Seriously, you can get the Kindle edition of my new novel for FREE, today through Friday only. I just think you’re that awesome. More details about The Fridgularity are available here or on the download page at Kindle. Alltop also … Continu…
Continue readingTag: singularity
mark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: Excerpt: Cyber-zombies in The Fridgularity
As the self-aware entity Zathir takes over the Internet (and promptly locks all humans out of it), a noticeably portion of the population become unhinged by their loss of their favorite thing. It’s not just the economic crisis the event … C…
Continue readingmark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: Excerpt: Internet addicts, looking for a fix in The Fridgularity
The Fridgularity begins with the Big Crash — the Internet goes down, as an entity takes over all the horsepower available through all the devices connected to it. This has certain deleterious effects on the folks who NEED the Internet … Con…
Continue readingmark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: Sad about the singularity?
Is this robot really sad? Or is it just celebrating the technological singularity it its own quiet way? I don’t want to project onto this robot. Maybe he’s programmed to be happy with his single red balloon. Unlike Zathir, the … Continue read…
Continue readingmark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: Solutions for an empty galaxy
Long before Enrico Fermix had questioned why there was no sign of advanced species visiting Earth, despite the vastness of the universe and the likelihood of intelligent star-faring species evolving on other planets, Douglas Prong wondered the same thi…
Continue readingmark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: Future History: Wall Street Wiles
Excerpt from the Brainipedia mentograph entry on Wall Street, circa 2020: It wasn’t until the early years of the 2020s that our pre-singularity hominid ancestors realized they should not allow their best and brightest minds to go into the financial … Continue reading →
Continue readingmark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: Municipal Investment Strategies for the Technological Singularity
An Open Letter to Town Council Dear Councilors: Your town may have an emergency plan, a development plan, a health plan — it may even have a plan for how to fix the potholes (though I doubt it). But does … Continue reading →
Continue readingmark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: Why doesn’t SF produce “big idea” books anymore?
“…today you don’t need to read SF to get a sense of wonder high: you can just browse “New Scientist”. We’re living in the frickin’ 21st century. Killer robot drones are assassinating people in the hills of Afghanistan. Our civilisation … Continue reading →
Continue readingmark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: The technological singularity: possible outcomes
I think I would enjoy the (bad) technological singularity a bit more if it went down like this. It’s almost sweet, a giant robot in a sundress, destroying a suburb with its laser eyes. (Or are they heat beams?)
Continue readingThe Skwib: The Cybernetic Thought Projection Hat
from the 2037 Hammacher Schlemmer Glaven catalog This hat recalls the iconic headgear worn by the Cognition Brigade during the Second Robotic War. First developed for long distance thought projection, hats of this design were worn by countless Though Soldiers during the war, preferred for its ability to combat the medulla-inhibiting freeze rays of the […]
Continue readingThe Skwib: The Frozen Soylent Green Soft Serve Processor
from the 2037 Hammacher Schlemmer Glaven catalog This is the device that instantly turns Soylent Green and other flavorings into a soft-serve treat. The unit combines frozen Soylent Green and any additional Soylent products you can scavenge and instantly churns the ingredients to produce a treat with the texture of frozen yogurt or soft-serve ice […]
Continue readingThe Skwib: The Thomas Kincaid Pop-Up Christmas Tree and Consumer Happiness Dispenser
(from the 2037 Hammacher Schlemmer Glaven catalog) This is a six-foot Christmas tree that pops up instantly and is pre-decorated with original artwork by renowned holiday artist Thomas Kinkaid, all of which can dispense Viritron’s patented Santa Virus. The tree rises from a flat position in concentric circles to its full thirty-inch width and seventy-six-inch […]
Continue readingThe Skwib: The Laser Equipped Autonomous Robotic Vacuum
(from the 2037 Hammacher Schlemmer Glaven catalog) This is the robotic vacuum that navigates autonomously through your home up to seven times per week, where it can either clean your floors or patrol for intruders. The unit’s specially designed dual, counter-rotating agitator brushes spread carpet fibers and enable the vacuum to remove hair and other […]
Continue readingThe Skwib: The Best Levitation Belt
from the 2037 Hammacher Schlemmer Glaven catalog This levitation belt earned The Best rating from the Hammacher Schlemmer Glaven Institute because it was the easiest to put on and operate while falling from a building. 48 out of 49 of our tests were successful, and only one of our Testing Drones was killed during the […]
Continue readingThe Skwib: Technological singularity support
I’m torn on this idea. On one hand, I’d be really happy for my Dad to still be around for the singularity. On the other hand, I’m not happy about the idea of the singularity.
Alltop is biding its time until it takes over.
RedBedHead: Capitalism Is Killing The Advance Of Healthcare
The scientific advances of the last century – and even of that last ten years – have been dizzying. The ability to turn ordinary skin cells into stem cells that can become any type of cell in the body; organ, limb and face transplants; gene therapy – a…
Continue readingRedBedHead: The Politics Of Immortality
If we grant that aging is, like other pathological conditions, a matter of molecules out of place – though perhaps considerably more complex than “simple” and singular diseases like cancer or diabetes, then we have to grant that it is also potentiall…
Continue readingThe Skwib: We have technology backwards
I’m not sure HOW we got this totally backwards, but we have. Technology should serve humanity, not the other way around.
Alltop is an aggregator we all like to work for. Another great one by XKCD.
Continue readingThe Skwib: Other problems with the Singularity
Vastly extended human lifespans might sound like a great idea, but the death of art is only one.
Alltop IS the death of art.
The Skwib: Waiting for the razor-blade singularity
We may need to check with Ray Kurzweil on this one, but it looks as though we might expect the technological singularity sooner than anyone expects, based on your razor. The Economist did an evaluation of the number of blades on razors, and discovered (with five data points) that there is a Moore’s Law for […]
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