Has the future been cancelled? – h+ magazine

Rising up out of the gloom of early 2009, the second edition of h+  magazine sends a message of hope to weary changesurfers.

With articles like:

“Space Solar: Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun ” by Howard Bloom

“The Global Financial Crisis: A Hiccup on the Path to Superintelligent Financial Markets?”  by Ben Goertzel

“Singularity 101 with Vernor Vinge”

“First Steps Toward Post Scarcity or Why It’s the End of the World as  We Know it and You Should Feel Fine”  by Jason Stoddard.

h+ #2 takes on the mess in front of us and then catapults us further on and further out.

And for those of you who prefer your futurism gritty,  John  Shirley on Cyberpunk for the 21st Century and Paul McEnery talking to “Bio Gunk” SF writer Peter Watts.

http://hplusmagazine.com/

Spring 2009 Issue of H+ magazine
http://cts.vresp.com/c/?HplusMagazine/53fa5f81d2/7f821f53a8/005a7398e0

Gog Classic 1950s sci fi movie in 3D presented by Mu-Mesons

Gog (1954) in 3D – Classic 1950s sci fi movie. Scientists working on induced hibernation for space travel are killed, apparently by machines acting independently. Security agent Sheppard arrives at the secret underground space research base to investigate possible sabotage. Shot in 3D, but released mainly in regular 2D. 3D glasses will be provided but if you have your own bring them along.
Monday 23rd February …
Annandale Hotel (Sydney) 7.30 $5 suggested Donation
17 Parramatta Rd Annandale, Sydney. Ph (02) 9550-1078

In association with — For More extensive and detailed information please visit Mu-Meson Archives
web site http://www.mumeson.org

1000 novels everyone must read: Science Fiction & Fantasy

A fantastic series started by the UK – Guardian that suggests 1000 Sci-Fi and Fantasy novels everyone must read.! Sure the neat little précis of each novel hooks into the e-commerce cart of the Guardian online bookstore, with the potential to buy. But personally I don’t mind – after all – once something whets your appetite why not own it too.

Btw, this is part 1 so bookmark the site …

Guardian UK

Star Log: Trippy Sci-Fi Mash-Up Alert!

By turns absorbing, confounding, exhausting and altogether stranger and more rib-ticklingly funny than most fiction, Craig Baldwin’s infelicitously titled and cacophonous provocation, “Mock Up on Mu,” comes close to defying categorization. Much like Mr. Baldwin’s previous cut-and-paste works — including the film “Tribulation 99,” his self-professed “pseudo-pseudo-documentary” about American interventions in Latin America — this new work hits your synapses like a cluster bomb, assailing your tremulous gray matter with a barrage of cinematic fragments (most recycled, some newly shot), miscellaneous rants and ruminations.

Divided into 13 chapters, “Mock Up on Mu” — shot on 16 millimeter and shown digitally — recounts some of the more far-out and apparently true tales involving American inner and outer space travel. The Web site for the movie (othercinema.com/mu.html) contains the coy assertion that it’s “(mostly) true,” which is the kind of truth in advertising that should be more widely adopted. More to the point, this defensive assertion may be directed at anyone who might take offense at the gently parodic portrait of one of its main characters, L. Ron Hubbard (the filmmaker Damon Packard), whose trippy musings blend in with those of Jack Parsons (Kal Spelletich), a founder of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory; his wife, Marjorie Cameron (Michelle Silva); and some guy named Lockheed Martin (Stoney Burke).

More from NY Times>…

13 upcoming remakes of Hollywood sci-fi classics

“The Illustrated Man”

Another Bradbury work that is planned for a 2010 release (the year the author will celebrate his 90th birthday) is this project from the “Watchmen” duo of director Zack Snyder (who also directed “300”) and screenwriter Alex Tse. “The Illustrated Man” was a 1951 book of 18 short stories (including one, “Rocket Man,” that inspired the Elton John hit) that were linked by a bizarre framing device — a bum who is covered into tattoos from the future that move and represent the characters in the tales. It was made into a 1969 film starring Rod Steiger but it’s not clear what direction Snyder is taking the property.

