Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Futurism.
DEF(Kuri)
DEF(kuri) Every night since the little robot had first become aware, Kuri liked to review her many design files. The Engineers’ files were always entertaining, especially the early sketches (those funny ways they imagined Kuri might look). As problems were solved and materials selected, those funny drawings would become the detailed schematics the factory would need to build Kuris that would perform beautifully and last for a long time.
By Thomas Becker8 years ago in Futurism
Statistical Data on Pagans
Pagans are varied in sizes, shapes, and colors. There are more of us now-than-ever-before, as right-wing Christians are becoming the minority in these modern times. A 2008 Pew Forum survey included New Age believers as well as neopagans, between 200,000 and 1-million, or 0.1% to 0.5% of the population. We pagans come in all sorts packages, too, with every pagan having a theology of their own depending on what they are studying. There are quite a few pagan belief systems this article will explore today. Wicca began in 1964 through Raymond Buckland, who got initiated at Gardener’s Isle of Man to gain initiation. There are other branches of Wicca, such as Gardenarian Wicca, Alexandrian Wicca, which refers to ancient Alexandria not Alex Sanders, the founder. There are more branches of neo-paganism. I practice with my clothes on, however, and I’m not necessarily Wiccan but an eclectic solitary who does go to a coven on occasion. I’ve hung out with reclaiming pagans on occasion during a pagan 12-step recovery group.
By Iria Vasquez-Paez8 years ago in Futurism
Brutalist Stories #51
She rolled over to me and said, ‘Where does trust come from?” I just stared back at her, looking into those deep blue eyes, the weak morning sun coming through the blinds, highlighting the dust in the air and the wisps of blonde hair that fell around her face.
By Brutalist Stories8 years ago in Futurism
The Origin of Kuri the Helpful Robot
You know Kuri as an at home robot that can help you with trivial things around the house. But what you don't know is that Kuri comes from an undiscovered planet. The planet is called Kuricon in the alternate universe referred to as Janeesi. This universe is not like our own. Oh no! It is much more futuristic than ours. You think having iPhone's and cars with automatic doors is futuristic and fancy? Janeesi is a hundred times more futuristic.
By Kelsie Cohu8 years ago in Futurism
Dangers of Lightspeed
As pretty much everyone knows, we have almost reached the point of no return on the consumption of our planet's resources. This can be proven with a simple google search. What you will find in that search is that every six months we use all the resources the world can naturally reproduce in a year, meaning every year's worth of resources takes two years for the planet to reproduce. So with this in mind, we as a species have turned towards the stars to look for a new home. The problem is other planets are light years away; for those that do not know, a light year is the distance which light can travel uninterrupted in a year. With light travelling at 186,000 miles per second, it's quite a distance. Now scientists say since we are a solid object moving through space, we will never achieve lightspeed, but could come within a few decimal points of it, which is awesome; but then we are left with a few other problems.
By Kristopher Kristianson8 years ago in Futurism
SyFy, UFOs, and 'Official Denial'
The late 1980s and early 1990s saw a rash of film and TV projects based off of the alien abduction phenomenon. These included adaptations of two non-fiction books based on the phenomenon by Whitely Strieber (Communion starring Christopher Walken) and Budd Hopkins (Intruders). In 1993, the fledgling Sci-Fi Channel (now known, of course, as SyFy) also produced a TV movie on the phenomenon as their first original movie. Titled Official Denial, the result is an interesting if at times an under-served piece of work.
By Matthew Kresal8 years ago in Futurism
Kuri's Story
#KuriStory #HeyKuri Winter 2018, December 25, Around 9 AM. It was Christmas. Harry took a moment to realise it. Still asleep in his bed, conscience and subconscious seemed to engage in a merciless battle: one to hold him a little longer, the other to lure him into his meanders. His consciousness always ended up winning, so it was. His eyes had not yet opened, but he felt that a reality he used to was trying to invade him. It was a matter of seconds. Maybe less. Already awake, his senses well rested after a restful night, were operational. The sounds came to him distinctly now. He heard the buzzing of a fly near his right ear. The touch too, he felt the weight and warmth of the big blanket on his legs. It was Christmas. The information had stagnated in his brain as if suspended somewhere in the gray matter, no doubt. It probably had to go around in circles waiting for a neural connection to gently decide to do its job. "Eureka!" shouted Archimedes in his bath. Harry had the same feeling; that of having solved THE great mystery. And his whole body started. A sudden start made him sit up abruptly in his bed, his eyes opened at once, his pupils dilated and his heart beating. The adrenaline of the moment gave him an energy that only required explode. A moment later, he had jumped out of bed like a superhero, wearing his pyjamas of convenience—that of Ironman 7.0 improved version— and set off without anything stopping him. It was Christmas, Harry was sure of it now, and a big smile clung to his face despite the urgency of the situation.
By Amelia Arzod8 years ago in Futurism
Language
So much has been written about speech and language, someone could open a library with no other topic. Some will argue that speech is different from language, but here they will be treated as one and the same. So much has been written about the FOXP2 gene lately, but language concerns more than just one gene. Since we now have the Neanderthal genome to work with, we know they also had FOXP2. Molecular techniques show the gene is older than Neanderthal, going back to at least 400,000 years ago. Did Neanderthal have language? The proof is presumptive. They lived in groups, hunted in teams, probably buried their dead, and new research shows they also made cave paintings. It seems unreasonable they did these things in relative silence. Both Stephen Jay Gould, the evolutionary biologist, and Noam Chomsky, the language guru, believed language was a side effect of a bigger brain. They believe language was not selected for, in the traditional Darwinian way, but occurred because of its association with a non-language gene. It happens that the FOXP2 is not only related to speech, but also digestion. If that is the gene that allowed for speech, then speech may be a side effect of its digestive function. Another gene related to language is CNTNAP2. Disruption in this gene is associated with both Autism and specific language impairment. Neanderthal did not have this gene, which produces a neurexin-family neural growth factor. They have to do with carrying impulses in the brain across the synapse between neurons. Language may also have been a side effect of either brain development or reorganization. The ability to gather ancient DNA may, in the future, supply answers to these questions.
By Monica Bennett8 years ago in Futurism
2018 Nebula Award Nominees Are Coming to You in Audiobook Format!. Top Story - March 2018.
Sci-fi has very few awards that are solely dedicated to the genre, and of those awards, none are quite as esteemed as the Nebula Awards. Ever since Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America presented its first award in 1965, the Nebulas have become the ultimate achievement marker for any serious science fiction writer.
By Ossiana Tepfenhart8 years ago in Futurism
