit held the ornate wooden box with trembling hands. 'What's inside?' he asked. 'They key to her estate.' the young man replied. He explained, 'To open the box you have to travel to the distant planet of Kreenflemm, and battle the eight elder giants for the key to the box. This is what she requires of you... will you do it?' Mr. Ribbit again looked down at the box...

Mr. Ribbit handed the box to the young man and said 'I didn't love her, and I don't need an estate. I've only got a few years left in my bones and I'd like to spend it drinking beer and tending to my garden. Thank you very much, this has been a fascinating evening.' and with that Mr. Ribbit went back to his old house and old farm and lived by himself happily ever after. The End.

Scavengers

2009-05-30T12:52:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking lately about opening an e-bay business up. Entirely because the economy in my area is doing very poorly... nearly 20% unemployment in the county. I had been taking stuff to pawn shops so I could get a buck here and there and recently they all started refusing to give out cash. Credit only.

Scary times.

So maybe selling stuff on e-bay would be more fruitful? The only problem is, I'm starting to run low on things I'm willing to part with...
The good news?
My neighbors' house got repossessed and they left most of their crap in the backyard getting bleached by the sun. A few months passed and I decided to check out what was back there. Junk galore and some pretty cool action figures!

I wonder if Scavenging is becoming more popular in today's America. The recession doesn't seem to have an end in sight despite some idiots claiming it will end this year. Unfortunately it won't. America's got some deep running economic issues that will take time to sort out. Not to mention the millions of unemployed people right now. Can anyone honestly say they think 26 million people will get their jobs back before the year is over?

Scavenging could be good for Americans too! It would increase our recycling because people would be looking to re-use things that other Americans deemed as trash. All the trash would have the opportunity to be re-used once more either by the scavengers, or cleaned up and sold by the scavengers to thrifty Americans.

Plus the rotting food of landfills is likely to be chock full of wonderful probiotic bacteria! Landfill food just might be healthy for you. Eat that slightly moldy slice of pizza and you've got yummy bacteria in your body and you can boost your immune system.

So what do YOU think? Should we start scavenging a little more? Is there shame in digging in someone's trash? Would you chow down on some gnarly chinese food?

Here's some helpful links
Scavenging Dumps for Survival
Could YOU survive in a dump?

Immortality

2009-05-28T13:53:00.000-07:00

Is it really wrong to desire immortality? The media often portrays it as something that a villain desires and something that corrupts.

But why? Why is it wrong to want to continue experiencing the world? Why must we submit to death? Why shouldn't we live forever?

Should we spread life?

2009-05-26T21:46:00.000-07:00

I cringe every time people panic about possible contamination of Mars. Why is this bad?

What if we find out Mars is a sterile environment? Would we pout and ignore the barren wasteland?

We work hard to bring life to deserts, we plant trees where there are no trees, all over Earth we spread life and seem to infect everything with it. We touch otherwise pristine objects, covering it in bacteria and viruses. We spread life everywhere sometimes intentionally, sometimes on accident.

Why on another planet is this a bad thing? On our planet we've been fortunate to have perfect conditions for life to not only develop, but become staggeringly complex. I think we owe it to the universe to spread the gift of life to everything around us. We've become intelligent enough that we are beginning to scratch the surface of creating new life so why not engineer a couple of slime molds that would thrive on Mars? Why don't we create some nematodes that burrow deep into the moon? Why not create some bouyant life forms that can float through the gas giants?

What if we are alone in the universe? This shouldn't be depressing, it should be something exciting. We would have the opportunity to become the progenitors of all life everywhere. We might find planets that do have life but nothing intelligent... why not enlighten the planet?

If the universe is barren, I believe it is our duty to spread life throughout the cosmos.

Achievement Unlocked

2009-05-24T15:20:00.000-07:00

Today I went 88 MPH.

Connecting to the Internet with Mindbullets

2009-05-13T00:27:00.000-07:00

Today I was cooking porkchops with sauerkraut and I thought to myself, "I bet it's not hard to make sauerkraut by myself."

And then I tried to google search it. With my mind. Oops.

Stuff like that happens to me a lot... sometimes I'll be reading a book and glance to the corner to see what time it is, or imagine IM conversations in my head when I'm lonely... instead of imagining someone real like real crazy people do.

