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Echopraxia (novel)
''Echopraxia'' is a hard science fiction novel by Canadian writer Peter Watts. It is a "sidequel" to his 2006 novel, ''Blindsight'', and the two novels make up the ''Firefall'' series. ''Echopraxia'' follows the story of a biologist who gets caught up in a voyage into the heart of the Solar System among members of a transcendentalist monastic order and allies (including a vampire escaped from a research facility and her cadre of zombified soldiers) to investigate a mysterious signal seemingly coming from the mission sent to initiate first contact in Watts' previous novel. The title refers to a psychological condition in which a person involuntarily mimics actions they observe. Synopsis The story, set on the eve of the twenty-second century, follows a parasitologist named Daniel Brüks, who accidentally finds himself trapped within a conflict involving several trans-human groups. Forced to escape into space, he boards the starship ''Crown Of Thorns'', together with a varied ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Watts (author)
Peter Watts (born January 25, 1958) is a Canadian science fiction author. He specializes in hard science fiction. He earned a Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia in 1991 from the Department of Zoology and Resource Ecology. He went on to hold several academic research and teaching positions, and worked as a marine-mammal biologist. He began publishing fiction around the time he finished graduate school. Career His first novel ''Starfish'' (1999) reintroduced Lenie Clarke from his short story "A Niche" (1990); Clarke is a deep-ocean power station worker physically altered for underwater living and the main character in the sequels: ''Maelstrom'' (2001), ''βehemoth: β-Max'' (2004) and ''βehemoth: Seppuku'' (2005). The last two volumes constitute one novel, but were published separately for commercial reasons. ''Starfish'', ''Maelstrom'', and ''βehemoth'' make up a trilogy usually referred to as "Rifters" after the modified humans designed to work in deep-ocean envi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Echopraxia
Echopraxia (also known as echokinesis) is the involuntary repetition or imitation of another person's actions. Similar to echolalia, the involuntary repetition of sounds and language, it is one of the echophenomena ("automatic imitative actions without explicit awareness"). It has long been recognized as a core feature of Tourette syndrome, and is considered a complex tic, but it also occurs in autism spectrum disorders, schizophrenia and catatonia, aphasia, and disorders involving the startle reflex such as latah. Echopraxia has also been observed in individuals with epilepsy, dementia and autoimmune disorders; the causes of and the link between echopraxia and these disorders is undetermined. The etymology of the term is from Ancient Greek: " ἠχώ (ēkhō) from ἠχή (ēkhē "sound") and " πρᾶξις (praksis, "action, activity, practice)". Characteristics Echopraxia is the involuntary mirroring of an observed action. Imitated actions can range from simple motor t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Canadian Science Fiction Novels
Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''Canadian''. Canada is a multilingual and multicultural society home to people of groups of many different ethnic, religious, and national origins, with the majority of the population made up of Old World immigrants and their descendants. Following the initial period of French and then the much larger British colonization, different waves (or peaks) of immigration and settlement of non-indigenous peoples took place over the course of nearly two centuries and continue today. Elements of Indigenous, French, British, and more recent immigrant customs, languages, and religions have combined to form the culture of Canada, and thus a Canadian identity and Canadian values. Canada has also been strongly influenced by its linguistic, geographic, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Biopunk Novels
Biopunk (a portmanteau of "biotechnology" or "biology" and "punk") is a subgenre of science fiction that focuses on biotechnology. It is derived from cyberpunk, but focuses on the implications of biotechnology rather than mechanical cyberware and information technology. Biopunk is concerned with synthetic biology. It is derived from cyberpunk and often involves bio-hackers, biotech megacorporations, and oppressive organizations that engineer DNA. Most often keeping with the dark atmosphere of cyberpunk, biopunk generally examines risks and downsides of genetic engineering and illustrates potential perils of biotechnologies. Description Biopunk is a subgenre of science fiction closely related to cyberpunk that focuses on the near-future (most often unintended) consequences of the biotechnology revolution following the invention of recombinant DNA. Biopunk stories explore the struggles of individuals or groups, often the product of human experimentation, against a typically dystop ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2014 Science Fiction Novels
Fourteen or 14 may refer to: * 14 (number), the natural number following 13 and preceding 15 * one of the years 14 BC, AD 14, 1914, 2014 Music * 14th (band), a British electronic music duo * ''14'' (David Garrett album), 2013 *''14'', an unreleased album by Charli XCX * "14" (song), a 2007 song by Paula Cole from ''Courage'' * "Fourteen", a 2000 song by The Vandals from '' Look What I Almost Stepped In...'' Other uses * ''Fourteen'' (film), a 2019 American film directed by Dan Sallitt * ''Fourteen'' (play), a 1919 play by Alice Gerstenberg * ''Fourteen'' (manga), a 1990 manga series by Kazuo Umezu * ''14'' (novel), a 2013 science fiction novel by Peter Clines * ''The 14'', a 1973 British drama film directed by David Hemmings * Fourteen, West Virginia, United States, an unincorporated community * Lot Fourteen, redevelopment site in Adelaide, South Australia, previously occupied by the Royal Adelaide Hospital * "The Fourteen", a nickname for NASA Astronaut Group 3 * Fourteen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Los Angeles Review Of Books
