End of the Week, End of the World 10-30-09

From the democratization of violence to the democratization of virulence: how a garage lab mistake could wipe us out.

A mistake in a factory can result in scores of injuries or deaths. A mistake at a chemical plant can kill thousands. But a mistake in a biological laboratory could result in a pandemic. And as more and more people at all levels of competence gain access to the tools for biohacking, the risk of error would seem to rise dramatically.

obEP: Firewall investigates a dangerous new bio-plague outbreak, only to discover that it's instigator is a biohacker working on a beneficial new gene therapy who accidentally set something horrible loose.

Biopolitics of Popular Culture

Eclipse Phase co-creator Brian Cross will be speaking at the Biopolitics of Popular Culture seminar in Irvine, CA on December 4th, organized by the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies. If you happen to be in the area, this event is looking to be very engaging, and the lineup of presenters is fantastic. Here's the event info:
https://ieet.org/bpcs09

Popular culture is full of tropes and cliches that shape our debates
about emerging technologies. Our most transcendent expectations for
technology come from pop culture, and the most common objections to
emerging technologies come from science fiction and horror, from Frankenstein and Brave New World to Gattaca and the Terminator.

Why is it that almost every person in fiction who wants to live a
longer than normal life is evil or pays some terrible price? What does
it say about attitudes towards posthuman possibilities when mutants in Heroes or the X-Men, or cyborgs in Battlestar Galactica or Iron Man, or vampires in True Blood or Twilight are depicted as capable of responsible citizenship?

Is Hollywood reflecting a transhuman turn in popular culture,
helping us imagine a day when magical and muggle can live together in a
peaceful Star Trek federation? Will the merging of pop culture, social
networking and virtual reality into a heightened augmented reality
encourage us all to make our lives a form of participative fiction?

During this day long seminar we will engage with culture critics,
artists, writers, and filmmakers to explore the biopolitics that are
implicit in depictions of emerging technology in literature, film and
television.

This seminar will precede the Humanity+ Summit, December 5-6 at the same venue.