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Technology

New Play Looks at All Male Society and Male Pregnancy

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Mankind

What if women were extinct? What if men evolved to bear children — and invented “Feminism” as a religion, devoted to making the world hospitable for the second coming of the bygone sex? Such is the dystopian setting of writer-director Robert O’Hara’s ambitious but stalled new play Mankind, which opened off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons last night. Though it’s more often men who are out of the picture, à la Wonder Woman’s Themyscira, single-sex societies are a familiar sci-fi trope. The question of men becoming pregnant is likewise well tread — Arnold Schwarzenegger tried it in Junior (1994), and scientists even … Read more

FOR WRITERS: Artificial Wombs

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test tubes and beakers - pixabay

FOR WRITERS Today’s writer topic comes from QSFer Alicia Nordwell: In honor of National Tech Day – artificial wombs: How would an artificial womb change the ‘humanity’ of the babies grown this way? What might genetic manipulation might lead to in terms of more than purifying the DNA for characteristics? What might be done with “abandoned” genetic materials that are used to create babies? Who would they belong to? What are their legal rights from conception or would they lack of human interaction during gestation make them more prone to be viewed as a product? Today we peer into the … Read more

SPACE: Does Alien Life Exist?

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UFO - Pixabay

Last month, The New York Times published an article describing a secret government program investigating reports by military pilots of unidentified flying objects they encountered in the course of their daily duties. The media was awash with stories of flying saucers and extraterrestrial encounters, with scientists downplaying the likelihood of alien visitation and UFO enthusiasts exclaiming their excitement. While I sit very firmly on the side that believes these reports more likely have an unremarkable and terrestrial explanation, whether alien life exists is a very real and credible scientific question. What is the possibility that life — and even intelligent … Read more

SPACE: Pentagon Confirms Secret Search For UFOs

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The Pentagon, at the direction of Congress, a decade ago quietly set up a multi-million dollar program to investigate what are popularly known as unidentified flying objects—UFOs. The “unidentified aerial phenomena” claimed to have been seen by pilots and other military personnel appeared vastly more advanced than those in American or foreign arsenals. In some cases they maneuvered so unusually and so fast that they seemed to defy the laws of physics, according to multiple sources directly involved in or briefed on the effort and a review of unclassified Defense Department and congressional documents. The Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program, … Read more

U=(N/T)M*G: Vanished

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For all the spy fans, all the tech geeks, all the science fiction aficionados, I bring this humble offering on one of the Holy Grails of fiction. Invisibility. Yes, you read that right. We, as a species, have been chasing that lofty ability since we understood what it was. We’ve blended into the scenery with clever disguises of mud and leaves, hoping our prey didn’t see us. There are reams of accounts of Native cultures on their seeming mystic ability to disappear from their enemies’ sights. Our myths are chock full of Gods that unveil themselves from some dark space … Read more

Robot Nails Backflip, Ensures Humanity’s Eventual Downfall

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Boston Dynamics robot

When robots one day rise up against their human oppressors and enslave the fleshy mammals of this planet, we hope they’ll remember how nice some of us were their kind ― the Teddy Ruxpins, the Furbys, the Tickle Me Elmos ― and ultimately show mercy. Until that time, the robotic design company Boston Dynamics continues to fan the uprising flames by giving robots the ability to sprint like cheetahs and perform infinite pushups. By Andy McDonald – Full Story at The Huffington Post

TECH: New Google AI is Homophobic

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Google AI Bot

Google Google has created an artificial intelligence bot – and it’s homophobic. The $500 billion company’s new software, Cloud Natural Language API, analyses statements to find out whether they’re positive or negative. It then gives users a “Sentiment” score from -1 all the way up to +1 – and the higher up the scale, the more positive it thinks your sentence is. “You can use it to understand sentiment about your product on social media or parse intent from customer conversations,” Google explains. The only issue is: it doesn’t like gay people. Just contrast the positive rating for “I’m straight” … Read more

Lego Women of NASA

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Lego Women of NASA

Lego is releasing a new set that features important women who have worked at NASA. The “Women of NASA” will include figures of astronomer Nancy Grace Roman, computer scientist Margaret Hamilton, and astronauts Mae Jemison and Sally Ride. The 231-piece also includes pieces for three builds that provide some context for the figures. One of the them is a five-inch-tall model of a space shuttle. MIT News deputy editor Maia Weinstock proposed the set on the Lego Ideas site in 2016 and, when it got 10,000 votes, it was approved for production. Her idea originally included mathematician Katherine Johnson – … Read more

TECH: Ride the BFR From New York to Los Angeles in 25 Minutes

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BFR

Elon Musk laid out a set of ambitious plans on Thursday for a vehicle he has dubbed the Big Fucking Rocket (BFR). The massive spaceship will not only ferry people around on Earth in minuscule amounts of time compared to modern jet travel. It will one day in the not too distant future (2024, to be exact) ferry humans to a colony on Mars. Wired reports: In a promotional video, SpaceX says the BFR will be able to fly into the planet’s orbit and travel with a maximum speed of 27,000kmh. It says a flight from Hong Kong to Singapore … Read more

Sex Robot Molested At Electronics Festival, Creators Say

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sex robot

This is why we can’t have nice things. The man behind an “intelligent” sex robot named “Samantha” says the kinky creation needs to be repaired thanks to “barbarians” at a tech industry festival. Engineer Sergi Santos, of Barcelona, Spain, wanted to show off Samantha at the Arts Electronica Festival in Linz, Austria, last week. The randy robot is programmed with artificial intelligence so that she responds to gentle seduction. Samantha seemingly gets more aroused the more she’s “romanced.” By David Moye – Full Story at