A documentary on counterculture icon and environmentalist Stewart Brand will get a U.S. release via Greenwich Entertainment.
The indie distributor has bought the long-gestating “We Are As Gods,” from the directors of the 2017 Bill Nye documentary “Bill Nye: Science Guy,” David Alvarado and Jason Sussberg. The documentary, which premiered at SXSW in 2021, will be released in New York and Los Angeles on Aug. 12.
“We Are As Gods” is a deep dive into the many sides of Brand — the Zelig-like creator of The Whole Earth Catalog, an influential member of Ken Kesey’s “The Merry Pranksters,” and an early activist in the modern environmental movement. Brand coined the phrase “personal computer” and influenced many Silicon Valley heavyweights, including Steve Jobs. Now in his 80s, Brand looks to leave a legacy for the future with his efforts to rewild ecosystems by resurrecting extinct species. But, as revealed in the film,...
The indie distributor has bought the long-gestating “We Are As Gods,” from the directors of the 2017 Bill Nye documentary “Bill Nye: Science Guy,” David Alvarado and Jason Sussberg. The documentary, which premiered at SXSW in 2021, will be released in New York and Los Angeles on Aug. 12.
“We Are As Gods” is a deep dive into the many sides of Brand — the Zelig-like creator of The Whole Earth Catalog, an influential member of Ken Kesey’s “The Merry Pranksters,” and an early activist in the modern environmental movement. Brand coined the phrase “personal computer” and influenced many Silicon Valley heavyweights, including Steve Jobs. Now in his 80s, Brand looks to leave a legacy for the future with his efforts to rewild ecosystems by resurrecting extinct species. But, as revealed in the film,...
- 7/1/2022
- by Manori Ravindran
- Variety Film + TV
The documentary We Are As Gods focuses on Stewart Brand, a fascinating man whose main current obsession is de-extinction. Brand supports the idea of bringing back various extinct species and restoring ecosystems. His most ambitious project involves the woolly mammoth, a close species (the Asian elephant) and technology for gene editing. The incredible theory claims that the "rebirth" of the "mammoths" could counteract the alarming consequences of global warming in the Siberian region. In We Are As Gods, documentary filmmakers Jason Sussberg and David Alvarado tackle Brand and partners’ project, even accompanying him to Siberia. At the same time, they shine a light on people, sometimes close to Brand, who question the notion of de-extinction. At one point, for example, they make the obligatory cinematic...
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[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 3/19/2021
- Screen Anarchy
Brian Eno has collected highlights from his soundtrack work over the past 40 years — some familiar, some hard-to-find — for the producer and ambient music pioneer’s new collection Film Music 1976-2020.
The compilation is a sequel of sorts to Eno’s 1978 EP Music for Films — as well as its follow-up installments in 1983 and 1988 — and bridges his film work from 1976’s Sebastiane (“Final Sunset”) through 2020’s Stewart Brand documentary We Are As Gods.
While some of the Film Music 1976-2020 selections are well-known (Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks’ “Deep Blue Day” and “An Ending...
The compilation is a sequel of sorts to Eno’s 1978 EP Music for Films — as well as its follow-up installments in 1983 and 1988 — and bridges his film work from 1976’s Sebastiane (“Final Sunset”) through 2020’s Stewart Brand documentary We Are As Gods.
While some of the Film Music 1976-2020 selections are well-known (Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks’ “Deep Blue Day” and “An Ending...
- 9/17/2020
- by Daniel Kreps
- Rollingstone.com
Filmmakers Jason Sussberg and David Alvarado were holed up in a studio Friday at Skywalker Ranch, putting the finishing touches on the sound mix for their film “We Are As Gods,” a documentary about the environmentalist Stewart Brand. The two men were scrambling to get everything ready for the film’s March 15 premiere at South by Southwest when they saw the news. For the first time in its 34 year history, the Austin, Texas-based film festival was cancelled amidst fears of the coronavirus outbreak.
“There’s no words,” said Alvarado. “To have labored on a documentary for three years and then find out the festival was cancelled on the same day you’ve finished — it was just devastating.”
