Author: Peter Biles | Page 17

Dystopian futuristic cyberpunk city at night in a neon haze. Blue and purple glowing neon lights. Urban wallpaper. 3D illustration.

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Peter Biles
Date
September 22, 2022

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture

Tagged
Artificial Intelligence, Artists and AI art, Beauty, Creativity, Pornography, Science fiction, Technology, violence, virtue}

AI Art Tool Can Generate Both Beauty and Horror

_{Making AI image generators mainstream might offer people an interesting new frontier to explore. But the tech has a serious dark side} _{Peter Biles
September 22, 2022

4

Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture}

The capacities of AI art generators have grown much in the past couple of years. Through complex algorithms, AI scans the internet and manages to make artistic composites, some sublime, others grotesque. Today, AI art generators have incredible potential, but their capacities can also be easily abused. According to a Wired article from September 21, Science fiction novelist Elle Simpson-Edin wanted to generate artwork for her newest book. So, she tried AI tools. Her novel unabashedly depicts gore and sex, but most of the AI tools she discovered included “guardrails” that sanctioned explicit content. That is until she found Unstable Diffusion, “a Discord community for people using unrestricted versions of a recently released, open source AI image tool called Stable Diffusion.” Read More ›

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Peter Biles
Date
September 20, 2022

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
Animation (science fiction benefits), Artificial Intelligence, censorship, Creativity, Deepfakes and revised history, film, Story}

HBO Max Cuts Cigarette from Iconic Movie Poster

_{Modern tech gives entertainment companies the power to “retro-edit” material. How far could it go?} _{Peter Biles
September 20, 2022

5

Arts & Culture}

Last week, HBO Max, the Warner Bros.-owned TV streaming platform, cut more than just their costs — they’re cutting back on cigarettes too. Disneyland used to Photoshop out cigarettes in portraits of Walt Disney: https://t.co/7n3oBWzMI7 pic.twitter.com/zP58u8xBG5 — PetaPixel (@petapixel) October 12, 2016 Keen observers noticed that HBO Max removed the cigarillo from the iconic movie poster from “McCabe & Mrs. Miller.” Now, McCabe is awkwardly holding up two fingers with no smoking device in hand. They also scrubbed cigarettes from several other film posters, including “The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean,” “There Was a Crooked Man,” “Fallen Angels,” and “The Man Who Knew Too Much.” HBO hasn’t yet disclosed its reasoning for the cuts. Maybe they thought people Read More ›

Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego,Ushuaia

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Peter Biles
Date
September 17, 2022

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Creativity

Tagged
Culture, J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, Rings of Power (Amazon film series 2022-), Story, television}

Amazon’s Rings of Power and Where the Conflict Really Lies

_{If Peter Jackson gave the LOTR cast unnecessary internal conflicts, then the Rings of Power writers have done it on steroids.} _{Peter Biles
September 17, 2022

5

Arts & Culture, Creativity}

The third and fourth episodes of Rings of Power have aired as of September 16th. Thousands of reviews have fountained across the internet over the last couple of weeks, some from rankled fans, others from satisfied enthusiasts, and others with both good and bad things to report. The show, as we all anticipated, has not gone without its fair share of controversy and pushback, but for this review, I want to lay those conversations aside and instead focus on some pros and cons of the recent episodes from my own perspective. To begin on a positive note, I enjoyed these last couple of episodes much more than the first two. The storyline seems to be getting somewhere. Galadriel is being Read More ›

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Peter Biles
Date
September 16, 2022

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Human exceptionalism

Tagged
Animal rights, Christianity, Creativity, Dean Koontz, Dogs, Human exceptionalism, Human rights, transhumanism, Wesley J. Smith, Wesley J. Smith on transhumanism}

Human Exceptionalism is a Central Theme for Novelist Dean Koontz

_{Bestselling author Dean Koontz talks fiction, human exceptionalism, and transhumanism with Wesley J. Smith in new podcast episode (Part II)} _{Peter Biles
September 16, 2022

6

Arts & Culture, Human exceptionalism}

In Part I of this two-part series, we looked at Dean Koontz’s remarks on the purpose of art and the unique role of the novelist in today’s “everything is political” environment. But that’s not all he and Smith discussed on the Humanize Podcast on September 12th. Both had a lot to say about human exceptionalism, authoritarianism, and also…dogs! Koontz spoke about his love for the pups at the end of the episode, but first, discussed how the “animal rights” movement has gone wrong, and how a materialistic worldview can lead to despair. Smith commented how human exceptionalism is a central theme in Koontz’s novels and asked the reason, to which Koontz responded, “There’s no civilization if we don’t recognize Read More ›

boy standing on the opened book and looking at other books floating in the air, digital art style, illustration painting

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Peter Biles
Date
September 14, 2022

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
Books, Creativity, Culture, Dean Koontz, entertainment. media, Politics, Science fiction, society}

Art, Propaganda, and the Role of the Novelist

_{Bestselling author Dean Koontz talks fiction, human exceptionalism, and transhumanism with Wesley J. Smith in new podcast episode (Part I)} _{Peter Biles
September 14, 2022

4

Arts & Culture}

Dean Koontz is a renowned novelist, known for books such as Devoted, The Big Dark Sky, and Odd Thomas. His books have topped the charts as New York Times bestsellers, and at age 77, he doesn’t plan on quitting the craft of fiction any time soon. He is also a longtime proponent of intelligent design and human exceptionalism, both of which find their footing in his many writings. On September 12th, Koontz was featured on the Humanize Podcast, where he and Wesley J. Smith, Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute’s Center for Human Exceptionalism, discussed Koontz’s career as a writer as well as some of the central themes that pervade Koontz’s work. For Part I of this two-part discussion on the Read More ›

Trail through a mysterious dark forest in fog. Autumn morning in Himalaya, Nepal. Magical atmosphere. Fairytale

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Peter Biles
Date
September 10, 2022

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
Featured, Peter Jackson, Rings of Power (Amazon film series 2022-)}

Amazon’s Rings of Power: Some Warning Signs But Still Hope

_{The screenwriters had to create dialogue from Tolkien’s notes about the world in which Lord of the Rings is set} _{Peter Biles
September 10, 2022

5

Arts & Culture}

The first two episodes of the long-anticipated series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power were released on September 2nd on Amazon Prime. With a budget of over $1 billion, Rings of Power is the costliest TV show ever produced. It makes sense, then, that fans expected a lot from the premiere. Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy is widely considered a cinematic masterpiece, and millions of avid Tolkien readers are watching vigilantly for violations against the “canon.” The show stars a young Galadriel (Morfydd Clarke) as a stubborn, resilient warrior. For years, she has been tasked with eradicating any trace of evil after the apparent fall of Sauron, the rogue servant of the evil Morgoth. Read More ›