Someday I'm sure that won't be so crazy - in fact I'll probably be at an advantage by already trying to do it in my head.

I hope that someday I can have a chip implanted in my skull and next time I wonder how easy it is to cook something I'll just download a recipe into my head. I'll have all of the chef's knowledge at my fingert- no... all of the world's knowledge at my fingertips.

And I'll watch youtube poop in my head all day long, giggling to myself.

Under 290

2009-04-23T14:45:00.000-07:00

I was supposed to update a few days ago when I reached the 290 mark but I guess I got lazy.

My parents bought a Wii last week with lots of exercise games. It's been pretty fun, I never thought the Wii was that great until I tried the Gold's Gym Cardio thing. It's actually just a glorified boxing sim, but it's pretty cool. It does get you working up a good sweat too.

While playing it earlier my mom made the comment "What will they come up with next that's better than this?"

If nintendo keeps going down this route, the next step would be something even more like virtual reality... but they really need to fix the sensitivity of the controllers. Sometimes I feel like I'm moving my fists at Dragonball Z speeds and the Wii only registers like three punches, or the punches aren't even going in the direction I am.

The next Wii should take advantage of head tracking, like this video shows:

or add some sensors for your feet or legs.

We're getting closer to holographic displays too:

http://www.io2technology.com/index

See you again at 280

Under 300

2009-03-28T11:25:00.000-07:00

Today officially marks the day that I am under 300 pounds for the first time in 2 years. To mark the occasion I decided to make another blog post. I figure this will be a good way to keep updating my blog.

Right now my current goal is to turn my new PSP into an ebook reader. I'm not that into handheld gaming... I think the last handheld console I owned was a Gameboy Color. The PSP has been out for a long time but I never felt inclined to buy it until I heard about bookr... a neat little app for 'homebrew' psp's that lets you read pdfs and txts on your psp.

I'm kind of an ebook addict, I've probably got a couple thousand ebooks stored on my hard drive in a folder called "The Library" I think I have more books than would be humanly possible to read in my entire lifetime... and some of them would probably bore the hell out of me. When will I read The Calculus Gallery Masterpieces from Newton to Lebesgue?

But I have read a few books under the ebook format... the Ringworld series, Ender's Game, Ian Kerner's "She Comes First"... y'know, all books I wouldn't want to be caught reading in public. It's great because most people think that I'm playing an MMO or chatting with friends or on myspace, but in truth I'm actually reading a book on my laptop.

There are lots of ebook readers out there right now. A very popular one at the moment is the Kindle which gives you unlimited free internet access, so you can go to websites like wikipedia. The fact that such a device was created and sells means that there's a market for it. I think more and more people will get used to reading books on little screens, especially if the devices feel like a book.

Via XKCD

It's pretty exciting living in the future... I just expected it to have aliens... Why aren't we colonizing the Moon or Mars yet?

See you at 290 pounds!

Trapped on Earth

2009-01-30T11:14:00.000-08:00

Source: XKCD

Sometimes I wonder if in a few million years some advanced alien race will show up at Earth. They had long ago filtered out all of the radio noise in the galaxy, narrowed down the planets likely to hold life, and finally set out to explore the galaxy.
As they neared our star system they would do some scans and find that the third planet from the sun had a good atmosphere, a warm climate that could support liquid water, and even - to their joy - it was surrounded by thousands of tiny bits of metal; manmade satellites.

They would try to hail us, but would receive no reply. They would come closer to our planet and notice a few man-made objects on Mars. Their stomachs [or whatever they have] would twist with excitement at their realization that we too had the power to leave our planet and travel in space.

They would reach earth and scan it. They would only find primitive cities, barbaric savages, and derelict automated machines trying desperately to fulfill their futile mission. These humanoid barbaric savages couldn't be the ones who built the satellites and the man-made objects on mars could they? Something must have happened to them. Who was that once proud race that once beamed messages into space and sent robots all throughout their star system?

I wonder if the human race will really amount to anything other than a fascinating line of rubble in the fossil record. We refuse to seek out alternative sources of energy, we are so territorial that we kill our own species, and people are even suggesting we should abandon sending people into space altogether.

