X-men, AI, and Oppenheimer...

[shadowkat]

1. X-men Hellfire Gala 2023

X-men has been doing stories about evil AI machines for years now. I'm tempted to lock all the damn AI engineers in a room with X-men comics, Philip K. Dick, Aldus Huxley, Asimov, Terminator films, Ex Deus Machina, and every single AI horror tale done to date. They aren't allowed out until they swear on the lives of those they love not to create AI.



Moira X (aka Moira McTaggart who has become a machine due to a technovirus - she willfully incorporated) kills Jean Grey with a poisoned blade that disintegrates Jean to a skeleton in less than an hour. (That surprised me. I didn't expect it - mainly because Jean has a solo comic coming out in the fall. And I thought, would be at the wedding of Emma Frost and Tony Stark, so unless that took place before or the cover lies..). Jean does however have enough time to jump to the astral plane - and pull in Firestar, who she talks into playing spy for the X-men. She also manages to say goodbye to Scott and Logan, and convince Logan to fight.

Scott, aka Cyclops, got thrown off the treehouse, and can't feel his legs, he's being carried off in an ambulance. [I know from a spoiler - that Orchis is going to torture him, and take his mutant power.]

Logan, aka Wolverine, fights off and kills a whole band of Orchis ninjas. (Orchis is the evil human group that has created advanced AI to kill the mutants, but the AI, little known to Orchis, has become sentient and wants to take out the human race.)

They were, however, able to resurrect Ms Marvel prior to the festivities, so the resurrection machine disappeared, and possibly died after Ms. Marvel was resurrected.

Other characters that were killed rather brutally on the page, were Bobby (Iceman) who they melted. Dazzler, Jubliee, and Mystique. Also, I think Destiny.

Oh well, at least Cyclops, Kate Pryde, Nightcrawler, Forge, Emma Frost, Wolverine, Angel, Synch and I think Talon all escaped. Cyclops was hurt at the treehouse in the free comic book. Xavier is still alive, along with Rogue, Gambit, Magick and Havok.

The Avengers were also attacked - which is why they weren't there to help.
So this is leading to an Avengers/X-men team up. The two are going to join forces to take down the evil Orchis group.

I was kind of thrown by the comic. It's kind of grisly. A million mutants are forced through the gates by Charles - at the demands of Orchis, or they'll kill humanity. Except Orchis fixed the gates, so they couldn't go through them - and ground up like a meat grinder (hence the reason the gates were red). Mutant Massacre.

Except for those mutants were trained to resist Charles telepathic attacks, they survived. (Basically the main characters in the books, with a few exceptions.) Not many of them.

I was surprised mainly because that's not who I expected to die. I didn't see them killing Jean off, Cyclops yes, Jean no. I was worried about Cyclops - and I still am, but less so. They decided to cripple him not kill him.

Also annoyed. They keep killing off and torturing the same characters. Oh well, at least they got rid of Hope and the Five, who I found annoying.

It's hard to be too upset about it. Considering they keep resurrecting the characters or finding new and inventive ways of doing it. (See Ms. Marvel, who was dead for about a nano-second.)

This also gives them an excuse to throw Forge, Emma and Tony Stark together - to find a way to defeat Orchis. That's what this does - it combines the Avengers and X-men, so that the X-men can boost the Avengers in the comics and vice versa.

And, now, Ms Marvel has a new revamped book, co-written by the writer of the Disney + series. Ms Marvel who is now both an Inhuman and a Mutant, is going to go undercover at Orchis to help the X-men. She may end up saving Cyclops. They are in the Annual together, apparently. They have a close friendship that goes back to the days in which he was "young cyclops from the past" and "part of her team for a while".



2. Wales gift turned out to be... Turbo Trusser - Cook a Perfect Chicken Every Time.

Apparently, she remembered how we struggled getting the cornish hens legs tied together at Thanksgiving last year, and decided to buy me this.
She's psyched that I'm staying in NYC for Xmas this year - since she stopped trying to visit family during the holidays a long time ago.

It seems a little big for a cornish game hen - and I'm not really into roasting chickens - although maybe I should be?

3. The Hot Mama and Balanced Babe Supplements came today. I took both. So far, nada. Still getting the hot flashes. Sigh. Maybe it takes a while?

4. Since feeling a touch hoarse, and short of breath - I took a COVID test. I got a site tour tomorrow - so cannot afford to get sick. But just in case. Nope. Negative. Thank God.

Although BYT would deserve it - if I got sick. Babs feels like we're being set up to fail. She's overwhelmed, and been thrown work she has no clue how to do or who to ask.

I warned Babs that this was going to happen last year.

My workplace is aggravating. I went around to talk to folks - and was annoyed. I'm also annoyed at BYT for firing New Gal, and not being a smarter and better manager. She can't be happy - she doesn't trust anyone, and she's stuck managing me and Babs. And we are not easy to manage - since we're both close to retirement, and don't give a frak. If I were her - I'd be hunting another job.

