First posted to X.

I’m discontinuing this blog, and I’ll use X instead. I’ll use the Highlights tab to list long blog-like posts.

• Follow me on X.
• My blog-like posts on X.

Once the X website is fully moved to the domain x dot com I’ll also redirect the domain giulioprisco dot com to my X profile. I’ll also start experimenting with X Spaces, podcasts and videos. Why? Because I want to do what I can to support X and Elon Musk’s quest to make humanity multi-planetary. Moon & Mars & more, here we come!

My current X profile: Writer, futurist, cosmist, extropian, e/acc. Subscribe to http://turingchurch.com (Substack) and read my books. I support Elon Musk.

I’m discontinuing this blog, and I’ll use X instead was originally published in Giulio Prisco on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

This was first posted to Twitter:

Giulio Prisco on Twitter: "I think @SpaceX should study all options to make humanity multi-planetary in the face of over-regulation.This Reuters article says that @SpaceX's Starship testing (and therefore development) could be delayed by "anywhere from two to five years" in case the FAA conducts a full... pic.twitter.com/Y6t5HTuoAY / Twitter"

I think @SpaceX should study all options to make humanity multi-planetary in the face of over-regulation.This Reuters article says that @SpaceX's Starship testing (and therefore development) could be delayed by "anywhere from two to five years" in case the FAA conducts a full... pic.twitter.com/Y6t5HTuoAY

I think SpaceX should study all options to make humanity multi-planetary in the face of over-regulation.

This Reuters article says that SpaceX’s Starship testing (and therefore development) could be delayed by “anywhere from two to five years” in case the FAA conducts a full environmental impact review.

This would be a catastrophic outcome and result in China winning the race to space expansion and owning the solar system for the rest of this century.

It is possible, however, that “Congress could throw out the need for the environmental review if the project delays were deemed a national concern, given NASA’s plans for a moon landing by 2026 — a deadline the agency’s chief Bill Nelson has cast to lawmakers as an urgent race with China.”

I hope this will be the case. The article also says that “export controls would make building a foreign launch site difficult.” But I believe that Elon Musk should explore this option as well. Difficult doesn’t mean impossible, and I’m sure many nations would want SpaceX in their territory.

In some mailing lists that I receive this has been linked to U.S. politics and the usual partisan talking points.

Not being a U.S. citizen or resident, I feel it’s not my place to comment on U.S. politics. But allow me to say that, from my perspective, both main parties seem only interested in protecting their dogmatic ideologies.

Picture from SpaceX / Flickr

Let’s make humanity multi-planetary in the face of over-regulation was originally published in Giulio Prisco on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Some time ago (second half of the 2000s and first half of the 2010s) I was quite active in the Virtual Reality (VR) metaverse. Now I’m experimenting with VR worlds again.

I’m experimenting with Croquet, which I think is the most promising Virtual Reality (VR) metaverse platform around. Croquet is a successor to the Croquet project developed by the legendary Alan Kay with other computer scientists including David Smith. The project was stacked upon the Squeak open source implementation of Smalltalk.

Smith is the Founder and CTO of Croquet. In 2018, other computer scientists and members of Kay’s team joined Smith as Co-Founders.

Years ago I used to run an online talk program called teleXLR8 using a VR technology platform for real-time collaboration and conferencing activities called Qwaq. Qwaq, a technology based on Kay’s Croquet project, was much ahead of its time. Successive iterations of Qwaq that I have used are, in the order, Qwaq Forums, Teleplace, Open Qwaq, and Virtend.

All teleXLR8 videos are on Youtube and Vimeo. The program produced many talks by technologies experts and futurists, and online extensions to conferences such as the ASIM 2010 Conference, satellite to the Singularity Summit 2010, and the TransVision 2010 Conference. In the latter, streamed interactively as a full 2-way “mixed-reality” event with both local and remote speakers, the participants in Milan were joined by remote participants from all over the world.

The ASIM 2010 Conference and other teleXLR8 highlight are covered in the interview MIND and MAN: Getting Mental with Giulio Prisco, by Natasha Vita More.

Now I do these things using Zoom like everyone else, but believe me, in a VR world you get a much more powerful experience of “being there” with others, and this makes an important difference. So I would like to go back to a metaverse one day.

Today’s Croquet can be seen as a new implementation of Kay’s Croquet project with JavaScript playing a prominent role. The current Croquet “is a complete reimplementation, there is no code shared with the original Smalltalk version from 20 years ago,” says Co-founder & Chief Architect Vanessa Freudenberg on the Croquet Discord server. “The basic idea of using synchronized client-side computing is the same, but pretty much every detail changed.”

