Category Archives: Mind Uploading

As the first carrier in the world to launch a 5G network back in April 2019, Verizon has always been ahead of the curve. Now stepping into 2022, the telecom giant is continuing to push the way we communicate towards the future.

Providing up to 10 times faster speeds than median Verizon 4G LTE speeds, 5G Ultra Wideband will reach 100 million soon after it launches in the coming weeks. From the ability to watch High Definition content on the go to streaming console-quality games, the new technology promises to be a game-changer in more significant ways.

To celebrate the launch, actress Elizabeth Banks hosted Verizons 5G Ultra Show, a star-powered live stream that aired on January 4th. In case you missed the event, here are a few key things we took away from the half-hour presentation.

Basketball games or enormous music festivals can slow down connection speeds to a crawl with so many people downloading and uploading various content. With that in mind, it made sense for the 5G Ultra Show to provide an example of how practical 5G Ultra Wideband can be when you are connected to it in extremely crowded areas.

Taking viewers to Sofi Stadium in Inglewood, CA, ESPN SportsCenter anchor Hannah Storm gave insight into how 5G Ultra Wideband will change the sporting event experience. When connected to 5G Ultra Wideband, visitors of Sofi can stream videos, text, and make phone calls even when in a crowd.

When thousands of fans and even more devices connect all at the same time, stadium operations could change forever, Storm shared.

This includes the ability for ticketless entry to become the norm, touchless sales at concession stands, and even AR Wayfinding to locate seats or bathrooms with the shortest lines.

Before using a bus, subway, or even plane, most smartphone users find it easier to download standard-definition video on WiFi before heading out into the open world instead of relying on cellular data to stream content. Having up to 10 times faster speeds through 5G Ultra Wideband, however, opens the door for more reliable streaming.

The same goes for video conferencing over cellular networks, according to Andrea Caldini, Verizons VP of Product & Technology, who explains, Video chats, business calls and FaceTimes will be able to stream live with HD video and audio with fewer frozen faces or stuttering.

Public WiFi found in places like coffee shops, hotels, airports, parks, malls,and restaurants allow people to stay connected to social media or, most importantly, work on the go. According to reports, 82% of U.S. residents say they use public WiFi when available.

That said, too many individuals on a given WiFi network can slow things down too much to even be useful. Not to mention using public networks can be risky thanks to Man-in-the-Middle attacks and WiFi snooping. Individuals concerned with cyber security on public WiFi usually have to use VPNs for an added layer of digital protection. Verizon hopes to change all of that through 5G Ultra Wideband.

Verizon VP of Network Engineering Philip French says 5G Ultra Wideband could deliver the industrys biggest hotspot. This means that business owners like jewelry designer Lauren Harwell Godfrey can download huge graphic files and talk to customers through high definition video conferencing software efficiently without worrying about sensitive information being exposed, which is a win-win for everyone.

Mobile gaming has quickly taken a little over half of the overall video game industry. Between better smartphone hardware technology and faster connection speeds, the segment is inching closer to providing console-quality gaming.

Greg Borrud, the General Manager for developer Niamic Studios, says that 5G Ultra Wideband allows them to take augmented reality used in games theyve developed like Pokemon Go to the next level. He even mentioned how their development platform Lightship can change mobile gaming through the new connection speeds Verizon is enabling.

Experiences that feel less like a game and more like another reality that is layered onto and woven into our own, Borrud explains. 5G and edge Compute will allow those games to be richer, more cinematic multiplayer experiences that gamers can explore with incredibly low latency.

Depending on where one lives or conducts business, their broadband internet options can be limited. Over the years, Verizon has done their part to provide quality service for its consumers via Fios. Now, Verizon is providing even more options for broadband connectivity with the introduction of their 5G Home router and 5G Business Internet, which is all powered by 5G Ultra Wideband.

Actor and PC gaming enthusiast Terry Crews displayed how all users of 5G Home have to do is plug in the router and follow Verizons self-set-up guide. Adding the cherry on top is the lack of an annual contract. Through 5G Home, users can have speedy internet access without fumbling wires or going through annoying set-ups.

Verizon 5G Business Internet also has a self-set up option for select plans that makes it easy for business owners to get started and get ultra fast speeds. All of this is provided with a 10-year price guarantee with no long-term contract. Crews even gifted popular Los Angeles bookstore Malik Books with their very own 5G Business Internet router during the 5G Ultra Show.

If that doesnt get you pumped for what 5G Ultra Wideband has in store, you can check out the full event here.

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5 Things We Learned From Verizon's 5G Ultra Show - Complex

A CRACK team of scuba-diving sleuths has solved a staggering seven cold cases in just two months, bringing much-needed closure to heartbroken families who had been left without answers for years.

The group, known as Chaos Divers, operates out of Southern Illinois and is comprised of divers Jacob Grubbs and Eric Bussick, and head of logistics Lindsey Bussick.

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Between October and December of last year, the trio managed to solve seven missing persons cases in a number of different states, including in Illinois, Oregon, Kentucky, and Texas.

Their most recent discovery came on December 5 when the group found the remains of Jeff Anthony Shepherd in a pickup truck submerged in Strunk, KY, pond.

Shepherd had been missing for more than three years, having last been seen leaving a bar in Winfield on March 18, 2018. He had called his mother letting her know he was on his way home but never made it back.

In an exclusive interview with The Sun, Jacob Grubbs, 33, revealed that he, Eric, and Lindsey never anticipated becoming independent cold case investigators but were inspired to do so following a chance discovery made by a friend in 2019.

Jacob, a keen fisherman, started scuba diving a few years ago so he could help to clean trash out of river systems, lakes, and local swimming holes.

While doing so, the former coal miner said he started finding all kinds of items - from discarded iPhones to lost wallets - and decided to set up a YouTube page to document his interesting discoveries.

"I used to watch a lot of videos about it on Youtube and I honestly thought they were fake until I started doing it, and then I was like, wow!," Jacob told The Sun.

He quickly amassed a large social media following on YouTube and befriended a number of other divers uploading similar videos to him.

One of those divers was Jared Leisek, who runs the YouTube page Adventures with Purpose.

Leisek made headlines in December 2019 when he happened across a car with a body inside during a dive in Oregon and ended up accidentally solving a cold case single-handedly.

Jacob drove up to St. Louis to assist Leisek with the dive where they recovered the body of Nathan Ashby from the Missouri River.

The 22-year-old had been missing since July 31, 2019, when he vanished while driving his 1994 Chevy Silverado to work around 6.45am.

After the incredible discovery was made, Jacob said he felt "compelled" to continue investigating cold cases in the Southern Illinois area.

Families searching for missing loved ones then started reaching out to him directly, and he decided to take the venture up as his full-time job.

"In the last two months, we've brought seven people home by ourselves," Jacob told The Sun in late December.

And during a road trip with Adventures With Purpose and other groups in the fall, Chaos Divers helped to solve a further 16 cases in 45 days.

"I'm still in awe of being able to help so many families in such a short time," he said.

"It's been an amazing feeling, particularly when we were able to solve a case after 23 years in October."

During their road trip with Adventures With Purpose (AWP) back in October, Chaos Divers helped to solve the disappearance of 20-year-old Samantha Jean Hopper, who vanished with her one-year-old daughter Courtney Esther Danielle Holt on the night of September 11, 1998.

According to police, Hopper, who was eight months pregnant at the time, had plans to drop off her daughter with a family member before heading to a concert in Little Rock in her blue Ford Tempo.

However, she never made it to either location, and neither Hopper nor Courtney was seen ever alive again.

Hopper also left behind another daughter, Dezarea Carpenter, who is now an adult and lives in Florida.

Chaos Divers and AWP met with Dezarea, along with Hopper's mother and best friend to learn more about her and her last known whereabouts.

Working from clues about Samanthas habits and the events of that day in 1998, the two dive teams split up to scan multiple locations in the area of Lake Dardanelle.

Divers with AWP took a route along Mill Creek, while Jacob and the rest of Chaos Divers searched the Illinois Bayou near Pleasant View Road.

Around an hour into the search, Chaos Divers made a discovery in the Illinois Bayou after picking up images of a small, overturned car eight feet below the surface of the water on a sonar scanner.

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After entering the water, Choas Divers matched the vehicle to Hopper's blue Tempo. Human remains were also found inside.

Hooper's family members were present at the scene when the car was lifted from the water.

Weeks later, investigators with the Arkansas State Crime Lab in Little Rock positively identified the remains as Hopper and Courtney's.

Jacob described the discovery as a bittersweet gut-punch.

"That one hit me hard," Jacob said. "But I was glad to be able to bring her other daughter answers as to where her mother and sister had been for the last 23 years.

"I am super proud of the team and myself for being able to do that."

Lindsey Bussick is in charge of determining which cases Chaos Divers are able to investigate and those they aren't.

Family members and friends of missing people regularly reach out to the group seeking their help to find a long-lost loved one.