5. The AI thing is scary and the SAG/AFTRA and WGA strike is bringing out exactly why. Justine Bateman, computer scientist and actress - goes into detail about it.

And in her Op-Ed in Newsweek.. "As a WGA writer, a Directors Guild of America (DGA) director, a former Screen Actors' Guild (SAG) board member, former SAG negotiating committee member, and coder who holds a UCLA degree in computer science and digital media management, I knew this signaled that they were not only thinking about using AI to displace us, but that they had already begun.

AI stands for Artificial Intelligence, but I refer to it as "Automatic Imitation." In short, AI is an algorithm that is fed a wealth of information and given a task, and it then delivers the result based on the information it's been fed. There are more complexities, but that is the basic design and function of AI. And it is being used in the Arts for greed, trained on all our past work."


It starts with AI-written scrips and digitally-scanned actors, either image or voice actors. This scanning is already in practice; in fact, some talent agencies are actively recruiting their clients to be scanned. What this would mean for the actor is that they would get 75 cents on the dollar, and their digital image can be triple and quadruple booked. Of course, you're not getting the actor; you're getting a copy of them.

The next step will be films customized for a viewer based on their viewing history, which has been collected for many years. Actors will have the option to have their image "bought out" to be used in anything at all. Viewers will be able to "order up" films—for example, "I want a film about a panda and a unicorn who save the world in a rocket ship. And put Bill Murray in it."

From there I believe viewers will be given the ability to be digitally scanned themselves, and pay extra to have themselves inserted in these custom films. You'll also start to see licensing deals made with studios, so that viewers can order up older films like "Star Wars" and put their face on Luke Skywalker's body, and their ex-wife's face on Darth Vader's body, and so on.

You can also expect to see the training of AI programs on older, hit TV series in order to create new seasons. "Family Ties," for example, has 167 episodes, comprising seven seasons. An AI program could easily be trained on this to create an eighth season.

All to say, AI has to be addressed now or never.

I believe this is the last time any labor action will be effective in our business. If we don't make strong rules now, they simply won't notice if we strike in three years, because at that point, they won't need us.


Bateman's Op-Ed on AI

There's a lot coming out about it. Honestly, someone needs to tell engineers and scientists that just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should.

I don't know about anyone else, but I feel like I'm stuck in a Philip K Dick novel. I do not want to be stuck in a Philip K Dick novel. I'd much prefer Star Trek, or maybe Jane Austen?

6. Oppenheimer film - from what I've read and been told by those who have seen it - is an important film - because it delves into that question of hubris - the scientist doing what he shouldn't, and having to live with the consequences. All of them.

A coworker called Oppenheimer a hero. Because he ended WWII.

I don't think of him as a hero. It may have been a heroic act at the time and in that moment from that specific perspective, but it was equally a monstrous one. Angels are often Demons at the same time. I don't think people realize this - the villain and the hero often walk in the same shoes and the same path, they may even be the same person, it depends on who is looking at them - as to whether they are hero or villain. To the Japanese, Oppenheimer was a villain, and if you watched any Japanese Anime, you've heard of Oppenheimer at some point, his name and image comes up. Death in a hat. To the Americans - he was a hero.

It's kind of that old saying? Look into the abyss make sure it doesn't look back into you? Or more directly - when fighting monsters or monstrous acts, try not to become one yourself. Fighting evil with evil rarely ends well, for anyone. It didn't with the atomic bomb. Sure it ended WWII. But...look at the cost 90 years later? Was it worth it?

Comments

[iddewes]

Definitely agree with you on both counts!

[cjlasky7]

I think Oppenheimer was a little too hard on himself. (Not much--just a little.)

Given all the breakthroughs in subatomic research and quantum physics in the early part of the 20th century, somebody was going to split the atom and release that awe-inspiring burst of energy. It was clearly inevitable. And even if the most peace loving leaders on the planet decided atomic energy would be used for powering our cities, eventually, someone (somewhere) would say to themselves: "this would make a fucking awesome bomb."

Hitler and WWII simply accelerated the process. As Manhattan Project leader, Oppenheimer was strapped to the front of that metaphorical rocket, but he had no control over its flight path. He is no more or less guilty of opening Pandora's Box than Einstein, Fermi and Bohr.

Oppenheimer just had a better view of the abyss than those guys.

Pondering the apocalypse did not start with the Bomb. We started to think about actually wiping out life on Earth during the Great War in Europe, when poison gas swept the battlefields. Then, as now, the question is: ok, we CAN kill people on a mass scale; do we have the wisdom and maturity as a species NOT to do it?

Poison gas has been banned. Fat Man and Little Boy were the only atomic bombs used in battle. So far, mankind has resisted its collective death wish.

But with the specters of nuclear proliferation and climate change hanging over our heads, that abyss is not going anywhere.

