October 2009

Telepathy, Or the Next Best Thing

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Fans of Jean Grey, Charles Xavier or simply talking without moving your mouth (ventriloquists not included), rejoice: telepathic technology has been discovered.

So it’s not as cool as being born with a mutant gift (or curse, depending if you follow the films or the comics…), and it doesn’t include the ability to make your own scifi Hoveround or throw chairs at people at town hall meetings with your brain. But it does prove that communication using only your mind is possible.

SG:U Stargate Universe Review

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I had some technical problems trying to watch SG:U, but these have since been overcome.  (If you, like me, had the first two episodes expire out of your Hulu queue without warning, you can now find the first four episodes here on the show's static Hulu page.)  I spent the weekend catching up on the first four episodes, and I have to admit I'm impressed.

I had never been much of a Stargate watcher, either of the first show or of Stargate Atlantis.  Although oddly enough I have seen the same episode (which details how the team found Ronan) at least five times.  (in "American Gods," Neil Gaiman mentions this as a rule for television shows you hardly watch.)  Somehow whenever an episode came on television, I found something better to do after about ten minutes.

The Science Fiction Complaints Department

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"Of course the BBC gave [Russell T.] Davies another show called Torchwood, which is basically "slash fiction" on television"

Dude, you say that like it's a bad thing.

So on the one hand, we have an appalling rant about how women are ruining science fiction for men.  (And also, gay men apparently don't count as "men.")  Entirely unsurprising, given that the rant is published on a self-declared "anti-feminist" website called The Spearhead, and the author's name is "Pro-male/Anti-feminist Tech."  (Honestly I think this dude has gotten enough attention at this point, and I'm not going to link to him.  The last thing he needs is more attention.)

On the other hand we have famed, acclaimed, and (if you ask me) god-like science fiction writer Charles Stross slamming the entire Star Trek oeuvre for being insufficiently science-y.  And you know, dude's got a point, but so what?  

5 Cyberpunk Promises I Wish Had Come True

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Cyberpunk is usually seen as one of the science fiction genres which was most accurate in its forecasting.  But we're not quite there yet!


1.    Cyberspace Without Typing

Famously, the concept of cyberspace (particularly as seen in William Gibson's Neuromancer) is said to have come to life as the internet.  Well I'll tell you something, that is just not true.  Except for your parents, who probably feel that anything that happens in a "browser" is exhilarating, and that the mere act of "Googling" a thing is just futuristic beyond belief.