Police departments across the country that otherwise lack the technological resources to conduct such searches also sometimes request their expertise, she said.

"We get as many details as we can, from where they were last seen, where they were headed and the location of the last ping of their cellphone," Lindsey told The Sun.

"From there, we kind of map out their last known movements and identify any waterways they may have passed before vanishing.

"If there aren't any waterways then we can't help," she continued. "Everything we do is based off water. Also, if there isn't a vehicle involved we also can't help, because our sonar is set up to see cars or other vehicles beneath the water."

While the group takes on as many cases as they can, going out on the road almost every week, Lindsay said the work doesn't come without its emotional challenges.

Such challenges often arise in the wake of solving a case, Lindsay said, where the team's initial elation is almost immediately displaced by feelings of sadness for the subject's family.

"It is a heartbreaking moment to have to look someone in the eye and say, 'We've found them. They are gone,'" she said.

"But at the same time as these tears are rolling down their face you're watching this weight be lifted off of them, because for the first time and however many months, years, or decades, they know where their loved one is and they don't have to wonder anymore, they don't have to worry.

"So it's heartbreaking, but it's heartwarming at the same time; it's very surreal because you just gave them the worst news but at the same time, they're just so grateful that somebody did something for them."

Lindsey described the feeling of closing a case as a bittersweet "gut-wrenching sensation that you never want to give up."

Jacob added: "It's also about helping to put rumors to bed.

"Quite often with these cases, the time that has passed without answers allows rumors to fly, and before you know it, people are offering up theories of a murder or drug deal gone wrong.

"But then in actuality, it was an accident. And now the family has answers, they have closure. They finally know where their loved one is, and so we help put those rumors to rest."

Another family Chaos Divers helped to provide answers were relatives of Brian Goff and Joni Davis, who they found in the Ohio Valley in November 2021, three years after the couple vanished.

The group originally arrived in the region to search in the Hancock County area of the Ohio River for Karen Adams,who was last seen at a nearby casino on March 11, 2007.

They searched three different locations across three consecutive days for Karen but came up empty-handed.

While in the area, they got a tip from another diver group about the case of Goff and Davis, who pointed them to a body of water in Jefferson County that had not yet been searched.

"They told us there was one spot that kind of bothered them about the case, which was around a mile south of where Brian's cellphone last pinged.

"They weren't sure whether it had been searched, or how well it had been searched, so we decided to go there to kind of alleviate any doubt over whether they might be there or not."

Joni Davis, 56, and her longtime boyfriend and caregiver, 65-year-old Brian Goff, disappeared in June 2018.

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At aged 35, Joni suffered a huge seizure in her sleep and was hospitalized in a coma for several months. While she eventually re-learned how to walk, speak and feed herself, Joni was left permanently brain damaged and required full-time care.

"They were extremely meticulous in their daily routine: they ate at the same places on the same days, went to the same gas station to fill up their tank - everything was laid out and organized for them, kind of like OCD," Jacob said.

"So when they went missing, almost instantly alarm bells started going off for everyone who knew them."

Brian's car was last sighted by a gas station surveillance camera heading north in Belmont County, not long after the couple had dined at a local Pizza Hut - as they always did on Sundays.

The last ping from Goffs cellphone was in neighboring Jefferson County. After that, all traces of the couple ceased.

Chaos Divers retraced the couple's steps in the early morning hours of November 11. They were driving past Rushman Road, near where the couple's phone last registered, which runs adjacent to the Ohio River.

"We were driving that path when we noticed this one spot, an opening by the water that didn't have a guardrail in front of it, nor any weeds or reeds or anything like that," Jacob said.

"There was just this one little tree there, and for some reason that stood out in my mind. It was almost like a light was shining down on it."

Jacob put on his dive gear and entered the water at 3am. Within minutes, he'd found a light blue Oldsmobile 88 in a shallow portion of the river.

The license plate of the car matched one registered to Brian.

Inside the vehicle, police later found two sets of human remains strapped into the front seats. They were confirmed to belong to Brian and Joni.

While it remains unclear whether the couple entered the river accidentally or intentionally, Jacob and Lindsay say their relatives were just grateful to know where they were.

"We met with Johnny's sister, and brother in law and brother in law and then three members of Brian's family, and they were heartbroken," Lindsey said. "But at the same time, so incredibly grateful."

"There were lots of hugs and tears," she added. "They just wanted us to know how appreciative we were that we were able to bring them home."

Choas Divers say they intend to continue working year-round to help solve other cold cases in and around Illinois.

As they did last fall, they intend to set out on the road later this year with Adventures with Purpose to solve more cases in quick succession.

The team do not charge families for their recovery efforts and fund their trips entirely from revenue generated from the social media pages, independent donations, and merchandise sales on their website.

To donate to Chaos Divers click here.

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Inside group of scuba-diving sleuths who have cracked 7 cold cases in 2 months as they reveal how they f... - The US Sun

Every Saturday we post a curated collection of our favorite articles and news from the week. But now that the years over, well curate 2021 as a whole. It was another wild one.

Tech companies continued to draw criticism for their roles in political and social scandals, most notably when whisteblower and former Facebook employee Frances Haugen testified to lawmakers. Undeterred, Facebook rebranded itself Meta and said it would now focus on building the metaverse. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey stepped down and likewise changed the name of his company Square to Block in a not-so-subtle nod to the blockchain.

Meanwhile, volatile cryptocurrencies set new records, their prices jumping and crashing on a tweet. NFTs, a once-obscure type of cryptoasset, went on an eye-watering tear as redditors pushed meme stocks skyward. It was also the year of ever-bigger AI. Machine learning models surpassed a trillion parameters, designed computer chips, and tackled practical problems in biology, math, and chemistry. Elsewhere, billionaires went to space, regular folks bought 3D printed houses, fusion power attracted billions in investment, gene editing trials hit their stride, and flying car companies hit the New York Stock Exchange.

For this years list of fascinating stories in tech and science, we sifted our Saturday posts and selected articles that looked back to where it all began, glanced ahead to whats coming, or otherwise stood out from the chatter to stand the test of time.

The Secret Auction That Set Off the Race for AI SupremacyCade Metz | WiredHow the shape of deep learningand the fate of the tech industrywent up for sale in Harrahs Room 731, on the shores of Lake Tahoe. [The auction for Geoff Hintons newly formed AI company] was the beginning of a global arms race, and this race would quickly escalate in ways that would have seemed absurd a few years before.

The Chase for Fusion EnergyPhilip Ball | NatureAn emerging industry of nuclear-fusion firms promises to have commercial reactors ready in the next decade. advocates of fusion technology say it has many parallels with the space industry. That, too, was once confined to government agencies but is now benefiting from the drive and imagination of nimble (albeit often state-assisted) private enterprise. This is the SpaceX moment for fusion, says [General Fusion CEO] Mowry, referring to Elon Musks space-flight company in Hawthorne, California.

The Gene-Synthesis RevolutionYiren Lu | The New York TimesIf the first phase of the genomics revolution focused on reading genes through gene sequencing, the second phase is about writing genes.Crispr, the gene-editing technology whose inventors won a Nobel Prize last year, has received far more attention, but the rise of gene synthesis promises to be an equally powerful development. Crispr is like editing an article, allowing us to make precise changes to the text at specific spots; gene synthesis is like writing the article from scratch.

The Profound Potential of Elon Musks New RocketRobert Zubrin | NautilusStarship wont just give us the ability to send human explorers to Mars, the moon, and other destinations in the inner solar system, it offers us a two-order-of-magnitude increase in overall operational capability to do pretty much anything we want to do in space.

Need to Fit Billions of Transistors on Your Chip? Let AI Do ItWill Knight | WiredGoogle, Nvidia, and others are training algorithms in the dark arts of designing semiconductorssome of which will be used to run artificial intelligence programs. This should help companies draw up more powerful and efficient blueprints in much less time.

Renewables Are Set to SoarJames Temple | MIT Technology ReviewNew renewable electricity capacity will set another record this year, at 290 gigawatts, according to a new report from the International Energy Agency. By 2026, global capacity from these carbon-free sources will rise more than 60% over last years levels, the intergovernmental research organization now projects. That will add up to some 4,800 gigawatts, on par with all the worlds fossil-fuel and nuclear plants today. In addition, renewables will account for 95% of the overall capacity growth in the power sector over that period.

3D Printed Home Technologies Scaling Up Around the WorldPayal Dhar | IEEE SpectrumDespite the high capital investment needed for automated 3D-printing construction compared to conventional technologies, there are concomitant advantages, Satish says, such as in terms of safety, speed, scale and design complexity. We still build using techniques and equipment and toolsthat someone building 100 years ago would be familiar with, Ruben says. It is the last major industry that hasnt embraced new technology as a way to increase productivity.i

Why Im a Proud SolutionistJason Crawford | MIT Technology ReviewDebates about technology and progress are often framed in terms of optimism vs. pessimism. Its tempting to choose sides. But this represents a false choice. History provides us with powerful examples of people who were brutally honest in identifying a crisis but were equally active in seeking solutions.