[shadowkat]

Yeah, co-worker had the same take. But I'm guessing you'd both think differently if you had relatives who were killed in Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

Although it is worth mentioning that the bombing of Dresden during WWII - was just as bad, and killed nearly as many people as those two bombs did. But does that excuse the two bombs?

Truman argued that dropping the atomic bomb saving millions of American lives, and that was his justification. But I'm not sure it works.

You're arguing it would have happened any way - and it only happened once.

But it didn't happen once. There have been since that date...

"The United States conducted 1,032 tests between 1945 and 1992. The Soviet Union carried out 715 tests between 1949 and 1990. The United Kingdom carried out 45 tests between 1952 and 1991. France carried out 210 tests between 1960 and 1996."

Fact Sheets & Briefs
Type of Test United States Total
Atmospheric 215 528
Underground 815 1,528
Total 1,0301 (Note: does not include atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.) 2,056

However, Chernobyl is more radioactive than Hiroshima, mainly because the bomb for Hiroshima was in the air not on the ground. The nuclear testing was more hazardous actually.

And over a million people contracted and died of leukemia and other forms of cancer due to the atomic bomb testing in Nevada desert from roughly the 1940s to 1992. They banned atmospheric testing in 1962. The Government did reimburse those who had family members who died from or contracted cancer between 1950-1963 in Utah. Then they went underground - which made it worse.

Here's how I see it?

That excuse is easy - but it is just that an excuse. A handwave. Which ironically isn't used for things like, oh so what if Neil Armstrong walked on the moon? That could be anyone. Or so what if Einstein discovered relativity, anyone could have discovered that eventually?

It's like the kid who picks up the gun and walks into the school and shoots everyone - saying, oh well, anyone could have done that. And they would have eventually. It's not my fault. Or the gun manufacturer stating, oh so what, that gun could be used any way - not my fault.

Sorry, no. We have choices, and it doesn't matter whether it might have been someone else who did it eventually or not. Oppenheimer chose to use his scientific knowledge to build a weapon. He could have chosen to do anything - but he chose that. Just because any number of people could have done it first, or the Nazi's could have gotten there first - doesn't change that. That doesn't excuse it. It's irrelevant whether others might have done it. Oppenheimer chose to do it for good or ill. Did others decide too? Yes. And they are equally accountable. But it doesn't get Oppenheimer off the hook.

[atpo_onm]

Hitler and WWII simply accelerated the process. As Manhattan Project leader, Oppenheimer was strapped to the front of that metaphorical rocket, but he had no control over its flight path. He is no more or less guilty of opening Pandora's Box than Einstein, Fermi and Bohr.

Yep, I agree. Humanity's millenia-long curse is the seemingly primal, fervent desire to start wars in the first place, whether the violent, physical types or the even more insidious mental/emotional ones.

Hope to see the film sometime in the next few weeks, after the crowds die down a mite. I'll post some thoughts on it after I do.

[cjlasky7]

"Never think that war--no matter how necessary, nor how justified--is not a crime."

--Ernest Hemingway

[shadowkat]

Or bombs for that matter. ;-)

And I'm beginning to think AI.

[atpo_onm]

Have you ever seen this film? Strongly recommended if you haven't, and suddenly becoming increasingly relevant:

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ex_machina

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ex_Machina_(film)

Sooner or later, this will happen. When it does, will we be smart enough ro employ Asimov's Laws of Robotics or something like them?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Laws_of_Robotics

The tricky one is that third one. For what happens-- like in the pre-history of the Matrix films-- where humanity feels that it's okay to enslave AI's since they don't have a human kind of sentience.

Hmmm... but what happens if when they do?

Time to dig out those Sarah Connor Chronicles DVDs again, methinks...

[svgurl]

See Ms. Marvel, who was dead for about a nano-second.
I read somewhere they killed her off and then spoiled her return by putting her in the background on a cover of a separate issue (the Tony Stark & Emma Frost wedding one, I think?).

Hopefully the supplements kick in and help out with the hot flashes. Did it say the effects would be immediate anywhere?

Good news that you don't have COVID. And BYT is a reminder that some people really shouldn't be in charge of others. Unfortunately, they seem to be the ones who end up there anyway.

[shadowkat]

It's not clear when the wedding takes place? Because there's at least four characters on that cover that are either dead or incapacitated at the moment. (Jean Grey and Cyclopes are on the cover - and she died at the Gala, and he's incapacitated. Iceman died allegedly at the Gala. And Captain America was attacked prior to the Gala. But Ms. Marvel was dead prior to the Gala, and brought back to life a few hours prior to it.) So, the fandom isn't clear when it happened? Comics like to do issues out of order at times, which is confusing. But it had to have either happened prior to Ms. Marvel's death (which doesn't work - since Emma tells Cyclops that she's marrying Tony and about Kamala's death at the same time). The other possibility is that the cover is a mislead - they often are. Whomever is on the cover - isn't always featured in the book or is dead in the actual issue.

[shadowkat]

We now know - it takes place between Ms Marvel's resurrection and just before the Gala began.