Category: Arts & Culture | Page 7

Humanoid robot artist painting a portrait on a canvas in an artist studio showing the concept of science and artificial intelligence technology, computer Generative AI stock illustration image

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News
Date
August 22, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture}

AI “Art” Can’t Be Copyrighted, Judge Rules

_{Copyright entails original, human creation, which AI images don't reflect} _{News
August 22, 2023

2

Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture}

A federal judge has ruled that AI-generated artwork can’t legally be attributed to the person who prompted the work, according to The Verge. AI-generated artwork systems like DALL-E and Midjourney, despite their impressive capabilities, have sparked debate and legal controversies regarding the rights of artists and whether AI images should be treated as independent and original creations. For United States District Court Judge Beryl A. Howell, AI art isn’t original and therefore can not be copyrighted. (RELATED: Will Stability AI Go Down in Court? | Mind Matters) In justifying her decision, Howell said that copyright always involves a human hand. Wes Davis reports, In her decision, Judge Howell wrote that copyright has never been granted to work that was “absent Read More ›

Black labyrinth background with dof focus

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Gary Varner
Date
August 19, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Science Fiction

Tagged
Arts and Culture, Dystopian, Gary Varner, Mazes, Robots, Western, Westworld}

Westworld Episode 10 Review (Part One)

_{The maze isn't the only thing that's hard to navigate in this episode.} _{Gary Varner
August 19, 2023

8

Arts & Culture, Science Fiction}

I’ll start out with the most irrelevant plot first because almost no screen time is devoted to it, and it amounts to nothing in the end anyway. Hale successfully convinces the Board to fire Ford, not that he really cares. But Hale has been convinced this entire time that Ford is going to delete the park’s data out of spite. So, after Theresa is killed, she enlists Sizemore, a jaded writer who works for the park, to smuggle the data out through one of the decommissioned robots. This plan doesn’t work; however, because all the robots wake up by the end of the episode, and the data is lost in the vengeful horde. So, it’s a plot point that goes Read More ›

Travelers together around the campfire, enjoying the fresh air near the tent under the Milky Way in the evening. Silhouettes of two adventurous people camping in the mountains under the starry sky.

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Peter Biles
Date
August 13, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture

Tagged
art, C.S. Lewis, ChatGPT, Consciousness, Creativity, fiction, Non-Computable You (book), OpenAI, Peter Biles, Plato, Rhetoric, Robert J. Marks, Salvo, Wheaton College, Writing}

Literature and Personal Consciousness: Why AI Can’t Speak to You

_{AI can never intend meaning like a human author can} _{Peter Biles
August 13, 2023

7

Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture}

One non-computable aspect of great literature is evident: a personal consciousness was responsible for creating it. Read More ›

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 12, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Censorship, Media, Politics

Tagged
George Orwell}

A Warning From the Unpublished Preface to Orwell’s Animal Farm

_{Only discovered in 1971, the Preface offers George Orwell’s critical but neglected insights into the nature of censorship in a free society} _{Denyse O'Leary
August 12, 2023

6

Arts & Culture, Censorship, Media, Politics}

Orwell noted that the intellectual censorship he encountered was spontaneous — not a campaign or conspiracy — just a sense that people shouldn’t read his work. Read More ›

The Flow of Time: A Close-Up Portrait of an Incomplete Humanoid Android Covered in White Porcelain Skin, Blue Eyes, and Glowing Internal Parts.

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Gary Varner
Date
August 12, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
AI, Dystopian, Gary Varner, HBO, Max, Movies and TV, Robots, Sci Fi, Science fiction, Westworld}

Westworld Episode 9 Review

_{Bernard learns the truth} _{Gary Varner
August 12, 2023

6

Arts & Culture}

Episode nine is fast paced, but if you’re paying attention, the grand twist is obvious, and I found it a little irritating. In the next review, we’ll discuss the conclusion of Westworld. Read More ›

ODESSA, UKRAINE - JULY 26, 2023: Barbie doll and barbie doll accessories concept

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Peter Biles
Date
August 7, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Transhumanism

Tagged
Cinema, Movies and TV, Oppenheimer, transhumanism}

Barbie: A Subtle Critique of Transhumanism?

