Latest news with #Alphaville
Time of India
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Ouch…To Be Young
Ouch…To Be Young Renuka Bisht TNN Jul 18, 2025, 20:26 IST IST In a major vibe shift, 50-somethings have begun to look at 20-somethings less with jealousy, more with pity. GenNext is falling behind on not just good jobs, but also marriage, migration and parties Forever young, I want to be forever young. These words of an Alphaville song have felt anthemic far, far beyond their origins in 1984, West Berlin. They capture the vibe of all of modernity everywhere – age envying youth's energy, idealism, rebellion, fearlessness. But with Gen Z, the digital natives , something is shifting profoundly. Now 50-somethings look at 20-somethings less with jealousy, more with pity. Sure, they want the abs and acuity, skin and knees of younger persons. They are cracking the code to enjoy all this well past middle age. But younger persons themselves have never had it bleaker in living memory. Once, the future was something GenNext would shape. When their tomorrows look more endangered than our retirement, something's gone wrong.
RTÉ News
07-07-2025
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
All you need to know about transhumanism - and how it might transform our existence
Analysis: Transhumanism might appear to be the stuff of science fiction but advances in medicine, engineering and bioscience are bringing it closer to reality "Forever young, I want to be forever young": many would agree with those lyrics from Alphaville's 1980s hit song. Indeed, who never wished to retain their youthful traits and vigour through time, defying old age and ultimately death itself? This has been the relentless mission of tech entrepreneur and billionaire Bryan Johnson for the last few years, as portrayed in the Netflix documentary Don't Die: The Man Who Wants To Live Forever. Johnson has been following a strict daily routine and spent millions of dollars in anti-ageing medicine, food supplements and medical procedures over the last few years with the aim of realising that goal. This in turn has sparked the 'Don't Die' movement, promoting Johnson's lifestyle and ideals, who made a business of sharing his protocol and selling his supplements on the Internet. Trailer for Don't Die: The Man Who Wants To Live Forever But Johnson is only one of those who have been continually advocating to push the boundaries of human existence using science and technology. Another one is Elon Musk , whose Neuralink company aims to create a brain-computer interface in order to enhance mental and physical abilities in individuals. There is in fact a name for that kind of endeavour and the ideas underpinning it: Transhumanism. It came into being in the 20th century among engineers, scientists and intellectuals like evolutionary biologist Julian Huxley (who first coined the term) and professor of 'futuristic studies' FM-2030 (whose real name was Fereidoun M. Esfandiary, but who renamed himself to suit his belief that the year 2030 would constitute a pivotal moment in human history). Transhumanism see the human being as an 'unfinished' product of evolution. It presents the overcoming of the traditional boundaries of human life—such as death, diseases, as well as other mental and physical limitations linked to our biological existence—as something not only desirable and achievable, but as an imperative per se. It aims to achieve this goal by relying on the progress of human knowledge and accompanying technological and scientific advancements. From RTÉ 2fm's Dave Fanning Show in 2017, interview with author Mark O'Connell about his book To Be a Machine: Adventures Among Cyborgs, Utopians, Hackers, and the Futurists Solving the Modest Problem of Death These ideas are not just the preserve of a few select eccentrics and idealists and have infused popular culture, as seen by a number of recent fictional productions such as Years and Years, Altered Carbon and Black Mirror, or the creation of a Transhumanist political party in the United States. At first glance, Transhumanism's aims might appear to be mostly the stuff of science fiction, such as the integration of technology within human biology or the alteration of the human genome using sophisticated scientific methods. However, advances in the fields of medicine, engineering and bioscience like CRISPR (for which two researchers have recently won a Nobel Prize in chemistry) or nanotechnology have in reality made Transhumanist aspirations closer to reality than ever. Such advances are currently seen as having mainly medical applications. Neuralink's devices are primarily destined for quadriplegics to help them recover a sense of autonomy and CRISPR has been developed as a 'gene therapy' to treat specific diseases. However, there is absolutely no doubt that possible applications go far beyond that, effectively challenging human physical and mental limits in a way never seen before. Google's director of engineering Ray Kurzweil has predicted that humans and machines will eventually merge to create a 'superintelligence' that will bring humanity to the next phase of its evolution, leaving behind its outdated, 'carbon-based' biological existence, what is commonly referred to as the ' technological singularity '. It appears that some people are not been waiting for this event to take place in order to start transforming their own selves. An important part of the Transhumanist movement today consists of so-called ' biohackers ' and ' body hackers ' who are closely monitoring their health and bodily functions (following the example set by Johnson, the ' most measured man in human history '). These people are even implanting technological apparatuses directly into their bodies in an attempt order to extend their lifespan and increase their cognitive and physical abilities. The ethical implications of the technological and scientific transformations advanced by partisans of Transhumanism are also concerning This should come as no surprise therefore that the concept of the cyborg, until now limited to the domain of science-fiction, has come to be widely used by partisans of Transhumanism to promote their mode of life and conception of the human. As one of them, Stefan Lorenz Sorgner tells us 'we have always been cyborgs'. You may think that what Sorgner says is quite outlandish, but remember this the next time you are going on a run using your 'smart watch' to keep track of your progress, or using the AI assistant on your connected device for everyday tasks. Aren't these technologies already an integral part of ourselves, to the point that we cannot conceive our existence without them? At the same time, the increasing pervasiveness of those technologies in our everyday life as it is being promoted by Transhumanists is not without its issues. Serious concerns been raised—and rightly so—around the questions of privacy and the impact of screens and other connected interfaces on our mental health and well-being. The ethical implications of the technological and scientific transformations advanced by partisans of Transhumanism are also an issue, given that those advances could reinforce already existing social inequalities between those who can actually afford them, and those who cannot. Once those issues are taken into consideration, the question becomes not so much 'do you want to live forever?', but rather 'who can actually do so, and at what price exactly?'