We are overcrowding this planet, we're killing much of the life on it, and no one seems to be getting it through their thick skull that this is the only planet that we have. That's it. We fuck it up and we're dead. There is no escape hatch, no reset switch, no backup planet we can jump to.

We have to work hard to leave this planet and colonize other worlds. We should be treating other planets the way we treat other continents: take it over and breed like mad.

also, this:

2009-01-23T13:43:00.000-08:00

I wish more women knew that about me. Unfortunately that bit about "Rare to Find" seems to be prevailing right now.

Life Will Find a Way

2009-01-06T13:31:00.001-08:00

I drew this in my Basic Design class today during the lecture about how different macs are from windows. I already knew the differences so I loaded up photoshop and played with my tablet.

Someday I hope we really do clone some extinct animal. Scientists are getting closer and closer to being able to easily* clone a mammoth. However now the biggest hurdle seems to be coming up with a good enough reason to clone them. Besides studying them, there doesn't really seem to be a point.

In my nanowrimo novel, the colony on Mars has become a haven for genetic experiments that aren't allowed on Earth. The people of Mars needed a hardy animal that could survive in the harsh cold environment of Mars, be domesticated, and provide a lot of meat. They decided to bring back the Woolly Mammoth [with a few tweaks so it was better suited for the environment], and soon mammoth meat became the staple of Martian cuisine.

I think reviving Mammoths would be beneficial to the entire world. They could survive in harsh cold environments where little else grows [like Northern Canada, Alaska, or Russia] and would provide a lot of meat. They could stimulate the economy in those cold regions, provide food for the starving people of the Earth, and provide a great deal of wool. I'm sure they could probably be milked too.

Hell, we ate them into extinction too. They must taste pretty good.

*as easy as cloning an animal anyway.

New Years Predictions

2009-01-01T11:12:00.000-08:00

Edit: Novah did one too.

Time for some new year's predictions :D

January
Obama will be sworn in. By the end of the month Republicans will already be blaming the country's problems on him.

February
Springlike weather will arrive early this year.

March
School shooting results in a federal ban on ammunition.

April
Steve Jobs will finally admit that he has declining health and may not live much longer.

May
Religious extremists bomb abortion clinics.

June
Scientists warn of drought and the hottest summer in recorded history.
Summer starts off with a "bang".

July
The LHC will be delayed due to another malfunction.
Some countries withdraw their support.

August
Severe drought will cause food and water shortages around the world.
Many die.

September
More threats of terrorism coming from some surprising sources.

October
A kid is killed in Alaska for dressing as a polar bear for Halloween.

November
Christmas decorations are put up near the beginning of the month instead of waiting until after Thanksgiving.
Even more "Black-Friday" violence that no one seems to react to.

December
Smaller holiday season this year with the economy still tanking downward.
No New Year's glasses are sold because no one can figure out where the eyes will go.

The Whopper Virgins and Foreign Food

2008-12-20T15:03:00.000-08:00

Burger King recently did an experiment where they had people try a Big Mac and a Whopper who had never had or seen a hamburger before. After the experiment they sent crews to extreme regions and gave them the opportunity to try a hamburger for the first time.

You can watch their propaganda-documentary here.

My favorite part is when a girl bites into a hamburger and acts surprised when she tastes a pickle. It's sponsored by Burger King but the experiment was real and the responses to a hamburger are interesting.

I remember the first time I tried a pickled and fermented egg... it was revolting but it was a taste I didn't know I could taste. I love trying new foods and I'm a little envious that in the distant future my distant grandchildren may be feasting on totally alien foods.

How could you describe the taste of an unearthly plant that is neither fruit nor vegetable? What if the plant itself is an herbivorous plant that feasts on other plants that grow around it? What about eating the meat of an animal that doesn't have flesh or muscles as we know of? What about unknown spices?

Spoiled grandchildren...

Palm Pistol

2008-12-09T09:47:00.000-08:00

The FDA turned down a request to make a Palm Pistol into a medical device. The device apparently is intended to make it easy for elderly or the sick to fire a gun in self defense. The device is actually easier to aim than a normal handgun, more comfortable, and appears easier to fire. You just push down on a button.
I'm not sure, but there also appears to be two buttons on the front that can be pushed. Maybe a safety or a dead man's switch? It'd sure suck to drop the thing and have it go off.

