^CategoryArts & Culture

Beautiful little girl on nature with flowers

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Author
Gary Varner
Date
November 19, 2022

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Science Fiction

Tagged
Bortus (character in the Orville series), Featured, Kelly Grayson (character in Orville series), Klyden (character in the Orville series), Orville Season 3 Episode 5, Topa (character in the Orville series), Transgenderism (in Orville series Season 3)}

Orville Episode 5: Bad Allegory — But Competent Writing

_{Competent writing is some compensation for an otherwise tedious exposition of transgender ideology} _{Gary Varner

November 19, 2022

6

Arts & Culture, Science Fiction}

Last time, we began discussing The Orville, Season Three, Episode 5, A Tale of Two Topas. I mentioned that the episode was an allegory for children undergoing gender reassignment surgery. I suspected that they were affirming this practice because of the political nomenclature they used. However, it’s possible they weren’t. The fact that Topa was transitioned from a female to a male as an infant and now wishes to return to her original state suggests the very opposite of what the transgender movement claims. In this article, I shall discuss the subsequent plot and let the reader decide. I want to start out by saying the writing of this episode is far superior to the preceding ones. I hesitate to Read More ›

Young couple with eyeglasses pose outdoors

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Author
Gary Varner
Date
November 12, 2022

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Science Fiction

Tagged
Bortus (character in the Orville series), Featured, Moclans in Orville sci-fi series, Orville Season 3 Episode 5, Straw man arguments, Topa (character in the Orville series), Transgenderism (in Orville series Season 3)}

Orville Episode 5 Is an Allegory Done Right… Accidentally

_{Gary Varner

November 12, 2022

6

Arts & Culture, Science Fiction}

I’ll say this for Episode 5 of The Orville Season Three: Regardless of my personal opinions about the show’s message, structurally speaking, this was the most solid story so far. Previous episodes have been plagued by random scenes that don’t seem to correlate with each other and pretentious diatribes that would surely turn off a viewer who did not agree with the writer’s opinions to begin with. In this episode, I felt like I was dealing with a writer who, at least, knew what he or she was doing. And the amazing thing about this is that the higher quality in the writing raised the quality of the actors’ performances as well. Cast members who were stale and boring through Read More ›

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Author
Gary Varner
Date
November 5, 2022

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Science Fiction

Tagged
Abortion in science fiction, Anaya (character in Orville series), Charly (character in Orvilles 3), Dr. Finn (Orville character), Ed Mercer (character in Orville series), Featured, Gently Falling Rain (Orville 3 4), Kelly Grayson (character in Orville series), Krill (characters in Orville series), LaMarr (character in Orvilles 3), Orville Season 3 Episode 4, Planetary Union in Orville series, Political messaging in science fiction, Seth McFarlane, Teleya (character in Orville series)}

Episode 4: The Orville Writers Try Their Hand at Woke Messaging

_{No, it doesn’t work. In Season 3, the plot gently falls apart} _{Gary Varner

November 5, 2022

11

Arts & Culture, Science Fiction}

Episode 4 of The Orville, Season 3, titled “Gently Falling Rain,” starts out strong and then gradually falls apart, in a way that is almost reminiscent of a frog slowly boiling in a pot of water. For most of the episode, there is only one really glaring plot hole and it’s easy enough to ignore. But then within the last quarter of the show, viewers are pounded with so much idiocy that we barely have time to realize what’s happened. As the episode opens, the hostile Krill are ready to sign a treaty with the Planetary Union. They’ve been taken to a futuristic Broadway production of Annie — it’s good to know that that little overplayed gem of a production Read More ›

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Author
Gary Varner
Date
October 29, 2022

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Relationships, Science Fiction

Tagged
Bortus (character in the Orville series), Ed (character in The Orville), Featured, Gordon Malloy (character in Orville series), Individuality (erasure in science fiction), Kelly Grayson (character in Orville series), Orville Season 3 Episode 3, Talla (character in the Orville series)}

The Orville Crew Sails Into Hallucinations From Deathless Beings

_{The ETs’ Big Message is: Ignore such labels as man, husband, captain, explorer because they are all irrelevant. Embrace loss of individuality and sculpt the cosmos!} _{Gary Varner

