|
Whuffie
''Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom'' is a 2003 science fiction book, the first novel by Canadian author and digital-rights activist Cory Doctorow. It depicts people competing over how new technology is being used at Walt Disney World, in a post-scarcity world with an economy based on reputation. Concurrent with its publication by Tor Books, Doctorow released the entire text of the novel under a Creative Commons noncommercial license on his website, allowing the whole text of the book to be freely read and distributed without needing any further permission from him or his publisher. The novel was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 2004. Plot summary This future history book takes place in the 22nd century, mostly in Walt Disney World. Disney World is run by rival adhocracies, each dedicated to providing the best experience to the park's visitors and competing for the Whuffie the guests offer. In the post-scarcity world of the novel, Whuffie is a currency-like sy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cory Doctorow
Cory Efram Doctorow (; born 17 July 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 its licences for his books. Some common themes of his work include digital rights management, file sharing, and post scarcity, post-scarcity economics. Life and career Cory Efram Doctorow was born in Toronto, Ontario, on 17 July 1971. He is of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. His paternal grandfather was born in what is now Poland and his paternal grandmother was from Leningrad, Russia (now St. Petersburg). 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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Future History
A future history, imaginary history or anticipatory history is a fictional conjecture of the future used by authors of science fiction and other speculative fiction to construct a common background for stories. Sometimes the author publishes a timeline of events in the history, while other times the reader can reconstruct the order of the stories from information provided. The term can also be used to describe the subgenre of science fiction that uses this framework. A set of stories which share a backdrop but are not really concerned with the sequence of history in their universe are rarely considered future histories. For example, Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga is not generally considered a future history. Standalone stories which trace an arc of history are rarely considered future histories. Future histories differ from alternate history, in which different outcomes are ascribed to past events, because they consist of imagined events in the writer's future. History ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band in Western popular music and were integral to the development of Counterculture of the 1960s, 1960s counterculture and the recognition of popular music as an art form. Rooted in skiffle, beat music, beat and 1950s rock and roll, rock 'n' roll, their sound incorporated elements of classical music and traditional pop in innovative ways. The band also explored music styles ranging from Folk music, folk and Music of India, Indian music to Psychedelic music, psychedelia and hard rock. As Recording practices of the Beatles, pioneers in recording, songwriting and artistic presentation, the Beatles revolutionised many aspects of the music industry and were often publicised as leaders of the Baby boomers, era's youth and soc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Snow Crash
''Snow Crash'' is a science fiction novel by the American writer Neal Stephenson, published in 1992. Like many of Stephenson's novels, its themes include history, linguistics, anthropology, archaeology, religion, computer science, politics, cryptography, memetics, and philosophy. In his 1999 essay " In the Beginning... Was the Command Line", Stephenson explained the title of the novel as his term for a particular software failure mode on the early Macintosh computer. Stephenson wrote, "When the computer crashed and wrote gibberish into the bitmap, the result was something that looked vaguely like static on a broken television set—a 'snow crash. Stephenson has also mentioned that Julian Jaynes' book '' The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind'' was one of the main influences on ''Snow Crash''. ''Snow Crash'' was nominated for both the British Science Fiction Award in 1993 and the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 1994. Plot Plot background In the 21st cent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neal Stephenson
Neal Town Stephenson (born October 31, 1959) is an American writer known for his works of speculative fiction. His novels have been categorized as science fiction, historical fiction, cyberpunk, and baroque. Stephenson's work explores mathematics, cryptography, linguistics, philosophy, currency, and the history of science. He also writes nonfiction articles about technology in publications such as ''Wired (magazine), Wired''. He has written novels with his uncle, George Jewsbury ("J. Frederick George"), under the collective pseudonym Stephen Bury. Stephenson has worked part-time as an advisor for Blue Origin, a company (founded by Jeff Bezos) developing a spacecraft and a space launch system, and also co-founded the Subutai Corporation, whose first offering is the interactive fiction project ''The Mongoliad''. He was Magic Leap's Chief Futurist from 2014 to 2020. Early life Born on October 31, 1959, in Fort Meade, Maryland, Stephenson came from a family of engineers and scienti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parade
A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, floats, or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually some variety of celebration. The term "parade" may also be used for multiple different subjects; for example, in the Canadian Armed Forces, "parade" is used both to describe the procession and in other informal connotations. Protest demonstrations can also take the form of a parade, but such cases are usually referred to as a march instead. History The first parades date back to , only being used for religious or military purposes. The Babylonians celebrated Akitu by parading their deities and performing rituals. To celebrate the federal government's victory in the American Civil War, 145,000 Union soldiers marched in a two-day Grand Review of the Armies in Washington, D.C. They passed before the President, the Cabinet, and senior officers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Transhuman