Your Face Is Not Your OwnKashmir Hill | The New York Times MagazineIt seemed entirely possible that Clearview AI would be sued, legislated or shamed out of existence. But that didnt happen. With no federal law prohibiting or even regulating the use of facial recognition, Clearview did not, for the most part, change its practices. Nor did it implode. Our growth rate is crazy, Hoan Ton-That, Clearviews chief executive, said.

Alternative Rocket Builder SpinLaunch Completes First Test FlightMichael Sheetz | CNBCThe company is developing a launch system that uses kinetic energy as its primary method to get off the groundwith a vacuum-sealed centrifuge spinning the rocket at several times the speed of sound before releasing. This is about building a company and a space launch system that is going to enter into the commercial markets with a very high cadence and launch at the lowest cost in the industry, SpinLaunch CEO Jonathan Yaney toldCNBC.

One Vaccine to Rule Them AllJames Hamblin | The AtlanticiA universal SARS-CoV-2 vaccine is step one, [Anthony] Fauci said. Step two would be a universalcoronavirusvaccine, capable of protecting us not only from SARS-CoV-2 in all its forms, but also from the inevitable emergence of new and different coronaviruses that might cause future pandemics. The race to create such a vaccine may prove one of the great feats of a generation.

The Facebook Whistleblower Says Its Algorithms Are Dangerous. Heres Why.Karen Hao | MIT Technology ReviewFrances Haugens testimony at the Senate hearing today raised serious questions about how Facebooks algorithms workand echoes many findings from our previous investigation. We pulled together the most relevant parts of our investigation and other reporting to give more context to Haugens testimony.

Kill the 5-Day Work WeekJoe Pinsker | The AtlanticPeople who work a four-day week generally report that theyre healthier, happier, and less crunched for time; their employers report that theyre more efficient and more focused. These companies success points to a tantalizing possibility: that the conventional approach to work and productivity is fundamentally misguided.

The Internet Is RottingJonathan Zittrain | The AtlanticThe glue that holds humanitys knowledge together is coming undone. By making the storage and organization of information everyones responsibility and no ones, the internet and web could grow, unprecedentedly expanding access, while making any and all of it fragile rather than robust in many instances in which we depend on it.

How Vulnerable Is the World?Nick Bostrom and Matthew van der Merwe | AeonSooner or later a technology capable of wiping out human civilization might be invented. How far would we go to stop it? We call this the vulnerable world hypothesis. The intuitive idea is that theres some level of technology at which civilization almost certainly gets destroyed, unless quite extraordinary and historically unprecedented degrees of preventive policing and/or global governance are implemented.

With This CAD for Genomes, You Can Design New OrganismsEliza Strickland | IEEE SpectrumImagine being able to design a new organism as easily as you can design a new integrated circuit. Thats the ultimate vision behind the computer-aided design (CAD) program being developed by theGP-write consortium. Were taking the same things wed do for design automation in electronics, and applying them to biology, says Doug Densmore, anassociate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Boston University.

How the Worlds Biggest Brain Maps Could Transform NeuroscienceAlison Abbott | NatureTo truly understand how the brain works, neuroscientists also need to know how each of the roughly 1,000 types of cell thought to exist in the brain speak to each other in their different electrical dialects. With that kind of complete, finely contoured map, they could really begin to explain the networks that drive how we think and behave.

Lost Passwords Lock Millionaires Out of Their Bitcoin FortunesNathaniel Popper | The New York TimesStefan Thomas, a German-born programmer living in San Francisco, has two guesses left to figure out a password that is worth, as of this week, about $220 million. The password will let him unlock a small hard drive, known as an IronKey, which contains the private keys to a digital wallet that holds 7,002 Bitcoin.

A 25-Year-Old Bet Comes Due: Has Tech Destroyed Society?Steven Levy | WiredMuch more than a thousand bucks was at stake: The bet was a showdown between two fiercely opposed views on the nature of progress. In a time of climate crisis, a pandemic, and predatory capitalism, is optimism about humanitys future still justified? [Kevin] Kelly and [Kirkpatrick] Sale each represent an extreme side of the divide. For the men involved, the bets outcome would be a personal validationor repudiationof their lifelong quests.

How AI Is Reinventing What Computers AreWill Douglas Heaven | MIT Technology Review[Todays computers are] smaller and faster, but theyre still boxes with processors that run instructions from humans. AI changes that on at least three fronts: how computers are made, how theyre programmed, and how theyre used. Ultimately, it will change what they are for. The core of computing is changing from number-crunching to decision-making, says Pradeep Dubey, director of the parallel computing lab at Intel. Or, as MIT CSAIL director Daniela Rus puts it, AI is freeing computers from their boxes.

Can Digital Reality Be Jacked Directly Into Your Brain?Adam Rogers | WiredThe idea of uploading a synthetic experience into a mind has been a load-bearing member in science fiction for at least 75 yearsBut in real life (thats what this is, right?), were a long way from a data port in the nape of every neck. Neuroscientists can decode the signal comingoutof the brain well enough to move a cursor or a robotic arm, though they cant achieve the fluid elegance of a biological connection. Signal goinginis even trickier.

What an Octopuss Mind Can Teach Us About AIs Ultimate MysteryWill Douglas Heaven | MIT Technology ReviewIts possible that one day there could be as many forms of consciousness as there are types of AI. But we will never know what it is like to be these machines, any more than we know what it is like to be an octopus or a bat or even another person. There may be forms of consciousness we dont recognize for what they are because they are so radically different from what we are used to.

The Worldview Changing Drugs Poised to Go MainstreamEd Prideaux | BBCThe psychedelic renaissance promises to change far more about our societies than simply the medical treatments that doctors prescribe. Unlike other drugs, psychedelics can radically alter the way people see the world. They also bring mystical and hallucinatory experiences that are at the edge of current scientific understanding. So, what might follow if psychedelics become mainstream?

Why Electric Cars Will Take Over Sooner Than You ThinkJustin Rowlatt | BBCThis isnt a fad, this isnt greenwashing. Yes, the fact many governments around the world are setting targets to ban the sale of petrol and diesel vehicles gives impetus to the process. But what makes the end of the internal combustion engine inevitable is a technological revolution. And technological revolutions tend to happen very quickly.

Image Credit:Faris Mohammed / Unsplash

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These Were Our Favorite Tech Stories From Around the Web in 2021 - Singularity Hub

Sophie Mak, a recent graduate of law and literature, had walked past the fiery orange monument between classes for five years. A month after her graduation ceremony at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), two nights before Christmas, workers erected barricades around the statue. Under the cover of darkness, they cut it down.

Its an absolute disgrace that HKU removed the Pillar of Shame so callously and so furtively, Mak says.

The pillar, a statue of bodies twisting towards the sky commemorating the victims of Beijings bloody 1989 crackdown on protesters in Tiananmen Square, had been a part of the campus for over two decades. Many saw it as a symbol of Hong Kongs wider political freedoms in contrast with mainland China, where the killings have been erased from public memory and remain taboo. Students were seen crying at the empty site on Christmas Eve.

Now that its gone, its incredibly hard to distinguish HKU from other universities in the mainland, a third-year student who wished to remain anonymous said. As a student its heartbreaking. A key piece of what made HKU so iconic is gone.

The same erasure happened within days at other campuses across the city. By Christmas, the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) had removed a Goddess of Democracy statue from the entrance of its train station, and Lingnan University had stripped a Tiananmen massacre wall relief from its campus. A fourth university has requested its student union remove a statue.

The universities cited safety and unspecified legal risks in response to press inquiries. HKU and CUHK maintained that the statues had never been authorised. Both had nonetheless stood on the campuses for over a decade.

The universities swift removal of the Tiananmen massacre memorials, done in the dead of night without consulting students, now symbolises the freedoms the city has lost, observers say.

That an educational institution should remove a statue in the dead of night under such conditions [underlines] the dramatic deterioration in the freedom of academic thought and expression in todays Hong Kong, Louisa Lim, author of the The Peoples Republic of Amnesia, tells the Guardian following the removal.

The erasure of symbols of the massacre is the latest manifestation of a climate of uncertainty and self-censorship that has been growing on the citys campuses in the past 18 months, academics and students say.

There have been few public signs of protest against the removals from either students or staff, who are on semester break.

The silence is also telling of the state of debate on campus. You can feel that there is no longer serious academic discussion about the situation. Its pure bureaucracy, Harry Wu, a former professor of medical humanities at HKU, says.

Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong last year in response to months of pro-democracy protests, which were widely supported by university students. Authorities largely blamed the unrest on student-aged protesters and unverified claims of foreign interference.

