io9 
Enter your username and password.
-
#mangobot
Black Jack, the Greatest Gory-Cute Scifi Manga Ever
Welcome back to MangoBot, a biweekly column about Asian futurism by TokyoMango blogger Lisa Katayama. Mad scientists. Beautiful women who specialize in amputations. Supercomputers that threaten to starve an entire hospital full of patients. Tumors that take on human form. Sounds like a freakish B-list horror movie, right? Actually, these are all seminal elements of a classic cult favorite manga by Tezuka Osamu. Black Jack is one of his darkest yet most appreciated works, but it hasn't had much exposure in the US market until now. This fall, Vertical Inc has started publishing this entire series, volume by volume, in English. It's some of the best science fiction to ever come out of Japan. More » -
#mangobot
My Virtual Journey On A Ribosome Spaceship And To The Far Ends of the Galaxy
Welcome back to MangoBot, a biweekly column about Asian futurism by TokyoMango blogger Lisa Katayama. The International Space Station is flying straight at me. "This is a glimpse into the future," a voice says from somewhere above my head. "This is what the ISS will look like when it's completed in 2010." More » -
#mangobot
Coming Soon from China: Dystopic Futures, the Next Steve Jobs, and a World Full of Drumming Androids
Welcome back to MangoBot, a biweekly column about Asian futurism by TokyoMango blogger Lisa Katayama. I'm a total sports nut. Olympic season makes my bones shiver with excitement. But this year, I took my mind off record-breaking swim relays and super-twisty gymnastics routines for a minute to consider the host country's techno-socio-political future. The opening ceremony confirmed my theory that China is breeding robots. (We already know that the cute girl who performed the patriotic song was lip-syncing and that the fireworks shown on TV were fake. I'm pretty sure that the 2008 drummers who kicked off the five-hour technological spectacularity were androids, too.) But what else is up in the giant nation that many believe will be the next world superpower? I called some experts and came away with a list of five predictions for China's next half-century. More » -
-
#mangobot
Mac Funamizu's Gadget Designs of the Future
Welcome back to MangoBot, a biweekly column about Asian futurism by TokyoMango blogger Lisa Katayama. Mac Funamizu is a tech geek, designer, and futurist who has created quite a lot of buzz among design circles for his innovative gadgets from the future. The 38-year old Tokyo native has always loved Apple, Google, and Starbucks, but he always felt inconvenienced by the extra steps involved in using them. (Why mouth off a complex multi-conditional order of coffee when you could just customize your cup of joe online? Why doesn't Google Maps give you more than just a topographic image of what you're looking at?) At first, his ideas were just rough sketches in his Moleskine. But then he started posting his neat, provocative ideas online, and now developers are contacting him to try and make some of them a reality. More » -
#mangobot
Futurist Japanese Artists Show Us Life in the Next Century
Welcome back to MangoBot, a biweekly column about Asian futurism by TokyoMango blogger Lisa Katayama. There's a lot of buzz about Japanese contemporary artists these days. Takashi Murakami's super-cute, superflat alien-like characters are on everything from Louis Vuitton bags to the pages of io9. But he isn't the first or only Japanese artist on our radar. This week, I'm going to introduce you to two very cool futurist artists whom I love, Yayoi Kusama and Mariko Mori. One of them has spent her life covering the world with polka dots, and the other traveled the globe in her own alien pod. More » -
#wearablerobots
Wearable Motorcycle Makes Biomechatronics a Reality
Riding motorcycles is so last century. In the future, according to art student Jake Loniak, people will be wearing motorcycles. This concept vehicle endorsed by Yamaha turns biomechatronics into reality: the vertical ride has 36 pneumatic muscles and two linear actuators. It also has a built-in helmet, a motor in the central wheel, and runs on nano-phosphate batteries. Loniak calls it the Deux Ex Machina. More » -
#design
A Soviet Steam Train That Looks Like a Moebius Strip
Luigi Colani is a world-famous, legendary industrial designer from Germany who has been inventing futuristic vehicles since the mid-20th century. He used ergonomically sensible, futuristic designs featuring giant pods and provocative aerodynamics way before anyone even thought it possible. This extraordinary design was devised for a steam train in Soviet Russia. Want to see the airplane he designed for a Japanese company? More » -
#architecture
House of Gundam
Reboot, a concept home designed by Philly native Victor Vetterlein, is literally a Gundam house — like the giant robot armor from anime, it responds to commands and looks like a giant creature with a glowing eye. It's wired so that you can voice command it to do things like turn on the AC, dim the lights, bust out some dance music, or play a movie. Your laptop or cell phone serve as your cockpit—you can navigate it wirelessly from wherever. More » -
#biomimicry
Solar Lily Pads Leave Robot Paw Prints on Glasgow River
