Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

TagScience fiction

wyoming glory
Grand Tetons peak at sunrise with snake river overlook in Wyoming, US
Type
post
Author
Gary Varner
Date
March 25, 2023
Categorized
Arts & Culture, Science Fiction
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The Last of Us, Episode 6

A tale of zombies and...communism?
Gary Varner
March 25, 2023
10
Arts & Culture, Science Fiction

Episode six starts out strong. We meet an elderly couple who has been living alone in Wyoming. Joel and Ellie break into their cabin and ask for directions in the rudest way possible—at gun point—which is a little over the top, and even the actors playing the couple seem to know it. As Joel sits beside the old pair, holding a gun and acting dour, the elderly man chats with him, sporting a bemused grin. Joel and Ellie get the directions they need and soon come across a group of men and women on horseback who hold them at gunpoint and check to see if they’re infected. Once it becomes clear that Joel and Ellie are fine, the riders ask Read More ›

surface of venus
The surface of Venus, the irregularities of the planet. Elements of this image furnished by NASA
Type
post
Author
Peter Biles
Date
March 23, 2023
Categorized
Arts & Culture
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C.S. Lewis and Science Fiction

Sci-fi can reveal that you don't necessarily need to visit Mars to find the bizarre and beautiful
Peter Biles
March 23, 2023
4
Arts & Culture

The 20th-century intellectual, novelist, poet, and popular theologian C.S. Lewis was a rare bird. He spent most of his life embedded in the academic world, to which he contributed greatly, but was also a lover of fairy tales and the dystopian. His long-held affection for fantasy and science fiction led him to write some of the most popular fictional works in recent memory, most notably The Chronicles of Narnia and what’s commonly known as the “space trilogy,” though Lewis himself objected to the term “space” as an adequate descriptor of what he viewed as a vibrant and meaningful cosmos. In a more obscure Lewis title, Of Other Worlds, Lewis writes of his appreciation for science fiction and what makes the Read More ›

underground tunnel
Generative AI illustration of underground sewer tunnel
Type
post
Author
Gary Varner
Date
March 22, 2023
Categorized
Arts & Culture
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The Last of Us, Episode 5

The show is back on track and improving
Gary Varner
March 22, 2023
10
Arts & Culture

At the end of Episode four, Joel was being held a gunpoint by a mysterious child. We also saw that Ellie was being held at gunpoint by another man as well, but before episode five reveals what has become of them, the writers first give us a flashback, explaining how the child holding Joel at gunpoint, whose name turns out to be Sam, and the man holding Ellie at gunpoint, Henry, the same Henry Kathleen has been chasing, came to find Joel and Ellie in the first place. The two brothers were on the run after FEDRA fell to Kathleen’s resistance movement. Henry was an informant for FEDRA, and he snitched on Kathleen’s brother, who was the former leader of Read More ›

looking-upward-the-sky-stockpack-adobe-stock
looking upward the sky
Type
post
Author
Gary Varner
Date
March 15, 2023
Categorized
Arts & Culture
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The Last of Us, Episode 3 (Part 2)

Why were we subjected to this episode if it wasn’t going to contribute to the narrative?
Gary Varner
March 15, 2023
6
Arts & Culture

Last time, we discussed how episode three started out relatively strong then unexpectedly shifted to another story altogether. It’s important to note that we are not watching a ten-minute flashback or some b-plot involving a couple of supporting characters. Almost all of the episode is devoted to Bill and Frank, and frankly, their story goes nowhere. As I mentioned before, the subject of this random entry into the series is Bill and Frank’s romantic relationship, and given the fact that this little deviation from the source material contributes nothing to the plot as a whole, it is strongly suspected that the only reason the writers chose to tell this story was to gain the admiration of critics who share their Read More ›

wallpaper-of-cordyceps-fungi-realistic-detail-photo-macro-illustration-like-the-movie-the-last-of-us-stockpack-adobe-stock
Wallpaper of cordyceps fungi, realistic detail photo macro, illustration, like the movie the last of us,
Type
post
Author
Gary Varner
Date
March 13, 2023
Categorized
Arts & Culture, Science Fiction
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The Last of Us, Episode 3 (Part I)

This episode serves as a bad omen when it comes to writers’ willingness to stick to the script
Gary Varner
March 13, 2023
6
Arts & Culture, Science Fiction

