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San Francisco, 3:10 PM
Tue Nov 10
27 posts in the last 24 hours

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  • posts about #avatars more →

    Electric New Surrogates Clips Show The Advantages Of Being Plugged In

    Peel Back The Plastic Robo-Skin Of Surrogates, With This New Featurette

    New Surrogates Video Peels Back The Fleshy Robot Skin For Further Investigation

    Virtual Psychotherapy Works Better Than Live Docs
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    Dsmvwl  Admin  Promote to frontpage Approve user Ban user ×
    Image of Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H. Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
    09/14/09

    In reply to Electric New Surrogates Clips Show The Advantages Of Being Plugged In
    I knew a good movie could be made from this book.

    This is not it.
     Reply
    Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H. was starred Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H. was unstarred
    Image of lava lava
    09/14/09

    In reply to Electric New Surrogates Clips Show The Advantages Of Being Plugged In
    not sure why they needed to introduce this idea that operators were killed when their surrogates destroyed. I did not remember that from the story.
     Reply
    Illogic promoted this comment lava was starred lava was unstarred
    Image of Illogic Illogic
    09/14/09

    @lava: A few operators are killed when their surrogate is destroyed in the comic. They seem to be using the same special circumstances in the movie from what I've heard.
     Reply
    Illogic was starred Illogic was unstarred
    Image of Tomb: R.O.A.C.H. Tomb: R.O.A.C.H.
    09/14/09

    @Illogic: No. They did'nt die. I just checked.

    And whats worse? Steeplejack is not in the movie.
     Reply
    Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H. promoted this comment Tomb: R.O.A.C.H. was starred Tomb: R.O.A.C.H. was unstarred
    Image of CoffinDodger (If the typos crap. Blame my keyboard) CoffinDodger (If the typos crap. Blame my keyboard)
    09/14/09

    In reply to Electric New Surrogates Clips Show The Advantages Of Being Plugged In
    I would sky dive without a parachute or run through the lion enclosure with meat strapped to my robotic bits. Irrisponsible yes. Funny as hell......oh yes yes!!
     Reply
    CoffinDodger (If the typos crap. Blame my keyboard) was starred CoffinDodger (If the typos crap. Blame my keyboard) was unstarred
    Image of Cash907Censored Cash907Censored
    08/19/09

    In reply to Peel Back The Plastic Robo-Skin Of Surrogates, With This New Featurette
    Isn't this the same trailer that came out a month ago, or is this a new one with the same old footage?
     Reply
    Cash907Censored was starred Cash907Censored was unstarred
    Image of Zack Stentz Zack Stentz
    08/19/09

    In reply to Peel Back The Plastic Robo-Skin Of Surrogates, With This New Featurette
    CodenameV, you should read Joe Haldeman's book Forever Peace, which deals with the moral and emotional implications of a superpower using remotely piloted combat robots against third world peasants with assault rifles. Among many other things.
     Reply
    Zack Stentz was starred Zack Stentz was unstarred
    Image of Anekanta - Space Hippy! Anekanta - Space Hippy!
    08/19/09

    In reply to Peel Back The Plastic Robo-Skin Of Surrogates, With This New Featurette
    After seeing this, and seeing the theatrical trailer, I'm actually pretty psyched to see this movie.
     Reply
    Anekanta - Space Hippy! was starred Anekanta - Space Hippy! was unstarred
    Image of Smeagol92055 Smeagol92055
    08/19/09

    In reply to Peel Back The Plastic Robo-Skin Of Surrogates, With This New Featurette
    Why did there appear to be Combine Soldiers in the preview?

    Great. Now I remembered how badly I want a Half Life movie.
     Reply
    Smeagol92055 was starred Smeagol92055 was unstarred
    Image of CodenameV CodenameV
    08/19/09

    In reply to Peel Back The Plastic Robo-Skin Of Surrogates, With This New Featurette
    This is the first featurette to mention that there's body-swapping going on: people using surrogates of the opposite gender, or even choosing to be children (if I could do this, and I was like 60 years old, I'd try to use a version of myself at my physical prime i.e. 30ish)

    Why not just use another surrogate-model entirely? Why look like myself (albeit at an idealized age) instead of my older self?