Yahoo
22-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Here's why a classic Radiohead song is back in the charts again – and our pick of their best test tracks
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. If you're the sort of backwards cap-wearing whippersnapper who spends more time than they'd like to admit trawling the endless swathes of short-form content on popular social media platform TikTok, you may have already run into Radiohead's Let Down without even realising it. The jury's still out on TikTok and its impact on the still-forming brains of our society's youth, but for exposing audiences to new (and old) music that's often outside of the mainstream, it's performing a surprisingly valuable service. Let Down is just one of the many tracks enjoying a major resurgence thanks to its popularity on short-form social media. According to Forbes, the fifth track from Radiohead's seminal 1997 behemoth OK Computer has enjoyed such a revival that it's in danger of troubling the official US Hot 100 chart ranking, and it's not the only tune to have enjoyed such a retroactive bump. The likes of Alphaville's Forever Young, Coldplay's Everything's Not Lost and Modern Talking's Cheri Cheri Lady have become reborn colossi across the likes of YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, accompanying everything from Premier League goals compilations to in-depth makeup tutorials. I'll let you decide which of those I watch more often. Long may this continue. If TikTok gets more people listening to Radiohead and OK Computer, so much the better. That said, much as I appreciate the love for Let Down, it wouldn't be my go-to for testing anything from headphones to hi-fi. Instead, I'd direct audiences, be they teen TikTok trawlers or grizzled fellow Millennials, to the delights of another masterwork, this time taken from 2000's equally acclaimed masterwork Kid A. Let Down is great, but Everything In Its Right Place is the one to go for if you're serious about giving a product a chance to flex its muscles. We, as a What Hi-Fi? collective, have been using it since before TikTok was even a thing, and while it's another track enjoying something of a renaissance thanks to social media, we can't take much of the credit for the revival. Everything In Its Right Place represents, if such a thing exists, the definitive essence of Radiohead. It's an ethereal concoction, blending woozy, otherworldly synth sounds and warm, fuzzy keyboards with the unsettling glitches and twitches of a malfunctioning motherboard, pulling together seemingly contrary elements into a composition that feels both reassuringly warm and enveloping yet disturbingly fractured and bizarre. Perhaps the track's title would be best served by the inclusion of a question mark at its tail: Everything In Its Right Place? It's a sublime tester for anything you feel needs a test room challenge, but we particularly like the track for testing a pair of speakers. Those glitchy effects flit from one speaker to the other, elucidating how well a pair can handle organisation and separation, while Thom Yorke's arcing vocals should have both solidity and depth between your chosen pair of contenders. A great test of stereo imaging, then. We listen to a good deal of dear old Thom and his Oxford-born buddies, so we know which idiosyncrasies and vocal textures to seek out from that instantly recognisable falsetto. Yorke's voice should soar to appropriate heights, of course, but it's those oft-hidden elements, be they a slight hesitancy at the beginning of a line or the peaks and swells when singing words such as "everything" or "place" that should be tracked with absolute precision. We always come back to the same question: does he sound like he's singing at a pre-show rehearsal, or is this a man trying to communicate something with real emotional power? The longer it goes on, the more the intensity rises. Everything In Its Right Place might start off at a creeping pace, but it's the increasing sense of urgency as both tempo and volume build which creates, if you have the equipment, that paralysing sense of drama and heft. Once you're past the 1:30 mark, you should sense an active shift as the track changes gears from languid scene-setting to a clamorous and incessant climax in which layers upon layers pile upon one another, creating a dramatic denouement which should instil both panic and awe in equal measure. If you don't feel that change in tone, however, you may be dealing with hi-fi that doesn't have enough flexibility or sense of drama to take things to the next level. This being Radiohead, it's all about playing with your emotions. Do you feel unsettled yet intrigued by the track's moody, ambient opening, or just bored and uninvolved? Do you feel adrenalised yet slightly overwhelmed as it builds to its climax, or do you sense that the track, or the gear you're using to play it, is holding back? It's been something of a thrill to see social media reinvigorate the fortunes of various unexpected tunes, or else introduce a new generation of fans to music that isn't throwaway pop or a YouTube star's latest generic cash-in. If you're new to the world of Radiohead and want a truly mind-altering experience, I'd urge you to seek out Everything In Its Right Place. And if you want that experience to be genuinely life-altering, I'd urge you even more strongly to find headphones or hi-fi that can do it proper justice. MORE: JBL, Bose and Cambridge Audio: these are the 5 freshly announced products that are on our radar These are the best Radiohead tracks for testing your hi-fi 7 tracks we've been enjoying in our test rooms over the past month
