Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

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

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 ›

cortyceps fungus
beautiful bunch cordyceps,mushrooms in neon light. The last of us style. Generative AI.
Type
post
Author
Gary Varner
Date
April 8, 2023
Categorized
Arts & Culture, Science Fiction
Tagged
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The Last of Us: Final Thoughts

The HBO series is a mixed bag but is still worth the watch
Gary Varner
April 8, 2023
6
Arts & Culture, Science Fiction

The Last of Us HBO series is a mixed bag. There are parts of this show I really liked and other parts I despised. The main trouble is that there are two full episodes which are completely irrelevant to the plot. Frankly, you could skip episodes three and seven and not miss a thing. These episodes are just fanfare for the critics and add nothing to the story. Particularly episode three. I’ve never seen such a random addition to a series. What’s so astounding is that the flashback in episode three keeps going. About halfway through, the viewer realizes that they really are going to have to watch these two old men live and die, all so Joel and Ellie Read More ›

snow capped forests
Snow capped forest in the Pyrenees
Type
post
Author
Gary Varner
Date
March 31, 2023
Categorized
Arts & Culture, Science Fiction
Tagged
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The Last of Us, Episodes 7 & 8

Another flashback for the critics followed by cannibalism
Gary Varner
March 31, 2023
7
Arts & Culture, Science Fiction

To be blunt, it’s probably best to merge the reviews of episodes seven and eight because episode seven is a complete waste of time. Basically, Ellie moves Joel to an abandoned house and tries to take care of him. He tells her she needs to go back to Tommy’s and let him die, and she almost does it, but then she has a flashback. During the commentary for episode seven, the writers mention that they wanted to make a connection between this flashback and Ellie’s decision to save Joel. But I think the truth is they were more interested in devoting another episode to fanservice for the critics. In this flashback, Ellie remembers Riley, her friend who was attacked with Read More ›

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
Tagged
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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 ›

underground tunnel
Generative AI illustration of underground sewer tunnel
Type
post
Author
Gary Varner
Date
March 22, 2023
Categorized
Arts & Culture
Tagged
, , , , , ,

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 ›

light in the forest
Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego,Ushuaia
Type
post
Author
Peter Biles
Date
September 17, 2022
Categorized
Arts & Culture, Creativity
Tagged
, , , , , , , , ,

Amazon’s Rings of Power and Where the Conflict Really Lies

If Peter Jackson gave the LOTR cast unnecessary internal conflicts, then the Rings of Power writers have done it on steroids.
Peter Biles
September 17, 2022
5
Arts & Culture, Creativity

The third and fourth episodes of Rings of Power have aired as of September 16th. Thousands of reviews have fountained across the internet over the last couple of weeks, some from rankled fans, others from satisfied enthusiasts, and others with both good and bad things to report. The show, as we all anticipated, has not gone without its fair share of controversy and pushback, but for this review, I want to lay those conversations aside and instead focus on some pros and cons of the recent episodes from my own perspective. To begin on a positive note, I enjoyed these last couple of episodes much more than the first two. The storyline seems to be getting somewhere. Galadriel is being Read More ›

nguy-n-minh-chi-n-571263-unsplash
Type
post
Author
Mind Matters
Date
September 27, 2018
Categorized
Education
Tagged
,

Children are watching much less TV

But what we learned from children’s TV is coming back to haunt us
Mind Matters
September 27, 2018
6
Education
Maxwell King: Sesame Street's pacing "was set to be as fast as the times, with some emulation of Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In and the television serial Batman." Read More ›