Rise of the Vocaloids

Miku, the synthetic J-Pop Hologram Celebrity who packs thousands of frenzied fans into her venues. 

"Miku's biggest fans show up with wands that can change color with the tap of a button or slider. Colors aren't just generic red-green-yellow; they're specifically tuned to the different characters' shades." 

"You can watch all of the Hatsune Miku videos on YouTube you want, but their 30 or 60 FPS refresh doesn't come close to selling what it's like to see this incredibly rendered vocaloid in the same room."

"More than a few times, I felt like I had been transported to a terrifying, sci-fi dystopia in which citizens had gathered to pay respects to their robotic overlords." 

Ars Technica

http://arstechnica.co.uk/the-multiverse/2016/04/hatsune-miku-review-japanese-hologram-show/

http://www.radiolab.org/story/kpoparazzi/

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#top100 #scifi Num:74 The Difference Engine

Amazon:http://amzn.to/20Ko1cs

The #SteamPunk classic. If Babbage had built his mechanical computer how it could have been...

William Gibson @GreatDismal  AND Bruce Sterling @dbrucehi

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Triangles in the Sky

As the very early universe expanded, driving pairs of virtual particle apart, it left patterns in the distribution of matter.

Astronomers are looking for these 'Non-Gaussianities' of galaxies and galaxy clusters at opposite ends of the universe. They theorize that the distribution of structure at the largest scales will reveal the mechanisms and geometries of the big bang.

http://www.wired.com/2016/04/triangles-sky-tell-story-universes-birth/

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#top100 #scifi Num:75 Neverness

Amazon:http://amzn.to/1VrtBAF
First book in the Requiem for Homo Sapiens series.
Philosophical and subtle. Proper SciFi. Finding humanity in a post-human universe.
Should be read by more people.

David Zindell - @davidzindell - Neverness

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#top100 #scifi Num:76 The Wild

Amazon:http://amzn.to/20Kl7o6
Third installment of David Zindell's Requiem for Homo Sapiens.

David Zindell - @davidzindell - The Wild

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#top100 #scifi Num:77 The Broken God

Amazon:http://amzn.to/22BM8to
Second installment of Zindell's Requiem for Homo Sapiens.

David Zindell - @davidzindell - The Broken God

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Alpha Centauri on a Megawatt rainbow

Cool. We are going to parachute Mobile Phones to Alpha Centauri on beams of light.

A new surge of optimism with Space.
Perhaps people are bored of hopelessness, perhaps it is Elon's reality amplification field or perhaps it's just Spring.

Whatever the reason it is great that people are engaged with our techno destiny.

The Starship:

http://www.wired.com/2016/04/rich-dude-yuri-milner-wants-100-million-mph-laser-powered-satellites-much-ask/

The Conference:

http://www.wired.com/2016/04/far-meeting-rocket-scientists-learn-space/

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Backing up the Hard Drive

Can Elon Musk put a million people on Mars?

All our eggs in one basket is just way too risky.

We need to spread out.

Its not rocket science!

http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/08/how-and-why-spacex-will-colonize-mars.html

Effervescent, optimistic, long and well worth a read.

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#top100 #scifi Num:78 The War in Heaven

Amazon: http://amzn.to/1LWLcbg
Final installment of Zindell's Requiem for Homo Sapiens.

David Zindell - The War in Heaven 

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