Decipher SciFi

Latest Episodes:

Lawnmower Man: mind uploading, vr, and 90s computer games Oct 27, 2015

Show notes

The Novel

The title was taken from a Stephen King short story which pretty much otherwise has no relationship at all to the film. This actually led to a lawsuit.

Director Brett Leonard

Was praised at the time for his vision. Virtuosity.

3D Graphics at the Time of the Film

Wolfenstein 3D. Compact discs technology. Sega CD. The cost of this film in time and money. How impressed we all were at the time. Sega console monstrosity. The Sega Tower of Power.

Virtual Reality: Past

What we thought it would be at the time of the film.

Virtual Reality: Present

360° “VR” movies. Google cardboard. AR. How directed do we want our experiences with art to be?

Virtual Reality: Future

VR training. Holodeck. Pornography. Awesome-sounding VR “theme park” in Utah. [youtube]cML814JD09g[/youtube]

Becoming the Lawnmower Man

Nootropics. The singularity. Controlling the real world via the internet.

Community: Lawnmower Maintenance and Postnatal Care: Stream on Yahoo!Episode info on the Community Wiki
Daemon - by Daniel Suarez: iTunes Amazon
Freedom TM - by Daniel Suarez: iTunes Amazon
Altered Carbon - by Richard K Morgan: iTunes Amazon

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A Scanner Darkly: the surveillance state, drug abuse, and rotoscoping Oct 20, 2015

Show notes

The Novel

Philip K. Dick sort of wrote this about himself and his experiences with the Berkeley drug culture. “Everything in A Scanner Darkly I, actually saw.” This novel is probably the least scifi of Dick’s work.

Rotoscroping

Other famous examples of rotoscroping, but Linklater’s are the first to do it 100%. Interesting custom software with layering techniques. Perfect for this film with its less than firm grip on reality.

Drug Addiction

We are squares and we know roughly nothing about drugs. But it sure seems bad. Especially the drug in the movie: Substance D. LSD experiments like the following: [youtube]n4Sb8jCJUTw[/youtube] Here is the article about these experiments.

Big Brother/Corporate Conspiracy

Small conspiracies vs grand conspiracies. Big brother. Alex Jones and Linklater. Govt agencies compelling sharing by private firms. The social effects of being watched. The war on drugs.

Fractured Indentity

Scramble suits. How much can trust our own senses? Occam’s razor. Unwitting sacrifice.

a Scanner Darkly - by Philip K Dick: iTunes Amazon
Citizenfour: iTunes Amazon
Waking Life: iTunes Amazon

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Galaxy Quest: the best Star Trek movie. Oct 13, 2015

Show notes

Star Trek

Christopher is a big fan. Has a revelation regarding this on the show.

Star Trek Fandom

Christopher might be a trekkie. The movie is a loving tribute. Star Trek cast reactions to Galaxy Quest.

Aliens in the movie

Tend to be humanoid. Luc Besson’s The Fifth Element. Abundance, working together. Literalism in language like small human children.

Silly Star Trek Tropes

The movie uses them for great meta comedy. Transporter. Omega 13 device. Most important crew members go down to explore new worlds.

Artemis is Really Really Awesome

Here is a good example of the frivolity you could expect (skip to3:38 for gameplay):

Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator: iTunes Android Play Store
Star Trek: The Next Generation: iTunes Amazon

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Starship Troopers: scifi satire, gender equity, and insectoid alien attack Oct 06, 2015

Show notes

author: Christopher Peterson layout: podcast_post wordpress_id: 245 categories:

Guest Co-Host
Joe Ruppel
Podcast tags:
Action
Adventure
army
asteroid
buenos aires
Casper Van Dien
Christopher Peterson
Denise Richards
Dina Meyer
drill instructor
intelligence
Jake Busey
Lee Colbert
liberation of prisoners
moon
Nieil Patrick Harriss
Paul Verhoven
Science Fiction
soldiers
space battle
space marine
space ship
Thriller
total destruction The Movie is a Satire of the Book

Heinlein wrote what amounted to military propaganda. Picture Heinlein as the teacher with the missing arm.

