(Cross-posted from Metamagician and the Hellfire Club.)  When Hollywood movies depict mutated human beings — sometimes beautifully, grotesquely, or bizarrely transformed in appearance from the Homo sapiens norm — they draw upon traditions that are thousands of years old. Throughout recorded history, human myths, legends, and ...

(Crossposted from Metamagician and the Hellfire Club.) Kurt Vonnegut's novels, up to Jailbird, formed one of the main areas of focus for my original Ph.D, on the supposed return to myth in modern fictional narrative, and I was a fan of Vonnegut from my childhood, back in the 1960s, even before the publication of Slaughterhouse 5, his most famous ...

It is 2057, and you're being sent on a mission to the Sun, to save our ailing star from imminent death.......

A new fictional children's book, ''21st Century Kids'' by Shannon Vyff (Warren Publishing, March 2007), explores the idea that two children, killed in a car accident, are cryo...

Via Existence is Wonderful, a look at spreading awareness of cryonics in unexpected places: ''I grew up reading science fiction, so I am no stranger to the subject of suspended animation -- however, it is odd and strangely compelling to see this subject pop up in something so far removed from sci-fi as the bubblegum world of novels written for an ...

Cross-posted from Gnorb.NET.  I just finished watching the first DVD of the first season of Battlestar Galactica. For months now, just about every sci-fi fan I know has been gushing to me about how incredible this new version of the show has turned out to be. Finally, I was able to borrow a copy from a friend, to see what all the commotion ...

Hollywood is rabidly technophobic. Whether it's robots, computers or genetically engineered beings, technology is out to get humanity. It's trying to enslave or kill us, or make us suffer on behalf of some corrupt corporate or government entity. ...

Surprisingly, I just learned about a new movie coming out next week called Renaissance. The movie is of particular interest to Betterhumans members because (a) it's freaking cool and (b) it addresses life extension. That's why I'm surprised to learn of it so late. Here's how the Apple trailer page describes it: In 2054, Paris is a labyrinth ...

I'm about half through the second season of Battlestar Galactica on DVD, and it has gotten to the point where I won't let myself rent more than one at a time because I know that I won't be able to stop once I start watching. The show itself is both fascinating and infuriating--infuriating because it is based up the same old ...

I just finished reading a rather weak and unconvincing critique of SETI by Peter Schenkel over at the Skeptical Inquiry site. It contains the usual errors: an over emphasis on the Rare Earth Hypothesis, far too many sociological considerations that couldn’t possibly be exclusive to all intelligent life, and no thought ...