Playing Catch Up

The name of this blog is indeed “Pop” Transhumanism, is it not, implying I’m supposed to know something about popular culture? To my shame, there are epic gaps in my monstrous compendium of entertainment knowledge. I’m taking steps to correct some of those. Namely: BattleStar Galactica and its prequel series Caprica; Star Trek: The Next Generation; Transmetropolitan; Y: The Last Man; Bostrom and Savulescu’s Human Enhancement; Lanier’s You Are Not A Gadget; some Thomas Sowell, L. Frank Baum, and I’ll probably pick up Mass Effect 1 & 2.

Additionally, Red Dwarf and Ghost in the Shell are getting a second going through.

Stuff on deck includes Stephenson’s Diamond Age, Brin’s “Uplift Series,” are in my reading cue, and my netflix cue contains Metropolis, THX:1138, The Lawnmower Man, and Machine Girl. I have a stack of JET and Bioethics articles I’m burning through, I’m reading back issues of the godforsaken disaster that is The New Atlantic, and am going to be tackling Nozick’s Anarchy, State, and Utopia as soon as possible.

Sci-Fi Gets Classy

Awesome posters from Travis Pitts:

via io9

Vampires Are People Too

Margot Adler tries to figure out the appeal of bloodsuckers:

But what I started noticing as I read all these novels and looked at all the recent television shows featuring vampires is that their near-immortality isn’t the most interesting thing about them. Almost all of these current vampires are struggling to be moral. It’s conventional to talk about vampires as sexual, with their hypnotic powers and their intimate penetrations and their blood-drinking and so forth. But most of these modern vampires are not talking as much about sex as they are about power.

Our culture has been trying to reason with the moral burden of posthumanism long before it became a plausible reality.

Borg Breakfast

Yum yum yum yum. The borg on the upper right sure is cheerful. I’m eating it first.

[Wil Wheaton via Geekologie]

Netflix: Engage

Oh man. Just set up netflix account. Star Trek: TNG and Battlestar Galactica in the que. Make it so.

Do The Evolution

Love me some Pearl Jam:

Pearl Jam – Do The Evolution

Archer

Today’s posts have been entirely too serious, so I present Archer the show I wish Hulu would just put online already so I can enjoy it:

Do You Know Your Aliens?

What movie is this thing from? It was the only one I couldn’t identify because “Morbo, from Futurama” was not an option.

["Do you know your aliens?" - New Scientist, via TDW]

Brain Slug Cupcakes

I just started watching the entire run of Futurama again yesterday. I should make these cupcakes to celebrate when I’m finished:

Delicious. Well, at least hypnotoad convinced me they are.

[Craftzine via TDW]

Culture Binge

I’m looking for your help here people, hit me up with some suggestions on what to read, listen to, watch.

I have watched maybe two hours of TV since New Year’s Day, so I’m excited to get back into the soothing tub of mental balm that is the Spring season of television. Fringe and Season 7 of Project Runway are both back in action, Lost comes back on Feb. 2, South Park, The Venture Bros. and Glee are on longer hiatuses, but start soon enough, Archer and Human Target started last week and Caprica starts tonight.

The thing is, very soon I’ll have the opportunity to absorb a good bit more TV culture (also more time for blogging, natch), so I’m debating what else to watch. Here are my top choices of stuff from the Naughties:

1. Battlestar Galactica
2. The Wire/ The Sopranos/ Mad Men (it’s one or the other)
3. Firefly

Beyond that, I’m considering Star Trek: TNG, Doctor Who (I’ve never seen an episode of either) and The Prisoner. Probably re-watching Futurama.I don’t really like anime, but I really enjoyed Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, so that’s getting a re-perusal as well. I’m open to suggestions of other anime (movie or TV) worth watching.

I’m also getting back into comic books/graphic novels. Fables, The Invisibles, and Y: The Last Man, are my current reads. I’ve heard good things about Transmetropolitan and Doktor Sleepless. Any other suggestions?

I have a stack of books waiting for me, so no suggestions there, but anything else (paintings, movies, bands) I need to experience, let me know.

[buy the shirt with the logo above]