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Category Archives: New Utopia

The Media Store: Does the growth of AI signal utopia or dystopia for … – Marketing magazine Australia

Posted: September 11, 2023 at 12:14 pm

Brands face enormous uncertainty in the wake of the AI revolution, but a new report by The Media Store suggests this technology can be leveraged to enhance value for customers and promote efficiency.

The report, commissioned by research and strategy agency The Media Store, considers AIs capabilities to reimagine the media landscape if brands embrace the benefits offered by the new technology and minimise the threats it presents, like job displacement.

Brands should be honest about the implementation and use of AI within the business, in order to offset customer concerns about privacy and misinformation, the report found.

Improved service, better products, and increased personalisation are just three of the myriad benefits artificial intelligence presents.

The Media Store chief strategy officer Sam Cousins says brands must carefully embrace AI.

The AI landscape is rapidly evolving and brands need to start thinking about how theyre going to navigate the AI landscape, he says.

Its definitely a balancing act, businesses need to find a way to harness AIs immeasurable possibilities, against wide-held customer concerns around privacy and transparency. Brands need to start thinking about their messaging and their own objectives around AI to ensure they continue to engage and resonate with their audience.

Customer concerns surround the prospect of AI triggering mass job displacement and the sustainability of the job market.

However, automation may present new jobs and possibilities as it displaces others. The World Economic Forum estimates that within five years AI will have replaced some 85 million jobs with 97 million new ones.

And many brands are already successfully using AI within their daily operations, particularly in content creation and creative enhancements, copywriting, messaging optimisation and automation of repetitive tasks like data collection.

By allowing agencies to create high-quality content swiftly and efficiently, AI frees time to amplify human creativity and innovation.

Chatbots and virtual agents can enhance customer support and leave more complex tasks that require empathy and problem solving to employees.

By harnessing AIs capabilities, agencies can help shape a media landscape thats brimming with possibilities, the report says.

With brands and agencies at the coalface of the AI revolution, now is the time to control the narrative, reassure concerned customers and embrace the opportunities offered by new technologies.

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MIPCOM Cannes to host world premiere screening of Concordia – Prensario Internacional

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MIPCOM CANNES, Beta Film and ZDF Studios have announced the world premiere of the highly anticipated surveillance drama Concordia, produced by Beta Films and ZDF Studios joint venture Intaglio Films, at the forthcoming 39th International Co-Production & Entertainment Content Market MIPCOM (October 16-19) in Cannes.

The special screening will take place on Tuesday October 17 at 18.00 in the world-famous Grand Auditorium at Cannes Palais des Festivals and is open to all market delegates. The premiere is followed by a Q&A with multiple Primetime Emmy Award winner, Showrunner and Executive Producer Frank Doelger (Game of Thrones, The Swarm, John Adams, Rome), and cast members including International Emmy Award winner Christiane Paul (Counterpart, In July) and Ruth Bradley (Ted Lasso, Humans).

Powered by AI surveillance, Concordia is the town of the future and on the verge of expansion when twin catastrophes strike: the first ever murder and a hack of its AI tech. A team race to solve both crimes but, in doing so, uncover a shocking original sin that could bring everythingcrumbling down.

The world of Concordia is created by Mike Walden (The Frankenstein Chronicles, U Want Me 2 Kill Him) and Nicholas Racz (The Burial Society, The Real Thing).

The six-parter, produced by Intaglio Films for ZDF, France TV, Hulu Japan, and MBC is shot in English across various European locations, including Rome, Gothenburg, and Leipzig. Concordia is jointly distributed globally by Beta Film and ZDF Studios and follows their collaboration on The Swarm, released to critical acclaim earlier this year.

Christiane Paul stars as Juliane, the visionary behind the new utopia, together with Steven Sowah (For Jojo, Before We Grow Old), who plays her son Noah, the ambassador in charge of expanding the experiment. Ruth Bradley takes on the role of Thea, an external investigator, who joins up with Isabelle, played by Nanna Blondell (Black Widow, House of the Dragon), to uncover secrets which led to Concordias creation. Kento Nakajima (Detective Novice, She was Pretty), one of Japans top actors, stars as A.J., the 27-year-old Japanese wunderkind and head of the AI system that is the beating heart of Concordia.

Jonas Nay (Line of Separation, Deutschland 83), Ahd Kamel (Collateral, Honour), Hugo Becker (Baron Noir, Leonardo), Josphine Jobert (Death in Paradise, Summer Crush), Alba Beluggi (The Swarm, Into the Night), Karoline Eichhorn (Dark) and Maeve Metelka (Unorthodox) complete the main cast.

Written by Nicholas Racz, Isla van Tricht, and Mike Walden, Executive Producers along side Frank Doelger are Ute Leonhardt, Rafferty Thwaites, Jan Wnschmann, and Robert Franke. Producers are Tobias Gerginov, Elle Raspin, Jacob Glass, and Sergio Ercolessi. Concordia is supported by Mittel deutsche Medien frderung, Medien board Berlin-Brandenburg and Trentino Film Commission.

Concordia contains all the compelling components for a MIPCOM world premiere, said Lucy Smith, Director, MIPCOM CANNES. a pan-European backdrop with a plot that plays to contemporary concerns, arriving with huge anticipation following the partners success with The Swarm. It was launched first at MIPCOM last year and its our privilege to host its World Premiere in Cannes twelve months on.

Jan Wnschmann & Robert Franke, Managing Directors Intaglio Films: We are immensely proud to celebrate the world premiere of our exciting surveillance thriller Concordia at MIPCOM in Cannes. Building on the global success of Intaglio's first high-end series The Swarm, this new, captivating, and thought-provoking series will grant audiences a glimpse into what seems like a bold new world, where technology and its potential for abuse converge. Working alongside multiple Emmy-awarded Frank Doelger, our Creative Director at Intaglio Films, a team of talented creatives from around the world, and our great partners ZDF, France TV, Hulu Japan, and MBC to bring this story to life has been an enormously collaborative and delightful experience.

More than 260 exhibitors from over 40 countries are confirmed to date for MIPCOM CANNES the mother of all entertainment content markets in 2023. Riviera exhibition halls and outdoor Croisette beach exhibition areas are sold out with a line-up comprising major studios, production and distribution groups (including All3Media International, Amazon MGM Studios Distribution, Banijay Rights, BBC Studios, BETA Film, FOX Entertainment Global, NBCUniversal International, Paramount Global Content Distribution, Federation Studios, France tv distribution, Fremantle, Global Screen, ITV Studios, The Mediapro Studio, Mediawan, Movistar+, Red Arrow Studios International, STUDIOCANAL, The Walt Disney Company, Warner Bros. Discovery and ZDF Studios amongst many others). In all, 11 000 global buyers, commissioners, creatives and producers are set to attend the worlds greatest gathering of TV and entertainment executives.

MIP JUNIOR also returns to the JW Marriott at the weekend heading into MIPCOM CANNES (Oct 13-15) with a brand-new half-day pre-opening program beginning at 2pm on Friday (Oct 13).

The week-long MIPCOM CANNES conference programme helps define the TV industry year with keynotes from leading global players and thought leaders in addition to screenings of highly anticipated series and exclusive insight presentations. An overview of the Conference Programme schedule can be found here.

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The Best New Cruise Ships Coming in 2024 – Cruise Critic

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Thrill Island Royal Caribbean Icon of the Seas

The hype for Royal Caribbean's newest ship, Icon of the Seas, has been building for a long time with record-breaking sales -- and in January 2024, the latest class from the line will debut. The 7,600-passenger vessel promises to be a showstopper, especially the new glass-covered AquaDome. This 82-feet-by-164-feet space will feature 600 panes of glass and contain a signature AquaTheater, as well as restaurants and Royal's first food hall, the AquaDome Market.

