Futurism

In space, no one can hear you munch your popcorn. Video after the jump.

"If the Internet was walking around in public, it would look and act a lot like Julian Assange. " Bruce Sterling's take on Wikileaks, an affair worthy of Edgar Allan Poe.

A short film featuring Syd Mead, concept artist for Blade Runner, Tron, and Aliens, shows a master visual futurist at work. Video after the jump.

On October 7th, 1930 — slender and bright; like a string tense and silent in anticipation of the purpose of her note — Beatrice Warde was introduced to the British Typographer's Guild. The speech she gave would change the way people thought about type for the next fifty years... and should be burnt into the flesh of anyone who is making a gadget to this day.

With the successful recovery of the SpaceX Dragon capsule, private space exploration takes a great leap forward. But it's also a reminder of the history of private business in manned spaceflight, both real and imagined.

This third installment of a serial review of Kevin Kelly's What Technology Wants encounters technology as a force with a sense of purpose and a plan. What that plan consists in we don't know—and it seems that technology isn't telling.

The global security apparatus meets its match in the Internet.

Flying towards the future, eyes fixed on the past.

Since when is technological advancement a prerequisite for artistic seriousness?

From Steve Martin to the shield of Achilles, considering the relationship of image and text in a networked age.