    "It's a costume party, but they just gave you your old clothes to wear...why?"
    "It means...I'm still me"
    --Number Six, The Prisoner
     Reply
    Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H. promoted this comment CodenameV was starred CodenameV was unstarred
    Image of CodenameV CodenameV
    08/19/09

    In reply to Peel Back The Plastic Robo-Skin Of Surrogates, With This New Featurette
    there's people you run into online...well that I've run into....who literally just sit at home, with NO JOB, and "make money by selling things on eBay".....I have no idea how that works, I assume its like how a pawn shop works, selling stuff for a greater price.

    But still...that's your "life"? No higher degree of education, not really "producing" anything?

    I can understand the folks who write computer programs for a living and then disseminate them online, so they work from home: that requires a degree of skill.

    But how do you meet a "significant other" that way? "Hi, I live out of my house and make money selling stuff on e-Bay, but one day my Star Trek fanscript is sure to pan out"?

    I hope the movie touches on the "unmanned asault vehicle" aspect too; other books have done this: If wars are fought ENTIRELY by UAV"s, even humanoid ones....and they're not even "sentient" I mean they're remote puppets.....does that make war "Moral"?

    The First World countries can afford robotic Surrogate soldiers, no one ever "dies" for them in war it's just the financial cost, while the Third World insurgents are actually dying by the thousands?

    But we're sort of already doing that: NATO soldiers in Afghanistan are expensively trained and then equipped, with night vision, advanced guns and armor, etc. while the insurgents are basically just villagers running around with black market Kalashnikovs.

    Hundreds of them can die in a given battle compared to one NATO guy, and we consider that a tragedy: Battle of Mogadishu, the UN forces lost 20 guys compared to 1,000 militiamen, and it was considered a tragedy.

    Now I'm not, of course, saying I sympathize with the historically clear-cut examples of "Taliban insurgents" or sometihng.

    I mean in future wars...well we do this now just with planes, even: fighting insurgents who have NO air support using cruise missiles and jet strikes.

    Will they eventually get the hint?

    Or look at Iron Man: how moral is it for Iron Man to simply WADE THROUGH warlords like they're nothing?

    It's like fighting a god.
     Reply
    Smeagol92055: R.O.A.C.H. promoted this comment CodenameV was starred CodenameV was unstarred
    Image of Smeagol92055 Smeagol92055
    08/19/09

    @CodenameV: You do know you're not actually V, right?
     Reply
    Smeagol92055 was starred Smeagol92055 was unstarred
    Image of TemporalSword TemporalSword
    08/19/09

    @CodenameV: Woah woah woah. WAY too many words until I've had my third cup. But, interesting points.
     Reply
    TemporalSword was starred TemporalSword was unstarred
    Image of Anekanta - Space Hippy! Anekanta - Space Hippy!
    08/19/09

    @CodenameV: That's the danger of technology. We can use our tools to expand our capabilities, and to distance ourselves from the consequences of our actions, but in the end there is always a danger that the tools sort of take over our lives.

    Pretty soon we're just soft blobs of flesh living vicariously through our tools, unable to venture outside because our real muscles, brains, and senses of courage have atrophied beyond usefulness.