Time of India
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
When Rekha SLAPPED Hrithik Roshan for real in 'Koi… Mil Gaya': ‘Immediately all my emotions came out'
Rakesh Roshan 's film ' Koi… Mil Gaya ' (2003) is a special movie in Bollywood history. Starring Hrithik Roshan , Preity Zinta , and Rekha , it became a huge hit and an important moment in Hrithik's acting career. Talking about the film, Hrithik once shared a fascinating story about a tough day on set. The big goof-up on set: Prepared for the wrong scene For Hrithik, playing Rohit , a specially-abled young man, was a deeply emotional experience. But even the most dedicated actors can have off days. He shared with Pinkvilla, 'I had landed up on set and I realised that I had come prepared for the wrong scene and we had to do the scene in which Rekha slaps me when I cry and ask why am I not normal, why did God do this to me. That's when she narrates the flashback. It was the deepest and most difficult scene in the whole film and I had not prepared, some miscommunication happened.' It wasn't a small scene either—it was one of the film's most emotional moments, where Rohit breaks down and questions his fate. The gravity of the mistake hit Hrithik hard. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Giao dịch vàng với sàn môi giới tin cậy IC Markets Đăng ký Undo Frozen with fear: 45 minutes of numbness The moment Hrithik realised the mistake, panic set in. He recalled, 'I remember I came in my car and just as I arrived, I rolled the window down and the assistant handed over the scene to me. I took a look at it and told him it was the wrong scene and he said 'nahi sir yehi scene hain aaj ka' (no sir, this is the scene today). I had realised that I had made a mistake when I checked… I went numb. I sat in that car in that position for 45 minutes, I could not even move my fingers. Something just scared the hell out of me and I don't know what that feeling was but I just stayed there for 45 minutes, trying to figure a way to be able to move on and do that scene.' Frozen in his car, unable to move, Hrithik felt the weight of the scene and the pressure of living up to expectations, especially with his father Rakesh Roshan directing. No sympathy from Dad There was no chance the shoot would be cancelled just because Hrithik wasn't ready. He knew his father, a strict and practical filmmaker, wouldn't budge. 'I knew Papa is not going to cancel the scene. I knew I have to bring myself to the point where I can start doing the scene,' he said. So, how did he manage to pull himself together? Music played a big part. Hrithik explained, 'Then slowly I got off and that decision was a huge one. I had a song called Forever Young by Alphaville which I used to play. I played this song three-four times and found the posture of Rohit again,' and then, he went ahead with the scene. Rekha's slap that saved the scene Now came the actual shoot. Hrithik still had the pressure of delivering a powerful performance, but what happened next became one of the most unforgettable moments of his career. Talking about it, Hrithik said, 'I am so glad that Rekha slapped me for real in that scene. Thapp karke saare emotions aa gaye (all the emotions came at once). She really slapped me, she really went for it.' That single slap, jolted Hrithik straight into character. It wasn't planned to be that intense, but it worked, and Hrithik was grateful. The scene turned out exactly how it needed to be: raw, painful, and powerful. Aishwarya Rai Calls Rekha 'Maa' Check out our list of the latest Hindi , English , Tamil , Telugu , Malayalam , and Kannada movies . Don't miss our picks for the best Hindi movies , best Tamil movies, and best Telugu films .
The Age
06-05-2025
- Politics
- The Age
Quiet diplomacy? Albanese's post-victory call caught on camera
Anthony Albanese is a fan of quiet diplomacy, regularly reminding reporters that he does not believe foreign relations should be conducted with a megaphone. Indonesia's President Prabowo Subianto is not so discreet. When Albanese spoke to Prabowo following his election victory, Albanese informed the media that they had enjoyed a friendly conversation and that he would make Jakarta his first overseas destination for his second term. Prabowo's team, meanwhile, released a minute-long video of their conversation, accompanied by the dreamy Alphaville song Forever Young. This follows a similar move in November when Prabowo released a video of his congratulatory phone call with Donald Trump in which he lavished praise on the president-elect and expressed his desire to travel to Washington as soon as possible. It's a departure from the convention followed by most world leaders, who prefer to keep their conversations private. A sanitised summary (also known as a 'read out') of the conversation will sometimes later be released, but that's usually as far as it goes. In the video, Prabowo applauds Albanese for his 'great victory', saying he was 'so happy' to see him re-elected. 'I have a request for you, and I want you to say yes,' Albanese replies with a laugh. 'Which is: I want Indonesia to be my first visit. Not Washington, not Beijing, not anywhere else.' The video then shows the leaders getting into the details, with Albanese proposing 'Monday week' as a good date if that suits Prabowo's schedule. 'I want to send a message to the world my friend: Australia and Indonesia is an unbreakable bond.'
