New Scientist

Featured in

  • Published 20230502
  • ISBN: 978-1-922212-83-2
  • Extent: 264pp
  • Paperback (234 x 153mm), eBook

for Nandini Shah–

Gathered round,

Already a subscriber? Sign in here

If you are an educator or student wishing to access content for study purposes please contact us at griffithreview@griffith.edu.au

Share article

About the author

George Cox

George Cox has lived and studied on the land of the Wurundjeri and Boonwurrung people of the Kulin nation since 2013. His poetry has...

More from this edition

Pop mythology

In ConversationEven though I grew up on a small, remote island, I was still heavily influenced by television – particularly the sort of cartoons that would play on Saturday mornings, mornings before school, after school and so on. When it comes to DC and Marvel and all of those superheroes, for me that was ignited by my late grandfather Ali Drummond, my mother’s father, who had boxes of Phantom comics. Phantom was my early introduction to the strong, powerful male being who had supernatural strength and abilities.

The transhuman era

Non-fictionThe story of the transhuman era has much in common with the creation myths of old – and with religious tales of transcendence. It heralds the emergence of a powerful – omniscient, omnipresent – force (AI) possessing intelligence that far exceeds our own. And lends itself to stories that play off destruction against what you could term ‘salvation’, in the form of digital immortality.

Filling the void

Non-fictionThese failures of clean-­up, or ‘mining legacies’, are the result of booms and busts – of minerals drifting in and out of favour. Nothing is as precious as a hole in the ground – until that hole in the ground is worth less than nothing. When a boom ends and a resource’s price plummets, a quarry’s metamorphosis from asset to liability can take place in an instant. When abandoned mines are located in out-of-­the-­way places, populated by those with little political influence, tailings may simply be left to blow in the wind.

Stay up to date with the latest, news, articles and special offers from Griffith Review.