_{Reviews for the new "Barbie" movie abound. But have most of them missed the point?} _{Peter Biles
August 7, 2023

3

Arts & Culture, Transhumanism}

Since its release in July, Barbie has proved as controversial as it has popular. Its joint release alongside Oppenheimer has had movie theaters across the country teeming with “Barbenheimer” fans, those zealous people who watched both movies on the same day in an unprecedented feat of pink glitz and existential dread. But what is Barbie about? Is it a takedown of the patriarchy, a gentle comedy, or something a bit more subtle and powerful? The reviews have ranged between harsh critique and lavish praise. With the flood of commentary, though, have most people missed a central and yet subtle point? Elayne Allen, writing for Public Discourse, offers an alternative interpretation of the movie which might have bypassed the imaginations of Read More ›

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Gary Varner
Date
August 5, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
AI, Arts and Culture, Gary Varner, mind matters, Movies and TV, Westworld}

Westworld: Episode 8 Review

_{Is misery the key to consciousness?} _{Gary Varner
August 5, 2023

7

Arts & Culture}

Episode 8 is one of the stronger episodes in the series. It starts with Bernard waking up after killing Theresa. Also horrified to realize he is a robot. Read More ›

Internet broadband and multimedia streaming entertainment

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Peter Biles
Date
August 3, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, David Foster Wallace, Entertainment, UnHerd}

Infinite Jest Revisited

_{The 1996 book by David Foster Wallace saw the Internet explosion, and its effects, approaching fast} _{Peter Biles
August 3, 2023

2

Arts & Culture}

If Aldous Huxley were born a few decades later, he and Wallace probably would have exchanged numbers. Read More ›

Atomic weapon. After the US bomber Enola Gay dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945. Generative AI

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Peter Biles
Date
July 29, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
Arts and Culture, Bhagavad Gita, China, Christopher Nolan, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Japan, Nazis, Oppenheimer, Russia, Soviet Union, World War II}

American Prometheus: Destroyer of Worlds

_{Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer" meets the hype and illustrates just how world-changing the atomic bomb was} _{Peter Biles
July 29, 2023

4

Arts & Culture}

“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” So goes a line from the Hindu sacred text Bhagavad Gita, quoted by none other than J. Robert Oppenheimer, the quantum physicist who headed up the development of the first atomic bomb during World War II. Christopher Nolan’s new film Oppenheimer hit theaters on July 21 and has given audiences a taste of why the “father of the atomic bomb” entertained that haunting, little phrase. Nolan hit this movie out of the park. With a star-studded cast, a juxtaposed and non-linear storytelling mode, and a beautiful soundtrack to boot, some critics are calling it the most important movie of the century. That might be because the production of the atom bomb Read More ›

Female robot face, Artificial intelligence concept. Generative AI

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Gary Varner
Date
July 29, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, Arts and Culture, Gary Varner, Science fiction, Westworld}

Westworld: Episode 7 Review

_{In which Theresa makes a terrible discovery} _{Gary Varner
July 29, 2023

6

Arts & Culture}

This episode begins with Bernard having a flashback of his son. It’s a very sad scene that turns out to be a dream sequence. After that, we follow Theresa to Hale’s apartment. Read More ›

Modern creative artwork, design. Contemporary art collage of young man playing drums isolated over colorful background. Concept of music lifestyle, jazz, rock, rock n roll, creativity, imagination

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Richard W. Stevens
Date
July 24, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
Muscle memory, music}

Inside the Mind of a Rock ‘n’ Roll Drummer

_{Delving into the thrilling, demanding world of professional drumming and the mind-body communication it requires} _{Richard W. Stevens
July 24, 2023

9

Arts & Culture}

Real drumming means non-stop, real-time, dynamic decisions and actions using complex information deployed via physical sticks and targets. Read More ›

Milky way in Utah over the Green River from Swasey's Beach.