A big scandal is erupting with people saying how dare they turn this down. The elderly should not be deprived of their rights. This is a tool they can use, etc.
The thing that gets me is, why would they try to get that approved in the first place? It's a freakin' gun, not a hypodermic needle. I honestly think they decided to use the opportunity to get some publicity.

I can think of more than one use besides just buying it for my Grandparents. It's compact, not even gun shaped, easier to aim... sounds like a great new weapon! If a policeman had never seen it before, a street thug definitely has an advantage. Someone who's never aimed a gun before can have better aim. And if it really was designed for the elderly, it probably doesn't have as much of a kickback as a Derringer, which can potentially break your wrist.

If they really want to market it to the elderly, maybe they should give them a senior discount, or make it available through the VA. Marketing it as a medical device is a bit disgusting.

Disaster in Astoria

2008-11-28T13:12:00.000-08:00

A building burned down Thanksgiving evening in Astoria, Oregon; where I live. There were two restaurants, a bank, and a few other stores operating from the building.
A guy died in the building too, they're guessing he lived in the building when it was closed. Doesn't surprise me. There are a lot of poor people in Astoria, and I'm sure that a few people live in their stores they manage to operate.

One of the restaurants that burned down was Tokyo Teriyaki. It's too bad, they had some really good Japanese food, and one of the few places I felt comfortable ordering food with "extra spicey" on it.

An art studio was also located in the building. Hopefully it wasn't really expensive art. That could ruin an artist's career.

And Thus We Become Gods...

2008-11-25T11:18:00.000-08:00

There's a new video circulating Digg, and websites showing a process in Africa where they turn literal bull shit into pure drinkable water. Here it is.

Here the lines begin to blur between what is magic and what is technology? Well, I guess it's still technology but do the tribes in Africa know that? For some of them they may just know that some white men showed up, and transformed shit into water.

I always thought, man alone will never 'transcend' and become gods. But like a hive of bees, or a hill of ants, we will together develop the means to have godlike powers.

Pretty awesome stuff. I wonder how it tastes.

NaNoWriMo is Over

2008-11-25T10:01:00.000-08:00

I kinda panicked this morning when I found out the busses were going to be closed the next few days because apparently everyone will be too fat and happy to do anything?
I don't know, but they're not running. I realized I wasn't going to be able to update my nanowrimo count, and I still had over 8000 words to go.

Luckily I had another book-related document running. So my novel at the moment is not 50,000 words, but I merged the document with "A Brief Look at the Solar System" which had some history stuff and info on planets and things going on in my world which I planned to tack on at the end anyway.

That left me with only a few thousand more to write which I crammed out this morning while the mountain dew was still coursing through my veins.

My rough first draft of "TIDES OF HUMANITY" is mostly finished. I need to tie up the story though, because right now they're still drifting in space. Wandering_Nomad gave me some ideas yesterday that I can implement and expand it.

Here's to Fix-Up-and-Edit-Everything-December :D

poem[?]

2008-11-21T12:09:00.000-08:00

peanut butter flavored soda
there are four lines on my orange
evenly spaced across it
they bulge out a little like keloids

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Four Philosophical Questions to Make your Brain Hurt

2008-11-20T09:32:00.000-08:00

A great way to start the day. Start questioning reality.
This was posted on BBC this morning, check it out and expand your mind. But then again... is it even your mind to begin with?

Four Philosophical Questions to Make Your Brain Hurt.

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Anti-Matter Reactors

2008-11-19T10:00:00.000-08:00

Apparently, a lab in California recently discovered a way to make massive amounts of antimatter. The antimatter is a significant enough amount that using the technique, they expect they will be able to finally begin making great strides in antimatter research.

Antimatter reactions release tons of energy, and just a tiny bit can release energy equivalent to giant nuclear weapons. So far I don't think we know how to tap that energy but now we can cheaply create enough to do some experiments on.

In the future, a single anti-matter reactor could power entire countries. And since antimatter destroys itself during the process and turns into regular matter, clean up is easy. We could have just stepped into the greatest clean-energy source in the universe.

Cool.