October 29, 2022

10

Arts & Culture, Relationships, Science Fiction}

As with Episode 2, Episode 3 of The Orville, Season 3, starts out with a great deal of promise only to completely fall apart at the end. However, I will say that — of all the episodes so far — the beginning of this story felt the most like Star Trek, in the sense that an anomaly shows up on the scanners, followed by a quirky scenario which promises a great deal of mystery to come. The crew detects a civilization on a planet that was previously understood to be desolate. Ed, Kelly, Talla, Bortus, and Gordon all land on the planet to find a lush forest and a high school. They enter the high school and are immediately trapped Read More ›

AI-generated digital art of a wooden board

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Author
Eric Holloway
Date
October 23, 2022

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Creativity

Tagged
AI-generated art as engineers' art, AI-generated art trained on itself, Claude Shannon and Markov chain, Craiyon, Creatovity of AI tested, Dall-E, Featured, Markov chain and AI art, Midjourney, Mutual information and Markov text, Stable Diffusion tested, Three Little Pigs andAI-generated text}

AI Art Is Not “AI-Generated Art.” It is Engineer-Generated Art

_{The computers aren’t taking over the art world. The engineers are. Just the way engineers have taken over the music world with modern electronic music} _{Eric Holloway

October 23, 2022

11

Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Creativity}

Creativity is a mysterious thing. Our world economy is powered by creativity, yet despite the best efforts of our best engineers, creativity has not been captured by a machine. Until recently. With the new school of AI things have changed. We now have GPT-3 that can digress at length about any topic you give it. Even more remarkable, we have the likes of Dall-E, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion. These phenomenal AI algorithms have scaled the peak of human creativity. AI can now create art that has never been seen before: The new artistic AI has become so successful the image social networks have become flooded with their artwork. Some communities have even banned the AI art. But the AI art Read More ›

male in protective hazmat suit disinfect public isolated spaces, carrying barrels, pathogen respiratory quarantine coronavirus covid-19 concept

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Author
Gary Varner
Date
October 22, 2022

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Ethics, Science Fiction

Tagged
Dr. Finn (Orville character), Ed Mercer (character in Orville series), Featured, Gordon Malloy (character in Orville series), Isaac (robot in Orvilles 3), Kalarr Expanse (area in Orville series), Kelly Grayson (character in Orville series), Krill (characters in Orville series), Orville Season 3 Episode 2, Paul Christie (character in Orville series)}

The Orville Episode 2: Bacterial Assimilation? — It Gets Messy

_{A ship that crew members investigate turns out to be a deadly mixture of mechanical — and organic — material} _{Gary Varner

October 22, 2022

8

Arts & Culture, Ethics, Science Fiction}

Episode 2 of Season 3 opens with the Orville crew beginning its negotiations with the Krill, an aggressive reptilian species that has joined a temporary alliance with the Planetary Union of flight-capable species to counter the new threat from the Kaylon, an artificially intelligent species. A Krill moment: The Orville group begin by discussing routes through the Krill territory, so the Union can explore the regions of space on the other side. The discussion grows tense when the admiral who has boarded the Orville for the negotiations, Admiral Paul Christie, mentions exploring the Kalarr Expanse (the “Shadow Realm”). The Krill become nervous about this request, telling Ed Mercer and Kelly Grayson, and Christie that demons dwell there. And that they Read More ›

Lonely Human with water reflection, emotion, sadness loneliness, depression, mental health, fantasy painting, surreal illustration

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Author
Peter Biles
Date
October 21, 2022

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Science Fiction

Tagged
1984 (book), Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (book), C.S. Lewis, emotions, Featured, fiction, George Orwell, mourning, Roger Scruton, Science fiction}

Huxley’s Brave New World and the Hard Work of Sadness

_{A society centered on pleasure has no place for mourning, and so has no room for love} _{Peter Biles

October 21, 2022

5

Arts & Culture, Science Fiction}

Ninety years ago, Aldous Huxley published his prophetic and incisive Brave New World (1932), a dystopian novel that imagines a society of people intoxicated and controlled, not by state power, but by pleasure. Whereas George Orwell predicted an inevitable totalitarian world government in his novel 1984 (penned in 1949), Huxley proposed that human beings wouldn’t need to be coerced into submission but could be coaxed by the allure of pain-erasing drugs. Both nightmarish visions of the future have already somewhat played out today in American society. The government set up the Disinformation Governance Board in April of 2022, which sounds eerily like the “Ministry of Truth” in Orwell’s 1984. (The board has since disbanded.) Tech companies can track us more Read More ›

closeup of old handwriting; vintage paper background

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Author
Peter Biles
Date
October 20, 2022

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture

Tagged
Artificial Intelligence, Creativity, Creativity and AI writing tools, fiction, Human exceptionalism, Language, poetry}

Shakespeare vs. AI: Who Wins?

