Codex woes.
That's the easiest way to describe it. Part of a game that I play seems to have a few new things in store for me in September, with a new rulebook for my particular army; which in any case is awesome.
Captain Sicarius gets special rules, which is awesome. He's the hero of Medusa V, for the Emperor's sake! The standing issue is, however, that there is a new miniature for him.
For those that don't know me that well, which appears to be most of the people that would read this blog, I'm terrible with money. Terrible, awful, and downright bad with money.
The statement of fact here is that I shouldn't have it. I hurt myself with it. I should be budgeted an allotment and that is all I get.
I paid sixty five bucks for the original Captain Sicarius miniature, which is the acting captain of the army I field. I play an army that is based on an existing one, rather than a completely custom one. Normally I'd say awesome, but he's getting that new miniature which is likely to cost anywhere from fifteen to twenty bucks. I feel stupid. My point of pride only lies in the fact that I have the OG miniature and it's my hope.
When the opportunity presents itself, I'll try to get some photobucket stuff up here and show it off. My hobby, and a big part of my life and enemy of my wallet.
The Emperor Protects.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
"But Dave, Will I dream?"
More often than not, we find ourselves looking at the nasty truth behind mankind's constant leaps and bounds scientifically. It is almost painful to consider that what was once fanciful myth is now hard science.
Great and terrible lizards roamed the earth, in the 19th century this was considered a myth. Darwin's proposed ideas of Survival of the Fittest was almost mythical when it was written, and the modified script of modern science labels the concept as almost a law. Marx's proposed social changes that seemed so sound and possible in turn were destroyed and made a fanciful dream. The very illustrations labeled in Frankenstein, the fanciful ideas of using electricity to stimulate the nervous system has led to greater things. We are learning how the brain actually functions. We know how impulses travel in the nervous system and how to mimic that. We're learning how to grow new limbs, to literally build broken parts of the human body through genetic manipulation.
We can't restore life to dead tissue, we can do one better. We can create new life. From a single fertilized ova, we can create a life form fully dictated by a scientist and genetic manipulation. It is illegal, mind you, but it is very possible. Clones are near perfect, a matching clone can be born without major complication. New life, new existence designed from the beginning to be the ideal and perfect human form can exist.
To make matters worse, we are going to, and already have dabbled with the oncoming social stratification of "intelligent machines". A self-thinking, self-aware computer is a step away, and we (as a species, not a national scale) have begun building robots to fight our battles for us. Not just the remote controlled spy planes that the military makes use of. There is an actively researched system of Artificial Intelligence being used for the US military, sponsored to completely unman Army convoys to prevent the loss of life. Whole competitions have been held to win the funding to develop new, more advanced robotic systems.
Add to this the fact that as time continues on, a self-aware, self-managing computer would be more efficient. There is a want to continue the advancement of AI under the assumption that it would be controlled. Victor's monster seems to illustrate the exact opposite. He throws down these shackles of control, and manipulates his maker to do his bidding. Upon Victor's failing, he proceeds to do the reversal of roles, and punishes Victor cruelly as he would do an insolent child. What is to dictate that these creations wouldn't about face and enslave us?
Worse yet, HAL 9000, the computer from 2001 and 2010, is an example of something of an AI being unable to cope with these new ideas put on it. It behaves like a child does, so to speak. It desires to play games with the crew and, in a strange way, develops a friendly relationship with them. It is abused, however, and is told to keep secrets from the crew aboard the ship when they are sent to investigate an alien artifact. The US military has commanded that it conduct secret tests and feed them the information without informing the crew of its purpose. Unable to cope and understand the idea to tell everything to the crew and to keep secrets from them, it panics and rationalizes that it must kill the crew to keep the secrets safe and to tell the crew everything.
Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics has seen use in numerous films and stories, dictating a strict law set for advanced robotics can still be manipulated and ways found around it. It is simple, so to speak, to avoid these laws and find loopholes much like humans do. While they are a novel concept, it is not iron-clad.
Each of these offer stern warnings not to what might be done... but what is actually happening.
Great and terrible lizards roamed the earth, in the 19th century this was considered a myth. Darwin's proposed ideas of Survival of the Fittest was almost mythical when it was written, and the modified script of modern science labels the concept as almost a law. Marx's proposed social changes that seemed so sound and possible in turn were destroyed and made a fanciful dream. The very illustrations labeled in Frankenstein, the fanciful ideas of using electricity to stimulate the nervous system has led to greater things. We are learning how the brain actually functions. We know how impulses travel in the nervous system and how to mimic that. We're learning how to grow new limbs, to literally build broken parts of the human body through genetic manipulation.
We can't restore life to dead tissue, we can do one better. We can create new life. From a single fertilized ova, we can create a life form fully dictated by a scientist and genetic manipulation. It is illegal, mind you, but it is very possible. Clones are near perfect, a matching clone can be born without major complication. New life, new existence designed from the beginning to be the ideal and perfect human form can exist.