Anti-Matter Chernobyl

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Death and Destruction [Novel Spoilers]

2008-11-18T09:30:00.000-08:00

--------NANOWRIMO NOVEL SPOILERS--------

I'm busy typing away at my NaNoWriMo novel and sometimes I get sucked into the universe I'm creating.
It's a sci-fi that involves asteroids and mass extinctions.
Sometimes I forget what a horrible and terrifying experience it is to see your death is imminent and to watch the world around you so utterly destroyed. I carelessly through around words like millions and incineration, and entire civilizations evacuated... I didn't realize the gravity of what I was describing.

Last night my dreams gave me a dose of what I was writing.
I was trapped in a city, great fireballs were raining down from the sky. I saw people burst into embers and ashes in front of my very eyes from the heat of the intense shockwaves. Buildings crumbled like sand castles.

Me and my family crammed into some sort of shuttlecraft and tried to get off the planet but our combined weight was too much for it, and it was having difficulty getting off the ground. We started to gain altitude and I saw planes trying to leave the city, some were crushed by the asteroids and burning bodies spilled out.

We barely pushed over a hill, families, holding their children, were chasing after us, begging to be let on. Everyone was covered in blood, some people had charred skin. The fireballs stopped falling for a moment. We dropped into some docks by the ocean.

Our engine had burned out. We were stranded on the docks with our damaged and sinking shuttle. The ocean was steaming and dead sea-life floated around us. A Sea-lion jumped onto the dock, its boiled flesh was hanging loose on its skin and it moaned and panted, trying to cool itself off. Its breathing sounded very pained and I had a feeling it would die soon.
But it was a wounded animal and it was angry. It tried to attack us, to protect itself. We backed far away from it and waited.

The sky darkened a little and we looked up to see one giant fireball cruising overhead. It would be the one to end our lives.

It was a chilling dream that shocked me back into reality. It scared me enough that this morning I even considered changing that part of my book. But it's important to the storyline so I can't. It was a disturbing feeling witnessing so much vivid destruction. I haven't had a nightmare like that in years.

Image links to a DailyMail article

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Time Machines

2008-11-14T09:55:00.000-08:00

I've been reading about time travel lately. I had forgotten this gem of science fiction/fantasy for awhile and rediscovered it lately when reading about the future of human evolution.

I can't count how many times I watched the old Time Machine from 1960. My parents thought cable TV would rot our brains and we lived in the middle of nowhere. My awesome grandpa recorded some cable TV for us and we had some videos of several hours of nickelodeon, and a few other recorded channels I don't remember.

One of the videos though, happened to have the old 1960 Time Machine on it. I probably watched the movie 100 times or more during my childhood. When the new one came out, I may have been one of the few people in the theater who actually remembered how good the old one was.

This DeLorean kicks ass.

HG Wells didn't have a very glamorous theory on the future of humans. The 2002 version had humans that were sexy, smart, and just like us. They even spoke english. The 1960 version had a bunch of dumb blondes fumbling around eating plastic fruit and watching each other drown.

But the story HG Wells wrote was so dark they actually censored him. After saving Weena [my old friend called her Weiner], in both movies, the protagonist fought the Morlocks, won, and went home. Except in the newest movie where the time machine fucking explodes and wipes out the Morlocks.

Weiner.

In the book, the protagonist doesn't care about Weiner, he wants to know the future. He travels into the future again and -snip-, sorry, the publishers didn't like what happens to humans and made him create a new draft.

In his original version, the protagonist goes into the future and kills some weird animal. Upon further inspection he realizes it was an evolved version of the Weinerhumans he had encountered earlier. They had lost their intelligence, and become mere cattle to the now arachnid-like Morlocks.

Clearly a race of Arachnids.

In the new version HG Wells wrote, he just gets rid of this scene altogether and the world gets dominated by crabs and then the sun starts eating planets. Hardly packs the same punch.

I like this story because it is a punch in the gut. So much sci-fi involves humans conquering the galaxy, evolving into über geniuses, or just becoming gods. And it happened to easily. We kept making our lives easier for ourselves until eventually we just hired an entire underclass to live under our cities helping us live out our awesomely leisure filled lives. We became dumb, weak, and a race of pussy communists. The underclass, apparently became dumb, savage, blood-loving hardcore republicans or something.

