interview @ TransAlchemy

TransAlchemy, which publishes a lot of interesting stuff (including a number of interviews on the subject of intelligent machines and the future) just put up an interview with me at http://www.transalchemy.com/2010/04/transalchemy-interviews-dr-robert.html. They are working on a documentary based upon interviews at this year's Singularity Summit (I wanted to attend but couldn't make it happen even though it happened in NYC this year) and I look forward to its completion.

interivew on sci-fi and religion @ TheoFantastique

i was recently invited to interview with TheoFantastique about a paper that i wrote a few years ago about science fiction and religion. the interview is available here.

i'm very interested in using sci-fi as a window for cultural analysis, as is apparent from the way i've used it in the past (in the essay cited, "Robots and the Sacred in Science and Science Fiction," which can be found here), in my book Apocalyptic AI, and also in a recent paper i presented at the American Academy of Religion (link here), which i've recently submitted as a full paper for peer review.

one of the things i love about sci-fi is the way it reveals (in many ways) the religious ways we approach technology. sometimes we respond to machines as though they are sacred, sometimes we promote certain religious perspectives (such as transhumanism), sometimes we reject or accept institutional religions, etc. science fiction is a gold mine for thinking about our cultural response to the modern world.

10 ways World of Warcraft will help you survive the apocalypse

i wrote such a list (thanks to Jovi and Kenn for their comments and help!) for Oxford's blog.

check it out here:

http://blog.oup.com/2010/04/world-of-warcraft/

also, if you're a WoW player, please join my research project by taking this survey:

http://home.manhattan.edu/~robert.geraci/wowsurvey.html

and spread it around on blogs if you can.