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Gary Varner
Date
July 22, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, Arts and Culture, Consciousness, Movies and TV, Robots, Science fiction}

Westworld: Episode 6 Review

_{Maeve and the audience get some answers} _{Gary Varner
July 22, 2023

7

Arts & Culture}

In short, because the writers aren’t exactly sure how to explain the evolution of robot sentience, the viewers get mixed messages. Read More ›

Cyborg head using artificial intelligence to create digital interface 3D rendering

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Robert J. Marks
Date
July 20, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture

Tagged
AI, AI and sentience, Artificial Intelligence, Mission Impossible, Movies and TV, Robert J. Marks, Tom Cruise}

Mission Impossible: Don’t Bother Me With Facts

_{The Tom Cruise action movie is built on faulty AI assumptions, but it's still entertaining} _{Robert J. Marks
July 20, 2023

3

Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture}

Ever watch a movie with a movie-talker? That’s someone who ruins a show by talking out loud over the audio. More than once, my wife has asked me, “What did he just say?” I usually have no idea because I didn’t understand either. But her question talks over the next few lines of the movie so the interval of me not hearing the audio is prolonged. I occasionally watch a movie with a good friend Lou, a former police officer. Lou’s a movie-talker, especially when we watch police movies. He’ll interrupt the movie with nit-picky comments like: “That’s not a real shotgun. A real shotgun would kick back, and the barrel would angle up after each shot. There was no Read More ›

Defensive wall of the ancient holy Jerusalem

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News
Date
July 17, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
AI, hollywood, Writers Guild of America}

“The Chosen” Will Continue Despite Hollywood Strike

_{The show about the life of Jesus will get back to business} _{News
July 17, 2023

1

Arts & Culture}

Despite the actors’ strike, which was announced last Thursday, “The Chosen” series applied for a waiver and was granted quick approval. The show, which details the historical account of Jesus Christ and his band of disciples in ancient Israel, will resume filming this week. The news comes amid massive pushback against Hollywood. Actors, producers, and stunt-performers are joining the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and critiquing the movie industry for unfair wages and for failing to duly reckon with the threat of artificial intelligence (AI). Many blockbuster TV franchises will shut down production, after already being majorly delayed from the initial WGA strike, which began in early May. The cast for “Oppenheimer” left the film’s London premiere early in apparent Read More ›

JAN 1, 2019 - Los Angeles, CA USA - Los Angeles with Hollywood Sign at sunset seen from Kenneth Hahn Park, LA, CA

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News
Date
July 13, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, Arts and Culture, hollywood, Movies and TV, Oppenheimer, Strike, Writers Guild of America}

Actors Join Hollywood Strike

_{With 160,000 actors now on strike, Hollywood will effectively shut down.} _{News
July 13, 2023

1

Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture}

In a historic moment, over 160,000 TV and movie actors are joining scriptwriters in a Hollywood walkout, per the New York Times. The Writers Guild of America (WGA) initiated a strike in early May, demanding higher pay while expressing concern over the increasing role of artificial intelligence in TV writing. Now, actors are joining in with similar dissent. Brooke Barnes reports, The eyes of the world and, particularly, the eyes of labor are upon us,” Fran Drescher, the president of SAG-AFTRA, said. “What happens to us is important. What’s happening to us is happening across all fields of labor. When employers make Wall Street and greed their priority and they forget about the essential contributors who make the machine run, Read More ›

close up of dandelion on the blue background

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Peter Biles
Date
July 9, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
Arts and Culture, Cormac McCarthy, fiction, Santa Fe Institute, Scientific American, Stella Maris, The Passenger}

Cormac McCarthy’s Love for Science and Mathematics

_{His interest in science and mathematics were not extraneous hobbies but performed a strong role in the fiction he wrote} _{Peter Biles
July 9, 2023

2

Arts & Culture}

The late novelist Cormac McCarthy passed away on June 13th in Santa Fe, leaving a legacy of fictional works grappling with fate, masculine alienation, and the possibility of a transcendent reality. McCarthy’s two last books, The Passenger and Stella Maris, which are intended to be read together, are about a brother and sister who are both brilliant mathematicians, and whose father helped craft the atomic bomb with the Manhattan Project. McCarthy’s work is haunted both by a bleak fatalism and glimpses of an enduring reality beyond the merely physical. His interest in science and mathematics were not extraneous hobbies; they performed a strong role in the fiction he wrote. Nick Romeo writes at Scientific American, Science is also a source Read More ›

