The Adjacent Possible, Volume 4 Issue 2
New Q&As, new shows, and the unintended consequences of gene-hacking mosquitoes
I don’t know about you, but the first eight months of 2020 have been the longest 10 years of my life. Honestly, I just haven’t been as motivated to write this newsletter as work, home life, the country, the world, pretty much everything seems to be in a state of upheaval, or at least flux.
But I’d like to try again. Maybe it will last only one issue, but hopefully, I can keep it going for the rest of the year. No promises other than I’ll try to put one out when I feel I can, and when I feel there is enough good stuff to warrant your time. Starting this week there is some really marvelous looking content coming out that I’m excited about; I’ve written some pieces I’m excited to share, and of course, technological innovation continues apace.
As a brief refresher, The Adjacent Possible is about the medical breakthroughs, technological innovations, and the socio/political zeitgeist of our times that seem more like works of science fiction. We also look at the movies, shows, games, and other creative endeavors that fit into the broad and admittedly fuzzy parameters I’ve set. So, while I enjoy Star Wars and the MCU as much as the next nerd, that’s not what The Adjacent Possible is about (check out these three essays for more on the concept of The Adjacent Possible).
And finally, you may notice that I’ve switched from Mailchimp to Substack. I’d love to know what you think of the switch.
Here’s the lineup for today:
Two author Q&As and an Original Essay
New Shows I’m Excited About: Raised by Wolves and Away
Hard Concrete via Control
Prosthesis: Real Life Mech Suit
No jetpacks, no flying cars, where is the future I was promised?
The Unintended Consequences of Gene-hacking Mosquitos
Robots with Fat Reserves
Elon Musk: Neuralink = Black Mirror
Dream hack: Inception in Real Life?
SciFi Architeture Porn: Kunsthaus Graz
Interstellar Travel & Language
A Futurist Reviews Futuristic Movies
New Author Q&As
The upside to all the time I’ve spent socially distancing is that I've read several terrific books this year - including Zero Bomb, Symantov, and Infomacracy - and I'm currently pushing through Neal Stephenson's Fall; or, Dodge in Hell. I’ve also read Rosewater by Tade Thompson and Veil by Eliot Peper. In addition to reading their books, I had the chance to connect with both of them for some rousing Q&As.
I was really impressed with Rosewater, which came out a couple of years ago. It took several elements I was familiar with and mixed them up with unique twists to great effect while also adding something new. By all means, give it a read if you have a chance. Tade also shared his thoughts with me on a variety of subjects around writing, the science fiction genre, and more. Please take a moment to give our conversation a read.
Longtime readers of The Adjacent Possible will likely be familiar with Eliot Peper. If you don’t know him from my previous Q&A with him, you’ll likely be familiar with him through his email newsletter or frequent appearances on podcasts or other media. Eliot is truly a leader amongst a new generation of authors exploring our relationship with social media, attitudes toward privacy, and the impact of climate change. His latest book, Veil, has been widely praised and is a terrific read. I caught up with Eliot recently for another terrific conversation.
If you have a moment, please consider sharing this issue of The Adjacent Possible with your friends, colleagues, cyborg assistants, A.I. constructs and any travelers from other times and/or dimensions.
New Essay Series: Fixing Hollywood
We’ve all done it: Dreamed of how we would have made the Alien prequels better, or how we would turn one of our beloved Science Fiction IPs into a great show. Well, I’m starting a new essay series called: Fixing Hollywood. It will be my take on how something SF-related - a book, show, movie, video game, etc. should be done, or could have been improved. I’m going to kick it off with ‘How to do an Inception TV Show.’ It was the 10th anniversary of the original launch of the movie this past July, and with TENET now hitting theatres it seemed like the right time (to get that SEO juice). Hope you enjoy it.
New Shows: Raised by Wolves and Away
The early works of Ridley Scott (Blade Runner, Alien, Apple’s 1984 ad) are foundational works of my formative SF upbringing. Some of his more recent work - Prometheus and Covenant - has been a bit disappointing. But I must say, the trailer for the new HBOMAX series, Raised by Wolves, looked absolutely fantastic. Androids, religious tensions, and some scary violence all look like classic Scott. I went in hoping for the best.
The first three episodes are now available and, well let’s call it a mixed bag. There are definitely some good elements, but they are blunted by some issues that I had trouble getting over. There are some good, meaty issues here around religion and family, and the lead android has some frightening and well-showcased powers. But too often the show is hampered by clunky dialogue, head-scratching character choices, or the handful of child actors the show relies on. There’s enough promise for me to continue watching, but I can’t help but feel like this is a standard cable show with a slightly higher budget than a prestige show worthy of the HBO(Max) name.
