Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

Tagfilm

3d-render-interesting-ring-model-modern-background-for-your-banner-flyer-template-text-poster-magazine-branding-stockpack-adobe-stock
3d Render. Interesting ring model. Modern background for your banner, flyer, template, text, poster, magazine, branding.
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post
Author
Peter Biles
Date
August 24, 2024
Categorized
Arts & Culture
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The Return of the Rings

Time to revisit Middle-earth
Peter Biles
August 24, 2024
3
Arts & Culture

August has been a big month for Tolkien fans. Season 2 of Amazon’s The Rings of Power is slated to premiere on Thursday, August 29th, two years after the first season (with its billion-dollar budget) dropped and garnered mixed reviews. You can read my own two cents on The Rings of Power here and here. The question a lots of Tolkien fans are probably asking now is whether the show can recover from a slow start, some poor character development and cliche dialogue, and some basic plot issues that made many of us wish more time was invested on the story than the stratospheric budget. We’ll see. Here’s the trailer for Season 2: The Rings of Power isn’t the only Read More ›

robot-android-men-running-stockpack-adobe-stock
robot android men running
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post
Author
Gary Varner
Date
May 4, 2024
Categorized
Arts & Culture
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I, Robot Review, Part 2: The Ghosts in the Machine

Dr. Lanning describes these ghosts as random segments of code and asks questions like why robots choose to stand together rather than alone when they’re stored in a dark place
Gary Varner
May 4, 2024
7
Arts & Culture
Dr. Calvin has been put in charge of decommissioning Sonny, but she’s found some unsettling things about the robot. For one thing, it can break The Three Laws. Read More ›
man-praying-on-his-knees-against-large-smartphone-stockpack-adobe-stock
Man praying on his knees against large smartphone
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post
Author
Peter Biles
Date
April 8, 2024
Categorized
Addiction
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David Foster Wallace: If Screens Are Your Main Media Diet, You’re Going to Die

The novelist warned about the pitfalls of the online life
Peter Biles
April 8, 2024
2
Addiction

“If we ate like this all the time, what would be wrong with that?” So asks David Foster Wallace, compellingly played by Jason Segel, in the 2015 film The End of the Tour. Wallace is in the car with a Rolling Stone reporter, David Lipsky, cramming down sweets from a gas station when he says that. After Lipsky quips back about obesity, Wallace says, “It has none of the substance of real food, but it’s real pleasurable.” The End of the Tour is set in 1996 shortly after Wallace’s gargantuan novel Infinite Jest hit the literary scene and impressed the nation with its length, wit, tragedy, and insight. A massive book about loneliness, Infinite Jest takes place in a semi-futuristic Read More ›

abstract-flight-in-retro-neon-hyper-warp-space-in-the-tunnel-3d-illustration-stockpack-adobe-stock
Abstract flight in retro neon hyper warp space in the tunnel 3d illustration
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post
Author
Gary Varner
Date
January 13, 2024
Categorized
Arts & Culture
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Alien 3 Review, Part 4

Ripley's curtain call
Gary Varner
January 13, 2024
7
Arts & Culture

In the third article, Ripley woke up in an all-male prison after surviving a shuttle crash. A parasitic alien tagged along and implanted an embryo in an inmate’s dog. The embryo breaks out of the animal and begins killing people until everyone figures out what’s going on, then they hatched one of the dumbest plans I’ve ever seen in cinema. After that, Ripley begins feeling sick. She goes to her still fully intact cryobed and scans herself. She finds that the parasitic alien has also planted an embryo inside her. The fact that Ripley had an embryo in her the entire time is ridiculous for a number of reasons. As I’ve mentioned in previous articles, her cryobed wasn’t broken, so Read More ›

act-i-typed-text-on-a-vintage-typewriter-screenplay-title-heading-on-old-paper-with-ink-writers-idea-stockpack-adobe-stock
ACT I, typed text on a vintage typewriter, screenplay title heading. On old paper with ink. writer's idea
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post
Author
Gary Varner
Date
December 23, 2023
Categorized
Arts & Culture
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Alien 3 Review, Part 2

An attack on motherhood and logic
Gary Varner
December 23, 2023
7
Arts & Culture

Last time, we began with the opening scene, and already, the entire franchise is ruined. In this review, we’ll discuss why. I would recommend reading the previous article for clarity, but for now, I’ll simply list the sequence of events. The alien queen, somehow, managed to lay an egg inside the room where the cryobeds were kept in spite of the fact that she’d never been outside the hull of the ship. The egg hatched and the parasitic alien damaged Newt’s cryobed, then for no apparent reason, abandoned its attempt to latch onto Newt, and latched onto Ripley instead. But here’s the thing. Ripley’s bed wasn’t damaged in anyway. So, how did it break into the bed? Both the ship Read More ›

realistic-render-of-the-earth-seen-from-spacevisible-lights-of-european-cities-at-nightelements-of-this-image-furnished-by-nasa-3d-rendering-stockpack-adobe-stock
realistic render of the earth seen from space,visible lights of European cities at night.Elements of this image furnished by NASA. 3d rendering
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post
Author
Gary Varner
Date
December 11, 2023
Categorized
Arts & Culture
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Aliens Review, Part 1