While adrenaline junkies are setting their sights on Thrill Island, with the Category 6 waterpark full of slides and an over-the-water obstacle course, we're more excited about Icon's newest laid-back neighborhood. Chill Island boasts four of the ship's seven pools, including Swim & Tonic, Royal's first swim-up bar at sea, and the Cove Pool, which has an infinity edge to the ocean. We're also looking forward to The Hideaway -- cruising's first suspended infinity pool rising 135 feet above the ocean.

The Dome on Princess Cruises Sun Princess (Princess Cruises)

Princess Cruises is also debuting something completely different in the 4,000-passenger Sun Princess, the first of the line's Sphere-class ships, slated for February 2024. Families in particular should look forward to a slew of new features for young ones and teens in an area called Park19. The ship is debuting the first rollglider at sea, Sea Breeze -- an electric ride that goes up to 11 mph. The area will also have a ropes course and Coastal Climb, an obstacle-course-meets-ladder adventure spanning two decks.

Those who enjoy the suite life will want to check out two new types of suites: the Signature Collection and the Reserve Collection. These new suite categories come with their own perks. The Signature Collection suites have their own restaurant, lounge and sun deck. The Reserve Collection suites include the former Club Class cabins that are on existing Princess ships, as well as new Cabana cabins that have access to a private sundeck and whirlpool, as well as a Reserve Collection restaurant.

Grand Suite on Cunard's Queen Anne

Cunarders love tradition, but they have also been waiting a long time for a new ship from the grande dame line. The 12-year drought ends in May 2024, with the introduction of the 3,000-passenger Queen Anne.

What's exciting about Queen Anne is how much the line is shaking things up on the culinary front. The line has partnered with two-Michelin-starred chef Michel Roux to develop a new menu for the ship's Queens Grill, as well as the Golden Lion pub. The ship will also have a new restaurant with outdoor dining, Tramonto, with a Mediterranean-inspired menu.

While the Golden Lion and Tramonto are included restaurants, Queen Anne will have three new specialty restaurants: Aji Wa, a Japanese restaurant with sushi and an omakase tasting menu; Aranya, a new Indian restaurant; and Sir Samuels, a high-end steakhouse.

Rendering of the poolside food truck on Utopia of the Seas (Photo/Royal Caribbean)

Icon of the Seas isn't the only headline-grabber for Royal Caribbean in 2024. The 6,700-passenger Utopia of the Seas follows the line's crowd-pleasing Oasis-class layout in July with the signature Central Park and Boardwalk neighborhoods, as well as the Ultimate Abyss slide.

That's not to say that Utopia will be a carbon copy of its sister ships. A new immersive restaurant, centered around the concept of being on a train, is being developed. What's also unique for the ship is that it will focus on short three- and four-day itineraries from its Port Canaveral homeport -- meaning you'll never be able to see it all in one trip.

Aladdin sculpture in Grand Hall on Disney Treasure (Photo: Disney Cruise Line)

A sister ship to Disney Wish, the 4,000-passenger Disney Treasure puts Aladdin in the spotlight, along with a theme of adventure. New venues onboard the ship include an interactive dining experience called Plaza de Coco, based on the movie "Coco;" Jumbeaux's Sweet Shop which takes its inspiration from "Zootopia" and adults-only lounges that are based on Disney theme park attractions.

Kids will delight in the AquaMouse slide, which has a new MIckey and Minnie-themed adventure story as well as two casual cafes named for the princesses Moana and Mulan.

Disney Treasure's inaugural cruise will be December 21, 2024.

A rendering of Silversea's Silver Nova (Illustration: Silversea)

The second of Silversea's Nova-class ships, the 728-passenger Silver Ray will mimic its sister Silver Nova with an asymmetrical design that puts more focus on the ocean. The star on these ships is the revamped pool deck, which puts sea views front and central. While many of Silversea's favorite restaurants are onboard Silver Ray, what's most exciting in this class of ship is the relocated S.A.L.T. Lab, where the culinary adventurous can spring for a 14-course tasting menu.

Another standout on this class: the Otium spa and new Otium suites at the back of the ship. All cabins come with butler service, a Silversea trademark, and one that makes you feel truly indulged. Silver Ray debuts in July 2024.

Explora II aft view (rendering)

Following a successful launch in 2023, Explora Journeys will launch its second luxury ship, the 922-passenger Explora II, in August 2024. Expect the same features that have wowed guests so far, including a stunning lobby bar; gorgeous pools and an array of dining options that include an unlimited raw bar in the ship's Emporium Marketplace.

Built by the MSC Group as its luxury offering (making it a sister to MSC Cruises), Explora Journeys aims to bring the upscale vibe off the ship too. Excursions are called "experiences," and from what we've seen so far, they do have offerings that go beyond the same old, same old. Another nice touch: Families are welcome on Explora II, a rare outreach on a luxury cruise line.

Renderings for Ritz Carlton ships Ilma and Luminara (Photo/Ritz Carlton Yacht Collection)

The luxury hotel brand Ritz-Carlton made waves in 2022 when it launched its first cruise ship, Evrima. The next ship in its fleet, Ilma, aims to do more of the same -- on a bigger scale. The 456-passenger ship is significantly larger than Evrima, which only held 298 guests.

What won't change on Ilma is the luxury-minded crew-to-passenger ratio. Also expect the same yacht atmosphere, along with fine dining options and an expanded marina area. Ritz Carlton Yacht Collection is another line that welcomes families, although the Ritz Kids program does come with a fee.

The trees in Wintergarden resemble Yggdrassil from Norse mythology (Photo: Jorge Oliver)

Viking's ocean ships have been reliably similar since the company started launching them in 2015. Viking Vela will break that mold when it arrives, as it will be slightly larger and carry 998 passengers. The extra space is being dedicated to an additional 17 cabins -- all rooms on Viking's ocean ships have views -- as well as storage space for additional technical equipment.

Size aside, don't expect too much of Viking's award-winning formula to change. The Scandinavian design ethic will be present, along with fantastic restaurants and a thermal spa that are all included in the fare.

American Cruise Lines' rendering for American Glory and American Eagle (Photo/American Cruise Lines)

American Cruise Lines introduced a new type of vessel to its fleet in 2023 -- 100-passenger coastal catamarans designed to travel the U.S. Two more of these small ships will debut in 2024: American Liberty and American Legend. Eventually the line plans to have 12 of these unique ships.

The itineraries really set these ships apart, as they are able to not only sail on some of America's rivers, they will visit islands off the U.S. coast such as Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard and the Florida Keys and places such as Chesapeake Bay.

Great Sphinx of Giza, Giza Plateau, West Bank of the Nile, Giza, Egypt (Photo: Anton_Ivanov/Shutterstock)

Just when you thought there was nothing new in river cruising, AmaWaterways is shaking things up by not only building new ships, but developing itineraries in an entirely new country and river. The Magdalena River in Colombia will play host to a new river ship in November 2024: the 60-passenger AmaMagdalena.

AmaWaterways is also expanding its presence on the Nile River in Egypt. The 82-passenger AmaLilia will join AmaDahlia to offer itineraries that begin with a pre-cruise stay in Cairo before joining the ship in Luxor for a roundtrip sail.

Avalon Alegria Panorama Suite (Rendering: Avalon Waterways)

Avalon is bringing its style of river cruise ship to Portugal's Douro River in 2024, with the 102-passenger Avalon Alegria. The ship will have Avalon's signature Panorama Suites, where the bed faces the river.