Now, like so many filmmakers impacted by the SXSW cancellation, Sussberg and Alvarado are trying to figure out how to sell their film to a studio without the boost that comes with a high-profile premiere.
“There’s no words,” said Alvarado. “To have labored on a documentary for three years and then find out the festival was cancelled on the same day you’ve finished — it was just devastating.”
Now, like so many filmmakers impacted by the SXSW cancellation, Sussberg and Alvarado are trying to figure out how to sell their film to a studio without the boost that comes with a high-profile premiere.
- 3/10/2020
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Friday, March 6, was a surreal day. We were putting the finishing touches on the sound mix for our film “We Are As Gods,” a feature documentary about counterculture icon and environmentalist Stewart Brand that was set to premiere at SXSW.
It was the last day of our sound mix at Skywalker Ranch, which marked the end of a three-year journey making this film. We broke for lunch with only hours remaining, but by the time we left the cafe, SXSW had been spiked by the City of Austin over the very real and horrifying concerns over Covid-19, throwing our film and our whole world into a tailspin.
While the cancellation started to feel imminent early in the week when big tech and film studios began pulling out of the festival, it was a gut punch to receive the official news: our film premiere was cancelled.
Being sceptics and filmmakers who cover science,...
It was the last day of our sound mix at Skywalker Ranch, which marked the end of a three-year journey making this film. We broke for lunch with only hours remaining, but by the time we left the cafe, SXSW had been spiked by the City of Austin over the very real and horrifying concerns over Covid-19, throwing our film and our whole world into a tailspin.
While the cancellation started to feel imminent early in the week when big tech and film studios began pulling out of the festival, it was a gut punch to receive the official news: our film premiere was cancelled.
Being sceptics and filmmakers who cover science,...
- 3/8/2020
- by Jason Sussberg and David Alvarado
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: The climate change documentary Anthropocene: The Human Epoch is just as much a visual marvel as it is a call to action. Kino Lorber is partnering with the streaming platform Kanopy to bring the feature docu to over 100 theaters nationwide on September 25 to coincide with the U.N. Climate Action Summit and Climate Week NYC in an effort to combat man-made climate change. In addition, Anthropocene will be available for streaming on Kanopy starting January 1, 2020.
From Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier and Edward Burtynsky, the docu is narrated by Oscar-winning actress Alicia Vikander and screened at Sundance, Berlin and the Toronto International Film Festival to critical acclaim. Taking four years to make, Anthropocene: The Human Epoch follows the research of an international body of scientists, the Anthropocene Working Group which, after nearly 10 years of research, is investigating how the Holocene Epoch gave way to the Anthropocene Epoch in the...
From Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier and Edward Burtynsky, the docu is narrated by Oscar-winning actress Alicia Vikander and screened at Sundance, Berlin and the Toronto International Film Festival to critical acclaim. Taking four years to make, Anthropocene: The Human Epoch follows the research of an international body of scientists, the Anthropocene Working Group which, after nearly 10 years of research, is investigating how the Holocene Epoch gave way to the Anthropocene Epoch in the...
- 8/19/2019
- by Dino-Ray Ramos
- Deadline Film + TV
When he was 11 years old, Demis Hassabis was the second highest-rated chess player in the world for his age. His parents had taken him out of school to practice and focus on the game. During a tournament in Liechtenstein, he matched the Danish chess champion move-for-move for over ten hours of competitive play. They then spent four hours in a near-stalemate. Finally, Hassabis resigned, at which point the champion showed him the move he might have made to continue the match. The young Demis had an epiphany.
“It made me think, ‘Are we wasting our minds?’” he told Kirsty Young of BBC Radio decades later. “At that level of chess, they’re all fantastically smart people. What if we used that brain power for something more useful, like solving cancer or curing some disease?” Hassabis told his parents he wanted something more than to excel at a single game.
—
According...
