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WHERE ARE THE AMAZON ROBOTS? (Part two) In part one of this series, it was noted that anecdotes about working in Amazon warehouses tended not to mention robots. The essay went on to show how there are

WHERE ARE THE AMAZON ROBOTS? I have recently been watching Vlogs posted by YouTubers sharing anecdotes about their experience of working for Amazon. Certain themes cropped up in all of these videos, such

WHAT VIDEOGAMES TEACH US ABOUT WORK 1.5 A while ago, an article was written for i newspaper by Will Tanner, in which it was reported that a Universal Basic Income experiment was ended because “ministers

EXTROPIA’S CURIOUS SCIENCE: CELESTIAL BED If you dare peek in your email’s spam folder, there’s a fair chance that you’ll find one or two promotions for something that supposedly boosts your sexual prowess.

DRIVERLESS CARS ARE ABOUT MORE THAN DRIVERLESS CARS. Ever since DARPA issued a challenge to roboticists to get vehicles to drive themselves across miles of desert terrain and machines like Google’s

EXTROPIA’S MAD-TECH: “COMPUTER TERMINAL” Here’s a vision of the future that looks really antiquated now. This guy appears to be operating a computer terminal of some kind. You will notice that the storage

THE SIGHTS OF SECOND LIFE Welcome to my occasional series where I report on anything that caught my eye in the online world of Second Life. Well, here’s something that definitely caught my eye. My partner,

EXTROPIA’S RETRO-GAMING: ALTERED BEAST If you had purchased a Sega Megadrive (known as ‘Genesis’ in the US) in 1989, then there’s a fair chance you will have played the game ‘Altered Beast’. You might

POEM FROM NO MAN’S SKY A lone figure standing still, Amidst the sight of a heavenly sphere, Nature’s splendour bends the will, Of anyone who would stop here. Take in the sight that rises here, This ringed

EXTROPIA’S CURIOUS SCIENCE: PERPETUAL MOTION Anyone who has used any kind of machine knows that eventually it runs out of juice. Cars need refuelling, clockwork needs winding, electrical gadgets need

EXTROPIA’S MAD-TECH: “METAL GIANTS” When the enemy forces are darkening the skies of Blighty’s capital, who you gonna call? No, not the Ghostbusters, but rather colossal metal robots. Just look at these

EXTROPIA’S RETRO-GAMING: VIXEN ‘Vixen’ was published by Martech and released for the Spectrum and C64 in the late ‘80s. The gameplay had the player take control of the titular ‘Vixen’- a whip-wielding

POEM FROM NO MAN’S SKY Flying over dusty hills That fade into mist at horizon’s end, An alien creature’s lonely trills, Call out like one who is seeking a friend. But what can be here to give reply Amidst

ANATOMY OF A FILM SCENE In this article, I thought I would write about a movie scene that particularly impresses me. The one I have in mind is the transformation sequence from ‘An American Werewolf In

EXTROPIA’S CURIOUS SCIENCE: THE BAGHDAD BATTERY When was the battery first invented? Were I to hazard a guess, I would suppose that batteries were invented at some point in the 19th century, a time when

EXTROPIA’S MAD-TECH: “FALLOUT SHELTER” The image seen in this instalment of ‘mad tech’ is something of a departure from previous episodes. Those have tended to be illustrations of conceptual technologies,

EXTROPIA’S RETRO-GAMING: AVP AVP or Aliens Versus Predator was a special game for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it was released for the Atari Jaguar, a supposed 64bit games console (although there were

NMS: THE NEXT ADVENTURER CHAPTER 29: THE FACTORY Days past and Taebaker set itself up in the weapons research facility. Noma walked in to find it designing various hand-held weapons via a holographic display.

EXTROPIA’S CURIOUS SCIENCE: THOUGHTOGRAPHY Fans of ‘The X-Files’ may recall an episode from Season 4 called ‘Unruhe’. In this episode, Mulder and Scully are on the hunt for a killer who is leaving behind

EXTROPIA’S MAD-TECH: GRYOELECTRIC DESTROYER World War I was the first war to see the deployment of the tank. As you can see from this illustration, somebody also thought it would see enemies quail before….The