TOPIA Magazine

30/06/2023

This summer, TOPIA Magazine is taking a break to pause, forage for fun and regenerate. 🌱

Big love to everyone who’s seasoned, supported and devoured this small indie media in its first year. We hope you can all unwind and savour the flavours of the summer. Think: feast, read, relax, repeat. 🌞

Fancy some inspiring reads? TOPIA is a great place to get lost. Every page in the magazine has a ‘Rabbit Hole’. Click it as many times as you like for a different feature each time. 🐇⭕

We’ll be back as soon as we can with more interviews with the people keeping the planet cool. Until then, stay gold.

Your editor,
Lisa Goldapple

https://worldoftopia.com/partnership-opportunities/

29/06/2023

Ten million.

That's the number of meals Ebru Baybara Demir Sayfası served in the three months following the Turkey-Syria earthquakes in February 2023 that measured 7.8 and 7.5 on the Richter scale. They struck western Syria and southeastern Turkey, where many refugees from the war in Syria were sheltering.

In June, the chef won the prestigious Basque Culinary Center World Prize 2023 (the Nobel Prize for chefs) for driving progress on Turkey’s Syrian border.

The Basque Culinary World Prize 2023 winner proves social gastronomy drives progress on Turkey’s Syrian border – empowering women in Mesopotamia

29/06/2023

Taking over the world is a lot of work 💥

Any supervillain is bound to have questions: What’s the perfect location for a floating secret base? What zany heist will fund my immoral plans? How do I control the weather, destroy the internet, and never, ever die?

Marvel Entertainment comic writer Ryan North. writer’s hilarious ‘How to Take Over the World’ (Riverhead Books) is a sly book. It might look like a guide to supervillainy, but really it’s a tongue-in-cheek guide to how to save the world – exploring ways to mitigate climate change, improve human life spans, prevent cyberterrorism and finally make Jurassic Park a reality.

At TOPIA Magazine, we are big fans of North. Honestly, he is too prolific a comic writer and author to list everything here, but this deserves a mention… he and his dog ‘Noam Chompsky’ (pictured) once made the news for getting stuck in a hole.

Read an exclusive sci-fi short – created with Futurity Systems – by the prolific NYT bestselling and Eisner-winning writer (we are not worthy!) who imagines he’s reviewing a space-cation from the year 2030.

In this exclusive sci-fi short, prolific author and comic writer Ryan North imagines he's reviewing a space-cation aboard the 'Starview Spaceway'

28/06/2023

We need imagination in space science. After all, we are made of stars. ⭐

This beautiful Carl Sagan-inspired sci-fi short by space philosopher Sabine Winters (FuFuture Basedimagines the first self-sustaining communities of nomads beyond the Kármán line.

In this Carl Sagan-inspired sci-fi short, space philosopher Sabine Winters imagines the first small communities of nomads forming beyond the Kármán line

26/06/2023

Want to partner with TOPIA? 🦋 Our mission is to inspire ‘A World of Good’ by spotlighting the remarkable people – and creatures – keeping the planet cool. Because, if anything is going to save the world, it’s us falling in love with it.

Play with us!⚡ worldoftopia.com/partnership-opportunities/

23/06/2023

Will AI screw up? Will deep tech save us? And what on earth is air ham?! ⚡

The future is a hard place to understand. Futurity Systems' Cecilia MoSze Tham and Mark Bünger help us design better solutions – using science. Meet the creators of the world's first autonomous plant!

Interview ► https://worldoftopia.com/futurity-systems-interview-my-world-of-good/

22/06/2023

ふわっと fuwatto (noun)
– the state of floating in the air or weightlessness

Gravity-obsessed innovator Miki Sode, former Commercial Innovation Manager for the International Space Station National Laboratory tells us how her art went into space with the first Japanese astronaut – and about her mission to create a better world where and is more accessible and inclusive. Futurity Systems

Why do we need art in space? Gravity-obsessed innovator Miki Sode (whose art really has been into space) is shooting for the moon on a mission to create a better world

19/06/2023

At TOPIA, we’re all about pushing boundaries to generate new possibilities 💥 Check out the headlines from our latest newsletter.

Ft Universal Everything Adam Clarke Sónar Festival Chelsea Green Publishing Domestic Data Streamers David Brin and more.

💥 worldoftopia.com/signup

17/06/2023

A vast fungal web braids together life on Earth. Merlin Sheldrake wants to help us see it.

16/06/2023

Think adults don’t play Minecraft? Think again. The 3D adventure game is a global pop phenomenon with a community of nearly half a billion players. However, Minecraft is a lot more than the biggest video game in the world, it is also an educational tool for social change. Minecraft Education

Award-winning artist Adam Clarke (aka Adam Clarke the voice of Wizard Keen) has produced some of the world’s most innovative projects. Lisa Goldapple chatted to the digital noodler and Royal Shakespeare Company fellow about helping to solve society’s challenges one block at a time. 🧱

Interview ► https://worldoftopia.com/minecraft-adam-clarke-interview/

15/06/2023

Did you know that microbes have their own version of the Internet? 🦠🕸️🌐

They are the genuine founders of technologies and the invisible and intelligent rulers of the biosphere.

So it’s about time we got over ourselves.

Believe it or not, the Internet wasn’t exactly a human invention. Before humans were even close to existing, microbes were hard at work creating their very own Internet of Things – and today, our very own World Wide Web is built around their model.

Read an extract from new book by bioscientist-philosopher Predrag Slijepčević (Chelsea Green Publishing) to find out what we can learn from the civilisations that came before us

► https://worldoftopia.com/biocivilisations-microbes-internet-of-living-things/

“In theory, a signal emitted by bacteria in waters around the South Pole could travel almost instantaneously to bacteria in the waters around the North Pole.”

Wait, what?!

14/06/2023

You’ve never seen generative art like this before… 💥

Scratch everything you thought about technology not being joyous and emotional. Universal Everything's mesmerising stomping, sashaying, shapeshifting creatures are all of us.

TOPIA editor Lisa Goldapple chatted to the revered digital design collective about their loopy digital lifeforms and asked the nature-loving techno optimists to create their ‘World of Good’.

To infinity and beyond! ►
worldoftopia.com/universal-everything-interview-my-world-of-good/

12/06/2023

AI will be as transformative as it is disruptive. Read a handy guide to embracing AI’s potential ►►► https://worldoftopia.com/generative-ai-mindsets/

08/06/2023

Now, more than ever, we need the skin of our coasts. Mangrove forests are the roots of the sea 🌱 and the guardians of the ocean. 🌊

Discover the surprising real value of a mangrove forest thanks to Octavio Aburto this .

Read ► worldoftopia.com/value-of-a-mangrove-forest/

08/06/2023

With so much money to be made, is deep sea mining inevitable? Are we in deep trouble? 💙

Read: worldoftopia.com/deep-trouble-deep-sea-mining/

06/06/2023

From a generative AI art collective to a fungal-network loving musician to a cosmic Afrofuturist, our picks of this year’s Sónar Festival's Sónar+D programme prove tech can be warm, joyous – and good. 👾

As the world reels from the advancement of AI, this June will see Sónar Festival's Sónar+D programme explore its impact on the arts