Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

TagTolkien

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One Ring to Rule Them All
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post
Author
News
Date
May 24, 2023
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Arts & Culture
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Amazon Can’t Quit Cashing Tolkiens

Will Tolkien's original vision get lost in the details, CGI, and cash cow maneuvers?
News
May 24, 2023
2
Arts & Culture

Amazon is now working on a massively multiplayer online (MMO) video game adaptation of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings universe, which will be unrelated to the Prime TV show Rings of Power. Todd Spangler at Variety reports, Last year, Amazon Games cut a deal with Embracer-owned studio Crystal Dynamics for a new multiplatform title in the “Tomb Raider” series . Hartmann praised the Embracer team as “excellent collaborators.” “The world of Middle-earth continues to prove an endlessly fertile ground for creators, and Amazon Games has a passion for building immersive, compelling worlds and publishing games for a global audience,” said Lee Guinchard, CEO of Freemode, Embracer’s division that houses Middle-earth Enterprises. “We’re taking every care to deliver an MMO which will do justice Read More ›

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3D rendering artificial intelligence AI research of robot and cyborg development for future of people living. Digital data mining and machine learning technology design for computer brain.
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post
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News
Date
May 24, 2023
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence
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Opinion: They Were Right to Call for AI’s Pause

Could ChatGPT end up making us subservient to it?
News
May 24, 2023
2
Artificial Intelligence

Brad Littlejohn wrote an opinion piece at World claiming that Elon Musk and the many others who signed a petition calling for AI to pause research were onto something–and that the rest of us should pay attention. He writes, In a famous essay at the dawn of the personal computing era, “Thinking About Technology,” Canadian philosopher George Grant examined the statement, “Computers do not impose on us the ways they should be used.” It expressed, he argued, the quintessential modern idea of technology as simply an extension of human freedom. The claim is that we remain at all times the masters of our technological instruments, free to bend them to our will. More often, however, they have an uncanny way Read More ›

Old image of Mordor
Barad-dur, Mordor
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post
Author
Peter Biles
Date
October 1, 2022
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Arts & Culture, Business and Finance
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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 ›