The Croquet Discord server (follow the link in this page if you want to join) is active and very useful. Co-founder & Chief Scientist Yoshiki Ohshima gave me very helpful advice.

Parts of Croquet are still in beta but the project is developing fast, and I have no doubt that it will be fully operational soon and do all that Qwaq does, and then much more.

My very first experiment with Croquet has been to create a very simple multiuser VR room that you can visit online (picture below). This room is built with Croquet Metaverse Web Showcase. In this room visitors can voice chat.

My second experiment with Croquet has been to create a very simple VR microworld that you can visit online (picture below). This microworld is built with Croquet Microverse World Builder. This microworld has two (very) minimalist scenes interlinked by portals that allow visitors to teleport from one scene to the other and back. In this example the portals simulate an actual door (the two scenes are the outside and the inside of a building). If a portal is open you see what is on the other side. If you don’t see what is on the other side, click the portal to open it.

Note that if you enter this microworld from the url given above you’ll join a private session without voice chat. To enable voice chat, add “?voiceChat=true” to the url. Then you can invite others to join you by giving them the full url (example).

Almost everything happens client side in Croquet, and therefore the server can be very simple. In fact, all my experiments run in Github Pages. Regarding the client, one doesn’t even need special client software to enter Croquet worlds. A browser is all one needs, so you can enter a Croquet world using your computer, tablet, or smartphone. Or you can use a VR headset.

The cover picture shows three visitors, one using an iPhone, in my second experiment.

What next? Croquet still needs development to achieve usability and appeal. For example, the current avatars are very basic, and I think an important lesson from the good old Second Life (still the only social VR world that has achieved mass appeal, back in the 2000) is that avatars are important.

However, my experiments have persuaded me that Croquet is built on rock solid foundations. Very soon, I think, Croquet will be used to produce stunning VR worlds and avatars. The upcoming Croquet for Unity (see this recent interview with David Smith) could be a game changer.

I’m pausing this project for a little while, but I’ll restart experimenting with Croquet in two or three months. Perhaps I’ll reawaken my dormant 3D design skills and create a nice VR world.

UPDATE: Things are moving fast in the Croquet metaverse, and I’ll have a lot of fun when I restart this project. For example, the last Croquet update has introduced realistic avatars in Croquet worlds like this one. In the picture below I’m using a custom remote avatar that I just made with Ready Player Me.

Pictures from Giulio Prisco.

VR experiments in the Croquet metaverse was originally published in Giulio Prisco on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

First posted to Twitter:

Giulio Prisco on Twitter: "Last week @Twitter blocked links to @SubstackInc and for a few days we couldn't post, like, or even view Substack content.Things seem on their way back to normal now.The ban was probably related to Notes, the new Twitter-like feature of Substack.Notes was launched yesterday... pic.twitter.com/qxjTTh0Wyl / Twitter"

Last week @Twitter blocked links to @SubstackInc and for a few days we couldn't post, like, or even view Substack content.Things seem on their way back to normal now.The ban was probably related to Notes, the new Twitter-like feature of Substack.Notes was launched yesterday... pic.twitter.com/qxjTTh0Wyl

Last week Twitter blocked links to SubstackInc and for a few days we couldn’t post, like, or even view Substack content.

Things seem on their way back to normal now.

The ban was probably related to Notes, the new Twitter-like feature of Substack.

Notes was launched yesterday and is now available to all Substack users.

I’ve been testing Notes and I’m pleased with the result so far. I can post long notes and replies with images and links, and I can edit notes and replies via the web interface (not yet via the Substack app, which would be a nice feature to add). Notes has the essential features, and I’m sure new features will be added as time goes by.

My first Substack note: “I’ll start using Notes to see how it works and how I can best use it. Initially my Notes feed will overlap with my Twitter feed, but I guess a way to differentiate them will emerge. As Rumi said, as soon as you start walking, the Way appears.”

I was saddened by the war between Twitter and Substack, because Twitter and Substack are my favorite networks. I’m also on Facebook, Instagram and Linkedin, but I don’t use those much. I don’t plan to start using other conventional social networks, but I want to experiment with decentralized social networks, and I can’t wait to try bluesky.

My website turingchurch dot com runs on Substack. There I post writings, podcasts and videos related to my main interests, which are: highly imaginative metafysikal ideas that are compatible with science on the one hand, and with religion on the other hand, including theories of afterlife; and space philosophy, advocacy of spaceflight and human space expansion. The two are linked: when we are farther ahead on the sacred road to the stars, we’ll make all the promises of religion come true. But there’s a finite window of opportunity to become a multi-planetary humanity, so we’d better hurry the f# up.