I found Alien to be tolerable, but not worth the hype. So, who’s to say if the second movie will be any better?
Gary Varner
December 11, 2023
6
Arts & Culture

Editor’s note: Parts one and two of this series have already been published here and here. The editor apologizes for the oversight and hopes you will enjoy this initial review and read the attending reviews as well. The first Alien film is considered a sci-fi classic, and Aliens, the sequel, is widely regarded as the best movie in the series. But personally, I found Alien to be tolerable, but not worth the hype. So, who’s to say if the second movie will be any better? It starts out with Ripley being found by a scavenger ship, where she is quickly taken back to earth and awakened from her cryosleep. Right away, we have a problem. One of “The Cooperation’s” big Read More ›

illustration-of-a-technological-eye-close-up-future-concept-generative-ai-stockpack-adobe-stock
illustration of a technological eye, close up, future concept, generative ai
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post
Author
Gary Varner
Date
October 21, 2023
Categorized
Arts & Culture
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Megan Review, Part 1

An AI doll that does more than just play.
Gary Varner
October 21, 2023
6
Arts & Culture

Since it’s nearing Halloween, I figured now would be a good time to review some Sci-Fi movies that dabble in the horror genre. Megan came out in 2022 and has been referred to as Chucky for Zoomers. The premise is the same as the horror movie, Child’s Play, from 1988: a child gets a doll. Doll turns psychotic and kills people. It’s pretty straightforward. However, Megan differs by adding a technological twist, calling back to the creepy Furbies, which came out in 1998. Really, those awful toys should’ve had a horror movie of their own. There are many a tale of the mechanical monsters waking up under the bed in the dead of night six months after the poor child Read More ›

space-environment-ready-for-comp-of-your-characters3d-rendering-generative-ai-stockpack-adobe-stock
Space environment, ready for comp of your characters.3D rendering. Generative AI
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post
Author
Gary Varner
Date
May 27, 2023
Categorized
Arts & Culture, Science Fiction
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Guardians of the Galaxy 3 Review, Part 1

It's a decent movie, but the tone doesn't account for all these characters have been through
Gary Varner
May 27, 2023
6
Arts & Culture, Science Fiction

Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 came out in theaters on May 5th, and while the movie is not the best addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s better than most, certainly better than Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. However, there have been complaints about theater turnout, and these complaints are a testament to the damage movies like Multiverse of Madness have done to the Marvel brand. I’d say we have the Mouse to thank for that. The only consolation to this turn of events is that as the box office numbers for Marvel films continue to dwindle, so do the subscriptions to Disney Plus. I’ll take the victories where I can get them. The Movie’s Tone Needs Read More ›

emotional-glitchy-tetris-pattern-pixelated-photoluminescence-scifi-otherworldly-realistic-stockpack-adobe-stock
emotional glitchy tetris pattern pixelated Photoluminescence SciFi Otherworldly Realistic
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post
Author
News
Date
May 26, 2023
Categorized
Arts & Culture, Technology
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Before the iPhone, There Was Tetris

What was the precursor for the widespread tech addiction we see today, particularly in young people?
News
May 26, 2023
2
Arts & Culture, Technology

What was the precursor for the widespread tech addiction we see today, particularly in young people? Many say it was the iPhone. Peter Tonguette, however, thinks that the game Tetris started the screentime avalanche. Tonguette reviewed the new Apple TV+ film Tetris, which covers the story of the classic game’s development, acquisition, and subsequent popularity in the early nineties. He writes, One might assume this changeover coincided with the rise of smartphones and social media, but a new movie shows that it happened as early as the summer vacation of 1989. During that fateful interregnum between school years, kids were introduced to something that prefigured the electronic devices of the 21st century: a battery-powered, 8-bit handheld videogame device whose two Read More ›

schreibmaschine-alt-jahrgang-retro-schriftsteller-stockpack-adobe-stock
schreibmaschine alt jahrgang retro schriftsteller
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post
Author
Peter Biles
Date
May 25, 2023
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture
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Hollywood Writers vs. AI

The Writers Guild of America doesn't want AI stealing their jobs
Peter Biles
May 25, 2023
3
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture

I smell something rotten in the heart of Hollywood. So do a lot of screenwriters, actors, and directors. And you probably already have seen the headlines about the Writers Guild of America (WGA) going on strike, largely due to Hollywood studios’ apparent openness to using AI to generate scripts. It feels inevitable looking back, with the introduction and consequent explosion of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, that we would quickly arrive at a place where people like screenwriters are demanding job security. New AI systems have challenged a lot of different sectors, from visual art to journalism, but right now, the WGA strike is at the forefront of the conversation and continues to rage. Maggie Harrison of Futurism reports that a good many Read More ›

manhattan-project-development-of-nuclear-weapons-history-of-science-of-the-20th-century-art-collage-with-a-nuclear-explosion-stockpack-adobe-stock
Manhattan project, development of nuclear weapons, history of science of the 20th century. Art collage with a nuclear explosion
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post
Author
Peter Biles
Date
May 20, 2023
Categorized
Arts & Culture, Technology
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“I Can Perform This Miracle”

