Pat @Pat@qoto.org

@icedquinn

@howellspace

I wonder what it will say? 🙂

#ChatGPT

#catuday #felix #science #fiction #scifi #STEM

Here’s a 1950’s children’s cartoon, Felix the Cat. “Master Cylinder” is introduced in this episode. Some of the science demonstrated in this episode:

- Coherent solenoidal optical tractor beam

- Levitation of biological organisms via a superconducting magnet

- Whole-brain scanning and uploading to a non-biological brain emulator

- Realtime telescopic photonic image processing, enhancement and display

- Fully articulated robotic arm with semi-anthropomorphic end effector

- EMP (electromagnet pulse) weapon

Yeah, our grandparents were smarter than we are.

(Episode: Master Cylinder, King of the Moon (1959), fair use reproduction for educational, critical… blah, blah, blah... )

@admitsWrongIfProven

>"I would like to improve, but everything feels like fighting windmills."

When I was younger and more outspoken, I did what I could to encourage others to adopt a vegan diet. It seemed hopeless at the time, however, I'm pretty sure that I had a hand in Bill Clinton adopting a vegan diet many years later.

Today it is easy to have a vegan diet. Back then it was much harder; no options in restaurants, etc.

@freemo @tripu

@stux

Now all they have to do is make them 3D with video and slip them into our AR environments.

@stux

Maybe our AI overlords will disguise themselves as cats.

(Maybe they already have. 😂 )

#tinhat

@stux

They make us do their bidding and we love it!

I think this is how AI will take over when it becomes sentient. We may not even know that it has happened.

@stux

And also to use as an excuse for establishing curfews and other restrictions on our liberties.

@stux

Washington and the rest of the political "elites" want to start controlled riots right now to distract and lock up a bunch of folks. Mainstream media here in the US are pushing a "protest" narrative right now in hopes of getting people hyped up.

I've seen this many times before. This is a manufactured situation created by the establishment for their own purposes.

@icedquinn

It's worse than that...

Old people's ears just keep growing so they don't even have any consistent proportion through a lifetime. Plus some of them have the earlobes attached and some don't.

Also, this film was made a few years after Star Wars, with C3-PO and R2-D2, so audiences were primed for cute robots.

@stux

We could use a lot more FUD in the US during this pandemic. 1M+ dead because they trusted that the CDC and others have our backs on how stay safe.

#respirators

FUD = fear uncertainty and doubt
CDC = Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

@Deglassco

If you haven't already seen it, I highly recommend the film, Southside with You (2016).

It's a snapshot of when they first met, covering only a brief moment of their lives yet highlighting their character and what made them who they are.

@QOTO #BugReport

@freemo

The icons under my toots and menus are displaying improperly. Seems to happen after I send a toot. Refreshing the page fixes it.

@icedquinn

Yes, ears are kind of weird, and toes too, I think. Especially the pinky.

#science #fiction #ScienceFiction #SciFi #FTW #sfftw #film #movie #robots #AI #future #military #weapons #war #MtSaintHelens #vegetarian

Retro SciFi Film of the Week…

Short Circuit (1986)

Robots in fiction have a long history of being portrayed as adorable or affable characters, beginning with Tik-Tok and the Tin Woodman from Baum’s Oz books.* (Ironically, the name Tik-Tok was used by John Sladek as the titular character in his 1983 novel for an evil robot.) The robot in this silly film, Number 5, is a nice robot.

Number 5 has a high-pitch, whiny-sounding voice, which apparently is appealing to people because the same voice has been used over and over again ever since for many robots. In fact, an almost identical clone of Number 5 (same voice and personality) stars opposite Tom Hanks in Finch (2021).

Although the robot has a main role in this film, the movie is really about Ally Sheedy, who plays a woman who operates a vegetarian food truck in Oregon. (I think her character was given most of the silliest lines in this film.)

I almost didn’t pick this film for Retro Scifi Film of the Week because the film has an all-white cast – there are no black characters or characters played by people of color at all in the film. Also, the sidekick character “Ben” uses that phony Hollywood Indian accent which is now universally considered offensive. And one of the main characters, Newton Crosby played by Steve Guttenberg, tells an antisemitic joke at one point in the film, which is kind of weird since both Guttenberg and Sheedy are Jewish. But 1987 was definitely a different time, coming after the 50s-60s civil rights movement, but before the Rodney King beating in 1991. I only included this film because it has a lot of otherwise positive messages.

Sheedy also starred in WarGames (1983) which I including in this series. (See: https://qoto.org/@Pat/109282008723785446 for more on the history of the time during which these films were make.)

(* - Also, coincidentally Sheedy’s mother’s maiden name is Baum.)

(fair use image from the film)

@peterdrake

>"How long before we get the kind in The Expanse where the bowl is edible?"

Like ice cream cones.

@LouisIngenthron

Yeah, for distros that offer a windowing system, that makes sense.