Summer Storm, Monument Valley, Navajo Nation, Utah, USA

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Gary Varner
Date
July 8, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
Arts and Culture, Fantasy, HBO, Nihilism, Robots, Science fiction, Westworld}

Westworld: Episode 4 Review

_{If nothing matters, then why are we doing this?} _{Gary Varner
July 8, 2023

7

Arts & Culture}

Episode three spent a great deal of time simply building the characters and world but had one good scene that explored some interesting ideas about consciousness. Episode Four has a lot more action and much less depth. It does; however, feed us some nihilistic nonsense along the way, and I couldn’t help but wonder why. In the first scene, we return to a glass room where Bernard is once again talking to Dolores. She expresses concern about her world, and this seems to be the first time Bernard has heard her communicating thoughts that are somewhat independent of her programming. So, he gives her a wooden toy he calls The Maze and tells her that if she can find the Read More ›

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News
Date
July 6, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture

Tagged
Acton Institute, AI, Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, Google, HBO, hollywood, Lawsuits, Movies and TV, Writers Guild of America}

Maybe Hollywood Had it Coming?

_{When TV production becomes this mechanical and impersonal, why shouldn't studios opt for AI?} _{News
July 6, 2023

2

Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture}

The writers’ strike in Hollywood continues. In May, the Writers Guild of America started protesting low wages and the potential threat of artificially generated scripts. Large Language Models (LLMs) have only improved in generating text, raising concerns among writers. However, according to an insightful article from Auguste Meyrat of the Acton Institute, Hollywood has been developing a culture that welcomes AI-generated content with its tendency to pressure writers to fit a formulaic narrative structure instead of encouraging them to pursue real creativity and collaboration. Meyrat writes, All this virtually guarantees the use of AI-generated screenplays. After all, if producing a movie is now effectively the same as producing a widget on an assembly line, the human element can be dispensed Read More ›

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News
Date
July 5, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
Frankenstein, hollywood, Mary Shelley, Movies and TV, Science fiction, transhumanism}

The Modern-Day “Frankenstein” Is Coming

_{"Poor Things," starring Emma Stone, is about a girl brought back to life. Ring a bell?} _{News
July 5, 2023

1

Arts & Culture}

The movie Poor Things, starring Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, and Mark Ruffalo, is the story of an “unorthodox” scientist who brings a girl, Bella Baxter (Stone), back to life. Baxter must learn how to navigate the world given her unwieldy demeanor and the uncoordinated connection between her brain and body. It looks to be a pretty close re-interpretation of Mary Shelley’s classic science fiction novel Frankenstein. Whether it will get even close to investigating Shelley’s key questions and insights remains to be seen, of course. Interestingly, the scientist (Dafoe) has a deformed face that looks like it was stitched together piece by piece, similar to popular renderings of Frankenstein’s monster. You can watch the trailer here:

Abstract creative illustration from 3D rendering of female bust figure with flat anonymous face isolated on gradient background in vaporwave style colors.

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Peter Biles
Date
July 2, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture

Tagged
AI, Facial Recognition, Instagram, metaverse, Nautilus, social media, TikTok, Virtual Reality}

Blurring the Lines Between Fantasy and Reality

_{A "Black Mirror" episode illustrates the danger of seeing the world through an AI filter} _{Peter Biles
July 2, 2023

3

Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture}

The dystopian Netflix show Black Mirror featured an episode a few years ago about soldiers tasked with wiping out an apparently mutant adversary. In reality, the soldiers are seeing the world through an AI filter that is casting ordinary human beings as despicable monsters. The AI lessens their hesitations to kill the enemy. An article at Nautilus cited a research group that’s asking how much of that horrifying story could potentially unfold in real time, or is already happening to a certain extent in today’s culture. Social media apps like Snapchat, TikTok, and Instagram already use face altering techniques in their apps, allowing users to curate idealized images of themselves. But what happens when, as in the Black Mirror episode, Read More ›