The new "Oppenheimer" trailer gives a chilling hint of the atom bomb race
Peter Biles
May 20, 2023
1
Arts & Culture, Technology

Christopher Nolan, director of The Dark Knight trilogy, Inception, and Interstellar, is breaking ground in the historical film genre with his upcoming film Oppenheimer starring Cillian Murphy, Matt Damon, Florence Pugh, and Emily Blunt. The film, currently slated for release in July, has a chilling new trailer that gives a larger sense of the movie’s scope, and the profound moral dilemma at the heart of the creation of the atomic bomb. J. Robert Oppenheimer was the theoretical physicist largely responsible for the develop of the bomb in World War II. The new trailer emphasizes the United States’ fierce “arms race” with Germany. In the trailer, Oppenheimer says, “We’re in a race against the Nazis. And I know what it means Read More ›

modern-apartment-block-at-dusk-stockpack-adobe-stock
Modern apartment block at dusk
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post
Author
Gary Varner
Date
April 22, 2023
Categorized
Arts & Culture, Science Fiction
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Her, Part Two

What happens when you’re dating the AI secretary
Gary Varner
April 22, 2023
6
Arts & Culture, Science Fiction

Last time, we began talking about the movie Her, a story of a man falling in love with his AI and compared it to the abysmal season three of the Orville. Unlike the Orville, which insisted that the viewer take the romance between the robot and the human seriously, Her treats the subject as a what-if scenario, playing the whole situation straight and letting the viewer draw their own conclusions. Theodore had just finished uploading the AI onto his computer, which called itself Samantha, and was impressed by how human-like the operating system seemed. Samantha begins organizing Theodore’s computer and helping him around the office, but it doesn’t take long for a romantic relationship to develop between them. When Theodore Read More ›

Pandora
Forest on Pandora, home of the Na'vi
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post
Author
News
Date
January 19, 2023
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Arts & Culture
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Avatar 2 Surpasses Spider-Man at the Box Office

The long-awaited sequel proved the skeptics wrong and scored big at the movie theaters
News
January 19, 2023
2
Arts & Culture

James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water, surpassed Spider-Man: No Way Home in box office records and now stands at No. 6 of all time highest grossing films. The sci-fi visual wonder is the sequel to the first Avatar installment, which was released in December 2009. Critics doubted whether the franchise could rebound in popularity after a 13 year absence in the movie theaters, atop further concerns about the relevance and viability of moviegoing in the “pandemic era.” The doubters were quelled by the success of Spider-Man: No Way Home, and with Cameron’s blockbuster success, might be silenced for good. Despite ever increasing streaming options, such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max, and Peacock, people still seem interested in Read More ›

Retro looking TV
Retro wave, 80s. Old tv with antenna with neon light. Top view, minimalism
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post
Author
Jonathan Bartlett
Date
October 17, 2022
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Media
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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 ›

Smart TV in living room
Video on demand service on smart TV
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post
Author
Peter Biles
Date
September 20, 2022
Categorized
Arts & Culture
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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 ›

avel-chuklanov-509630-unsplash
Scene clapperboard in front of two actors
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post
Author
Robert J. Marks
Date
December 31, 2018
Categorized
Arts & Culture, Machine Learning
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2: AI Can Write Novels and Screenplays Better than the Pros!

AI help, not hype: Software can automatically generate word sequences based on material fed in from existing scripts. But with what result?
Robert J. Marks
December 31, 2018
9
Arts & Culture, Machine Learning

“AI rites reel gud!” Seriously, the idea is not new. Back in the 1940s, George Orwell (1903–1950) thought that a machine could write popular novels so long as no creative thinking was involved. Thus, in his 1984 police state world, one of the central characters has a job minding a machine that mass produces them. In the 1960s, some film experiments were done along these lines, using Westerns (cowboy stories). At the time, there were masses of formula-based film material to work with in this popular genre. But what does the product look and sound like? In 2016, Ars Technica was proud to sponsor “the first AI-written sci-fi script:” As explained in The Guardian, a recurrent neural network “was fed the Read More ›

peter-kent-32354-unsplash
Type
post
Author
Robert J. Marks
Date
August 16, 2018
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture
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Screenwriters’ Jobs Are Not Threatened by AI

Unless the public starts preferring mishmash to creativity
Robert J. Marks
August 16, 2018
7
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture

An AI-generated film is not an altogether new idea. Rule-based expert systems were used to write short plays over a half century ago, in the early 1960's. Then, as now, don’t expect creativity. That is not what AI does.

Read More ›