9

It's with some sadness that I announce the last day of prize-winning here at SciencePunk. As well as the final in this series of reward-based thought experiments, it's also the day in which I will decide the five winners of loot bags, so if you haven't added your two cents yet, now would be a good time. Thank you also for all your fantastic input over the last week or so, it's been a real treat. I had fun. Did you have fun? I hope so. With theatres rolling out the red carpet for celebrities at the 9 première tonight, I got to thinking about the cast behind the voices of the stitchpunks.…

Welcome to the penultimate chance to win an exclusive coffee table book filled with high-quality prints from the Tim Burton-produced Shane-Acker created animation 9. As far as I know, it can't be bought in shops, and your best chance to win one of the highly limited (999) copies is here at SciencePunk. We've already had plenty of winners, maybe the next one will be you? After discussing the morality of the mechanical monsters that pursue the stitchpunks throughout the film, I thought that maybe some of you didn't want to be a stitchpunk at all. Perhaps you are a fierce and forceful soul,…

Monday is another chance for all of you to win a prize! There are two books remaining, and two more chances to win. So without further ado, read on to find out how... One of the first exclusives shared with SciencePunk were original design sketches for the Fabrication Machine, the monster at the heart of Shane Acker's tale. A machine with intellect but no soul, it is responsible for building the Chancellor's war machines before it turns against its masters. But what makes the Fabrication Machine evil per se? Sure, it wiped out the entire human race, but in effect it was simply…

Thanks to everyone who has taken part in the competition so far. We already have five lucky winners, we need four more! Don't forget there's also a separate contest going on at this entry, with five more prize packs to win. Wow, blog whoring is fun! The input so far has been top quality, and I hope you'll keep it up. So, onto the next question. Read on to find out how you can get your hands on a limited edition 9 book. During my interview with Shane Acker, he outlined the different stichpunks, describing how the characters were based on different aspects of the Scientist's psyche (from…

Many thanks to everyone for their wonderful, thoughtful and altogether delightful ideas on what memories we should store for a post-apocalyptic world. Now, in case you're some knuckle-dragging moron who can't follow links or scroll down the page, or worse, a freakin' newbie, let me explain: I got a whole load of these books. They ain't your regular yawn splash science textbooks! These are some fine glossy coffee table books, containing stills and things from the Tim-Burton-produced Shane-Acker-created animated feature 9 starring Jennifer Connelly and also a bunch of other people I don't have…

It's time to win another prize! You know the score - I give you a starter topic, you wax lyrical, someone wins a prize! It's like Who Wants to Be A Millionaire, but with less questions and a smaller budget. You might call it Who Wants to Win a Sweet-Ass Coffee Table Book?. Yesterday's winner, as chosen by the random echoes of the Big Bang, was Mike. Congratulations, Mike! Now that I've got you all thinking about post-human intelligence, it's time to find out how you can win a prize! For those of you who haven't been following the Scientist's fin-de-monde postings from Facebook, here's a…

Another day means another prize to win! In my continuing efforts to bring you, dear readers, the finest in merchandising loot there is to offer, I have given you the chance to win shoes, bags of goodies, and high-quality coffee table books. How do you get your hands on this lucre? Read on... Look, look, this is what you could win today: A special book filled with glossy images and crew quotes! Readers Simon and Juuro have already won their copies! Seven more to go! In all, SciencePunk controls 1% of the entire stock of these books, as they're limited to just 999 copies. Take that, De…

It's time to win another prize! Every day from now until the 9th, someone will win a fabulous limited edition companion book to the upcoming animated feature 9! It's a fabulous addition to your coffee table. Only 999 copies made! Marvel at glorious stills from the film and read comments from the film crew. Be the envy of your friends, etc etc. Yesterday's winner, selected by the cool capriciousness of random.org, was Simon. Simon wins the prize! If you want to win today's prize, read on... If you're a winner, this is what the delivery will look like: It's bigger than it looks. That's a…

Is 9, the new Tim Burton produced animated feature, anti science? This the question that has been troubling me since before I was approached by the film makers to feature content on SciencePunk. And it's also the reason I accepted - hoping that in payment I could pose that question to the man behind it all, director and creator of the 9 world, Shane Acker. Why would I think such a thing? Watch the trailer below carefully (just tune out the annoying VJ at the start). Did you catch that, chums? "Science has turned against us" Whatever does that mean? It's nice to see that for once, a…

Following on from the splendid essay by Ray Kurzweil on the nature of artificial intelligence and humanity, I have five - count them: five - bags of precious stitch punk loot to give away. Seriously, I'll tell you now: being in the pocket of Big Cinema is so much better than being a stooge for Big Pharma. Who wants free pens and anti-retrovirals when you can get movie loot? Details on what you can win, and how, below the fold. As you probably know by now, 9 is the Shane Acker-directed, Tim Burton-produced animation that hits theatres on 9/9/9. Judging from the trailer, it'll be visually…

"Our emotional intelligence is not just a sideshow to human intelligence, it's the cutting edge" Inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil has been described as "the restless genius" by the Wall Street Journal, and "the ultimate thinking machine" by Forbes. And for good reason: Kurzweil was the principal developer of the first CCD flat-bed scanner, the first omni-font optical character recognition, the first print-to-speech reading machine for the blind, the first text-to-speech synthesizer, the first music synthesizer capable of recreating the grand piano and other orchestral instruments, and the…

Focus Features have a little contest going on for the chance to win a pair of rather tasty limited edition Pony shoes created specially for 9, the upcoming science fiction feature from director Shane Acker, produced by Tim Burton. I'm interested in the role of science in the film - the central figure is The Scientist, whose creations bring about the end of mankind, but are also responsible for the continuation of humanity. So is science the hero or villain in this film? I'm trying to nab an interview with either Shane Acker or writer Pamela Pettler to explore these issues further. In the…

I'm currently working out the last few tangles on a big project which I'll announce here, in the meantime why don't you enjoy some more exclusive images from 9? I've got something more substantial and more critical on the film coming soon - stay tuned!

9, a new animated feature produced by Tim Burton and directed by Shane Acker, comes out in September (09/09/09, naturally). Details are sketchy, but it's safe to say in the world of 9, something has gone horribly wrong, the world has been destroyed, and the only survivors are some cute little sack people and an army of murderous machines. One can't help but think that a few squiddies from the Matrix somehow tunnelled into Little Big Planet. Anyway, it tickles my fancy, if only because it checks the requisite boxes of "post apocalyptic dystopia" and "technopunk machinery". Which is good,…