I love Substack! I used to run turingchurch dot com on Medium, but I switched to Substack because I like it more. For example I love Substack’s minimalist design and business model.

I’m using Twitter a lot and I subscribed to Twitter Blue. Why? Because I want to be part of Elon Musk’s quest to make humanity multi-planetary. Elon is my Capt’n of Spaceship Earth, and I’ll follow him to hell, or at least to Mars.

But this doesn’t mean that I don’t call BS when Elon does BS. On the contrary, I think this is my duty as a loyal crew member of Spaceship Earth en route to Mars and to the stars. So I’m calling BS on the Substack ban, and I’m happy that it seems on its way to be over.

Picture from Substack.

I love both Twitter and Substack was originally published in Giulio Prisco on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I subscribed to Twitter Blue and now I can post long tweets (long enough for a quick blog post). So I’ll use Twitter for blogging. Please follow me!

This is my first long tweet:

Giulio Prisco on Twitter: "I subscribed to @TwitterBlue. Now I'm the proud owner of a blue verified badge, and I can edit my tweets for half an hour after posting. I can also post long tweets (this post is a test).Why have I subscribed to @TwitterBlue? Of course it is nice to be able to edit tweets and... https://t.co/RPMkFRcRoL pic.twitter.com/W8X2Tqxvi6 / Twitter"

I subscribed to @TwitterBlue. Now I'm the proud owner of a blue verified badge, and I can edit my tweets for half an hour after posting. I can also post long tweets (this post is a test).Why have I subscribed to @TwitterBlue? Of course it is nice to be able to edit tweets and...

I subscribed to @TwitterBlue. Now I’m the proud owner of a blue verified badge, and I can edit my tweets for half an hour after posting. I can also post long tweets (this post is a test).

Why have I subscribed to @TwitterBlue? Of course it is nice to be able to edit tweets and post long tweets, and the other perks are also nice. But I could have continued to do without these things. And I’m not exactly swimming in money: $84 is 84 bucks that I could have used for other things.

The real reason I subscribed is that I want to support @elonmusk ‘s vision for @Twitter and for the world.

Some people think that @elonmusk is a bad person. I’m sure he has his flaws and shortcomings (like all of us).

But Elon strives toward a multi-planetary humanity, and to me this is much more important than whatever they say against him. To me, Elon is The Capt’n of Spaceship Earth, and I’ll follow him to hell, or at least to Mars.

In his science fiction novel “Project Mars: A Technical Tale,” Wernher von Braun imagined that: “The Martian government was directed by ten men, the leader of whom was elected by universal suffrage for five years and entitled ‘Elon.’” Perhaps von Braun was inspired by echoes from the future?

I’m a committed space expansionist. I think going back to the Moon, this time to stay and thrive, then building cities on Mars like The Elon wants to do, then moving on to live on others planets and moons of our solar system, and then launching an interstellar humanity to the stars, is THE most important thing that we must do.

Twitter is not @SpaceX, but it is part of Elon’s ecosystem. I think if the new Twitter — or Twitter 2.0, or X, or whatever Elon wants to call it — is successful, its popularity will reflect back on SpaceX and space expansion.

I’m not 100 percent sure that the new Twitter will be successful. Elon’s haters are doing and will continue to do their best to destroy Twitter, and they have more money than Elon and all the guns. Or Elon could find out that he has bitten more than he could chew and let Twitter go out of business.

But I want to support Twitter. I’ll strive to contribute to calm, thoughtful, reasonable, healthy Twitter discourse to counterbalance all the spam and all the hate and all the petty partisan politics.

I’ll consider every tweet I post as a little tiny contribution to a better society and a multi-planetary humanity.

This post is also a test of how long a long tweet can be and the indicator says that what I have typed so far is about half of what I could type in one long tweet.

So I think a long tweet is long enough to say all I want to say about something most of the times. I’ll start using Twitter instead of my personal blog (giulioprisco dot com).

Picture from Wikimedia Commons.

I subscribed to Twitter Blue and I’ll blog via Twitter was originally published in Giulio Prisco on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I find Jaron Lanier’s “Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now” very sensible and persuasive.

I want to “remain autonomous in a world where you are under constant surveillance and are constantly prodded by algorithms,” or in Lanier’s words, I want to be “a cat.”

Yet I find social media useful. Lanier gives me permission to keep some social media accounts. Even “if you agree with all ten of my arguments, you might still decide to keep some of your accounts,” he says. “That’s part of your prerogative, being a cat.”

