Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Futurism.
Bill Lear Interview
William Powell Lear was a notable rarity among inventors of the 60s and 70s: He turned his ideas into money. The classic inventor sold out in despair after years of unrewarding toil, then watched someone else make a fortune out of his invention. Bill Lear, by contrast, was worth between $30 and $50 million in his prime—and he started from scratch.
Futurism StaffPublished 8 years ago in FuturismLunar Eclipse Guide
Only two to four times a year, residents of Earth's western hemisphere will be treated to one of nature's greatest shows. On that night, the full Moon enters Earth's shadow, giving us a total eclipse of the Moon.
Futurism StaffPublished 8 years ago in FuturismBest Erotic Sci-Fi Art
OMNI magazine aimed to provide content on "all realms of science and the paranormal." The platform on which OMNI was built went beyond any regular sci-fi magazine, including an examination of the stunning—yet sometimes bizarre—artwork which permeated its publications.
Jake BurgessPublished 8 years ago in FuturismBest Worst Paranormal Movies
The paranormal movie is truly a staple of cinematic history. Ever since The Exorcist, ghosts, ghouls, and all sorts of unexplainable phenomena have invaded our screens. We’ve seen films like The Sixth Sense and Paranormal Activity arrive from this newfound fascination with the paranormal, but just like every other fad in the movie world, there are some stinkers to pair with the great movies. The problem is, judging the quality of these movies by the trailers seems to be an increasingly difficult challenge, and therefore people have been tricked into seeing some, to put it bluntly, metaphorical dumpster trucks on fire. The best worst paranormal movies will make you laugh so hard you scream.
Emily McCayPublished 8 years ago in FuturismImpact Craters of North America
The time: June 30, 1908. The place: central Siberia, Imperial Russia. A giant meteorite, blindingly incandescent, streaked across the sky and smashed to Earth near the Tunguska River, devastating a roughly circular region nearly 150 kilometers in diameter. Forests were flattened and several herds of reindeer killed. The earth was pitted by cone-shaped craters up to 50 meters across. Ground vibrations from the impact shattered windows scores of kilometers away. Heat seared the bark from trees, and smoke billowed many kilometers into the atmosphere. Shock waves from the blast were "heard" around the world by delicate microbarographs, instruments that measure pulsations in atmospheric pressure set up by very long sound waves.
Futurism StaffPublished 8 years ago in FuturismWhy Geniuses Don’t Run the World
"Society is aimed at the average. It does poorly when dealing with people that are smarter than the average or dumber, worse, than the average." —Eugene Volokh
Jacob FrommerPublished 8 years ago in FuturismWhat is Kabbalah?
There’s a tale my grandfather told me. He explained he heard it many a time at Military Intelligence in London, when the candles guttered low and the fog curled about the windows. It happened in 1914, when England was losing the first world war and it seemed only a miracle could save her. There was this writer, name of Arthur Machen, never popular or well known, a bloody Welshman in fact and a mystic to boot. Well (they say), this Welshman, this Machen, took it into his head to write a story about the kind of miracle England needed, so he imagined St. George himself leading a group of medieval archers to aid the English troops at Mons. And after the story was published in a magazine, some enterprising newspapers picked it up and reprinted it as fact. And (they say) the whole damned country was gullible enough to believe it. It did as much for national morale as the real miracle would have.
Robert Anton WilsonPublished 8 years ago in FuturismA Tourist's View of the Moon
Below is an article commissioned by Bob Guccione for the April 1971 Penthouse Magazine originally titled "A Tourist’s Guide of the Moon" by Isaac Asimov.
Isaac AsimovPublished 8 years ago in FuturismWomen of 'Andromeda'
It sounds like the sci-fi equivalent of Thelma and Louise: Actresses Lisa Ryder and Lexa Doig teaming up in a futuristic action-adventure series called Rumble and Sparks. OK, so it wa really just a recurring joke between the two co-stars of Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, but hearing Ryder talk about the idea was irreverently amusing.
Futurism StaffPublished 8 years ago in FuturismHistory of Sound Effects
BOOM! A nuclear bomb just went off before your eyes. You feel your heart pounding, and the explosion is still reverberating in your ears, but you can’t move your body. Your eyes are glued to the screen as you sit on a cushioned chair in a cool IMAX theater. When the movie ends, you head to the bathroom and reality smacks you in the face. You’re not Will Smith and you didn’t just save the human race from extraterrestrials, but none of that matters because you feel like you did.
James LizowskiPublished 8 years ago in FuturismWalter Velez Sci-Fi Artist
Michael Jordan. Kanye West. Walter Velez. While you will surely recognize the first two names on this list, the latter may be a little more difficult.
Futurism StaffPublished 8 years ago in Futurism'The Martian Chronicles' Miniseries
"Us Earthmen have a talent for ruining things. If there are any Martians alive in those hills, they’re going to grow to hate us."
Futurism StaffPublished 8 years ago in Futurism