Transhuman, or trans-human, is the concept of an intermediary form between human and Posthuman#Transhumanism, posthuman. In other words, a transhuman is a being that resembles a human in most respects but who has powers and abilities beyond those of standard humans. These abilities might include improved intelligence, awareness, strength, and/or durability. Transhumans Transhumanism in fiction, appear in science-fiction, sometimes as cyborgs or Genetic enhancement#Genetic enhancement in humans, genetically-enhanced humans. History of hypotheses In his ''Divine Comedy'', Dante Alighieri coined the word "trasumanar" meaning "to transcend human nature, to pass beyond human nature" in the first canto of Paradiso (Dante), Paradiso. The use of the term "transhuman" goes back to French philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who wrote in his 1949 book ''The Future of Mankind''. And in a 1951 unpublished revision of the same book: In 1957 book ''New Bottles for New Wine'', Englis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Disney World
The Walt Disney World Resort is an entertainment resort complex located about southwest of Orlando, Florida, United States. Opened on October 1, 1971, the resort is operated by Disney Experiences, a division of the Walt Disney Company. The property covers nearly , of which half has been developed. Walt Disney World contains numerous recreational facilities designed to attract visitors for an extended stay, including four theme parks, two water parks, four golf courses, conference centers, a competitive sports complex and a shopping, dining and entertainment complex. Additionally, there are 19 Disney-owned resort hotels and one camping resort on the property, and many other non-Disney-operated resorts on and near the property. Designed to supplement Disneyland in Anaheim, California, which had opened in 1955, the complex was developed by Walt Disney in the 1960s. Walt wanted to build a new park because Disneyland in California was limited from expanding by the establishme ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heat Death Of The Universe
The heat death of the universe (also known as the Big Chill or Big Freeze) is a scientific hypothesis regarding the ultimate fate of the universe which posits the universe will evolve to a state of no thermodynamic free energy and, having reached maximum entropy, will therefore be unable to sustain any further thermodynamic processes. The hypothesized heat death does not imply any particular absolute temperature; it only requires that temperature differences or other processes may no longer be exploited to perform work. In the language of physics, this is when the universe reaches thermodynamic equilibrium. If the curvature of the universe is hyperbolic or flat, or if dark energy is a positive cosmological constant, the universe will continue expanding forever, and a heat death is expected to occur, with the universe cooling to approach equilibrium at a very low temperature after a long time period. The theory of heat death stems from the ideas of Lord Kelvin who, in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Haunted Mansion
The Haunted Mansion is a dark ride, dark-ride attraction located at Disneyland, Magic Kingdom, and Tokyo Disneyland. The haunted house attraction features a ride-through tour in Omnimover vehicles called “Doom Buggies”, and a walk-through show is displayed to riders waiting in the queue line. Each location differs slightly in design, utilising a range of technology from centuries-old theatrical effects to modern special effects, including Audio-Animatronics. The Haunted Mansion inspired two similarly themed, but distinct attractions, Phantom Manor, and Mystic Manor, which exist at Disneyland Park (Paris) and Hong Kong Disneyland, respectively. The Haunted Mansion attraction launched a small franchise including two feature film adaptations, comic strips, television specials and merchandise. Ride summary Disneyland file:HallOfPortraits.jpg, left, 300px, The hall of portraits that guests see as they exit the stretching room at Disneyland. Photo bMike Johansen Guests enter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Audio-Animatronics
Audio-Animatronics (also known simply as AAs) are a form of Mechatronics, mechatronic animatronics puppetry created by Walt Disney Imagineering and Trademark, trademarked by The Walt Disney Company for use in designed shows and attractions at Disney Experiences, Disney theme parks. Audio-Animatronics move and often synchronize with an audio soundtrack from an external sound system (generally a recorded speech or song), and are usually fixed to whatever supports them. They can sit and stand but cannot produce any form of locomotion. An Audio-Animatronic differs from an Android (robot), android or robot in that it uses prerecorded movements and sounds, rather than responding to external stimuli. History Audio-Animatronics were originally a creation of Disney employee Lee Adams, who worked as an electrician. Walt Disney got a mechanical toy bird in New Orleans and found out how it worked, which served as the inspiration for Audio-Animatronics. An early robotic figure was the Dan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hall Of Presidents
The Hall of Presidents is a theater attraction located in Liberty Square at in Magic Kingdom Park at the Walt Disney World Resort. The attraction is a multimedia presentation featuring Audio-Animatronic figures of all 45 individuals who have served as president of the United States. Originally conceived by Walt Disney as an attraction for Disneyland Park in California, the show opened on October 1, 1971, along with the rest of the Magic Kingdom. The attraction is currently under refurbishment to return the figure of Donald Trump to center stage as the new president, and will originally set to reopen later in 2025. However, it was announced that the main lobby for the attraction was open on June 8, 2025, while the actual show was remain closed. History Disneyland and Liberty Street In 1957, as Disneyland in Anaheim, California, became more successful, Walt Disney proposed an expansion of the park's Main Street, U.S.A. area that celebrated America's colonial era. Called Libe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