_{AI fails to do justice to the full range and depth of human language} _{Peter Biles

October 20, 2022

4

Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture}

I’ve written a fair bit in the last month on the development of AI art tools, but what about language? AI, as you’re probably aware, is not only able to mimic artistic styles. Its developers also want it to generate words, and to all appearances, they are succeeding. If visual artists are in trouble, how are journalists, novelists, and academics implicated in the AI revolution? I have a background in English, literature, and creative writing, so naturally, this AI issue hits a bit closer to home. Suppose an AI program could compose a short story with the prose quality and cohesive style of Ernest Hemingway. Could AI eventually produce news content, thus substituting the human reporter or journalist? As it Read More ›

“Fluorite” - oil painting. Conceptual abstract picture of the eye. Oil painting in colorful colors. Conceptual abstract closeup of an oil painting and palette knife on canvas.

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Author
Peter Biles
Date
October 19, 2022

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture

Tagged
Artificial Intelligence, Beauty, Creativity, Featured, Human exceptionalism, Machines, visual art}

Human Artists and their AI Copycats

_{What will happen to actual artists if AI can mimic their styles?} _{Peter Biles

October 19, 2022

4

Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture}

Imagine you’re walking through a world-class art museum, and you come across Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers.” (Let’s assume someone hasn’t already thrown tomato soup on it.) The painting isn’t a replication. It’s not a copy of a copy of a copy. It’s the original canvas and paint, the direct object created by the artist himself, shaped by age, visited by thousands of admirers—it’s “vintage.” You stand there admiring the work of a past genius, and get a sense of its beauty and meaning in a whole new way. There’s something unique in witnessing “the real thing.” Why do people travel worldwide to look at Da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” when they can see a digital recreation through a Google search? Or why Read More ›

Retro wave, 80s. Old tv with antenna with neon light. Top view, minimalism

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Author
Jonathan Bartlett
Date
October 17, 2022

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Media

Tagged
Artificial Intelligence, film, media, Reality, TV shows}

The Graying of the Art — and AI — World

_{Why is so much modern media made up of rehashes and remakes?} _{Jonathan Bartlett

October 17, 2022

3

Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Media}

The world of popular art (TV, movies, etc.) has a problem. I would even go as far as to label it a crisis. The problem is that the art world is becoming increasingly derivative. There are some points where it is obviously derivative—every movie is a remake, and every TV show is a reboot. We are getting the same stories regurgitated instead of novelty. However, there are also more subtle ways that this is happening. TV comedies work largely by including inside jokes from previous TV shows. One of the most popular writers of the 20th century was Louis L’Amour. What I think made L’Amour’s stories so great is that he could draw from a vast amount of personal experience. He could write about a lot Read More ›

Mechanized industry robot and human worker working together in future factory . Concept of artificial intelligence for industrial revolution and automation manufacturing process .

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Author
Gary Varner
Date
October 15, 2022

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Science Fiction

Tagged
Charly (character in Orvilles 3), Dr. Finn (Orville character), Ed (character in Orvilles 3), Featured, Isaac (robot in Orvilles 3), LaMarr (character in Orvilles 3), Robot and emotional attachment, Seth MacFarlane}

Orville Episode 1: We Witness — a Robotic Resurrection!

_{In this final look at Episode 1 of Season Three, we see how love for a robot, unexamined, entails a loss of sense and meaning} _{Gary Varner

October 15, 2022

7

Arts & Culture, Science Fiction}

After I rolled my eyes for what felt like twenty minutes, waiting for the writers to quit wasting time with the whole “Isaac is really dead! We mean it!” routine, somebody finally realizes that there is a way to save the poor robot’s life. Apparently, the robot has a backup, of a backup, of a backup file buried deep inside his brain. The engineer, LaMarr, is fairly certain he can reconstruct Isaac’s programming using this secret backup file. If this sounds lazy and contrived to you, you’ll love this next part. Remember Charly, the girl who was super hateful to the robot at the beginning of the episode? Well, apparently, she is the newest high-ranking member in the crew, despite Read More ›

Lord of the Rings Pop Art Poster Concept Art

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Author
Peter Biles
Date
October 15, 2022

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Censorship}

Rings of Power: Is a Fascist Fandom Dragging It Down?