Then everybody became animals - there was no longer a drive for intellectual and physical development. It was as if McDonalds and video games took over one half of the world, and the blue collars took steroids and ate everyone.

I can kind of see that happening. People are getting lazier, and physically weaker. However, another trend suggests people are actually getting smarter. I don't exactly see how humans could evolve into a bunch of retards, but we could atrophy. If we don't use our upper brains would they atrophy and become vestigial? Could you imagine some version of humans in the distant future realizing that fat thick stuff in their skulls was for doing stuff with? It'd be like finding out that the appendix actually does shit.

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New Toilet?

2008-11-13T13:15:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I read this article about the space station getting a new toilet.

Last night, however, I had a dream that I was living on the space station and we got in an argument about where the toilet would go.

Damn remodeling arguments.

Eventually NASA got fed up and told us we couldn't have a new toilet after all.

Dish of the Day

2008-08-30T15:24:00.001-07:00

Novah reminded me of this clip from the original Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
At the 5:30 mark we meet the "Dish of the Day" a genetically engineered animal that's intelligent and actually wants to be eaten.

Meat

2008-08-29T22:19:00.000-07:00

MEAT

Meat, good tasty meat. I tried going vegetarian once or twice but seriously meat is awesome. There's nothing quite like biting into a half-pound beef/buffalo bacon burger with pepper jack cheese and maybe a slice of ham for good measure. Heck, throw in a side of hot wings too.

But there's a problem with meat. Not only is meat getting expensive, but it's also energy inefficient. A grown cow will eat 2 percent its weight in grain per day. That doesn't seem like much until you realize this is almost 30 pounds of grain a day. That could make 35 loaves of bread. Over a week you spend 245 loaves of bread to keep that cow alive.

In the course of one cow's life, 31,937 loaves of bread could have been made.
If you got 31,937 pieces of steak off the cow that'd be great, but unfortunately, you only end up with about 700 pounds. If you're lucky.

Then you start dealing with being humane... everyone knows that's a can of worms.

More evidence is surfacing that animals are smarter than we think. Many birds are self-aware, elephants mourn for their dead, and many animals are emotional. Many scientists agree that animals are capable of feeling depressed, angry, or happy.

So what does a cow or a pig feel on an animal farm on its way to the slaughterhouse? Is it scared? Is it suffering? It's almost a chilling concept. I really don't want to think about my half-pound bacon burger as once a living creature crying and reflecting on it's life. How horrifying humans must seem to the animals we consume.

There are even more problems. Animal farms contribute to CO2 emissions, they're prone to spreading disease, and they take up a lot of space.

Soon we will have to address these problems.
But how? Compulsory Vegetarianism?
That might work... but only if a World Government made it illegal to raise animals for meat. Which means there would be an underground and black market for meat. Which would lower the standards for sanitation.
And then there's the fact that it could destabilize the food chain. Humans may be screwing the planet but we're a very important piece in the food chain. We're the most widespread predator on the planet, and arguably the most efficient predator in history.

You can't remove the biggest predator on the planet and not expect widespread consequences. We would have to use population control as non-native herbivores ravage the world. Then what do we do with the carcasses?

Compulsory Vegetarianism won't work. What we have to do is create a new supply of meat that is cheap, efficient, eco-friendly, and doesn't suffer.

Luckily, scientists are way ahead of us.

First on the menu of the future is Vat Grown Meat. Scientists are working on a way to grow animal muscle tissue in petri dishes. Once they perfect it, they can work on producing it in a larger scale.

Unfortunately, as it turns out, meat isn't just muscle cells. It's nerves, blood vessels, fat, and stringy gristle things that you spit out in horror. Plus, muscles cells don't just kind of float around in a soup, they're connected to each other in bundles of tissue.

So far, all attempts at growing meat in a petri dish have resulted in a slime of muscle cells that look nothing like a hamburger. One scientist tried adding an artificial network for the cells to grow on, but when he cooked the meat he found out the network didn't dissolve. So he basically ate slimey cheesecloth. Yum.

So far it's really expensive too. Larger models are only bound to get more expensive. They will be bacterial cesspools if they aren't sanitized, and we'll have to figure out a way to exercise the tissue, and as it grows to bigger sizes we'll need to circulate nutrients, oxygen, process toxins, and before you know it we've created a Vat Grown Organism.

