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technology

The new space race

by Dominus

Back in the day, this was the hottest topic of discussion: who can get to the Moon first? The Americans were engaged in a time-restricted race with the Soviets. On September 13, 1939, the Soviet Union’s Luna 2 unmanned rocket made a hard landing on the surface of the moon-i.e., crashed into the moon. The Americans mirrored this in 1962 with their Ranger 4 rocket but ultimately took the cake on July 20, 1969, with the Apollo 11 mission successfully getting two astronauts to the surface of the Earth’s only natural satellite. This “Golden Age” of space exploration eventually died down and although there were plenty of missions after that, none had the social resonance of the first ones. America had won, the Soviets were defeated and everybody could go to sleep all relaxed knowing that the world was in order.   Space exploration continued after that with a few highlights sprinkled across the decades but nothing could reach the hype of those early years. Our dreams of living in a super…
Score: 1.13

Technology has made us into insomniacs

by Dominus

Technology has gained in popularity over the last decade and has secured a fairly central place in our life. While the advantages of using it are obvious and praised more often than the Second Coming, the downsides are not mentioned as often. People have used to stay up late for any number of reasons. This is not something new. Before the internet era, watching television until the late hours of the night was responsible for a good portion of grumpy employees and students in the morning. Things have changed with the introduction of the internet and its subsequent rise to the top of technological marvels. The internet has made us addicted to it. It should come with a warning label saying: “Possible side effects of prolonged use can be, but are not limited to, addiction, a retreat from social life, health issues, a recurring lack of sleep, distorted views of reality, cheering on stupid people and making them famous etc.   Some people can’t sleep without watching a movie. This is a modern…
Score: 1.14

Li-Fi: The Future of Data Consumption

In a world where being connected to the Internet is less of a luxury and more of a requirement for many, it is no surprise that the WiFi speeds are beginning to slow. As more and more people use WiFi and begin to overuse networks in highly populated areas the speeds will begin to decrease and the rate of annoyance among users will increase exponentially. Universities, restaurants, airports, even hospitals are beginning to notice that the load speed and connectivity is exponentially decreasing. So as is with every other technological advance, the advancement is never finished. Once a new discovery is made and the minute it is implemented, we begin to find ways to make the technology even better.  But I am getting ahead of myself. So first of all, what is Li-Fi?   The principle of Li-Fi is fairly simple: Li-Fi stands for light fidelity. Now, before we can understand how Li-Fi is possible, we must first understand how Wi-Fi transmits internet and data to your smart devices. Simply put, Wi-Fi…
Score: 1.02

We Always Need A Black Mirror

    The Netflix original series Black Mirror has attracted a surprising number of critics, some ridiculing the very premise of the series - and having that backfire - others just dismissing it as "pretentious," while others claim the very title sailed over their heads, and finally a whole subsection out there blowing it off because it's similar to The Twilight Zone franchise.    Um, yeah, that's the whole point!      For those out of the loop: Black Mirror is a modern speculative fiction anthology series with a UK production beat (irregular seasons with episodes stretching to movie-length).    It focuses on hard sci-fi dystopian scenarios, taking recent developments in technology and extrapolating the "what if?" factor from there to view the human impact. Usually, it's a grim and rotten, cyberpunk world. "And they all lived happily ever after" said no Black Mirror story ever.      At any given time since the dawn of mass electronic media, we've never been far from a speculative fiction anthology series. You…
Score: 1.4

VTubers (Virtual YouTubers): Is This The Future Of Entertainment?

       Pardon my round-eyed white idiot weeaboo indulgence, but your Present Author has been sent on a mission by the Editors That Be to explore vTubers(Virtual YouTubers, Japanese: Vユーチューバー, バーチャルユーチューバー). This is 21st century living at its most stereotyped: whole subcultures emerge and gain millions of followers within a couple of years, without most of the world quite knowing they exist.  But I'm a techie and media geek first, so even I can appreciate that there's something happening here. We all expected that better AI and CGI technology would give us virtual celebrities sooner or later. That's all a vTuber is: a Virtual Youtuber, a real-life celebrity who never shows their face (almost), instead of having their movements motion-captured and animated through a virtual character, for whom they also provide the voice.        Westerners may smirk and say "Hey, that's Max Headroom." Well, no, not quite. It's actually more like Black Mirror. Namely, The Waldo Moment way back in season two:        Scary, isn't…
Score: 1.32

Seeking Online Eden : The Quest For An Intelligent Discussion Community

    This is Diogenes the Cynic. He is known for having roamed the world, lantern aloft, on a lifelong quest for just one honest man. (Spoilers: He never did find one by his definition.) Besides that, he was one of those classical philosophers and public intellectuals whose standard delivery represented our modern concept of "performance art" or "stand-up comedy." He was a tart social critic and overall sourpuss. He is, however, credited with helping to found the seeds of stoicism, one of the most enduring schools of Greek philosophy.  He is one of my heroes.  Like Diogenes, I too have been on a lifelong quest to seek something out. This thing I seek is something we all assume exist, all agree would be a nice thing to have, until we think it over. That thing I have fruitlessly sought is "an intelligent Internet discussion community."  Let's flashback right quick: The original purpose of the Internet was to support communication, to the goal of exchanging information, ideas, and media. When…
Score: 1.74