To make matters worse, we are going to, and already have dabbled with the oncoming social stratification of "intelligent machines". A self-thinking, self-aware computer is a step away, and we (as a species, not a national scale) have begun building robots to fight our battles for us. Not just the remote controlled spy planes that the military makes use of. There is an actively researched system of Artificial Intelligence being used for the US military, sponsored to completely unman Army convoys to prevent the loss of life. Whole competitions have been held to win the funding to develop new, more advanced robotic systems.
Add to this the fact that as time continues on, a self-aware, self-managing computer would be more efficient. There is a want to continue the advancement of AI under the assumption that it would be controlled. Victor's monster seems to illustrate the exact opposite. He throws down these shackles of control, and manipulates his maker to do his bidding. Upon Victor's failing, he proceeds to do the reversal of roles, and punishes Victor cruelly as he would do an insolent child. What is to dictate that these creations wouldn't about face and enslave us?
Worse yet, HAL 9000, the computer from 2001 and 2010, is an example of something of an AI being unable to cope with these new ideas put on it. It behaves like a child does, so to speak. It desires to play games with the crew and, in a strange way, develops a friendly relationship with them. It is abused, however, and is told to keep secrets from the crew aboard the ship when they are sent to investigate an alien artifact. The US military has commanded that it conduct secret tests and feed them the information without informing the crew of its purpose. Unable to cope and understand the idea to tell everything to the crew and to keep secrets from them, it panics and rationalizes that it must kill the crew to keep the secrets safe and to tell the crew everything.
Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics has seen use in numerous films and stories, dictating a strict law set for advanced robotics can still be manipulated and ways found around it. It is simple, so to speak, to avoid these laws and find loopholes much like humans do. While they are a novel concept, it is not iron-clad.
Each of these offer stern warnings not to what might be done... but what is actually happening.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Creative Interpretation of Literature, Really Now?
There is an inherent issue and falsity when transferring literary works to the film medium. Of course, we have the greatest novels and such planted in front of a pliable audience. This is a visual medium for those that haven't the patience to sit down and read a book, or feel that reading is "boring".
There is a gap, an unavoidable error in storytelling between these two. While a film allows for stunning visual interpretation, it is forever hit by the crunch of time and manner of portrayal. While the Lord of the Rings films were amazing in their interpretation of setting and mood for the original novels, it was impossible for them to cover the material that made Middle-Earth so beautiful and complex. That and the necessary dumbing down of quite a few aspects.
This is expressed heavily in the film, and the issued prompt suggests that these fundamental differences in medium will change the story. And of course, it does. Not only does the film, starring and directed by Kenneth Branagh (to whom Ewan MacGregor bears a strong resemblance), show homage to the elements of the novel; it serves as an homage to the older films. The fire, the bride, all of these things strike as elements provided by older films, giving the Gothic horror a much more modern and relative interpretation to the audience. Considering, though the creation of the monster seemed such a small section of the story in the novel, the interpretation is required for a visual interpretation of the novel.
The liberties taken were required by the film to make logical sense to the modern reader. Considering that this film takes apparently only a few years to resolve, the novel stretches out to somewhere in the ballpark of eight or so years to reach the creation of the monster and the death of Victor, and even then that is a liberty I take with the estimation.
The mood is captured well, and the overall feeling of "what have I done" rests well in the film. The fundamental differences in visual and setting are easily dashed aside in the idea that the film takes the feelings of parentage so stressed in the novel and carries over that and the other details, including Victor's relationships with other characters. The differences mean nothing if the story is properly executed.
There is a gap, an unavoidable error in storytelling between these two. While a film allows for stunning visual interpretation, it is forever hit by the crunch of time and manner of portrayal. While the Lord of the Rings films were amazing in their interpretation of setting and mood for the original novels, it was impossible for them to cover the material that made Middle-Earth so beautiful and complex. That and the necessary dumbing down of quite a few aspects.
This is expressed heavily in the film, and the issued prompt suggests that these fundamental differences in medium will change the story. And of course, it does. Not only does the film, starring and directed by Kenneth Branagh (to whom Ewan MacGregor bears a strong resemblance), show homage to the elements of the novel; it serves as an homage to the older films. The fire, the bride, all of these things strike as elements provided by older films, giving the Gothic horror a much more modern and relative interpretation to the audience. Considering, though the creation of the monster seemed such a small section of the story in the novel, the interpretation is required for a visual interpretation of the novel.
The liberties taken were required by the film to make logical sense to the modern reader. Considering that this film takes apparently only a few years to resolve, the novel stretches out to somewhere in the ballpark of eight or so years to reach the creation of the monster and the death of Victor, and even then that is a liberty I take with the estimation.
The mood is captured well, and the overall feeling of "what have I done" rests well in the film. The fundamental differences in visual and setting are easily dashed aside in the idea that the film takes the feelings of parentage so stressed in the novel and carries over that and the other details, including Victor's relationships with other characters. The differences mean nothing if the story is properly executed.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
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