“It made me think, ‘Are we wasting our minds?’” he told Kirsty Young of BBC Radio decades later. “At that level of chess, they’re all fantastically smart people. What if we used that brain power for something more useful, like solving cancer or curing some disease?” Hassabis told his parents he wanted something more than to excel at a single game.
—
According...
- 8/10/2018
- by Jon Irwin
- Variety Film + TV
Is nuclear power the solution to global warming? "Pandora's Promise," a documentary from Robert Stone ("Radio Bikini," "Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst") that airs on CNN tonight, November 7th at 9pm after a premiere at Sundance and a theatrical release in June, attempts to make the counterintuitive case that as an energy source, the glow of radioactivity is actually the green choice. Stone, who chronicled the start of the environmental movement in his 2009 film "Earth Days," enlists a group of pro-nuclear experts that includes Stewart Brand, Gwyneth Cravens and Mark Lynas, some of whom came around to the idea of nuclear power after initially being against it. "Pandora's Promise" really presents half an issue, which is not uncommon for docs produced to make a particular argument, but is always more evident when you're not already on board with the argument being made. In this instance, it's that nuclear power...
- 11/7/2013
- by Alison Willmore
- Indiewire
Los Angeles, home of the most ambitious and successful environmental movements, will see eight free screenings of “A Fierce Green Fire” in late September and early October
The timing couldn’t be better for seeing A Fierce Green Fire: The Battle for a Living Planet -- the first big-picture exploration of the environmental movement, fifty years of activism from conservation to climate change. From Fukushima to fracking, Keystone Xl to climate change, the world has never been more in need of a reminder that people can, and have, solved huge environmental problems.
And what better place to show this landmark film than Los Angeles, home to some of the most ambitious, innovative and successful environmental efforts in the country. From saving Mono Lake and healing Santa Monica Bay, to leading efforts to reduce smog that changed the entire automobile industry and pioneering climate legislation, no region in America has had a more distinct record of environmental success.
Directed and written by Mark Kitchell, Academy-Award nominated director of Berkeley in the Sixties, and narrated by Robert Redford, Meryl Streep, Ashley Judd, Van Jones and Isabel Allende, A Fierce Green Fire premiered at Sundance Film Festival. It chronicles the largest movement of the 20th century and one of the keys to the 21st. It brings together all the major parts of environmentalism and connects them. It focuses on activism, people fighting to save their homes, their lives, the future – and succeeding against all odds.
The film unfolds in five acts, each with a central story and character:
• David Brower and the Sierra Club’s battle to halt dams in the Grand Canyon • Lois Gibbs and the Love Canal residents’ struggle against 20,000 tons of toxic chemicals • Paul Watson and Greenpeace’s campaigns to save whales and baby harp seals • Chico Mendes and Brazilian rubber tappers’ fight to save the Amazon rainforest • Bill McKibben and the 25-year effort to address the impossible issue – climate change
Surrounding these main stories are strands like environmental justice, going back to the land, and movements of the global south such as Wangari Maathai in Kenya. Vivid archival film brings it all back and insightful interviews with activists shed light on what it all means. The film offers a deeper view of environmentalism as civilizational change, bringing our industrial society into sustainable balance with nature. It’s the battle for a living planet.
The film arrives at a moment of promise: 25 years after Dr. James Hansen first warned of global warming; 8 years after Katrina; 3 years after the Gulf oil disaster; 2 years after meltdown at Fukushima and first stopping the Keystone Pipeline; and 1 year since the wake-up call that was Hurricane Sandy, the capper to the hottest year on record. 2013 may be the year that grassroots pressure finally forces action to halt climate change. A Fierce Green Fire gives us reason to believe.
All of the Southland screenings are free and (except UCLA) open to the public. Each will be followed by a discussion featuring local environmental leaders and the filmmaker. Below is a list of screenings and participants.
