io9 | Page 4738 of 5931 | We Come From the Future

Bringing back Babbage

19th century inventor Charles Babbage never lived to finish his analytical engine, a punchcard computer that was decades ahead of its time, but now Babbage aficionados are finally building this device. Jennifer Oullette of Cocktail Party Physics has the details. In 1990, cyberpunk authors William Gibson and Bruce Sterling collaborated on a historical thriller, The…

io9 Jennifer Oullette - Cocktail Party Physics

The Best TV on the Web This Week

Looking for something worth watching? You’ve come to the right place, again! From Charlie Rose’s interview with funny man Zack Galifianakis to a less hilarious but equally inspiring tale of Detroit, here’s the best of what’s online this week: TV Zack Galifianakis on Charlie Rose: Zack Galifianakis has become a household name, a real feat…

Television Sam Julian

Robots are stealing our jobs and the love of our children

It looks like our automated creations are beginning to get the best of their meatbag overlords. Two studies show that automated labor is increasingly taking over middle-class jobs and that babies will regard humanoid robots as sentient beings. First off, a recent paper by economists David Autor and David Dorn notes that automated labor has…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar

The peculiar, pragmatic adventures of a wombat engineer

The webcomic Digger features an unusual epic protagonist. For one thing, she’s a wombat. For another, in contrast to the dead gods, shadow demons, hyena warriors, and vampire squash around her, Digger is decidedly down to earth. Ursula Vernon’s Digger opens when Digger-of-Unnecessarily-Convoluted-Tunnels (Digger for short), a wombat miner, hits a patch of bad air…

io9 Lauren Davis

How heat can cross a vacuum

Up until now, it was thought that only light could cross a vacuum. A new experiment suggests that heat can do so as well under very specific conditions. Light is not the only thing that can be mentally chopped up into discrete packages of energy. Vibrational energy can also be diced into little packages called…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

The Harry Potter books, each outlined as a poster-sized comic

Cartoonist Lucy Knisley is on a mission: to create seven cartoon posters, each outlining the plot of one of the Harry Potter books. Here’s what she has so far. Knisley is a great fan of genre fiction. We’ve featured her The Giver and Harry Potter/Saved by the Bell comics, and she’s also written comics about…

io9 Lauren Davis

Comic book coloring flub turns Darkseid into the universe’s most evil pornographer (NSFW)

In this cover by Jack Kirby, Darkseid’s supposed to be lighting a stick of dynamite that will blow up in his foe’s face. Thanks to a coloration error, the dynamite becomes something more illicit, but there’s still blowing going on. [Via Comics Bronze Age]

Books & Comics Cyriaque Lamar

Tyrannosaurus Rex was a cannibal, say paleontologists

After analyzing marks and gouges on Tyrannosaurus Rex fossils, paleontologists have concluded that T. Rexes ate other T. Rexes. This cannibalism was likely the result of scavenging rather than active hunting, but researchers aren’t 100% positive. The paleontologists note that the T. Rex was the only large, late Cretaceous carnivore in Western North America that…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar

“Monsters” is a creature feature that’s too preachy for its own good

Giant land octopuses from space have invaded Mexico, and the U.S. has erected a great wall at its border to keep those Latin aliens out. What starts as a great B-movie premise, unfortunately, degenerates into clueless moralism. Spoilers below. We’ve been excited about Monsters ever since it started making the rounds at film festivals because…

io9 Annalee Newitz

A Day In The Life Of An Internet Commenter

Somehow this illustration of an Internet commenter’s daily life looks familiar to many of us. Are we really this bad? Who am I kidding? We’re all probably far worse. [College Humor via Laughing Squid]

Books & Comics Rosa Golijan

Popular Mechanics releases a gorgeously-illustrated guide to retro futurism

The Wonderful Future That Never Was is a coffee-table book from Popular Mechanics and scifi author Gregory Benford, which chronicles the bizarre (and sometimes correct) predictions that futurists and scientists made between 1903 and 1969. Here’s a sneak peek. Facsimiles of the original articles are included, documenting how the predictions were displayed at the time.…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Eliza Dushku on what Dollhouse taught her, and what it can teach us

Dollhouse season two is on DVD, which means it’s time to rediscover Joss Whedon’s most challenging show. We spoke to star/producer Eliza Dushku about the show’s challenges, the criticisms Dollhouse faced…and the Echo/Paul outtakes that were too much for TV. For those of you who missed it, Dollhouse was a show that ran for two…

Television Charlie Jane Anders

Spider-Man is casting an even younger Peter Parker, and the Lizard’s son!

