Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

CategoryArts & Culture

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Abstract flight in retro neon hyper warp space in the tunnel 3d illustration

Spaceman Review, Part 3

Sometimes you have to leave what you love to go on a mission

Last time, we talked about Jakub’s new buddy, a giant spider that may or may not be real. This potential hallucination wants to help the astronaut with his loneliness because his wife, Lenka, has left him. The trouble is that the spider’s idea of helping poor Jakub is forcing him to remember his past. The writer wanted to give Jakub a redemption arch using these flashbacks; however, the astronaut’s memories were shown in a disjointed order, confusing the story and making Lenka look very bad, which made her and Jakub’s relationship difficult to root for. The chaotic flashbacks, mixed with a variety of plot holes, made for a very irritating story. One of the most glaring plot holes arises when Read More ›

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New York City Skyline

Doc Ock and His Sentient AI Arms

Could AI ever control the human mind?

It’s interesting that the Spider-Man universe (or multiverse, I guess) is studded with well-meaning villains. In my last movie review, we looked at Norman Osborn and his tragic transformation into the Green Goblin. What’s odd about his character is that he’s almost a father figure to Peter Parker throughout the film, offering support, guidance, wisdom. It’s the allure of a mysterious form of biotechnology and corporate pressure that sends him off the deep end. It isn’t so different with the iconic Dr. Octopus. An idealist set on inventing a new source of perpetual energy, Dr. Octavius is a friendly but ambitious scientist, who, like Osborn, takes Peter under his wing. The experiment to create a sustained fusion reaction, though, goes Read More ›

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A group of people walking together through a bustling shopping mall. This image can be used to depict a busy shopping day or to illustrate consumerism and retail therapy.

The Crisis of Identity That Tech Doesn’t Help

Consumerism works well but leaves us empty

Writer and cultural commentator Aaron Renn wrote recently about the dissolution of identity in the United States, contending that if we don’t know who we are, we will never know what to do. Renn writes frequently on issues facing young men in America and the challenges of living well in the secular world. He writes, The reality is that a lot of people in top positions of our society act as if they want you living like Simba. They want porn available for you to watch. They want you betting on the big game on your phone. They want you focused on “experiences” and consumption, like hitting the latest hot travel destination or going to the new farm-to-table restaurant that Read More ›

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SPIDERMEN

Green Goblin, the Hasty Transhumanist

A classic Marvel villain presents a picture of hurried science gone wrong

“The product is certified ready for human testing.” I’m not quoting Elon Musk in relation to Neuralink. That’s the line from the fictional Norman Osborn in Sam Raimi’s original Spider-Man movie, starring Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, and the green maniac himself, Willem Dafoe. I’ve seen this movie dozens of times, so maybe it’s due to the weird fact that twenty-plus years after this film hit the scene, we now live in a world where big science organizations like Osborn’s Oscorp seem to be dealing with similar conflicts that ultimately produced the iconic Green Goblin. Not that Elon Musk or Sam Altman are going to start flying around on saucers and terrorize New York City. But they are eager to rush Read More ›

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Beautiful dunes in the Arabian desert of Abu Dhabi - UAE

Why Dune Might Be the Saddest Film I’ve Ever Seen

Are we saved through the love of power or the power of love?

If you’ve seen Dune Part 2 already, read on, but this commentary will include some spoilers, so beware for those who have yet to witness Denis Villeneuve’s visually stunning adaptation of the 1965 classic by Frank Herbert. I read Dune a couple of years ago, and enjoyed it, but J.R.R. Tolkien’s rumored distaste for the book soured some of my reception. Seeing the new films, though, illustrates why this story is so deeply tragic. Herbert drew much of his world and mythology from religion, and Dune is rich in religious allusion. Young Paul Atreides is the “Messiah” figure, and he “resurrects” after drinking the poison of the sandworm (a.k.a., the “Water of Life). There are fanatics in southern Arrakis ready Read More ›

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Alma Mater statue near the Columbia University library.

Who Needs Teaching Assistants? Bring In the Bots, Please

In defense of a human-led humanities

According to Philosophy Nous, the Dean at Boston University’s College of Arts and Sciences suggested that a group of teaching assistants going on strike be replaced conveniently by artificial intelligence. It would be a much cheaper option while the TAs demand higher pay and benefits, and would, apparently, accomplish the same desired ends. The dean, Stan Sclaroff, is a computer scientist. Another article from the same publication makes a list of reasons why philosophers are declining across the country, and why philosophy and humanities departments are getting cut. Justin Weinberg writes, Weinberg goes on to call for a renewed advocacy of philosophy and the study of the liberal arts more broadly. “Selling” philosophy as a worthy undertaking in and of Read More ›

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Beautiful lake in misty morning. Forest and clouds are reflected in the calm water surface. Norwegian landscape with dark forest and lake among low clouds. Nature, ecology, eco tourism

The Lord of the Flies and the Problem AI Can’t Solve

The problem of evil is spiritual and can't be solved by more technology

Somehow, I evaded The Lord of the Flies, the young adult dystopian novel by William Golding, while in high school, which is when many Americans encounter it. The ominous aura surrounding this little book always made me hesitant to pick it up. That’s now changed. The book arrested me this past week and had me almost panting by the end of it; this gorgeously written book about a group of schoolboys who crash on an island on the cusp of the third world war is as shimmering in detail as it is horrifying in its theme. The overly optimistic, including those who believe new technologies like artificial intelligence will drastically improve (and possibly even perfect) the human being and the Read More ›

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Modern design, contemporary art collage. Inspiration, idea, trendy urban magazine style. Human and social networks glued with finger tape

Jonathan Haidt’s New Book Confronts Gen Z Anxiety

Are the smartphones really to blame?
A long-anticipated addition to the conversation surrounding Gen Z, those born after 1995, one of the most anxious generations to walk the earth. Read More ›
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Golden Oscar statue in Hollywood with fireworks in the backdrop. Success and victory concept.