The Big Four:
Wednesday, September 25, at 7 pm Santa Monica Public Library, 601 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica, CA Panel discussion: Matthew King, Heal the Bay; Robert Gottlieb, renowned author of “Forcing the Spring” and professor at Occidental College
Friday, September 27, at 5:30 pm West Hollywood Public Library, 8272 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, CA Panel Discussion: Angelo Logan, East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice; Juana Torres, Sierra Club; Michele Prichard, Liberty Hill Foundation’s Common Agenda
Thursday, October 3, 6 pm Pasadena Central Public Library Auditorium, 285 East Walnut Street Pasadena, CA Speaker: Shannon Biggs of Global Exchange on fracking coming to California
Friday, October 4, at 6 pm G2 Gallery, 1503 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice, CA Panel Discussion: Bill Gallegos, Communities for a Better Environment; Michele Prichard, Liberty Hill Foundation’s Common Agenda (opening of G2’s Green Earth Film Fest -- space is limited, so RSVP: theG2Gallery.com)
Three area colleges and an arts center in Long Beach:
Pitzer College, Robert Redford Conservancy -- Monday, September 30 in Claremont, CA UCLA Institute of Environmental Sciences -- Wednesday, October 2 (campus community only) Csu Long Beach, Multicultural Center -- Thursday, September 26, noon CALBArts, Bungalow Art Center, 729 Pine, Long Beach -- Friday, September 27th, 7pm
About The Film
Early Praise for A Fierce Green Fire:
"The material is vast and it’s an incredibly dynamic film. It’s shaping up to be the documentary of record on the environmental movement." - Cara Mertes, former director of Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program
"Winningly spans the broad scope of environmental history… connecting its origins with the variety of issues still challenging society today." - Justin Lowe, The Hollywood Reporter
"Rarely do environmental-themed films come with the ambitious scope of ‘A Fierce Green Fire’… which aims at nothing less than the history of environmentalism itself." - Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times
"The most ambitious environmental documentary since 'An Inconvenient Truth' tries to make the case that we just might win." - Michael Roberts, Outside Magazine
"The film left me emotionally drained and profoundly hopeful." -Bruce Barcott, On Earth Magazine
"Brilliant! Should be assigned viewing for all of us, especially those political leaders currently manning the helm of spaceship earth." - Jay Meehan, Park Record
About The Principals And People Featured In The Film
Director/Producer/Writer Mark Kitchell’s Berkeley in the Sixties – one of the defining films about the protest movements that shook America during the 1960s – received the Sundance Audience Award and was nominated for an Academy Award. Executive Producer Marc Weiss is the creator and former Executive Producer of P.O.V., the award-winning series now in its 26th season on PBS. Interviews were shot by Vicente Franco. It was edited by Ken Schneider, Veronica Selver, Jon Beckhardt and Gary Weimberg. Original music is by George Michalski and Dave Denny, Garth Stevenson, Randall Wallace and Todd Boekelheide. Narrators include: Robert Redford; Ashley Judd; activist Van Jones; author Isabel Allende; and Meryl Streep.
Featured In The Film Are:
The incomparable Lois Gibbs, leader of Love Canal; Paul “I work for whales” Watson; Bill McKibben, author and founder of 350.org; Paul Hawken and Stewart Brand, alternative ecology visionaries; Martin Litton, at 92 thundering, “If you haven’t got any hatred in your heart, what are you living on?”; Carl Pope and John Adams, longtime heads of the Sierra Club and Nrdc; and Bob Bullard, who closes the film on a universal note: “There’s no Hispanic air. There’s no African-American air. There’s air! And if you breathe air – and most people I know do breathe air – then I would consider you an environmentalist.”...
The timing couldn’t be better for seeing A Fierce Green Fire: The Battle for a Living Planet -- the first big-picture exploration of the environmental movement, fifty years of activism from conservation to climate change. From Fukushima to fracking, Keystone Xl to climate change, the world has never been more in need of a reminder that people can, and have, solved huge environmental problems.
And what better place to show this landmark film than Los Angeles, home to some of the most ambitious, innovative and successful environmental efforts in the country. From saving Mono Lake and healing Santa Monica Bay, to leading efforts to reduce smog that changed the entire automobile industry and pioneering climate legislation, no region in America has had a more distinct record of environmental success.
