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Instrumentality Of Mankind
In the science fiction of Cordwainer Smith, the Instrumentality of Mankind refers both to Smith's personal future history and universe and to the central government of humanity within that fictional universe. ''The Instrumentality of Mankind'' is also the title of a paperback collection of short stories by Cordwainer Smith published in 1979 (now superseded by the later ''The Rediscovery of Man'', which collects all of Smith's short stories). Origin and history In the history of Cordwainer Smith's "Instrumentality" universe, the Instrumentality originated as the police force of the Jwindz or "perfect ones" on a post-nuclear holocaust Earth. After attaining power and the expansion of humans in space, they eventually entered a somewhat stagnant phase in which a fixed lifespan of four hundred years was imposed on the human inhabitants of the planets where the Instrumentality directly ruled, all the hard physical labor was done by rightless animal-derived "underpeople", and children w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Science Fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universes, extraterrestrial life, sentient artificial intelligence, cybernetics, certain forms of immortality (like mind uploading), and the singularity. Science fiction predicted several existing inventions, such as the atomic bomb, robots, and borazon, whose names entirely match their fictional predecessors. In addition, science fiction might serve as an outlet to facilitate future scientific and technological innovations. Science fiction can trace its roots to ancient mythology. It is also related to fantasy, horror, and superhero fiction and contains many subgenres. Its exact definition has long been disputed among authors, critics, scholars, and readers. Science fiction, in literature, film, television, and other media, has beco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gainax
Gainax Co., Ltd. (stylized as GAINAX; ja, 株式会社ガイナックス, Hepburn romanization, Hepburn: ) is a Japanese anime studio famous for productions such as ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'', ''Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise, Royal Space Force'', ''Gunbuster'', ''Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water'', ''Kare Kano'', ''FLCL'', ''Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi'', and ''Gurren Lagann'', which have garnered critical acclaim and commercial success. ''Evangelion'' has reportedly grossed over 150 billion yen, or approximately 1.2 billion. In a discussion at the 2006 Tekkoshocon, Matt Greenfield claimed that ''Evangelion'' had grossed over 2 billion; Takeda reiterated in 2002 that "It sold record numbers of laserdiscs in Japan, and the DVD is still selling well today", as well as for their association with award-winning anime director and studio co-founder Hideaki Anno. The company is headquartered in Koganei, Tokyo, Koganei, Tokyo. Until ''Neon Genesis Eva ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Future History
A future history is a postulated history of the future and is used by authors of science fiction and other speculative fiction to construct a common background for fiction. Sometimes the author publishes a timeline of events in the history, while other times the reader can reconstruct the order of the stories from information provided therein. Background The term appears to have been coined by John W. Campbell, Jr., the editor of ''Astounding Science Fiction'', in the February 1941 issue of that magazine, in reference to Robert A. Heinlein's ''Future History''. Neil R. Jones is generally credited as the first author to create a future history.Ashley, M. (April, 1989). The Immortal Professor, Astro Adventures No.7, p.6. A set of stories which share a backdrop but are not really concerned with the sequence of history in their universe are rarely considered future histories. For example, neither Lois McMaster Bujold's ''Vorkosigan Saga'' nor George R. R. Martin's 1970s sho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Science Fiction Book Series
Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for scientific reasoning is tens of thousands of years old. The earliest written records in the history of science come from Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia in around 3000 to 1200 BCE. Their contributions to mathematics, astronomy, and medicine entered and shaped Greek natural philosophy of classical antiquity, whereby formal attempts were made to provide explanations of events in the physical world based on natural causes. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, knowledge of Greek conceptions of the world deteriorated in Western Europe during the early centuries (400 to 1000 CE) of the Middle Ages, but was preserved in the Muslim world during the Islamic Golden Age and later by the efforts of Byzantine Greek scholars who brought Greek man ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fictional Governments
Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a traditional narrow sense, "fiction" refers to written narratives in prose often referring specifically to novels, novellas, and short stories. More broadly, however, fiction encompasses imaginary narratives expressed in any medium, including not just writings but also live theatrical performances, films, television programs, radio dramas, comics, role-playing games, and video games. Definition Typically, the fictionality of a work is publicly marketed and so the audience expects the work to deviate in some ways from the real world rather than presenting, for instance, only factually accurate portrayals or characters who are actual people. Because fiction is generally understood to not fully adhere to the real world, the themes and conte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Short Story Collection
A short story collection is a book of short stories and/or novellas by a single author. A short story collection is distinguished from an anthology of fiction, which would contain work by several authors (e.g., ''Les Soirées de Médan''). The stories in a collection may or may not share a tone, theme, setting, or characters with one another. Composition of a collection Short story collections are made up of smaller texts—the individual short stories—in order to form a superior whole.Santi, Mara (2014). "Performative Perspectives on Short Story Collections". ''Interférences littéraires/Literaire interferenties'' (12): 143–154. ISSN 2031-2970. In spite of this, each short story does not lose any of its meaning or narrative independence by being included in a collection. This does not mean that short stories do not gain any new meaning from being included in a collection, though. Because each story's context has changed, surrounded by other stories with their own me ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Game Of Rat And Dragon
