davidbrin

davidbrin, 7 months ago to random

The asteroid-defense foundation, B612 – helping track potentially devastating rocks out there - has launched a Prize honoring Skylab astronaut Rusty Schweickart. $10,000 for grad students who advance planetary defense.

https://www.schweickartprize.org/

davidbrin, 7 months ago to random

The latest version of the Strandbeest! Prepare to be mesmerized! You want art? THIS is art!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWGlbpEZkNA

davidbrin, 7 months ago to random

Scott Manley gives weekly, thorough Space Updates. But this time he dives into what if a compact black hole fell into Earth. Maybe nice to mention my novel EARTH which - um - is about all this and had pretty good physics amid a ripping tale! ;-)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pA-zkrCums0

davidbrin, 7 months ago to random

Weekend posting is about the human will to passionately believe models of the world that stand upon pillars of incantation - verbal spells: something OUGHT to be true, then those spells convince us that it IS true. Today, so many denounce even the notion of objective reality, of "facts" might upset a delicious subjective spell.

Humans CAN get past this trap. There are methods. Have any of us the will power to use them?

https://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2023/10/about-ideology-including-yours-and.html

davidbrin, 7 months ago to random

See this year's Phase 1&2 projects funded by NASA's Innovative & Advanced Concepts program - (NIAC). owzer stuff that verges almost onto sci fi!

https://www.nasa.gov/general/niac-2023-phase-i-and-phase-ii-selections/

davidbrin, 7 months ago to random

It's not just the lunacy and the stupidity... or the giggles of Kremlin basement trolls aiming - at command - to rile a McVeigh explosing in 2024. No. What bugs me is the role that cheap sci-fi play in all this. See VIVID TOMORROWS: Science Fiction and Hollywood - http://www.davidbrin.com/vividtomorrows.html

davidbrin, 7 months ago to random

Tesla is building a drive-in movie theater EV charging station in Los Angles. As LAist reports, Tesla's permits allow for 30-some charging stalls, two outdoor movie screens and a restaurant with rooftop seating, to be built on Santa Monica Bl

https://laist.com/news/los-angeles-activities/a-tesla-supercharging-drive-in-restaurant-it-really-could-happen

davidbrin, 7 months ago to random

Tesla is building a drive-in movie theater EV charging station in Los Angles. As LAist reports, Tesla's permits allow for 30-some charging stalls, two outdoor movie screens and a restaurant with rooftop seating, to be built on Santa Monica Bl

https://laist.com/news/los-angeles-activities/a-tesla-supercharging-drive-in-restaurant-it-really-could-happen

davidbrin, 7 months ago to random

This German/EU sci fi short about a Russian drone operator has an imaginatively original UFO premise and is pretty well done. And - unlike most of the SF shorts out there - it actually has a plot. Even a marginally good one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwFO-seKnBM

davidbrin, 7 months ago to random

Weekend post is a little late. A scan across a dozen related topics that might either lead us to transcend or wipe ourselve out... just that and no more than that!

https://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2023/10/ai-and-human-destiny-plus-little-about.html

davidbrin, 7 months ago to random

Today only: the e-book of STARTIDE RISING. is $1.99 on Kobo, Barnes&Noble, iBooks & Amazon. Find out (or revisit!) what all the fuss was about with this Hugo/Nebula winner that keeps getting movie nibbles.

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/startide-rising-5

davidbrin, 8 months ago to random

Those of you who enjoyed my deep vivisection of the worldview of Ayn Rand might also find stimulating David Sloan Wilson's novel about the grandson of John Galt, called Atlas Hugged. David has a four-week reading group for the novel starting October 9.

https://davidsloanwilson.world/the-atlas-hugged-reading-group/

davidbrin, 8 months ago to random

davidbrin, 8 months ago to random

I just returned from the annual NIAC (NASA’s Innovative & Advanced Concepts program) symposium in Houston. Concluding 12 years of service to NASA’s most amazingly forward looking endeavor – funding and stimulating projects that mix almost science fictional, what-if visions with soundly and scientifically based practicality.

davidbrin, 8 months ago to random

A dangerously toxic fad among some uber-rich males who dream of emerging from luxury fortresses after some "Event' torches civilization - then ruling over any survivors. This cult could self-fulfill in ways that wind up disappointing them. See more -

https://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2023/09/prepper-lords-intend-to-leave-us-in.html

davidbrin, 8 months ago to random

Some things just explain themselves.

https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-destroy-america-russian-propaganda-1826734

davidbrin, 8 months ago to random

See my take down of UFO cultism:
https://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2023/09/okay-this-time-ufo-mania-isnt-ebbing-so.html

davidbrin, 8 months ago to random

Today BRIGHTNESS REEF is on sale for $1.99 on many platforms. And on Friday the 15th the entire UPLIFT STORM TRILOGY for $3.99! e-versions.
You ticket to bold adventure!

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/brightness-reef-5

davidbrin, 8 months ago to random

20 countries & organizations have backed proposals for a levy on shipping industry emissions” to raise about $100 Billion while helping Biden encourage the already underway resurrection of U.S. home-based manufacturing. And. help save the planet.
https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/shipping-emissions-tax-plan-backed-by-some-20-countries-paris-summit-2023-06-23/

davidbrin, 8 months ago to random

I told ya. These are confederates and we are in nothing less than Phase 8 (possibly 9) of the recurring cultural fever of the US Civil War. And whenever the future and progress and science-oriented Union loses, humanity suffers a horrific setback.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/marjorie-taylor-greene-states-consider-seceding-from-the-union-1234822567/

davidbrin, 8 months ago to random

Does this remind you almost exactly of a scene in EXISTENCE? It should!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2023/09/07/golden-egg-noaa-ocean-alaska/

davidbrin, 8 months ago to random

As I've long said, this Franken-rocket son-of-shuttle is a lamprey sucking life out of the U.S. - and humanity's - ambitions in space.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/07/world/nasa-gao-report-sls-moon-rocket-scn/index.html

davidbrin, 8 months ago to random

This post by my fellow ARCHITECHS cast member sheds valuable comparisons between medical care in Thailand vs the U.S. It begins with a fascinating example of pareidolia.

https://www.tinygnomes.com/qwiki.cgi?mode=previewSynd&uuid=VYJMJNGSHS6NWFRBDCQ2YFJEB3QT

davidbrin, 8 months ago to random

Wow. YOU are a member of a civilization that does this sort of thing. Yet you DARE to wallow in gloom and killed confidence? Look at this! YOU helped pay for the wonder, the competence, the wisdom. Do more.

https://badastronomy.substack.com/p/jwsts-view-of-the-magnificently-dusty

davidbrin, 8 months ago to random

Doug Rushkoff's TEAM HUMAN podcast dives into an hour with me, discussing a vital Big Picture Question - what method might stand a chance of offering us that 'soft landing' of synergy with AI? Because we've already proved that it works with humans.

https://www.teamhuman.fm/episodes/256-david-brin