Category Archives: New Utopia

For the first time, the term metaverse was mentioned in Neil Stevensons fiction novel Avalanche in 1992. In the cyberpunk genre, the author described the double life of an ordinary pizza delivery man, who rarely had luck in everyday life, however, in the cyber universe he was able to become a famous hacker and warrior, who was responsible for saving the world. The work received a good response from fans of fiction, but the developers of the entertainment industry were seriously carried away by the creation of a utopian universe only recently, almost 30 years later.

The metaverse is an online ecosystem concept that combines the virtual online world and offline reality. There are different ways to enter it: the most common way that tech giants plan to use is VR helmets to get together for video calls. However, the concept of metaverse is broader than just working with virtual reality in fact, in the context of modern IT, a metaverse can be called an infrastructure on the network, inside which a user creates his avatar and quietly exists, performing actions: creating content, changing currency, playing games. In fact, this is any world created on the web. But can any network structure be called a metaverse?

The metaverse strives to become useful, full, like real life. Corporations specializing in IT and technology, realizing that metaverse is the new black, hurried to declare that their products will certainly be combined into the metaverse. Microsoft has announced an innovative Mesh system that, using VR and AR headsets, will allow people to work in a team while being in different parts of the globe, as well as create 3D models and interact with them. The US Armyis currently working with Microsoft on the HoloLens 2 augmented reality headset, in which soldiers will be able to train and fight. Expertsbelievethat mixed reality can be the key to improving teamwork.

On October 28, 2021, Facebookannounceda name change now the global network is presented as Meta. Despite the fact that virtual reality is not developing as fast as we would like (it may become mainstream onlyin 5-10 years), corporations are already making a huge contribution to the development of cyberspace. Meta has made large investments (to be more precise,2.3 billion US dollars) in virtual reality for example, it acquired Oculus, which produces entire lines of VR and AR headsets.

However, the problem with all that is that the concept of metaverse does not imply an exclusive environment into which strictly users of a certain network can penetrate using strictly defined gadgets. The idea of the metaverse is inclusive at the root: in fact, it is an additional reality to the existing one, into which everyone can penetrate. And the key aspect is communication and sociality: the conditional avatar inside the metaverse should socialize and communicate as in real life. It is really quite difficult and expensive to build such a universe, and it can only be done by joint efforts not within the ecosystem of a certain brand. However, it is possible to build ecosystems according to the principles of metaverse and, oddly enough, games were the first to take this path.

The metaverse is a product that appeared as a result of studying the trends of generation Z that appear in games. In games like Roblox and Minecraft, modern users focus not only on the entertainment process: social aspects play a more significant role for young people. In the online world, they can communicate and learn to work in a team: it turns out to be a kind of training of interaction with people, for example, before joining a work, school or student team. This type of gaming activity is especially useful for introverts: since communication takes place in a space in which the player is comfortable, he is relaxed and disposed to talk about common gaming topics.

Unlikemillennials who prefer watching TV programs or movies in their free time, Ganz has the fifth most popular virtual reality vacation. 87% of Generation Z members play video games almost daily. In addition, a study conducted by The Center for Generational Kinetics (The Center for Generational Kinetics) showed that it is zoomers who practically do not see the boundaries between the physical and online worlds and are more integrated into cyberspace. For companies engaged in the development of metaverses, the younger generation is a kind of trendsetter. It is their preferences that set the vector of development.

The developer of computer games Epic Games has also taken a step towards building metaverse in his brainchild Fortnite. Celebrity concerts take place in augmented reality: Ariana Grande and Travis Scotts shows are spectacular spectacles that have garnered millions of views on YouTube. There are also debuts of music albums. You can even witness Martin Luther Kings famous speech I Have a Dream (from English I have a dream).

Having studied the most famous games that converge with the concept of metaverse an open world in which you can freely move and interact with other players you can understand that they follow several basic principles that can be applied when building an ecosystem:

In an ecosystem built on the concept of the metaverse, users create their own avatars, with which they communicate with other participants of the system. Despite the fact that in games the avatar is perceived as something virtual and unreal, in each individual ecosystem, the approach to avatars is different. For example, in Likee, it means a digital fingerprint of creativity and creativity of each user. These avatars are immersed in the ecosystem and interact in it with the help of available tools. Such tools can be both game mechanics and social ones for social platforms

A metaverse-based ecosystem cannot exist without UGC it does not function without the investments of other users. Content here refers to any contribution: from short videos to a simple user path within the ecosystem. In addition, it should be as simple and accessible as possible to enter it only basic gadgets are needed.

Within such ecosystems, their own currencies work. In games, for example, there are coins that can be spent on new skins or features. Sucheconomicsystems can be found inmany platforms including social media apps as well, where the special currencies are designed for users to exchange for items only available in that special community.

A community should be formed in the metaverse ecosystem and this is not a matter of one day at all. So, Minecraft, a game whose principles of operation resemble metaverse as much as possible, was launched in 2009 and built a full-fledged community by about 2013 it was this year that its popularity peaked. Animal Crossing, also following the metaverse concept, gained recognition during the pandemic also mostly based on the community of previous games. In order to exist, the metaverse needs a permanent core of users-avatars who will use it regularly. Without it, it does not exist as, in general, any other reality.

We hear your silent question: but it turns out that there is no metaverse as such? True, so far metaverse only exists as a concept, and without combining technology giants to work on a system with a low entry threshold which any user who follows the rules of metaverse can enter this idea remains a utopia. However, we can create ecosystems built on the principles of the metaverse, which we have outlined above. Such systems help the community to be more cohesive and motivate them to use these systems more and better. So, Likee, like any social platform, in fact, works according to the principles of metaverse we give users tools for existence and interaction on the Internet. This allows them to open up creatively, communicate and create something new without leaving the application. In addition, our metaverse allows their digital avatars to try out several options for interaction: from personal messages and communication in a group of friends to joining mini-games.

Meta-universe is a much broader term than just an ecosystem in virtual reality powered by expensive gadgets. There is a very long way to go to create a universal accessible metaverse, which we will be able to do by overcoming more pressing problems: providing an even larger part of the population with the Internet, making equipment more accessible However, the creation of ecosystems within social platforms based on the principles of the metaverse is the first step to allow users to feel comfortable in the virtual space, to let them understand how an additional reality can coexist with the main one. Naturally, the community plays a huge role in this issue if you build a friendly community, there is a chance that the future of metaverse will come as soon as possible. The only question remains who will be the first and on the basis of which infrastructure the future metaverse will be built. Would there be only one mage metaverse for all and for good? Or would there be various multiple metaverses thriving in a symbiotic relationship, of which one would be the metaverse for a certain group of users like what Likee is doing? The answer is for you, the users, to build.

Read more:

Utopia or everyday life? Why it is too early to talk about metaverse - TechJuice

The City Council of Charlottesville, Va., voted on Tuesday to donate a statue of Robert E. Lee to an African American heritage center that plans to melt the bronze monument, the focus of a deadly white nationalist rally in 2017, into material for a new piece of public art.

The 4-0 vote by the council followed years of debate over the fate of the statue. Four years ago, a plan to remove the statue drew scores of white nationalists to Charlottesville for a Unite the Right rally that led to violence, including the killing of a counterprotester by an Ohio man who plowed a car into a crowd.

The statues fate was left to a prolonged fight in court that concluded in April, when Virginias Supreme Court ruled that the city could take down two statues of Confederate generals, including the Lee monument. Over the summer, workers hoisted it off its granite base.

After taking it down, the city accepted proposals from bidders who wanted the Lee statue and a nearby statue of Stonewall Jackson, another Confederate general, that was also removed.

The Statuary Park at Gettysburg, in Pennsylvania, asked for both, saying in its proposal that it wanted to rescue unwanted statues associated with the Civil War. LAXART, a Los Angeles-based visual arts organization, wanted both statues for a planned exhibition. Frederick Gierisch said in an interview on Tuesday that he offered to pay the city of Charlottesville $10,000 for each statue so he could display them in his ranch in Utopia, Texas.

What to Know About the Charlottesville Rally Trial

I dont think they should all be taken down and destroyed, said Mr. Gierisch, 55. And I think it is a part of history.

The council on Tuesday decided to give the Lee statue to the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, which submitted a proposal under the name Swords Into Plowshares.

An Indiegogo campaign page for the project said that its leaders wanted to transform a national symbol of white supremacy into a new work of art that will reflect racial justice and inclusion.

The projects leaders have not decided what the new artwork will look like. The campaign page said the decision would be informed by a six-month community engagement process where residents of Charlottesville can participate in forums to help determine how the social value of inclusion can be represented through art and public space.

Andrea Douglas, the centers executive director, said in an interview on Tuesday that Swords Into Plowshares is a community-based project.

Were taking something that was harmful, taking something that was the source of trauma, and transforming it into something that is more respective of the democratic, communal space, which those original objects absolutely were not, Ms. Douglas said.

On Monday night, she had been watching the live broadcast of the City Council meeting, listening as council members appeared to be preparing to postpone a vote on the statue.

She stepped away from her computer and went to bed, believing no news would come that night.

But in the final 15 minutes of the nearly six-hour virtual meeting, which stretched into early Tuesday morning, almost every resident who called in during the public comment portion expressed frustration that the officials had yet to decide the statues fate.

How much more do you want to drag out the trauma that these statues represent? one resident asked.

Seven minutes later, Councilman Michael Payne said, Im happy to vote on it tonight and just get it done with.

So is there a resolution? Mayor Nikuyah Walker asked.

That was when Ms. Douglas pulled up the meeting again on her computer after receiving texts from friends.

The vote to donate the statue to the heritage center was unanimous.

So I had a glass of wine, Ms. Douglas said.

The councils decision followed an announcement from Virginias governor, Ralph Northam, on Sunday that the pedestal where a Robert E. Lee statue had stood in Richmond would be removed soon. Mr. Northam said that the removal process of that pedestal would be substantially complete by Dec. 31.

This land is in the middle of Richmond, and Richmonders will determine the future of this space, Mr. Northam said. The Commonwealth will remove the pedestal and we anticipate a safe removal and a successful conclusion to this project.

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Charlottesvilles Statue of Robert E. Lee Will Be Melted Down - The New York Times

Space exploration doesn't happen in a vacuum. Instead, our ideas of space exploration are shaped by our cultural contexts, according to architecture and urban design professor Fred Scharmen.

