Arc 1.2: Post human conditions by Sumit Paul-Choudhury

Arc 1.2: Post human conditions Reviews

• 
  Artur Coelho

  Pura nutrição cerebral. Criada pelos editores da New Scientist, a revista digital Arc já se distingue pela linha editorial cuidada que misturando ensaio e ficção reflecte sobre os futuros próximos e possíveis. A segunda edição olha para a condição pós humana reunindo artigos e contos intrigantes e provocadores. Pode ser adquirida aqui: Arc 1.2: Post huma conditions.
  
  Artigos e ensaios:
  
  The Future's Mine: Frederik Pohl fala-nos do regresso a futuros passados ao olhar para o enorme corpus literário da FC clássica como inspirador de padrões para prognósticos futuristas. Se as ideias ficaram datadas os padrões que delas emergem podem apontar caminhos para o futuro antevisto por think tanks.
  
  Nobody Knows You're a Dog: Anne Galloway e Sumit Paul-Choudhury especulam sobre uma internet animalesca, extrapolando o gosto pela iconografia animal online para um futuro próximo em que os animais são nós informativos activos no mundo digital.
  
  Petersburg's Prometheus: Sonia Versterholt e Simon Ings redescobrem um velho mestre do cinema de ficção científica soviética, ostracizado pelos seus pares mas fortemente influente na estética cinematográfica de obras como Alien, Terminator e o recente Prometheus. Distintos pela estética cuidada e paixão pela exploração espacial, os seus filmes ultrapassaram a cortina de ferro e foram paradoxalmente aproveitados por Roger Corman para filmes de série B.
  
  Through The Space Desert: Regina Peldszus analisa a solidão das missões espaciais, focalizando-se nas experiências russas e europeias que simulam viagens a marte, histórias das estadias claustrofóbicas de astronautas em órbita e insights vindos da experiência de isolamento nas missões cientificas que se mantém nos longos invernos antárticos.
  
  The Mudang's Dance: Gord Sellar analisa a moderna Coreia do Sul, olhando para a transformação de um país de sociedade tradicionalista ruralizada num paradigma de hipermodernidade económica e tecnológica, onde a evolução exterior quase instantânea encontra formas de se harmonizar com o tradicionalismo elitista arreigado numa cultura forçada a evoluir à velocidade da luz.
  
  Built for Pleasure: ensaio de P. D. Smith que é um hino à cidade como espaço de encontros, diversidade, partilhas culturais, complexidade de engenharia e descobertas.
  
  Adult Pursuits: Holly Gramazio fala-nos de jogo traçando paralelos com aprendizagem lúdica e uma cultura pós-televisiva que volta a colocar a tónica em actividades físicas que também envolvem o cerebral e o imaginativo.
  
  Bad Vibrations: Kyle Munkittrick manifesta-se pelo entendimento do jogo digital como meio de expressão de pleno direito, com uma estética e formas próprias de abordar as questões para as quais as artes mais "tradicionais" sempre olharam.
  
  Ficção:
  
  Attenuation de Nick Harkaway mistura clonagem, viagens galácticas, teletransporte de consciência humana, ciúme e sede de vingança numa história em que um homem se vê transplantado para um corpo estranho e é obrigado a assassinar o seu corpo original para sobreviver.
  
  The Man de Paul McAuley leva-nos a um futuro próximo pós-apocalíptico em que após a destruição das principais megalópoles mundiais num conflito nuclear a humanidade dispersa-se pelo espaço auxiliada por alienígenas. Sob este pano de fundo passa-se uma história onde num mundo distante uma terrestre exilada sobrevive recolhendo detritos tecnológicos nas ruínas de uma fábrica alienígena até encontrar um simulacro humano, androide silencioso que replica na perfeição um homem desaparecido há anos atrás.
  
  Big Dave's In Love por T. D. Edge leva a um certo absurdo o colapso singularitário, num futuro onde após um apocalipse electro-plástico que trasnformou a superfície do planeta num oceano viscoso de interferências eléctricas os sobreviventes vivem isolados em paraísos artificiais, mantidos vivos por brinquedos inteligentes dedicados que à sua maneira desenvolvem uma espécie de alma.
  