Cited LA Times.

Workspace – a story of Waste

What it’s like not to believe.

Deep down in the WorkSpace corporate lexicon, somewhere between WashWord (ref: outbound content checks), and Weasel (mid management slang: derogatory) is: WASTE. Terminologies rated corporate pivotal (i.e.: relating to criteria rated indistinguishable from the basic genetics of the WorkSpace raison d’etre) are always fully textually capitalised, and are mandated to remain so always. WASTE (implying a keen imperative to avoid profligacy) is one of the big three, one third of the corporate triadic indivisible from the notion of obedient, implacable progress within the eternal seminary of WorkSpace. The other two elements of this permanent trinity are: MORE (see WorkSpace orientation pack 101) – nestled next to Move (as in employment relocated laterally, downward or outward); and NOW (N.B.: requests for definition expansion may cause unemployment).

The notion of WASTE, in the frugal corporate environment of the mid 21st century, is the number one crime committable at WorkSpace. Worse than cross departmental conjugal encounters, worse than overstocking, worse than non-sanctioned laddering – even worse than leaving at five-thirty – is WASTE, the waste of resources, of time, of reputation, of watts, and of people. To commit to WorkSpace was a tacit acknowledgement that your usefulness would be extracted in any and all ways possible.

Excerpt from Killbots want Peace Too>…

WorkSpace is a episodic narrative located in a fictional, near-future context. WorkSpace may ostensibly present as a science fiction story, but at its core is an examination of the rage and despair inducing frustrations of life in a modern workplace.

Robot Chicken returns to Star Wars roost

When Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II debuts on US tv the stop-motion special will once again skewer sci-fi’s greatest pantheon with extreme comedy that doesn’t shed a tear, even as its slays younglings or pwns Vader.

From Boba Fett’s cackling slaughter of Ewoks to stormtroopers taking their kids to work with them, Seth Green and Matt Senreich’s fanboy toy satire fires on all cylinders and leaves a hilarious mess where there once stood an unassailable canon.

The two writers and producers of Adult Swim’s stand-alone special once again got help from the inside as they messed with Star Wars‘ memorable characters, although they didn’t sucker George Lucas into playing along this time.

“We did that once, and he’s a very demanding actor,” Senreich told Wired.com.

But they did convince Star Wars vets like Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams and Ahmed Best, whose alter ego Jar Jar Binks shows up in a clever rip-off of Geico’s commercials, to hop on board for the second Robot Chicken: Star Wars special. Those lifers join Conan O’Brien, Andy Richter and Family Guy and American Dad guru Seth MacFarlane, whose turn as an unhinged Emperor Palpatine that just can’t stand Darth Vader’s incompetence once again steals the show.

More …>>
http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2008/11/robot-chicken-r.html

humanity plus: a new web-based quarterly magazine announces launch

Are you ready to be fitted for your Ironman suit? Is it time to stop aging, upload your memories onto silicon and engineer your progeny to be happy geniuses? Can we get you a real hamburger that wasn’t made from a slaughtered cow? (And do you want fries with that)? Well, roll over Anderson Cooper and tell Perez Hilton the news.

*h+ *magazine has arrived and the future already looks different.

Humanity Plus (formerly the World Transhumanist Association) “ in collaboration with former *Mondo 2000* editor RU Sirius –  is pleased to present *h+.* A web-based quarterly magazine, *h+* covers the scientific, technological, and cultural developments that are challenging and overcoming human limitations.

¨Recently, there has been a growing and evolving public discourse about new technological trends and possibilities. Scientists and edge thinkers are talking about“ and working on  — slowing or ending aging; body and brain enhancement; biological control of the genome and the evolutionary process; and the possibility of a technological singularity brought on by AI¦ to name just a few of the interests and obsessions of this new edge tech culture.