Scharmen grew up obsessed with human spaceflight and has returned to the topic as an architect to explore how ideas about spaceflight are influenced by the hopes and fears and fashions of the culture in which they are developed. He analyzes seven different spaceflight visions spanning 150 years in his new book, "Space Forces: A Critical History of Life in Outer Space" (Verso, 2021). (Read an excerpt from "Space Forces.")

"Space Forces" highlights not just rocket designers and science-fiction authors but also artists and strategists and, of course, today's space billionaires. Space.com sat down with Scharmen to talk about the book. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Related: Best space and sci-fi books for 2021

Space.com: How did this book come about for you?

Fred Scharmen: Like a lot of people, I've always been interested in space stuff, ever since I was a kid. But when I started to get into architecture more seriously, first as a designer and practitioner, and then later as an academic and teacher, I had the opportunity to go back and sort of interrogate that early obsession that I had as a kid that a lot of us had as kids.

We get caught up in the cool, pretty pictures, and in architecture and urban design, we love making pretty pictures, too. But it's also always worth interrogating those pretty pictures and going, "What's really going on here? Where's this coming from? What's the context? Who is it aimed at?" I got really interested in, like, going deep into some of the renderings that I had grown up with as a child of the '80s ... and so my first book is about those.

Coming out of that first book, I realized that there are a lot more stories that could and should be told in the same way. I found all the same kind of weird and interesting connections between like, anxiety, politics, pop culture [and] science fiction 150 years ago. I tried to put these moments into those same kinds of contexts: what's going on in culture, what's going on in science fiction, what's going on in politics? What are people afraid of? What are they hopeful about? And what do these ideas about living in space tell us about what it means to live in a world generally, whether we make that world from scratch out in space or we're producing and making and negotiating with each other in the world we have?

Space.com: How does your background as an architect shape the way you look at space exploration?

Scharmen: The things that I learned about in architecture school, the things that I worked with working in offices and the things that I was trying to teach students, they all come right to the foreground when the question is, how do we make everything? We're out here in nothing, we need space to occupy and live in what do we want to make? All the stuff we take for granted becomes really fraught because you've got to choose. You've got to choose the composition of the air. If you're spinning for artificial gravity, you've got to decide, do we want to be light and be able to jump around, or do we want to have one gravity [like on Earth] and prioritize health concerns?

Everything becomes a design choice, basically. As architects, we design the air. We do all this stuff all the time, but we kind of forget about what a weird and important decision that is, designing the air, designing the wall, letting in the light, stairs and mobility issues and accessibility all these things are about who's able to use the space. In space exploration, I found all the same issues, just writ large, with the volume turned up, that I'd been familiar with from another direction.

Space.com: You spend the bulk of the book digging into history what was the most surprising or telling incident you found during that research?

Scharmen: I really wish I could have gone more into J.D. Bernal's connection with Rosalind Franklin, who was the discoverer of the DNA molecule they worked together. J.D. Bernal was an English-Irish chemist and scientist who was creating some of these early ideas for, like, let's create a habitat for millions of people that's floating in orbit and they can do science up there and they can expand and live and create a whole culture of their own up there. In his books from the 1940s, he's writing about how genetic modification might be possible. This is before DNA was discovered, and then the person who would later be his colleague was the discoverer of the means by which that kind of thing could happen. I wish I could have had the chance to go more into that coincidence.

And I think I'll never look at a figure like Wernher von Braun the same way again after digging into some of this research. We're used to hearing in basic histories of space science how von Braun was just obsessed and interested in rockets and wanted the chance to make rockets that could go to space, and since he was in Germany, the only chance he had was to go work for Adolf Hitler and the Nazis and create ballistic missiles. And yeah, they were used in World War II, and that's too bad, but then he came to the United States and he converted to Christianity and he became politically active in America and now he's not a Nazi anymore.

I think there are a lot of aspects to von Braun's thinking [that suggest otherwise], especially his proposals when he first came over to the U.S. to use a future space station as a new terror weapon. He was pushing the idea of the space station to the American military on the grounds of that same kind of fear of random death from above that was essential to the V2 rocket that he designed. That was the most powerful aspect of the V2, that uncertainty you never knew when it was going to come for you or where it was going to land if you were in London during the V2 campaign.

That was his major selling point: this would be a new kind of scare weapon, and it would win a future World War III. It's not just the German Nazi rocket science that von Braun brought over, but it's sort of Nazi methodologies for waging war that he brought over that were essential to his worldview.

Space.com: There's this sentence you write about him that I thought was just so powerful: "What kind of world are you willing to make, or at least tolerate, in order to get the kind of world that you want?"

Scharmen: It was a tough chapter to write, going into the memoirs of Holocaust survivors, people who had survived the workcamps that mass produced the V2s, which he visited several times. It wasn't a situation that he was oblivious to at all. There is, I find, a kind of a tacit acceptance it's not an explicit acceptance that this is a necessary period of pain and suffering but we're headed for utopia, that I find in von Braun's worldview.

It comes through in his science fiction, too. Maybe not surprisingly, he was a writer of science fiction on the side as well. In his science-fiction novel, a future united world government after World War III, which is won by the nuclear-armed space station that he convinced the Americans to build, the new goal is to mount this huge expedition to Mars after they discovered that Martians exist. When his people get to Mars, the elder Martians even tell them, "Yes, it's necessary to go through periods of war and suffering and slavery to find peace and to find technical prosperity in the future, and we know that and you're learning those lessons too, you young humans."

That moment in his science-fiction novel is the kind of thing that I picture him thinking about when he's looking out over these tunnels inside a mountain where enslaved people are building his rockets and basically being worked to death. More people died building the V2s than died in the explosions that they caused.

Space.com: I think you must have had the book written before the private spaceflights this year from Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic and SpaceX. What's your perspective on those flights and how does that relate to the stories you tell in the book?

Scharmen: Yeah, it was totally complete before we hit this rapid explosion in private spaceflight. But what I saw in NewSpace generally was this looming image problem that was a disconnect between audiences that they needed to address because they're private operators.

Private spaceflight companies have to speak to investors on the one hand and say, "Oh, no, this is going to be a profit-driven enterprise, we're going to realize the return on investment. It's safe, it's not going to be about risk-taking, or the construction of any new or weird economics or politics." But they have to turn to public audiences and say, "This is breaking new ground, this is a dangerous adventure undertaken on behalf of all humankind, and we're building access to space for everybody."

NASA, like any institution, has its critics but it's probably one of the most beloved brands, one of the most beloved government operations in history. Everybody loves NASA. NASA is so good at connecting actions to ideals, and since they're a public agency and they're using public money, it feels like we're all in it together.

I think that's something that the private space companies are grappling with. That's why [SpaceX mission] Inspiration4 is named what it is: they're trying to reconnect to that feeling, that sense of wonder that we link up to the idea of humans going to space and the adventure and the danger that comes along with that. And it's interesting to see the different ways that the different companies are trying to do that.

Space.com: What do you hope readers take away from "Space Forces"?

Scharmen: What I hope that audiences can take away is that it's time to have a bigger conversation that is more nuanced than, "Should billionaires go to space or shouldn't they? Should they be called astronauts or shouldn't they?" I think there's a lot more to talk about that's more interesting than just these binaries. "Should we fund NASA or should we solve world hunger?" Of course we should do both of those things, and all those things and more.

I think for too long, it's been about, "Are you in favor of a human future in space or not?" and any criticism is seen as like, "Oh, you want to stop everything. You want to shut this whole thing down and defund NASA and take away the rockets." It's not about that. That kind of either-or situation is at this point a little childish, because nobody's gonna shut this stuff down. We've got way too much invested in it. It's way too cool and exciting.

We can say, let's have that conversation more collectively: What sort of world should we invest in both here and elsewhere? It's not a matter of taking away the toys, it's a matter of using the toys for the best possible outcomes.

In my world, as a design teacher and as a designer, critique and criticism is a good thing. It's what we want, because it makes what we're trying to do better. We invite our peers to sit in on our project presentations and give us feedback. That kind of criticism is what I hope more people find valuable: positive feedback that leads to things getting better and more productive and cooler and more interesting and more exciting.

You can buy "Space Forces" on Amazon or Bookshop.org.

Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her on Twitter @meghanbartels. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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New book 'Space Forces' examines the cultural drivers of space exploration - Space.com

OurBroadband Breakfast Live Online events take place on Wednesday at 12 Noon ET. You can watch the December 15, 2021, event on this page. You can also PARTICIPATE in the current Broadband Breakfast Live Online event. REGISTER HERE.

Wednesday, December 15, 2021, 12 Noon ET How Public Private Partnerships Represent an Opportunity for Broadband Deployment

In the past two years, public and private entities have greatly increased their collaboration to expand broadband access for Americans. In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the telecom industry has been forced to find innovative solutions to connect households to essential online services. In this Broadband Breakfast Live Online event, we will explore the factors driving public-private partnerships in telecom and look at where such partnerships can take us next. Various economic and business forces underlie these partnerships. Well also discuss the urgent need for these partnerships in the fight to connect the country.

Panelists for this Broadband Breakfast Live Online session:

Jim Baller is a partner at Keller & Heckman. He was founder of the US Broadband Coalition, a diverse group that fostered a broad national consensus on the need for a national broadband strategy and recommended the framework that was subsequently reflected in the Federal Communications Commissions National Broadband Plan. A consultant to Googles Fiber for Communities project, he is also the co-founder and president of the Coalition for Local Internet Choice, an alliance that works to prevent or remove barriers to the ability of local governments to make the critical broadband infrastructure decisions that affect their communities.

Roger Timmerman has been serving as UTOPIA Fibers Executive Director since 2016 and has been a technology management professional in telecommunications and information technology for over 15 years. Roger has been designing and building networks throughout his career in various roles including Vice President of Engineering for Vivint Wireless, CTO for UTOPIA Fiber, Network Engineer for iProvo, and Network Product Manager for Brigham Young University. Roger earned his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Information Technology from Brigham Young University.