  Komodo: Jeff Vandermeer brinda-nos com um conto longo de elevado surrealismo, fortemente mergulhado na estética new weird que tanto e tão bem defende. Num voo puro de imaginação somos levados a conhecer realidades paralelas, metáforas de transiência, espécies alienígenas avançadas e criaturas predatórias que se movem nos espaços interdimensionais. Um conto que se lê como um longo sonho, por vezes atraente por vezes assustador, onde a lógica interna se sobrepõe às lógicas consensuais.
• 
  M.G. Mason

  The theme of this, the second volume of the Arcfinity ezine, is about the future of humanity, subtitled Post human conditions. Intriguing concept to deal with how humans will change in relation to technological advances of the future. I mentioned in my "first impressions" post that I had not heard of most of the contributors so this was a whole new ball game for me.
  
  This volume is just as slick and professionally made. The only difference from volume 1.1 is that it has more images. It also has far more links which, if like me you have the basic Kindle, you will not be able to follow. This is unfortunate and will give a better experience if you have a tablet such as an ipad. For a magazine dedicated to Futurism, it is a shame that these things were not taken into account.
  
  As with volume 1.1, the contributors are introduced and asked to give a single sentence summary of the future. As previously, these are a mixture of astute optimism, serious pessimism and tongue-in-cheek humour. The forward is written by veteren writer Frederik Pohl who gives an account of his introduction to science fiction and then how he became fascinated with futurism.
  
  The first article is an essay by Anne Galloway entitled Nobody knows you're a dog about how animals, pets and livestock alike, have become an integral part of the digital age. From LOLcats and other virals to tracking devices to stop livestock crime or aid in finding diseased animals, blogs written by animal owners about their pets and online projects about tracking global warming through devices attached to Narwhals. A thought provoking piece to kick off with.
  
  Second on the agenda is Attenuation, a short story written by Nick Harkaway. It is a future in which humans can travel millions of light years almost instantaneously. This is not a physical transportation, but the process of uploading the brain into a computer, transporting the data across space and putting it into another body. The original body must be destroyed or the person suffers "Attenuation Sickness" which could lead to psychological illness, physical symptoms such as haemorage and sometimes even death. Sonny Hall experiences just this, discovering that his old body was abducted following a transportation. It is an interesting detective type story and a real page-turner with a satisfactory conclusion.
  
  Next, is a discussion of the work of Russian film director/producer Pavel Klushantsev written by Sonja Vesterholt and Simon Ings entitled Petersburg's Prometheus. It also discusses the role of David, played by Michael Fassbender in the new Ridley Scott film Prometheus, the prequel to Alien. Drawing comparisons between it and Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey as well as other science fiction films that were influenced by Klushantsev, focussing particularly on the Alien mythos, this is a well-written article about one of science fiction's lesser known pioneers.
  
  Following this is another short story. Paul McAuley authors The Man. Cho Ziyi lives in a small cabin on the moon of "Yanos" that orbits the planet "Sauron". One night during a snowstorm, she is visited by a man. He isn't completely aware of his surroundings, is naked and his legs are covered in wounds. Slowly, she warms to the silent man (who probably isn't human) and tells him of the day an alien race known as the Jackaroo arrived on a war-torn Earth bearing gifts of new worlds. Again, we have an interesting mystery type story that makes you want to read more. Unfortunately, I found the story a little too superficial. It doesn't really go anywhere, feeling like a wasted concept with an unsatisfying end. I know we are limited for length but if you want to include big ideas in a short story then they need to be relevant to the plot, not as a mere glossy veneer.
  
  A manned trip to Mars will probably be the next big space mission and it is increasingly becoming a reality. Regina Peldszus examines what this might mean to humanity as the longest space trip that we can reasonably achieve in Through the deep space desert. She also examines the psychological tedium of a 500 day long cabin fever environment, littering the text with examples of the problem as handled in fiction: food, entertainment, claustrophobia, isolation and the logistics of not going space crazy. This was a fascinating essay made all the more thought-provoking for the humour.
  
