Poor Time Traveler

I felt so bad for him. Working so hard to develop a time machine, feeling like a genius when it finally works, only to find out that the first people he meets in the year 800,000 is are stupid. The whole society has degraded in intelligence and he cannot communicate with them. They think he's weird and that he came from the sun in a lightning storm. Poor Time traveler. I just want to give him a hug, and tell him that not all people are stupid. On top of going insane from the lack of intelligent people to talk to, he also loses his time machine. With the possibility that he could be stuck in a society where everyone is stupid and only eat fruit...that's a nightmare. I was happy knowing that because he was telling the story to his friends, i knew he had returned, but the things that he went through weren't fair. And they were eye opening. Seeing that we only improve through struggle is a very valid point, one that i wasn't aware of before reading the Time Machine. Now that i see the point, however, i see it everywhere. From studying to playing videogames, people improve through struggle and failure. You maximize efficiency and develop new ways of solving problems. I really liked reading the novel/short story, or whatever it's classified as, and i think i might check out more of Well's literature in the future.

District 9

I really liked the movie. It was very different from the conventional alien flick. Evil humans. Aliens you sympathize with. It was a nice change of pace. Its fun to root for the underdog, all the more when the underdog is very different. I wanted Christopher to succeed, saving his kid and making it off planet to save his race, all the while hoping that the bald soldier gets what's coming for him, and he did. Regarding that, the violence was slightly over the top. People getting vaporized with lightning guns and heads getting blown up with tazers was fun and all, but it made me question the aliens. If Christopher does come back, he's gonna be pissed, and he'll want to kill us all, especially what he saw in that EMU lab. Hopefully he'll be merciful, maybe enslaving us instead of killing us. I'd give the movie a 4.5/5, the only reason it not being perfect is the overuse of swearing, it impairs the otherwise well written script. Here's to hoping the sequal is better, and that it comes out sometime soon. Until then, i have plenty of silly alien movies to watch, like war of the worlds and Paul. Let's hope i can get a laugh out of those instead of thinking i've been wasting my time.

The Thing So Far

So far, I really like the movie. Its very grim, which I always enjoy. It's suspenseful, and its creepy. The scene with the monster and the dogs was wonderfully gory, and I know that i'm going to like the rest of the movie. One thing however, why does the snow base have a flamethrower? I mean, its not like he took an arisol can and used a lighter. He had a legitimate flamethrower, tank and everything. I mean, would you really think that its necesarry in an arctic base? I dont think so. Conveniently they have one, so they arent going to get killed off one by one like in Alien. Atleast yet. I know the outcome of the movie (spoilers ftw!), so i know everyone panics and starts questioning one another and the like. Which is really kinda stupid, because you cant cut off someones head just because you think they're a monster. The blood testing was smart, but they should have done it way sooner. I know The Thing wont dissapoint, and I know when I see the remake/prequal next weekend I wont be dissapointed either. Here's to good sci fi movies, non cheesy, actually entertaining sci fi movies.

Rampancy

After reading several books that involve AI, there's really only one major downfall in creating a computer that can learn. It is the threat of rampancy. An AI will eventually no longer be able to be controlled by the protective algorithms in place, and the AI loses its ability to reason. It may run normally (unlikely), it may decide that it hates humanity for creating it but limiting its ability to function (I have no mouth...), or it may try to be more human and form a relationship with another rampant AI (Halo). These possibilities are not very promising, so i'm sure that if we created an actually thinking robot, we would install some sort of failsafe that would kick in after say, 10 or 20 years of service. This would protect the crews in deep space expeditions, but you would have to have multiple copies of the AI, or different ones. All in all, AI would drastically help us run our lives, we shouldnt turn them into robot servants like iRobot, but they could run our weapons systems, conducting cybernetic warfare with the opposing sides, they could eventually pilot our space fairing warships, and if we keep them in check, they will b very effective.

In Regards to Plasma Weapons

Super weapon? or strange child toy?

We're a long way off. When you look at videogames like halo, that depict rapid fire plasma weapons, plasma based explosives, and even supercompressed plasma swords, that's not going to happen any time soon. We hardly know how to make plasma, let alone contain it and figure out a way to use it as a harmful projectile. If we just shot pure plasma at something, then it would dissipate before it could do any damage. Halo's plasma words by supercondensing it inside a battery, and then when you pull the trigger, an electromagnetic field is formed around a small piece of plasma and is fired out the end of the gun, this magnetic field stays in place until it hits the target, which gets burned severely. I don't think we're going to have plasma weapons for a long time. It's not practical. It would be far too expensive, and it would probably become the new atomic bomb. EVeryone would want one, and we would probably destroy the world with some sort of plasma bomb. Even if we're secretly close, I hope we dont get around to commercially producing plasma weapons, I like my face how it is thank you very much

Ender's Game Really is Ender's Game

So after reading into the book where Ender has to deal with Bonzo, I cannot help but think of this:

This poor guy gets owned, just like Bonzo does. I find it eerie that people have the brain power to actually do this, but smart people will be smart. I really like the book so far, Ender is a very likable character, and you really emphathize for him when he's feeling angry or distressed. His manic depression right now is a bit of a bother, but i'm sure he will pull through. I find it appalling how I.F. is treating Ender, designing tasks and fixing the games just so Dragon Army will lose. Yet Ender pulls through. Nothing can deter his willpower in a fight, and its scary that a 10 year old is this intelligent. I feel like i'm reading into the mind of a 20 year old genius, not a 10 year old. The plot is a bit confusing however. The coincidal events with Val and Peter (super jerk) are confusing, and i fail to see how how a 12 and 14 year old are duping leaders of the world. but its a book, so I guess anything can happen. I hope Ender pulls through, and i'm not going to SparkNotes anything because I actually like the book. Good luck Ender. You're going to need it.

