epistemolepsis

SF reading protocols | Tor.com

Tue, 21 May 2013 18:19:32 +0200

See on Scoop.it - Science Fiction - Education

The latest news about Sci Fi and Fantasy culture including books, movies, games, art. Read short stories from top authors and join in the discussion!
See on tor.com

TEDxHull - Adam Roberts - Science Fiction as Poetry

Tue, 21 May 2013 17:42:23 +0200

See on Scoop.it - Science Fiction - Education
Science Fiction is not what you think it is; it’s not even what most practitioners and critics of science fiction think it is. Science fiction is a poetry…
See on youtube.com

Data is wisdom?

Tue, 21 May 2013 12:40:15 +0200

Data is wisdom?:

A great deal of research has gone into the idea of ‘choice’. The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less, by psychologist Barry Schwartz, supposes that when there are more than a just few options, the strain of selecting just one can result in anxiety. The problem lies in our ability to quickly and objectively work through the data so we feel we have actually been able to make the ‘right’ choice.

In 1949, He Imagined an Age of Robots - New York Times

Tue, 21 May 2013 10:35:31 +0200

See on Scoop.it - Science Fiction - Education

New York Times
In 1949, He Imagined an Age of Robots
New York Times
MIT Institute Archives and Special Collections. An excerpt from the essay “The Machine Age” by Norbert Wiener.

Mariusz Leś’s insight:

A classic.

See on nytimes.com

Interview with Dr Deborah M. Withers: What is the role of an archive in the digital age?

Mon, 20 May 2013 17:32:20 +0200

See on Scoop.it - Science Fiction - Education

“Who determines the worth of something to be digitised – “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?”, who watches the watchmen. What is the role of the archivist in choosing what to digitise – and how does the cultural/social context of that archivist influence what is kept? (e.g. what was stored and kept from Ancient Greece influences our idea of what the classics are. What about all the works that weren’t retained? Someone decided what was kept, or circumstance e.g. war dictated it, and that has shaped our Western canon)”.
See on roisinobrien.com

Social Science Fiction | The Daily Omnivore

Mon, 20 May 2013 14:18:08 +0200

See on Scoop.it - Science Fiction - Rhetoric and Ideology

… to portray alternative societies (World of the Noon, a fictional future setting for a number of hard science fiction novels written by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky) and to examine the implications of ethical principles (the works of …

See on thedailyomnivore.net

Science Fiction and Data

Sun, 19 May 2013 22:48:11 +0200

See on Scoop.it - Science Fiction - Rhetoric and Ideology

Talk given at the Open Data Institute in London on various visions of Data in science fiction. The text based slides contain the text of the talk from the script. Some pictures are clickable to online links.

See on slideshare.net

The Secrets of Consciousness and the Problem of God - lareviewofbooks

Sun, 19 May 2013 22:43:37 +0200

See on Scoop.it - Science Fiction - Rhetoric and Ideology

“LET’S SAY YOU WERE GOD. How could you know this? How could you be sure that you weren’t rather a mad person, thinking you were God? You’d be omniscient of course, so you would know that you were God. But only if you were God. Otherwise you would only think that you were omniscient. …

The Secrets of Consciousness and the Problem of God lareviewofbooks Phi is also a work of speculative fiction, a kind of fantasy exposition of science that ends up turning into a record of scientific fantasy as it grapples with ever-deeper…”

See on lareviewofbooks.org

Los Angeles Review of Books - Devourer Of Encyclopedias: Stanislaw Lem's "Summa Technologiae"

Sun, 19 May 2013 16:30:41 +0200

Los Angeles Review of Books - Devourer Of Encyclopedias: Stanislaw Lem's "Summa Technologiae":

AT LAST WE have it in English. Summa Technologiae, originally published in Polish in 1964, is the cornerstone of Stanislaw Lem’s oeuvre, his consummate work of speculative nonfiction. Trained in medicine and biology, Lem synthesizes the current science of the day in ways far ahead of most science fiction of the time.

Science Fiction Research Collective: Panel Discussion 3/22/12 by...

Sat, 18 May 2013 16:41:34 +0200

Science Fiction Research Collective: Panel Discussion 3/22/12 by UMemphisEnglishDpmt

Digital Close Reading: TEI for Teaching Poetic Vocabularies

Sat, 18 May 2013 15:30:55 +0200

See on Scoop.it - Science Fiction - Rhetoric and Ideology

“… The basic digital venture was to have students build a TEI-encoded electronic edition of a poem by an obscure woman writer. I selected Melesina Trench’s “Laura’s Dream; or The Moonlanders” in part because, as a lunar voyage poem, its science fiction-like imagination of inhabitants on the moon prompted discussion about women and technology—helping the class to theorize both the imagination and language as early technologies. Moreover, the plot of the poem likewise allegorizes pertinent issues of pedagogy. Laura awakens from a fever-induced vision to tell her mother about her vision of the Moonlanders. While Laura’s mother dismisses these dreams as products of an over-heated brain, Laura’s allegories about the lunar beings reach toward truths culled by the young (who play with technology) and taught to an older generation. This view of technology and youthful experimentation was aimed at giving students a way to think about the process of using technology—both the ways they were being taught about it and the ways that they might instruct their teachers. Above all, students gained a new type of editorial agency that gave them permission to explore, alter, and retranslate the text for themselves and their peers. …”

See on jitp.commons.gc.cuny.edu

A Conversation Between Tom Doherty and Gregory Benford - Tor.com

Sat, 18 May 2013 15:06:35 +0200

See on Scoop.it - Science Fiction - Rhetoric and Ideology

In 1926, the first science fiction magazine ever, Amazing Stories, was published by a consortium of magazines totally devoted to the hot new technology that could change your life: radio. It’s a cultural phenomenon in that the portion …..