Far different is the new Netflix show Away. No androids here, just a grounded story about astronauts who leave loved ones behind and must overcome the challenges of space, the ultimate hostile environment, on a mission to Mars. It’s got a good cast - including Hilary Swank and Josh Charles - and is a stronger show than Raised by Wolves based on the acting, overall production values, and strong central story. Away just launched on Netflix, it’s worth checking out.
Control Features The AP-Favorite: Brutalist Architecture
I’m not much of a video game guy anymore, though I did pre-order Cyberpunk 2077 for my son (and my own research purposes of course). But I was recently struck by some images for AWE, an expansion pack for the game Control. The game looks great, they’ve got a pretty interesting backstory on the creation of the world, and have managed to make it a bit of a cross-over with the Alan Wake game series. The original game came out last Summer and AWE was just released last month. What hit me was the architecture. I’m a sucker from Brutalist buildings and Control’s setting is clearly Brutalist inspired. Christian Waldo, writing for SuperJump, also was struck by the architecture of the game, referring to the Oldest House, the main location in Control, “a character, and not just a setting.”
If you’re a fan of this style as well, I’ll think you’ll like this essay I wrote back in 2018: The Aesthetics of Science Fiction, What Does Sci-Fi Look Like After Cyberpunk?
Prosthesis: Real Life Mech Suits
You know what 2020 needs? Gigantic, battle-ready super exoskeleton machines. Via Cnet: Designed and built by Furrion Exo-Bionics, Prosthesis is a 9,000-pound quadruped, or four-legged machine, that can lift a car, climb over boulders and run in the snow. But the ultimate goal is to pioneer an entirely new sport of mech racing.
Evenly distributed? The Future I was Promised Isn’t Here At All!
Jet packs! Flying cars! Underground rocket trains! There’s a reason all the cool shit is still in science fiction and not IRL. This Popular Science piece from 2019 looks at the holdups and when we might actually see some of this stuff.
The Unintended Consequences of Gene-Hacking Mosquitoes
What’s the lesson we all learned from Jurassic Park? “Life finds a way.” Thank you, Doctor Malcolm. It’s amazing how often we forget this lesson, and then suffer from some unintended consequences. Again, this is from last year but thought it was worth sharing as a reminder that as we tackle climate change or any number of other challenges, the ripple effects may not always be easily apparent. Gene-hacked mosquitoes didn’t decrease the insect population as planned, they just created tougher mosquitoes.
Powering Tomorrow’s Robots
“Robots that can store energy in ‘fat reserves’” is a great headline, albeit a bit misleading. But a pretty cool breakthrough in battery design when you spread the batteries across the entire robot rather than in just one location.
I’ll Take Bad Comparisons for $400 Alex.
Now I’m not a PR professional... hold on, [*checks notes*] actually, I am a PR professional. Here’s some free PR advice for Elon Musk. When commenting on your computer-brain interface tech, probably best not to compare it to an episode of Black Mirror.
To Sleep, Perchance to Dream. And Then Mess Around With Those Dreams.
Did you read my Inception TV show idea essay? Well, if you did and your thought was, “TV show? Lame. I want to hack dreams in real life,” have I got something for you:
The Dream Lab, which was launched in 2017 as a division of MIT’s Media Lab Fluid Interfaces Group, is developing novel and open source wearable devices that track and interact with dreams in various ways. While part of this work aims to legitimize the idea that dreams are not just random mind slush, but access points to deeper levels of cognition, the larger goal is to show that when dreams can be hacked, augmented, and swayed, our waking lives benefit.
Architectural Body Horror
If your taste in science fiction leans toward David Cronenberg, but you’re also into architecture, check out the Kunsthaus Graz in Austria. Imagine if Antoni Gaudi and H.R. Giger decided to design a building together, and then plop it in the middle of an Eastern European city. Read about it, then check out the pictures.
What We Have Here is a Failure to Communicate
The scenario: Hundreds of years after we sent a generational space ship into the cosmos to find a new planet to colonize, we here on Earth finally receive a message! Unfortunately, that message may not make any sense to us as over the centuries our language, and that of the colonists, will likely have diverged to the point that understanding may be unlikely.
Related: If you’re a fan of constructed languages, be sure to check out my Q&A with Nick Farmer, the linguist who created the Belter language for The Expanse TV show.
Fact-checking the Future
Vanity Fair has a cool little video with Futurist Amy Webb taking a look at famous science fiction films and seeing how close we are now to some of the technological advancements in movies like Blade Runner, Gattaca, and The Matrix. One comment she made that particularly stood out was that down the road we might develop a caste system in this country based not on money or race, but rather vaccinated vs. non-vaccinated.
Ok, that’s it for this issue. A lot to chew on, I hope you enjoy some of my essays and find the links thought-provoking. If you think others might enjoy this newsletter, please consider taking a moment to spread the word.
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Until next time, have a better one.