In episode two, Tess sacrifices herself after being bitten, and in episode three, we find Joel and Ellie grieving over her death. This scene is another example of the actors overplaying the anger when the tone should be more somber. Joel is hesitant to talk to Ellie until Ellie insists that Tess’s death wasn’t her fault, and that Joel and Tess made their own choices. Now, there isn’t anything wrong with the scene necessarily, but in the first two episodes, it’s already apparent that the HBO adaptation is having a difficult time establishing the father-daughter dynamic between Ellie and Joel that the game is known for. This scene only adds to that problem. However, this might not be an issue Read More ›

brain-psychology-mind-soul-and-hope-concept-art-3d-illustration-surreal-artwork-imagination-painting-conceptual-idea-stockpack-adobe-stock
Brain psychology mind soul and hope concept art, 3d illustration, surreal artwork, imagination painting, conceptual idea
Type
post
Author
News
Date
March 9, 2023
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence
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Blake Lemoine and Robert J. Marks on the Mind Matters Podcast

Marks and Lemoine discuss sentience in AI and the question of the soul
News
March 9, 2023
1
Artificial Intelligence

Robert J. Marks, director of the Walter Bradley Center for Natural & Artificial Intelligence, sat down with former Google employee Blake Lemoine, who made headlines last year when he claimed AI can be “sentient.” The claim also led to his departure from Google. The two had a fascinating conversation, to say the least. In today’s episode, they discuss whether AI can indeed become sentient, the non-computability of certain human traits, and the question of the soul. Marks and Lemoine couldn’t differ more on these fundamental points. Whereas Lemoine thinks AI can be sentient, Marks firmly rejects such a notion. In addition, Lemoine’s materialistic worldview controls his understanding of the brain, while Marks defends the existence of the immaterial mind. While Read More ›

man-and-girl-in-post-apocalyptic-city-the-last-of-us-style-generative-ai-stockpack-adobe-stock
Man and girl in post apocalyptic city. The last of us style. Generative AI.
Type
post
Author
Gary Varner
Date
March 4, 2023
Categorized
Arts & Culture, Science Fiction
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The Last of Us Review: Episode 2

A rather slow episode despite the sonar zombies
Gary Varner
March 4, 2023
6
Arts & Culture, Science Fiction

Last time, we looked at the first episode of The Last of Us and talked about how it was well written, but if you are aware of the controversy surrounding this game and its sequel, then you know bad things are on the horizon. Once we reach episode two, the writing quality drops a little but not much. It’s still pretty good, at least, when it’s consistent with the source material. Ellie wakes up to find Joel and Tess staring at her with a loaded gun. Her guardians are having a hard time believing that she is not infected with the virus despite the fact that her wound has healed. There is a brief debate about whether or not to Read More ›

dinosaur-fossil-tyrannosaurus-rex-found-by-archaeologists-stockpack-adobe-stock
Dinosaur Fossil (Tyrannosaurus Rex) Found by Archaeologists
Type
post
Author
Gary Varner
Date
February 25, 2023
Categorized
Science Fiction
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Jurassic World: Dominion Part 4

A bad movie that makes an okay end to the franchise. But does it actually end here?
Gary Varner
February 25, 2023
7
Science Fiction

After Owen and Kayla survive a plane crash, they begin their search for Claire, evading yet another hungry dinosaur without so much as a limp. What follows is a sequence of random dinosaur encounters, each scene driven by a series of coincidences because all our characters are scattered throughout the valley, and we need them to get together somehow. The most egregious of these coincidences comes when our entire main cast finally meets. Ellie, Alan, and Maisie are on an underground train to an airport, but the bad guy, Dodgson, discovers what they’ve done and turns the train off. This forces them to wander through a series of caves, but they eventually escape with the help of Ian. They drive Read More ›

image-of-robot-book-dark-background-stockpack-adobe-stock
image of robot book dark background
Type
post
Author
News
Date
February 22, 2023
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture
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Separating Fact from Fiction?