*h+ *magazine is all over it.

Beautifully designed by virtual worlds artistic legend D.C. Spensley (AKA DanCoyote in Second Life), *h+* is accessible, stylish, contemporary, and sometimes playful. *h+* aims to provides an entry point for intelligent people to develop an awareness of this new technological paradigm, while also providing an outlet and a voice for those who are already hooked in to the “transhumanist” vision.

Featuring interviews with science fiction author Charlie Stross and anti-aging legend Aubrey de Grey, issue #1 of *h+ *magazine is now at hplusmagazine.com

Editor R.U. Sirius promises to continue editing the periodical for “approximately 300 years.”

Soda_Jerk Screening

Together Sydney-based sisters Dan and Dominique Angeloro are Soda_Jerk. They are remix artists whose practice is a combination of paper and digital collage, scratch video, and popular culture sampling. They use material from various sources, from record covers to Elvis films to hip hop music and Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, and mix it together to create new narratives and meanings.

Don’t miss the first ever screening in Brisbane of Soda_Jerk’s feature length movie Pixel Pirate II: Attack of the Astro Elvis Video Clone. The work is made of samples from over 300 films and songs, and is referred to by the artists as a sci-fi/biblical epic/cheesy romance/action flick. The story goes that space pirates abduct Elvis Presley as part of a scheme to destroy the Ten Commandments of Copyright Law, laid down by Moses in prehistory.

SCREENING 11 Oct , 2-3 pm
FREE – bookings essential
QUT Art Museum – Ground Level, U Block Gardens Point Campus 2 George St, Brisbane

For more info, contact: 07 3138 5370 or www.artmuseum.qut.com

Mu-Meson October program: picks

Tuesday 14th October
Para(noid) Politics in the Archives
McLuhan’s Wake
Fascinated by the role technology played in transforming our lives, Marshall McLuhan, one of the 20th century’s most famous intellectuals realized, with stunning accuracy, the impact the digital age would have on our social, spiritual, economic and ideological selves. Narrated by performance artist Laurie Anderson McLuhan’s life and career are thoroughly examined, and his 20th-century ideas are tested to see how they hold up in the 21st. Mu-Meson Archives Doors 7.30 for 8pm start $10

Wednesday 15th October
Margenalised Movie
Human Animals (1983)
Amazing Sci-fi apocalypses trash; after an atomic explosion two men and one woman are the last people on Earth. They are reduced to savagery and begin to fight over who is going to be the dominant male of the group. They eventually settle on an island were Larry the dog is also residing. As the way with all males Larry joins the men in the fight for the affections of the woman. Mu-Meson Archives Doors 7.30 for 8pm start $10 with supper.

Thursday 16th October
Spliff (Screening Perth’s Local Independent Films)
SPLIF encourages input by new and emerging filmmakers who create films that are Low budget and High adventure! The intention is to expose this work to people who are seeking an alternative film viewing experience. Festival Director Ivan Borgnino has been cultivating alternative screen culture in Perth since 2001. This 2-hour program is a retrospective collection of some of the coolest short films SPLIF has screened from 2001 to 2007. Mu-Meson Archives Doors 7.30 for 8pm start $10

Friday 17th October
Trasharama Film Festival
Featuring: B-grade Horror, Cheesy Sci-Fi, Sick Animations, Bad Taste Comedies, Grind-house Trailers & Other Low Brow Sinematic Atrocities. Be prepared to be emotionally violated, sickened, traumatized and completely grossed out. For a night of film viewing that you won’t get anywhere else. . Mu-Meson Archives Doors 7.30 for 8pm start $12/$10 concession

For More extensive and detailed information please visit Mu-Meson Archives web site http://www.mumeson.org

Mu-Meson Archives at Crn Parramatta Rd & Trafalgar St Annandale (SYDNEY) at the end of King Furniture building up the steel staircase. Phone 02 9517-2010