_{Lots of Tolkien fans dislike the new Amazon show. Does that make them fascists?} _{Peter Biles

October 15, 2022

5

Arts & Culture, Censorship}

Rings of Power has garnered harsh reviews since its release, and if you’ve been keeping up with my previous Rings of Power posts, you know where I stand: the show keeps me watching, but it’s a mixed bag. There are things to celebrate and aspects to critique. Many of the people I’ve talked to feel the same way. They enjoy the show but don’t think it compares to the grandeur of Peter Jackson’s interpretation of The Lord of the Rings, which at twenty years old, still stuns the ear and eye. Some media outlets, however, are accusing the disappointed fanbase of racism and misogyny. If you don’t like Rings of Power, it might mean you hate diversity and inclusion. Amazon Read More ›

NFT virtual land is an own-able area of digital land on a metaverse platform, NFT real estate is parcels of virtual land minted on the blockchain, conceptual illustration

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Author
Peter Biles
Date
October 12, 2022

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture

Tagged
Artificial Intelligence, Creativity, Future, Mark Zuckerberg, Metaverse (living in metaverse), Reality, Robert J. Marks, Technology, Virtual Reality, Wesley J. Smith}

The Danger of Deepfakes (and Deepcake)

_{In a metaverse world dominated by AI, life and art is in danger of being eclipsed} _{Peter Biles

October 12, 2022

4

Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture}

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other optimistic futurists think the metaverse is our collective future. We will exist in virtual nonexistence. We will eat, shop, worship, communicate, and marry in the metaverse. This is where progress is taking us. So, we’d best go along for the ride if we don’t want to get left behind. But “living” in a metaverse may be much more complicated than you might think. The question of identity, and who has the power to distribute identities at will, haunts the metaverse project, and there doesn’t seem to be an easy solution. In September, a Russian deepfake company called “Deepcake” (the name strangely makes me hungry for dessert) pasted the face of Bruce Willis on a Read More ›

White futuristic robot, crossed arms, unhappy face

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Author
Gary Varner
Date
October 8, 2022

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Psychology, Robotics, Science Fiction

Tagged
Dr. Finn (Orville character), Ed Mercer (Orville character), Featured, Isaac (Orville robot) vs. Data (Star Trek robot), Isaac (robot in Orvilles 3), Marcus (Orville character), Orvill Season Three Episode 1, Robots and moral accountability, Robots in science fiction (sentience issues), Stakes (emotional stakes in fiction)}

When a Robot Commits Suicide — an Elegy for What?

_{What’s frustrating about Episode 1 of Orville, Season Three is that robot Isaac’s claim to personhood is not ambiguous so much as confused and contradictory} _{Gary Varner

October 8, 2022

9

Arts & Culture, Psychology, Robotics, Science Fiction}

Last time, we began our review of The Orville, Season Three, by discussing the unorthodox relationship between Isaac, the ship’s token robot, and Dr. Claire Finn. The bottom line is that they were romantically involved until Isaac turned out to be a sleeper cell for his race of robots, the Kaylon, who controlled an entire planet. In a climactic moment, Isaac — because of his attachment to Dr. Finn’s son Ty — defeats his programming and saves the Orville. Unfortunately, however, in the battle between the Kaylon and the Union fleet, many Union soldiers were killed defeating the Kaylon — and most in the Orville’s crew have not forgotten it. Dr. Finn and Isaac’s relationship remains somewhat ambiguous. What feels Read More ›

Metaverse technology future concept. VR virtual digital reality cyber metaverse simulation Innovation connection global blockchain experiences network futuristic. 3d rendering.

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Author
News
Date
October 7, 2022

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Virtual Reality

Tagged
Audrey de Rancourt-Raymond, Bruce Willis deepfake, Deepcake, Deepfaked news, Maggie Harrison, Meta's Metaverse, Meta's Metaverse panned (2022), Metaverse as concept, Nadia Ismaili, Steven Levy, Twitter vs. Elon Musk}

How’s Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse Doing These Days?

