Science Fiction

If you need proof that kids these days are alright and amazing, simply cast your eyes on the students at New Jersey's North Bergen High School who put on a stage play version of the classic sci-fi horror film Alien. The play was complete with all the trappings of the film, including the infamous facehugger alien, the stomach-bursting scene, and, yes, the large, menacing xenomorph that has come to haunt the nightmares of generations of moviegoers. And it all looked amazing. The school put on a pair of performances for the play in recent days and photos and videos have gone viral quickly, being shared all across platforms like Reddit and Twitter. Last night the North Bergen High School in New Jersey put on'Alien' as their school play and it looks absolutely incredible.#hrgiger#Alien#rushmore

Ang Lee hasn't given up on high-frame-rate cinema despite the expensive misfire that was Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk. The two-time Oscar winner is shooting his upcoming film, sci-fi assassin thriller Gemini Man, in 3D at 120 frames-per-second (fps) and 4K resolution. There's just one problem: theater chains may not be able to screen it in the format. To ensure it gets a wide release that matches Lee's intended vision, Paramount is writing to cinema owners with instructions on how to bring their projector equipment up to speed, reports The Playlist. Paramount's letter includes directions on how to conduct a HFR test and describes the 120 fps-4K-3D combo as the "most pristine and immersive format" for showing the film.

The Intelligence Explosion is a hilariously witty short sci fi film about AI ethics. How can we prevent a robot AI from turning evil? Can humans be a good role model for AI? Synopsis: It's 2027 and Mental Endeavours Ltd has a problem with their flagship robot Günther. How do you program an intelligent machine not to annihilate humanity? And if its intelligence is skyrocketing faster than anyone could have predicted, are they about to run out of time?

Asked for Artificial Intelligence, Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos explained "It is a renaissance, it is a golden age. We are now solving problems with machine learning and artificial intelligence that were in the realm of science fiction for the last decades." This golden age is not purely related to the new technological possibilities, but that it is the moment for us humans to create intelligent applications for the existing technology. A time where the future is still not written, but it is up to all of us to find a beneficial use for the AI-technology. Similar to the golden age of science fiction, where authors let run free their ideas.

Implied Spaces by Walter Jon Williams is sword and singularity rather than sword and sorcery, and it will blow your mind. The first forty pages or so might as well be one of Robert E. Howard's Conan books. Like Conan, Aristide fights as no one else can fight, only says what's necessary, and beds all comers. Williams is a prose stylist, so it actually reads better than Robert E. Howard, who was given to writing purple prose every now and then. I was all settled in for more sword and sorcery when the shift happened.

Apocalyptic asteroids heading for Earth may be harder to destroy than the Hollywood sci-fi films would have us believe. Scientists studying just how easy it would be to blow up a life-threatening space rock found they are stronger and more resilient than previously imagined. They say the discovery could aid in the creation of asteroid deflection weapons and for designing efficient asteroid mining techniques. Researchers found the fallout from the enormous collision would be split into two different stages. 'We used to believe that the larger the object, the more easily it would break, because bigger objects are more likely to have flaws,' says Charles El Mir, a recent PhD graduate from Johns Hopkins University, who led the study.

Some years ago, the prospect of a religion worshiping Artificial Intelligence would have seemed absurd as being technologically improbable and socially unacceptable. Off late, there have been tangible references that point towards advances into cognitive science, genetic editing, machine learning, robotics and other fields strong-holding the belief that coming years will be determined by technology. From Whole Brain Emulation to Artificial Intelligence, advanced technologies have been touted as miracle signs with awe-inspiring wonder having a cult following and more noticeable as religion. As pointed by the science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke in 1973, "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" the changes in technology makes people believe in this magic. The theme of machine-as-god has appeared in science fiction as way back in Isaac Asimov's short stories, Reason and The Last Question, which has become a mainstream metaphor evidenced by a growing number of scientists who have openly described the technological progress in religious terms, including renowned researchers and professors like Ray Kurzweil, Hugo de Garis, Hans Peter Moravec and Allen Newell.

In his short story "Runaround," first published in 1942, Russian-American science fiction author Isaac Asimov developed three fictitious laws for how robots should interact with people. In his stories, these three laws set the foundation for the coexistence of machines and their human masters in a vision of the future – one in which artificial intelligence has long been thinking and acting independently. Today, algorithm-based intelligent systems are not nearly that far advanced. And yet, in a certain sense, they seem to be growing more and more human. As useful and advanced as these systems may be, the necessity of rules for their use is no longer a matter of science fiction.

In 1818, Mary Shelley created popular culture's first and most enduring monster in "Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus." Since then, "women have always been the most important part of monster movies," as Mallory O'Meara states in "The Lady From the Black Lagoon," her engaging and compelling, if uneven, book about artist Milicent Patrick, the unsung designer of another iconic monster. As a teenager, indie horror filmmaker O'Meara became captivated by Universal Pictures' 1954 "Creature From the Black Lagoon." Its eponymous amphibian star -- a scaled, humanoid figure fondly known to generations of sci-fi geeks as the Gill-man -- was the last of Universal's classic monsters, joining the studio's pantheon alongside Dracula, the Frankenstein monster and his Bride, and the Wolfman, among others. The Gill-man was also, as O'Meara learned to her delighted amazement, the first -- and at the time, only -- movie monster to have been designed by a woman.

Doerr will edit "The Best American Short Stories 2019" and Machado the best science fiction and fantasy. Lethem will edit the best mystery stories. Other books announced Thursday include best American essays, edited by Rebecca Solnit, and best American comics, edited by Jillian Tamaki. The best "Nonrequired Reading," which draws upon the input of high school students, will be edited by Edan Lepucki.