So if vat grow meat will eventually just create a tank filled with slabs of muscle and organs, why not just use slabs of muscle and organs in the first place?

The second dish on the menu of the future will be Animal 57. Scientists have been working on genetically altering animals to produce more meat for awhile now. Most of the meat we eat [and even our vegetables] have been altered in some way or another.

There was a rumor awhile back that KFC had invested money in researching a way to create chickens with four legs. It turned out to just be an urban legend... but just the KFC part. Scientists have indeed figured out how to grow legs in the place of wings. Don't believe me?

Not a digitally altered photo. This is real.

There's your chicken for you, KFC. Notice how deformed the back legs are? I'm guessing those are the 'fake' ones. They don't really look functional so I wonder how much meat could really be scraped off one of those.

And how would you market that part of the chicken? It couldn't look like your typical 'drumstick'.

That's not all, check out this article. Animals getting depressed at the prospect of slaughter? Maybe a little to unruly? That's okay, soon they'll be emotionless anyway. We're one step closer to creating an animal brain that's sole purpose is to keep the animal alive.

Plus scientists want to make it so cows start producing human breastmilk instead of that pesky cow milk. They say it will be better for us, but I'm sure they're overlooking the fact that you can't make cheese out of human breastmilk. Sure drinking chocolate milk will finally be really good for me, but at what cost? Healthy Chocolate milk or Chedder Cheese? That's tough.

I imagine in the future they could just continue down the same path. We'll be left with some beast unnatural to earth. It will have no eyes or ears so it can't see or hear what's going on around it. Of course it won't care because it mentally can't.

It won't have teeth, just a cone shaped head with a mouth on the end to suck nutrients through a straw into its belly. It can't scream because it's been altered not to have a voicebox. It's hairless skin is tight with rippling muscles, thick pulsating veins distribute nutrition throughout the body in a perfect symetrical pattern.

As it's led to the slaughter with a leash, it has no tail to tuck between its legs. The beast has only used its overdeveloped legs a few times in its life... shortly after birth, and now on its way to death. A quick cut across the neck drains the blood. After a few cuts in the muscle around the neck and a good tug the head comes off, pulling the entire spine and most of the organs with it.

Then it's off to be chopped up and distributed.

It's like this. But no eyes and no teeth.
Also, get rid of that pathetic excuse for a tail and snip off those ear things.
Great, now make it 50 times bigger and stronger.

Superhumans

2008-08-24T23:20:00.000-07:00

The Olympics are fascinating. I like to watch not just to cheer for my own country, but also to marvel at the powerful people that compete. It's amazing seeing people with almost perfect bodies flipping and morphing in the air before gracefully sliding into water, or run for two freakin' hours in a race and be nearly a mile ahead of the guy behind you. I can barely run for 15 minutes without coughing up crap and wheezing for air, but they make it look like a brief jog to the supermarket.

Then my mind begins to warp and the little mad scientist deep inside starts to get out his perverted toys.

I begin to wonder... what powerful brutes could we produce if all of these athletes bred? Obviously the athlete's workouts don't mean they've improved their DNA - that's not evolution. But I bet they've got some sort of genetic bias that makes them better than their peers...

Of course, the Olympics aren't just for sweating and showing off how great your are in sports... it's also about sweating and showing off in bed. During the Beijing Olympics, free condoms were given out to the athletes by the handfuls. Nearby markets found themselves completely stripped of condoms - they became the fastest selling product.

Is it wrong for me to hope that every one of those condoms broke or had a leak?

Perhaps in the future most of those competing will be genetic Olympians... those who's ancestors all competed in the Olympics.

Maybe that's not fair, but I still cling to the idea that steroids should be allowed. It'd be awesome watching hulk-like monsters lifting several-ton weights and running for days without a break.

I want the Olympic athletes to look like the guy on the right... and maybe green.

Of course, I don't have to rely on horny athletes to usher in an era of genetically enhanced humans. You can help me too!

Today, you can choose the gender of your child and remove genetic defects. It's also not illegal to... y'know... tell the doctor how much you'd really really like it if the baby had blue eyes.