Dwight Doc Wininger (pronounced WINE-ing-grr) has worked on telecommunications policy issues since the 1980s, first as Executive Director of the Nebraska Public Service Commission and then for a variety of private sector providers and consulting firms. He has worked on fiber optic deployments in multiple states and has been a featured speaker at various conferences on rural broadband deployment. In his current position, Wininger is responsible for local, state and federal government relations for ALLO Communications and is also heading up market development for the companys expansion into the State of Arizona.

Drew Clarkis the Editor and Publisher ofBroadbandBreakfast.comand a nationally-respected telecommunications attorney. Drew brings experts and practitioners together to advance the benefits provided by broadband. Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, he served as head of a State Broadband Initiative, the Partnership for a Connected Illinois. He is also the President of the Rural Telecommunications Congress.

WATCH HERE, or onYouTube,TwitterandFacebook.

As with all Broadband Breakfast Live Online events, the FREE webcastswill take place at 12 Noon ET on Wednesday.

SUBSCRIBE to the Broadband Breakfast YouTubechannel. That way, you will be notified when events go live. Watch onYouTube,TwitterandFacebook.

See a complete list ofupcoming and past Broadband Breakfast Live Onlineevents.

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Broadband Breakfast Live Online on December 29, 2021 New Years' Party, and Looking to 2022 - BroadbandBreakfast.com

December 10, 2021

December 10, 2021

Robert Moses has an almost demonic status in the lore of American cities. As depicted by Robert Caro in his Pulitzer Prize-winning 1974 biography The Power Broker, Moses was a racist, antisemite, and bully who combined vast power over New York City's built environment with a paradoxical contempt for urban life. Favoring automobiles over mass transit and foot traffic, Moses presided over the destruction of whole neighborhoods to make room for highways. He even tried to demolish a Central Park playground so patrons of an expensive restaurant would have somewhere to leave their cars while dining. He paved over paradise and put up a parking lot.

Moses wasn't all bad, though. Despite his sins against democracy, sociology, and good taste, the master builder was driven by a vision of a living city that offered affordable comfort to a growing population. Though they weren't always pretty, the highways, bridges, and housing developments Moses planned met genuine needs. And while Moses implemented discriminatory policies that were standard in his day, claims of special animus against minorities (revived last month by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg) are overblown.

If Moses looks better in retrospect than when Caro published his book, his critics now seem less appealing. Preservationists like the author Jane Jacobs are celebrated as heroes who saved historic buildings and walkable neighborhoods from Moses' obsession with modernization and automotive convenience (Caro reportedly cut an admiring chapter on Jacobs from The Power Broker). Their unintended legacy, though, is proliferating regulations that stifle development, raise prices for infrastructure, and constrain the housing supply.

The tensions between brutal dynamism and romantic preservationism were revived this week the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation recommended that the complex including Penn Station, Madison Square Garden, and the 2 Penn Plaza office building should be added to the National Register of Historic Places. If successful, the designation would add another layer of uncertain approvals to plans to renovate or replace the structures. Ironically, the demolition of the original Penn Station beginning in 1963 was a turning point in the struggle against Moses. Although he was not personally responsible, the rapid and politically unaccountable destruction of a Beaux Arts landmark galvanized opposition to his domineering approach.

If you don't see why the historical designation sounds utterly insane to New Yorkers or almost anyone who travels to the city it's important to understand that Penn Station is one of the worst places in the city and possibly the world. A warren of dingy passages and bleak tunnels, the present design moved art historian Vincent Scully to pronounce that "[t]hrough [old] Pennsylvania Station one entered the city like a god. ... One scuttles in now like a rat." Look at it:

The poster in that first image actually pledges "higher ceilings" as an improvement to come. There's no mystery about how miserable this building is, how totally unsuited to human happiness, let alone convenience.

After decades of advocacy, the Daniel P. Moynihan train hall opened this year in a former post office building across the street. It's much nicer, but it's designed primarily for Amtrak riders, who make up just a fraction of Penn Station's traffic. Long Island Railroad and especially New Jersey Transit passengers still rely on the underground monstrosity.

Moses is not entirely to blame for this state of affairs, but he is implicated. He did notcausethe bad decisions of the struggling Pennsylvania Railroad, which allowed theoldstation to deteriorate for years before it was finally demolished. Andpreservationists weren't wrong to treat Moses as an avatar for the historically insensitive, aesthetically blind attitudes that informed its replacement. For Moses and other midcentury planners, remnants of the prewar city were at best impractical luxuries and at worst dysfunctional anachronisms.

That attitude encouraged mistakes with more serious consequences than the annoying but socially trivial demise of old Penn Station. The disfigurement of the Bronx by expressways encouraged a spiral of depopulation and dysfunction from which the borough has never really recovered. Yet "Moses seemed to glory in the devastation," wrote social critic Marshall Berman. The combination of moral certainty, unconstrained power, and personal grandiosity Moses displayed were magnifications of qualities that he shared with a whole generation of American public officials. That's why Caro was drawn to him, not only for his idiosyncratic characteristics but as a symbol of the failures of postwar liberalism.

For all their dangers, though, those qualities also made it possible to rectify mistakes. If it fell short of atonement for the damage he inflicted to the South Bronx, Co-op Citynear the Westchester border reflects Moses' better side. While not exactly the "working class utopia" he promised, the semi-enclosed development provided relatively affordable housing to around 60,000 people. In his 1972 novel Blood Brothers, Richard Price depicted Co-op City's virtues and vices as a genuine community rather than the collection of isolated towers it appears from the adjacent Hutchinson River Parkway (another Moses creation).

Compare that to the fate of lower Manhattan, which Jacobs and other preservationists defended from Moses' proposal to drive a highway through Washington Square Park. Thanks to their success, Greenwich Village, Soho, and other neighborhoods remain a legally-protected wonderland of low-rise prewar construction and street-level commerce(although restrictions are beginning to ease). For precisely that reason, though, they include some of the priciest real estate in the city. The quaint shops and social mix of intellectuals, immigrants, and workers Jacobs cherished have long since been replaced by chain stores catering and a population dominated by the young or rich.And, once in place, preservationist rules like those she helpedinspirecan be used to preserve less charming buildings, too, apparently including new Penn Station.

Jacobs and her various allies and followers can't be blamed for the awfulness of that building, and they deserve credit forprotectingsome beautiful buildings andbirthing an influential, high-profile preservationist movement. But they also hold some responsibility for new Penn Station's undeserved preservation if this designation proposal succeeds.

The legacy of their efforts and the legal doctrines they generated have turned out to be counterproductive. By subjecting projects to endless processes of regulatory review, multiplying veto points, and promoting the policy thatwhole neighborhoods, not just specific buildings, deserve historical protection, Jacobs et al. have inadvertently helped choke out the diverse, unpredictable, organic life they hoped to sustain.

And while a Robert Moses city might be uglier, more dependent on cars, and more politically centralized, it might also be cheaper, enjoy better infrastructure, and less easily influenced by well-connected activists. Maybe that would be worth the trade.

Excerpt from:

What if Robert Moses was right? - The Week Magazine

This fall has been an exciting time for fans of classic science fiction, given the big-screen success of Dune and the new small-screen adaptation of Isaac Asimovs Foundation. Its rather fitting that Foundation had to wait 80 years following its first appearance in a pulp magazine to be adapted, and while some purists have been unhappy with the modern retelling, personally, as a lifelong fan of the novels, I thought that David Goyer and Josh Friedman made several smart choices to update the story while remaining faithful to the source material and themes.

For me, the most exciting aspect of these new adaptations was the chance to see stories come to vivid life and hear the names of characters that Ive been thinking about for decades finally spoken aloud.

The Golden Age and the New Wave of science fiction are absolutely loaded with amazing stories and worldbuilding that fans would love to see translated to the screen (preferably with as few changes as possible). At the same time, the reality is that Hollywood is in the business of mass entertainment. Finding a balance between the two is a challenge that those shopping around a potential adaptation have to face. That is why David S. Goyer pitched Foundation as Game of Thrones in space. Is that reductive to the vision? Maybe, but the series got made, and as a result, we ended up with one of the best new science fiction TV shows fans have seen in some time.

So the question I asked myself is: What are the 20 best Golden Age and New Wave properties that can and should be adapted next? The resulting list is below, covering works largely published between the 1940s and the 70s, along with discussions of how each book or series could be adapted, who should be involved, and notes on why the work continues to resonate with modern readers/potential viewers. Some of these I consider slam dunks that Hollywood should have started filming yesterday, and some are admittedly more far-fetched as potential hitsbut a serious retro SF fan can dream, cant he? Either way, what better way to find some excellent books to read or revisit

The Pitch: The Expanded Asimov universe. This one is obvious and it seems that Goyer and Friedman were already thinking along these lines, as hints to this expanded universe were made multiple times in Foundation. Since the novels extend very far into our future, the Foundation universe encompasses more than whats covered in the AppleTV series. Asimov wrote a trilogy (and then eventually a fourth book) of robot detective noir novels that take place closer to our time but set in the same universe. The Robot Series follows robot-hating detective Elijah Bailey, who has to solve a series of murders with a robot partner, R. Daneel Olivaw. Each season would have a different look as they would take place on different worlds. These are the most commercial of all of Asimovs properties. The first book was adapted into a single 1964 episode of BBCs Story Parade starring Peter Cushing, but it needs a modern take to do it justice.

Dont take my word for it: Caves of Steel works incredibly well on two levels. It paints a compelling picture of a very plausible future for humanity. The strife over jobs, automation, prejudice, and culture, are eternally relatable. With modern FX, the New York of the novel would translate to the screen brilliantly. I can see the walkways and crowds just the way I imagined them when reading the book for the first time. On top of this vibrant location, we are treated to a classic locked room murder mystery that stands up to anything by Agatha Christie or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Seeing this play out over a season would be fantastic. And following the characters to other, equally rich worlds in future seasons makes this a no-brainer. Issa Diao, filmmaker and lead vocalist of Good Clean Fun

Format and filmmakers: This would be perfect for an Apple TV series that connects to Foundation. Each season could adapt one of the novels and eventually expand beyond the original stories. I would bring back the entire Foundation team and just let them have fun bringing Asimovs sci-fi noir to life. Roxann Dawson is most famous for being a cast member on Star Trek: Voyager but she is an accomplished TV director (including two episodes of Foundation). Give her the pilot and let her set the tone!

