Inverse - 📜 Redefining historical fiction

T.G.I.F.

August 12 2022

Fandom is a tricky thing. We’re all fans of something, whether that’s a sports team, a TV show, a celebrity, or outer space. The internet has made it seamless to find your fandom, and while most of these communities range from adorable to harmless, there are plenty of unpleasant exceptions.

Today, Inverse presents the surprising story of one particular fandom. Our Flag Means Death is a charming comedy about two pirates who develop a homosexual romance on the high seas, but their characters are both rooted in-real life historical figures who murdered, plundered, and owned slaves. How does a fandom reckon with reality? The answer reveals how one group of very online fans may have solved a problem as old as fandom itself.

What's New

Beware!

Space

Dramatic image previews the future fate of the Milky Way

This could be us, but you’re taking the picture 5 billion years too early. These two merging galaxies are locked in a cosmic death spiral similar to the one that will ensnare our own corner of the cosmos in a few billion years.

This dramatic image from the Gemini North Telescope captures the early stages of a galactic death spiral, 60 million light years away, involving the spiral galaxies NGC 4568 and NGC 4567. The two galaxies are caught in each other’s gravitational pull. As they circle a shared center of gravity, each pass draws them closer together. At the moment, their galactic centers are about 20,000 light years apart — roughly the distance from Earth to the center of the Milky Way.

Take a closer look

Feature

Entertainment

Our Flag Means Death fans are redefining historical fiction

In late April, roughly two months after Our Flag Means Death made TV history with its portrayal of an on-screen gay pirate kiss, a couple of fans found themselves at the center of a viral controversy.

What happens when a fandom gets mixed up with historical figures, especially historical figures who don’t live up to their depiction in media? The answer lies not only in the history of piracy but also in the history of fan culture.

RECREATING NEURONS

Innovation

“Quantum materials” could give the human brain a run for its money

While today's computers can't yet achieve the general intelligence that human brains can, researchers are looking into ways to make that a reality.

Now, powerful machine learning algorithms are edging closer toward general intelligence by demonstrating their ability to recognize patterns and emulate human speech. But true general intelligence remains difficult for devices to achieve.

To tackle this feat, researchers have recently proposed computer designs inspired by the human brain’s structure, specifically its tens of billions of neurons that are laced together into intricate, interrelated networks.

Learn more

Float on

Oceans

A deep-sea expedition just captured these incredible views of life underwater

An ongoing expedition led by NOAA Ocean Exploration is capturing never-before-seen views of life in the deep Atlantic Ocean.

Called Voyage to the Ridge 2022, the expedition launched in May and has mapped sections of one of Earth’s largest geographical features: the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. This massive undersea mountain range stretches from Iceland to the subantarctic Bouvet Island.

Take a look at the footage of fascinating sea creatures archived from the past few months of the expedition.

Business

Gaming

Overwatch 2 is ditching the game industry's worst feature

RIP loot boxes. After helping normalize the gambling-like microtransaction system in video games, Blizzardhas announced that a massive change is coming to the character shooter’s loot box system in the upcoming sequel: They are being removed entirely.

In its place, a more traditional storefront like those seen in Fortnite and Call of Duty: Warzone will emerge. Players will then presumably be able to cherry-pick which skins and cosmetics bundles they prefer rather than roll the dice on randomized boxes.

While not the move away from microtransactions that Activision Blizzard could benefit from, the possibility of a more transparent storefront is a step in the right direction for a game whose development has been plagued by controversy.

Meanwhile...

Asteroids may have carved Earth's landforms as we know them, study says

Scientists have encountered a novel virus called “Langya” that has infected 35 people in China

45 years ago, the first Space Shuttle made history without going to space

You need to watch the scariest exorcism movie on Netflix before it leaves next week

Today in history: On August 12, 1990, the most complete and best-preserved skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex was found on South Dakota's Cheyenne River Sioux reservation — it was nicknamed Sue.

Song of the day: "Runaround Sue," Dion

About this newsletter: Do you think it can be improved? Have a story idea? Send those thoughts and more to newsletter@inverse.com.

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Inverse - 📜 Redefining historical fiction

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