"The Thing". "What thing?" "The Thing"

After watching the first 30 minutes of the original The Thing, I'm so far impressed by the movie. It doesn't look much different from what a movie today would look like, and it has proved to be entertaining for anyone dies. After reading the Norwegian translation screamed by the "crazed gunman", I was amused. Turns out that if anyone in the audience spoke norwegian, the entire movie would have been spoiled.

(The Norwegian said to MacReady and the men, in Norwegian: "Se til helvete og kom dere vekk. Det er ikke en bikkje, det er en slags ting! Det imiterer en bikkje, det er ikke virkelig! Kom dere vekk, idioter!" This is translated to: "Get the hell outta there. That's not a dog, it's some sort of thing! It's imitating a dog, it isn't real! Get away, you idiots!" ) Shows that we should all know our Norwegian so we don't get assimilated by an alien creature.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing the 2011 Remake, I'm sorry: Prequal. The movie is allegedly a prequal to the 1982 classic, but it looks the same to me so far. Here's to hoping the new movie is worth my ten dollars. I'll do my best not to read Rotten Tomatos

Sand Queens

What a jerk, Simon Kress got what was coming for him. Not only did he disobey Carla's orders not to force them to fight, he's also a jerk for wanting them to fight. Such sadism cannot go unpunished, and it was a relief to hear he get what he deserved. All in all, it was an interesting story. I always enjoy a nice sci fi short story, and this supplimented CN quite well. I only wonder how things work between Carla and her partner, Shade. Does he worship her? Or are they married? Or does he simply work with her to spread his fellow sandkings. There were several issues with the story though. First off, how would the sandkings be inteligent enough to know to sabotage his hovercar, cut the exterminator's fuel lines, and other such nonsensically smart things for a bug to do. And why couldn't Simon walk to a nearby house, surely he has neighbors. Plot holes always get me in stories, especially when they simply aren't explained. But sandkings was good, a strong 4 out of 5. It was pleasantly less morbid than ...I Must Scream. More gorey, but its nice to see a jerk get whats coming for him. But gore never bothers me anyway. I didn't understand why the orange sandkings had Simon's face though. That made no sense what so ever. Anyway, thought I'd get my thoughts down. Hopefully I'll post a review of The Thing next weekend. Cheers to a hopefully good movie!

In Space, No One Can Hear...

...Anything. In space, there is no medium for sound waves to travel through. No air, no liquid, no solid objects. Yet in every Sci Fi space movie I've seen, there are constant sounds in space. I hear things exploding, people screaming, and jets firing. I shouldn't hear anything. All of the Star Trek, Star Wars, and Battlestar Galactica battles would take place in complete and utter silence. I know that film directors put sounds in space because space would be boring without sounds. No one wants to see that epic space battle on mute. So directors break one of the fundamental laws of physics in order to keep fans happy. I, however, believe this is wrong. Anyone watching a Sci Fi space movie can, or atleast should be able to, appreciate the lack of sound in space. Nerds like science, nerds like realism. Atleast I do. Sound isn't even necesarry to present a sense of scale and awe in movies. I think it would be even more dramatic if the introductory battle in SW: Ep 3 between the Republic and the CIS would be awesome if it took place in complete silence. Seeing the guns firing and the resulting explosions without sound would be cool. Everything would look like it was happening in slow motion. It would add a dramatic feel to an otherwise non dramatic movie. Not only would movie directors add a sense of drama to their movies, they would also not look stupid. I personally think that movies that depict space with sound and fire are stupid. There cannot be sound, and there would only be miliseconds of fire, if any. Space is an environment where nothing happens, movies need to get that right.

Mistakes were Made but Why Weren't They Forseen?

I love Jurassic Park. The movie was fantastic and the book was even better. However, I saw the movie when I was 9, and I didn't understand the deeper implications of the movie. I was a kid, I liked dinosaurs, 'nuff said. Now that I've read the book, and I know exactly what happened, I have one question. WHAT THE HELL WAS JOHN HAMMOND THINKING? I mean, seriously? They were cloning carnivorous dinosaurs for some super zoo. They made precautions, electric fences and such, but they really didn't think things through. They assumed everything would work out perfectly as planned. For such brilliant people, they didn't think of the less ideal outcomes. They didn't consider what would happen if the T-Rex escaped or if the raptors got out. Muldoon had the right idea, he wanted firearms, not just tranquilizer darts. He wanted LAWS. Light Anti Tank Weapons. He didn't get them. And when the T-Rex got out, they had nothing to disable it with. They hit him with 3 tranquilizer darts and he passed out 30 minutes later. A tranquilizer that would stop 5 elephants barely took down the T-Rex. And they had nothing to defend themselves from the raptors. In the movie, they had shotguns. In the book, they didn't had anything. Over half the staff died to the raptors. Thats a lot of law suits, and surprisingly the economists or the lawyers didn't consider injury based law suits from dinosaurs.I don't know why. Maybe I'm ranting, but to me it seems that these brilliant minds should have considered the possibility that events don't go as planned. The combination of deadly carnivours, a tropical island, and electric fences is volatile. Considering that the only thing keeping the dinosaurs from the keep is the generator, which, big surprise, failed. And people died. Mistakes were made, alot of mistakes were made. But why weren't they forseen?