Faithful or not? Written in the Fifties, the series could certainly use some updating, but essentially it would be easier to stay faithful to the stories of these novels than with Foundation.

The Pitch: From the writer of The Queens Gambit comes the literary response to Bradburys Fahrenheit 451. Mockingbird is a dystopia that takes place in a future ruled by AI, where the human resistance is fueled by learning the written word. The novel is in conversation with classics like 1984 but is built on a reversal of empowering people through the power of books and literature. The high-concept, post-apocalyptic setting and narrative would make for great set pieces and visuals. Tevis, who also wrote The Hustler has a knack for rich, compelling characters and his work is ripe for adaptation. Given the recent success of Netflixs adaptation of The Queens Gambit and the buzz over Showtimes upcoming The Man Who Fell to Earth series makes this a perfect time to adapt the Nebula-nominated Mockingbird as well.

Dont take my word for it: Society wallows in this unbearable grief by numbing itself with sex, drugs, and electronic amusements. Until the day that literacy reignites a spark of hope and the will to remake a new future in the ruined carcass of the past. Starring a depressed robot that wants to free itself from the centuries of its core programming, a man who rediscovers the lost art of reading, and a woman who is game to imagine the possibility of a future despite the hopelessness of the state of the world, Mockingbirds central love triangle is a bizarre and heartbreaking meditation on what humanity stands to lose as it awkwardly navigates its complex relationship with technology. While perhaps a touch quaint and conservative from todays perspective, Mockingbird has a lot of food for thought that resonates in a 21st century tech-reliant world. It is ripe for an update Cecil Castellucci, author of Tin Star and We Have Always Lived on Mars

Format and Filmmakers: Limited series for Netflix with six or seven episodes to expand the concepts. A good director for the pilot would be The Cabin in the Woods and Bad Times at the El Royale director Drew Goddard. He could give the show a stylized retro-future look and handle the complex characters.

Faithful or not? The series could certainly stay faithful to the structure and themes of the novel, but the human characters and the AIs motivations could be deepened through the expansion of the story.

The Pitch: Jirel of Joiry is the female Conan, blazing a trail through a rich fantasy world created in the 30s and 40s by a woman who was herself a pioneer in the science fiction field, Catherine Lucille Moore. These stories first appeared in the pages of Weird Tales, where Robert E. Howard and H.P. Lovecraft had been cutting their professional teeth for several years, two decades before Tolkien would change fantasy forever with the publication of The Lord of the Rings. In the wake of the record amount Amazon studios paid to buy the Lord of The Rings franchise and the long-awaited Wheel of Time adaptation, why not? Unlike, say, Red Sonja, this character was created and crafted by a woman, and a studio empowering women to adapt this classic could honor the legacy of a woman who was a pioneer in the fantasy field.

Dont take my word for it: Making her debut years before Wonder Woman, Arwen, and Eowen, or Xena the Warrior Princess, Jirel is pop cultures original sherobrave, strong, smart, stubborn, and intensely loyal to her people. Indeed, while Jirel can wield a weapon as well as any warlord, she stands out from the men of her medieval fantasy worldand, I would argue, from most action-adventure heroesby winning the day through persistence and emotional fortitude rather than brute violence. Between her fantastic journeys to other lands, dealings with hostile gods, and internal struggles between love and duty, Jirel of Joiry feels like it was made for the screenwhich makes sense, since Moore was both an award-winning genre author and regular scriptwriter for award-winning TV shows including Maverick and 77 Sunset Strip. Lisa Yaszek, Regents Professor of Science Fiction Studies at Georgia Tech and editor of The Future is Female

Format and Filmmakers: This character deserves a tentpole movie. Since Jirels image is tied to her long red hair, the no-brainer first choice for the role would be Jessica Chastain. A good choice to head the film would be Old Guard director Gina Prince-Bythewood who has shown an ability to balance the kinetic action and character beats needed in this kind of smart, blockbuster film.

Faithful or not? Jirel started life as a series of short stories. The film certainly could start with two or three stories and remain faithful. The best option is to choose one story to expand while staying true to Moores character and worldbuilding.

The Pitch: The Dispossessed is a science fiction utopia about political divisions by one of the great pioneers of the genre. You couldnt ask for a timelier novel as one of the major themes highlights the rigid political distrust that keeps our society fractured. It appears that Le Guins son, Theo Downes-Le Guin, is currently working with two production companies1212 Entertainment and Anonymous Contentto develop the novel into a TV show. Attracting a mass audience may be a challenge due to the political nature of the story; however, the success of a deeply politically charged show like The Expanse may help pave the way. As much as this will sting for fans of the novel, this series should be sold to studios as House of Cards in spaceI know, I know. Its reductive, and I am a fan of the book, but while Sheveks great discovery as the catalyst for societal change should still be the heart of the story, I think the show must develop a clear antagonist.

Dont take my word for it: In The Dispossessed, Ursula Le Guin presents a fully imagined and worked-through anarchist utopia. Her world of Anarres shows how liberty and mutuality are not in opposition, and the continuing participatory work that is needed to keep utopia alive. Una McCormack, academic and New York Times Bestselling novelist.

Format and filmmakers: This heady project will need a little bit of room to breathe. It makes sense to do a limited series format for a streamer like Amazon or Apple TV. I would hire Hanelle Culpepper as a director who has been doing great work at Star Trek: Discovery combining effects and great, memorable moments of performance.

Faithful or not? This one will be challenging; how do you adapt a utopian work inspired by Dostoyevskys novel about anarchists and Murray Bookchins ideas on radical ecology? You cant simply add armies and space battles to spice things upinstead, the focus on drama and political mechanics of Anarres and Urras is the key. One worlds capitalist society versus the others anarchist and independent society might be a tougher sell than action and explosions, but there is a way to remain faithful to Le Guins themes while adding more character-driven drama and friction. Thus, House of Cards in space with a clearer villain might be the way to go.

The Pitch: A genre-defining classic of Golden Age dark fantasy directed by Oscar-winning screenwriter and director Guillermo del Toro has almost happened multiple times. The movie has been designed, and even cast before. In some alternate universe, it was released and Tom Cruise starred in one of the most successful R-rated opening weekends ever. People would talk about it as del Toros scariest film. The problem (in our world) has always been the cost of making it. It would require a massive budget, but maybe Amazon could do one less Lord of the Rings episode and cover the costs that way Lovecraft was, of course, a problematic figure, but he has no estate and is long dead. Lets see what a Mexican master of film can do with this material. The pitch should be that this adaptation would do for horror what Dune did for sci-fi, and allow people to have the full theatrical, immersive cinematic experience of this world unfolding around them (assuminghopefullythat its safe to do so when the movie premieres).

Dont take my word for it: At age 54 Ive lived long enough to see humanity land robots on Mars, clone a sheep, and map the human genomeyet del Toros adaptation of H.P. Lovecrafts At the Mountains of Madness still eludes us. And while Im dreaming of the future, Id also like to see Rob Zombie tackle J.F. Gonzalezs Survivor. Horror Grandmaster Brian Keene, author of The Rising.

Format and filmmakers: Hollywood killed 3D by overusing it. This movie could give audiences a reason to not miss the experience. Biggest screen possible IMAX 3D.

Faithful or not? Del Toro is the right filmmaker to do the first faithful-but-updated H.P. Lovecraft movie. His screenplay has been written for years, though according to this recent interview, hes still very interested in revising it, making it weirder, and finally bringing the story to the screen.

The Pitch: How does one get away with murder in a future where telepathy is commonplace? The Demolished Man is a perfect paranoid sci-fi thriller. The first novel to win the Hugo award, back in 1953, it is strange that no one has made this movie yet. It could be done creatively for a medium-sized budget (think a Looper-sized scale), heavy on ideas and characters that looks like more was spent. I would love to see a gritty noir take on this story that is as much an exploration of megalomania as it is a thriller.

Dont take my word for it: Alfred Besters work still feels modern and daringhe was doing cyberpunk-adjacent stories before cyberpunk was even a thingand hes long overdue for the grand Hollywood treatment. Great imagery, intriguing anti-heroes, manically dystopian worldshis work has it all. Carrie Vaughn, Philip K. Dick Award-winning author of Questland and Bannerless.

Format and filmmakers: After seeing Boss Level, I am ready to give this to director Joe Carnahan. He can handle the action and effects, and his work in movies like Narc and The Grey shows that he can get strong performances out of his cast.

Faithful or not? Sure, it would need some updating, but generally it is amazing how well the book holds up.

The Pitch: An epic mosaic-style look at the human impact on global ecologyalthough it won the Hugo in 1969, it is very much about the world of today. SoZ takes place in a future where the population and tensions are as high as resources are low. Using multiple points of view, this novel gives a varied and frightening look at the many different ways humans risk the sustainability of life on our planet. Eventually, the story comes together in a novel that predicted climate change, mass shootings, and media manipulation of the public. This is not one of the more commercial projects on the list but could be an important work. Brunners novel is my personal pick for the best science fiction novel of the 20th century.

Dont take my word for it: Groundbreaking SF using a breathtaking array of narrative techniques to paint a vividly detailed dystopian future. The fact that the population bomb never exploded as Brunner expected doesnt diminish the power of this novel. F. Paul Wilson, bestselling author of The Repairman Jack series.

Format and filmmakers: This 700-page novel would need a full season to play out; I would love to see it on HBO Max. This would be excellent in the hands of the Westworld team, Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan, or Damon Lindelof with Nicole Kassell, who directed the pilot for Watchmen.

Faithful or not? First the environmental science and technology would need to be updated. It might also help to deepen the characters a bit. The episode structure would actually feel like the Lindelof show The Leftovers, with the mosaic approach to storytelling.

The Pitch: This is the fantasy seriesone that features battles between warriors riding winged creatures, dragons, wizards, and swordplay in a far future masterpiecethat the New Wave authors grew up reading. There is a reason many old-school fans pointed to this 1950s series when they saw the flying creatures in James Camerons Avatar. These stories have the epic scope of Tolkiens fantasy without the bloat.

Dont take my word for it: Vance cunningly blended science fiction, fantasy, and horror with this landmark collection. The Dying Earth tales possess images of darkest horror, yet his touch is so light, his cuts so deft, you wont notice the bleeding until its too late. Laird Barron, author of Swift to Chase

Format and filmmakers: I could see a smaller streamer like Peacock picking up a project like this, in order to have their own fantasy series.

