Eunoia

“Writing is inhibiting. Sighing, I sit, scribbling in ink this pidgin script. I sing with nihilistic witticism, disciplining signs with trifling gimmicks impish hijinks which highlight stick sigils. Isn’t it glib? Isn’t it chic?”

Glib and chic it may be, but Christian Bok’s book “Eunoia” is also a stunning example of discipline, creativity and beauty.  Eunoia is the shortest word in the English language to use all 5 vowels. Each chapter in ‘Eunoia’ uses only one vowel - chapter A using words that only have the letter ‘a’.

Each vowel takes on a distinct personality - the I is egotistical and romantic, the O jocular and obscene, the E elegaic and epic. U is guttural and lustful (Ubu and Lulu burp, hump and bump for five delirious pages). The online flash version of Chapter E is a wonderful rendering of the work into an interactive experience. The beginning of each chapter can be read on the Coach House Books website here.

Over 5 years in the making, Eunoia employs other rigid constraints on language, including: paragraph length (all are 12 lines long) and theme (each chapter must describe the act of writing, a nautical voyage, and a gastronomic feast.  In ‘Chapter E’, Bok retells the whole story of the Illiad, from the viewpoint of Helen, using only ‘e’s. Here is an excerpt:

“Greek schemers respect shrewdness; hence, the shrewd rebels enter the sled’s secret recess (the sled’s nested creche, where these few men keep themselves secreted); then the sled gets sent wherever the nemeses dwell; there, the Greek pretenders pretend: “the well-hewn steed represents the perfect present.”

Coming to us from the ancient greek word εύνοια (well mind), Bok defines eunoia as ‘beautiful thinking’. And this monument of 21st century poetry is indeed a tour de force of beautiful thinking, a work that Samual R. Delany has described as “a novel that will drive everybody sane.”

Bok lives and works in Toronto, Canada. He has invented languages for two Gene Roddenberry TV series, Earth: Final Conflict and Amazon.

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US China Green Tech Summit

US China Green Tech Summit November 12-14, 2008, Shanghai, China.

China and the US face major energy challenges that threaten global security, long-term economic competitiveness and the environment. Thousands of companies and billions of dollars are furiously racing at the problem on both sides of the Pacific. Social, cultural and governmental differences put an ocean of distance between the challenges and solutions developing on both shores. US | China Green Tech Summit in Shanghai brings together leaders – at the highest level – to help China and the U.S. run towards the solutions together.

This information comes from the Bay Area Council website. As the event approaches, UltraFuture will continue to post information and updates on the Green Tech Summit.

The US China Green Tech Summit is a gathering of the highest-level U.S. And Chinese business leaders working on renewable and clean energy. This program aims to be the most important green tech initiative to date between China and the U.S. This event is being organized by the business communities of Shanghai and the San Silicon Valley Bay Area of California. Both regions are rapidly emerging as global centers for green tech development and investment.

GreenTech in China
China presents an opportunity to sell and produce a vast range of green tech products and services. Those include green building technologies that reduce energy use; processes to convert waste into biofuels; better wind turbines; solar power technology; “smart” street lights; water filtration systems; and software for energy companies to help manage operations more efficiently.

Already, venture capitalists are increasing their clean-tech bets in China, from $7 million in 2004 to $222 million in 2007, according to VentureOne and Ernst & Young. In that same period, venture funding for clean-tech deals in the United States soared from $522 million to $884 million. China itself invested a staggering $12 billion in renewable in 2007. Growth looks assured. China has set a target of increasing energy production from low-carbon technologies from 8 percent in 2006 to 15 percent by 2020, while investing an average of $33 billion in these technologies for the next 12 years. Businesses that move into this growing sector face tough challenges – including making clean technology affordable in the lower-income Chinese market – but many feel that the opportunities in China are too great to ignore.

China presents lucrative opportunities for cleantech, both as a manufacturing centre and as a market. Government policy is driving much of the growth in the sector. Beijing’s commitment to 15 percent of total energy consumption coming from renewable sources by 2020, prompted Greenpeace to say that the law could help China become “an international clean energy powerhouse.” The World Wildlife Fund said, “recent moves by the central government showed a determination to explore sustainable development and to achieve that target through real action.”