Some universities have moved to distance themselves from their student representative bodies. In the past year, HKU and CUHK, the citys two oldest universities, have both cut ties with their student unions, while four student leaders have been arrested under the national security law for advocating terrorism.

The general atmosphere is one of fear. People have been very worried about what they can say, says one HKU professor, speaking to the Guardian on the condition of anonymity due to safety concerns.

Classrooms, both virtual and in person, are no longer safe spaces for debate, some say. Current students described uneasy exchanges in class discussions. Everyone is taking a precautionary approach, both the students and professors. So while we may be speaking our mind for now, it always ends with a nervous laughter because you never know who is going to take it personally, a third-year student at HKU says.

A month after the security laws enactment, prominent pro-democracy activist and scholar Benny Tai was fired from his role at HKU. The move set off alarm bells among his peers.

Wu, a medical humanities professor who taught at the university from 2015 to May 2021, said he had moved to Hong Kong because he believed the citys systems were robust. Last year, he realised that was no longer true. At the moment when Professor Benny Tai was sacked at HKU, I realised the system was not there any more.

Tais dismissal wasnt an isolated incident. In October, two adjunct professors with pro-democracy affiliations at Lingnan University were also sacked.

Authorities maintain that the city has lost none of its promised freedoms, which they say are enshrined in both the national security law and the Basic Law, the citys mini-constitution.

A HKU spokesperson said the university was committed to protecting academic freedoms. HKU always respects academic freedom and upholds it as one of our core values, it said. The university also expects that our staff and students, as of other members in the community, discharge their civil responsibility to abide by the law.

The CUHK media office did not reply to requests for comment.

Wu has since moved to Taiwans National Cheng Kung University, where he said he can enjoy free inquiry. While he was still teaching at HKU, he says he has removed Powerpoint slides from his teaching materials that may be more politically sensitive before uploading them to the schools computer system.

All of us, not only students but also teachers, became cautious, Wu says of the general unease on campus. And you dont feel that the university is a community it was gradual, you can feel that the university functions more like a corporation.

You could see more and more frequently the term senior management team, as if there were people behind it but you didnt know who these people were.

There were also rumours that some students had reported teachers to a dedicated police hotline for national security offences, Lokman Tsui, a former assistant professor of journalism at CUHK, says. Although unverified, they were enough to foster a sense of uneasiness in classrooms.

Everyone is aware that everyone else is watching. And nobody knows who will say what. You have the sense that people are watching, he says. Its not like everyone is paranoid and super scared. But after the national security law, it has definitely increased.

The shrinking space for academic inquiry may mean the type of research at the universities will be reduced to those that do not cross Beijings red lines. Before his contract ended with CUHK, Tsui published a paper on press freedom and reporting on Tibet. I dont know what would happen if I were to start that research today, he says.

Its not like there are clear instructions from higher up, its not quite whats happening on the mainland yet, but you do get your cues. If you were researching Tiananmen before, you may want to think twice now. If you were researching social movements before, you may want to think twice now.

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Atmosphere of fear: Hong Kong students lament loss of Tiananmen statues - The Guardian

Wondering what cruising will be like post-COVID? Nick Dalton journeys around Greece on Marella Discovery and reveals what to expect both before you depart and once onboard.

Sailing from island to island, wind in our hair, the sun on our shoulders, Im on a carefree Greek cruise just like the old days.

Courtesy of Nick Dalton

Marella Discovery is spearheading Mediterranean cruises for Brits after the pandemic pandemonium that left ships bobbing aimlessly for 18 months.

On the surface almost everything is the same but like a duck paddling furiously underwater Marella Cruises, part of the Tui travel empire, is working tirelessly to make things happen.

If the worst thing isyou cant creep in to catch the evening show finale because everyone is seated in a socially-distanced way at the start, its not really a problem.

And a daily moment at one of the thermal temperature testing gadgets scan your door card, stand close and hope for the green light isnt a trial.

Even sitting on my balcony as the sun disappears in a warm, pink glow over Turkeys distant mountains and finding in the following days programme a recommendation to tidy up as all cabins were to be fogged (using harmless chemicals sprayed from a special machine), doesnt detract from my burgundy.

The 24 Septemberdeparture from Corfu is the fourth since Marella started sailing here on 3 September 2021. There are only 880 guests out of a capacity of 1,800 but thats crept up from 600 on the first with numbers set to reach 85% in the coming months.

Everyone here (and Marellas passengers tend to be younger than the cruise norm) loves being aboard and knows its in the interest of themselves and everybody else to play by the rules.

Masks are worn, by and large, when walking around. You accept not being able to prop up the bar (the excellent all-inclusive drinks service helps with that). And you cant get your hands on the buffet in the Islands restaurant asthat comes with people to serve you.

READ MORE: Brilliant new cruise ships we can't wait to sail on

Of course, with travel arrangements changing all the time requirements can be confusing. We were asked to buy a tests package from a recommended company: pre-flight lateral flow/antigen test with a provided negative certificate, pre-return test and a two-day test for our return home, 125 in all.

But, having been asked to test after 9pm the day before departure, and told a certificate should arrivean hour or two after uploading a video of the test being taken, there was no response on waking at 3.30am for a 6.40am flight.

The airport check-in person shrugged and said all that was needed was a test result so, having brought a spare test, I (along with a string of other travellers) tested on the spot.

On landing the certificate was in my in-box with a reply from theproviderto my where is it? query that they shut up shop 8pm-8am.

Top tip: carry spare lateral flow tests with you.

Aside from that, it was flawless. At Corfu airport, despite a warning that extra health tests were a possibility, the immigration official simply said passport and form, the latter being the Passenger Locator which everyone has to fill in online and print for the Greek government before leaving home.

One glance and we were through and on our 15-minute transfer.

At the dock the cheery Marella official asked for boarding pass, passport, Passenger Locator and proof of double jabbing then I crossed the room for another antigen test. Within 10 minutes I was strolling along the quayside where the ships certainly werent socially distancing. Opposite Marella Discovery was Princess Cruises Crown Princess while two Holland America ships waiting to sail again snuggled at the end.

READ MORE: Latest COVID travel advice here

From that point on passengers, from couples in their 20s to those much older, lounged by the open-air pool, drank beer while chatting in the hot tub and, by and large, obeyed the Keep Me Free stickers on varied seats in the bars.

Courtesy of Nick Dalton

Signs around the ship got the message across with a light-handed touch such as Mind The Gap to keep us distanced andHold Your Horses on the floor at the back of a queue.

READ MORE: Amazing facts about cruise ships you might not know

It was a joyous affair, helped no end by Captain Chris Dodds, a blunt and amusing northerner. In his loudspeaker messages hereferred to the C word when addressing safety protocols and he let everything flow during an interview session in the Atrium.

He talked about the trials and tears of the past 18 months honestly and engagingly. He told about the time he and the crew spent just hanging around waiting for the world to get back to normal.

Marella Discovery was in Asia when Covid arrived and after all his passengers were flown home he and his team of 686 spent 83 days at sea going nowhere fast.

With the world at standstill they had to make their own entertainment.

The bands and musicians were all onboard and all the beer was going out of date so we had to dispose of that in the most environmentally-friendly way! But the time was also used productively withmore than 70 crew havinga go at steering their 12 to 14-hour shifts earning them certificates.

And even back in Britain there were months treading water, mostly off Torbay where residents arranged special events for the crew.

Both captain and crew are over the moon to be back, determined to make these cruises a celebration. In the main restaurant, 47 Degrees, waiter Jayson, from the Philippines, tells of the frustration at his forced 18-month holiday with the children while his wife went out to work and his excitement at being able to do his job again.

Hotel director Danielle Rowley, just as upbeat, manages to see the lighter side. The thermometer machines sometimes accidently test the temperature of the coffee youre carrying one day early on both she and Captain Chris were caught, leading to a shipwide alert and worried phone calls.

Should anyone register above 38C,the medical team with antigen tests and a PCR machine is automatically alerted but over the first month no one failed the test.

Courtesy of Nick Dalton

Life on board is idyllic, the weeks cruise spending days on the isles of Crete, Rhodes and Mykonos, plus the isolated mainland spot of Katakolon (pictured), where there is a charming beach, but most people opt for a coach trip to Olympia, home of the Olympics) and Piraeus, theport town at Athens.

Stamatios Manousis/Shutterstock

Port procedure was barely different to any other time Greece has never had a rule (unlike Britain for a time, and other countries) that cruise visitors must be on an organised excursion.

And, given that this was a single-country cruise, we came and went with ease. Mykonos gaveus a swift temperature test as we stepped off the transfer boat, Crete giving us one, but only as we left.

And a midweek Covid test onboard was to satisfy Athens then new rule that everyone must have just tested negative. There was a handy onboard advice session over tests and Passenger Locators the day before going home and airport check-in was a doddle.

