Energy matters

2020 ◽  
pp. 105-144
Author(s):  
Upamanyu Pablo Mukherjee
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Energy System ◽  
Indian Science ◽  
The Third ◽  
Theoretical Developments

The third chapter concentrates on how Indian science fiction met the representational challenges regarding energy during the non-aligned era. These decades were marked by chronic ‘energy crises’ in the country, involving massive shortages in food and fuel. Drawing on recent theoretical developments in Energy Humanities, the chapter suggests that much of the science fiction of the time was animated by attempts to present the pitfalls of thinking about energy exclusively in terms of resource and extraction and imagine what a non-exploitative energy-system could look like.

Jurassic Park

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Bullock
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Steven Spielberg ◽  
The Third ◽  
Close Encounters ◽  
The World ◽  
The Impact

‘Constellations: Jurassic Park’ explores how Steven Spielberg used the film to investigate several key themes that have been important to him across his career. These themes are: nature and humankind’s relationship with it, the importance of cinematic fantasy and how it shapes our view of the world, and the impact of toxic masculinity on both men and women. The book also looks at how Spielberg blends genres across his career as a whole and Jurassic Park specifically. This is particularly true of the science fiction and horror genres, which are used in Jurassic Park to create a film that is both cathartically scary and thematically satisfying. These points are contextualised within the wider scope of Spielberg’s life and career to understand how Jurassic Park acted as bridging point between the light entertainments he had been known for up to that point (Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, for example) and the more serious filmmaking he focused on after its release (Saving Private Ryan and Lincoln).

Conclusion: Science, fiction and the end of non-alignment

2020 ◽  
pp. 145-170
Author(s):  
Upamanyu Pablo Mukherjee
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Critical Assessment ◽  
Global Culture ◽  
Indian Science

The concluding chapter looks at the legacy of ‘Nehruvian’ techno-science and non-alignment after the death of Nehru, as well as at the interrogation and mobilization of this legacy in Indian science fiction. It briefly discusses the writings of figures such as Adrish Bardhan, J.V. Narlikar and Vandana Singh to show that modern and contemporary Indian science fiction remain a productive site for critical assessment of assumptions about techno-science, ‘development’ and global culture.

Close Encounters: Genre and Context

2016 ◽  
pp. 17-24
Author(s):  
Jon Towlson
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Greek Mythology ◽  
Art Cinema ◽  
Special Effects ◽  
Star Wars ◽  
The Third ◽  
Close Encounters ◽  
Human Need ◽  
Science Fiction Films

This chapter discusses the genre and context of Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). It begins by tracing the emergence of science fiction in literature and in cinema. The chapter then looks at how film serials popularised pulp science-fiction cinema in the form of rocketships, ray guns, alien invaders, evil intergalactic emperors, and damsels in distress. One can see them as the inspiration for the likes of Star Wars and the myriad superhero blockbuster movies that continue to dominate Hollywood today. In 1968, Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey returned science fiction to its origins in Greek mythology. It is perhaps the first example of ‘transcendent’ science-fiction cinema, exploring the human need to place trust in a force larger than ourselves. In the early 1970s, science-fiction films were more overtly concerned with identity and environment, and how both were increasingly shaped or misshapen by technology. Meanwhile, post-9/11 has seen a move towards intelligent science fiction as a bankable commodity within Hollywood. Part of the genre's continuing appeal is, of course, the showcasing of state-of-the-art cinema technology within the sci-fi narrative. Special-effects technology has evolved in line with cinema's own development.

scholarly journals Supporting the Smart Readiness Indicator—A Methodology to Integrate A Quantitative Assessment of the Load Shifting Potential of Smart Buildings

Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 1955 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Märzinger ◽  
Doris Österreicher
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Assessment ◽  
Storage Capacity ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Energy System ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
Simplified Model ◽  
Load Shifting ◽  
The Third ◽  
Energy Performance Of Buildings ◽  
Energy Storage Capacity

With the third revision of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) issued in July 2018, the assessment of buildings now has to include a Smart Readiness Indicator (SRI) to consider the fact that buildings must play an active role within the context of an intelligent energy system. In order to support the development of the SRI, this article describes a methodology for a simplified quantitative assessment of the load shifting potential of buildings. The aim of the methodology is to provide a numerical, model-based approach, which allows buildings to be categorized based on their energy storage capacity, load shifting potential and their subsequent interaction with the grid. A key aspect is the applicability within the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) in order to provide an easy to use calculation, which is applied in addition to the already established energy efficiency, building services and renewable energy assessments. The developed methodology is being applied to theoretical use cases to validate the approach. The results show that a simplified model can provide an adequate framework for a quantitative assessment for the Smart Readiness Indicator.