How can you use solar energy to power one of Scotland's greatest cities and make an old river look futuristic? Scottish architecture firm ZM Architecture designed giant lily pads for the River Clyde that collect solar energy and energize the city's grid. Want to see a cool aerial view? More » -
#design
Feeder for Zombie Birds Who Want to Eat Humans
When the Z-Wars get ugly, you'll want a bird feeder made of real human ashes to keep those zombie birds distracted. Luckily, one of U.K. designer Nadine Jarvis' recent projects is this teardrop-shaped bird feeder made of real bird feed and human ashes. It's part of a larger project she's doing on the post-mortem world. More » -
#design
Jaime Hayon's Clone-Stuffed Vase Fantasy
Designer Jaime Hayon showed us a glimpse of his scifi fantasies in Milan last month when he had an exhibit called the Fantasy Collection. Hayon is best known for having recently designed really cool kicks for Camper and for his book, Jaime Hayon Works. But these ceramic man-vases, colorful Buddha statues, and robot clowns really give us a glimpse into the Spaniard's true psyche. It appears that he really wishes humans would eschew formalities like wearing shoes (or bodies) and just stuff clones into giant checkered vases. [Hayon Studio main page via Dezeen ] More » -
#design
Wellness Skull Is a Sauna of Death
From the same guys that created the SlaveCity dystopia comes a cool alternative to the warmly lit, lavender-scented spa of the present—a giant skull with separate compartments for all your relaxation needs. The Wellness Skull houses a bath in its neck, a sauna in the head, and hot steam spouts at the eye sockets. There's no pretentious receptionist or wind-chime music to help you chill out—stepping into the skull will instantly take away the worries of contemporary society and fill you with thoughts of life, death, and the emptiness of our physical selves. It's like an instant dose of existential meditation. Atelier van Lieshout main page More » -
#design
Refurbished 70s Mobile Home for the Road Trip of the Future
Who said the future of travel had to require brand new vehicles? Foreseeing a coming trend in land travel, designer Kevin Fitzsimons restored a 1978 Sovereign 31' Airstream Land Yacht and turned it into a super-fancy high-tech mobile home for the luxe traveler. The Mobitat, or MObi for short, has built-in furniture with white leather and walnut finishes, stainless steel appliances, flat panel hi-def TVs, fancy plumbing, and eco-friendliness written all over it. More » -
#slavecity
A Perfectly Modern Holocaust-Like Dystopia
An art studio called Atelier Van Lieshout has spent the last three years developing the perfect dystopia, called SlaveCity. SlaveCity is a place where every human right we've collectively worked toward achieving is turned on its head. But it's also the world's first zero energy town—because they recycle everything from cardboard to useless people. Pictured here is the Welcoming Center. Here, every single entrant to SlaveCity is screened via a taste test, and those who don't pass are stored in these massive vats. Check out a schematic showing how it works below. More » -
#photography
Chinese Photographer's Strange Alternate Reality
Maleonn Ma is a Chinese photographer/creative director from Shanghai. In addition to working on some major films in China, he also creates these artsy images of naked Chinese men in alternate realities. Continue reading for some more beautiful/eerie images of men with elaborate flowerbeds and gardens of balloons. More » -
#design
Nacho Carbonell's Mutant Furniture
Spanish designer Nacho Carbonell believes that chairs can mutate—and will, when given the opportunity. Evolution, his new collection, shows how a public park bench can become into a private pod chamber for people to crawl into when they're feeling antisocial. There's also a pod-like makeout chamber for lovers. More » -
#art
French Artist Adds Scifi to Beautiful Photos
Chrisophe Huet is a professional photo retoucher best known for his freaky, exaggerated depictions of superhuman, surreal images like this eyeball, which has bats, dragons, airplanes, spiders, and other creatures growing out of it. The former photo lab technician realized that he preferred drawing to shooting and developing photographs, and that's how he got into the retouching business. Now he's one of the best at his trade in the whole world. Keep reading for slightly NSFW images of a grown up baby popping out of a vagina, a giant scorpion having sex with a man, and more. More » -
#design
Aliens Want Your Beer
This alien invader is so eager to get hold of your beer supply, he's disguising himself as a mini-fridge. Okay, so it's not the most cunning disguise ever, but he's counting on the fact that alien-looking fridges and other housewares are all trendy nowadays. At least, British furniture brand Established & Sons thinks so — it's collaborating with Dutch designer Maarten Baas to create The Chankley Bore, a new line of alien-schwag for your home. More » -
#architecture
1970s Soviet Alien Architecture
French photojournalist Frederic Chaubin likes to take photographs of science-fictiony Soviet architecture from the 1970s and 80s. During that era, the Soviets erected several formidable buildings that look like cities you'd see on an alien world. Pictured here is a strangely organic-looking wedding palace which is located in Georgia. More U.S.S.R. spaceportecture below. More »
