Three versions of the same “epilogue:”
Version 1: Ignores events of “2010”
Version 2: Incorporates events of “2010:”
Version 3: Slightly modified by another YouTuber. Much less professionally done, but… a little amusing:
Oct 222022
Oct 122022
One might argue that an ESA astronaut doing cosplay while on the Space Station is a waste of time. I would counter with: “you’re an idiot. Watch this awesomeness.”
2022 A Space Odyssey. Turns out, yes, you can walk with Velcro shoes. Slowly, very very slowly 😉#ASpaceOdyssey #MissionMinerva @esa @esaspaceflight @Space_Station pic.twitter.com/WI69RXmObE
— Samantha Cristoforetti (@AstroSamantha) October 8, 2022
To compare with:
Oct 032022
Bruce Willis, now famous for aphasia wiping out his ability to communicate and to act, has a new source of income:
Bruce Willis Signs Deal to Get Deepfaked Into Future Movies
The same company that bought the rights has previously added a Deepfaked Willis to TV commercials for a Russian phone company (before The War, of course). The results are… minimal:
It seems that the new agreement is based on “Die Hard” and The Fifth Element” era Bruce Willis… back when he had hair. Is this a good thing, or a bad thing? Well… it’s an inevitable thing, so it’s probably a good thing that we’re getting a precedent of a *living* actor signing up for this while they can do so willingly, and get paid for it. Soon there will probably be money to be made for regular folks to sit in a scanner and go through a range of motions and emotions and sell their Deepfake rights for X amount and Y royalties. Just the way it’s gonna be, I suppose, along with AI-created entirely original “human” actors. One presumed benefit will be a mangling of “celebrity culture,” since celebrities won’t be real people anymore. Some might argue that political campaigns will be able to Deepfake support from digital celebrities… but considering how consistently *stupid* celebrities are about politics anyway, it could hardly be worse. Will anyone *really* care what Marilyn Monrobot has to say about the 2028 Presidential campaign?
Of course, the article includes hand-wringing:
That doesn’t bode well.
…
While this should help Willis and his family earn extra cash, it’s an ominous precedent. With an already golden legacy and a filmography dense with classics like “Die Hard,” “Pulp Fiction,” and “The Sixth Sense,” is this really how Willis should be drawing out the end of his career?
…
But for the sake of both actors and moviegoers: let’s not have our stars replaced by lifeless reconstructions.
Meh. To my knowledge, there are no Deepfaked actors in “The Rings Of Power,” and Amazon spent a *billion* dollars to crank out a lifeless reconstruction of a psuedo-Tolkein story. So a sequel to “The Fifth Element” with a Deepfaked Bruce Willis? At this point I’d be far more likely to be concerned about a crappilly written story than a bad digital actor.
Oct 012022
“Optimus” is not exactly a Boston Dynamics masterpiece, but it’s certainly better than anything *I* could cobble together. Musk promises a ticket price of less than 20 grand. It’ll be interesting to see if U.S Robotics or NorthAm Robotics can match that.
Sep 252022
Well, in a way. In the way of “I need to hire at great cost artists to illustrate my graphic novel.” AI has now reached the point where a creditable graphic novel can be put together based purely on a long series of text prompts, using a consistent set of characters based on as few as five photos of an actual individual. You want the graphic novel version of “The Hobbit” starring Humphrey Bogart as Bilbo and Dom Deluise at Gandalf, done in the art style of HR Giger? Comin’ right up. “At The Mountains of Madness” starring Burt Reynolds and Gene Wilder, in the art style of Salvador Dali? No sweat. Any story ever, starring the Playboy Bunnies of 1972? On it. It’s not perfect… it seems to have a serious problem understanding hands and fingers, and there seem to be inconsistencies in shot to shot with costumes and such. But, dayum, this makes art *easy.*
This is honestly kinda startling. If I was a book/magazine cover artist… I’d be looking into exciting new career opportunities in the food service or housekeeping industries, cuz they’re gonna lose a *lot* of business. This could replace the standard storyboard for moviemaking. AI generated video won’t be far behind.
Sep 252022
I sang the praises of the animated Series “Final Space,” a sci-fi comedy that heavily leaned into cosmic horror. I *really* liked it. Sadly, it was cancelled after only three seasons, in the middle of its story. But worse: it has now been pulled from all platforms as a tax writeoff. Unless you somehow saved copies of the episodes (Seasons 1 and 2 were released on Blu Ray – no longer available – but Season 3 never was), you will never be able to see it ever again, outside of pirating platforms. Were it not for clips on YouTube, it would be as if the show was a Mandela Effect.
‘Final Space’ to Be Pulled From All Platforms as Warner Bros Discovery’s Tax Write-Off Casualty
A good argument for physical media.
If nothing else, “Final Space” gave the world a moment that ranks up there with the end of “Jurassic Bark.”
Sep 232022
And now AI software can show you cars that never were. The images produced are all flawed in some way… some slight, others rather blatantly; and some of the cars are downright goofy, like the 1970 Model T. But still, a lot of them are not half bad extrapolations of what might have been.
What If: AI Generated Cars That Never Were
1940 Chevrolet Corvette. Note weirdness with the grill and the soft top. But other than those… this is a creditable design.
Curiously, no late-model Deloreans on display. I want to see the 2015 edition.
Sep 212022
These are some interesting designs for “luxury” submarine yachts, but I am far from convinced that this is anything much more than an art project.
https://www.migaloo-submarines.com/
And even if they are for real, the asking price for these things are in the *billions,* and Russian oligarchs willing to spring for such things are a little thin on the ground these days.
Sep 182022
It’s about time:
It never had a real Blu Ray release, which always seemed odd to me.
And why not:
And why the hell not:
Update: it was once again brought to my attention that Amazon Text+Image links are nuked by ad blockers. So here are the text links to the 4K movies I linked to:
Real Genius [4K UHD]
Poltergeist (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital)
Red Dawn – Collector’s Edition 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray [4K UHD]
Star Trek I: The Motion Picture – The Director’s Edition Complete Adventure
Star Trek: The Next Generation 100-Piece Engineering Field Kit Tool Set
Sep 172022
So YouTube recommended the new trailer for the movie “5-25-77:”
It’s a “coming of age” film about a kid who wants to make movies, set around the time of the release of the original Star Wars. Shrug, ok, another movie about movie makers. But a comment made me look this up on Wikipedia, and lo and behold, there IS something rather unique about the film:
Johnson began funding the project in 2001 and filming took place from 2004 to 2006. Additional shots and special effects were filmed in 2015, 2016, and over the next six years, making the films production span a total of 18 years.
Great googaly moogaly!