flâneur

Atomic Transactions - kelvin's public notes

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Science fiction is appropriately credited for inspiring much of the modern world. Charles Townes invented the laser after reading the 1926 sci-fi novel, The Garin Death Ray. Seventeen years after the first laser demonstration, George Lucas popularized the concept with blasters and lightsabers. Star Wars also extended the sci-fi tradition of intelligent robots—complete with reason, feelings, and voice modulations—helping pave the aesthetic visions for today’s AI agents. Many of today’s most well-known entrepreneurs, from Elon Musk to Palmer Luckey, cite their early exposure to the genre for motivating their technological pursuits. While a straight line can be drawn from sci-fi to many of humanity’s most important inventions, definite futurism can constrain people’s imaginations as much as it inspires them. In the past decade alone, tens of billions of capital have been sunk into seductive, yet narrow and futile visions of technology. For instance, 3D printing startups, which collectivel

Science fiction is appropriately credited for inspiring much of the modern world. Charles Townes invented the laser after reading the 1926 sci-fi novel, The Garin Death Ray. Seventeen years after the first laser demonstration, George Lucas popularized the concept with blasters and lightsabers. Star Wars also extended the sci-fi tradition of intelligent robots—complete with reason, feelings, and voice modulations—helping pave the aesthetic visions for today’s AI agents. Many of today’s most well-known entrepreneurs, from Elon Musk to Palmer Luckey, cite their early exposure to the genre for…

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