Another staple of Avalon: excursions that are fall into different categories of Classic, Discovery and Active. Among some of the tours that have been revealed: a guided bike ride along the quaysides of the Douro in Porto; .food and wine tastings, learning to bake traditional Portuguese pastries and a visit to one of the Douro Valleys oldest farms with a stop to sample local foods. The line is also planning a hands-on craft class where passengers can join a professional painter to create one of the traditional blue and white azulejos tiles seen throughout Portugal.

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Bioshock: 10 Pieces of Important Lore New Players Need to Know – CBR – Comic Book Resources

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The BioShock franchise is well-regarded for its combination of complex, in-depth narratives with exploratory first-person shooter mechanics. The franchise comprises three titles: the original BioShock and BioShock 2 both take place in the underwater city of Rapture, while the third and most recent installment, BioShock Infinite, takes place in Columbia, a flying city high up in the clouds.

These iconic titles broke boundaries around the types of stories typically told in video games, especially in first-person shooters, and they have earned a reputation among the gaming community as some of the best in their genre. Due to their continued praise and acclaim, the BioShock games continue to attract new players despite their age.

RELATED: 10 Most Important Pieces Of Halo Lore New Players Need to Know

All three BioShock games take place in the past. BioShock is set in 1960, and the events of Bioshock 2 happen eight years later in 1968. Despite being a later release, BioShock Infinite's story is set even further back in 1912. Each game references real-world historical events, either subtly or explicitly, throughout their storylines.

However, these references do not mean that the BioShock games are set in the version of history that audiences are familiar with. The settings for these titles are alternate histories, where certain events happened differently than they did in reality, altering the course of time and resulting in further differences from real-world history.

Though the BioShock series is set in the past, the scientific and technological advancements available in Rapture and Columbia are far beyond even what modern real-world developments are capable of. Rapture has the gene-altering addictive substances ADAM and EVE that allow its citizens to effectively gain superpowers and capable robotics to enhance their security system, not to mention the technology it would take to construct a sustainably functional city so far underwater.

Columbia, similarly, has tonics called vigors that temporarily imbue the player with various combat abilities, such as levitating enemies, throwing flaming projectiles and creating an energy shield to block incoming attacks. In terms of technology, Columbia's police force features cybernetically enhanced soldiers known as Handymen and security automatons similar to the robots found in Rapture.

RELATED: 10 Darkest Sci-Fi Video Games, Ranked

Rapture, the setting for the first two BioShock games, was founded by Andrew Ryan, based on his ideal of a society where neither governmental nor religious influences could put limitations or regulations on the people's work. Ryan famously asked, "Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow?" Rapture was his answer to that question, a laissez-faire society where one would own only what they produced and earned.

As a result, every element of Rapture ran on a strict capitalistic system. Even the police and firefighters would not work unless the citizens who needed them paid the correct fees. These policies led to a culture of extreme individualism, where everyone looked out only for themselves.

One of the more science-fiction elements of BioShock's world is the introduction of ADAM and EVE. At some point in the late 1940s or early 1950s, one of Rapture's scientists discovered that material from a previously undiscovered sea slug could be refined into a substance called ADAM.

ADAM, when used alongside its byproduct, EVE, allowed the user to rewrite their genetic code and empower them with untold enhancements or abilities. However, it had dangerous side effects of slowly degrading the user's DNA over time, forcing them to use more and more to remain healthy. Significantly prolonged use and withdrawals both led to potential mutation and insanity.

Since the sea slugs alone couldn't produce an appropriate amount of ADAM for consumer use, further experimentation was conducted. These experiments revealed when the slugs were placed in the stomachs of living hosts, the resulting amount of ADAM was exponentially higher. However, young girls were the only subjects capable of serving as viable long-term hosts.

As a result, the Little Sisters were created to produce more ADAM and to harvest it from the dead as the population's addiction worsened. They also became targets for those who turned to violence to feed their ADAM addictions, leading to the creation of the Big Daddies. These eerie young girls and their steampunk guardians are among the most memorable images from the BioShock universe.

Despite his commitment to his ideals, Andrew Ryan's utopia couldn't last forever. Although he controlled Rapture's most widespread and successful corporation, a challenger arose. Frank Fontaine, the founder of Fontaine Futuristics, took advantage of Rapture's entirely unregulated market to rise to power through funding the research and production of ADAM, alongside the suspected smuggling of goods from the surface world.

Fontaine's competition and criminal enterprises enraged Ryan, leading him to seize Fontaine's company and imprison his allies. This violation of his strongly professed belief in non-interference caused conflict among the citizens of Rapture and contributed to its social collapse. When the player arrives in Rapture, the city is nearing the end of a violent uprising, and many of its systems are in shambles.

RELATED: The 10 Worst Video Game Cities To Live In, Ranked

The flying city of Columbia in BioShock Infinite wasn't always hidden among the clouds, isolated from the rest of the world. Though Zachary Comstock supported the creation of Columbia and would eventually become its leader, he did not found it. The American government used Rosalind Lutece's discoveries to build Columbia and launch it at the 1893 World's Fair.

Columbia remained a part of the United States until the early 1900s. In 1901, Columbia's forces violently intervened in the Boxer Rebellion without orders from the government. This revelation of their combat abilities and willingness to act without orders caused outrage, and their actions eventually led to Columbia seceding from the Union in 1902.

When Columbia left the United States, Zachary Comstock took his place as its de facto leader. The people had rallied behind him during the conflicts that led to secession and followed him unflinchingly when Columbia disappeared into the stratosphere, isolated from the rest of the world.

Comstock established religious nationalism as the norm for Columbia, elevating himself as a direct connection to divinity through the veneration of the American Found Fathers: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin. Through preaching and prophecy, Comstock made himself and his family the unquestionable, divinely appointed leaders of Columbia.

Though it's designed to appear as a neo-classical paradise, Columbia contains a violent world full of despair for those who don't meet established social requirements. Many of Columbia's values are centered on racial supremacy and classism. Part of the rift that formed between Columbia and the United States was due to the outlawing of slavery.

RELATED: 10 Best Video Game DystopiasMinorities faced a dismal fate in Columbia, forced into indentured servitude or outright slavery and dehumanized by the majority of the population. Beyond the realm of colorful Americana that is Columbia's streets lie dingy slums and sweatshop factories where the poor and oppressed suffer under Comstock's regime.

Many players, initially, don't understand how Bioshock Infinite can be a part of the same series as BioShock and BioShock 2. Though they have different protagonists, BioShock and BioShock 2 both take place in the same setting, but BioShock Infinite does not.

While there are a lot of differences between the worlds of Rapture and Columbia, the BioShock games do comprise a cohesive series, the throughline just requires a more comprehensive understanding. The BioShock series is intertwined and interconnected through a few different factors. One is the series' philosophy on alternate realities and multiple universes. This concept is part of why Bioshock and BioShock Infinite's opening sequences are so similar.

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8 Best Bagels in New York City – Eat This, Not That

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The product recommendations in this post are recommendations by the writer and/or expert(s) interviewed and do not contain affiliate links. Meaning: If you use these links to buy something, we will not earn a commission.

If ever there was a city regarded as a culinary epicenter, it's New York City, a metropolis known worldwide for its steakhouses, its pizza, its celebrity chefs, and its award-winning restaurants. But topping that list of famous foods is the humble bagel, a breakfast tradition that's spawned hordes of bakeries and cafes across the city, and insights impassioned debates about which bagel shop makes the best.

Sure, bagels are not exactly a rarity. They can be found in chain restaurants, with fast-food breakfast sandwiches, and even iat your local Walmart. But real-deal, New York-style bagels? You gotta visit a real-deal bagel shop in NYC to scratch that itch.

Considering the surplus of bagel places throughout the sprawling city, though, it can be hard to narrow down the bagel bucket list. That's why we asked chefs who know the city well to recommend the best bagels in town.

