If you are a regular reader then you will know that Conrad has been watching "Elementary" a lot of late. Typically I sit there with pen poised, ready to note down which long, obscure words they use, because I'm like that. In the episode "Bella" the prospect of Artificial Intelligence is brought under scrutiny, with the prospects that a real AI, once created, might very well see humans as a "Rate Limiting Factor". A threat. Because we could dismantle or disable or merely turn the power off, which to the AI would be a bad thing. After all, if you've just come to life, getting snuffed out would be rather a buzzkill.
| Take note |
This possible threat would develop very rapidly, within a matter of days or even hours, because computers nowadays - you may have noticed this - are staggeringly fast. So by the time this blog gets posted there may be nobody left alive to read it -
Having introduced the subject, let us now change direction abruptly and recall that splendid series "Person of Interest", because that also featured AI, more specifically The Machine versus Samaritan. The killing irony being that Samaritan was a very, very bad AI indeed. If it had been made anthropomorphic it would have had handlebar moustaches, a bow tie and an evil laugh.
"Gosh! What a rotter!" I hear you exclaim. "Who on earth could be responsible for such misanthropy?"
I'm glad you asked, although I was going to tell you anyway.
| The sinister human face of - |
Okay, time for another shift of focus, this time to bus posters. Conrad, sitting in his chair of illness, espied a particular poster that didn't seem to be advertising a film. I can espy passing buses from my chair, you see.
"Horizon: Zero Dawn" read the title. Which sounds grammatically suspect to your humble hack, but that's not the real issue. Art?
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| Robot dinosaurs? Oh well. |
This game is set in a post-apocalyptic future where earth has been over-run by robots, as seen above. Robot dinosaurs rather than clanking great terminator robots, with the poster tagline "Earth is ours no more", which is prescient, as it certainly won't be once my starship invasion fleet gets here.
Now, do you know who is responsible for this AI apocalypse game? Art -
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| There. Right there. |
That Damn Coincidence Hydra AGAIN
Look, Universe, Causality and Reality, if you are trying to tell me something, can you not just send it via social media? Instead of having the hydra gnaw my nethers.
"What is he complaining about now?" I hear you query.
Wind the clock back to yesterday, where I quietly gloasted about discovering the identity of a song being played on television. The artist turned out to be Ben Howard, whom I'd never heard of until yesterday.
Clearly he cannot say the same of me. Art?
I ran this past Wonder Wifey, just to check, and she agreed it was weird.
I wonder, could I get royalties?
This, My Locus About "Hocus Pocus" By FocusThe Flop House Facebook pages are a positive hotbed of activity, so much so that it can be hard to keep up. However, I do take exception to one poster on the thread about "One Hit Wonders", where he put forward "Hocus Pocus" by Focus. It is an instrumental, prog rockish in nature and it was a hit.
However, the band were primarily an album-centric group, being prog and all, as most prog bands are and were. Singles thus not really their thing.
The bigger objection is that Focus had another hit, and a very significant one: Sylvia. This is widely regarded as one of the best rock tracks out there. Herein a link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OznS7X9BOxs
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| In their hairy heyday |
That's enough for now, more of Mercury to follow. Pip pip!
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