MachineMachine /stream - tagged with aliens http://machinemachine.net/stream/feed en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Sweetcron therourke@gmail.com In the Zone of Alienation: Tarkovsky as Video Game http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/may/01/zone-chernobyl-tarkovsky-video-game/ Zona, Geoff Dyer’s recent book about Andrei Tarkovsky’s masterpiece Stalker, has been much discussed for its almost comically thorough dissection of the stately 1979 film. In an account that combines summary, memoir, meditation, tribute, and citation into a kind of deluxe version of the TV recap, Dyer sets out to convey the hypnotic effect Stalker has had on decades of viewers, and on himself. And yet, after reading the book, I was left feeling that something was missing. In both the book and the deluge of Stalker coverage its release has occasioned, perhaps the most crucial, and most popular, part… ]]> Tue, 01 May 2012 15:13:27 -0700 http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/may/01/zone-chernobyl-tarkovsky-video-game/ Would an alien radio pick up a cacophony or a damp fizzle? http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/208891 If an alien located on a planet 100 light years from here was to switch on a big, multi-frequency radio receiver, and record all the noises coming from outer space for the next hundred years, on all frequencies, how many soap operas, advertisements and new broadcasts would they pick up from Earth? Would a mass-market radio, similar to our Earthly equivalents, pick up anything? Over time, as the number of Earth transmissions increases exponentially, would the alien pick up a cacophony or a damp fizzle? We've all heard the cliché that since the first radio broadcast, the Earth has been… ]]> Thu, 23 Feb 2012 06:09:12 -0700 http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/208891 Traces of humanity http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2011/08/07/traces_of_humanity/ What aliens could learn from the stuff we’ve left in space

Even in space, where none of us live, some of what we’ve left is space junk: stuff orbiting the earth that nobody particularly intended to leave anywhere. But much of what we’ve left in space is intentional. Some of it is symbolic artifacts intended for an audience of people here on Earth - the fallen astronaut, the American flag on the moon, a CD containing a list of over half a million people who wanted to send their names to a comet, courtesy of a NASA… ]]> Sun, 07 Aug 2011 15:32:57 -0700 http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2011/08/07/traces_of_humanity/ Alien space bats http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_space_bats Alien space bats (ASBs) is a neologism for plot devices used in alternate history to create a point of divergence that would otherwise be implausible. [edit]Definition "Alien space bats" originally was used as a sarcastic attack on poorly written alternate histories due to lack of plausibility. These attacks are usually phrased as the need for alien space bats or by saying the alternate history has gone into "ASB territory". This original definition was used by one critic to criticize Harry Harrison's Stars and Stripes trilogy.[1] The term eventually evolved into a deus ex machina to create an impossible point of… ]]> Tue, 03 May 2011 15:13:35 -0700 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_space_bats Alien space bats http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_space_bats Alien space bats (ASBs) is a neologism for plot devices used in alternate history to create a point of divergence that would otherwise be implausible.
[edit]Definition

"Alien space bats" originally was used as a sarcastic attack on poorly written alternate histories due to lack of plausibility. These attacks are usually phrased as the need for alien space bats or by saying the alternate history has gone into "ASB territory". This original definition was used by one critic to criticize Harry Harrison's Stars and Stripes trilogy.[1] The term eventually evolved into a deus ex machina to create… ]]> Tue, 03 May 2011 12:27:43 -0700 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_space_bats The 10 Most Disgusting Alien Civilizations http://www.geekosystem.com/power-grid/The+10+Most+Disgusting+Alien+Civilizations/ We've dedicated this Power Grid to the most disgusting alien civilizations to ever grace the page, screen, or hard drive.

Why is biology used as technology the easiest way to make aliens seem alien? Why are the bad guys’ ships always covered in strange fluids and dubious orifices?

And for another thing! Why are the ships in Star Trek and Galaxy Quest so damp? ]]> Tue, 10 Aug 2010 06:56:00 -0700 http://www.geekosystem.com/power-grid/The+10+Most+Disgusting+Alien+Civilizations/ Semiotics for Beginners: Codes http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem08.html In 1972 NASA sent into deep space an interstellar probe called Pioneer 10. It bore a golden plaque.

The art historian Ernst Gombrich offers an insightful commentary on this:

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has equipped a deep-space probe with a pictorial message 'on the off-chance that somewhere on the way it is intercepted by intelligent scientifically educated beings.' It is unlikely that their effort was meant to be taken quite seriously, but what if we try? These beings would first of all have to be equipped with 'receivers' among their sense organs… ]]> Tue, 06 Apr 2010 12:14:00 -0700 http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem08.html We have a message from another world http://www.lettersofnote.com/2009/12/we-have-message-from-another-world.html In the summer of 1899, whilst alone in his Colorado Springs laboratory working with his magnifying transmitter, the inimitable Nikola Tesla observed a series of unusual rhythmic signals which he described as 'counting codes'. Having just detected cosmic radio signals for the first time, Tesla immediately believed them to be attempted communications from an intelligent life-form on either Venus or Mars, and later said of the experience, 'The feeling is constantly growing on me that I had been the first to hear the greeting of one planet to another'. The next year, Tesla was asked by the Red Cross to… ]]> Fri, 11 Dec 2009 17:11:00 -0700 http://www.lettersofnote.com/2009/12/we-have-message-from-another-world.html Kim Jong Il and? http://www.flickr.com/photos/huge-entity/4079560345/

Mr. Daniel posted a photo:

Kim Jong Il and?

www.flickr.com/photos/indignico/sets/72157600017697735/

]]> Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:18:00 -0700 http://www.flickr.com/photos/huge-entity/4079560345/ NASA moon bombing violates space law & may cause conflict with lunar ET/UFO civilizations http://www.examiner.com/x-2912-Seattle-Exopolitics-Examiner~y2009m6d19-NASA-moon-bombing-violates-space-law--may-cause-conflict-with-lunar-extraterrestrial-civilizations The planned October 9, 2009 bombing of the moon by a NASA orbiter that will bomb the moon with a 2-ton kinetic weapon to create a 5 mile wide deep crater as an alleged water-seeking and lunar colonization experiment, is contrary to space law prohibiting environmental modification of celestial bodies. The NASA moon bombing, a component of the LCROSS mission, may also trigger conflict with known extraterrestrial civilizations on the moon as reported on the moon in witnessed statements by U.S. astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong, and in witnessed statements to NSA (National Security Agency) photos and documents regarding… ]]> Tue, 23 Jun 2009 01:39:00 -0700 http://www.examiner.com/x-2912-Seattle-Exopolitics-Examiner~y2009m6d19-NASA-moon-bombing-violates-space-law--may-cause-conflict-with-lunar-extraterrestrial-civilizations