unhappy computer people
Was compelled to see Transcendence, which I knew I would regret. I wish I could quip that it was better when the computer was in Johnny’s head instead of Johnny’s head being in the computer, but then I realized Depp didn’t play Johnny Mnemonic.
It’s a strange movie, as some kind of techno romance thriller. Spends way too long setting up the love story, but then realizes too late that it really wants to be a summer action blockbuster. Spoiler: the ending makes no sense. Also, to pick on one petpeeve, why do movie producers demonstrate glitches by having 3D textures replaced by code fragments? Enough people have played various Bethesda games to know what real texture glitches look like. :)
The consensus seems to be that Her is a better disembodied computer soul movie, but I skipped it because Phoenix was really creepy in the previews. Maybe I’ll add it to my list now.
The Thirteenth Floor is a much better movie to watch if you want to ponder the nature of virtual consciousness. It’s more of a stretch, but Don Jon (starring the voice of Her, Scarlett Johansson, in a great role) actually does some philosophizing on human connections, real and virtual, as well.
I keep wanting to compare Transcendence to Source Code (a decent, but terribly, terribly named movie), but there’s not much similarity. I think that’s because there was a preview for Edge of Tomorrow, which looked like an awesome sequel to Oblivion until I realized it wasn’t. It’s actually Source Code but with mech suits.
jwz has some singularity reviews as well. The Machine is ok. Apropos current events, it features a Turing Test.
(Watched Her on the plane back from the hackathon. Creepy and uncomfortable doesn’t begin to describe it. It’s a good film, and well made I think, but I won’t be watching it again. Actually lots of parallels with Don Jon.)