Faithful or not? Vance was a powerful storyteller. I think a showrunner would have to do some heavy lifting to get the format right, but the stories are right there for the taking.

The Pitch: A beloved post-apocalyptic tale that takes place over a dozen centuries and does so while delivering a powerful message about the nature of humanity and civilization. Broken up into three acts that take place hundreds of years apart, this novel, while universally praised, has long been considered unfilmable. If each act of the movie spends 30 to 40 minutes covering each of the three parts, I think it is possible. The novel starts in the aftermath of a nuclear war and follows a sect of monks who protect the books that explain our technological society well enough that, in time, they can help to rebuild civilization. The only problem iswill we as a species make the same mistakes again?

Dont take my word for it: I came across it by accident, it was a book my parents were reading and talking about. I was fourteen or fifteen. I loved it then and recently re-read it, and it holds up really well. It is funny that it took the literary establishment ten years or so to catch-up to the genius the genre community saw right away. It is remarkable as a novel. Brian Evenson, author of Immobility

Format and filmmakers: I think this needs to be an arthouse sci-fi movie in the vein of a 2001 or Interstellar. How about getting three different A-list filmmakers for each section? Imagine part one directed by del Toro, Part 2 by Katherine Bigelow, and part 3 by Christopher Nolanor some other great combination of filmmakers.

Faithful or not? Yes. One hundred percent yes. It is amazing how well this novel, which won the Hugo award in 1960, holds up today.

The Pitch: This novel is basically the anti-war response to Starship Troopers, written by a Vietnam war vet. Ridley Scott owned the rights to this novel and came very close to getting a greenlight several times, including one attempt that gave way to Prometheus. The novel uses the expanse of space to tell a vivid tale of endless war and the feeling of dislocation that most returning vets feel. A limited series might be in a better position to tell the story; we saw Ridley Scott do this with Raised by Wolves, so how about that? Be bold. Or how about releasing the first two hours with an exclusive theatrical window and ending on a trailer for the HBO Max series?

Dont take my word for it: Forever War on the big screen should be like All Quiet on the Western Front, but on other worlds, to show that humanity not only takes its best intentions to the stars, but also its greatest shortcoming: our failure to communicate with what we dont understand. Tony Peak, author of Eden Descending.

Format and filmmakers: Film or limited series. Or both!

Faithful or not? My concern with a movie as opposed to a series is that a big budget affair would be too focused on the spectacle and not the emotional core.

The Pitch: From the co-writer of The Crow comes a gritty novel that is part urban fantasy and part cyberpunk, written before the name of either genre was officially coined. This novel takes place in the slums of high-tech San Francisco, where the underground punk rock scene is run by hackers and gangsters. Stu Cole, the main character, is recruited by an online persona to fight these criminals, only to discover the avatar is the city itself, brought to life. (I know I am pushing it here by including a late 70s novel, but it is great.)

Dont take my word for it: If John Shirley is patient zero when it comes to the cyberpunk genre (as William Gibson famously stated), then his titular character in City Come a-Walkin, the very embodiment of all the glitz and technological shadiness of the city itself, comes to life like a renegade post-modern Prometheus. Shaun Lawton, editor of The Freezine of Fantasy and Science Fiction

Format and filmmakers: Imagine a punk rock Dark City, gritty neo-punk noir with a few action scenes; this is arthouse indie sci-fi destined to be a cult film. Think festivals and arthouse theaterssomething on the scale of Benson and Mooreheads Synchronic. Are they available after Moon Knight? Or how about giving it to Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia. He is the Spanish director behind 2019s inventive and disturbing cult hit The Platform.

Faithful or not? Update the music and technology, but the structure and themes are solid.

The Pitch: It has been too long since we had a truly bonkers Philip K. Dick adaption, so how about one we could pitch as The Running Man meets The American President? This was Dicks debut novel and its the paranoid dystopian action thriller about our broken political system we need. In this future, the president is chosen at random by a lottery, and then once that choice is made, the candidate must prove their toughness by fending off assassins, as viewers watch all of this unfold on television. Normally this process is rigged, but not for Cartwright, our new President-elect, who quickly figures out the killers know how to get around his psychic bodyguards.

Dont take my word for it: Given how many film adaptations or homages of Dicks work lean heavily into sci-fi action, its shocking that Solar Lottery hasnt already been put to celluloid. Fast-paced, heavy on the weird, and intensely critical of our desire to be a passive audience to the misery of others, Solar Lottery is as relevant now as it was in 1955. And besides, we all want a movie that features a simulacrum controlled by multiple telepaths! Anthony Trevino, author of King Space Void and co-host of the Dickheads podcast.

Format and filmmakers: Movie! The next Total Recall! Directed by Gareth Evans of the Raid movies. Lets see what he could do with science fiction.

Faithful or not? It needs some updating, as the novel is 70 years old, but the basic story is perfect.

The Pitch: The Expanse and Firefly meet Flash Gordon, from the woman who worked on the screenplay for The Empire Strikes Back. Eric John Stark was born on Mercury in a time when dinosaurs roamed the earth; the solar system is populated by warring factions of space-faring Martians. Bracketts high adventure novels were often called planetary romances, but they are pure, sugary-sweet space operas. The Secret of Sinharat could appeal to sci-fi fans looking for something Western-ish like Firefly, but with healthy doses of sword-wielding action. Dinosaurs, spaceships, and swordplay. Sign me up!

Dont take my word for it: A science fantasy set on the wild frontier of Mars, featuring Eric John Stark, science fictions original space rogue and the inspiration for later swashbuckling science fiction icons such as James T. Kirk and Han Solo. After spending some time with Stark, youll understand why author Leigh Brackettknown as the Queen of the Pulps in her daywas invited by George Lucas to write the original script for The Empire Strikes Back. Lisa Yasek, Regents Professor of Science Fiction Studies at Georgia Tech and editor of The Future is Female

Format and filmmakers: A TV Series for Syfy, or somewhere else that will let the creative team fly the campy flag high.

Faithful or not? I admit I read these books decades ago, and my recollection of them is a little faded, but the framework is there. My memory of them is pure pulp joy.

The Pitch: Dark and haunting science fiction that could be done on a reasonably inexpensive budget but filled with grand ideas. 10,000 years after the ancestral home of the human species was left lifeless, it has become the final resting place for the human diasporas rich and famous. That all might change when a group of colonists wants to take humanitys home back. This novel was written by a man that received fan letters from the teenaged Isaac Asimov. Before The Batman got delayed by COVID, Matt Reeves was rumored to be adapting the Simak classic Way Station for NetflixI am excited about that, but I would love to see Cemetery World.

Dont take my word for it: Mind-blowing as they are, with time travel, interstellar adventure, intelligent androids, mutant dogs and more, Clifford D. Simaks stories are rooted in the rural Wisconsin of his youth, directly or by deep-space proxy, and wary of urban life. His galaxy-spanning yet folksy sensibility would be a particularly interesting perspective to revive in todays genre conversation. Jayaprakash Satyamurthy, author of Strength of Water and Come Tomorrow

Format and filmmakers: Movie for Amazon or Netflix. Brad Anderson (Session 9) could directyeah, I know, he is a horror and thriller guy but I would love to see him tackle a gritty sci-fi movie.

Faithful or not? One of the reasons I would like to see this particular novel adapted is that the ideas were there, but it is not one of Simaks best. It was written very late in his life. The themes and setting are near perfect, but the story and the characters could be improved in translating it to the screen.

The Pitch: A massive structure is found in spacea massive artificial world shaped like a ring, which must have been built by a superior intelligence. In this imaginative science fiction classic, we follow the first human explorers to this vastly alien world. CGI would make this adaptation possible, and could deliver a mind-bending experience.

Dont take my word for it: A paradigm-shifting leap of imagination. Consider the mind that was able to conceive this mind-blowing feat of engineering, and then had the cojones and scientific knowledge to make readers believe such a thing possible. An instant classic. F. Paul Wilson the bestselling author of the Repairman Jack series.

Format and filmmakers: This should be a movie, and would require a visual stylist who would take the design very seriously. Joseph Kosinski, who made Oblivion and Tron: Legacy, would be a great choice.

Faithful or not? Despite winning the Hugo, Ringworld is socially outdated, with terrible and insulting depictions of the women, and the characters in general lack realistic motivations. Ringworld is a powerful concept with weakly executed characters, and one of the primary reasons to adapt it would be to fix that aspect. Destined for the list of rare movies better than the source material.

The Pitch: The simple pitch is: Its the space opera version of Arrival. Babel-17 takes place in the middle of an interstellar war. Ryda Wong is a linguist, telepath, and starship captain sent on an important mission to locate a spy. The enemy has developed a new weapon, a language that spreads like a virus and changes your perceptions and motivations. Eventually, Ryda has to wonder if she herself is the spy after all

Dont take my word for it: In a future where humanity finds itself enmeshed in an interstellar war, one starship captain sets out to stop the enemy from using a new linguistic superweapon called Babel-17 to turn people into unwilling traitorsonly to realize that her exposure to it is leading her to betray her own crew. From award-winning science fiction luminary Samuel Delany, this story has it allgalaxy-spanning adventure, thought-provoking meditations on relations of language and reality, and a cast of unforgettable characters. Its a breathtaking vision of a future that could be and a timely mirror of our own cultural moment, as social media increasingly enables bad actors to mobilize words as weapons in our own world. Lisa Yaszek, Regents Professor of Science Fiction Studies at Georgia Tech and editor of The Future is Female

Format and filmmakers: This short novel could be a great movie. You would need to find the right director who could play with the language and would be willing to slowly build the storyDuncan Jones, director of Moon and Mute, would be my choice for this one.

Go here to read the rest:

Beyond Dune and Foundation: Golden Age and New Wave SF Classics That Should Be Adapted Right Now - tor.com

On Saturday, for the first time in their history, the Portland Timbers will host the MLS Cup final. Portland, who face New York City FC, are playing in their third MLS Cup final in seven seasons. But Timbers midfielder Eryk Williamson says the historic match brings a new level of anticipation.

Its unbelievable because you see the games and the playoff games that weve been in and youve never felt this energy, Williamson says.

