Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Futurism.
Swing Your Arms Like You Don't Care
I was walking one day to work when suddenly a woman hit my arm with hers. Apparently she swings her arms wildly while walking. I asked myself if that was normal. Is that how people normally walk? It piqued my curiosity and started to oberve other people.
By Dan Kevin Dalioan8 years ago in Futurism
The Brain and Communication
Low Road and High Road Every time our brain elaborates information, it can choose to follow two very distinct routes. The low road is tied to the oldest part of the brain governing emotional responses and acting through established patterns of behavior called heuristics. These shortcuts bypass conscious reasoning and act as automatic responses to stimuli encountered before, especially in situations of stress.
By Fabia Scali-Warner8 years ago in Futurism
Ever Wanted to Go to Space?
We all know that space outside our atmosphere is pretty dangerous. In a vacuum, there is no air to breathe, no gravity to hold you down, and the pressure on your body is trying to tear your cellular make-up apart. So far as we on Earth know, there is no other planet out there capable of sustaining life.
By Emily White8 years ago in Futurism
Tips for Writing a Novel with Artificial Intelligence as a Villain
In many sci-fi movies and novels, the common theme of a man-made horror of the web is often incorporated as the driving factor for the plot's progression as the indifferent super-intelligent life-form turns on its creators, unhindered by the concepts of morals or attachment that the protagonist fights to protect. However, as the theme has grown increasingly more common, fans of the genre begin to raise their standards for the authenticity of A.I, looking for more than a simple terror of the night as the same old story begins to grow stale.
By Samuel Smith-Ferrier8 years ago in Futurism
Must Read Alfred Bester Books
As one of the kings in science fiction storytelling, Alfred Bester enlightens his readers with warps in time, wars in space, and men degraded by technology. His characters are brought to life in so many different and gargantuan ways, oftentimes providing a fault of some kind in being human, or the inefficiency of artificial intelligence. He knows exactly what to avoid when writing sci-fi, which inherently makes him difficult to miss.
By Salvador Lorenz8 years ago in Futurism
Bring Them Back
Ok, pretend for a minute that the formula for bringing dinosaurs back into existence was just sitting right in front of you. It's completely up to you to make the decision whether or not it happens. You can't phone a friend, you can't ask your followers on Twitter, and you can't ask for a worldwide vote. That decision is completely on you. What would you do?
By Nicholla Hamilton8 years ago in Futurism
Facts About Nuclear Fallout
In the event of nuclear fallout, here are some facts you may find useful. Nuclear Fallout: In the event of a substantial nuclear winter (1), widespread nuclear fallout, pollution, severe drop in temperatures resulting in a winter-like state, ozone depletion, and severe overcast will likely occur. Twilight at noon is an event that occurs because smoke caused by burning cities, as well as forests and industrial sites, gathers in the stratosphere, which in turn causes the sunlight to diminish (2), resulting in darker daylight hours. With the sun blocked by smoke, this could result in a food shortage due to loss of crops and animals around the world could potentially go extinct. Some scientists speculate on how long it would take for the smoke clouds in the atmosphere to diminish, BUT according to a study done in 2007 by Brian Toon and Alan Robock, the detonation of fifty nuclear missiles could launch the entire world into ten years of smoke cover and a three-year temperature drop of about 2.25 degrees Fahrenheit. The temperature should return to normal after twenty-five years. In the event of nuclear detonation, the most immediate fatalities will be because of the detonation itself or the heat caused by the explosion. One megaton hydrogen bomb will have a blast radius of between two and five miles (3). A crater is formed when a nuclear bomb hits the ground, causing particles from the surface area that was struck to become irradiated from the explosion, which is then carried into the sky, resulting in the “mushroom cloud.” This nuclear material that is left over gets pushed around just like a “normal” cloud does and can be visible and appear to be a sand-like or flaky substance. Coming into large quantities of this substance can be life threatening. Nuclear radiation would affect anyone outside of the immediate blast zone. Radiation sickness can kill as many, if not more, people than the blast would, but the affects would happen over time, opposed to the immediate destruction of a nuclear bomb. Moments after an atomic bomb hits, a hard, black rain consisting of thick black globs textured similarly to oil will fall from the sky. In Hiroshima (7), this event occurred 20 minutes after the bomb detonated and the rain covered about twelve miles around where the event of ground zero took place. This substance is approximately one hundred times more irradiated than it would have been if you were to have stepped into the center of the blast zone. In the event of a nuclear detonation, an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) (8) could quite possibly shut down an entire electrical system. If the EMP is powerful enough, it could wipe out an entire country's electrical grid. Lights could go out, refrigerators would stop functioning, resulting in food loss, street lamps would stop working; telephones, televisions, and stop-light signals alike would all cease to operate. Nuclear radiation produces a chemical known as strontium-90, which is capable of tricking your body into thinking that the chemical is calcium when inhaled or ingested. Afterwards, your body will distribute it into your bones and teeth. Bone cancer is what follows.
By Olibia Bailey-Odom8 years ago in Futurism