See on tor.com

Szwajcarskie muzeum fantastyki

Sat, 18 May 2013 11:07:00 +0200

See on Scoop.it - Science Fiction - Rhetoric and Ideology

Actualité du 17/05/2013 | Zoom sur la Maison d’Ailleurs : Interview de Marc Atallah directeur du musée de la science-fiction de Yverdon-les-Bains.

Mariusz Leś’s insight:

I love it. First place to see in Switzerland perhaps!

See on scifi-universe.com

"Żyję, widzę i nie rozumiem, żyję w świecie, który ktoś wymyślił, nie zadając sobie trudu, żeby go..."

Mon, 13 May 2013 09:31:52 +0200

“Żyję, widzę i nie rozumiem, żyję w świecie, który ktoś wymyślił, nie zadając sobie trudu, żeby go wyjaśnić mnie, a może nawet nie tylko mnie, ale i sobie. (…). Oto moja choroba – pragnienie zrozumienia.”

- Ślimak na zboczu – Wikicytaty

Nostalgicznie o Archiwum X – Los Angeles Times

Mon, 13 May 2013 00:09:13 +0200

Nostalgicznie o Archiwum X – Los Angeles Times:

“… I don’t know how much direct inspiration Carter took from “Twin Peaks,” whose two-season run ended the year before “The X-Files” began. (The mid-’70s “Kolchak: The Night Stalker,” with Darren McGavin as a reporter weekly engaging the supernatural, is its most frequently mentioned influence.) But the two have much in common: woodsy, murky Pacific northwest locations (“The X-Files” filmed in and around Vancouver for its first five seasons, and “Twin Peaks” filmed in Washington state); mysterious, sometimes nameless characters; and a deep investment in the notion that there is meaning in a beautiful image. …”

More Science Fiction for Economists (Seriously Time-Wasting) - NYTimes.com

Sun, 12 May 2013 22:47:30 +0200

More Science Fiction for Economists (Seriously Time-Wasting) - NYTimes.com:

Definitely definitely The Dispossessed, which never seems to lose its relevance.

Czas oczami psa...

Sat, 04 May 2013 00:23:16 +0200

Time Seen Through the Lens of a Street Dog http://news360.com/article/181971300

“… The video, set in the outskirts of Istanbul, focuses on moments of transition and marginalised experiences of time, seen through the lens of a street dog. Having been moved by the authorities to peripheral pockets and no man’s lands outside the expanding city, the dogs are continuously moving along lines of gentrification and corporate city making. Through looping and repetition, Eriksson relates this process to an experience of time: exploring the present as a complex gap between past and future, one in which an increasing process of erasure, spurred on by a shrinking public realm, also removes other registers of being and seeing.”

winkler: I’m still here: back online after a year without the...

Thu, 02 May 2013 13:33:20 +0200

winkler:

I’m still here: back online after a year without the internet

Paul Miller returns after a year off the internet.

I was wrong.

One year ago I left the internet. I thought it was making me unproductive. I thought it lacked meaning. I thought it was “corrupting my soul.” It’s a been a year now since I “surfed the web” or “checked my email” or “liked” anything with a figurative rather than literal thumbs up. I’ve managed to stay disconnected, just like I planned. I’m internet free.

And now I’m supposed to tell you how it solved all my problems. I’m supposed to be enlightened. I’m supposed to be more “real,” now. More perfect.

———————————————————

Great article with insight into true meaning of the internet: it’s about connecting people.

Why We Need Answers: The Theory of Cognitive closure

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 23:45:00 +0200

Why We Need Answers: The Theory of Cognitive closure:

… We want to eliminate the distress of the unknown. We want, in other words, to achieve “cognitive closure.” This term was coined by the social psychologist Arie Kruglanski, who eventually defined it as “individuals’ desire for a firm answer to a question and an aversion toward ambiguity,” a drive for certainty in the face of a less than certain world. When faced with heightened ambiguity and a lack of clear-cut answers, we need to know—and as quickly as possible. …

"Everyone knows that the Internet has changed how businesses operate, governments function, and..."

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 22:26:36 +0200

“Everyone knows that the Internet has changed how businesses operate, governments function, and people live. But a new, less visible technological trend is just as transformative: “big data.” Big data starts with the fact that there is a lot more information floating around these days than ever before, and it is being put to extraordinary new uses. Big data is distinct from the Internet, although the Web makes it much easier to collect and share data. Big data is about more than just communication: the idea is that we can learn from a large body of information things that we could not comprehend when we used only smaller amounts.”

- The Rise of Big Data | Foreign Affairs