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Postsingular
''Postsingular'' is a 2007 science-fiction novel written by the American writer Rudy Rucker. It focuses upon a cast of San Franciscans and their relationship with emerging uses of nanotechnology. It was the first of his works to be licensed under a Creative Commons license and released to the public on the Internet. A sequel, ''Hylozoic'', was released in 2009, but was not released under a free license. Summary The novel is divided into four parts. Most of the events in the story take place in a future version of San Francisco. Part 1 The first part begins on a New Year's Day, in which a young, 17-year-old Jeff Luty and his friend Carlos Tucay are about to light bottle rockets on Stinson Beach, California, Stinson Beach. The two boys, who are interested in the young but growing nanotechnology industry, dream about establishing Lu-Tuc Space Tech, and have inserted nanorobots into the rockets. After a passing dog had urinated on the rocket, the rockets are lit again. However, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rudy Rucker
Rudolf von Bitter Rucker (; born March 22, 1946) is an American mathematician, computer scientist, science fiction author, and one of the founders of the cyberpunk literary movement. The author of both fiction and non-fiction, he is best known for the novels in the Ware Tetralogy, the first two of which ('' Software'' and '' Wetware'') both won Philip K. Dick Awards. Until its closure in 2014 he edited the science fiction webzine ''Flurb''. Early life Rucker was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, son of Embry Cobb Rucker Sr (October 1, 1914 - August 1, 1994), who ran a small furniture-manufacture company and later became an Episcopal priest and community activist, and Marianne (née von Bitter). The Rucker family were of Huguenot descent. Through his mother, he is a great-great-great-grandson of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Rucker attended St. Xavier High School before earning a BA in mathematics from Swarthmore College (1967) and MS (1969) and PhD (1973) degr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Self-replicating Machines In Fiction
A self-replicating machine is a type of autonomous robot that is capable of reproducing itself autonomously using raw materials found in the environment, thus exhibiting self-replication in a way analogous to that found in nature. Such machines are often featured in works of science fiction. In anime, comics, and manga Anime * In the anime '' Vandread'', harvester ships attack vessels from both male- and female-dominated factions and harvest hull, reactors, and computer components to make more of themselves. To this end, Harvester ships are built around mobile factories. Earth-born humans also view the inhabitants of the various colonies to be little more than spare parts. * The short OVA series '' MD Geist'' features a self-replicating robotic doomsday weapon known as the Death Force that consumes living matter in order to create more units. Comics * In the comic '' Transmetropolitan'' a character mentions "Von Neumann rectal infestations", which are apparently caused by "Shit-t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
San Francisco Armory
The San Francisco Armory, also known as the San Francisco National Guard Armory and Arsenal or simply The Armory, is a historic building in the Mission District of San Francisco, California. As of 2018, it is owned by SF Armory LLC, an affiliate of AJ Capital Partners. National Guard Armory The building was constructed as an armory and arsenal for the United States National Guard in 1912–1914 and designed with a castle-like appearance in a Moorish Revival style. The Armory was built on part of the site of Woodward's Gardens (1866–1891), a zoo, aquarium, art museum, and amusement park which covered two city blocks, bounded by Mission, Valencia, 13th, and 15th Streets."Kink.com buys SF Armory" |
Utility Fog
Utility fog (also referred to as foglets) is a hypothetical collection of tiny nanobots that can replicate a physical structure.LEGOs (TM) to the Stars The Assembler, Volume 4, Number 3 Third Quarter, 1996, Tihamer Toth-Fejel As such, it is a form of self-reconfiguring modular robotics. Conception The term was coined by John Storrs Hall in 1989 Hall thought of it as a nanotechnological replacement for car |
Claytronics
Claytronics is an abstract future concept that combines nanoscale robotics and computer science to create individual nanometer-scale computers called claytronic atoms, or ''catoms'', which can interact with each other to form tangible 3D objects that a user can interact with. This idea is more broadly referred to as programmable matter. Claytronics has the potential to greatly affect many areas of daily life, such as telecommunication, human-computer interfaces, and entertainment. Current research Current research is exploring the potential of modular reconfigurable robotics and the complex software necessary to control the “shape changing” robots. “Locally Distributed Predicates or LDP is a distributed, high-level language for programming modular reconfigurable robot systems (MRRs)”. There are many challenges associated with programming and controlling a large number of discrete modular systems due to the degrees of freedom that correspond with each module. For exa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grey Goo
Gray goo (also spelled as grey goo) is a hypothetical global catastrophic scenario involving molecular nanotechnology in which out-of-control self-replicating machines consume all biomass on Earth while building many more of themselves, a scenario that has been called '' ecophagy'' (the literal consumption of the ecosystem). The original idea assumed machines were designed to have this capability, while popularizations have assumed that machines might somehow gain this capability by accident. Self-replicating machines of the macroscopic variety were originally described by mathematician John von Neumann, and are sometimes referred to as von Neumann machines or clanking replicators. The term ''gray goo'' was coined by nanotechnology pioneer K. Eric Drexler in his 1986 book '' Engines of Creation''. In 2004, he stated "I wish I had never used the term 'gray goo'." ''Engines of Creation'' mentions "gray goo" as a thought experiment in two paragraphs and a note, while the popular ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greg Bear