This sci-fi journal is being flooded with A.I. generated submissions
News
February 22, 2023
2
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture

The major science fiction/fantasy magazine Clarkesworld recently announced that it will be closing submissions for the foreseeable future. Why? A.I. generated stories. The magazine has long been the recipient of open submissions and is interested in publishing new voices, but because of an influx of poor A.I. written works, is now overwhelmed. Editor Neil Clarke wrote on Twitter, “Submissions are currently closed. It shouldn’t be hard to guess why.” Clarke said the closure wouldn’t be definite, but also noted with some severity that this will be an ongoing problem and that there’s no evident solution in sight at the moment. He continued in the Twitter thread: We have some ideas for minimizing it, but the problem isn’t going away. Detectors Read More ›

ellie in last of us
modern concept artwork of a person wandering through an abandoned apocalyptic city overgrown by plants
Type
post
Author
Gary Varner
Date
February 17, 2023
Categorized
Science Fiction
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The Last of Us Review (Part 1)

From a writing standpoint, the story in episode one is about as tight and well-written as one can expect, but will they maintain that standard going forward?
Gary Varner
February 17, 2023
7
Science Fiction

HBO Max has begun airing the series The Last of Us, which is based on one of the most popular video games to come out in recent years. However, if you’ve followed the video game series, then you know there’s a part two, and The Last of Us Part 2 has become known as one of the most infamous bait and switches in video game history. So, needless to say, there was a great amount of suspicion directed at this series before it ever aired. That makes reviewing this first episode rather difficult because the truth of the matter is that the episode is good. From a writing standpoint, it is solid. There are no plot holes or contrivances of Read More ›

dino eye
Dinosaur eye, Closeup yellow eye of the dinosaurs with terrifying. Dinosaur hunters are staring with horrible yellow eye. Generative AI
Type
post
Author
Gary Varner
Date
February 11, 2023
Categorized
Science Fiction
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Jurassic World: Dominion Review Part 2

Incorporating characters from the original movies gives continuity to the franchise
Gary Varner
February 11, 2023
7
Science Fiction

In the previous review, the clone daughter of one of the engineers from the first Jurassic Park, who was being protected by Claire and Owen from the first two movies of the second trilogy, was kidnapped, and her surrogate parents enlisted the help of the CIA to track her down. At the same time, Ellie Sattler and Alan Grant, our heroes from the first trilogy, suspect the international cooperation, Biosyn, of creating genetically altered locusts to eat their competition’s crops. Another survivor of the first Jurassic Park incident, Ian Malcolm, is working for Biosyn, and he has offered to allow them access to the cooperation’s secret lab. Ellie and Alan fly to Biosyn, where they find that many of the Read More ›

T-Rex side profile
Tyrannosaurus Rex close up on dark background. - Image
Type
post
Author
Gary Varner
Date
February 4, 2023
Categorized
Science Fiction
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Jurassic World: Dominion Review Part 1

Too many unanswered questions and gaping plot holes in the grand finale
Gary Varner
February 4, 2023
6
Science Fiction

Like so many kids in my generation, one of the things that prompted my interest in science was the iconic movie, Jurassic Park, and also, like so many kids of my generation, Jurassic Park Three left me furious. Once the dinosaurs started talking, I was out. Then came Jurassic World, and I was left unimpressed but unoffended, so I called it good enough. And the last movie in the second trilogy left me in a similar boat. It fixed one of the big issues I had with Jurassic Park Three, so I can’t really say this is a bad movie. That being said, it is an excellent example of bad writing. The problem with the film is that it’s convoluted, Read More ›

galaxy quest tunnel
flying into tunnel, sci-fi spaceship corridor. Futuristic technology abstract seamless for tech titles and background. graphic network, big data, data center, server, internet, speed. 3D render
Type
post
Author
Gary Varner
Date
January 28, 2023
Categorized
Science Fiction
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Galaxy Quest Review Part 2: The Show Goes On

The movie isn't perfect, but it's fun, and definitely better than The Orville Season Three...
Gary Varner
January 28, 2023
6
Science Fiction

Last time, we began our review of Galaxy Quest, a true parody of Star Trek. In the previous review, we’d ended with Jason Nesmith encountering a group of aliens which had mistaken the campy television show called Galaxy Quest for a record of Earth’s history, and therefore, had modeled their technology after the tv show. The cast found it impossible to explain to the aliens that they were actors and must now find a way to stop Sarris, the alien threatening to wipe out this race which has asked for their help called the Thermians. Jason and the rest of the cast are led to the bridge to negotiate with Sarris, who, of course, does not wish to surrender at Read More ›