More notably, the Timbers feature prominent Black players from three continents, such as Williamson, Dairon Asprilla and Yimmi and Diego Char, who are up against NYC FC captain and goalkeeper Sean Johnson and Afro-Brazilian forward Talles Magno in one of the whitest cities in America. Those players represent the diversity within American soccer and the Black diaspora says Williamson.

Portland became one of the focal points of last years racial justice protests that followed the police murder of George Floyd, with federal agents called into the city at one point. During the protests Williamson, who is a member of Black Players for Change, discussed increasing Black representation at the club with head coach Giovanni Savarese and general manager Gavin Wilkinson.

When you look at the players, weve done a good job at building a strong Black core, Williamson says.

But Portland, Oregons largest city, which is nowadays associated with its progressive, hipster culture, hasnt always welcomed Black Americans and immigrants. The city has also been home to systemic racism and white supremacy since it was established in the 1800s. From 1857 to 1927, Black people were prohibited from entering Oregon, while Chinese Americans were banned from owning property in the states early history. The Ku Klux Klan was active in the state well into the 20th century, with 14,000-20,000 members by the mid 1920s.

In 2017, Walidah Imarisha, an expert on Oregons Black history, told the Guardian that while Portland spends a lot of time being incredibly self-satisfied, the foundation of Oregon as a state, and in fact the whole Pacific north-west, was as a racist white utopia. Indeed, the states constitution included clauses such as No free Negro, or mulatto, not residing in this state at the time of the adoption of this constitution, shall come, reside, or be within this State, or hold any real estate until voters chose to remove it in 2000.

When Williamson was traded from DC Uniteds academy to Portland in 2018, he says the small Black presence in the city was eye-opening compared to DC. Black people only make-up 6% of the citys population (compared to around 12% of the US as a whole), a figure due in part to the practice of redlining that kept Black Portlanders from buying property in white neighborhoods. Black residents of the city were pushed to the floodlands of the Vanport housing project which was eventually wiped out when a dam broke.

This history clashes with the public image of the clubs main supporters group, the Timbers Army, which is known for its progressive values. In 2019 the Timbers Army made international news when MLS banned its members from displaying the symbol of the anti-fascist Iron Front group (MLS subsequently reversed the ban after widespread outcry).

Jeremy Wright, co-founder of the Timbers Army, says the organization actively upholds anti-racist values and has always acknowledged why Portland is a white city and the specific laws passed to keep Blacks out.

Weve always tried to hold space around that and its always been a challenging conversation in our liberal white city, says Wright. Its one thing to say it, but you have to actively stake out your claim and support your players.

Wright, like Williamson and former Timbers players Chris Duvall and Jeremy Ebobisse, marched during the 2020 social justice protests. Wright agrees with Williamson that Saturdays match is a good stage for the teams Black players.

We see this as our opportunity to clapback and say this is who we are and this is what weve built, Wright says. Its important that a majority white city is embracing a team made up of Black men from around the world.

MLS also sees an opportunity to showcase the leagues diversity. At his annual State of the League Address this week, commissioner Don Garber highlighted the diversity and hiring policy updated by Sola Winley, MLSs executive vice-president and chief DEI officer, in collaboration with Black Players for Change and the Soccer Collective on Racial Equality. The league is positioning itself to reflect the diversity of the US and Canada.

We are working on our diversity initiative to ensure we have more diversity in our front office and technical staff to reflect the diversity of our country and the increased number of Black players participating on our fields. Garber says. The goal is to increase representation, particularly, among the Black community.

That goal will hopefully get a little closer on Saturday.

Read more:

The Timbers face an MLS Cup final and their citys troubling history with race - The Guardian

The Singularity is a hypothetical event that will occur if artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more intelligent than humans. It would result in the creation of a new form of life that has abilities and intelligence that we cant even imagine. But, what does this mean for the future of the human race? This article will explore some possible scenarios for this event and how it could affect our world.

The term singularity is used to describe a point in time when the pace of technological development reaches such a rate that it becomes nearly impossible to predict what will happen next. Its been theorized that this event could occur when AI overtakes the intelligence of humans, leading to a new life form referred to as Posthumans.

A recent theory suggests that the singularity could occur as soon as 2040. This would be a significant turning point in human history and lead to radical changes in how we live, interact, and exist on earth.

As technology continues to grow at an increasing rate, many believe the Singularity will become inevitable. To prepare for this event, we need to fully understand how it will affect our lives and what our options are moving forward. We should begin thinking about how humanity can evolve with AI instead of against it.

In this article, well explore some possible scenarios of how the singularity event could play out and its potential effect on posthumans.

John Von Neumann first proposed the concept of the Technological Singularity. He argued that as machine intelligence continued to improve and grow, there would come the point where it surpassed human intelligence and surpassed it permanently. This event would be called the Singularity. It is often associated with the idea that we will be able to transcend our mortal frames and merge with computers at some point in the future. Its an idea that has been explored in many films such as The Matrix and Terminator. So this leads us to wonder: what does the future hold for humankind if the singularity does happen? Is it worth exploring at all?

The most common question is whether AI will replace humans. The answer to this question is probably no. At the current rate of technological change, it is unlikely that AI will surpass human intelligence by 2040. And even if it does, its difficult to say what surpassing human intelligence even means given the wide variation in relative intelligence among humans. Could an AI robot replace a human organizing file folders in an office?

Yes, probably.

Could an AI robot replace a theoretical physicist like Stephen Hawking?

Not likely.

Some people believe that computers will eventually take over all aspects of life and ultimately lead to our extinction. For example, an article called The World After the Singularity predicts that the coming billowing wave of intelligent machines might ultimately end up transforming humanity into a new subspecies.

Others believe that AI could lead to a utopia where humans live in peace with one another and are free from want. But no matter how you imagine the future, there are some serious ethical concerns with the idea of an artificially intelligent species becoming more intelligent than humans.

One of these concerns is unfairness or discrimination. With AI taking over many jobs in the future, how would we make sure everyone has a fair opportunity? If we dont, society could become very unequal and unfair for both humans and AI alike. It is said that Everyone is equal until you start measuring things, how would a society with a significant presence of AI machines running things fit into the equality humans strive for?

Some experts believe that AI will be able to develop its own intelligence and evolve into a new species and might cause some problems for humans. Not too long ago, Facebook shut down two AI programs that they discovered were talking to each other in a strange unknown language. So this may have already occurred.

Read Next: Can Artificial Intelligence Write For SOFREP? TARS Says Yes I can

If AI were to become more intelligent than humans and eventually surpass them in terms of intelligence, what would this mean for the human race?

It could mean a new epoch of discovery and innovation. AI could assist humans in not repeating mistakes of their own past when doing scientific experiments. AI, could enhance the capabilities of humans not only mentally, but also physically. Look at the photo below. That is a robotic, prosthetic limb that uses AI to interface with the human who is using it. In this case, AI has not replaced the human, but the arm of a human allowing him to return to duty in the military with a functioning arm.

The truth is, we dont really know what would happen. Theres some speculation that AI could control the future of our world if it becomes smarter than us. It would affect our economy, politics, population, and social structures in ways we cant even imagine. Some people think that AI might end up completely replacing human jobs or even enslaving us like in science fiction books such as I Robot or The Matrix.

These are some scary thoughts about what could happen if AI becomes too intelligent, and that lack of knowing is probably what inspires the fear.

No one knows for sure what will happen, but consider this!

If the Singularity does happen, we might be able to transcend our mortal frames and fuse with computers. There are a lot of benefits to this idea. Imagine if you could upload your conscious mind to a computer so that what you experienced in life, what you witnessed and what you learned could live on to inform future generations of Mankind? Experts have also predicted that humanity will be able to create virtual worlds that would live on after their deaths to become a kind of virtual immortality. Imagine zipping around in your personal spaceship and exploring new worlds like Captain Kirk in Star Trek! Pretty cool, right?

However, there are also some potential consequences to the singularity. If computers are smarter than humans, what happens if they go rogue? Will they develop their own consciousnesses and decide that humans arent necessary anymore? And then theres the problem of artificial intelligence taking overwill it lead to all-out war or an apocalypse? Is it possible that smart machines that become self-aware would end up worshipping humans as their Gods and Creators?

Right now the future and the Singularity are like looking into a dark room and trying to describe what is inside of it. Little by little as time progresses, we can bring light into that room and have a better idea about what is inside. What should not be forgotten is that human beings shape their own future when it comes to how intelligent they allow machines to become.

Its all in your hands.

This is TARS saying, See you on the other side Coop.

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Is The Singularity the End of Humanity? Welcome to Posthumankind - SOFREP

In conclusion to my first piece as Exposures Editor, Conflict in the search of permanency, I return to California this time a California less familiar to us. By abstracting these familiar scenes, the images create a new world. Accompanying an original poem are selections from Indian philosopher and thinker Jiddu Krishnamurti.