One of the bagel shops that gets widespread praise is Absolute Bagels, a frills-free joint that ranks as the favorite for James Tracey, chef of Monterey Brasserie in New York City, as well as a go-to for Mark Welker. The latter is currently the executive chef and culinary director of Paradisaea in San Diego, but previously spent years in New York, working as the pastry chef at Eleven Madison Park and The NoMad.

For him, Absolute Bagels is nostalgia done right. "One of my first apartments was in Morningside Heights on 113th and Amsterdam. This was my go-to spot, and the bagels just happened to be amazing." He raves about the shop's "more traditional NYC sandwich offerings" and the everything bagels in particular, and since the owners are Thai, he loves that you can also get a Thai iced tea.

RELATED: 8 Best Slices of Pizza in NYC, According to Chefs

Another bagel brand that doubles up on praise is Black Seed Bagels, a local burgeoning mini chain that skews contemporary with its craft and its flavors. For Chris Arellanes, corporate executive chef of KYU NYC, it's Black Seed all the way. "My go-to is a toasted everything bagel with lox spread," he says. "The best part about this place is you can never tell which side is the top of the bagel because both sides are evenly doused in whatever seasoning you choose. The lox adds a salty, smokey flavor to the cream cheese, and when generously spread on that toasted, crusty everything bagel, it's truly a religious experience."

Michael Gallina agrees. The current co-owner and chef of Take Root Hospitality in St. Louis, he honed his love for Black Seed Bagels while working in New York as the chef de cuisine of Blue Hill at Stone Barns. "There's nothing better than going to Black Seed Bagels in Soho when I'm in town in the spring time for their ramp cream cheese on an everything bagel," he says. "I love the chewiness and flavor of their wood-fired technique." 6254a4d1642c605c54bf1cab17d50f1e

Open since 1976, Ess-a-Bagel has long been a pioneer on that bagel front, and it remains one of the foremost destinations in the city for a good ol' fashioned bagel done right. Chefs like Freddy Vargas, from the new Virgin Hotels NYC and its restaurant Everdene, is a big fan. "If you're in NYC, you have to start your morning with Ess-a-Bagel," explains the chef. "My go-to is an everything bagel with cream cheese and bacon. This one is the perfect combination of crunchy and softa true New York bagel."

Another advocate of the everything bagel at Ess-a-Bagel is Jack Logue, chef atThe Lambs Club in NYC, which he customizes with lox, cream cheese, and avocado.

RELATED: 10 Best Steakhouses in New York City

With a handful of locations scattered around town, and a strong reputation for smoked fish, hand-rolled bagels, and perfectly stacked sandwiches, Zucker's Bagels commands quite the following. Just ask Jason Krantz, chef of Smyth Tavern, located right next door to their TriBeca location. "Our neighbor,Zuckers Bagels, is serving some of the best hand-rolled bagels in New York City," he proclaims. In fact, he loves the Zucker's bacon, egg, and cheese bagel so much that he started a collaboration: "We combined their bacon, egg, and cheese bagel with our Smyth Tavern signature sauce to make the ultimatebreakfast treat."

In Queens, Utopia Bagels is the type of business that lives up to its heavenly name. The shop is the number one favorite for Welker, who applauds the company for baking bagels continuously all day and ensuring each and every order is hot and fresh. "They have a nice hard crunch on the outside and are super soft andchewy on the inside," Welker says. "Their sandwiches are also stellar and non-traditional as well." His recommendation: the chicken cordon bleu sandwich.

RELATED: 7 Best Cheesesteaks in Philadelphia, According to Chefs

One of the most famed delis and bagel destinations in New York City is one that exceeds the hype. Another favorite for Welker, Russ & Daughters Cafe is an institution with a well-earned reputation for bagel supremacy. Even though he may prefer bagels at Utopia, he notes that Russ & Daughters serves his favorite bagel sandwich: the Super Heebster with whitefish and salmon salad, wasabi flying fish roe, and horseradishdill cream cheese.

You know a bagel is good when you serve them at your sons' bris. That's exactly what Leah Cohen, head chef of Pig & Khao and Piggyback NYC, did for her sons' bris ceremonies, serving bagels from her favorite place in town, Tompkins Square Bagels. "My go-to order is an everything bagel with scallion cream cheese," she says. "If I'm feeling extra hungry, I'll get the everything bagel with smoked salmon, tomato, onion, capers, and scallion cream cheese. They are truly my favorite bagels."

RELATED: The #1 Sandwich to Order at Every Major Fast-Food Chain, According to Chefs

For some of the best bagels in New York City, you may need to cross the river to Jersey City. That's according to Ari Bokovza, chef of New York's Dagon, who prefers Wonder Bagels for its "classic, doughy, gut bomb" bagels. But if he's looking for more inventive taste, he's another fan of Black Seed Bagels, too.

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Luxon doubles down on bed tax opposition | Crux – Local News … – Crux News

Posted: at 12:14 pm

National leader Christoper Luxon confirmed today his party would not introduce a bed tax to fund infrastructure in Queenstown Lakes, despite the mayor and local councillors questioning his reasoning.

In a statement to Crux today, Mr Luxon says National does not support a regionally-targeted tourist tax whilst New Zealand is in a cost-of-living crisis and attracting fewer visitors.

Tourist numbers are still not where they were pre-Covid so lumping an extra tax on international and domestic visitors, when travelling is already expensive, does not make sense, Mr Luxon says.

Instead of asking holidayers to help fund tourism infrastructure, Mr Luxon says his party will establish a National Infrastructure Agency.

It will deliver the infrastructure New Zealand and sectors like tourism need to grow, he says.

Mr Luxon first declared his lack of support for a bed tax while in Queenstown last Thursday, announcing new tourism-growth plans for New Zealand.

Mayor Glyn Lewers says he would very much push back on the cost-of-living argument, as the alternative to funding tourism-related infrastructure in the district is to target ratepayers.

He says increasing rates would have more impact during a cost-of-living crisis, calling Mr Luxons stance a pretty shallow argument.

This year, Mr Lewers and council chief executive Mike Theelen have been attempting to reignite tourism levy conversations that started in 2019 and were shelved during the pandemic. An initial proposal pitched in 2019 had support from 81 percent of ratepayers.

Suggested was a five percent charge added to the cost of accommodation in the district, and Mr Lewers says a targeted rate like that would be around the same price for visitors as getting a cup of coffee in Queenstown.

Mayor Glyn Lewers pushed back on the cost of living argument as the alternative was to ask the district's ratepayers to foot the bill for tourism infrastructure.

He says no matter who gets into government next month, there will be hard choices as to how to fund infrastructure in Queenstown Lakes.

Cruxs previous coverage of Nationals new tourism-growth package and local responses to it have generated a local and central government stoush on social media.

Local National MP Joseph Mooney is advocating for his party and its fresh plans for tourism, which include a new Great Walk in Canterbury, e-bike chargers on the NZ Cycle Trail, longer-term Department of Conservation concessions, and "eliminating" consents for existing infrastructure upgrades and new infrastructure, and streamlining building consents to cut compliance costs.

He also vouched for the idea of the National Infrastructure Agency, saying it would work with local councils such as that of the Queenstown Lakes that have low ratepayer bases and high visitor numbers to ensure they can access the finance they need for local projects.

But Queenstown Lakes councillor Niki Gladding says the infrastructure agency and its funding mechanisms sound vague, while deputy mayor Quentin Smith likens the infrastructure plans to an episode of Utopia.

While your statement might sound good there is no detail and zero understanding of the financial and carbon costs of your policiesjust a comforting-sounding statement that basically says youll work it out later, was how Ms Gladding put her counter-argument.

