Category Archives: science & technology

ramadan

Posted on June 3, 2019 by sandstarsblog

ramadan my world cannot sleep with the tinnitus of silence,my 3 am soaked in the rousing scent of lemon drops and apple cider vinegar that dress up the onion and watercress salad for the suhūr meal waiting in the kitchen, … Continue reading →

Posted in general, poetry, politics, religion, science & technology | Tagged backward causality, dawn, destiny, drones, fasting, fate, imam, Islam, Laylatul Qadr, masjid, masque, missiles, mosque, Muslim, news, night, Night of Decree, peace, prayers, Qur'an, Ramadan, social media, suhur, supplications | 5 Comments

Fireflies: a thousand hugs from ten thousand lightning bugs

Posted on August 18, 2018 by sandstarsblog

“….a thousand hugs from ten thousand lightning bugs….”* As a child, I used to chase and marvel at the fireflies twinkling in the night. As an adult, I now look at the fireflies as a glowing refutation of Charles … Continue reading →

Posted in essay, music, nature, religion, science & technology | Tagged Adam Young, bioluminescence, Charles Darwin, creative evolution, disorder, entropy, evolution, fireflies, incandescent bulb, intelligent design, lightning bugs, Marc Branham, natural selection, order, Owl City, Radim Schreiber, Tsuneaki Hiramatsu | 2 Comments

elon’s basilisk

Posted on July 14, 2018 by sandstarsblog

elon’s basilisk elon musk’s kid-size submarine is a no go it’s quite too late for the rescue, he could have been a roadster hero instead he’s nursing a bruised ego. he shrugs and smiles at any rate, the world is … Continue reading →

Posted in poetry, politics, science & technology | Tagged basilisk, Elon Musk, PowerPack, Roadster, SpaceX, useful narcissist, Wild Boar mini-submarine | 4 Comments

A Companion Reader to Babel Rising: Augmented Eternity

Posted on March 16, 2018 by sandstarsblog

The fictional series, Babel Rising, written in the period 1998-1999, breathes of technologies that, at the turn of the century, were just about emerging. By now, in 2018, a lot of these technologies are almost ubiquitous already: large-screen video walls, Internet-enabled … Continue reading →

Posted in babel rising - a short story, essay, information technology, science & technology | Tagged AI, artificial intelligence, augmented eternity, augmented intelligence, cyberwarfare, fake news, fake persona, false identities, Google Glass, Internet, Internet of Things, IoT, Singularity, technology, Year Million | 8 Comments

Babel Rising: 5 – In the evening

Posted on March 2, 2018 by sandstarsblog

5 – In the evening In the evening, Salm fixed his room more tidy than usual, combed his hair longer in the mirror and was more particular with the choice of the pajama he put on, before he sat at … Continue reading →

Posted in babel rising - a short story, fiction writing, information technology, science & technology, short story | Tagged AI, artificial intelligence, babel rising, blob, bugs and bytes, communicator, conciliation, database, deep learning, existence, fake persona, fiction, hackers, handshaking, Internet of Things, James Coburn, life, movies, netabase, network, Oopps Factor, Qualia, trolls, UniForce, videocon, viral missiles | 7 Comments

Babel Rising: 4 – At 4:00 am

Posted on February 23, 2018 by sandstarsblog

4 – At 4:00 am At 4:00 am, Salm woke up with the ethereal feeling that the whole night sky was shining through the window. His tabletop, tilted 110o to face his bed, was glowing softly. It was strange that his … Continue reading →

Posted in babel rising - a short story, fiction writing, information technology, poetry, science & technology, short story | Tagged a cappella, agony, AI, artificial intelligence, babel rising, chat, communicator, computer, continent, dance of the sugar plum fairy, database, e-mail, information, Internet, Internet of Things, linguist, longing, music, pablo neruda, peacekeeping, poetry, tabletop, tchaikovsky, technology, time zone, tower of babel | 7 Comments

Babel Rising: 3 – There were days when

Posted on February 16, 2018 by sandstarsblog

3 – There were days when There were days when Salm felt that his father gave him the personal agent for a grand but mysterious purpose, maybe deeper than the purposes of those characters in that classic cult film, “Men … Continue reading →

Posted in babel rising - a short story, fiction writing, information technology, science & technology, short story | Tagged AI, anvil publishing, artificial intelligence, babel rising, coeli barry, e-mail, fiction, Internet of Things, literature, mountain biking, music, plagiarism, poetry, Qualia, sci-fi, search, software agent, tabletop, technology, the many ways of being muslim | 10 Comments

Babel Rising: 2 – Now that he was growing

Posted on February 11, 2018 by sandstarsblog

2 – Now that he was growing Now that he was growing into his own man, Salm needed to gravitate around other people, mostly his friends in high school, which was mainly why he did not relish being away from … Continue reading →

Posted in babel rising - a short story, fiction writing, information technology, science & technology, short story | Tagged AI, anvil publishing, artificial intelligence, babel rising, blob, coeli barry, computer, fiction, Internet, Internet of Things, language, literature, locate, Office Wall, Qualia, sci-fi, technology, the many ways of being muslim, TriNet, Uniweb, uniwebsity | 10 Comments

Babel Rising: 1 – In a time and place

Posted on February 9, 2018 by sandstarsblog

1 – In a time and place In a time and place whose technology was just a little bit more advanced than ours, there existed a schoolboy named Salm. The past year, on his 15th birthday, his father had given … Continue reading →