Social Theory and the Critique of Capitalism in a Communication Society

2011 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 150-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick O'Mahony
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Democratic Institutions ◽  
Sociological Approach ◽  
The Third ◽  
Normative Reconstruction ◽  
Theoretical Developments

The essay attempts to re-contextualise the normative import of capitalism in the light of modern social theoretical developments. It firstly explores the significance in this regard of the procedural turn in both social theory and political philosophy. While important, this turn has come at the price of a loss of focus on the substantive plane of how unjust social relations – such as those often arising from capitalist structures – diminish the moral capacities of democratic institutions to shape social change. The essay goes on to show in the second section how Axel Honneth (2004, 2007), offering a partial corrective, combines a procedural emphasis on communication with a substantive account of embedded normative structures, opening the way to a differentiated sociological approach that remains normative but not one-sidedly transcendent and deontological. Taking a lead from these reflections, the third section presents a social theoretical architecture concerned both with social structures and processes and with normative grounding, balancing a perspective drawn from sociological constructivism with normative reconstruction. Finally, in the concluding section, the foregoing is brought to bear on the study of capitalism in a manner that is intended to open up new avenues for its critical theoretical exploration.

scholarly journals Postdigital education in a biotech future

2021 ◽  
pp. 147821032110499
Author(s):  
Petar Jandrić ◽  
Sarah Hayes
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
First Generation ◽  
Asian Country ◽  
East Asian Country ◽  
Military Academy ◽  
Fictional World ◽  
The Third ◽  
Fictional Narrative ◽  
Educational Challenges ◽  
Social Science Fiction

This paper explores a possible future of postdigital education in 2050 using the means of social science fiction. The first part of the paper introduces the shift from 20th century primacy of physics to 21st century primacy of biology with an accent to new postdigital–biodigital reconfigurations and challenges in and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The second part of the paper presents a fictional speech at the graduation ceremony of a fictional military academy in a fictional East Asian country in 2050. This fictional world is marked by global warfare and militarization, and addressed graduates are the first generation of artificially evolved graduates in human history. The third part of the paper interprets the fictional narrative, contextualizes it into educational challenges of today, and argues for a dialogical, humanistic conception of new postdigital education in a biotech future.

scholarly journals O-bi, o-ba: Koniec cywilizacji – postpiśmienny świat Piotra Szulkina

1970 ◽  
pp. 273-284
Author(s):  
Maciej Pietrzak
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Biblical Text ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Future ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Written Word ◽  
The Way ◽  
Adam Mickiewicz

Pietrzak Maciej, O-bi, o-ba: Koniec cywilizacji – postpiśmienny świat Piotra Szulkina [O-Bi, O-Ba: The End of Civilization – The Postliterate World of Piotr Szulkin]. „Przestrzenie Teorii” nr 32. Poznań 2019, Adam Mickiewicz University Press, pp. 273–284. ISSN 1644-6763. DOI 10.14746/pt.2019.32.14. Piotr Szulkin made his mark in the history of cinema primarily as the author of disturbing visions of the future. His four films made between 1979 and 1985 comprised the science-fiction tetralogy, which is still one of the greatest artistic achievements of this genre in Polish cinema. The subject of the article is the third production of Szulkin’s series – the post-apocalyptic film O-Bi, O-Ba: The End of Civilization from 1984. In the film, the director creates a suggestive vision of a world destroyed as a result of nuclear conflict, in which the original functions of literature and the written word are forgotten. The author article analyzes the way in which forsaken literary artifacts are used in the post-literary reality of the film. An important element of his considerations is also the post-apocalyptic reception of the biblical text, on whose elements the mythology of the film’s world is based.

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