pure-theseries:

Welp. We’re here already. We have LESS THAN 48 HOURS until the end of our crowdfunding campaign on Thursday, August 16, at 10:00 AM PST. 

Please follow/support/share at www.journeytotheannex.com. Seriously, EVERY LITTLE BIT, and every share and every follow helps in a huge way!

We must reach at least 80% of our goal, or else we receive zero funding and cannot complete production on our pilot episode. That means:
- We need $5,670 in order to be Greenlit
- We need $12,670 in order to be fully funded
- We need 41 more followers in order to unlock our next level of filmmaker perks, such as discounts on rental equipment, professional consultations, and waived festival fees. (Followers do NOT need to contribute financially).

And just a reminder, our 24-HOUR LIVESTREAM will start tomorrow, Wednesday, at 10:00 AM. Find us on Facebook.

Thank you!

We’re coming up on the FINAL DAY! If you can, please support. If you can’t, please share! Every pledge, follow, share goes a long way! Thank you!

pure-theseries:

We just dropped a NEW TEASER!

In the distant future where genetic modification has divided society, a warrior and her captive become unlikely allies as they journey to the Annex, escape the Dissension, and learn what it means to sacrifice for the future of their people.

PURE is a high-quality, independently produced digital series exploring freedom, sacrifice, and morality from an inclusive perspective.

Now crowdfunding at www.journeytotheannex.com

Posted using PostyBirb

Chex Mix?  Tex Mex??  No, crab mechs!

TOP: http://futabalog.com/img/23133120
MIDDLE: http://imgur.com/a/4kV6u
BOTTOM: http://i.imgur.com/rpQZHh0.jpg

I love how the top crab has both reactive armor and spare bogey wheels–doesn’t that seem kind of redundant??

Neurostimulation: Halo Sport Neuropriming Headset

And so it begins. Halo has created cool-looking headphones with built-in neuropriming technology, that uses pulses of energy to improve the brain’s response to training, enabling the motor cortex to send stronger, more synchronous signals to muscles. More activated muscle fibers = faster gains in strength.

Apparently, the US Military accelerated pilot and sniper training by 50% with neurotechnology similar to Halo Sport. And if you read the news from yesterdayonimproving your pilot skills by zapping your brain with recorded brain patterns of experienced pilots it sounds fair, plausible and within reach, because halo is also using the tDCS technology.

But the real deal is that brain stimulation devices prepare themselves to go mainstream. Brain-altering gadgets like thync, halo or other neuroelectric wearables are paving the way for new neurocentric brain-machine interfaces, mood-changing services that manually turn up or down happiness and memory augmentation in general. It’s possible that we’re observing nascent signals of a new postnormal revolution, driven by neurotechnologies and electroceuticals.

Sure,hacking the brain is great for health applications and rehabilitation methods. But at the same time I can imagine a lot of socio-technological abuse and misuse. Corporate oppressive mood changes, hacked brainmemories, DIY experiments and emerging neuro-addictions are just the tip of the iceberg. Fun times to be alive.

[halo] [picture by halo]

Blue-Eyed Me by Alexey Marfin

Fantastic seven-minute nearfuture scifi about technology lifecycles, their impact on socio-technological systems respectively customer interactions and hidden pacesetting infrastructures & industries.

This is the world of the 99-cent lifeform. Like a social media profile or an online shopping list tailored to our hobbies, we collect genetically modified pets, engineered to look like their owners.

Alexey is part of the Unknown Fields Division run by Liam Young and Kate Davies. A “a nomadic design research studio that ventures out on expeditions to the ends of the earth to bear witness to alternative worlds, alien landscapes, industrial ecologies and precarious wilderness.”

[read more at the creators project][Unknown Fields][Alexey Marfin] [film still by Alexey Marfin]

Farma: A Home Bioreactor for Pharmaceutical Drugs

Will Patrick - MIT Media Lab graduate, former Google[x] researcher & Autodesk Artist in Resident Project - has created a bioreactor that could enable the production of pharmaceutical drugs at home. Farma is designed for a near future, where it grows, measures, filters and drys synthetically designed microbes.

Farma brews Arthrospira platensis, also known as Spirulina, that has been modified to produce pharmaceutical drugs. The reactor brews, measures, filters, and dries the Spirulina into a powder. The consumer then fills gel capsules using the accompanying pill maker and consumes the drugs. It should be able to grow other organisms, including algae, yeast and E coli.

Farma’s goal is to provoke discussions about the dos and don'ts of new emerging technologies: “I want people to understand what could be possible and help them imagine a possible future.”

[read more at FastCo][William Patrick] [picture by Will Patrick]

3 Implications of Memory-Boosting Devices

Ben Thomas wrote for Discover Magazine about the socio-technological implications of memory-boosting devices:

In fall, DARPA announced a major success in its Restoring Active Memory (RAM) program. Researchers implanted targeted electrical arrays in the brains of a few dozen volunteers — specifically in brain areas involved in memory.

The researchers found a way to read out neural “key codes” associated with specific memories, and then fed those codes back into the volunteers’ brains as they tried to recall lists of items or directions to places. While the results are still preliminary, DARPA claims that the RAM technique has already achieved “promising results” in improving memory retrieval.

Intriguing as this implant is, it’s only the latest in an ongoing series of neurological techniques and gizmos designed to boost and sharpen memory. The effects and implications of these systems raise questions that are worth consideration.

Worth a read. By this way: You should check out The MachinebyJames Smythe. A fantastic & powerful near scifi story about Beth and Vic, who returned from war tormented by his nightmares.“His once happy marriage to Beth all but disintegrated. A machine promised salvation, purging him of all memory. Now the machines are gone, declared too controversial, the side-effects too harmful. But within Beth’s flat is an ever-whirring black box. She knows that memories can be put back and that she can rebuild her husband piece by piece. ” Definitely worth a read. One of my favorites in 2015.

[read more]