Verhoven Dislikes Militarism and Fascism

Not a surprise for someone who grew up in Nazi-occupied Holland. He thought the book was disgusting and wouldn’t finish reading it - had someone else tell him what happened.

Society at Constant War

Propaganda. Othering. Resources all in to the military-industrial complex. Militarism. Fascism.

Insectoid Aliens and Intelligence

Hive minds. Brain straws. Pheromone communication. Intelligent bugs. Higher-oxygen atmosphere.

Future Tech

Exo-suits, insterstellar travel, shooting projectiles across the galaxy. Drones? Where are the drones?

Gender Equality

Exo-suits, from the book, would close the gap for war purposes. Co-ed showers. Norway and Israeli conscripting women.

Starship Troopers - by Robert Heinlein: iTunes Amazon
The Commonwealth Saga - by Peter F Hamilton: iTunes Amazon
World War II Propaganda Cartoons: Walt Disney: On the Front Lines Looney Toons Assorted Propaganda Cartoons

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I Robot: the three laws of robotics are inadequate Sep 29, 2015

Show notes

The Script Started Out Much Different

What began as a science fiction version of an Agatha Christie mystery grew into a Will Smith blockbuster. And then the studio acquired the rights to Asimov.

The Three Laws

Law Zero: Robots must not harm humanity.
Law One: Robots cannot harm a human.
Law Two: Robots must obey humans unless it conflicts with 1
Law Three: Rzobots must avoid harm to themselves except where it conflicts with 2 or 3

Reasoning Around the Three Laws

Wouldn’t want any rogue states or terrorist groups getting their hands on a VIKI. VIKI reasons her way around the laws.

Tests For Intelligence

Art? Emotions? People always moving the goalposts. Domain-specific masteries.

Robot Workers

Taking our jerbs. Amazing Amazon warehouse robots. Teachers. Service industry. Creative work the most protected, for now. How to handle the fallout from the robot worker class? Guaranteed minimum income experiment in Holland.

Google Deep Dreaming: Blog post Make your own
I, Robot by Isaac Asimov: iTunes Amazon
Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies - by Nick Bostrom: iTunes Amazon
Our Final Invention - by James Barrat: iTunes Amazon

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Ex Machina: ai software, wetware, and the turing test Sep 22, 2015

Show notes

Lone genius inventor

The myth. Thomas Edison. Google. Boss guy taking credit. Standing on the shoulders of giants. Could the open source movement make great breakthroughs possible for small groups? Didn’t it already?

Turing Test

Commonly misunderstood. But the intelligence in this movie is way past that anyway. Testing for theory of mind might be the right track for the future.

Personification of AI

Being a cute, vulnerable girl AI goes a long way. Uncanny valley. Sexual attraction to non-human humanoid intelligences.

AI Danger

Fast/slow takeoff. AI will look back on us like pre-Sapiens fossils. It is not difficult to “escape the box.” If a person can do it, so can a superintelligence.

Machine Learning/Data Collection

Google might be the biggest and most successful AI project in the world. Phone spying. Black-box neural networks. Algorithmic complexity.

AI Ethics

Is it immoral to create an AI and not let it be free? “Do you have someone testing you who could turn you off?” Romantic interest better than morals? Does Nathan consider how he is treating the AIs? God complex. Baghavad Gita. The end of humanity. AI arms race.

[spoiler title=’Spoiler Notes’ style=’default’ collapse_link=’true’]Section Did Ava leave Caleb to die? Did she do it purposely? What will her next move be?[/spoiler]

Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies - by Nick Bostrom: iTunes Amazon
Our Final Invention - by James Barrat: iTunes Amazon

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Moon: helium 3 lunar mining and emoji robots Sep 15, 2015

Show notes

Movies with strict limitations in cast and location

Love these! Moon is a good one, seriously only one human actor present. Other pleasing examples include Buried with Ryan Reynolds, The Man From Earth, 12 Angry Men is the greatest.

