“It’s not a particular talent that I have, but a great love – I’m strictly like a weekend golfer or something. I don’t kid myself – people come and see me because they’ve seen my movies. I am surrounded by good musicians and I do my best, but it’s strictly enthusiasm.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Can Machines Become Moral? (We’d Better Start Thinking About It)
We’re still a long way from real “artificial intelligence” – developing computers that can replicate the cognitive processes of the human brain. Yet, argues Colin Allen, with robots ever more able to complete certain tasks without real-time human input, it’s time to start considering how to program them not to act immorally.
Invasion Of The Robot Sculptures
“The kinetic sculptures of Dutch artist Theo Jansen are giant, self-propelling winged and jointed constructions. Made of PVC tubes and plastic bottles, each Strandbeest’s movement is powered by the wind, while ‘artificial intelligence’ means it can change course to avoid obstacles.”
Bad Anthropomorphizing (How Pixar Screwed Up Cartoon Cars For A Generation)
“The eyes of anthropomorphized cars are the headlights, not the windshield. And there’s no exceptions here. Having a cartoon car with the eyes in the windshield is wrong, just wrong. And that includes you, too, Pixar.”
How Zippy The Pinhead Came To Be
“A few months after Zippy debuted in ‘I Gave My Heart to a Pinhead and He Made a Fool Out of Me,’ [Bill] Griffith was doing a strip about another of his primary characters, ‘Mr. Toad,’ and thought the egomanical reptile could use a sidekick who was his opposite. ‘Zippy was devoid of ego, as well as linear thought, and he seemed like an ideal fit,’ Griffith notes. ‘Within a year or so, Mr. Toad had become Zippy’s sidekick’.”
The World’s Biggest Girl Group
“[It’s] Japan’s AKB48, a group of 92 mostly teenage girls, armed with sugar-sweet pop tunes and sometimes-suggestive lyrics (‘My school uniform is getting in the way’) that has saturated the country’s popular and commercial culture.”
Ballet San Jose Announces Its Not-Merger With ABT
Earlier this month it was revealed that Ballet San Jose’s board had taken over artistic director Dennis Nahat’s duties and that no ballets had been lined up for 2012. Now the board has announced that no new artistic director will be hired and that the company is now in a “partnership” (not a merger, they insist) with American Ballet Theater.
Andrew Geller, 87, Architect Of Modernist Prefab Housing
“[He] embodied postwar ingenuity and optimism in a series of inexpensive beach houses in whimsical shapes … [and] helped bring modernism to the masses with prefabricated cottages sold at Macy’s.”
A New Wave Of Independent Black Cinema?
“Traditionally films made for, and often by, African-Americans have fallen within a very narrow definition of our experience.” (Think of ’70s blaxploitation or ’90s “hood” films.) Now a group of young filmmakers is telling new stories – about mixed-race families, gays and lesbians, immigrants from Africa and the like.
How Was The Protestant Reformation Like The Arab Spring? Social Networks
Wasn’t the printing press was the crucial factor in the rapid spread of Martin Luther’s ideas through Europe? Not exactly, and certainly not by itself.: the real key was the social networks that passed around “the new media of their day – pamphlets, ballads and woodcuts … Luther, like the Arab revolutionaries, grasped the dynamics of this new media environment very quickly, and saw how it could spread his message.”