the ship of theseus or the trouble with tribbles

As visionary as Star Trek was and continues to be, I wonder if the creators could have guessed at the metaphysical implications of the teleporter, which was dreamed up as a cost-saving measure. The natural consequence of faster than light travel might be transporters, as replicators were to follow, but like the Ship of Theseus—which begs the question how much of a vessel can be replaced before it’s no longer the same or asking whether one can step in the same stream twice (or even once) beaming one’s molecules may not be as straightforward as other forms of telegraphy.
Courtesy Miss Cellania, here’s an interesting primer that explores these quandaries as well as feeling out the technological boundaries and hurdles. When one considers the unsettling fact that this hypothetical technology is probably less magic and more a process of disintegration and reintegration, Doctor McCoy’s grave reluctance to subject to having his atoms scrambled. If only information is relayed, regardless of how flawlessly, and not matter, is an individual still the same person—when moulded from the dander and detritus of one’s new location? What if there’s insufficient or the wrong type of stuff at the target site to remake a whole away-team? Our bodies are far from permanent fixtures and large portions of them are refreshed in short order, though we don’t feel transported for it. Would one die only to be resurrected an instant later in some other place? What about the soul? This is all very disorientating. A functioning transporter might be a factory-psychomanteum for the mechanised production of disembodied spirits. What do you think?

nostromo

Boing Boing directs our attention to the Nigerian graphic design student named Bolaiji Badejo who was cast as H R Giger’s aggressive Alien after being spotted in a public house in London by one of the film’s scouts. Visit Boing Boing for the full interview and more about this accidental actor, including a rather surreal screen test for director Ridley Scott, whose uncelebrated and one-off performance launched a franchise and left an iconic legacy.

33⅓

The brilliance that is Dangerous Minds invites us to indulge what has to be one of the most convoluted and esoteric 9/11 conspiracy theories out there, holding that the a cabal of the masonic orders used the album cover art of Supertramp’s 1979 release of “Breakfast in America” to reveal and prepare society for an engineered event that would take place twenty two years later.
Such “predictive programming” is the mainstay of the puppet-masters who’ll leave devious clues (that are only woefully apparent in hind-sight) to outline their forward-planning. Studying the cover, it becomes painfully obvious how the view from the airplane window with the mysterious reversal of the band’s name is to be a subliminal message—a nine and an eleven, and Libby the Waitress posing as the Statue of Liberty suddenly turns sinister. Check out the link above for more intriguing details and an addled entreaty from the original truth-seekers.

warp pipes

When I got stuck in Saint Louis during a blizzard years and years ago, I remember inquiring at one of the ticket counters where I might arrange a taxi ride into town to do some exploring until the inclement weather let up.
They discouraged me taking a taxi and told me to just take the “Rapid” or “Raptor” (not hearing properly) and pointed me to the terminal. I figured out this was a light rail metro quickly, but was not sure what to expect, perhaps that flying pterodactyl airliner that the Flintstones had. These delightful mass transit maps of American and Canadian cities by Dave Delisle re-imagined as the levels of Super Mario Brothers 2 reminded me of that introduction to Saint Louis (although being just a straight line from the airport and the suburbs into downtown, probably would not be conducive to the same treatment but who knows, perhaps Yoshi could shuttle visitors and commuters down that path).  Check out more maps at the link above, via Neatorama.

linnaean gardens

Though there a lot of bootstrap applications and gadgets that are quite clever ideas and things we would hope worked as advertised, I suspect there’s no small measure of magical-thinking bundled in with some of the magic wands in our quiver.
We’ve forgotten what “as seen on t.v.” or “sold in Europe for years” means nowadays. This one platform, featured on Mental Floss, however, shows promise to deliver: an application that helps budding botanists and landscapers identify a plant by taking a picture of its flowers or leaves. A consortium of French research institutions have put facial recognition algorithms to a more benign and beknighted use and even invites users to improve their results with feedback and further field work. One can find this free app and more information at the top link above.