Courtesy of Nick Dalton

Dining was mostly as normal bearing in mind that ship restaurants required hand sanitisation two decades ago when the rest of the world had barely heard of it. The Islands restaurant featured the usual breakfast, lunch and dinner buffets but with staff serving. The Snack Shack a colourful beachfront atmosphere with fish and chips and burgers served people queueing as did the Glass House, the lunchtime spot by the indoor, glass-roofed pool.

There were several late-night deck parties, mostly featuring the 4 Tunes, a curious but wonderful Philippines beat combo.At the other end of the entertainment spectrum were ballroom dancing displays by Alexandra & Adrian, apparently rated No 11 in the world.

Covid has led cruises a merry dance for too long, but Marella is showing just what can be done to sail into the new world when the time is right for you.

For more information and to book visit Marella Cruises

Main image: Courtesy of Marella Cruises

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Sailing into the future: what to expect from a cruise in 2022 - loveEXPLORING

WITH a history of more than 200 years, the auction system may be the longest standing method of livestock marketing, and it may offer the only truly transparent and competitive marketplace for all classes of cattle and sheep available to UK livestock producers. But as we head into a time of extreme uncertainty, with input costs rocketing, support payments falling away, and public perception that livestock farming is the villain when it comes to climate change, what role does the auction mart play in the future of livestock production? asks Scott Donaldson, Managing Director at leading auctioneers Harrison & Hetherington.

Every type of agricultural produce, be it grain, fruit, vegetables, dairy, beef, sheep, or pork, relies on supply and demand to determine its value. We have been preached to for many years about our position in the global market and how supply no longer relies solely on whats happening on our shores and how floods in France, drought in Canada and huge yields in the Ukraine, all have a bearing on our farm gate prices here in the UK. But the defining factor in the successful marketing of any product is competition, and the auction system and every auction mart customer thrives on it.

With the stratified and hugely diverse nature of its make-up, the livestock industry in the UK does not lend itself to the integrated supply chain model. Farm businesses are predominantly family run, with immense variations in scale and types of production systems. Depending on the area and type of farm, from lowland arable to highland fell, there is a huge variety and range of breeds produced.

Much has been made of what the market wants and hitting the specification. The diversity of UK livestock production systems means that hitting the spec is not always straightforward. This is where the auction mart comes into its own. In the auction mart environment where competition is king, the customer determines whats in spec, and this has been played out in auction markets around the UK over the past months. Age and moves appear irrelevant at the present time, heavy lambs are in great demand and overweight cattle are breaking price barriers every week.

The auction market brings efficiency to the industry by bringing numbers of all categories of stock together in one place, so that the customer has the choice and the volumes they need to maintain the efficiency of their business. This allows for large numbers to be transported to their destination in one lift.

Auction marts have adapted and evolved numerous times during my career in the industry. In the eighties we moved from hand-written ledgers and clerking to a computer system which enabled us to produce computer printed cheques and bills instantly for customers. We embraced the passport system for cattle and the EID tag system for sheep, and introduced digital displays to give more information to our buyers. Primarily for primestock sales direct to abattoirs, in the early nineties, electronic auction systems were introduced by the leading UK auction companies, this was a huge step away from tradition at the time.

Live streaming of auction sales, and live on-line bidding began to emerge in and around 2015 and these have gone from strength to strength. The introduction of on-line timed sales of pedigree livestock was accelerated after lock-down, a medium the machinery specialists had been using for some time.

So, what innovation will auction markets champion next? Well, the modern auction mart is already a well-equipped agri-business centre. Large numbers of livestock are brought together in a facility specifically designed with animal welfare in mind, and state of the art technology works in tandem with the live-ring in an efficient and welcoming environment. The imminent introduction of Bovine EID reduces unnecessary handling and will improve the welfare of the cattle and the safety of customers and market staff. The Livestock Information Program (LIP) designed to replace BCMS will reduce paperwork and the whole package will improve efficiency, while at the same time, uploading health status and other husbandry information. The ringside will soon be a digitally interactive interface, providing buyers with all the information they require to make informed and accurate buying decisions from both the ringside or the farm office.

Continued here:

Does the Auction Mart have a role to play in the future of livestock production? - News & Star

EMEKA NZE writes that despite preceding Nigerias main election year, the new year, 2022 is no less loaded with activities, ranging from two off-season elections to possible political chicanery and subterfuge by politicians

2023 general electionsThe countdown to 2023, Nigerias general elections year, has begun in earnest. By the calendar of the Independent National ElectoralCommission (INEC), barring unforeseen circumstances, the Presidential and National Assembly elections will hold Saturday February 18, 2023 and the governorship and state assembly elections in 30 states are expected to hold the following Saturday.

For 2023 polls, preparations are expected to terminate in the first quarter and elections and declarations of results will subsequently hold in the same first quarter to pave way for the swearing in May 29.

2022 as a preparation yearApartfrom the ongoing nationwide Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) which entered the third quarter this January, this year 2022 is equally loaded with activities.

One of such activities would be fine-tuning and sharpening INECs technologies for the general elections come 2023, using two major off-season polls of Ekiti and Osun states slated for this year as well as the bye elections and the Area Council elections in the FCT in February this year.

FCT Area Council, Ekiti, Osun and bye-electionsWhile the Area Councils election is slated for February 12, 2022, the Ekiti governorship election will hold on 18th June 2022 and the Osun governorship election is scheduled for 16th July 2022.

The Area Council election scheduled in 68 constituencies will produce six chairmen and vice chairmen for the six area councils and 62 councilors.

There are also eight pending bye-elections involving three Federal Constituencies (Jos North/Bassa in Plateau state, Akure North/Akure South in Ondo State and Ogoja/Yala in Cross River state) and five state constituencies (Shinkafi in Zamfara state, Ekiti East I in Ekiti state, Akpabuyo in Cross River state, Pankshin South in Plateau state and Giwa West in Kaduna state).

INECs year of enormous workAcknowledging the enormity of task ahead of the commission, INEC chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, at the recent meeting with Resident Electoral Commissioners RECs in Abuja last month said, Next year (2022) is therefore going to be a very busy year for us.

From the explanations by the INEC chairman, preparations for the FCT elections have reached a crescendo.

Expressing delight on the readiness of the commission for the election he said, I am glad to report that all the PVCs (39,208 new PVCs) will be available for collection from 6th January 2022 until 4th February 2022. The FCT office of the commission will provide full details of the locations and procedure for the collection of the PVCs in earnest.

The INEC chairman also spoke on preparations for Ekiti and Osun elections at the meeting with RECs: You may recall that in June this year, the commission released the timetable and schedule of activities for the Ekiti governorship election holding on 18th June 2022 and the Osun governorship election scheduled for 16th July 2022.

He outlined other activities associated with the elections thus:A major activity for the two governorship elections is the conduct of primaries by political parties for the nomination of candidates for the election. For Ekiti state, the exercise begins in the next 2 weeks on 4th January 2022 and ends on 29th January 2022.

In the case of Osun state, party primaries begin on 16th February 2022 and ends on 12th March 2022.

Parties, politicians and intriguesOn their part, the parties and the politicians are putting finishing touches to their strategies to emerge first as flag bearers of their parties and then winners at the elections.

The year 2022 preceding the general elections year, politicians are expectedly oiling their machineries, intensifying their scheming, manipulations and manoeuvering to gain prominence, dominance and popularity in their parties and areas of authority and constituencies.While the emerging aspirants would struggle to gain more popularity and dominance to topple the status quo in both primary and inter party elections, the incumbent would play to resist and diminish the emerging power of opposition to retain political supremacy.This is with the view to putting themselves in a position to first emerge as standard bearers within their parties and then make the coast clear to win the opposition in the inter-party contests. It is indeed a year and season of intrigues, political chicanery and horse trading.This explains the spillover crises in the major parties into 2022, as a result of unresolved disagreements during congresses conducted to elect the officers last year.Despite the constitutional provisions that party chieftains must exhaust internal crisis resolution mechanisms, till now, cases are still pending in courts on who should preside over the affairs of some of the parties in the states.Expectedly, given the brand of politics in this clime, conflicts and clashes may be inevitable due to the crisis within the parties and polity may be heated up. The conflicts may be carried over to the primaries when parties would nominate their candidates.

INEC cautions parties on primariesBearing this in mind, Prof Yakubu warned: The Commission wishes to remind political parties that in choosing their candidates for these elections, they must abide by the provisions of the law, INECs regulations and guidelines as well as their Constitutions and guidelines.INEC will monitor the primaries as required by law. Political parties must therefore hold themselves to the same high standard of free, fair, transparent and credible elections that they expect from INEC during general elections.Any political party that fails to conduct democratic primaries within the timeframe provided in the commissions timetable and schedule of activities cannot be expected to submit the names of candidates to INEC for elections.With the adoption of new technologies by the INEC to make the electoral system full proof devoid of manipulations, many of the politicians who are used to the old ways of election manipulation might also try to put some of their boys to task to devise possible ways of thwarting or circumventing INECs innovations with a view to infiltrating the system for their selfish ends.

