1,753 words
One of the lessons of 2020 is that the near future is every bit as unpredictable as the past, perhaps more so. Six months ago, no one would have predicted a replay of the disastrous Black Lives Matter stuff from the Left. Similarly, few would have predicted that the Democrat Party would have installed a dementia patient as their candidate (more…)
Giorgio de Chirico, “Les Masques”
3,924 words
English original here
Z tempa technologického pokroku se nám může snadno zatočit hlava a navykli jsme si očekávat nekonečný proud rychlejších a výkonnějších zařízení. Budoucí vývoj takových technologií slibuje stále sofistikovanější stroje, které zpochybní základní premisu lidské nadřazenosti. Je vynakládáno velké úsilí na dosažení dystopické budoucnosti strojů, nadaných úžasnými schopnostmi, jejichž samotná existence možná způsobí nahrazení lidstva. (more…)
3,997 words
English original here
« L’histoire même de l’humanité tout entière est tragique. Mais le sacrilège du Faustien et son désastre surpassent tous les autres, allant au-delà de tout ce qu’Eschyle ou Shakespeare ont jamais imaginé. La créature se dresse contre son créateur. De la même façon que le microcosme Homme se révolta un jour contre la Nature, ainsi fait aujourd’hui le microcosme Machine se révoltant contre l’Homme Nordique. Le maître du Monde est en train de devenir l’esclave de la Machine qui le force – et nous force tous, que nous en soyons conscients ou pas – à en passer par où elle veut. Abattu, le triomphateur est traîné à mort par le char. » (Oswald Spengler, L’Homme et la Technique) (more…)
3,688 words
French translation here
“The history of mankind as a whole is tragic. But the sacrilege and the catastrophe of the Faustian are greater than all others, greater than anything Æschylus or Shakespeare ever imagined. The creature is rising up against its creator. As once the microcosm Man against Nature, so now the microcosm Machine is revolting against Nordic Man. The lord of the World is becoming the slave of the Machine, which is forcing him — forcing us all, whether we are aware of it or not — to follow its course. The victor, crashed, is dragged to death by the team.” — Oswald Spengler, Man and Technics (more…)
Giorgio de Chirico, “Les Masques”
4,884 words
Czech translation here
The speed of technological development can be dizzying, and it has become natural for us to expect a never-ending stream of faster, more powerful devices. The future development of such technologies promises increasingly sophisticated machines that will challenge the very notion of man’s supremacy. (more…)
1,019 words
Transcendence marks the directorial debut of Wally Pfister, Christopher Nolan’s cinematographer. Nolan is also the executive producer so the expectation is that this sci-fi project could aspire to the heights reached by Nolan’s Inception. Sadly, it fails to live up to the comparison.
Johnny Depp stars as Dr. Will Caster, a leading researcher in artificial intelligence (AI). His work is opposed by a terrorist group known as RIFT (Revolutionary Independence From Technology) (more…)
4,335 words
Czech translation here
Ray Bradbury, the writer best known for his novels The Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451, as well as a hundreds of short stories, passed away on Tuesday, June 5 at the age of 91. With him we have lost not only one of America’s greatest writers, but also one of our last genuine writers.
However, I don’t use either of these words – genuine or writer – lightly. (more…)