    I know I'm always going on about it, but there is something appealing about being a hunter-gatherer, with only a few simple, possibly stone-age tools to separate us from the flow of nature.
     Reply
    Anekanta - Space Hippy! was starred Anekanta - Space Hippy! was unstarred
    Image of TemporalSword TemporalSword
    08/19/09

    @Anekanta: You were on the Wall-E production team, weren't you?
     Reply
    TemporalSword was starred TemporalSword was unstarred
    Image of Dr.Quatermass Dr.Quatermass
    08/19/09

    @Anekanta: There is a certain level of irony in the idea that Man is set apart for he can create and use tools but ultimately he uses this skill to render his hands obsolete.
     Reply
    Dr.Quatermass was starred Dr.Quatermass was unstarred
    Image of CodenameV CodenameV
    08/19/09

    @Smeagol92055: R.O.A.C.H.: People are always asking me if I know V -- is V my bad dream, or am I V's?
     Reply
    CodenameV was starred CodenameV was unstarred
    Image of Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H. Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
    08/19/09

    @Anekanta: You go right ahead scrabbling in the dirt for roots and walking for days to run down game. I'll be over here not dying worn-out at 35, not dying in childbirth, and having anesthesia, antibiotics, and surgery.
     Reply
    Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H. was starred Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H. was unstarred
    Image of Anekanta - Space Hippy! Anekanta - Space Hippy!
    08/19/09

    @Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.: Hey, I'm just sayin' -- there's a happy medium.
     Reply
    Anekanta - Space Hippy! was starred Anekanta - Space Hippy! was unstarred
    Image of RandomFrequentFlierDent RandomFrequentFlierDent
    08/19/09

    In reply to Peel Back The Plastic Robo-Skin Of Surrogates, With This New Featurette
    I'm starting to come around on this.

    Plus I can't get over Bruce Willis with hair. Tee hee.
     Reply
    Edited by RandomFrequentFlierDent at 08/19/09 7:43 AM RandomFrequentFlierDent was starred RandomFrequentFlierDent was unstarred
    Image of CodenameV CodenameV
    08/19/09

    @RandomFrequentFlierDent: I think that's part of the joke of the movie: his "Surrogate" looks like a hokey, idealized version of himself...just as a man with a bad toupee is trying to present an idealized version of himself to the world....then his ACTUAL self looks like Bruce Willis does without any makeup or anything, really haggard.

    That made sense to me that they did that.
     Reply
    Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H. promoted this comment CodenameV was starred CodenameV was unstarred
    Image of RandomFrequentFlierDent RandomFrequentFlierDent
    08/19/09

    @CodenameV: I agree. I also think it's funny looking.
     Reply
    Edited by RandomFrequentFlierDent at 08/19/09 4:17 PM RandomFrequentFlierDent was starred RandomFrequentFlierDent was unstarred
    Image of Mathmos Mathmos
    08/19/09

    In reply to Peel Back The Plastic Robo-Skin Of Surrogates, With This New Featurette
    I think I'd rather see a movie of Brin's Kiln People.
     Reply
    Mathmos was starred Mathmos was unstarred
    Image of Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H. Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
    05/10/09

    In reply to New Surrogates Video Peels Back The Fleshy Robot Skin For Further Investigation
    Now I've watched the trailer -- whoa, did they ever "Hollywoodize" that. In the book, only the surrogates were destroyed, no people died. And it was set in Atlanta, not San Diego, and the main character was a cop, not FBI. I'll bet the suspect won't have the philosophical depth he does in the book, either.
     Reply
    Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H. was starred Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H. was unstarred
    Image of Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H. Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
    05/10/09

    In reply to New Surrogates Video Peels Back The Fleshy Robot Skin For Further Investigation
    I liked the book and think it will make a good movie, though they'll have to lose much of the world-building and backstory. Hope Willis plays it serious, as written (which he can) as opposed to the "BRUUUUUCE" macho style that he falls back on.


    Not sure why they're bewigging him as the point of the book is that his robot looks just like him. Guess they think general audiences are too stupid to get that?

     Reply
    Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H. was starred Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H. was unstarred
    Image of Meirelle Meirelle
    05/10/09

    In reply to New Surrogates Video Peels Back The Fleshy Robot Skin For Further Investigation
    I haven't (yet) read the comic, so I can't judge it on that. But it looks cool.


    And hey, it's Sunday? Where's the Orobourus?

     Reply
    Meirelle was starred Meirelle was unstarred
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