What he wanted. /\

What happened because he didn't get what he wanted/\

Deus Ex Machina

While the concept of cybernetic augmentation is very intriguing, I can’t help but thinking of the dangers. While it would be awesome to have a cybernetic arm, leg, eye, or even brain, the risks may not be worth the rewards. I recently finished playing through the new Deus Ex videogame. Set in 2027, a scientist cracks the human DNA code, which opens up the easy merging of cybernetics and biological tissue. The industry becomes the new Microsoft of its time, becoming the wealthiest company in the world. The company develops cybernetic limbs, eyes, brain chips, and even weapons, and makes them available to the paying, and wealthy, public. Problems shortly emerge; the primary reason being rejection of the cybernetic augmentations, the peoples’ bodies won’t naturally accept the augmentations, and all of those who choose to get augmented must take anti rejection medication for the rest of their lives. This medication is very expensive, and the need for this medication has driven most of the wealthy upper class into poverty and destitution. Anti Augmentation groups naturally emerge, claiming that we are destroying our own humanity through augmentation. In my opinion, they’re right. We reject our own humanity, and our individuality through augmentation. We lose what makes us human. Seeing as this is a new science, regulations have not been placed governing what they can and cannot do, so the company, Sarif Industries, is free to experiment with whatever augmentations they want. An anti augmentation terrorist group, Humanity First, also emerges. Throughout the game you hear of various bombings of augmentation factories and assassinations of leading augmentation scientists. When I finally finished the game, I was left with the impression that we are not ready for this technology, and I don’t know if we ever will be. From what I saw in the game, I’m hoping that I’m long dead before we develop yet another technology to destroy ourselves with.

A Monster? O Rly?

After watching The Bride of Frankenstein and Young Frankenstein, I have come to a conclusion. THE MONSTER ISN'T A MONSTER! After watching both movies, I was disgusted by the human behavior that I saw! People were running away franticly from the "monster", and he wasn't even being threatening. For example, in Bride of Frankenstein, the "monster" sees a young girl playing near a stream. She falls in, and the monster courageously jumps into the river and saves the girl, who would have drowned if not for the "monster's” help. Upon seeing her savior, she screams in terror. Her father shows up and shoots the "monster" in the arm, and the monster runs into the forest to escape harm. What is with these people? This monster is saving people and trying to learn and mingle with society, but every runs away from him, even when he helps people? I understand the innate fear of the malformed, but he isnt even that scary. He's 7 ft tall and he's dead, but he can speak, and he likes flowers and violin music. That doesn't seem frightening to me. I know he's not some demonic entity because he encounters a blind man who gladly takes him in, teaching him to speak, giving him food, and showing him the wonder of smoking. The two have a wonderful time together, and the "monster" seems completely human. The fun is ruined by two "normal people", who upon seeing the "monster" with their father, light their own house on fire in hopes of destroying the creature. I am appalled by this lack of kindness and acceptance. I am ashamed of the people in the movie, even if they are actors. I wonder how we would act today, if some creature showed up at my door. I hope I would not scream in terror, but I don't know how I would innately act.

Poor Handling of Dire Situations

In film, the army is notorious for this. In more movies than I can count, some soldier either accidentlly shoots something or out of fear shoots something. Chances are, that something is very important, and it shouldn't have been shot at. Such is the case in The Day the Earth Stood Still. Harmless Khatu emerges from his spacecraft, holding  a strange object. As he moves forward, an uneasy soldier shoots Khatu. That strange item Khatu held? A gift for the U.S. president. I don't know why people always shoot something just because they don't know what it is. Our mentality of "Gah, F***! Thats ugly! Lets kill it!" is going to be the death of us. Imagine what would have happened if, after shooting Klatu, the Robot Guard destroyed the planet, sensing the danger and lack of thought our race displays. If we cannot welcome an extraterrestrial visitor, how can we hope to handle nuclear weapons? It may just be a movie motiff, but it's certainly a concerning one. We may not want to associate ourselves with things that are different from us, but trying to destroy everything that we don't recognize is not a good idea. The strange things may be valueable, they may be friendly, or they may destroy us if we carelessly provoke them. We seriously need to consider all of our options before we go and shoot at the flying saucer. We seem to think we're invincible, but, unlike the movies, we wont be able to heroicly defeat the alien menace and save the day. We will die because unlike in the movies, the good guy doesn't always live.