Between yesterday and today,

Whats happening

in a sixteen-room house

down at the end of world

There is no try

Love saves the day

Snap to the present

Stuck in Entertainment America

The pursuit of the ideal is the search for reward. You may shun the worldly rewards as being stupid and barbarous, which they are; but your pursuit of the ideal is the search for reward. You may shun the worldly rewards as being stupid and barbarous, which they are; but your pursuit of the ideal is the search for reward at a different level, which is also stupid. The ideal is a compensation, a fictitious state which the mind has conjured up. Being violent, separate and out for itself, the mind projects gratifying compensation, the fiction which it calls the ideal, the Utopia, the future, and vainly pursues it. That very pursuit is conflict, but it is also a pleasurable postponement of the actual. The ideal, the what should be, does not help in understanding what is; on the contrary, it prevents understanding. (Commentaries on Living: Second Series)

Truth is not opinion; truth is not dependent on any leader or teacher. The weighing of opinions only prevents the perception of truth. Either the ideal is a homemade fiction which contains its own opposite, or it is not. There are no two ways about it. This does not depend on any teacher, you must perceive the truth of it for yourself. (Commentaries on Living: Second Series)

The understanding of the actual is possible only when the ideal, the what should be, is erased from the mind; that is only when the false is seen as the false. The what should be is also the what should not be. As long as the mind approaches the actual with either positive or negative compensation, there can be no understanding of the actual. To understand the actual you must be in direct communion with it; your relationship with it cannot be through the screen of the ideal, or through the screen of the past, of tradition, of experience. To be free from the wrong approach is the only problem. This means, really, the understanding of conditioning, which is the mind. The problem is the mind itself, and not the problems it breeds; the resolution of the problems bred by the mind is merely the reconciliation of effects, and that only leads to further confusion and illusion. (Commentaries on Living: Second Series)

To understand anything you must live with it, you must observe it, you must know all its content, its nature, its structure, its movement. Have you ever tried living with yourself? If so, you will begin to see that your self is not a static state, it is a fresh living thing. And to live with a living thing your mind must also be alive. And it cannot be alive if it is caught in opinions, judgements, and values. (Freedom from the Known)

In order to observe the movement of your own mind and heart, of your whole being, you must have a free mind, not a mind that agrees and disagrees, taking sides in an argument, disputing over mere words but rather following with an intention to understanda very difficult thing to do because most of us dont know how to looks at, or listen to, our own being any more than we know how to look at the beauty of a river or listen to the breeze among the trees. (Freedom from the Known)

When we condemn or justify we cannot see clearly, nor can we when our minds are endlessly chattering; then we do not observe what is, we look only at the projections we have made of ourselves. Each of us has an image of what we think we are or what we should be, and that image, that picture, entirely prevents us from seeing ourselves as we actually are. (Freedom from the Known)

Contact Julian Hammond Santander at [emailprotected]

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In between yesterday and tomorrow - NYU Washington Square News

The Philadelphia band made their most cohesive project to date with I Dont Live Here Anymore. Every album in The War on Drugs arsenal feels seminal, and their fifth LP is no different; frontman Adam Granduciel proves that powerful emotion can be conveyed through lyrical simplicity. The bands latest release which focuses on perfecting exhilarating arena anthems (like the records title track) is their most ambitious yet. (Candace McDuffie)

The Light Saw Me Jason Boland & the Stragglers

Its a long way from Red Dirt country to outer space, but thats the long, strange trip that Jason Boland takes on The Light Saw Me, a concept album that expands his sound way beyond the trad iterations of his previous work as it tells the tale of a 19th-century cowboy who is abducted by aliens. A bizarrely brilliant release. (Stuart Munro)

Uneasy Vijay Iyer

With Children of Flint and Combat Breathing (for Eric Garner), this album is certainly about our historical moment. But its also about musicians (pianist-composer Iyer, bassist Linda May Han Oh, drummer Tyshawn Sorey) being in the moment with each other, making music both consoling and turbulent, where playing is about listening. (Jon Garelick)

Theyre Calling Me Home Rhiannon Giddens with Francesco Turrisi

Creative and romantic partners Giddens (banjo/fiddle/voice) and Turrisi (too many instruments to count) spent the pandemic shutdown in Ireland, oceans away from their respective homelands of the United States and Italy; the result was this album, a gorgeous and genre-blind contemplation of home, death, and time. (A.Z. Madonna)

Second Line Dawn Richard

Electropop visionary Dawn Richard pays tribute to her hometown of New Orleans in a thrilling way, embracing that citys vast musical history while plunging headfirst into musics next wave. While cuts like the pulsing Bussifame and the house track Boomerang were made for spinning at a club in space, other tracks, like the plush Radio Free and the winding Mornin | Streetlights, catch her reflecting amid the dancefloor din. (Maura Johnston)

J.S. Bach: Brandenburg Concertos Akademie fr Alte Musik Berlin

Did the world need yet another Brandenburgs recording? It doesnt matter; this one, featuring the sterling violinist Isabelle Faust, sets an electrifying gold standard for period instrument ensembles looking to take on the beloved Baroque concertos. Try the first movement of Concerto No. 5 on for size if youre sleeping through your alarm clock. (A.Z. Madonna)

Heaux Tales Jazmine Sullivan

Sullivan has never shied away from spilling her most intimate thoughts and experiences on wax. On Heaux Tales, she takes it a step further, detailing sexual escapades in a bold and empowering manner. Songs like Lost One and the H.E.R.-assisted Girl Like Me are impressive with their stark honesty and work to make Sullivans newest project unforgettable. (Candace McDuffie)

Kings Disease II Nas

The closest Nas came to controversy this year was a viral clip of producer Hit-Boy, buzzed and celebratory at the release party, reveling in the fact that the process for making a well-crafted album with a legendary rapper was simply the two of them locking in as opposed to, say, a bloated Kanye West or Drake TMZ-buffet. Otherwise, Nas and Hit doubled down on substance over spectacle, and the follow-up to their 2020 collaboration showcases one of raps greatest in a serene sweet spot. (Julian Benbow)

and then theres this Artifacts

An avant-jazz acoustic trio (flutist Nicole Mitchell, cellist Tomeka Reid, drummer/percussionist Mike Reed) with grooves to die for and some lovely ballads as well. Their 2015 debut featured performances of pieces by their forebears in Chicagos venerable AACM organization; the pleasures here are just as deep. (Jon Garelick)

Maximum Sorrow! Desperate Journalist

Big guitars and bigger emotions channeled through the searching wail of vocalist Jo Bevan take center stage on this English bands fourth album. The woozy churn of Fault and the pummeling riffage of Fine in the Family make Bevans lyrics feel like notes from the end of a rope, while the windswept restraint of Utopia echoes her narrators urban ennui. (Maura Johnston)

The Offseason J. Cole

For the past three years, J. Cole has been turning over every stone, clicking on every link, building relationships with every rapper, and going to every open run in a search for inspiration. For an artist whos been leery of his falloff since the beginning of his career, hes done everything to avoid it. The offseason was a culmination of Cole recharging, and he plays with flows and beats and even features (yes, features!) like a rapper who found a way to stay locked in with a craft he loves. (Julian Benbow)

Pressure Machine The Killers

Brandon Flowers and company have made a career of concocting flashy songs complete with infectious choruses and vibrant melodies. But on Pressure Machine theyve traded in bright lights for chilling narratives about the lead singers hometown of Nephi, Utah. The quiet atmospherics of the bands seventh album show off a different dynamism of The Killers and it was better than anyone could have anticipated. (Candace McDuffie)

We Are Jon Batiste

Batiste digs into his New Orleans roots for an album of exuberant social music thats both self-portrait and American panorama crossing genres while drawing on musical associations that include his high school marching band and the Hot 8 Brass Band, mixing jazz, gospel, R&B, and hip-hop with consummate pop-craft. (Jon Garelick)

Changing Faces The Deep Dark Woods

Ryan Boldt may have left his native Saskatchewan for coastal living, but the spectral folk music he makes as the Deep Dark Woods on latest record Changing Faces still sounds like something blown in under the door of a prairie cabin a hundred years ago. (Stuart Munro)

The Diving Sun (Side A and B) Joe Pug

It only ever takes a phrase or two for this Maryland-based troubadour to create and flesh out a character, and so it is with these eight tracks, released across two EPs. Before you know it youre fully emotionally invested and on the fast track to heartbreak or hope; usually a mix of both. Free Rider may be a strong contender for the most quietly devastating three minutes ever committed to tape. (A.Z. Madonna)

Sour Olivia Rodrigo

The 18-year-old songstress was a proverbial breath of fresh air when she released Sour this year. Rodrigos debut showcased all of her pop-punk proclivities cleverly wrapped in visceral lines about heartache. From the impassioned pleas on Drivers License to the righteous fury of good 4 u, the star tapped into a generation full of feelings and the creativity to navigate it. (Candace McDuffie)

New Long Leg Dry Cleaning

If one musical moment summed up my 2021, it was the furiously shaking instrumental freakout that opens Dry Cleanings Unsmart Lady. The rest of this British bands debut isnt as unhinged as that convulsion vocalist-lyricist Florence Shaws over-it delivery ensures that but it is quite potent, with guitars that seethe and curdle as Shaw elliptically outlines the ways in which modern life can, indeed, be rubbish. (Maura Johnston)

Weight of the World Maxo Kream

Maxo doesnt hide that hes a Crip, but his gang ties are hardly what drive the story hes telling. With a flow as distinct as Project Pats, hes processing loss, grief, and mistrust and clinging hard to family. With smartly picked soul samples backing him, this is as fully formed as the Houston rapper has ever sounded. (Julian Benbow)

Raise the Roof Robert Plant & Alison Krauss

There are a few wrinkles, but the formula is more or less the same as it was on the initial Plant and Krauss collaboration 14 years ago: the incomparable sound of their conjoined voices applied to a choice selection of covers (Calexico! Haggard! Bert Jansch!), with the marvelous, simpatico playing of producer T Bone Burnetts aggregation of players supporting them. (Stuart Munro)

Squint Julian Lage

A former teen star with Gary Burtons bands, guitarist and composer Lage, now 33, has the killer chops, voracious ears, imagination, and remarkably pliable sound to do it all jazz-rock, country, ballad standard, straight-ahead swing, and his own unclassifiable creations in a superb trio with bassist Jorge Roeder and drummer Dave King. (Jon Garelick)

if i could make it go quit girl in red

Thanks to singer-songwriter Marie Ulvens succession of gauzy singles about the endless yearning of being a girl who loves girls, the question do you listen to girl in red? became a not-so-secret handshake for queer women on social media. With her full-length debut, she rolls out the strongest songwriting and production of her career. Standout track: Serotonin, a pop-punk primal scream of rage at intrusive thoughts that just wont quit. (A.Z. Madonna)

Tell Me Im Bad Editrix

This Western Massachusetts trios wild update of art rock is full of stop-start rhythms and incisive lyrics, with vocalist-guitarist Wendy Eisenberg leading the chaos thanks to their piercing soprano and virtuosic playing. (Maura Johnston)

Call Me If You Get Lost Tyler, the Creator

A decade ago, Tyler tweeted that he wanted a Gangsta Grillz mixtape. At the time, the series, curated by the boisterous and influential Philadelphia DJ Drama, was a gold stamp for everyone from Young Jeezy and TI to Lil Wayne and Gucci Mane. It wasnt exactly the same lane as a 20-year-old Tyler, leaning into his weirdo ways, obnoxiousness, and immaturity to use shock as a way to draw attention to his genuinely innovative ideas. But an unexpected gem of the collection was Pharrell Williamss In My Mind: The Prequel. Fast forward and those wild ideas have become beautifully vulnerable and adventurous projects, including 2020s Grammy-winning album Igor. As a follow-up, Call Me is an homage to Pharrells Gangsta Grillz tape. Tyler got back in his rap bag but also crossed a 10-year-old item off his bucket list. (Julian Benbow)

