virtual Archivi - Keep Calm and Drink Coffee

ATOMIC CITY – SPHERE

Sep 30, 2023 | MUSIC, MUSIC, ROCK, ROCK

Atomic City is the new song by U2 released on September 29.

U2 surprisingly performed a preview in Las Vegas a few days ago

Did you recognize Freemont Street?

That’s right: the location of the video I still haven’t found what I am looking for.

Listening to Atomic City, you recognize something else well too, don’t you?

I immediately thought, “Debbie Harry!”

In fact Blondie as well as Giorgio Moroder appear in the credits.

From Atomic to Atomic city then.

Although Atomic City is no longer a reference to Blondie but is what Las Vegas was called in the 1950s.

Las Vegas.

Since I saw the movie with Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher whenever I hear Las Vegas mentioned I can’t resist without repeating it in various ways like they do in the movie, you know the scene?

Las Vegas in particular was U2’s choice for their residency show “U2: UV Achtung Baby Live At Sphere.”

Achtung Baby needs no further introduction: simply the fact that it is the album that contains One, makes it memorable.

Sphere, or MSG Sphere is an arena created for entertainment shows at The Venetian Resort in Paradise, Nevada and is currently the most colossal and avant-garde sphere in the world: covered with LED panels that also allow images to be projected outside, as well as a virtual experience inside.

If you love math I recommend you take a look at this page: it contains an explanation of how centuries-old mathematical formulas and 22nd century engineering and technology were used to create Sphere.

Wanting to put on a Residency show as opposed to the tours we are used to in the music business, U2 thought to concretize creativity using the latest technology.

What are your thoughts on this?

According to Heraclitus, invisible harmony is a perfect and pristine sphere. The visible one, on the other hand, continually deforms under the weight of reality.

In this case the weight is of virtual reality …

KISSES OF ALASSIO

Sep 23, 2023 | JOURNEY FROM MUG TO MUG, JOURNEY FROM MUG TO MUG

This is a somewhat particular “step” on the mug-to-mug journey, or perhaps I should say it is more of a crossover with Coffee Kiss.

The kisses, however, are chocolate, and more specifically they are Kisses of Alassio.

Alassio is a resort on the Ligurian Riviera, and here there is real-time sea views thanks to a webcam.

In the 1950s Alassio became a popular destination throughout Europe, a haunt of artists and celebrities who gathered in the cafés still symbolic of the Dolce Vita.

I find this description particularly beautiful.

One such café is precisely Pasticceria Balzola, still making the sweets patented by Balzola Pasquale in 1919.

I thank Monica who gave them to us as a gift!

Have you tasted these Baci = Kisses yet?

Or have you already “seen them?”

Yes: Kisses in Alassio can also be seen, in the form of exhibited works: Artàporter issued a call for artists to submit tiles for the Muretto virtual version.

Alassio thus becomes METALASSIO and some artists have represented the Kisses this way:

Speaking of virtual kisses, have you ever heard of Kissenger?

I know, it’s a name that immediately evokes a parody …

But Kissenger really exists, though: it’s an app with a device you can attach to your phone to send each other kisses via phone …

I’ll pass, over the phone at most you can get me to sing … you know the song Kiss by Prince, also made famous by Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman who sings it in the bathtub?

Or on the phone kisses can be written, quoting some of the most beautiful poetry ever written, for example there is
Love’s Philosophy by Percy Bysshe Shelley
The fountains mingle with the river
And the rivers with the Ocean,
The winds of Heaven mix for ever
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single;
All things by a law divine
in one another’s being mingle
Why not I with thine?
See the mountains kiss high Heaven
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister-flower would be forgiven
If it disdain’d its brother:
And the sunlight clasps the earth,
And the moonbeams kiss the sea
what are all these kissings worth,
If thou kiss not me?

But since we are talking about the sea, at this point I ask you: did you in Alassio eat the Kisses, see them, or give them?

VIRTUAL REFLECTION

Apr 28, 2023 | CARS, TECHNOLOGY

Remember when we talked about cooperation?

We were left with the Improve-ments cue, yet unfortunately my ability to properly follow through on all the things I would like to do has not improved at all.

In any case, there is no use crying over spilled milk assuming you don’t prefer latte 🙂 so in case you missed the post on 2010: Escape from Polis I’ll bring the thread back here as well.

The reflection in question is not metaphorical but virtual.

I am referring to the cameras that some car manufacturers have introduced in place of the classic side glass mirrors.

These mirror cams become another small step in ONLIFE to use an author’s neologism.

Onlife is what is happening and being done as life flows by staying connected to interactive devices.

For now, these are only high-end cars, but do you think that what is still only an option now, could become commonplace for all cars in the future?

Without even talking about cost, the first question that came to my mind is about the consumption that will inevitably reduce battery life.

What is your opinion?

Have you experienced driving using these cams instead of the classic side mirrors?

Do you think you would have difficulty, or do you look forward to this innovation spreading to most vehicles as has already happened with digital dashboards, for example?

Real reflection or virtual reflection?

SMART CITY

Sep 3, 2022 | ITALY, JOURNEY FROM MUG TO MUG, TECHNOLOGY

Smart City is a definition that recurs more and more often now.

Smart City is one of the main themes of civics hours in school.

But specifically how do you experience what smart offers in your city?

In your experience, can you tell of an actual improvement in the quality of your life, or is it all still ephemeral in your neck of the woods for now?

In the image I wanted to finally “offer” you a coffee in Piazza Ducale.

But the city of Vigevano offers many other experiences, including virtual ones.

On the City’s website you can check out a Vigevano Smart City dashboard with some options among which I would like to point out the live webcam.

And when you decide to come and visit our ducal living room, you will have at your disposal these directions that offer the possibility of more information via QR code.

In the same vein, a “digital” bench was inaugurated.

Red, as red is the symbolic color against violence against women.

The problem is that hand in hand should also be converted the education of citizens, who too often prove to be the exact opposite of smart.

A marker mark was enough to make the QR code illegible.

This tiny stroke actually emblematically represents a great trait that sets us apart, and likewise reveals the weakness on which what should be the future rests ….

VIRTUAL CHILDREN

Jul 2, 2022 | TECHNOLOGY

Can we really come to accept the idea of virtual children?

I had already told you about the virtual newscaster who went on air for 70 days without anyone noticing.

But to go so far as to talk about virtual children is far beyond that.

Virtual children or even tamagotchi kids, that is the definition that went viral after the publication of Catriona Campbell‘s book which, however, I have not read. Have you?

Artificial intelligence and Metaverse, two concepts that are gradually entering our lives.

It is these days, for example, the news of the first degree in the Metaverse, although the term Metaverse was coined thirty years ago: in 1992, in the book Snow Crash written by Neal Stephenson.

His project Lamina1: a Level 1 blockchain created specifically to enhance the open Metaverse, in collaboration with Peter Vessenes, considered a pioneer of cryptocurrencies, and founder of the first Bitcoin company.

Lamina1 therefore envisions itself as the base level for the Open Metaverse, a place that privileges creators, technical and artistic, providing support, spatial computing technology and a community to support those who are building the Metaverse.

Have you already thought about what your avatar might look like?

Having an alter ego still remains quite different from having a virtual child, yet these images show how far the line has already been crossed.

A year ago I was telling you about Gaia X and now we have Baby X