But I USE social media — I don’t let social media and their owners use me. Sorry, I’ll not think what they say I must think, I’ll not do what they say I must do, and be totally sure that I’ll not buy the useless crap they say I must buy. Note to self: I must write an expanded and updated version of “Can it be that simple?”

Also, today’s social media is a wasteland where toxic extremist voices and fake news are amplified. Social media, at least the popular ones, are antisocial media.

So here’s how I use social media at this moment (I’ll edit this post if something changes):

Instagram: strictly nice pictures of family, pets, food, nature… This is how God intended Instagram to be used.

Facebook: same. In fact, most of my posts to my Facebook timeline are pictures cross-posted from Instagram. I mainly use Facebook to keep in touch with old friends. This is how God intended Facebook to be used. I do participate in Facebook discussions now and then (there are good discussion spaces if you know where to find them), but I don’t spend much time on Facebook.

Linkedin: I stopped using Linkedin years ago because I find it kind of boring. And since I’m not looking for a job or hiring others, I don’t find it useful. However, I restarted using Linkedin recently because it’s a good way to keep in touch with old friends. But again, I don’t spend much time on Linkedin.

Twitter: I’m making an exception for Twitter. Since Elon Musk took over, I’m using Twitter avidly because I want to be parts of Elon’s worlds. Worlds, because Elon wants to make humanity multi-planetary, starting with Mars. To me, this is much more important than whatever else they say about him. To me, Elon is the Capt’n of Spaceship Earth. Please follow me on Twitter!

I’ll even become a paying user of Twitter as soon as the option is open where I live. I fondly remember the good days of the old internet where we actually paid for useful products and services. I think we should go back to those good old days. Remember that if you don’t pay for the product, then you are “the product, not the customer” (Lanier again).

See my 3-parts love letter to Elon Musk ((1, 2, 3). Occupy Mars! This is my current Twitter profile picture:

I know that without heat there’s no light, and that noise is the price one must pay for the signal. But on Twitter, I try to contribute to the light and the signal instead of contributing to the noise and the heat.

Other social networks: I don’t use any. I do follow some interesting decentralized prototypes like Scuttlebutt and Manyverse, and I’m firmly persuaded that decentralization is the way to go, but the existing prototypes are not ready for mass use yet.

But the best way to follow me is to subscribe to my Substack newsletter / podcast at turingchurch.com. I’m there every day and I answer all comments and chats.

Cover image from Matt Niemi / Flickr.

How I use social (or antisocial?) media was originally published in Giulio Prisco on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

When I want to say something that doesn’t fit in Turing Church, I say it here.

So here we go:

After a long saga, Elon Musk has acquired Twitter.

I’m an Elon fan. See my 3-parts love letter to Elon (1, 2, 3). TLDR: Elon wants to make humanity multi-planetary, and this is what is really important. See also this post. We are tweeting birds waiting to fly to the stars.

So I’m happy to see that Twitter now belongs to Elon. I’ll be tweeting much more to show my support for Elon, Capt’n of Twitter and Spaceship Earth. I’ll think of every tweet as a tiny contribution to our multi-planetary future.

What does the future hold for my new favorite social network?

Content moderation is the hot issue. Elon calls himself a free speech absolutist (I just love this guy), but he realizes that, without some form of content moderation, Twitter would become a hellscape.

In the future imagined by Neal Stephenson in “Fall; or, Dodge in Hell” (2019), the raw internet is so full of spam and fake news that everyone is forced to hire “editors” to filter the crap out. If this is the future of Twitter, users and advertisers will go. Elon knows that.

Of course spam must be removed as fast and efficiently as possible. Same for *really fake* news.

But Twitter is known to have removed or hidden real news that the moderators found politically inconvenient (that is, likely to damage their own political camp). This is not acceptable. Removing or hiding real news is equivalent to promoting fake news.

Similarly, removing or hiding information is equivalent to promoting misinformation.

Then there is the issue of hate speech. I’m not against reasonable moderation of hate speech, but I insist that all hate tweets must be treated exactly the same without political bias. This hasn’t been the case at Twitter so far.

In Twitter’s past, content moderation targeted only one side of the political divide. From one side, even calm and reasonable posters who dared questioning some fashionable cultural dogmas were punished (suspended or banned). But I have seen Twitter tolerating real hate speech including death threats and exhortations to violence when it came from the other side. This must end.

Content moderation must use transparent, crystal clear criteria, and exactly the same criteria for all political camps. We can’t have some users punished for opinionated posts that the moderators dislike, and other users tolerated even when they post death threats and calls for assassination (yes, I’ve seen that on Twitter). This must end.