Directed and written by Mark Kitchell, Academy-Award nominated director of Berkeley in the Sixties, and narrated by Robert Redford, Meryl Streep, Ashley Judd, Van Jones and Isabel Allende, A Fierce Green Fire premiered at Sundance Film Festival. It chronicles the largest movement of the 20th century and one of the keys to the 21st. It brings together all the major parts of environmentalism and connects them. It focuses on activism, people fighting to save their homes, their lives, the future – and succeeding against all odds.
The film unfolds in five acts, each with a central story and character:
• David Brower and the Sierra Club’s battle to halt dams in the Grand Canyon • Lois Gibbs and the Love Canal residents’ struggle against 20,000 tons of toxic chemicals • Paul Watson and Greenpeace’s campaigns to save whales and baby harp seals • Chico Mendes and Brazilian rubber tappers’ fight to save the Amazon rainforest • Bill McKibben and the 25-year effort to address the impossible issue – climate change
Surrounding these main stories are strands like environmental justice, going back to the land, and movements of the global south such as Wangari Maathai in Kenya. Vivid archival film brings it all back and insightful interviews with activists shed light on what it all means. The film offers a deeper view of environmentalism as civilizational change, bringing our industrial society into sustainable balance with nature. It’s the battle for a living planet.
The film arrives at a moment of promise: 25 years after Dr. James Hansen first warned of global warming; 8 years after Katrina; 3 years after the Gulf oil disaster; 2 years after meltdown at Fukushima and first stopping the Keystone Pipeline; and 1 year since the wake-up call that was Hurricane Sandy, the capper to the hottest year on record. 2013 may be the year that grassroots pressure finally forces action to halt climate change. A Fierce Green Fire gives us reason to believe.
All of the Southland screenings are free and (except UCLA) open to the public. Each will be followed by a discussion featuring local environmental leaders and the filmmaker. Below is a list of screenings and participants.
The Big Four:
Wednesday, September 25, at 7 pm Santa Monica Public Library, 601 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica, CA Panel discussion: Matthew King, Heal the Bay; Robert Gottlieb, renowned author of “Forcing the Spring” and professor at Occidental College
Friday, September 27, at 5:30 pm West Hollywood Public Library, 8272 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, CA Panel Discussion: Angelo Logan, East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice; Juana Torres, Sierra Club; Michele Prichard, Liberty Hill Foundation’s Common Agenda
Thursday, October 3, 6 pm Pasadena Central Public Library Auditorium, 285 East Walnut Street Pasadena, CA Speaker: Shannon Biggs of Global Exchange on fracking coming to California
Friday, October 4, at 6 pm G2 Gallery, 1503 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice, CA Panel Discussion: Bill Gallegos, Communities for a Better Environment; Michele Prichard, Liberty Hill Foundation’s Common Agenda (opening of G2’s Green Earth Film Fest -- space is limited, so RSVP: theG2Gallery.com)
Three area colleges and an arts center in Long Beach:
Pitzer College, Robert Redford Conservancy -- Monday, September 30 in Claremont, CA UCLA Institute of Environmental Sciences -- Wednesday, October 2 (campus community only) Csu Long Beach, Multicultural Center -- Thursday, September 26, noon CALBArts, Bungalow Art Center, 729 Pine, Long Beach -- Friday, September 27th, 7pm
About The Film
Early Praise for A Fierce Green Fire:
"The material is vast and it’s an incredibly dynamic film. It’s shaping up to be the documentary of record on the environmental movement." - Cara Mertes, former director of Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program
"Winningly spans the broad scope of environmental history… connecting its origins with the variety of issues still challenging society today." - Justin Lowe, The Hollywood Reporter
"Rarely do environmental-themed films come with the ambitious scope of ‘A Fierce Green Fire’… which aims at nothing less than the history of environmentalism itself." - Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times
"The most ambitious environmental documentary since 'An Inconvenient Truth' tries to make the case that we just might win." - Michael Roberts, Outside Magazine
"The film left me emotionally drained and profoundly hopeful." -Bruce Barcott, On Earth Magazine
"Brilliant! Should be assigned viewing for all of us, especially those political leaders currently manning the helm of spaceship earth." - Jay Meehan, Park Record
About The Principals And People Featured In The Film
Director/Producer/Writer Mark Kitchell’s Berkeley in the Sixties – one of the defining films about the protest movements that shook America during the 1960s – received the Sundance Audience Award and was nominated for an Academy Award. Executive Producer Marc Weiss is the creator and former Executive Producer of P.O.V., the award-winning series now in its 26th season on PBS. Interviews were shot by Vicente Franco. It was edited by Ken Schneider, Veronica Selver, Jon Beckhardt and Gary Weimberg. Original music is by George Michalski and Dave Denny, Garth Stevenson, Randall Wallace and Todd Boekelheide. Narrators include: Robert Redford; Ashley Judd; activist Van Jones; author Isabel Allende; and Meryl Streep.
