3D Multiverse Multitouch

Tellinya - Cyperspace-Metaverse is just around the corner: The ubiquity of fast internet, remote interaction in real time, (quasi) 3D perception - and now this: Multitouch handling in real space (cf. Minority Report) and 3D reality reconstruction has become feasible by hacking the Kinect depth camera system. Now we just need to hook up more than one and we're ready to evade real reality.

2012 on Information is Beautiful (thanks, Francois)

There is a nice wrap-up of the whole 2012 New Age hype on Information is Beautiful

Zeitgeist - The Movie (part 1 and 2)

Zeitgeist refers to "the spirit of the times" or "the spirit of the age and its society".

I recently watched the Zeitgeist movie series (thanks, Eugenio), a three times two hours audiovisual epos about -say- the institutional control of the modern individual.
In fact, I have the same comment as on Das Netz - The Net two years ago (btw - here's the working link): "Leaving aside the fact that it's sometimes a little bit too close to conspiracy theories and its being too deep and too shallow at the same time, it's an interesting documentary."

Part 1 (Zeitgeist: The Movie)


Part 2 (Zeitgeist: Addendum)

Thinking Machine's Li'l Brova: thehumansarecoming

So here's Warren's announcement shifted out of the comments section:
Thinking Machine has a little brother called http://thehumansare.com/ing/
Haven't properly checked it out but you should!!

Australian Commodore 64 Ad from 1985

'Thinking Machine' on the Blogroll

There's a new member on the blogroll: Thinking Machine, a London-based link blog thematically orbiting around audio consumption and production, design and technology, the future and the web, politics and philosophy, art and music -- with a hint of science and brain in all that.
Plus, it's updated almost daily. Check it out.

Douglas Adams Acoustic Memorabilia

I checked for acoustic memorabilia of Douglas Adams on the web and found the following:

• Two interviews from 1983 and 1989 as streams and downloadable as .mp3 files on wiredforbooks.org
• Another one dating back to 1982 on The Generalist (.mp3) and one more from 1988 on thebaldheretic (stream and .mp3).
  
• Then there is this 90 minute video-streaming talk at UC Santa Barbara which he gave one month before his death in 2001.
• Lastly, a whole BBC website dedicated to Douglas Adams and H2G2, including cool Real Audio interview snippets.

Douglas Adams RIP - H2G2's 30th Birthday

One day after what would've been his 56th birthday, we'll go to the Douglas Adams Memorial lecture in the Royal Geographical Society London. It's organized by the Savetherhino Foundation and the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. The lecture itself will be given by Steven Pinker and because it's the 30th birthday of "A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" it'll be followed by a special performance of some of the original cast. Ahh-- really looking forward to this.

--Also check this previous post on Douglas Adams and this cool BBC production in which he describes his view on how technology changes our lives, the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Future.

Swabian Viral Marketing Wars (a link by D-trick)

Check this out-- it's freakin' funny at least for all you German (preferably Swabian) blokes.
Thanks to D-trick for the link (his blog is in German just as the cool video).

Bruce Sterling and Mercedes Bunz at Elektrischer Reporter

For some months now I have been watching the geeky "Elektrischer Reporter" online (sorry--80% in German). It features a weekly interview on the future of the internet and the technologization of society, topics I feel (urged to be) interested in and I've been posting about in the past.
Yesterday, I watched the interview with scifi author Bruce Sterling who, after some rather boring first minutes, said some very relevant things on topics that were--to questionable extent--also discussed at the G8 summit.
Today, however, I watched the interview with mind-boggling Mercedes Bunz who, in addition to having a great name, has a lot of very smart things to tell.
I recommend everybody (who understands German) to watch her 10 minute interview.

Zehn Hoch, Powers of Ten (1977)

One of my--maybe even *the*--favorite short film of all times is called 'Zehn Hoch' in German and 'Powers of Ten' in English. It circulated before the era of video hosting platforms and I just came to think of it recently. So I looked it up and found several versions.
The two greatest ones are the original German dubbed version, apparently produced in 1977 by the Eames Office for IBM, and the ingenious Simpsons Intro mocking it (see below). Furthermore, but only in one direction, there is an IMAX remake called 'Cosmic Voyage' with the voice of Morgan Freeman and--of course--the Terry Pratchett-like outro of 'Men in Black'.

"Post-", X, Heroes, and Savants

I admire the prefix "post-". Is it classy to claim to be "post-something", e.g. for one's band to play post-rock music, or for one's art to be post-modern? Does it mean that rock music and modern art has been overcome and should therefore be abandoned? I dunno...

Anyways--
I came to watch some episodes of Heroes.
Just as Family Guy is post-Simpsons, Heroes is post-X-Files and post-X-Men.

In principle, Heroes is about the not so original theme of some genetic mutation that allows more or less random people to have superpowers.

As you probably know, savants (i.e., people with extraordinary mental abilities) are a popular topic of TV documentaries and even cinema movies.
So funnily, I also saw a well-made Channel five documentary on number savant Daniel Tammet, who, unlike most other savants, is not obviously socially handicapped and can report on his experiences (found on the Developing Intelligence Blog). The broadcast bears the catchy title "the boy with the incredible brain" and its length is 48 minutes -- just as long as one episode of Heroes.



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Addendum: Wow... As if Tatsuya Ishida magically has read my mind, I stumbled over this great sinfest strip.

Addendum II: Ah yeah, I just noticed how repetitive this blog is: Vilayanur S. Ramachandran shows up in the documentary, too.

See You in the Future

I am not an expert, but looking at recent internet developments as well as my own personal needs, I do seem to detect an obvious direction.

The everlasting growth of the internet, my own urge to check mails as often as possible with at best the most handy and mobile devices, as well as the popularity of social web2.0 applications and platforms such as facebook.com (or its new German counterpart studivz.net), del.icio.us, lijit (former outfoxed), and what-have-ya, lead me to conclude that a second (virtual) reality slash cyberspace, as it has been described for example in Neal Stephenson's great book "Snow Crash", is just a matter of time.

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Addendum: You can even see the first glimpses - Second Life. I haven't tried it yet, but if one of you has, tell me/us about it... From what I can see from Second Life it's still a long way to go...