If another genocidal dictator moves into power in a few years, instead of killing everyone with an undesirable trait, he could simply make it mandatory to remove those traits. It would probably look better if a dictator encouraged breeding instead of slaughtering lesser people. The baby's genes could just be tweaked and voila, blonde hair, blue eyes, and fair skin born from a family of Hispanics.

Not that I'm saying my superhuman race would have blonde hair and blue eyes (I was actually thinking straight black hair and green eyes?). People are already opting to screen out genetic defects to encourage a healthier child.

We are conquering diseases faster than ever, and humans are even evolving faster than before. There are even rumors that some people in Africa are developing genes that are resistant to HIV.

According to one scientist [and the many that agree with him], we are heading towards becoming Unihumans. Homo Sapien Sapienter, as it's called, is an amalgamation of all the human races on the planet. As time goes on we will evolve into other branches of humans just as our mammalian ancestors evolved into all the branches we see today. Oliver Curry, of the London School of Economics believes we will branch into two different races. A goblin-like underclass and an elven-like graceful upper class. Sound too much like Lord of the Rings? Read the scary scenario for yourself.

Personally I think Mr. Curry has seen the Time Machine one too many times.
...though from the sounds of his description of women he may have just been watching too much anime...

The Women of the Future

Alone on Earth?

2008-08-05T14:50:00.000-07:00

My friend Novah, from Visualizing Evolution linked to my blog so I guess it's time to start updating more frequently.

Whenever there is something in the news about intelligent life on other planets, there is usually the comment of not being 'alone'.

Can we even really consider ourselves alone? We're on a planet that is literally teeming with life all over the surface and even under it. We can't really say we're alone because there are other life forms all around us. There are billions of living creatures on this planet and the notion of having a pet animal is universal.

But that's not quite the same. What we usually mean by alone, we usually mean in the form of companionship. We overlook the other living creatures on our planet, we are looking for other intelligent creatures that we can hold a conversation with. In a dark universe we are looking for a mate.
But maybe we are just ignorant. Maybe intelligent beings walk among us that aren't human.
I don't mean aliens.

There seems to be more and more evidence arising that we aren't the only sentient intelligent creatures on earth.

For example; dolphins have their own names. Here is an article with several examples of dolphin intelligence. In the article there are stories of a dolphin that tricks its human trainers into giving it more fish, dolphins using tools and other signs of their self awareness. Dolphins even seem to commit crimes.
But we've all heard the dolphin argument before right?

Don't get me started on Bonobos, my favorite primate. They're known to have highly developed lingual skills [for a chimp], and they're known to be extreme sexual deviants. Bonobos even share most of their DNA with us.

Just look at a few pictures of Bonobos and you'll realize how eerily human-like they are. They walk up-right a quarter of the time, the females have large breasts [most apes are flat chested], and they even have pink lips. Give them a few million years and some enlightenment and maybe some day we could see human and bonobo descendants getting married.

I hope my descendants find a good woman like Ari.

I'm sure you've heard those examples before though. "Sure, sure," you say, "Dolphins could be intelligent, and maybe even apes, but other than that we're alone... right?"

There is more research amounting that suggests Elephants may be as, or more intelligent than dolphins. Here's a summary thanks to Wikipedia, though it doesn't end there.

I don't think we're alone, I think we're just ignoring the other intelligent species around us. If humans don't kill off all of the intelligent species [Bonobos and Elephants are both endangered], maybe we should just leave the planet and let evolution take care of things.

Perhaps millions of years in the future after mankind has seeded the galaxy they will seek out their planet of birth. Homo Excelsior lands in the heart of Africa hoping to come face to face with their ancestors.
Instead they are greeted by something similar to humans...
An evolved Bonobo chimp offers them a tribal sacrifice while nearby, an elder of the elephants bows down to offer peace on behalf of the Elephant Empire.

Hell yeah.

Welcome to Strange Future

2008-07-25T11:40:00.000-07:00

I've decided to start this blog because there are some things that you can't discuss in a normal blog intended for friends and family to read. A blog where I mention my grades in school cannot be taken as seriously as a blog where I discuss the death of religion, the rise of cyborgs, or genetic art.
Here I can ask questions and ponder things like; what will life be like in a post-christian world? What if we aren't alone on earth? How far away are cyborgs? How much longer will we speak english?

So brew yourself some coffee, click those links, and take a peek into the strange future.