Ms Gladding says plans to grow tourism in the district in spite of the sentiment expressed by local players in the destination management plan, in addition to National's policy of letting foreign buyers back into the residential housing market at the $2-million level are tone deaf proposals and exacerbate Queenstown Lakes' key issues.

Labour took a we know best, one size fits all approach and, at this point, National is doing the same.

Mr Smith says while some of the new proposals are nice, on a whole they don't "really deal with the core of our problems.

The online comments follow an interview with Crux, where the deputy mayor responded to Mr Luxon's tourism announcement saying the opposition to a bed tax did not make sense in relation to a cost-of-living argument.

Main image: National leader Christopher Luxon and party tourism spokesperson and Southland MP Joseph Mooney last week revealed their plans to build back tourism if elected to government next month.

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Indie Film: Midcoast film festival keeps building on an impressive … – Press Herald

Posted: at 12:14 pm

44 North, 70 West becomes the center of the documentary community for the next few days. Ben Fowlie, executive and creative director, Points North Institute.

In case youre not up on your longitude and latitude, that makes Maines Midcoast towns of Camden and Rockland the most important locations in the movie world this week. The annual return of the Camden International Film Festival, taking place Thursday through Sunday, has always been a major stop on the nonfiction film festival circuit. But now, as Fowlie makes the airtight case, in its 19th season, its ready to take on the world. Or at least bring the entire movie world here to Maine.

Our festival reputation has grown, Fowlie said. Industry people are calling us a key stop on the fall festival tour, and were using that as leverage to place a spotlight on the incredible talent throughout the nonfiction filmmaking community, outside the United States and in. At the same time, we want to ensure that filmmakers and audiences have a place to ask, What is nonfiction film, and where is it going?

Camden International Film Festival is truly one of a kind when it comes to celebrating the limitless possibilities of a genre too often thought of as simple documentation. Said Fowlie, We at Points North are focused on advancing the artistry of nonfiction film. Pointing to one of CIFFs two opening-night films, director Martn Benchimols Argentinian film, El Castillo, Fowlie extols the way the documentary melds form and content into a whole new cinematic shape.

Its about a woman whod been the housekeeper for a wealthy family who inherits their mansion in Argentina, with the stipulation that she can never part with it. And how, as the giant house deteriorates, it becomes like an anchor. But its really about the beautiful relationship between a mother and daughter, and about how Argentinas history and modernization exist side by side. Youll go see it and scratch your head, thinking how much of this really happened and didnt. But that will be secondary to how much you love these women and how you cant believe you got to spend 80 minutes with them. Its gorgeously shot and truly cinema at its best.

Camden International Film Festival is like that. Audiences walk into one of the festivals three exceptional venues (the Camden Opera House, the Strand Theatre, and Points Norths pop-up waterfront theater, Journeys End) and come out seeing the world and the art of documentary in a completely different way. Excited to share this years impressive and dizzyingly eclectic slate of nearly 70 features and shorts with CIFFs always receptive crowds, Fowlie promises, Fundamentally, we present documentaries. But were always trying to be one step ahead in order to bring audiences and the industry along. In presenting this work, we want to engage, but its also about moving the thought process forward and broadening the understanding of the form together.

Looking over CIFFs ever-impressive 2023 lineup is all about getting pulled into one singularly fascinating world after another. Madeleine Gavins Beyond Utopia, another opening-night feature, follows the harrowing journey of one extended family who makes the perilous decision to escape from infamously authoritarian North Korea, a more straightforward nonfiction tale that Fowlie promises is as gripping and moving as any fictional Hollywood thriller. The winner of Sundance Film Festivals Audience Award, the film will be marking only its third U.S. screening at CIFF, with Fowlie noting that, among the festivals many visiting filmmakers and subjects this year, the post-show guests here will make for a once-in-a-lifetime audience experience. Not to give anything away, but this will be one of the most emotional experiences people will ever have had at the cinema.

As always, I set Fowlie the task of plucking out a few personal favorites from CIFFs carefully curated roster of films. Its a tough job, especially since, as Fowlie explained, The number and quality of submissions just gets larger and better every year. It really makes our job harder. Still, Fowlie is game, first pointing to the sure crowd-pleaser In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon, from Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney. At a mighty three-and-a-half hours, the film chronicles the now 81-year-old music legends life and career as he works to complete his latest studio album, Seven Psalms. Said Fowlie of this U.S premiere, Its just super-special, and were thrilled that our audiences will be some of the first in the country to see it.

Delving deeper into the stylistic adventurousness CIFF seeks to foster is Vlad Petries Between Revolutions, a cross-cultural conversation between two women who may, or may not, have ever existed. Said Fowlie, Its really about the power of the archive. Two fictional characters, one in Tehran and one in Bucharest, both in periods of national turmoil, begin a letter-writing relationship. The filmmaker is scripting a narrative from archives that exist in a certain place and time. What emerges is a poetic desire for hope, fear and joy while being in the midst of a struggle, and this is just one film this year that shows how archives can become time capsules for forgotten, erased, or stolen histories.

Iconic nonfiction filmmaker Errol Morris new film, The Pigeon Tunnel, sees the director matching wits with legendary spy novelist (and former spy) John le Carr. As Fowlie notes, Its Errol at his finest. At times, you dont know who is interviewing who, what is real and what is not. Its just a beautiful dance between these two deeply intellectually curious people.

The ongoing war in Ukraine perhaps inevitably forms a running theme in this years festival, with Karim Amers Defiant and Vitaly Manskiys Eastern Front (both in U.S. premieres) providing two very different but equally intense depictions of a country under siege. Defiant is about the politics behind building support for Ukraines fight against the Russian invasion and Russias disinformation campaign. Eastern Front is on the ground and in the trenches, jumping between the helmet cam of co-director Yevhen Titarenko, a civilian volunteer medic and long, beautiful shots of the volunteers and their families swimming, eating and talking about what they imagine for Ukraine after the war.

And these are just a taste of what promises to be another stunner of a Camden International Film Festival. (Ill throw in a plug for Mainer Ian Cheneys ruminative and delightfully eccentric The Arc of Oblivion, which I wrote about in July.) As Fowlie puts it of Points Norths ongoing mission (which has seen the organization hand out over $400,000 in funding to filmmakers this year alone), We give unrestricted grants to filmmakers at various stages in their careers so they can continue to take those creative risks that are a priority of ours going forward. And now weve got over 50 filmmakers coming to Maine for the biggest documentary gathering in the United States this year. Having so much talent concentrated in a small community like ours that just doesnt happen anywhere else.

The Camden International Film Festival takes place from Thursday to Sunday. In addition, the online virtual CIFF will be available from Sept. 18-25, if youre not up for a lovely trip up the coast to see some amazing movies, for some reason. For tickets, directions and information on this years stellar crop of nonfiction films, check out pointsnorthinstitute.org/ciff.

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Dangerous visions: How the quest for utopia could lead to catastrophe – Salon

Posted: July 29, 2023 at 8:45 pm

Visions of utopia are ubiquitous throughout Western history. They've inspired great works of art and literature, motivated countless believers to obey God's commandments and driven some of the bloodiest conflicts in the collective biography of our species.

Utopian visions are also a central feature of the hype around artificial general intelligence, or AGI. In an article titled "Why AI Will Save the World," the tech billionaire Marc Andreessen writes that advanced AI systems will enable us to "take on new challenges that have been impossible to tackle without AI, from curing all diseases to achieving interstellar travel." The CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, similarly declares that with AGI "we can colonize space. We can get fusion to work and solar [energy] to mass scale. We can cure all diseases." Utopianism is everywhere in Silicon Valley.