Oppenheimer Steals the Show

Cillian Murphy wins Best Actor, Nolan Best Director
The film scored 13 total nominations, more than any other film in history. Read More ›
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Mobile phone with blank screen with copy space and old books. Electronic book concept.

Jean Twenge: Gen Z Isn’t Reading

Zoomers were born into smartphones, not Shakespeare
As we are being hypnotized by fifteen-second soundbites, crafting the ability to attend to longer works of art will only become a rarer, but more valuable, skillset. Read More ›
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Clear disposable plastic bag on gray background. Space for text

American Beauty and the Power of Media

A scene from the 1999 film on finding beauty in the mundane
For media forms to be effective, should they privilege the ear or the eye? Can visual media artistically imbue the aural? Read More ›
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Land with dry and cracked ground. Desert,Global warming background

A Canticle for Leibowitz, a Canticle of Speculative Warning

A 1959 novel's speculation of nuclear fallout is yet a story of hope.

This past year seems to have been the year of the atomic bomb, at least in what I’ve read and watched. I started 2023 by reading The Passenger and Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy, a pair of novels that consistently alludes to Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project. Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer arrived a few months later in July, sobering audiences worldwide and reinvigorating public interest in the godlike power these brilliant scientists had unleashed on the world. Most recently, I read the 1959 dystopian novel by Walter Miller, A Canticle for Leibowitz, a speculative tale about nuclear holocaust and the perennial human tendency for self-destruction. What a cheery year it’s been! Maybe I’ll switch things up and read Anne of Green Read More ›

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Volcano eruption with lava flow in dark

AI Decodes Scrolls Scorched by Vesuvius’ Eruption

In 79 AD, Vesuvius reduced a library to charcoal. Remarkably, machine learning technology has begun to decipher scrolls that humans could not unwrap
Ironically, AI, far from making study of the classics obsolete, may help create new opportunities for classics scholars, via recovered texts. Read More ›
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Anonymous call

Book Banning Today: Silently … Not Like in the Old Days

Traditional anti-book banning groups are simply not where the action is and maybe don’t want to be

Last week we looked at the way censorship in the age of the internet is typically invisible. It’s not the police raiding bookstores; it’s — for example — sudden downranking of posts so that information that might have reached millions of people reaches only dozens. Constantly suppressed, it can’t go viral. We can see the change more clearly if we look at the difference between how books (and other information) used to get banned and how they get banned today. Book banning before the internet When the word “book bans” is used today, it usually means something different from what it meant even a few decades ago. Ulysses, a groundbreaking work by Irish novelist James Joyce (1882–1941) was indeed banned Read More ›

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Quantum portal to a world of wonder and mystery, where the laws of nature are strange and unpredictable. wormhole, time travel illustration.

Alien Resurrection Part 4: The Good, the Bad, and the… Bizarre

In a single moment, Purvis becomes one of the most heroic characters in the entire franchise
Alien Resurrection might help you forget Alien 3, and that alone makes it worth watching. Read More ›
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petroglyphs. cave drawings

Thinking Back to the Very Beginnings of Art

It just appears, from great antiquity, and we really don’t know why. All we know is that animals don’t do it
The problem is, so much is lost that it is risky to draw conclusions. But what’s remarkable is how humans have expressed themselves with whatever was available. Read More ›
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Skull Assorted Poison Bottles

Artists Strike Back!: New Tool “Poisons” Images Pirated by AI

Nightshade, developed by University of Chicago computer science prof Ben Zhao, makes the AI generator keep giving you a cat when you ask for a dog
Overall, Nightshade may prove more useful than lawsuits to artists. It is embedded in pixels, visible only to AI, not to humans. Read More ›
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fantasy and mystical creatures loch ness monster in lake, created with generative ai

Cyber Plagiarism: When AI Systems Snatch Your Copyrighted Images

Outright copying of others’ images may put system’s owners in legal jeopardy. Let's look at U.S. legal decisions
The AI companies offering the image-creating services need Robot from Lost in Space in their legal departments waving its arms, crying out: “Warning! Danger!” Read More ›
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selective focus of robotic arm holding glass of water and person taking notes at wooden table

Japanese Novelist Who Won Prestigious Literary Award Unabashedly Used ChatGPT

Meanwhile, authors in the United States are waging war against AI for copyright violation
While stylistically, the prose AI "created" for Karan's novel might be "flawless," it lacks credibility because it lacks the human voice. Read More ›