"The Game of Rat and Dragon" is a science fiction short story by American author Cordwainer Smith, written in 1954J.J. Pierce (ed.), ''The Best of Cordwainer Smith'' (1975), p. 67. and published in ''Galaxy Science Fiction'' in 1955. It is set in the far future, though no date is given. It occurs in the same universe as other Cordwainer Smith novels, with a passing reference to the super-powerful regulatory 'Instrumentality'. The "dragons" are mysterious aliens which attack human starships and drive the inhabitants insane. Cats guided by telepaths are used to fight the "dragons", because of their very quick reactions. They see the aliens as giant rats, hence the story title. The human telepaths form very strong bonds with these cats, seeing them as almost human. Non-telepaths sometimes mock them for this. Plot Human travel in outer space is threatened by strange creatures known as the Dragons. Imperceptible to ordinary people, Dragons are experienced as nothing but a sudden deat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fafner In The Azure
is a Japanese Mecha anime and manga, mecha anime franchise created by Xebec (studio), Xebec in collaboration with King Records (Japan), Starchild Records. The story focuses on a group of children who pilot the titular Fafners in an escalating war against giant aliens called Festum. The first series, subtitled ''Dead Aggressor'', is directed by Nobuyoshi Habara and written by Yasuo Yamabe and Tow Ubukata with character designs from Hisashi Hirai and mecha designs by Naohiro Washio. It aired in TV Tokyo from July 4, 2004, to December 26, 2004, for 26 episodes. A television special subtitled ''Right of Left'' aired on December 29, 2005, a feature film subtitled ''Heaven and Earth'' had a theatrical release in Japan on December 25, 2010, and a sequel subtitled ''Exodus'', which aired in Mainichi Broadcasting System, MBS and several stations on January 8, 2015. Another sequel subtitled ''The Beyond'' was released from 2019 to 2021. A special episode subtitled ''Behind the L ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Log Horizon
is a Japanese novel series written by Mamare Touno and illustrated by Kazuhiro Hara. It began serialization online in 2010 on the user-generated novel publishing website Shōsetsuka ni Narō, being later on acquired by Enterbrain and published as a light novel in Japan since 2011. Yen Press began publishing an English translation in 2015. The series follows the strategist, Shiroe, and the other players of the long-lived MMORPG ''Elder Tale'' after they find themselves whisked away into the game world following a game update. The novel has received four manga adaptations, with one based on the main story and the other three revolving around characters in the series. An anime television series adaptation animated by Satelight aired on NHK Educational TV between October 5, 2013 and March 22, 2014. A second season by Studio Deen aired between October 4, 2014 and March 28, 2015. A third season by Studio Deen aired between January 13, 2021 and March 31, 2021. Synopsis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dreadstar
''Dreadstar'' was the first comic-book series published by American publisher Epic Comics, an imprint of Marvel Comics, in 1982. It was centered on Vanth Dreadstar, sole survivor of the entire Milky Way galaxy, and an ensemble cast of crewmates, including cyborg sorcerer Syzygy Darklock, and their struggle to end an ancient war between two powerful, evil empires: The Church of The Instrumentality, run by the Lord Papal; and the Monarchy, administered by a puppet king. The comic book, created by Jim Starlin, was bimonthly during most of its run. Epic published 26 issues, after which it was published by First Comics who carried it for 38 more issues, for a total of 64 issues. The first 41 issues were published bi-monthly, after which the book was published monthly for a time, though it resumed bi-monthly publication with issue 51. In the early 1990s, a six issue limited series was published by Malibu Comics' Bravura line of creator-owned titles. Jim Starlin had stated in interviews a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Serial Experiments Lain
''Serial Experiments Lain'' (stylized as ''serial experiments lain'') is a Japanese anime television series created and co-produced by Yasuyuki Ueda, written by Chiaki J. Konaka and directed by Ryūtarō Nakamura. Animated by Triangle Staff and featuring original character designs by Yoshitoshi ABe, the series was broadcast for 13 episodes on TV Tokyo and TX Network, its affiliates from July to September 1998. The series follows Lain Iwakura, an adolescent girl in suburban Japan, and her relation to the Wired, a global computer network, communications network similar to the internet. ''Lain'' features surreal and avant-garde imagery and explores philosophical topics such as reality, Identity (social science), identity, and communication. The series incorporates creative influences from History of computing hardware, computer history, cyberpunk, and conspiracy theory. Critics and fans have praised ''Lain'' for its originality, visuals, atmosphere, themes, and its dark depicti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neon Genesis Evangelion (TV)
, also known simply as ''Evangelion'' or ''Eva'', is a Japanese Mecha anime and manga, mecha anime television series produced by Gainax and animated by Tatsunoko Production, Tatsunoko, directed by Hideaki Anno and broadcast on TV Tokyo from October 1995 to March 1996. ''Evangelion'' is set fifteen years after a worldwide cataclysm, particularly in the futuristic fortified city of Tokyo-3. The protagonist is Shinji Ikari, a teenage boy who is recruited by his father Gendo Ikari, Gendo to the shadowy organization Nerv to pilot a giant bio-machine mecha named "Evangelion (mecha), Evangelion" into combat against beings known as "Angels in Neon Genesis Evangelion, Angels". The series explores the experiences and emotions of Evangelion pilots and members of Nerv as they try to prevent Angels from causing more cataclysms. In the process, they are called upon to understand the ultimate causes of events and the motives for human action. The series has been described as a deconstruc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
