Cyborg Singularity: Charting the Intersection of Humanity and Superintelligent Machines
It is common now to read all over the Internet about the overlap between science and science fiction, or how over time with developing technology that what was formerly science fiction has now become scientific reality. This may be the case in the future in regards to computers and artificial intelligence, or at least that’s […]
Tim Burton and Modern Demons
Today I received an email announcement for a conference at the University of Kent and their Centre for the Study of Myth. The conference is titled “Diamonic Imagination: Uncanny Intelligence” to be held in May in Canterbury in the UK. One of the speakers listed in the program caught my eye, Helena Bassil-Morozow with her […]
Bombs, Earthquakes, Tsunamis: Japan and Future Apocalyptic Monstrosity
Apocalyptic thinking seems to be the order of the day lately. As Max Brooks, author of various zombie survival guides has said, “People have apocalypse on the brain right now…. It’s from terrorism, the war, [and] natural disasters like Katrina.” The nation with perhaps the greatest sense of apocalypse is Japan. The devastation wrought in […]
Suvudu: Could a Robot Apocalypse Really Happen?
A piece from an interesting website I found today was appealing. The website is Suvudu, which addresses a variety of topics of interest to TheoFantastique. In this case, Matt Staggs asks, “Could a Robot Apocalypse Really Happen?” In order to answer this he interviews P. W. Singer, author of Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution […]
Can Zombies Be Spiritual?
Today I ran across a book at Barnes & Noble that caused me to connect a few dots and pose a question to myself which I’d like to share with my readers. Please follow along as I draw the dots and put them together. As I looked at the various tables of books in the […]
Martin and Monster Hunting: Can We Return to the Familiarity of the Old World?
I am working my way through Gregory A. Waller’s book The Living and the Undead: Slaying Vampires, Exterminating Zombies (University of Illinois Press, 2010), and came across an interesting quote in relation to the George Romero “vampire” film Martin from 1977. This stylistically self-conscious contemporary story of an American teenage murderer, who may actually be […]
Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies: Lovecraft and Occultism
The latest issue of the online Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies is available, #9 (February 2011). One of the worthwhile essays includes a piece that considers the impact of one of the most significant horror writers on Western esotericism, in an article titled “The Influence of H.P. Lovecraft on Occultism,” by K. R. […]
Program Premier: National Geographic’s Beast Hunter
Surveys indicate that two-thirds of Americans have experienced or believe in various paranormal phenomena. This is evident in the fact that not only do channels like SyFy and the History Channel include documentaries or pseudo-documentaries on the paranormal, but now so does the National Geographic Channel. This will be the case with a new program […]
Jeffrey Kripal – Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal and the Sacred
In my research on the paranormal I was fortunate to come across the work of Jeffrey J. Kripal. Kripal is the J. Newton Rayzor Professor in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University. He is the author of a number of books, which are mentioned below, including Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal and the […]
SyFy’s Face Off: Reality Show of the Fantastic
There aren’t a whole lot of reality shows that are of any interest to me. Our current fascination with pop culture voyeurism is troubling, particularly in regards to some of the reality shows (and their “stars”) that my teenagers find captivating. One recently came to my attention that is worth watching for fans of the […]
