Novelist Iain Banks might be better known as Iain M Banks, the pen name under which most of his speculative fiction is published. Of this oeuvre, his Culture series is most widely celebrated, depicting a utopian, galaxy-spanning civilisation whose citizens (when they aren’t meddling in the affairs of lesser races) have plenty of time for gaming.

Now maybe you can see how science could have a successor: thalience would use objective truth as an artistic medium and merge subjectivity and objectivity in a creative activity whose purpose is the re-sanctification of the natural world. To believe in an uplifting and satisfying vision of your place in the universe, and to know that this vision is true (or as true as anything can be) would be sublime. Thalience would be an activity worthy of post-scientific humanity, or our own biological or post-biological successors.

However, below the cut, I'm going to put some bullet points for those of you who've read "Rule 34", just to draw your attention to some aspects of the novel that you might otherwise have skidded past.

“Our authors and readers have been asking for this for a long time,” said president and publisher Tom Doherty. “They’re a technically sophisticated bunch, and DRM is a constant annoyance to them. It prevents them from using legitimately-purchased e-books in perfectly legal ways, like moving them from one kind of e-reader to another.”

Mass Effect is epic. It's the product of the best parts of Star Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica and more with a protagonist who could be the love-child of Picard, Skywalker, and Starbuck. It's one of the most important pieces of science fiction narrative of our generation. Mass Effect goes so far beyond other fictional universes in ways that you may not have yet realized. It is cosmic in scope and scale.

the only way for the compound to be more soluble than it already was would be if it dissolved before it came in contact with the water. He decided this would be a good basis for another short story, and then realized this represented the perfect way to deal with his concerns about scientific writing

Many people have been clamoring for me to post an “official” Ready Player One soundtrack. I hate to be the cause of any sort of clamoring, so I compiled this list of nearly every song mentioned or referenced in the book, in roughly the order they appear. If you haven’t finished reading the book yet, here there be spoilers.

Prolific novelist Kevin J. Anderson has made no secret of his love for prog rock — and now he's taking his prog-rock fixation to the next level. He announced on his Facebook page that he's writing the novel version of Rush's new album, Clockwork Angels.

Writes Anderson:

After dropping hints for a while, finally the big announcement, a new project unlike any other I've ever done...and something that I consider very cool.

Most of you are aware of my long-standing friendship with Neil Peart, the drummer and lyricist from the legendary rock band Rush, as well as how much Rush has influenced my work. My first novel Resurrection, Inc. was closely inspired by the Rush album Grace Under Pressure, and I can point to dozens of other novels and stories that bear a clear Rush influence.

For more than twenty years, Neil and I have wanted to collaborate on something MAJOR, a way we could tie together our imaginations, and at last that's happening.

I'm writing the novelization of Rush's forthcoming album Clockwork Angels, their first new CD in five years. Imagine if someone had written the novel of The Wall, Tommy, or Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band when those classic albums were released. For Rush fans, CLOCKWORK ANGELS is that project.

I worked together with Neil to flesh out the epic story told over the course of the music, as well as the artist Hugh Syme whose paintings fill the CD booklet. In a young man's quest to follow his dreams, he is caught between the grandiose forces of order and chaos. He travels across a lavish and colorful world of steampunk and alchemy, with lost cities, pirates, anarchists, exotic carnivals, and a rigid Watchmaker who imposes precision on every aspect of daily life. To whet your appetite, Rush released the first two tracks, Caravan and BU2B - listen to those songs to get an idea of the story's beginning.

I'm writing the chapters now, incorporating the lyrics into the narrative, and having a fantastic time. More details to come, but for now-to quote a line from Caravan: "I can't stop thinking big."

[via Vintage Vinyl News]

I've been struck particularly by two things missing from the DS9 universe--one unpredictable in the 1993-99 span of the series, and one predictable but unattractive from the creators' standpoint.

Nobody uses social media, and nobody wastes time.

A BBC team have been working closely with Dr Venn's team to help recover the signals. BBC Television historian Peter Wells, explained "We now know these are original broadcasts. So far we have recovered about 7 weeks of old television signals from space. Every day in our lab is like traveling back in time. And speaking of which we have just started the digital recovery of signals that contain lost Doctor Who episodes.

There's nothing better than a wild UFO conspiracy theory — unless it's a UFO theory that wraps in a debunked comet, the Catholic Church, and Star Trek: The Next Generation.
...
So will YOU be ready when Jesus of Borg arrives?

But fans of the current Doctor, Matt Smith, could be disappointed, as Yates said that the film would be "quite a radical transformation" from the latest BBC1 series which ended in October.

XXIT’s plot revolves around a beautiful “BioClone” from the future who travels to San Francisco to rescue the humans whose DNA she shares. The short film’s acting may be standard issue, but the visuals point toward a promising future for low-budget sci-fi. The crew shot the production on the streets of San Francisco using six handheld cameras that cost $20,000 apiece.

I spent a half year writing software art to generate special effects for Tron Legacy, working at Digital Domain with Bradley "GMUNK" Munkowitz, Jake Sargeant, and David "dlew" Lewandowski. This page has taken a long time to be published because I've had to await clearance. A lot of my team's work was done using Adobe software and Cinema 4D. The rest of it got written in C++ using OpenFrameworks and wxWidgets, the way I've always done it with this team ;) Uniquely however, Digital Domain's CG artists were able to port my apps over to Houdini for further evolution and better rendering than OpenGL could ever provide. Special thanks to Andy King for showing me that what seasoned CG artists do at DD is actually not so far off from what's going on in the Processing community.

The hero has cornered the vicious monster. It's taken out everyone who has confronted it thus far, and the hero seems like no exception.

That's when the hero, rather than drawing a sword, pulls out his cue cards. He begins a speech about the good things in life, the wonders of good, how Humans Are Special and the monster should respect that, yadda yadda, could someone hit the mute button please?

And it works. This hideous monster surrenders, lets itself die, chooses to Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence, disappears in a Puff of Logic, or what-have-you.

from Joystiq http://www.joystiq.com

Filed under: Sci-fi, Business models, Previews, News items, Star Trek Online, Free-to-play The economy of free-to-play games can be a tricky business. Usually, they're managed by keeping a strict distinction between in-game currency and purchased currency, but Star Trek Online is taking a slig...

He goes on to explain that science fiction, in the twentieth century, was too triumphalist and focused on a white American future, and lacked real details to go with its shiny ideas. "I wanted to see dirt in the corners," says Gibson.

James Tiberius Kirk: lover, explorer, chanteur, a veritable 23rd-century bon vivant. Captain Kirk has many fine traits, but his martial prowess is perhaps most deserving of our fear and respect. Here are 10 fighting maneuvers that should be enshrined by Starfleet as "The Decalogue of Whooping Ass."

wow. what an amazing punchline

Printable, procedurally-built 3d spaceship models

Kind of awesome

I love this show so much.

Best. Robot movie. Evar. Holy crap, there was even a Wilhelm Scream in there.