Although China ratified the Kyoto Protocol in August 2002, its status as a developing country exempts it from meeting the protocol’s greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. China can, however, provide carbon credits to developed countries under the protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). The CDM allows developed countries to fulfill their emission reduction requirements by investing in clean energy projects in developing countries, where carbon credits generally cost much less.

Analysis conducted by William Brent, Clean-Technology Practice Head, Weber Shadwick

UltraFuture on Alltop.com

UltraFuture is pleased to announce that we have been added to Alltop’s aggregate list of future-focused blogs and websites. Check us out on future.alltop.com.

Thank you to Alltop for the recognition and inclusion! Incidentally, we have since invited Guy Kawasaki, (managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, former Apple Fellow at Apple Computer, Inc. and widely respected IT guru) to join us at UltraFuture Expo this December. Will keep posting updates here.)

Alltop creates single page ‘collections’ of sources of stories based RSS feeds for such topics such as the environment, photography, science, celebrity gossip, fashion, gaming, automobiles, and Macintosh. Alltop displays the headlines and a brief introduction of the latest stories from dozens of sites and blogs, creating a single page source of relevant information for your topic of choice.

Super-efficient cars (and Google)

Imagine a world where super-efficient cars are desirable, affordable and everywhere…

where gasoline no longer makes history, but is history…

This call to imagination is featured on the home page of the Progressive Automotive X-Prize website. While gasoline is clearly not yet a thing of the past, fuel prices, fierce competition in the automotive sector and growing awareness and concern about global warming have contributed to innovations and developments in hybrid vehicle design and manufacturing that may mark a beginning of the end.

One leading example is Aptera Motors, a top prize contender in the ‘alternative’ category for the Automotive X-Prize. Aptera, has received around 4000 refundable deposits for its vehicles as of August 2008. The California based company expects to delivering first units to customers in December 2008. (The timing is perfect for an Asian showing at the Future of Transportation Forum held at UltraFuture Expo in Hong Kong, December 10-13.)

Aptera’s first vehicles to market will be based on the design and prototype model ‘Typ-1′. The Typ-1 is a two seater, three-wheeled vehicle - two front wheels steer, and the rear wheel is driven by the electric motor. The super-streamlined vehicle achieves takes advantage of its low drag co-efficent to achieve gas mileage of 230-300 miles per gallon at 55mph (89 km/h). In December 2007, Aptera founder Steve Fambro mentioned “Project X,” a four-wheeled five-passenger model. In March of this year, Fambro again suggested the company has “other projects that are certainly more mainstream” in the pipeline.

Interestingly, in July 2008 Google.org (the philanthropic arm of the search-engine giant and sponsor of the Lunar X-Prize) invested US$2.75 million in Aptera.

A Virtual World with Hong Kong Stars

 August 21, 2008
For Immediate Release

UltraFuture Expo the Asia Game Show and Nurien
Hong Kong: Nurien, the widely anticipated next-generation virtual world, is looking for one male and one female Hong Kong Star to step, sing or dance, into the future.

Trendy, visually stunning and branded as the evolution of social networking, Nurien is a new ’superreal’ virtual world. The look, feel and user experience in Nurien are far superior to SecondLife, the pioneering virtual world that received global attention and interest just a year or two ago. Nurien is more beautiful, more life-like and has more engaging activities. In short, Nurien creates a deep sense of affinity and connection with its community of users.

“The Nurien virtual world is a new space for social interaction,” said David Harris, President of forward-looking event and media company UltraFuture. ”Users can create one-of-a-kind, life-like avatars and interact with each other in dance competitions, quiz show games, fashion shows or just by chatting. Each user gets their own ‘home’ space, where they can host a blog, music and video sharing right on their walls. You can even design, buy or sell furniture or fashionable clothes. This is indeed the future of 3D social networking and virtual lifestyles. The adoption rate amongst global youth and young adults is expected to be very high.”