Isolation

Humans need other humans. Our own introversion. Solitary confinement is torture. Having the light at the end of the tunnel.

Gerty

Love the robot design. Practical to the extreme. He has a cupholder! The name means nothing. LOVE the smiley interface. Hal 9000 references.

Space Business

Multinational mega corporation with government ties. Bottom line is all that matters. The economics of evil and helium-3 mining. Exploitative labor practices. Helium 3 science.

[spoiler title=’Spoiler Notes’ style=’default’ collapse_link=’true’] Cloning

How would you feel to be a clone? To be an original who is cloned? A clone of you, even in adult form with implanted memories, is not “you” anymore once the copy is made. Could you work together with your clone?[/spoiler]

Michel Siffre:
The Island: iTunes Amazon
2001: A Space Odyssey: iTunes Amazon

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Demolition Man: cryogenic criminal justice and three seashells Sep 15, 2015

Show notes

Wesley Snipes, irl criminal, fights Sylvester Stallone in the future while wearing hammer pants and gaudy earrings. Future sci-fi hijinx ensue.

Criminal Rehabilitation

Rehab or punishment? Synaptic suggestion for true rehabilitation? The time needed for the rehab process in the film. Cryogenic freezing. Stallone says he was awake, probably wasn’t. Better than prison. What if evil dictators had this technology?

Implantable Skills

Huge benefits. Whoah, I know kung fu. Free will. No need for college, just plug in. But who will be the lower class?

Nonviolence

Unreasonable to have a pacifistic society in a world with self-interested human actors? Silliness. Stagnation of martial skills.

Thought Policing

Anything not good for you is bad, hence illegal. Fluid transfer illegal. Can humanity move beyond sex? Maybe after the singularity. Should we even call it humanity at that point?

Future Tech

Communications technology prescience. Video calls on tablets. Self driving cars. Stallone is a curmudgeonly caveman. Cryogenics. Sewer maintenance. No internet? The three sea shells mystery, solved.

Futurama:
The Lost Fleet Books by Jack Campbell:
Rambo:

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Titan AE: Space exploration and Donald Bluth love Sep 15, 2015

Show notes

Quotes

Cale: “Everyday I wake up and it’s still the present. The same grimy, boring present. I don’t think this “future” thing of yours exists. “ How mundane the miracles of technology seem once they become ubiquitous. Wikipedia. Butt-washing machines. Korso: “That the human race is outta gas. It’s circling the drain. It’s finished! The only thing that matters is grabbing whatcha can before somebody else beats ya to it.” The desperation of desperate people in desperate times. FYGM, rational self-interest. Sci-fi’s common dichotomy between high and low life with high tech.

Director

Donald Bluth directed. also made Dragon’s Lair, Space Ace video games. And the movies An American Tale and The Land Before Time. Fox Animation Studios closed after Titan did badly in theaters.

CG/2D

Space is beautiful in CG. Christopher loves the 2d hand-drawn cell animation on top of CG environments. 2.5d, perhaps.

90s

The music of the 90s. 90s fashion. Mat Damon’s hair. Powerman 5000. Spaceship repair montage.

Alien Creatures

Cochroach chef was almost Jar Jar Binks. Straight-up murder in a cartoon surprised us. Alien kangaroo person’s hundred-jointed legs are of questionable utility. Energy beings made less than enough sense.

Low Human Population

Humanity was down to 10,000 people millennia ago, that was close. Now here they are spread out across space. Space racism.

Titan Device

Like Norwegian Seed Vault, but in space. Sort of. Adam and Eve. New Earth or Planet Bob. Joss Whedon.