Stray Birds

God & Golem, Inc: A Comment on Certain Points Where Cybernetics Impinges on Religion , published in 1964, has been penned down by Norbert Wiener. Wiener (1894-1964) happens to be the coiner of the term ‘cybernetics’ in its modern sense. Wiener is a well-regarded mathematician and has a vast number of technical papers to his credit. However God and Golem Inc, has very little to do with the subtleties of theoretical physics or mathematics, it concerns itself majorly with socially relevant issues of cybernetics that intersect with religion. The author here refrains himself from using any highly technical phrases to prove his points. Some of the ideas do remain rather vague, as a result of this approach. But it seems necessary as the book caters to a much wider audience this way.  The three main issues, discussed throughout a number of short essays in the book, are:  Machines which learn themselves Machines which have capacity to reproduce themselves The relation bet...

Ripley: Will you listen to me, Parker? Shut up! Parker: Let's hear it. Let's hear it. Ripley: It's using the air shafts. Parker: You don't know that. Ripley: That's the only way. We'll move in pairs. We'll go step by step and cut off every bulkhead and every vent until we have it cornered. And then we'll blow it the fuck out into space! Set in an undated future, the 1979 science fiction Alien depicts the tale of a 7 member crew trapped with a barbarous Alien inside the commercial towing spaceship Nostromo.  And it does it so in a most perturbing manner. The starkness of space, the gloomy atmosphere and the dark undertones all add up to a compelling movie experience. Alien begins rather slowly, but it gains significant momentum in a few scenes. Nostromo, the commercial towing spaceship of the "Mother" Corporation, is set on its return course to Earth.  Upon receiving a possible distress signal from an apparently desolate planet, the 7 m...