  Next is the competition winning entry Big Dave's in love by T.D. Edge. Written as though best read aloud and in a cockney accent, it is the tale of semi-sentient toys in "Gaffville" who dream of having souls. It seems that Dave - one of a few humans left alive - has a potential mate. It is down to his buddy Jack to tell the world and then convince Big Dave to hook up on this blind date. A pleasant and playful tale even if it is a little predictable in the end.
  
  Following this is another feature on The Tomorrow Project, a call for interaction from readers and the introduction of the next short story competition. This one is on the 1.2 theme of post human conditions.
  
  After this is the regular essay column Unevenly Distributed. This edition is written by Gord Sellar and entitled The Mudang's Dance about how South Korea is keeping its traditions while looking to the future and asks the question "why do they not embrace Futurism?" It is a fascinating look at the speed with which South Korea has evolved into a technological powerhouse when just a few generations ago it was more reminiscent of feudal Europe. Perhaps overlooked in a media and social movement more infatuated with Japan and China, South Korea has a bright future despite the ever threat of troubles to the north.
  
  P.D. Smith is up next with a short essay Built for Pleasure on the appeal and the history of urban living. Starting with an explanation of Ivrea's Battle of the Oranges, he talks of how cities have always been devoted to the pursuit of leisure and what this mean's for our future entertainment needs. An interesting way of looking at it, even if I don't completely agree that that is their primary purpose. He does however raise an interesting point that science fiction writers tend to write them as places of dystopia rather than utopia.
  
  On a similar theme to adult leisure, Holly Gramazio rubbishes the idea that games are entirely for children. She designs live games for a living. She may be onto something here. For many years, adult entertainment has been limited to television, radio and magazines. But now, video gaming has become a social thing. Social networks have MMORPGs aimed at people who were typically not gamers. We also play "words with friends" on our smartphones. She wants to re-transplant that into the real world where it first started. Short, but interesting.
  
  Getting slightly further away but on the theme of video games (fronted by a promo shot from the awesome Bioshock), Kyle Munkittrick pens Bad Vibrations. Mirroring
  an article I wrote on this blog a few months ago, he explains how storytelling in video games has improved so much in recent years that they have earned their right to be considered art on the same level as prose and film-making. He demonstrates the clever psychology behind both Bioshock and Portal series.
  
  We finish with Jeff Vandermeer - the only other name I know from this volume as I own a copy of his fantastic The Steampunk Bible - who contributes a short story called Komodo about a dying woman reciting a strange tale to a young child about strange creatures, angels, alternate realities and the afterlife. Vandermeer is hailed as a master of weird fiction and here it is not difficult to see why. This is a pleasant, sometimes poignant, yet out-there tale that really needs concentration.
  
  Another great volume. Arc is finding its feet. The work seems far less nervous of itself than the first volume but the format works. Things can only get better from here in. Roll on volume 1.3
  
  
  See more book reviews at my blog
• 
  Jamie Perez

  I liked the first issue of Arc enough to pick up this one, and this one is better still. Again the fiction is better than the non-fiction, but still gems on both sides of the aisle. And of course the issues theme, "Post-Human Conditions," had me at "hello."
  
  On the non-fiction side, especially dug Galloway and Paul-Choudhury's piece on animal-computer interfaces and interaction -- i hope they go on to give the topic the deserves book-length treatment it wants / deserves (or at least "meaty New Yorker article-length" treatment). It teases at ideas I'd love to sit with for a while. Consent and technology is such a wide-open issue, among things.
  
  On the fiction side, pretty much every story is double-worth your time. I'll note "The Man" (Paul McAuley) and the last story "Komodo" (Jeff VanderMeer) maybe the latter because I just finished it so it it's still on my mind. I resisted at first (it's narration is an over-precious thing you just have to get past), but it paid off after I invested.
  
  I'm sure to grab the next issue of Arc... If you like scifi and futurism, and you live a life of diverse and eccentric tastes, you'll enjoy these.
• 
  Tac Anderson

  This new publication continues to deliver an amazing mix of great content. Love it.