Nurien launches in South Korea this September; in Hong Kong and China this October, and in the US early next year. The Hong Kong stars selected by Nurien will have beautiful look-alike avatars created by Nurien’s world-class team of animators. The fashions that the Avatars will wear has yet to be decided, but rumor has it that some high-profile brands are involved in discussions to showcase their latest styles. The HK Star Avatar’s will also have their own ‘Rooms’ in the Nurien platform, where fans can go to learn about the star, download special release songs, share stories on a blog and more. The Star’s themselves can make guest appearances from time to time, handing out virtual autographs and interacting directly with their biggest fans.Nurien will showcase the virtual world at this years UltraFuture Expo December 10-13^th, and then at the Asia Game Show, an event expecting over 500,000 gaming and online enthusiasts. Nurien and UltraFuture will invite the Hong Kong Stars to attend the events at press conferences, where they can ‘play’ with their own avatars live before fans.
For more information, contact the event organizers at:

info@ultrafutureworld.com

+852 8197 8087

Off The International Radar: Sonic explorations in space, time and mind…

A three-piece polyphonic psycho-sonic experience.

Sustainable Modular Islands

Energy Islands may be a solution to rising ocean levels, fossil fuel dependence and diminishing supplies of fresh drinking water. The energy production and water desalination technologies have been proven and a full-scale implementation is being planned for launch in 2010.

Energy Islands will consist of floating renewable energy platforms that take advantage of photovoltaics, wave energy, ocean current energy turbines, wind turbines, solar thermal towers and OTEC power (ocean thermal energy conversion). The islands will be manufactured as modules, making them scalable and potentially mobile.

Vegetable farms and homes for workers can be constructed atop the islands, and, with an estimated 250MW of power generated, unused power could be transmitted back to the grid at the closest landmass. Roughly 50,000 modules of the Energy Island featured in the image below would meet the current global energy needs.

Projects like Seascape one and Aquarius are amongst the many concepts seeking to create environments for sustainable living. Join us for the Future of the Built Environment, this December in Hong Kong to meet thought-leaders imagining, designing and building communities for tomorrow.

Update: October 5th, 2008

The UltraFuture ThinkTank is working on a presentation of Energy Island along with Parsons Brinckerhoff and Noble Denton to be presented at the US-China GreenTech Summit this November 12-14th in Shanghai. This should be a very interesting Summit, with very positive opportunities for Energy Island to identify project partners and supporters, particularly with organizations and firms in mainland China.

First biological brain to controls its own robotic body

A team of engineers, neuro-physiologists and other researchers have developed a robot that is controlled by a biological brain made of cultured neurons. This cutting edge research is being conducted at the University of Reading. The main focus of the research is to study how memories manifest themselves in the brain, and how brains store specific pieces of data. This research will provide a better framework for understanding and potentially treating diseases and disorders such as Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease, stroke and brain injury. Fascinating research, highly relevant to our aging societies where neurological disorders will become increasingly prevalent.

If you would like more information about this research, please contact Dr. Lucy Chappell of the University of Reading by phone at +44 0118 378 7391 or 0751 518 8751 or via email l.chappell@reading.ac.uk

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Asia Game Show

UltraFuture has been invited to create a forum at the Asian Game Show. A huge event that draws over 500, 000 visitors each year, the AGS is a platform for showcasing the newest games and gaming technologies. Along with our friends at Nurien, OnGolf and other leading-edge gaming and consumer electronics companies, UltraFuture will create a forum for exploring the future of the gaming industry and emerging trends in digital lifestyles.

Asia Game Show 2007 video

Zhongguo, Jia You! (Go China!)

The opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympic Games were spectacular and, as expected, historic. With stunning pyrotechnics, incredible mass choreography and a spellbinding lighting and video show, the performances were rich in both cutting-edge multimedia displays and eloquent homages to ancient Chinese culture. The path of fireworks that created footsteps in the sky walking towards the birds nest stadium in the lead-up to the show was amongst the most innovative of mass creations/performances in recent memory - a testament to the vision and creativity of film director Zhang Yi Mou (of ‘Hero’ fame). Needless to say, the atmosphere at the event was electric…

The visual coverage of the event on Pearl, CNN and CCTV showcased not only the cultural renaissance of the Chinese nation (the architecture of the Watercube and Birds Nest alone attest to this), but was also tempered with the wonderful innocence and humanity of the Chinese people (the smiles on the faces of the drummers, the playfulness and boredom of the little girl beside playing alongside pianist Lang Lang). This innocence and humanity is all too often overlooked by global observers, perhaps too often limited by a focus on geopolitical ‘ realities’…

Why is this UltraFuture? The Olympic games is a forum for optimism - a symbol and hopefully a catalyst of hope and harmony for humanity.

Well done Beijing. Jia You!

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