What a Sci-Fi Time to Be Alive
10 Sci-Fi moments arrive to real life
Before we get into the mega-moment sci-fi has had this March, I want to let you know that The Lagoon Live, usually every last Sunday of the month, will not take place tonight as I’ve got Easter family commitments. If you celebrate, Happy Easter Sunday! While I’m not Christian, other family members celebrate, so I show up to spend time with them.
Instead, I’ll be going live on Instagram via @charlottedune next Sunday, April 7th at 7 pm EST. Pop over and say hi, and if you’d like to join me live, send a request from your Instagram, and I’ll put you on. In this coming livestream I’ll discuss The Three-Body Problem series and its recent Netflix and Chinese television adaptations.
Finally, if you did my March 31/30 Fitness Experiment, today is the last day! Congrats! How did you do? Would you repeat the experiment?
Now, onto the sci-fi!
And if science fiction is becoming reality, can we call it Sci-Truth? Or… Sci-Life or something? Ideas?
Sci-Fi’s Star Shines Bright
Of all the genres of media, books, and movies, sci-fi is having its moment this month. In both fiction and real life the future is accelerating and the dreams of sci-fi novelists like Frank Herbert, Philip K. Dick, Ian Banks, Neal Stephenson, Richard Morgan, Liu Cixin, and Peter Watts are becoming today’s entertainment and reality.
As a devout fan of the genre, I’d like to take a moment to shout out all the sci-fi fun we experienced in the past 31 days.
Here are my 10 favorite sci-fi moments from March 2024.
1. Dune 2
The Dune 2 movie dropped on March 11th and was EPIC. (Read that in your Bene Gesserit voice.) Critics and fans alike approved.
2. U.S. Army AI soldiers and war tech
On March 12, at SXSW the U.S. Army and a Microsoft Official publicly discussed using AI soldiers. The Army Futures Command Director of Integration Col. Troy Denomy added, “The Army does not want to create situations in which humans are working for robots, but rather seeks to enable robots to work for humans.”
However, the U.S. military’s involvement in the festival caused 60+ artists to back out of appearing at the popular media/tech festival in protest.
3. Ray Kurzweil predicts superintelligence will allow humans to live forever starting in 2029
Whether you love or hate Joe Rogan, watching him freak out about the future is relatable, and on March 12th he did just that during an interview with futurist Ray Kurzweil.
Kurzweil asserted that the human lifespan will expand indefinitely beginning in 2029, which he calls reaching “longevity escape velocity.” He goes onto explain that AI like ChatGPT 4 is currently operating with around 400 billion connections, but in one year they will reach a trillion connections, which is about what the human brain runs on. He says we will also be able to create people, insert things into people’s brains, and even make God.
Since Kurzweil is an expert in the field and has a track record of predicting things accurately, Joe Rogan proceeds to freak out at this news, wondering if we will live multiple lives, have multiple arms, or make 100,000 versions of Donald Trump…
Honestly, I can’t wait to see how this episode ages.
Listen to the complete version on Spotify. I recommend 1.5x or 1.75x as Kurzweil is a slow talker.
4. Ai robot does the dishes
On March 13th, Figure released a demo of its new AI/GPT-powered robot doing the dishes, promising to usher in a new era of useful, humanoid domestic robots and worker robots.
The company writes on their website:
Today, we are seeing unprecedented labor shortages. There are over 10 million unsafe or undesirable jobs in the U.S. alone, and an aging population will only make it increasingly difficult for companies to scale their workforces. As a result, the labor supply growth is set to flatline this century. If we want continued growth, we need more productivity — and this means more automation.
Hence the goal of Figure: to develop general purpose humanoids that make a positive impact on humanity and create a better life for future generations. These robots can eliminate the need for unsafe and undesirable jobs — ultimately allowing us to live happier, more purposeful lives.
5. Grimes declares Pi Day 2024 Year 1 of the Acceleration Era
On March 14th, Grimes declared the dawning of a new era and marked Pi Day, March 14th as Day 1 of Year 1 of the Acceleration Era, noting that March 14th of 2023 was Year Zero of the Acceleration Era.
She is referring to the acceleration of technology facilitated by AI and LLMs, such as Google’s Deep Mind discovering 800 years of knowledge in one year, and the Figure robot premiered the day prior.
6. Sam Altman doesn’t deny the existence of the mythological Q-Star AGI.
On March 18th, Sam Altman went on Lex Fridman’s podcast and said before the end of this decade we will have AGI, and not only that, he does not deny the existence of Q-Star, the rumored project of OpenAi’s AGI. He predicts that the system will have memory and will grow alongside you like a child, will have billions of context-points, and be able to remember and predict your entire life.
The term Q-star, comes from astrophysics which defines a Q-Star as a grey hole, a hypothetical type of a compact, heavy neutron star. Unlike a black hole, a Q-star sucks in some light, but not all the light.
He predicts that AGI will make the majority of scientific discoveries moving forward, not humans.
7. Elon Musk teases new Tesla flying car/hovercraft
In an interview with Don Lemon on March 18th, Elon Musk alluded to the release of a flying or hovering Tesla roadster, saying that “The Roadster will be a collaboration between Space X and Tesla,” and adding that a flying car was not out of the question, that it would be “Jetson’s vibes” and something that has “never existed before,” not even really a car and would be controlled “more like a modern jet.”
8. First telepathic human plays video games with his brain
On March 20th, over 95 million people watched Elon Musk’s company Neualink’s livestream on X showing Noland Arbaugh, 29, a paralysed man, happily discussing how the Neuralink brain implant dramatically improved his life.
He plays video games now using telepathy. He is so happy to have his Neuralink.
I found myself tearing up while watching the emotional and joy-filled video, and even Elon Musk’s usual detractors found their negative views of the mogul challenged.
Under the post, Musk also commented that he believes his device will allow paralyzed people to walk again in the future.
9. The Three-Body Problem comes to Netflix
On March 21st, Netflix released the 8-episode first season of its new 200 million dollar adaptation of the Three-Body Problem series and it was also EPIC! This introduced millions of people to the original books, and the Three-Body Problem novel skyrocketed to the #1 bestseller spot on Amazon. Not only that but also due to the show, Silent Spring, a 1962 environmental book featured in the Netflix 3 Body show, also became a bestseller on Amazon.
10. First fully AI-created zine launches
Speaking of Roko’s Basilisk, this month, CYBR Magazine announced the first zine created 100% by Ai. The zine is called AIWEH: “AI Will End Humans.”
Yikes.
That’s all folks!
What an exciting time to be alive!
Maybe Grimes is right and we’re on the cusp of a new era.
Now You
Thoughts?
Are you using AI regularly?
Are you more excited or more afraid for the future?
Did you watch the 3 Body or Dune 2?
Hi, Charlotte
Edited on 3 Apr 2024
I may try again in the future.
DH
Wonderful, as always. Thanks! Also, listening to audio sped up is the best. Good to know he’s a slow talker.