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Cyberpunk of Altered Carbon

In almost all Cyberpunk masterpieces in literature, comics, movies, games or whatever media exposure we think of when it comes to this genre, the settings is familiar. Dark atmosphere in both social and technological aspect of the story with dystopian surroundings and thin distinguished line between all characters within, no matter whether they are good or bad. I can't tell exactly why, but despite all the prosaic backgrounds and used stereotypes, I actually like this literary movement, perhaps because of the fact that people can't be really divided into good and bad per se. We all are combination of all possible adjectives out there and their summary is what makes us what we are. Actually, this is more accurate and closer to the truth compared to the "normal" or "usual" fiction with its ordinary hero-villain relations and idealized characters. Of course, like in any other genre, there are many poor and unmentionable works but also couple of those masterpiec...

Virtual vs Augmented Reality

Have you ever thought about what is the major waste of time in everybody's lifespan? I am not talking about lost time you made by choosing bad movie or book. Nor about spending months in company of incompatible people or within single relationship with no spark of good chemistry. I am not even thinking about wasting years within poorly chosen school or job. No. There is one more, even worse time-waste we all are experiencing no matter who we are or where we come from. On daily basis. I am referring to one simple thing we are all taking for granted. Sleeping. Something we do for eight or so strait hours every night. No exceptions. Something we do by design of nature. Now, currently, in this very century, if we are talking about lifespan globally, it is estimated to be around 70 years in average. Someplace little more, other places little less, depending on quality of life within our societies. Well, if you ask me and considering enormous vastness of the universe in both space and ti...

Who's Behind the Wheel?

Have you ever been in situation to answer somebody's question with 'Yes and No'? Well, it is definitely one of those answers they are teaching politicians to answer every time they need to use some evasive maneuvers in order to avoid discussions they don't want to get into. But in this case, the answer to the question from the title, or expanded a little with: "Are you really behind the wheel of your body?" is really 'Yes and No'. And nothing could be closer to the truth. The keyword is of course Parasitology, a very complex scientific research that is trying to understand properly all the macro and micro organisms who can't live without other living beings and usually do that without their consent and rather use them to live their entire or partial life which in most cases leads to host's malfunction, to use raw mechanical word. They only leave hosts in case of their death or if the host's environment is exploited to the level of uselessne...

Hipsters, Nontroversies, Frankenfood and Frakking Selfies

I read a little while ago an article by one of the pretty well-known Serbian filmmaker, which was also known by couple of rewards from Cannes and other European movie festivals from the past. His article was titled with "How's gonna start the third world war" and even though I hinted what it might be inside I started reading it expecting something rational and smart. To be honest, I couldn't read it to the end due to the feeling that my intelligence was started being insulted not too far away from the intriguing title. You can find the link below if you are really eager to read it, but in the nutshell, this is one of those stories made by the guys who lost their compass on the way and think they know everything better than the others. In the article, when he started accusing Hollywood industry in general for taking the role of new cold war propaganda machinery, I couldn't get rid of the image from the past when he was wearing a tuxedo on several occasions eagerly ...

Hardboiled

"Summertime and the livin' is easy..." sang Ella Fitzgerald back in 1957 with tremendous help of one of the kind crispy voice of legendary Louis Armstrong. Even though the most famous lullaby ever, written by Ira and George Gershwin for the "Porgy and Bess" opera from the thirties of 20th century, is not really about the hottest season and happiness per se, one thing is for sure - whatever you do, summertime is definitely the period of year when everything is smooth and nothing dramatic is happening.. At least nothing intentionally. Pure R&R. Even the work hours are passing by somehow easy and without big turbulence. Humphrey Bogart in 'The Maltese Falcon'* As for me, ever since I decided to go low with my social online life, after just couple of weeks I noticed positive change in my daily routine. The feeling was almost like solving addiction of some kind and even comparable to the past when I said definite goodbye to cigarettes after leavin...

Flat Sausage Fair

Approximately 15 years ago I was working as a lab assistant in the programming department of micro assembly and object oriented languages within " College of Applied Technical Sciences " in Niš, Serbia. I was engaged with all five semesters and was teaching students from their freshman year to the graduation and every now and again, along with board of professors, I was asked to attend their final exams followed by sort of social celebration in form of small festivity with table full of food and drinks. On one such occasion, student who came from Pirot, one of the biggest cities of eastern Serbia, asked us if we ever tried before a sausage called "vitamin bomb" which, he said, was one of the oldest delicacies from the region he came from. I spotted that one of the professors, who was actually known that he tried almost everything when it came to food and drinks, started nodding his head but it was clear that the rest of us heard it for the first time. Stude...