Of course, a private company must be free to do whatever they like, within the limits of the law, and that includes being politically biased. But as a user, I don’t want a tech company to tell me how I must vote and what I must think. I’ll choose how to vote and what to think, thank you very much. I was prepared to leave Twitter if Elon didn’t take over.

As a libertarian at heart, I don’t like content moderation and I would like to see much less of it. But my pragmatic mind understands that this might not be a viable option. So if less content moderation is not a viable option, I’m willing to accept (as a necessary evil) even MORE content moderation: I welcome Twitter to continue moderating tweets from one political side, provided exactly the same moderation criteria are used for the other side as well.

Like Elon, I’m against moderation that goes far beyond the law. Borderline cases in the fractal boundary between allowed speech and hate speech, information and misinformation, should not be moderated.

In summary, I want a Twitter where all users can speak almost freely and the inevitable restrictions are enforced without partisan discrimination.

This is my Twitter moderation proposal:

1. The moderation rules must be transparent and crystal clear;
2. The moderation rules must be applied uniformly without political bias;
3. Borderline cases must not be moderated;
4. Zero tolerance for exhortations to violence and personal attacks;
5. Zero intolerance for opinions expressed without falling into 4.

Cover picture from Stefan Becker, picture from pxhere.com.

Twitter needs politically neutral content moderation, minimalist but strict was originally published in Giulio Prisco on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I have resigned from the Board of Directors of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (IEET).

I have resigned in protest against a recent decision, which hasn’t been publicly announced yet.

Like much of today’s liberal left, the IEET has embraced certain currently fashionable but dangerously toxic trends.

Identity politics, #MeToo, cancel culture… These trends start with good sentiments, but become toxic and dangerous when pushed to unreasonable and often ridiculous extremes.

The excesses of some extremists, which are tolerated if not encouraged by the mainstream left, are pushing more and more moderates (both moderate conservatives and moderate liberals) toward the extreme right.

The likely results of this can only harm women and disadvantaged minorities in the long run. But some people are more interested in pointless virtue signaling than in actual outcomes.

I’m sure many of the reasonable liberals who choose to tolerate this without speaking up have the heart in the right place. But not the brain.

I don’t talk much about these things, and I try to ignore related discussions on social media. Not only because I have better things to do, but also because I don’t want to contribute to mass hysteria.

Read my last book “Futurist spaceflight meditations” if you are curious about my take on current politics and culture wars.

While in this post I have condemned some toxic aspects of the liberal left, I’m perfectly aware that the conservative right has its own toxic aspects, which too many reasonable conservatives choose to tolerate.

Cover picture from Pixabay.

I have resigned from the IEET Board of Directors was originally published in Giulio Prisco on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

My books:

Tales of the Turing Church: Hacking religion, enlightening science, awakening technology

by Giulio Prisco, 2020

• Buy the Kindle edition
• Buy the paperback edition

Futurist spaceflight meditations

by Giulio Prisco, 2021

• Buy the Kindle edition
• Buy the paperback edition

Irrational mechanics: Narrative sketch of a futurist science & a new religion

By Giulio Prisco, 2024

• Buy the Kindle edition
• Buy the Paperback edition

Cover picture by the author.

Books was originally published in Giulio Prisco on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

My book “Futurist spaceflight meditations” is available for readers to buy on Amazon (Kindle | paperback).

This book goes from here and now to the far future and the stars. But it is a very short book of about 27,000 words, about 100 pages in print.

Chapter titles: 1 Introduction; 2 Political preamble; 3 Lockdown; 4 Spaceflight now; 5 Spaceship Earth; 6 Cultural reflections; 7 Interplanetary; 8 Interstellar; 9 Cosmic engineers.

See also: “Futurist spaceflight meditations: Reactions and reviews.”

Thesis: We must strenuously push toward our cosmic destiny among the stars. Beginning to expand beyond the Earth before it’s too late is our most important task at this moment in history. Many actors have important roles to play, and there’s room for everyone. Spaceflight will also help find viable solutions for current developmental, environmental, and social problems.

But the road to the stars is full of impediments and roadblocks. We will not advance as fast as we wish. Therefore we must keep our mood strenuous and our drive strong. We need an optimistic spaceflight culture oriented to the future, with energizing visions of interplanetary, interstellar, and cosmic futures. We also need a futurist space philosophy.

• Buy the Kindle edition
• Buy the paperback edition

Buying and reviewing my book is the best way to support my work.

For those who are unable to buy the book at this moment, there’s a free web version.

Of course there are some typos and some things that I should have said better. I am collecting needed changes in a document titled “Futurist spaceflight meditations: Errata.”

Cover picture by the author.

My new book: Futurist spaceflight meditations was originally published in Giulio Prisco on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.