Gregory Dale Bear (August 20, 1951 – November 19, 2022) was an American writer and illustrator best known for science fiction. His work covered themes of galactic conflict ('' Forge of God'' books), parallel universes ('' The Way'' series), consciousness and cultural practices (''Queen of Angels''), and accelerated evolution ('' Blood Music'', '' Darwin's Radio'', and ''Darwin's Children''). His most recent work was the 2021 novel ''The Unfinished Land''. Greg Bear wrote over 50 books in total. Early life Greg Bear was born in San Diego, California. He attended San Diego State University (1968–1973), where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree. At the university, he was a teaching assistant to Elizabeth Chater in her course on science fiction writing, and in later years her friend. Career Bear is often classified as a hard science fiction author because of the level of scientific detail in his work. Early in his career, he also published work as an artist, including illus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blood Music (novel)
''Blood Music'' is a science fiction novel by American writer Greg Bear. It was originally published as a short story in 1983 in the American science fiction magazine '' Analog Science Fact & Fiction'', winning the 1983 Nebula Award for Best Novelette and the 1984 Hugo Award for Best Novelette. Greg Bear published an expanded version in novel form in 1985. ''Blood Music'' deals with themes including biotechnology, nanotechnology (including the grey goo hypothesis), the nature of reality, consciousness, and artificial intelligence. Plot summary In the novel, renegade biotechnologist Vergil Ulam creates simple biological computers based on his own lymphocytes. Faced with orders from his nervous employer to destroy his work, he injects them into his own body, intending to smuggle the "noocytes" (as he calls them) out of the company and work on them elsewhere. Inside Ulam's body, the noocytes multiply and evolve rapidly, altering their own genetic material and quickly becoming sel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Booklist
''Booklist'' is a publication of the American Library Association that provides critical reviews of books and audiovisual materials for all ages. ''Booklist''s primary audience consists of libraries, educators, and booksellers. The magazine is available to subscribers in print and online. ''Booklist'' is published 22 times per year, and reviews over 7,500 titles annually. The ''Booklist'' brand also offers a blog, various newsletters, and monthly webinars. The ''Booklist'' offices are located in the American Library Association headquarters in Chicago’s Gold Coast neighborhood. History ''Booklist'', as an introduction from the American Library Association publishing board notes, began publication in January 1905 to "meet an evident need by issuing a current buying list of recent books with brief notes designed to assist librarians in selection." With an annual subscription fee of 50 cents, ''Booklist'' was initially subsidized by a $100,000 grant from the Carnegie Foundation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boing Boing
''Boing Boing'' is a website, first established as a zine in 1988, later becoming a group blog. Common topics and themes include technology, futurism, science fiction, gadgets, intellectual property, Disney, and left-wing politics. It twice won the Bloggies for Weblog of the Year, in 2004 and 2005. The editors are Mark Frauenfelder, David Pescovitz, Carla Sinclair, and Rob Beschizza, and the publisher is Jason Weisberger. One report named ''Boing Boing'' as the most popular blog in the world until 2006, when Chinese-language blogs became popular, and it remained among the most widely linked and cited blogs into the 2010s. History ''Boing Boing'' (originally ''bOING bOING'') started as a zine in 1988 by married duo Mark Frauenfelder and Carla Sinclair. Issues were subtitled ''"The World's Greatest Neurozine"''. Associate editors included Gareth Branwyn, Jon Lebkowsky, Paco Nathan, and David Pescovitz. Along with ''Mondo 2000'', ''Boing Boing'' was an influence in the de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cory Doctorow
Cory Efram Doctorow (; born July 17, 1971) is a Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author who served as co-editor of the blog '' Boing Boing''. He is an activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and a proponent of the Creative Commons organization, using some of their licences for his books. Some common themes of his work include digital rights management, file sharing, and post-scarcity economics. Life and career Cory Efram Doctorow was born in Toronto, Ontario, on 17 July 1971. He is of Eastern European Jewish descent. His paternal grandfather was born in what is now Poland and his paternal grandmother was from Leningrad. Both fled Nazi Germany's advance eastward during World War II, and as a result Doctorow's father was born in a displaced persons camp near Baku, Azerbaijan. His grandparents and father emigrated to Canada from the Soviet Union. Doctorow's mother's family were Ukrainian-Russian Romanians. Doctorow was a friend of Columbia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asimov's Science Fiction
''Asimov's Science Fiction'' is an American science fiction magazine which publishes science fiction and fantasy named after science fiction author Isaac Asimov. It is currently published by Penny Publications. From January 2017, the publication frequency is bimonthly (six issues per year). Circulation in 2012 was 22,593, as reported in the annual ''Locus Magazine survey. History ''Asimov's Science Fiction'' began life as the digest-sized ''Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine'' (or ''IASFM'' for short) in 1977. Joel Davis of Davis Publications approached Asimov to lend his name to a new science fiction magazine, after the fashion of ''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine'' or '' Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine''. Asimov refused to act as editor, but served instead as editorial director, writing editorials and replying to reader mail until his death in 1992. At Asimov's request George Scithers, the first editor, negotiated an acquisitions contract with the Science Fictio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