Responding to this scenario, a key officer of INEC said, 2022 provides INEC, another ample opportunity to sharpen and finetune its systems and strategies, preparatory to the 2023 general elections.The commission is not be sleeping. All year round, the Election Management Body (EMB) is now fully engaged in the conduct of off-season elections, bye elections coupled with Area Councils elections in the Federal Capital Territory and it has already hit the ground running.Ekiti and Osun states governorship polls this year are veritable grounds to further test run and consolidate gains of INECs new found technologies.The INEC chairman during the meeting with RECs last month harped on technologies and ways to improve them, The BVAS has replaced the Smart Card Reader for verification and authentication as part of our improved voter accreditation process.The new technology was designed in-house by INEC engineers.Like every new technology, glitches were observed and important lessons learnt. We wish to assure Nigerians that the commission has reviewed the performance of the BVAS in Anambra state and there will be a tremendous improvement leading to optimal performance in future elections.The BVAS has come to stay. So too is the uploading of polling unit results on the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal in real-time on Election Day.We are convinced that the introduction of technology in voter accreditation and result management is better than the best entirely manual process.It also increases public confidence in the process. We will continue to deepen the use of technology in our elections.While reminding the RECs of the enormous task in 2022, the INEC chair said, In addition to these off-cycle elections, we must also continue to prepare for the 2023 General Election.We have so many physical facilities to rebuild, materials to replace, regulations and guidelines to work on, consultations with stakeholders to strengthen, capacity of our staff to enhance and several aspects of election administration to improve upon.

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2022: Year of fine-tuning INEC's procedures, political chicanery - Blueprint newspapers Limited

If you are yet to verify your Income Tax Return (ITR) for Assessment Year 2020-21 (financial year 2019-20), there is one more opportunity.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has provided a one-time relaxation for verification of e-filed ITRs for AY2020-21 which are pending for verification due to non-submission of ITR-V form or pending e-Verification, the board said in a tweet followed by issuing a circular. Such verification must be completed by February 28, 2022. These returns will be processed by June 30 followed by issuance of refund.

The board has made it clear that this relaxation will not apply in those cases where, during the intervening period, the Income tax Department has already taken recourse to any other measure as specified in the Act for ensuring filing of tax return by the taxpayer concerned after declaring the return as non-est. Last year on account of pandemic, the date for filing return for AY21 was extended many times.

In case the taxpayer concerned does not get her/his return regularised by furnishing a valid verification (either ITR-V or EVC/OTP) by February 28, necessary consequences as provided in law for non-filing the return may follow, the board cautioned.

If ITR is filed electronically without a digital signature, the taxpayer is required to verify it using various alternatives within the time limit of 120 days from the date of uploading the ITR. It can be done through through Aadhaar OTP, by logging into e-filing account through net banking, EVC through Bank Account Number, EVC through Demat Account Number, EVC through Bank ATM or by sending a duly signed physical copy of ITR-V through post to the CPC, Bengaluru

According to the board, it has been brought to its notice that large number of electronically filed ITRs for the AY 21 still remain pending with the Income-tax Departrnent for want of receipt of a valid ITR-V Form at CPC, Bengaluru or pending e-Verification from the taxpayers concerned. In law, consequences of failure to verify the ITR within the time allowed is significant as such an ITR is/can be declared non-est. Thereafter, the consequences for non-filing an ITR, as specified in the law, follow. Keeping this in mind, the board has given the relaxation.

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ITR for Assessment Year 2020-21 can be verified till Feb 28 - BusinessLine

Charlene, whom they call Charlie, is six. This morning she scrutinized Lou, wrinkling her sunburned nose, and asked, Where are you going?

Short trip north, he said. Some fishing, a little duck hunting, maybe.

You dont have a gun, Charlie said. She watched him evenly, her long tangled hair raking the light.

Lou found himself avoiding her eyes. The others do, he said.

His little boy, Rolph, clung to him at the door. Pale and dark-hairedChristines coloring, her iridescent eyes. Its the strangest thing when Lou holds his son, as if their flesh were starting to fuse, so that letting go of him feels like tearing. He has a guilty awareness of loving Rolph more than Charlie. Is that wrong? Dont all men feel that way about their sonsor, at least, those lucky enough to have sons? Poor Tim Breezely!

There will be no fishing, no hunting. What Quinn divulged, that afternoon on Montgomery Street, as they drank and smoked their Parliaments and roared with laughter before driving their big cars home to their wives and kids, was that he knew of some bohemians who grew grass in the middle of a forest near Eureka. They welcomed visitors. We can go overnight on a weekend sometime, if you like, Quinn said.

They did.

How can I possibly know all this? I was only six, and stuck at home, despite my fervent wish to come alongI always wanted to go with my father, sensing early (or so it seems, looking back) that the only way to hold his attention was to stay in his presence. How can I presume to describe events that occurred in my absence in a forest that is now charred and exudes an odor like seared meat? How dare I invent across chasms of gender, age, and cultural context? Trust me, I would not dare. Every thought and twinge I record arises from concrete observation, although getting hold of that information was arguably more presumptuous than inventing it would have been. Pick your poisonif imagining isnt allowed, then we have to resort to gray grabs.

I got lucky; all four mens memories are stored in the Collective Consciousness, at least in partsurprising, given their ages, and downright miraculous in my fathers case. He died in 2006, ten years before Mandalas Own Your Unconscious was released. So how could my father have used it? Well, remember: the genius of Mandalas founder, Bix Bouton, lay in refining, compressing, and mass-producing, as a luscious, irresistible product, technology that already existed in crude form. Memory externalization had been whispered about in psychology departments since the early two-thousands, with faculty speculating about its potential to revolutionize trauma therapy. Wouldnt it help you to know what really happened ? What youve repressed ? Why does my mind (for example) wander persistently to a family party my parents took me to in San Francisco around the time this story takes place? I remember scrambling with a bunch of kids around the roots of an old tree, then being alone in someones attic beside a white wicker chair. Again and again: scrambling with those children, then alone in an unfamiliar attic. Or not alone, because who took me there, and why? What was happening while I looked at that chair? Ive wondered many times whether knowing the answers to those questions would have allowed me to live my life with less pain and more joy. But by the time one of my fathers caregivers told us about a psychology professor at Pomona College who was uploading peoples consciousnesses for an experimental project, I was too wary to participate. A gain is also a loss when it comes to technologymy fathers imploding recording empire had taught me that much. But my father had little to lose; hed had five strokes and was expiring before our eyes. He wanted in.

Rolph had been dead for years, and my other siblings were elsewhere. So it fell to me to greet the young professor, who wore red high-top sneakers, along with his two graduate students and a U-Haul full of equipment, early one morning at my fathers house. I parted the sparse remnants of my fathers surfer shag and fastened twelve electrodes to his head. Then he had to lie stillasleep, awake, it didnt matter and there wasnt much of a difference at that pointfor eleven hours. Id moved his hospital bed beside the pool so that he could hear his artificial waterfall. It seemed too intimate a process to let him undergo with strangers. I sat next to him for most of the time, holding his floppy hand while a wardrobe-size machine rumbled beside us. After eleven hours, the wardrobe contained a copy of my fathers consciousness in its entirety: every perception and sensation he had experienced, starting at the moment of his birth.

Its a lot bigger than a skull, I remarked as one of the graduate students wheeled over a hand truck to take it away. My father still wore the electrodes.

The brain is a miracle of compression, the professor said.

I have no memory of that exchange, by the way. I saw and heard it only when I reviewed that day from my fathers point of view. Looking out through his eyes, I noticedor, rather, he noticedmy short, uninteresting haircut and the middle-aged gut I was already starting to acquire, and I heard him wonder (but hear isnt the right word; we dont hear our thoughts aloud, exactly), How did that pretty little girl end up looking so ordinary ?

When Own Your Unconscious came out, in 2016, I was able to have the wardrobes contents copied into a luminous one-foot-square yellow Mandala Consciousness Cube. I chose yellow because it made me think of the sun, of my father swimming. Once his memories were in the Cube, I was finally able to view them. At first, the possibility of sharing them never crossed my mind; I didnt know it was possible. The Collective Consciousness wasnt a focus of early marketing for Mandala, whose slogans were Recover Your Memories and Know Your Knowledge. My fathers consciousness seemed like more than enoughoverwhelming, in factwhich may be why I began, with time, to crave other points of view. Sharing his was the price. As the legal custodian of my fathers consciousness, I authorized its anonymous release, in full, to the Collective. In exchange, Im able to use date and time, latitude and longitude, to search the anonymous memories of others who were present in those woods, on that day in 1965, without having to invent a thing.