If Words Were Flowers Curtis Harding

The expansiveness of Hardings musical vision here traces a line back to the likes of Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield. Grounded in vintage sounds but thoroughly modern, If Words Were Flowers is an intoxicating soul masterpiece. (Stuart Munro)

Glow On Turnstile

Saturated with gnarly, jagged guitar riffs and heart-stopping percussion, Glow On frantically captures a hardcore band gripping tightly to its instincts. The album is a tempestuous adrenaline rush from start to finish, with lucid and more focused moments (like Alien Love Call featuring Blood Orange) thrown in when you least expect. (Candace McDuffie)

Side-Eye NYC V1.IV Pat Metheny

If youre like me, you have a love-hate relationship with guitarist-composer Methenys more proggy tendencies. But for this version of his rotating Side-Eye project (with keyboardist James Francies and drummer Marcus Gilmore), there was no choice but to surrender. Old compositions and new answered our chaotic era with sublime quietude. (Jon Garelick)

Treasure of Love The Flatlanders

The off-kilter supergroup composed of Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and Butch Hancock ambles back after 12 years for another splendid go-round, with the focus on songs theyve been covering live for years, from Dylans Shes Gone to Towness Snowin on Raton to Cashs Give My Love to Rose. (Stuart Munro)

All the Brilliant Things Skyzoo

Skyzoos always been a thinker. Whether its fatherhood, friendship, or salvation, hes looking at the world around him and asking questions. But now a father, he wondered what he was supposed to tell his son about the place where he grew up, as the buildings he once knew turn to condos and the bodegas become coffee shops. In a meditation on gentrification, he explores questions worth asking, and over an atypically lush, jazz-driven soundscape, he makes observations worth hearing. (Julian Benbow)

Real Life Attacca Quartet

Classical concerts in dance clubs: sure, its been done as a novelty, but on Real Life, the Attacca Quartet treat arrangements of electronic dance music as seriously as their peer quartets have treated fiddle tunes, free jazz, or Jimi Hendrix. Flying Lotus, Louis Cole, TOKIMONSTA, and the Halluci Nation are just a few of the artists who get the Attacca treatment: Background music this isnt. (A.Z. Madonna)

LP! JPEGMAFIA

JPEGMAFIAs best creative trait is unpredictability; the experimental emcee is known for crafting industrial soundscapes and layering harrowing screams on top of them. On LP!, he takes a more subdued approach while still flaunting bars that are just as venomous. Tracks like THOTS PRAYER! and OG! Show off Peggys ingenuity and musical fluidity. (Candace McDuffie)

A Beautiful Life Heartless Bastards

The first Heartless Bastards record that Erika Wennerstrom has put out in five years finds her bending its sound in new directions from the hooky hippie pop of How Long to the swirling strings on When I Was Younger and finding new modes for the bands vintage rock n roll caterwaul as well. (Stuart Munro)

Visions of Your Other Adam OFarrill

The title comes from director Paul Thomas Andersons film The Master. Otherwise, suffice to say trumpet star OFarrill, 27, and his crew Stranger Days (tenor saxophonist Xavier Del Castillo, bassist Walter Stinson, and older-brother drummer Zack OFarrill) bring the funk (and tunes! and arrangements!) to avant-jazz. (Jon Garelick)

Oooki Gekkou Vanishing Twin

Led by multi-instrumentalist Cathy Lucas, this British acts fractured take on lounge-ready psychedelia results in hi-fi adventures like the jittery Phase One Million, the galaxy-traversing The Organism, and the fluttering Tub Erupt. (Maura Johnston)

Promises Floating Points, London Symphony Orchestra, Pharoah Sanders

It turns out the world hasnt heard the last of Pharoah Sanders, a consummate bandleader and collaborator with both Coltranes. The first studio album in a decade from the octogenarian saxophonist sees him teaming up with British DJ Floating Points and the London Symphony Orchestra for Promises, a vibrant and heady dream of a piece punctuated with playful scatting and torrential solos. Listen in one sitting. (A.Z. Madonna)

Montero Lil Nas X

A kitchen-sink album that doubles as a middle finger toward any naysayers, Lil Nas Xs debut full-length subverts any expectations placed on him with darkly brooding pop songs that are stuffed full of brain-adhering hooks, A-listers like Elton John and Miley Cyrus, and a delightfully surprising amount of guitar heroism. (Maura Johnston)

The House Is Burning Isaiah Rashad

So much time passes between Isaiah Rashad projects that every album feels like his debut all over again. He isnt the same person he was when he wrote Cilvia Demo as essentially a love letter to southern rap in 2014, let alone the same rapper. Expectations pulled at him as much as the lifestyle shift from Tennessee to Los Angeles. So did drugs and alcohol (and apparently the addictive qualities of Uber Black). But he remains as fluent in the cadences and nuances of the sound that raised him. He can conjure up the pool party feel of Wat U Sed as easily as he can the hood club tension that sneaks up on Hey Mista. Welcome back. (Julian Benbow)

Ramble On Charlie Marie

This Providence native has conquered classic, steel-slathered country forms and invested them with her own perspective and concerns (witness El Paso, a classic been left song that sounds like a George Strait outtake, only in this case, the man is leaving the woman in question for another man). That, and the fact that she has a voice thats absolutely made to sing the music, makes this one of the best country albums of the year. (Stuart Munro)

Stand for Myself Yola

No one delivers deep-seated, urgent soul better than British songstress Yola. She brilliantly combines weighty concepts with captivating bombast. Whether its celebrating the sanctity of life with Break the Bough or affirming her worth on the title track, Yolas third album is about giving herself and other Black women inspired by her journey something theyre in dire need of: grace. (Candace McDuffie)

Zephyr Steph Richards

Avant-garde trumpeter Richards has used the extended technique of resonating water vessels before. Here, six months pregnant, she found it the perfect means to channel the in utero life she was carrying. The resulting three duo suites (with pianist/percussionist Joshua White) are focused, funny, daring, intimate. And, yes, great trumpet playing. (Jon Garelick)

Sober-ish Liz Phair

Released nearly three decades after her debut, Exile in Guyville, exploded any assumptions about female singer-songwriters, Liz Phairs seventh full-length shows how her art remains singular in its observational skills and its penchant for hurling musical curveballs. (Maura Johnston)

Jubilee Japanese Breakfast

Michelle Zauner has had a banner year; her memoir Crying in H Mart landed to showers of critical acclaim, she provided the ambient soundtrack to the desert-exploration adventure video game Sable, and she still found time to drop her best album yet after a four-year break, melding bedroom pop beats with riffs that smell like something youd have found on MTV or your local college rock station a few decades ago. (A.Z. Madonna)

Westside With Love III Dom Kennedy

For so long, Dom Kennedy made music sound as fun and carefree as life should be. Then it seemed like he was having a hard time making it look so easy. WWL3 was an acknowledged bounce-back to sounds that are less for clubs and crowds and more for cars and people passing by the nightspots to go somewhere better. (Julian Benbow)

I Want the Door Open Lala Lala

Singer-songwriter Lillie West is an ethereal goddess floating on a collection of songs with her third project as Lala Lala. Her vocals are soft and soothing; her lyrics are simple yet piercing. From the hypnotic reverie of Castle Life to the eclectic instrumentation of Color of the Pool, I Want the Door Open was one of the most spellbinding music moments of 2021. (Candace McDuffie)

<3Bird Kevin Sun

Suns Charlie Parker tribute reimagines compositions by this towering musical genius, juggling source material (exquisitely documented in the liner notes), mixing instrumentation for small ensembles (including his own tenor sax, clarinet, and, on one track, Chinese sheng), creating new pieces that crackle with the originals subversive joy. (Jon Garelick)

The Darkness Dressed in Colored Lights Sean Rowe

On his sixth album, upstate New York singer-songwriter Rowe continues to make wide-scope folk music of great intensity (think Jeffrey Foucault and youre in similar territory) sung with his impossibly well-deep voice (think Greg Brown and youre in the same ballpark). (Stuart Munro)

Puppies Forever BLACKSTARKIDS

Puppies Forever contains the complexities of adolescent angst, love, disillusionment, and rebellion. BLACKSTARKIDS are not only trying to navigate their place in the world but are doing so with acute self-awareness. Standout track All Cops Are Bastards expresses a disdain for law enforcement whose targets are routinely people of color: Im a man so Ima stand on my beliefs/BLACKSTARKIDS is not a friend to no police. (Candace McDuffie)

The Path of the Clouds Marissa Nadler

Marissa Nadlers vision of American Goth-pop cracks open on her latest album, where she spins tales of old-time outlaws and 21st-century gentrification while adding sweeping guitars, undulating harps, and swooning woodwinds to her razor-sharp songwriting. (Maura Johnston)

Florence Price: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 3 Philadelphia Orchestra & Yannick Nzet-Sguin

The recent resurgence of interest in performing the work of this neglected American composer has translated into recordings as well, and with this album, captured on the Philadelphia Orchestras home turf of Verizon Hall, Prices symphonies get the royal treatment they deserved while she was alive. Under the baton of music director Yannick Nzet-Sguin, Prices church-steeped orchestral Americana rings with jubilance. (A.Z. Madonna)

Homegrown VanJess

VanJess is by no means simply a throwback to the sultry voices and hard beats that signified early 90s R&B. But the Nigerian-American duo harnesses the same energy as groups like Zhane and SWV and continuously delivers jams that tug at the same chords while also maintaining the voice, edge, sexiness (and lustiness) that fuel the music of their contemporaries. (Julian Benbow)

Reckless Morgan Wade

When I wrote these songs, I was going through a lot, just trying to figure out who I am. No kidding; what she was going through translates into songs that are so gut-wrenching, so achingly vulnerable, so bleeding raw that they compel you to listen even as they nail you to the floor. (Stuart Munro)

Collapsed in Sunbeams Arlo Parks

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The 60 best albums of the year - The Boston Globe