Looks like Spider-Man isn’t the only character with an origin story in the new reboot. Sony is reportedly casting a boy to play the six-year-old Peter Parker and another little boy to play Billy Connors, son of the Lizard. [Moviehole]

io9 Meredith Woerner

Robot arm punches human to obey Asimov’s rules

Isaac Asimov would probably have been horrified at the experiments under way in a robotics lab in Slovenia. There, a powerful robot has been hitting people over and over again in a bid to induce anything from mild to unbearable pain – in apparent defiance of the late sci-fi sage’s famed first law of robotics,…

io9 Paul Marks - New Scientist

The 10 scariest Haunted Houses in America

We’ve rounded up a list of some of the most thrilling haunted houses across the United States. Including one peculiar “experience” where you have to walk barefoot and alone through the entire thing — no exceptions. [top image via NY Haunted House and 13th Gate] NYC Halloween Haunted House: Vortex Theater (New York, NY) We’re…

io9 Meredith Woerner

Terrarium, the worst-rated scifi movie on IMDB, is actually pretty good

Weeks ago, we took a look at the IMDB worst-rated sci-fi films. Hours later, the writer/director of one of them offered to send a DVD. Here’s a look at the low budget sci-fi horror film Terrarium. https://gizmodo.com/imdbs-worst-rated-scifi-movies-are-strangely-compelling-5642438 On the list of IMDB worst-rated films, I singled out Terrarium because it was comfortably in the bottom…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

“The Hobbit” starts production in February

One of the most agonizingly delayed geek movie projects is back on the fast track, if reports are to be believed. New Line Cinema worked out a deal to put the movie out, despite financial turmoil at co-owner MGM. And yes, Peter Jackson will be directing. Production is set to start in February. Update: Warner…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

“Red” proves the action movie and the comic book movie have finally converged

Comic-book movies and action movies have so much in common: the unrealistic action, the loopy characterization, the WTF-laden plots. But now that more straight-up action movies are being made based on comics, the two genres have merged. Exhibit A: Red. Red, opening today, is loosely — and we stress, loosely — based on a three-issue…

Movies Charlie Jane Anders

Does the Earthlike planet Zarmina actually exist? Some say no.

It’s not a fun question to ask, but anytime a discovery of this magnitude comes along, it’s a good idea to hang on to a little skepticism. So let’s sort through the biggest questions about Earth’s newly discovered sibling. This week, some astronomers have raised doubts over the existence of Gliese 581g, popularly known as…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Blast off with StarShipSofa’s new fiction collection – it’s 20% off cover price in October!

Tony from Hugo-winning podcast StarShipSofa writes in to tell us about a new anthology collecting stories originally read on the podcast. He writes: StarShipSofa launches her second anthology collection StarShipSofa Stories Vol 2, featuring works by among others China Mieville, Neil Gaiman, Cory Doctorow and a host of others . . . And…. I’m told…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Bringing back Babbage

The Best TV on the Web This Week

Robots are stealing our jobs and the love of our children

The peculiar, pragmatic adventures of a wombat engineer

How heat can cross a vacuum

The Harry Potter books, each outlined as a poster-sized comic

Comic book coloring flub turns Darkseid into the universe’s most evil pornographer (NSFW)

Tyrannosaurus Rex was a cannibal, say paleontologists

“Monsters” is a creature feature that’s too preachy for its own good

A Day In The Life Of An Internet Commenter

Popular Mechanics releases a gorgeously-illustrated guide to retro futurism

Eliza Dushku on what Dollhouse taught her, and what it can teach us

Spider-Man is casting an even younger Peter Parker, and the Lizard’s son!

Robot arm punches human to obey Asimov’s rules

The 10 scariest Haunted Houses in America

Terrarium, the worst-rated scifi movie on IMDB, is actually pretty good

“The Hobbit” starts production in February

“Red” proves the action movie and the comic book movie have finally converged

Does the Earthlike planet Zarmina actually exist? Some say no.

Blast off with StarShipSofa’s new fiction collection – it’s 20% off cover price in October!

Tesla Goes Ahead and Admits Its Robotaxis Are Sometimes Fully Human-Controlled

School Forced to Replace Toilets After Kids Flush Vapes

‘Scream 7’ Just Won’t Stop Making Money as ‘Scream 8’ Gets Started

The Curtain Has Closed on Meta’s Movie Rating-Inspired Content Filters

Good News! You Can Finally Change That Ridiculous Gmail Address

ExpressVPN Just Launched ExpressAI: Your Prompts Are Now Invisible

VR Just Took Another Massive Body Blow

The Best Gadgets of March 2026

AirPods Max 2 Review: Still Ridiculously Expensive and Ridiculously Nice

DJI Osmo 360 Review: The Best 360 Camera for the DJI-Pilled

Aqara Smart Lock U400 Review: Hands-free Unlocking at Its Best

MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI+ Review: A Solid 2-in-1 Laptop With Some Glaring Flaws

Sonos Play Review: Call It a Comeback

Sonos Era 100 SL Review: The Cheapest Way Into Wired Sonos Sound

Asus ROG’s Massive Swift OLED Gaming Monitor Epitomizes Excess in the Best Way

The Ikea Varmblixt Smart Lamp Fills a Donut Hole in My Life

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