Let us return to the men scrambling behind or (in my fathers case) alongside Quinn Davies, their guide. The introduction to grass took place at the trailhead, where Quinn passed around a small pipe, refilling it several times. Most people didnt get high on their first exposure. (This was good old-fashioned pot, mind you, full of stems and seeds, long before the days of hydroponic sinsemilla.) Quinn wanted to get this first smoke out of the way, to prime his palsBen Hobart in particularfor getting well and truly wasted later on.

A river flashes in and out of view far below, like a snake sliding among leaves. As the men climb, their stumbling and guffawing yield to huffing, wheezing, and struggle. All four smoke cigarettes, and none exercise the way we think of it now. Even Ben Hobart, one of those preternaturally fit guys who can eat anything, is breathing too hard for speech by the time they crest the hill and glimpse A-Frame, as the house is known. Tucked in a redwood clearing and built from the cleared redwood, A-Frame is the sort of whimsical structure that will become a clich of seventies California architecture. But, to these men, it looks like an apparition from a fairy tale: Is it real ? What kind of people live here ? Compounding the eeriness is Simon and Garfunkels Sound of Silence eking from hi-fi speakers facing outward on the redwood deck. A-Frames mastermind, Tor, has somehow managed to get electricity to a house in the middle of a forest, that is accessible only on foot.

Hello, darkness, my old friend...

A hush of awe engulfs the men as they approach. Lou falls back, letting Quinn lead the way into a soaring cathedral of space whose vast triangular windows reach all the way to its pointed ceiling. The scent of redwood is overpowering. Quinn introduces Tor, an austere eminence in his forties with long prematurely white hair. Tors old lady, Bari, is a warmer zaftig presence. An assortment of young people mill about the main room and deck, showing no interest in the new arrivals.

This odd setup leaves our three newcomers unsure what to do with themselves. Lou, who cant tolerate feeling like a hanger-on, is abruptly angry with Quinn, who speaks quietly and privately with Tor. What the hell kind of greeting is this ? Nowadays, a man ill at ease in his surroundings will pull out his phone, request the Wi-Fi password, and rejoin a virtual sphere where his identity is instantly reaffirmed. Let us all take a moment to consider the isolation that was customary before these times arrived! The only possible escape for Lou and his friends involves retracing their steps through the forest without bread crumbs to guide them. So Lou paces around A-Frame in a way he cannot seem to help (though he feels its disruption), barking occasional questions at Tor, who sits aloft on a tall wooden chair that looks irritatingly thronelike: Nice place, Tor. What sort of work do you do? Mustve been hell getting pipes laid this far out.

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What the Forest Remembers, by Jennifer Egan - The New Yorker

Creative engineering, vintage illustration of the head of a man with an electronic circuit board for ... [+] a brain, 1949. Screen print. (Illustration by GraphicaArtis/Getty Images)

Few individuals write about issues that impact human survival. Fewer still win multiple literary awards for writing science fiction novels. Hardly anyone joins a major corporation as chief futurist. Neal Stephenson can be credited for doing all three.

Writer, academician, video game designer and technology consultant are just some of the things Neal is famous for. He has authored historical epic novels Cryptonomicon and The Baroque Cycle; science fiction novels The Diamond Age and Anathem; contemporary thrillers Zodiac and REAMDE; and science fiction epic Seveneves, among others.

His Snow Crash published in 1992 preceded The Matrix series and introduced the concept of The Metaverse . Yes, Neal Stephenson coined the term. And his 1994 Interface preceded NeuraLink by over 20 years!

In his latest science fiction book Termination Shock, Neal lays out a scenario where an individual takes technological steps to intervene in climate change in order to ensure human survival. Lets hope that this book does is not as prophetic as some of the others.

His imagination, unique sense of technology trends, immersive literary style, and attention to detail set a very high bar for the other science fiction authors. In the past, when people asked me what I would do when aging is defeated, I usually answered that I would catch up on Neal Stephensons novels as well as movies and video games based on his work.

I talked with Neal about his creative process, how he researches the material that he includes in his books, and how he works with the other science fiction writers. I also asked my favorite question - why in most science fiction where people mastered space travel, people are still aging.

Neal Stephenson, Zoom Interview, Photo processed using Instapainting

Alex Zhavoronkov - Two generations of science fiction readers grew up reading your work, which is now also being taught at the university level. In my opinion, you're the most famous science fiction author alive. Can you tell me about your creative process and how you choose a subject? And once you choose the subject, what kind of research do you do?

Neal Stephenson - I have ideas all the time that come out like a running faucet. And so I need to put a bucket under that faucet to catch them at any given time. And if not, I get restless and crazy. So that can take many forms. But the best form for me is to work on a book. I'm almost always working on a book of some kind. I generally don't have a vacation or a pause between finishing one book and starting another one, because it just makes me crazy to not have an outlet. Frequently, I'll have a couple of ideas in my head that might become the subject of the next book. And I often make a decision on the spur of the moment when it's time to begin the next project. So it's not really planned out in advance, it's just a snap decision based on what I think is most interesting creatively. And some ideas have to sit up here (pointing to the head) for a while to gestate and become ready and right. Once I've decided which book I'm going to do next, I spend some time doing research. If it's a historical book, I might have to do a bunch of research. The important thing is that the story has to be compelling and interesting to the readers. They (the books) have to start off in a way that engages the reader and draws them in and gets them interested in the characters. And the plot has to develop. Sometimes, over researching it at the beginning can get in the way of that. So, I try to focus first on getting the story started. And then if I feel that I have a good start, I might slow down for a little bit and let research catch up with what I'm writing. The best contribution of research is to supply little details and plot developments that might not occur to me if I were just completely making things up. Whereas with, let's say, Seveneves, as I was studying and learning the orbital mechanics and the technical details of orbits and rockets and so on, that provided some ideas that I would never have come up with if I just free associated. I would say that research tends to kind of peak in the middle of the project and then beyond a certain point, it can become a little counterproductive. Because the more research you do, the more you feel that it should be included. You don't want to put time and effort and sometimes money into doing research and then never use it - that seems silly. There's always a temptation to keep putting the research in there, even if it might not continue to serve the purpose of the story. So beyond a certain point, I tend to pull back and then I just try to focus on writing and telling the story. If I do research beyond that point, it tends to be extremely focused. It's not open ended at that point.

Alex Zhavoronkov- You usually write in the cyberpunk style and go into very deep technological detail. However, The Mongoliad was a major pivot from this regular genre. It's closer to Lord of the Rings than cyberpunk and apocalyptic scenarios. What made you pivot into this area?

Neal Stephenson- I had written some historical fiction previously with The Baroque Cycle and I enjoyed it very much. I could have a very happy life just writing historical fiction. The Mongoliad had emerged from a group project that was based on an interest in what's called Hema - Historical European Martial Arts, which is a thing I became interested in about 20 years ago. We had some writers in my little group and I had an idea that we began to work on which was to tell a story with a very long arc beginning in ancient Athens and continuing up until the 20th century about a secret group of martial artists who take various forms over the centuries. We had ideas for a possible movie project that we tried to sell in Hollywood. But then we hit on the idea of trying to tell a story in fiction. This is not a screenplay project anymore, and not merely an adaptation of the movie idea, but a new story in the same world that was designed to be a novel or a series of novels. So as a group, we eventually hit on the idea of setting something during the Mongol invasion of Europe in the 1200s. It's just a historical oddity that just as the Mongols were poised to sweep across Poland, Germany and Hungary, and into Western Europe, they stopped because the great Khan had died; and their tradition was that when the great Khan dies, all of the other Khans have to go home back to Mongolia and choose the next Khan. So the premise of The Mongoliad is that this was not an accident. According to official history, the Khan died in a hunting accident. What we are claiming is that a group of these European martial artists traveled all the way across Asia and hunted him down and killed him, specifically to trigger this clause in the Mongol constitution and force them to pull back. So that's the storyline of The Mongoliad. We originally wrote it for electronic publication. Later, Amazon decided to publish it as a series of novels. Then different members of the group produced sequels to it, as well as some graphic novels and other material that are set in that same universe.

Alex Zhavoronkov- That was a phenomenal piece of work and I deeply enjoyed it. I think that you inspired a lot of people to go and look at history. I'm not sure how many people know Mongol history so deeply. How much of this was envisioned by you? And how much of it was Greg Bear?

Neal Stephenson- There's a whole list of writers and we all contributed to the story. In that group, Greg and I were comparatively more experienced, published novelists than some of the others; so I think some of them tended to take advice from us, for better or worse. But Greg also has a very deep knowledge of history and a huge library and a capacity to take in new information at a very high speed. We had the other members of the group: Nicole Galland, Joseph Brassey and others. Although they were not as well established, we're all equals in terms of basic ability, energy and willingness to work on this thing.

Alex Zhavoronkov- Who are your other favorite authors? Is there anybody who you would like to collaborate with? Maybe from today or even from the past?