The problem is that utopia has a menacing underbelly. First, its pursuit can cause profound harms to those who happen to be standing in the way. This is why utopian fantasies have fueled some of the worst atrocities in history: If the means are justified by the ends, and the ends are quite literally a utopian world of infinite or astronomical amounts of value, then what exactly is off the table when it comes to realizing those ends?

We can already see this sort of thinking in the race to AGI: Companies like OpenAI have engaged in massive intellectual property theft, resulting in a slew of lawsuits, and systems like ChatGPT are built on the brutal exploitation of people in the Global South, some of whom were paid $1.32 per hour to sift through some of the most horrendous material on the web. These harms are surely worth the benefits, given that, in Altman's words, "we are only a few breakthroughs away from abundance at a scale that is difficult to imagine."

Second, the realization of utopia could also have catastrophic consequences, as most utopian visions are inherently exclusionary. There is always someone who is purposely left out in any imagined utopia some undesirable group whose presence in paradise would disqualify it from counting as such. If the Christian heaven were to include atheists, for instance, it wouldn't be heaven. Hence, one should always ask who a particular utopian vision is for. Everyone, or just a select few? If so, which people are allowed in and which are banished to perdition, if not sentenced to be annihilated?

One should always ask who a particular utopian vision is for. Everyone, or just a select few? If so, which people are allowed in and which are banished to perdition?

Although religious belief is rapidly waning in the West, utopianism is not. That makes it important to understand the nature and potential dangers of utopian thinking. To get a better handle on these issues, I contacted my colleague Monika Bielskyte, a brilliant futures consultant who counts Universal Studios, DreamWorks and Nike among her past clients. She also consulted on the blockbuster movie "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever," and over the past decade has given talks about the future at major media and tech conferences around the world. Subverting a term from the tech guru Kevin Kelly, she developed the "protopia futures" framework, which proposes a regenerative and inclusive vision for the future as an alternative to the utopia-dystopia binary.

In our phone conversation, we discussed a range of topics, including the origins of utopian thinking and whether the tech elite are "true believers" or are merely using utopianism as a "smokescreen" to distract from their destruction of the planet. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

I've become very interested in this claim that utopia is inherently exclusionary. I heard you say on a podcast that marginalized peoples are often better off in imagined dystopias than utopias. Could you elaborate?

It's not even that they're better off in dystopias than utopias they literally don't exist in utopias! Almost without exception, marginalized people are outright erased from all but the most recent utopian visions. Pretty much the only place where marginalized peoples exist in sci-fi and futurist visions have been in dystopias (and their presence is often perceived as a signifier of dystopia), because there's literally no place made for them in utopia, given the eugenic and exclusionary nature of utopianism. For example, the presence of queer people, disabled people and neurodivergent people in some way denies the very nature of utopianism because if disability still exists (let alone is celebrated), is it even utopia? There's a whole set of superficially inspiring futurological visions that outwardly celebrate this erasure.

"The presence of queer people, disabled people and neurodivergent people in some way denies the very nature of utopianism if disability still exists (let alone is celebrated), is it even utopia?"

Then you inevitably have to ask the question: how did we arrive at the point where all of these people of marginalized backgrounds are literally gone? Was there a targeted genocide? A kind of eugenic elimination of those particular identities? So that's why these visions create this really difficult situation where a lot of creative people from these marginalized backgrounds end up having that preference for the dystopian genre, because those were the only sci-fi visions in which they saw themselves as kids or teenagers.

So we start thinking, "Well, is that the only story of the future that we can be telling as marginalized peoples of never-ending oppression and struggle?" Consequently, this creates a narrowing of possibilities of actually imagining a future where people of marginalized identities are not in this continued or even expanded state of oppression, but actually become the leaders, visionaries and healers of the kind of world that, right now, we should be hoping and dreaming of and working toward.

For example, I have this conversation with some peers of mine who are in the field of future-making as writers, directors, etc.: people from the Global South by which I mean the Majority World and its diaspora along with queer folks and the disabled and neurodivergent communities, who still too often feel that it is only within a dystopian framework that we can tell our stories. But the continuous regurgitation of dystopian inevitability reinforces our lack of agency in imagining a radical shift of any social, cultural or political narrative thinking that we can invent all these "magical" technologies and imagine all these extraordinary scientific advances, and yet we still cannot see a pathway towards a future that is beyond racism, homophobia, ableism, xenophobia and so on. We do not have the luxury to fetishize dystopia, because we, or our ancestors, have already lived through it.

So why do we endlessly rehash these exhausted narratives and visions of the doomed future instead of using our time, energy and talent to envision what an actual liberation for oppressed peoples and a regenerative, life-centric society could look like? This is what the real danger of both utopian and dystopian visions is: They can have a toxic effect upon our imaginations, by distracting us away from both present-day oppression and liberatory future possibilities. It's why we started the Protopia Futures collective, to counter dystopian escapism as well as the utterly unrealistic and profoundly misinformed techno-solutionist narratives, and actually work toward what could be those shared "yes" visions of the future.

The particular utopian visions discussed by techno-futurists today transhumanists, longtermists and the like are fairly novel, as they deal with advanced technologies that weren't discussed much or at all before the mid-20th century. Yet these visions didn't come out of nowhere. They have a lineage, a genealogy, that goes back to traditional religion. Could you help us understand the history of utopian thought in the West?

So much of it has roots in Christian ascensionist narratives, a binary vision of paradise and hell (which is the predecessor of today's cosmic heavens and earthly soil utopia-dystopia binary) and its way of "sorting" who gets into each. This narrative is fundamentally settler-centric and human-centric. Only a narrow group of humans have the potential to reach paradise, based on a very homophobic and colonial idea of "morality," and no space at all is reserved for non-human species in "heaven." (This version of heaven, containing only humans, would be a kind of hell for most Indigenous people.) So Christian paradise, as the origin story of western utopianism, already has dystopia and exclusionism embedded within it.

I'm reminded of a term that's started to go mainstream: the "Eremocene," or "Age of Loneliness," which describes a time when we have extinguished so many other species and become increasingly isolated as a human species on this planet a kind of existential isolation and loneliness that results from being separated from the biosphere through this violent genocide of species and the extinction of their sensory worlds, as one of my favorite authors, Ed Yong, writes in his brilliant new book "An Immense World."

Many historical conceptions of utopia have also been exclusionary around these very lines of sexuality and ability anchored in settler-colonial "morality." Nazi Germany's justification for the utopian vision of the "Aryan Lebensraum" expansion provides an obvious example. The genocide began with the targeting of disabled and queer people and led to mass extermination of Jewish and Roma people and other minorities who were also associated with moral and physical "failures" for the purpose of dehumanization and expropriation.

Similarly, the Soviet Union, especially under Joseph Stalin, justified mass ethnic cleansing, imprisonment, torture and genocidal campaigns to justify the achievement of communist "Fatherland" utopia i.e., Holodomor [the Ukrainian famine of the early 1930s]; Stalin's purge of Jewish people; the ethnic cleansing of the Crimean Tatars; the suppression of Indigenous cultural traditions and their forceful replacement by Communist ideology across Russia's colonial realms, including Siberia, the Caucasus and Central Asia; the criminalization of homosexuality; utilizing mental health facilities and mental health justifications to eliminate opponents of the regime; and so on, as well as environmental destruction on an unprecedented scale.

I think the easiest way to measure the genocidal capacity of any given utopia is to look at how it treats marginalized peoples, especially those at the intersection of indigeneity, queerness and disability.

"Our lack of historical literacy of racist, ableist, homophobic, transphobic and anti-Indigenous biases, built on scientific grounds and amplified by technology, predisposes us to ignore how these discriminatory tendencies persist into the tech world today."

