Infocult: Uncanny Informatics

Zombie labor market

The zombie as economic metaphor has been around long enough to speciate.  We've seen zombie banks, zombie housing, and now it's time for a zombie labor market.

Several callers agreed to share their own horror stories in a labor market that has improved little four years after the economic crisis of 2008...

The flood of desperate, unemployed callers is a powerful reminder of why people remain so gloomy about the American economy... 

It works like this: the unemployed person as zombie, the unemployed masses as zombie legions:

The relatively small article in the middle of the newspaper generated an avalanche of phone calls — at least 1,324 in the three days after the paper hit the streets — that overwhelmed the staff at the CCP office handling the job-training grant.

[S]tatistics alone don't fully capture the desperation of some of those seeking to apply for free job training. 

It's a powerful metaphor.  And it cuts several ways.  On the one (rotting) hand, the zombie as object of pathos summons up our sympathy.  On the other, the metaphor exercises some classism, giving us a license to fear the poor.  Both of these political readings have been in the larger Gothic world for centuries.

Here's a glimpse of the Infocult economy:

 When Kittrell read an article about a plan to open a 200-acre zombie-inspired theme park called Z World in the industrial wastelands of Detroit, he instantly applied to play one of the undead. "I'm a big fan of zombies, so I filled that out," said Kittrell, his voice brimming with youthful optimism. 

Media causes violence, say Americans

A majority of Americans think media representations of violence trigger violent acts, according to a recent poll.  34% think otherwise.

If this is accurate and not significantly warped (coming right after the Colorado Batman shootings), then it helps explain the appeal of fearsome media stories.

(via Reason)

Kiss the robot

Today's example of creepy technology is a kissing robot.  Make that a distance-enabled kissbot, and one with a sickly name: Kissenger.

It's for long-distance relationships.  You kiss this terrifying-looking lump, and your partner kisses right back.  No word on latency issues of any kind.

As one commentator notes,

I'm not sure what devastates the human heart more—losing love, or making love to the featureless head of a robotic Harry Kissinger.

One implemention possibility would be to record celebrity lip and tongue action.  Oh yes.

Not disturbed enough? Try the video.  And think of the robot-to-robot option mentioned at the end:

The uncanny valley: it swallows us whole.

(thanks to Todd Bryant, who will no doubt implement this within the Mixxer)

The Earth devours Tennessee

On Twitter:

"Another Tennessee sinkhole for you, @bryanalexander, pic.twitter.com/5MY0cJJY. Just down the road from me in Fairview."

(thanks, Derek)

Fine dark Webcomic

False Positive is a Webcomic of horror, not to mention crime, suspense, and dark humor. 

It's not a single series, but a collection of short stories, like "Detained".

(via MetaFilter)

Ed Wood, bad master of horror tv

Finally, someone put Ed Wood's tv horror pilot on YouTube. Raise high that "Final Curtain":

Here's a little context:

Less than a year after filming Plan 9 Wood wrote, produced and directed “Final Curtain”, the pilot for a horror anthology series to be called Portraits of Terror. It’s as absurd, pretentious and just plain bad as anything Wood ever did, but is less than 23 minutes long; the star is Duke Moore and its narrator Dudley Manlove (both from Plan 9), but look for Wood himself (under a pseudonym) as the only other on-screen character.

(Actually, I don't know how long this has been available. I just can't resist sharing the glory of Wood.)

(thanks to Jesse "Snakes and Snails" Walker)

More death by gaming

Another long-playing gamer dies in mid-level.  Once again the setting is east Asia (Taiwan), and the game Diablo III.

The poor fellow

booked a room at a cafe in Tainan on July 13 and spent almost two days playing the game without eating. On July 15 Chuang was found resting on a table; after an attendant woke him up, he took a couple of steps before collapsing. He was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at a hospital.

I've been hearing some of these stories repeated in the US.  Perhaps this will add to the roster.

(thanks to Todd Bryant)

The Alien walks

Here's a nice bit of creepy cinematic lore, footage of the actor testing out his role as the titular Alien (1979). 

(via Xirdalium)

Putting down the zombie economy

CNN argues that the American economy isn't zombified.  The US is actually experiencing growth, just very slowly, or so runs the piece.

For Infocult's purpose this is interesting on two levels.  First, it's another datapoint in the persistence of the zombie politics-recession meme.  Second, it might indicate a way for Americans to think themselves past the bad economy.  We'll need to put down a monster for that to happen.

(thanks to Todd Bryant)

Fearing the MOOC

How will we fear MOOCs, massively open online classes?  Let Alan Levine show us the way.