Neal Stephenson- I have actually collaborated with Nicole Galland on other projects and have enjoyed doing so very much. But in general, I don't collaborate because I don't need to. There have been a few exceptions and I've enjoyed those projects very much. I don't read a lot of fiction to tell you the truth, because I only have so much time for reading, and I tend to spend that time reading material that's related to my current writing project. The one exception that I have very much enjoyed is Joe Abercrombie, who is a British fantasy writer. His book The Wisdom of Crowds just came out a couple of weeks ago. I have been enjoying that very much. Joe Brassey, one of the other collaborators on The Mongoliad, has got his own series of fantasy novels, "The Drifting Lands," that I think are excellent. But other than that, it's a lot of history. I've been reading a book about authoritarianism as well as Jonathan Rauchs book The Constitution of Knowledge: a Defense of Truth. So those are some things on my recent reading list.

Alex Zhavoronkov- When are we going to see the first movie based on Snow Crash?

Neal Stephenson- Actually, HBO Max passed on it in June. So that project is currently back into limbo.

Alex Zhavoronkov - What about Amazon?

Neal Stephenson- They passed on it previously.

Alex Zhavoronkov- So that's crazy. What about The Mongoliad? Will anybody televise that?

Neal Stephenson- It doesn't seem to have elicited a lot of interest and I think it'd be a very expensive costume drama. In TV and movies, they like things that happen in the contemporary world where you just have normal people in normal clothes sitting in normal rooms talking to each other. Those are very cheap to produce and they sell very effectively in the marketplace if you do it right. As soon as you start trying to produce any movie or TV show in which all of the characters are wearing special costumes, special hair, carrying special props, special furniture, special rooms, it becomes much more expensive and complicated to produce. At that point you're in a whole different league. And the scrutiny that the executives would give to such a project is very intense because if they're going to spend all that money, they want to make sure that this is going to appeal to a broad audience. There's a lot about The Mongoliad that would maybe scare them off.

Alex Zhavoronkov- Moving on to another question then. How did you end up at Magic Leap? And what did they need to do to get you to work on something in that kind of domain?

Neal Stephenson- Four people from the company came to my house for a visit and they were still very secretive. I didn't really know what they were doing but they told me under NDA about something and showed me some technology they were working on and so we ended up working out. Then I went to Florida and met Rony Abovitz, the CEO. It was anopportunity for me to work on something that I thought was interesting. I liked all the people I met, and I thought that the project was fascinating. I've been in the habit for many years of having a sort of technical project that I can do during the afternoon. I write in the morning, but then during the rest of the day, I need something else that I can do that takes my mind off of the book. At different points and times in my career, I've worked at Blue Origin, I've worked at Intellectual Ventures Labs and I worked on the transmedia startup Subutai that did The Mongoliad. At that particular moment in my life, I was between projects, so I was kind of available. I decided to try it out and began working for them half time, and ended up creating a little squad in Seattle to try to make some original content that would run on the device. That's a challenging and fascinating problem, because AR content ought to be aware of one's surroundings and responsive to one's movements and surroundings. It shouldn't just be like a movie that plays. To build a hardware device that's capable of doing that is a very interesting challenge; and it's one that Magic Leap basically succeeded at. You've got to have a device that uses cameras to look at the whole environment, maybe LIDAR, other sensors, and then it has to integrate what it sees into an accurate three-dimensional model of the room. That's a thing that is called SLAM in the lingo, Simultaneous Location And Mapping. The device has to either retrieve that information from a cache or create it on the fly. Then, it's got a model of the room, which is constantly being changed and updated. Then you have to think about things like occlusion. If I've got a chair over there and if something goes behind the chair, it needs to be occluded by the chair, as it would be if it were a real thing; that's easy to say but hard to do. So that's all just basic capabilities that the system has to have that doesn't even begin to create content. Sitting on top of that, you've got a game engine that is designed to create three-dimensional content. We built an application called Baby Goats that was just a simple application in which you had baby goats running around your room, and they would jump up on things, the way goats do, and they had behaviors and some kind of simple AI. But in order to make that work, we had to build part of a whole engineering stack within my group, based on work done by other people at Magic Leap. So the other people had laid the foundations that we added on to and we ended up releasing that as a sample app that other developers could look at to get ideas. And we worked on a more ambitious IP project as well, creating an original IP universe that was optimized for augmented reality. So that were a fascinating few years. In April 2020 Magic Leap cut back on its staff and pivoted to industrial and commercial applications; which is probably a good business decision, similar to what Microsoft is doing with HoloLens. You've got to find the market and sell units into that market. So that was the decision they made that rendered me and what I was doing sort of temporarily irrelevant.

Alex Zhavoronkov- That is crazy. I was just thinking about getting a device just to get a touch of your universe there. So we are not going to see your ideas and creative thinking and that device anytime soon, are we?

Neal Stephenson- No, and I don't think the Baby Goats application works. It hasn't been updated to work with the new OS. I understand your feelings, it was very impressive in a technical way.

Alex Zhavoronkov- One of my investors and fellow thinkers is also one of the co-founders of Oculus. He quit Facebook and is investing in longevity. He would have appreciated your creative genius because, I'm pretty sure millions of people would buy a device just to get a touch of the universe, if it works.

Neal Stephenson- It works. The performance specs of the device are good enough to work. So it comes down to a matter of budgeting and project management. I's a chicken and egg situation, which is very common for things like game consoles, PCs, what have you; where essentially, you're a hardware maker, you've got a thing that works, it meets its engineering specs, which is a miracle unto itself, but the people are not going to buy it unless there is an application for it that makes that worthwhile. The easiest path to that is probably in the industrial and commercial setting.

Alex Zhavoronkov- Switching to a related matter, your novel Fall; or, Dodge in Hell is a fundamental work on the possibility of digital immortality in a very near term. And it looks like in the past few years there has been a major wave of fiction novels and movies starting from, Transcendence and recent Amazon series on the subject. What made you go into this field and how far do you think uploading is from reality? How much research did you do into the field and what do you think is the technological possibility of uploading in the near future?

Neal Stephenson- I should begin by saying that compared to some of my other books like Seveneves, in Fall, I'm being a little more flexible with the science. In Seveneves, I was pretty strict about orbital mechanics and rockets and all that stuff and in Fall, I certainly did some research on brain scanning and so on, but I had an idea on where I wanted the story to go creatively that I was going to write whether it was realistic or not.

Alex Zhavoronkov- So you didn't collaborate with anybody who is working on that right now?

Neal Stephenson- I looked at current research on different scanning techniques, but I didn't really go deep, in that case, because I had an idea or a few ideas. One is that there was a trend in the 1990s for certain people, typically tech people from Silicon Valley. And you'd see them wearing these ID bracelets with instructions on how to freeze their body, which I thought was fascinating. The part of me that's a novelist had the idea that what if somebody did that 20 years ago and signed all the papers and made it legal, and then just forgot about it, and then suddenly died. So that was one of the ideas that contributed to Fall. And then another one is the mystery of consciousness and how it turns on and off. I've reached the age where every so often, I have a routine colonoscopy, and when they put you under for that procedure, you're lying there, you are normal, you are conscious, you are talking to the person, and they inject this drug and within a few seconds, your consciousness is gone, it is shut off, is completely absent until sometime later, it switches back on again in a minute or two. But it's almost as if you died, and then resurrected from a consciousness point of view. So that creates all kinds of fascinating philosophical issues around what does it mean to be alive, to be conscious. Now I'm almost 62; the 20 year old Neal, who was in college in Boston, might as well be dead. All of my tissue has been replaced. But I believe that I'm the same person because I can tell a narrative, a continuous storyline that's in my memory that connects me back to that 20 year old Neal. I was thinking about things like that and I thought that was an interesting subject matter. And then, sort of unrelated to that, I've just been interested in John Milton's Paradise Lost for a long time. He is a fascinating person and his personal story is quite unusual. I've been thinking about various possible ways to somehow use Paradise Lost or Milton in a story and decided that maybe there was a way I could wrap all of those elements together.

Alex Zhavoronkov- It often surprises me that in science fiction, people are still aging and are mortal. So in theory, if you get to that level of technological sophistication, you should be able to at least repair the damage that is caused by cosmic radiation, and many other forms of damage, so at least preserve the body in a more or less healthy state. There are many original ideas on covering longevity and biotechnology, and there are many ways to transform the human body to adapt to the environment. But for some strange reason, they do not propagate into science fiction that is dealing with space travel. So do you have any plans to go into this field and research that area?

Neal Stephenson- I haven't thought about it until now. It would surprise me a little if nobody has gotten there yet. Because in general, I've always been impressed by the way science fiction writers will very rapidly pick up on new ideas and new research and find ways to tell stories. And what you just described sounds to me like an excellent premise. You could do all kinds of things with that premise.

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The Original Inventor Of Metaverse On Technology, Life, And Books: Interview With Neal Stephenson - Forbes