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Posts Tagged “

Alternate Reality

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mangobot

How Alternate Reality Helped Me Survive the Dentist

Welcome back to MangoBot, a biweekly column about Asian futurism by TokyoMango blogger Lisa Katayama. While Dr. Wong was putting dental dam in my mouth, I was watching three hot women singing the penis song in a Chinese restaurant downtown. It happened last Thursday, when I discovered a gadget that can warp my brain to a blissful alternate reality. That was the day that I had to visit my own personal dystopia, which happens to involve dentist chairs, root canals, and lots and lots of hellacious oral drilling. Though I took an inevitable trip to this dystopia, I miraculously evaded doomsday by using a device that made me forget the pain without any drugs at all. More »

Feature

9:00 AM on Fri Jun 20 2008
By LISA KATAYAMA
3,929 views, 14 comments

Latest by bluewyvern: It's like your very own Head Six helping you through Cylon torture... more »

spore

Can a Video Game Teach Evolution?

Last week Electronic Arts was kind enough to invite me to a demonstration of Spore's creature creator. A few days ago, we told you about Spore, a video game that challenges you to guide a single cell on the bottom of the evolutionary ladder out of the ocean and into civilization. (Here you can see my creature, Chlorophyta complexus chainsawus - AKA the Chlororaptor.) It's not easy for a video game to teach the principles of evolution. Evolutionary games would necessarily be limited to pressing start and watching what happens as mutation and selection occur, without intervention from the player. Spore strikes a good balance between scientific fact and playability. More »

Feature

9:00 AM on Thu Jun 19 2008
By Terry Johnson
5,141 views, 53 comments

Latest by corpore-metal: @Carlinfanboy: Who says there has to be start? Why can't the universe be eternal and infinite? And if there is a first cause and that first cause is unknowable, why does that first cause have to be god? Why is more »

art

Eight Tons of Cardboard Molded Into an Imaginary Landscape


Though this looks like some kind of insane mushroom growth, it's actually special, die-cut cardboard strips put together by the Ball-Nogues Studio for an installation at Rice University. The artists created a digital mockup of the shapes they wanted, ordered 20,000 strips of cardboard cut to the perfect prefab sizes, and put the whole thing together in four days. It's strong enough for people to stand on. Want to see more of it? More »

7:00 AM on Wed Mar 12 2008
By Annalee Newitz
1,297 views, 8 comments

Latest by n/a: @mgcramps: It is due the fact that they are architects not artists more »

alternate reality

Secret Revelations from the Future in Terminator Alternate Reality Game

We've written before about the Sarah Connor Chronicles alternate reality game (ARG), where players film themselves acting out the roles of workers at a corporation called Einitech Labs. Enitech has discovered a way to photograph pictures of the future using "tachyons." At first they just see newspapers that are several months in the future, but slowly they begin getting pictures of San Francisco in a post-apocalyptic state. And then they start getting stalked by robots. Each episode contains a puzzle, and this special BoingBoing TV episode of the ARG is no exception. Peek below to get the secret subliminal message. More »

9:30 AM on Tue Mar 11 2008
By Annalee Newitz
1,569 views, 9 comments

Latest by SomeAudioGuy: I was actually really digging it (creepy) until Mike got capped (kinda silly). Throw in Michael Bay making things "awesome" and spider walker thing, and I'm totally not in the moment... Hmmm, should I have said Spoiler Alert? more »

onigocco

Japanese Smiley-Bots Will Kill You For Your Name

In the movie Onigocco or The Chasing World, a Japanese teenager gets flipped into an parallel world where everyone who has the last name Sato is being ruthlessly hunted down. Of course, that just happens to be his last name. While trying to evade the smiling cyborgs, he encounters alternate versions of his girlfriend and school buddies, and finds himself protecting them and trying to escape from the clutches of the King of Japan. Check out the trailer below, and find out more. More »

2:00 PM on Thu Feb 14 2008
By Kevin Kelly
2,198 views, 11 comments

Latest by mitchel_stevens: so, is everyone else just chilling, watching the evil robo-jawas going on rampages? more »

lost

Fly the Same Airline Whose Plane Crashed in "Lost"

Fake billboards for Lost's Oceanic Airlines have been popping up all over the globe, touting their return to service and trips to "Places You Never Imagined," like Ames, Iowa and Tustin, California. They also promote their brand-new website at the bottom of each one of these billboards (which probably weren't cheap to rent). Of course, visiting this site takes you deeper into the rabbit hole. Soon you'll find yourself wasting precious hours while you try to unravel the "mystery" of flight 815. More »

1:20 PM on Fri Jan 4 2008
By Kevin Kelly
19,059 views, 14 comments

Latest by technotica: OMG, I saw this last night (in Ames, IA). I know nothing about Lost. I was more like WTF - why is there an airline advertising in Ames when we have no large airport. more »