_{That’s been quite the flop — but the world of virtual reality and avatars is mainstreaming quite rapidly} _{News

October 7, 2022

6

Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Virtual Reality}

Apple’s Tim Cook doesn’t think much of it, apparently. Billions of dollars later, lots of people don’t: As waves of critics pointed out, the design of this “immersive” world is astoundingly underwhelming. In the cursed screenshot, Zuck’s pasty, robotic avatar — the design of which is perhaps a half step above a Wii Mii — is pictured in front of a sparse, sad landscape upon which arbitrarily sized replicas of France’s Eiffel Tower and Spain’s Tibidabo Cathedral are uncomfortably plopped. Maggie Harrison, “Wave of criticism hits Zuckerberg’s Metaverse for looking like crap” at Futurism (August 17, 2021) It turns out, even employees who built it don’t use it. At Forbes, the Money columnist thinks the basic idea is the way Read More ›

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Author
News
Date
October 6, 2022

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Sports

Tagged
chess, Chess cheating, Chess vs. poker, Chess-playing computers, Ella Feldman, Hans Moke Niemann, Magnus Carlsen, Matteo Wong}

Elite World of Chess Rocked by Machine-Driven Scandal

_{A young player’s astonishing rise in the standings is linked to illegal use of a chess computer} _{News

October 6, 2022

4

Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Sports}

After withdrawing from matches in protest, on September 26, world champion Magnus Carlsen accused Hans Moke Niemann, a grandmaster at 19, of cheating. He described cheating in chess as “a big deal” and “an existential threat to the game.” How is it possible to cheat in elite chess and how is cheating detected? Well, in many matches, the moves are made online. Chess.com is a website that detects cheating by comparing players’ moves with those of powerful machines. As Ella Feldman explains at Smithsonian Magazine, the Wall Street Journal got hold of a 72-page report from Chess-com on the problem: Did a player make a critical move that aligns with what a chess engine might suggest? And if the answer Read More ›

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Author
Gary Varner
Date
October 1, 2022

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Robotics

Tagged
Featured, Isaac (robot in Orvilles 3), Orville Season 3, Orville vs. Star Trek}

Should We Love or Hate an Intelligent Robot? Or Care at All?

_{In Season 3 of Orville that becomes a serious question} _{Gary Varner

October 1, 2022

6

Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Robotics}

The Orville Season 3 was recommended to me by a reader. I recall seeing a large portion of the first season and enjoying it. I had not watched the second season until preparing for this series of reviews. Unfortunately, I must say at the outset that I found myself very disappointed in Season Three, ironically called New Horizons because it only retreads about half of Season Two. This latest season fell far short of my expectations which were based on my memories of the first season. Still, we’re going to take a look at each episode and see where the problems lie. Before beginning our review of the first episode, a little prologue is required. During the midpoint of the Read More ›

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Author
Peter Biles
Date
October 1, 2022

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Business and Finance

Tagged
Beauty, commercialism, Featured, Literature, Lord of the Rings, money, Story, Tolkien, Woke culture}

Tolkien’s for Sale

_{Commercializing the beloved epic fantasy comes at a cost} _{Peter Biles

October 1, 2022

4

Arts & Culture, Business and Finance}

What happens when a beloved fantasy world, once respected and celebrated because it soared above the surrounding fray of decadent literature and art, becomes mainstream? What if the very work that was intended to transcend consumerism becomes the object of mass consumption? Harley J. Sims, writing for MercatorNet, believes Amazon has diluted the characteristic beauty and depth of The Lord of the Rings for the sake of mass consumption and appeal. I’ve shared my own thoughts on the new Rings of Power show in two separate pieces (here and here) for Mind Matters already, but just to recap: the show is interesting and entertaining enough to keep watching, but it’s missing something—a moral and imaginative ingredient Tolkien articulated beautifully in Read More ›

hope, freedom, life, different, contrast concept, blue sky human with broken human, surreal and fantasy artwork, conceptual art, painting illustration, sadness and depression idea

^{Type
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Author
Peter Biles
Date
September 26, 2022

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture

Tagged
Artificial Intelligence, Creativity, Engineered Arts (robotics), human brain, Human exceptionalism, human uniqueness, mind}

Making Art Is Uniquely Human

_{While the architects of AI "art" tools like to think their technology can replace human creativity, the artistic impulse is uniquely human} _{Peter Biles

September 26, 2022

4

Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture}

In my last post, I wrote about a novelist who used a version of the AI art tool known as Stable Diffusion to gather images for a promotional website. She wanted erotic and violent elements in the artwork and found that other AI art tools included “guardrails” limiting access to graphic results. But if these images are disconnected from a human, imaginative process, can we say AI-generated results qualify as creative works? Artificial intelligence doesn’t only challenge our notions of what it means to be human. It also makes us wonder what it means to make art and whether human beings are the only agents capable of creating it. Walter Kirn addressed this question poignantly in a Substack essay. Kirn Read More ›