Featured In The Film Are:
The incomparable Lois Gibbs, leader of Love Canal; Paul “I work for whales” Watson; Bill McKibben, author and founder of 350.org; Paul Hawken and Stewart Brand, alternative ecology visionaries; Martin Litton, at 92 thundering, “If you haven’t got any hatred in your heart, what are you living on?”; Carl Pope and John Adams, longtime heads of the Sierra Club and Nrdc; and Bob Bullard, who closes the film on a universal note: “There’s no Hispanic air. There’s no African-American air. There’s air! And if you breathe air – and most people I know do breathe air – then I would consider you an environmentalist.”...
- 9/28/2013
- by Peter Belsito
- Sydney's Buzz
By David Ropeik
(Click here for original article.)
The last line in Pandora’s Promise, Robert Stone’s new documentary about the environmental advantages of nuclear power, comes from Michael Shellenberger, co-head of the Breakthrough Institute. “I have a sense that this is a beautiful thing, the beginning of a movement,” he says. Provoking a new environmental movement in favor of nuclear power is a tall order, but a recent screening of Pandora’s Promise suggests that it might play a part, for some intriguing reasons.
Stone’s film premiered at Sundance to positive reviews (Variety, Slate) and is scheduled for theatrical release this summer. It makes a convincing case for nuclear power as a carbon-free source of energy to reduce the harm of climate change in a world in which population is rising and the demand for electricity is soaring as the developing world develops. (For the record, I...
(Click here for original article.)
The last line in Pandora’s Promise, Robert Stone’s new documentary about the environmental advantages of nuclear power, comes from Michael Shellenberger, co-head of the Breakthrough Institute. “I have a sense that this is a beautiful thing, the beginning of a movement,” he says. Provoking a new environmental movement in favor of nuclear power is a tall order, but a recent screening of Pandora’s Promise suggests that it might play a part, for some intriguing reasons.
Stone’s film premiered at Sundance to positive reviews (Variety, Slate) and is scheduled for theatrical release this summer. It makes a convincing case for nuclear power as a carbon-free source of energy to reduce the harm of climate change in a world in which population is rising and the demand for electricity is soaring as the developing world develops. (For the record, I...
- 6/10/2013
- Huffington Post
The issue of how to power our homes, offices and really, our lives, continues to be one that inspires fierce debate. As concern for the environment becomes an increasingly important element of the discussion, how we draw power without harming the world around is of vital importance. Nuclear energy has long been seen as a risky proposal at best, but could opinion be changing on the subject? The upcoming "Pandora's Promise" offers a different perspective than what you might normally hear. Directed by Academy Award nominee Robert Stone ("Radio Bikini"), the film presents environmentalists and energy experts -- including Stewart Brand, Richard Rhodes, Gwyneth Cravens, Mark Lynas and Michael Shellenberger -- who have changed course in their thoughts about nuclear power. And as this exclusive clip from the movie shows, their arguments are compelling, with this sequence revealing that the United States buys Russian warheads, dismantles and repurposes them into nuclear energy.