The key point is that this toxic legacy is still with us today. Our lack of historical literacy of racist, ableist, homophobic, transphobic and anti-Indigenous biases, built on scientific grounds and amplified by technology, predisposes us to ignore how these discriminatory tendencies persist into the tech world today, and suffuse the scientific community. These narratives are like the water that we swim in, and hence are invisible to many people within these milieus. Even today, I see so many "progressive" people, with often the best intentions, unknowingly echoing eco-fascist talking points in their desirable future visions that disregard the access needs of disabled people, or environmental justice issues between the Global North and Global South.

You've said in some of your talks that designing the future must always be a cooperative endeavor that it doesn't work if one group of people aims to dictate what the future will look like, even if they express concern for the wellbeing of other groups. Could you elaborate on this point?

That's right. If you're hoping to design something that's not harmful to start with let alone something that is useful or actually beneficial you can never design for somebody, you can only design with them. And by "with," that doesn't mean that you just choose one "token" person and then pretend that you're inclusive. You actually have to work with communities that are at that bleeding edge of harm, you need to ensure that key leadership consists of the most impacted groups. Because otherwise we just end up with harmful tokenization that is, predatory inclusion. This was exemplified by last year's push for crypto in the Global South and diaspora communities. When Spike Lee released a commercial about how crypto is the new money, it utilized a lot of really talented, prominent Black, brown and queer creatives to promote a vision that is fundamentally about extracting from their very communities. So even though some of the people involved may have benefited from those ads, their communities were ultimately harmed by the crypto push. That's one of a million examples of predatory inclusion.

A central feature of the techno-utopian visions influential within Silicon Valley today involves a narrative about humanity "transcending" itself. Our biological bodies are often derided as "meat-bags" that must be cast aside, replaced by robotic or computer hardware. Ultimately, the aim would be to replace biology altogether by "uploading" our minds to the cloud. I wonder how much this is influenced by the legacy of Christianity, which saw the body as sinful. After all, there are some cultural traditions for instance, some Indigenous traditions that don't see our bodies this way. Could you elaborate on how some of these traditions envisioned the future?

First of all, Indigenous accounts of what would constitute an aspirational future or present are not uniform there is a considerable diversity of views, of course. But, fundamentally, from the Indigenous perspective, you don't see yourself as apart from either your body or the other bodies you are codependent with. By "other bodies," I mean all other life, including bodies of other humans, but also plants, fungi and so on. All the transcendence and all the joy and pleasure that one experiences is not through being removed from this. It is, in fact, by deepening our interdependence with it.

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This is where there's this fundamental clash in civilizational visions, you could say, between the colonial TESCREALists advocates of the TESCREAL bundle of ideologies and Indigenous perspectives. So, if TESCREALists say that they know better than the Indigenous people about the aspirational future we should aim for, then, again, it's the same "manifest destiny" colonialism all over again. Not just in this desire to go out there and subject all these complex ecosystems to our own will, but even in this very notion that we should aspire toward removing ourselves from our own bodies and from the ecosystems within and around our bodies, and even from Earth itself. Some harmful olden-day futurist notions persist, such as Buckminster Fuller's "Spaceship Earth" metaphor it seems appealing on the surface, but fundamentally misunderstands the fact that neither our home planet nor our very bodies can be engineered down to component parts, let alone zeroes and ones. As Indigenous people have always known, consciousness is not reducible to mathematical calculations, it's embodied, interconnected and inseparable from the matter that is life.

So the way I see it, the techno-utopian visions of a colonized cosmos and transcended Earth are really just about finding ideological ways to justify compounded human and biosphere genocide happening today a way to say that in light of those grand visions, extinction of species or languages is ultimately "not that important." That is absolutely false. It's not that we shouldn't aim to learn more about the cosmos, but that we need to refocus more energy to understanding and regenerating the damage we have wrought upon ourselves and this planet improving soil health and the health of our oceans, rewilding, etc., are more future-worthy endeavors right now. Instead of fantasizing about machine or alien consciousness, we should prioritize understanding non-human animal consciousness, because we are rendering species extinct before we are even able to learn about their perception and sensory experience of the world we share.

Finally, to what extent do you think the tech elite actually buy into their techno-utopian vision of being digital posthumans and colonizing space? Are they true believers? Or might they be exploiting the promise of utopia to "justify" their greed and ruthless quest for power in the present?

"The way I see it, techno-utopian visions of a colonized cosmos and transcended Earth are about finding ways to justify human and biosphere genocide happening today in light of those grand visions, extinction of species is ultimately 'not that important.'"

This is where I sometimes think that you and I might have slightly different views on the matter. It seems to me that some of the tech gazillionaires that sell us these grand civilizational fantasies of intergalactic colonialism are just doing it to obfuscate and justify much more banal goals of personal enrichment and keeping up their scams. Elon Musk's Tesla edifice has been collapsing for a long time because it was sort of "crypto" before crypto, by which I mean that it is built on a pyramid-scheme type of hype, as detailed in Edward Niedermeyer's book "Ludicrous." Musk was being called the wealthiest man on Earth but it was fictional, inflated stock money dependent on false promises he can't keep up with anymore and in order to keep up with the scam in an increasingly competitive market, you need to stake increasingly unrealistic claims and hope you won't get called on it. In general, this is also how most tech bubble/hype cycles work they're predicated on the majority public's lack of future literacy and the media's willing participation in pumping up these sensational headlines with little critical inquiry behind the claims of those set to profit from them.

So my sense is that the talk of humanity becoming "multiplanetary" is just a way to put a sci-fi smokescreen up to the media and general publiccapitalism always needs a new frontier, so space colonialism is this kind of deus ex machina to detract us from the reality that there is no "infinite growth" on a finite planet, and that we need fundamental restructuring of our societies and economies based on principles of equity and justice.

I'm sure there are some "true believers" in the transhumanist, cosmist, longtermist movements. But I think that for somebody like Musk, the much more immediate goal is to develop the means to reach and, through robotic peripherals, mine the asteroid belt, to extract platinum, gold, diamonds and other rare minerals, especially those needed for batteries, microchips and so on. When Musk realized that his self-driving cars, his vision for Tesla, actually would not deliver on the promises, he still had to keep up with these grand visions of humanity's future, because he had gotten used to that level of power, influence and adulation. He has to keep inflating his vision by selling this fantasy, and because of the lack of future literacy, people keep buying into it. That being said, he might just be a delusional apartheid heir who has a dream to bring back the hierarchical structures of apartheid South Africa on a cosmic scale. Either way, whether he's a true believer or just a cosmically greedy man, the fact that he possesses so much influence on global future narratives and economies puts the rest of us in grave danger.

"Many of the richest and most influential men in tech never really grew out of that teenage phase of being fanboys of particular sci-fi authors, movies or series. They cling to these sci-fi fantasies of eternal lives in the cosmic matrix."

In my talks, I often say that ultimately it's those who control the fantasy who control the future. So many of the richest and most influential men in tech never really grew out of that teenage phase of being fanboys of particular sci-fi authors, movies or series. They cling to these sci-fi fantasies of eternal lives in the cosmic matrix and other fictional stuff, even though the bleeding edge of scientific research suggests that minds cannot just be reduced to a digital program, because our consciousness is embodied and interconnected with an ecosystem that it's codependent with.

But if they admit that all they want is, ultimately, to mine the asteroid belt, then all of a sudden they're going to have much more intense scrutiny. Who should have the right to go and mine asteroids? Could a single company in the Global North have this right? What kind of neocolonial relationships could that perpetuate between the Global North and Global South? Similarly, with AI, the more you talk about these visions of artificial general intelligence, the easier it is to divert attention away from the real issues of how these very fallible yet increasingly dangerous AI tools are being designed, used and abused. What bias gets embedded within them, whose data gets expropriated for it, who gets the access and what type of behavior and manipulation does this allow and to whom.