Pandora
Forest on Pandora, home of the Na'vi
Type
post
Author
News
Date
January 19, 2023
Categorized
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 ›

aerial-view-of-frankenstein-castle-in-southern-hesse-germany-stockpack-adobe-stock
Aerial view of Frankenstein Castle in southern Hesse, Germany
Type
post
Author
Peter Biles
Date
January 7, 2023
Categorized
Arts & Culture, Transhumanism
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The Prophecies of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

Andrew Klavan explores the world of the Romantics in new book and finds special insight in Shelley’s classic horror story
Peter Biles
January 7, 2023
4
Arts & Culture, Transhumanism

Andrew Klavan, acclaimed novelist and host of the Andrew Klavan Show at the Daily Wire, wrote a book about his profound encounters with the Romantics of the 19th century, called The Truth and Beauty: How the Lives and Works of England’s Greatest Poets Point the Way to a Deeper Understanding of the Words of Jesus. The Romantics include literary figures like Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, and John Keats. While it’s common to highlight the Romantics’ veneration of nature, they were also living in the throes of the Enlightenment, in which atheistic materialism was becoming a minority alternative to theism. Klavan writes, “The wonderful success of science at explaining the material world threatens to create in scientists a bias towards Read More ›

lonely human
Lonely Human with water reflection, emotion, sadness loneliness, depression, mental health, fantasy painting, surreal illustration
Type
post
Author
Peter Biles
Date
October 21, 2022
Categorized
Arts & Culture, Science Fiction
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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 ›

futuristid dystopian city
Dystopian futuristic cyberpunk city at night in a neon haze. Blue and purple glowing neon lights. Urban wallpaper. 3D illustration.
Type
post
Author
Peter Biles
Date
September 22, 2022
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture
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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 ›

Boy running through flying books
boy standing on the opened book and looking at other books floating in the air, digital art style, illustration painting
Type
post
Author
Peter Biles
Date
September 14, 2022
Categorized
Arts & Culture
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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 ›

fantasy-landscape-with-fog-water-and-stone-stockpack-adobe-stock
Fantasy landscape with fog, water and stone.
Type
post
Author
Gary Varner
Date
July 23, 2022
Categorized
Arts & Culture, Ethics, Science Fiction
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The Only Mad People In Dr. Strange’s Multiverse Are The Writers

We don’t know why Wanda has morphed into a villain or why good and evil have become morally equivalent
Gary Varner
July 23, 2022
8
Arts & Culture, Ethics, Science Fiction

On our last delve into the Multiverse of Madness (2022), we followed Dr. Strange to Wanda Maximoff’s house. As the scene opens, it is clear that, controversially, Wanda has faced no repercussions for the events depicted in WandaVision. (2021). Tragically, Wanda has chosen to follow the words of the Dark hold — and those of us who watched WandaVision on Disney Plus will never get to see her struggle. So we don’t understand why she chose to listen to the words of the book. Nothing is accounted for. Wanda is just bad now, and we must accept it. Except — this is and isn’t true at the same time. On the one hand, the writers want us to understand that Read More ›

girl-before-a-doors-stockpack-adobe-stock
Girl before a doors
Type
post
Author
News
Date
July 12, 2022
Categorized
Ethics, Law, Philosophy of Mind
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Michael Egnor: If Evil Exists, So Must Good — and Real Choices!

In the podcast, he explains, denial of free will doesn’t mean that there is no guilt but rather that there is no innocence
News
July 12, 2022
9
Ethics, Law, Philosophy of Mind

In a podcast aired July 8, 2022, geoscientist Casey Luskin and neurosurgeon Michael Egnor explore “Evolution and the disturbing consequences of denying free will.” One consequence they look at is pre-crime, that is, treating people who are thought likely to commit an offence as if they had already done so. A partial transcript and notes follows. The podcast is here. Casey Luskin: In the previous podcast, Dr. Egnor, you mentioned how, once somebody denies free will, they really lose the ability to condemn any action that a human takes as morally evil. Everything we did in their view is determined by the forces of nature, and really nobody ought to be at fault for having done anything. These arguments have, Read More ›