- 6/10/2013
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
As the human footprint widens, the movements lumped under "environmentalism" grow ever more varied, which makes a far-reaching documentary about the environmentalist movement—detailing a history from its inception to the present day—a wildly ambitious undertaking. Yet this is the task documentarian Mark Kitchell has assumed in A Fierce Green Fire. Omnidirectional, A Fierce Green Fire covers Stewart Brand, Aldo Leopold, John Muir, and Teddy Roosevelt—all in the first five minutes. From there, Kitchell and his talking heads tackle the growth of environmentalism in the U.S., the travails of Greenpeace and the Sierra Club, environmental catastrophes in Love Canal and the Brazilian rainforest, and of course climate change, among other topics. The film contain...
- 2/27/2013
- Village Voice
The Oregon city is the first to use Ibm's app to help cities figure out how policy can affect the lives of their citizens. But can any algorithm quantify the whole experience of city living?
Can the complexity of cities really be reduced to a single set of equations, as the physicist Geoffrey West claims, or even 3,000 of them? Is it really true, as West’s numbers would indicate, that Corvallis, Oregon--a city of 55,000 two hours’ drive south of Portland--is the most innovative city in America? Perhaps there’s something in the water, or it may have more to do with the fact that West's model loves patents and Hewlett Packard’s Advanced Products Division is based there, along with its patent portfolio, one developed by thousands of researchers worldwide.
West’s conclusions are only as good as the data and the models (patents equal innovation) he has to work with.
Can the complexity of cities really be reduced to a single set of equations, as the physicist Geoffrey West claims, or even 3,000 of them? Is it really true, as West’s numbers would indicate, that Corvallis, Oregon--a city of 55,000 two hours’ drive south of Portland--is the most innovative city in America? Perhaps there’s something in the water, or it may have more to do with the fact that West's model loves patents and Hewlett Packard’s Advanced Products Division is based there, along with its patent portfolio, one developed by thousands of researchers worldwide.
West’s conclusions are only as good as the data and the models (patents equal innovation) he has to work with.
- 8/8/2011
- by Greg Lindsay
- Fast Company
The timepiece has been a prototype for the last decade and a half. It's now ready to be placed in a cave and turned on, to tick for the next 10 millennia and teach us lessons about our perceptions of the future--and the past.
Although a mere blink in the geologic timescales on which his imagination operates, it's been 15 long years since inventor and computer scientist Danny Hillis founded the Long Now Foundation with a group of entrepreneurs, artists, and visionaries that included electronic music pioneer Brian Eno, digital-age savant Esther Dyson, and Whole-Earth impresario Stewart Brand. And now the group's work has taken a big tick forward with the breaking of ground for a "monument-scale" version of its central project, the 10,000 Year Clock--a timekeeping device, an engineering masterpiece, and a kind of shrine--on a remote piece of mountaintop property owned by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos in western Texas.
If it fulfills its promise,...
Although a mere blink in the geologic timescales on which his imagination operates, it's been 15 long years since inventor and computer scientist Danny Hillis founded the Long Now Foundation with a group of entrepreneurs, artists, and visionaries that included electronic music pioneer Brian Eno, digital-age savant Esther Dyson, and Whole-Earth impresario Stewart Brand. And now the group's work has taken a big tick forward with the breaking of ground for a "monument-scale" version of its central project, the 10,000 Year Clock--a timekeeping device, an engineering masterpiece, and a kind of shrine--on a remote piece of mountaintop property owned by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos in western Texas.
If it fulfills its promise,...
- 6/22/2011
- by Matthew Battles
- Fast Company
Hollywood has been too slow to embrace the internet, which has cost the film industry billions of pounds
The famous dictum of digital guru Stewart Brand, "information wants to be free", is usually quoted without its binding caveat: "Information also wants to be expensive, and that tension will not go away."
Having seen that tension quickly produce violent shifts in the balance sheets of the newspaper, publishing and music industries – shifts that are still waiting for viable business models – it is now making its implications felt in the most expensive creative medium of all, the film industry.
Hollywood has been slow to embrace the internet. For a long time it felt protected by the fact that the file sizes of films were so large that downloading was generally too time-consuming and impractical.