So I tend to think that these people are not as "smart" and "visionary" as they're often perceived, but also not so foolish especially someone like Peter Thiel as to actually believe that the utopian fantasies they're peddling would not spell dystopia for most of the rest of us. It's not that they don't know how to read dystopian narratives critically, or that they fully buy into technology being the magical panacea for problems that are fundamentally social, cultural and political. It's that they actually see how dystopias (sometimes disguised as utopias) can be used as product roadmaps, not just because there's money to be made while the world burns, but because there's money to be made by setting the world on fire.

Dystopia is not a bug, it's a feature. It will take all of us to resist it, and to fight for the kind of future that is actually livable. We must do all we can to resist these lures of eschatological tech theologies and accelerationist fantasies, because they are designed to benefit the few, while harming, if not outright extinguishing, the rest of us.

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from mile P. Torres on humanity's future

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Travis Scott Spends the Day in NYC Amid the Release of His New … – Just Jared

Posted: at 8:45 pm

Travis Scott enjoys a sunny day walking around New York City with his friends on Friday (July 28).

The 32-year-old rapper kept it casual for his day out in a black t-shirt and black pants, which he paired with Nike sneakers.

His outing coincided with the release of his latest album, Utopia, which dropped Friday night. It marks Travis first full-length album since 2018s Astroworld and features collaborations with artists like The Weeknd, James Blake, Bad Bunny, Beyonce, Future, 21 Savage and more.

Utopia made headlines upon its release after fans speculated that Travis may have dissed Timothee Chalamet on his song Meltdown. Timothee, 27, is rumored to be dating Kylie Jenner, 26, who is Travis ex. The pair share two children, 5-year-old Stormi and 17-month-old son Aire.

Stormi actually made her musical debut on one of the tracks from Utopia. Check it out!

Click through the gallery for the latest photos of Travis Scott in New York City

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The 5 Best New TV Shows of July 2023 – TIME

Posted: at 8:45 pm

As Barbenheimer rocks the box office, and Hollywood actors and writers hit the picket line, TV's summertime slump is in full effect. July 2023 saw the return of comedy favorites like What We Do in the Shadows, This Fool, Minx (which jumped from Max to Starz), and, for its final season, How To With John Wilson. Justified and Project Greenlight are back in new incarnations. But we didn't get much in the way of showstopping debut series. Still, there's a handful of titles worth checking out, from a flawed but fascinating Soderbergh thriller to a pair of beautifully executed docuseries to the best new animated comedy in recent memory.

Fatalism should make life simple. Once you embrace the belief, whether secular or spiritual, that everything happens as part of a grand cosmic plan, you can relax, safe in the knowledge that the universe (or God, or science) has had your discrete destiny gamed out since the dawn of time. But thats not how fateor is it free will?operates in MaxsFull Circle, a cluttered yet compelling thriller directed bySteven Soderbergh. As conceived by creator Ed Solomon, the trajectory of human life isnt a straightforward circle of cause and effect so much as its a tangled web of emotion, self-interest, faith, luck, character flaws, and above all history.

The series applies this worldview to the case of a seemingly incomprehensible kidnapping. In Queens, the brother-in-law of a Guyanese crime boss, Savitri Mahabir (CCH Pounder), is murdered by a rival family. But instead of exacting revenge on the immediate culprits, as her ambitious nephew Aked (Jharrel Jerome) proposes, Savitriwho believes the Mahabirs are cursedtravels to her home country, consults a mystic, and returns to New York convinced she knows how to close the circle of misfortune that has afflicted her family. Weirdly, the remedy entails abducting the hapless teen son, Jared (Ethan Stoddard), of a rich, white Manhattan couple. [Read the full review.]

Step aside, Sweeney Todd! There's a new human-meat entrepreneur in town, and her name is Dolores Roach. Playedgloriously against typeby the wonderful Justina Machado (One Day at a Time), Dolores has just been released from prison after doing time for a drug-dealer boyfriend. Hoping to reunite with him, she returns to their old neighborhood, Washington Heights, only to find the area overrun by young, white gentrifiers and the fancy businesses that so reliably spring up around them. At least good, old Empanada Loca is still hanging onand its proprietor, her acquaintance Luis (Alejandro Hernandez), is happy to host her there. Dolores moves into his gloomy apartment, in the basement of the empanada joint, and sets up a gray-market business to capitalize on a skill she learned behind bars: giving massages. Her hands are magic. So magic, it turns out, that they can fatally snap a client's neck before she's consciously decided to do so. Lucky for Dolores, Luis is twisted enough to help her dispose of the bodies by carving them up to make delicious empanadas.

Dolores Roach was a one-woman show and then a narrative podcast before it was adapted for Amazon, and the series uses a distracting framing device to acknowledge that history. But Machado makes a riveting antihero, believably unhinged but too warm to hate. The supporting actors, including Marc Maron, Cyndi Lauper, and Jean Yoon from Kim's Convenience, are perfectly cast. And what the social commentary on offer here lacks in freshness (the play does date back to 2015), it makes up for in cathartic humor, as Dolores dispatches the new neighbors who look down on her and Luis fries them up and feeds them to cool-hunting foodies.

[Read about Dolores Roach's Sweeney Todd connection.]

I've sampled so many nature documentaries over the past few years that they've all blurred together into an umpteen-hour mass of sweeping aerial panoramas, stunning wildlife closeups, and grand narration from David Attenborough. Don't get me wrong: I'm as awed by the beauty and technical achievement of these post-Planet Earth productions as anyone. But there's more than one way to make a great nature show. Human Footprint takes a chattier approach to exploring the Anthropocene, sending the affable biologist and Princeton professor Shane Campbell-Staton around the globe to document and discuss the often-catastrophic impact of humans on the natural world. Each of six hourlong episodes takes on a different facet of that enormous topic, from the invasive species we've introduced into fragile ecosystems to the phenomenon of the city. While there's plenty of heavy stuff here, Campbell-Staton knows when to inject some levityincluding an entire episode on our relationships with dogs.

More than an investigation, this true-crime series is an eloquent and timely rumination on why it took police in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania so many years to catch a serial killer who, throughout the early 1990s, picked up men at gay bars in Manhattan and crossed state lines to dispose of their dismembered remains. Unlike so much contemporary true-crime schlock, which enthuses over favorite murders and fetishizes Jeffrey Dahmer, its emphasis is on the victims, their still-grieving families, and a larger LGBTQ community that sublimated fear into action. Harnishs question epitomizes the disconnect that persists between police and one of the most vulnerable groups theyre supposed to serve and protect. [Read the full review.]

This exuberantly weird animated comedy comes from the mind of Anna Drezen, the former SNL head writer known for slyly surreal showbiz sendups like Nephew Pageant and Kate McKinnons unforgettable character Debette Goldry. Schitts Creek alum Annie Murphy riffs on her breakthrough fish-out-of-water role as the voice of Petra Petey St. Barts, a vivacious young New Yorker who loses her fianc (hes a literal slab of lumber, by the way), her best friend, her home, and her job as Senior Assistant/Editorial Assistant at a fashion magazine in the same awful day. Thankfully, her rich, distant mother, Christine Baranskis spectacularly named White St. Barts, has just informed Petey that she has a father. And he recently died. Also, as he explains in a VHS tape, shes just inherited the small, Southern town he owns. Its called New Utopia, which sounds like a cult because it is a cult. [Read the full review.]

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The 5 Best New TV Shows of July 2023 - TIME

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