Technology: Your Next Videogame

But the surprise for Xbox was Advent Rising from Majesco, a super-stylish “Star Wars”-meets-“The Matrix” action adventure, which is being written by sci-fi author Orson Scott Card, best known for the “Ender’s Game” series of novels. When writers of his caliber want to work on videogames, it’s more proof that electronic entertainment is no passing…

The Excuse Machine

Excuses remind me of The Trouble with Tribbles from the early Star Trek series: a space trader, Cyrano Jones, gives Uhura a purring ball of fluff known as a tribble. Charmed by the creature, Uhura takes it back to the Enterprise. However, as McCoy soon learns, tribbles are born pregnant and the more they eat…

Geography's conquest of history in The Diamond Age

Stephenson’s immensely creative novel offers a story about the disequilibrium between space and time, about reconstituting subjectivity in a world where geography has conquered history, and about the importance of narrative in the creation of subject positions. In this chapter, we argue that geography’s conquest of history defines the struggles over culture, identity, subjectivity, and…

Vegas 'Trek' attraction could revive franchise

The day is saved when the Enterprise arrives, along with its commander, Adm. Janeway (Kate Mulgrew (news)), and the doctor (Robert Picardo (news)) from the “Star Trek: Voyager” TV series. —Vegas ‘Trek’ attraction could revive franchise (Hollywood Reporter) Urk! Since when did Janeway command the Enterprise? Her ship is the Voyager. The technical details of this…

Star Trek Action Figure Collection

—Star Trek Action Figure Collection (NubiNubsUniverse.com) The really sad thing: I recognize most of these characters. Okay, the aliens from “Star Trek: The Next Generation” sort of blend into one another, but for the classic series, the episodes have been so firmly imprinted on my brain for decades that I can name most of the characters…

Linky Lucre

Instead of being dollars or euros or kroner, links seem a lot more like the major prison currency, cigarettes, in the hands of a heavy smoker who cares more about smoking than about any other prison commodity. First of all, you can do something with them; as an afterthought, you also use them to get…

An Excerpt from Mechanisms [2]: ‘Professor RAMAC’

Among the attractions at the 1958 World’s Fair in Brussels, Belgium, visitors would have beheld “Professor RAMAC,” a four-ton IBM machine capable of offering up responses to users’ queries on a two thousand year historical span… [T]he Professor offered the general public its first encounter with the magnetic disk storage technology today called the hard…

Humanity will survive information deluge

There are instances when, in the interests of the majority, some censorship may be used for a period of time. Indeed, there is material which virtually everyone would agree should be kept out. Sadistic pornography, incitement to violence against racial or ethnic minorities are just two examples. | But we cannot strive for an information…

Alien Sex! Bombs! Robots! Pathos!

“We realized the only way we could improve on the original is if the Cylons could have sex,” quipped co-executive producer David Eick at Tuesday night’s Los Angeles premiere. The chrome-domed “walking toasters” from the original TV series are succeeded by — well, really hot blond chicks, who infiltrate human society to engineer its doom.…

New Babylon 5 project?

Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski told fans on a message board that he’s working on a follow-up to the popular SF series, according to a report on the Dark Horizons Web site. Straczynski remained coy about the project, saying only that he’d have more news next month. —New Babylon 5 project? (Sci-Fi Wire) I haven’t…

Buffy 'inspires Doctor sidekick'

Doctor Who is to get a Buffy-style sidekick when he makes his TV return. His new colleague will be a modern action heroine, according to writer Russell T Davies, who is reviving the sci-fi series for the BBC in 2005. —Buffy ‘inspires Doctor sidekick’ (BBC) While the screaming girly female companion is part of the Dr.…

New radio Hitch-Hiker's

A six-part adaptation of Life, the Universe and Everything will be up first in the spring. This will be followed towards the end of 2004 by an eight-week serialisation combining So Long and Thanks for All the Fish with Mostly Harmless. | The news comes just weeks after confirmation that the planned movie version of…

Battlestar Galactica ‘Launch When Ready’ Bridge Girl Fan Page (updated with links to archived pages)

—Battlestar Galactica ‘Launch When Ready’ Bridge Girl Fan Page (Wayback Machine’s archive of SarahRush.com) Today my five-year-old son was watching one of my wife’s old Battlestar Galactica videotapes, and I remembered that when I was about 11 I had a crush on the cute bridge crewmember who told the Viper pilots stuff like “Transferring core command to…