Critically, there was the DVD market to support at all costs – in the last decade DVD sales have...
The famous dictum of digital guru Stewart Brand, "information wants to be free", is usually quoted without its binding caveat: "Information also wants to be expensive, and that tension will not go away."
Having seen that tension quickly produce violent shifts in the balance sheets of the newspaper, publishing and music industries – shifts that are still waiting for viable business models – it is now making its implications felt in the most expensive creative medium of all, the film industry.
Hollywood has been slow to embrace the internet. For a long time it felt protected by the fact that the file sizes of films were so large that downloading was generally too time-consuming and impractical.
Critically, there was the DVD market to support at all costs – in the last decade DVD sales have...
- 3/13/2011
- The Guardian - Film News
I'm keeping things quick today because I have a headache and I need to take a nap since the local theater is doing a showing of "Iron Man" at 9 p.m. and "Iron Man 2" at midnight and there's no way in hell you could keep me away from that. But I know all the Pajibans have hair (I don't think we have any non-mammalian readers), and many of you have heard about the massive oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico so I thought I'd direct your attention to Matter of Trust, which is an organization that makes oil-absorbing brooms and mats out of hair and old nylons. And since it's that time of year when animals begin shedding like it's their job, it's worth noting that they accept fur as well. Here's Thursday night's TV:
8:00 p.m.: "Bones" on Fox. As the Joss Whedon video Stacey posted earlier pointed out,...
8:00 p.m.: "Bones" on Fox. As the Joss Whedon video Stacey posted earlier pointed out,...
- 5/6/2010
- by Intern Rusty
Earthquakes, global warming, patent lawsuits... it's all a bit much, sometimes. Even a sober-minded "moral guide to the future" needs a break. So today, we talk about fashion.
Fashion may sound like an odd subject for a futurist to think about, but it's often an indicator of broader cultural trends around sexuality, material technology, gender roles, and money. Moreover, it is in many ways the polar opposite of the kinds of long, slow trends that I tend to think about, which makes it interesting simply as a counterpoint; Stewart Brand famously put fashion at the top of his pace of change chart, with "nature" at the bottom.
Fashion is also an example of rapid-iteration evolution. Is there a better example of natural selection in action than Project Runway? (Okay, not natural selection, but you see what I mean.)
Let's start with a scenario:
It's 2020, and at least half the people...
Fashion may sound like an odd subject for a futurist to think about, but it's often an indicator of broader cultural trends around sexuality, material technology, gender roles, and money. Moreover, it is in many ways the polar opposite of the kinds of long, slow trends that I tend to think about, which makes it interesting simply as a counterpoint; Stewart Brand famously put fashion at the top of his pace of change chart, with "nature" at the bottom.
Fashion is also an example of rapid-iteration evolution. Is there a better example of natural selection in action than Project Runway? (Okay, not natural selection, but you see what I mean.)
Let's start with a scenario:
It's 2020, and at least half the people...
- 3/3/2010
- by Jamais Cascio
- Fast Company
NEW YORK -- Shares of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia hit another 52-week high Wednesday even though the company said it swung to a fourth-quarter loss. Brass said company founder Martha Stewart will get back to business next week immediately after ending a prison sentence, and some of the firm's businesses already are looking up. "We are looking forward to Martha's homecoming, and she is coming home," MSLO president and CEO Susan Lyne told investors during a conference call. "The company's plan from the day it went public was to use the brand to incubate and launch other ones," she said of new or possible future media brands or products. "We are not backing away from the brand; our Martha Stewart Brand is our best asset." MSLO posted a fourth-quarter loss of $7.3 million, compared with a profit of $2.4 million in the year-ago period. Revenue fell 15% to $60.2 million. Brass said first-quarter results will miss Wall Street estimates, but Stewart's return will coincide with a bevy of new TV, merchandising and licensing opportunities. MSLO shares closed up 8.5% at $37.40 after going as high as $37.45 intraday.
- 2/23/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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