The ''Los Angeles Review of Books'' (''LARB'' is a literary review magazine covering the national and international book scenes. A preview version launched on Tumblr in April 2011, and the official website followed one year later in April 2012. A print edition premiered in May 2013. Founded by Tom Lutz, Chair of the Creative Writing Department at the University of California, Riverside, the ''Review'' seeks to redress the decline in Sunday book supplements by creating an online “encyclopedia of contemporary literary discussion.” Coverage The ''LARB'' features reviews of new fiction, poetry, and nonfiction; original reviews of classic texts; essays on contemporary art, politics, and culture; and literary news from abroad, including Mexico City, London, and St. Petersburg. The site also proposes looking seriously at detective fiction, thrillers, comics, graphic novels, and other writing often dismissed as genre fiction, and printing reviews of books published by univer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Consciousness
Consciousness, at its simplest, is awareness of a state or object, either internal to oneself or in one's external environment. However, its nature has led to millennia of analyses, explanations, and debate among philosophers, scientists, and theologians. Opinions differ about what exactly needs to be studied or even considered consciousness. In some explanations, it is synonymous with the mind, and at other times, an aspect of it. In the past, it was one's "inner life", the world of introspection, of private thought, imagination, and volition (psychology), volition. Today, it often includes any kind of cognition, experience, feeling, or perception. It may be awareness, awareness of awareness, metacognition, or self-awareness, either continuously changing or not. The disparate range of research, notions, and speculations raises a curiosity about whether the right questions are being asked. Examples of the range of descriptions, definitions or explanations are: ordered distinc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Portia (spider)
''Portia'' is a genus of jumping spider that feeds on other spiders (i.e., they are arachnophagic). They are remarkable for their intelligent hunting behaviour, which suggests that they are capable of learning and problem solving, traits normally attributed to much larger animals. Taxonomy and evolution The genus was established in 1878 by German arachnologist Friedrich Karsch. The fringed jumping spider (''Portia fimbriata'') is the type species. Molecular phylogeny, a technique that compares the DNA of organisms to construct the tree of life, indicates that ''Portia'' is a member of a basal clade (i.e. quite similar to the ancestors of all jumping spiders) and that the '' Spartaeus'', '' Phaeacius'', and '' Holcolaetis'' genera are its closest relatives. Wanless divided the genus ''Portia'' into two species groups: the ''schultzi'' group, in which males' palps have a fixed tibial apophysis; and the ''kenti'' group, in which the apophysis of each palp in the males has a jo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Transhumanism
Transhumanism is a philosophical and intellectual movement that advocates the human enhancement, enhancement of the human condition by developing and making widely available new and future technologies that can greatly enhance longevity, cognition, and well-being. Transhumanist thinkers study the potential benefits and dangers of emerging technologies that could overcome fundamental human limitations, as well as the technoethics, ethics of using such technologies. Some transhumanists speculate that human beings may eventually be able to transform themselves into beings of such vastly greater abilities as to merit the label of posthuman#Transhumanism, posthuman beings. Another topic of transhumanist research is how to protect humanity against existential risks from Existential risk from artificial general intelligence, artificial general intelligence, asteroid impact, gray goo, high-energy particle collision experiments, natural or synthetic pandemic, and nuclear warfare. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parasitology
Parasitology is the study of parasites, their host (biology), hosts, and the relationship between them. As a List of biology disciplines, biological discipline, the scope of parasitology is not determined by the organism or environment in question but by their way of life. This means it forms a synthesis of other disciplines, and draws on techniques from fields such as cell biology, bioinformatics, biochemistry, molecular biology, immunology, genetics, evolution and ecology. Fields The study of these diverse organisms means that the subject is often broken up into simpler, more focused units, which use common techniques, even if they are not studying the same organisms or diseases. Much research in parasitology falls somewhere between two or more of these definitions. In general, the study of prokaryotes falls under the field of bacteriology rather than parasitology. Medical The parasitologist F. E. G. Cox noted that "Humans are hosts to nearly 300 species of parasitic worms a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
First Contact (science Fiction)
First contact is a common theme in science fiction about the first meeting between humans and extraterrestrial life, or of any sentient species' first encounter with another one, given they are from different planets or natural satellites. It is closely related to the anthropological idea of first contact. Popularized by the 1897 book '' The War of the Worlds'' by H. G. Wells, the concept was commonly used throughout the 1950s and 60s, often as an allegory for Soviet infiltration and invasion. The 1960s American television series ''Star Trek'' introduced the concept of the " Prime Directive", a regulation intended to limit the negative consequences of first contact. Although there are a variety of circumstances under which first contact can occur, including indirect detection of alien technology, it is often portrayed as the discovery of the physical presence of an extraterrestrial intelligence. As a plot device, first contact is frequently used to explore a variety of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
