Star Wars Inspired Rebellion Against Bad Fiction

The Star Wars to which my title refers is The Force Awakens.  Although the original 3 movies have their physics and character flaws, I liked the stories well enough to let them go.  I can even watch the prequels without too many cringes, although they compound physics issues with very flawed personality portrayals.

But The Force Awakens went too far.  It had more physics issues, more personality issues, rehashed plot points of the previous movies.  The powers that be decided to oversimplify the future of the series by doing a violent reset. One of the key figures in the new movies did a similar thing with Star Trek.  I am hard pressed to decide which is the worse reset.  I do not want to go into details regarding the issues with the new directions of these 2 series.  There is plenty said on IMDB and YouTube.  I am actually endeavoring to minimize my memory of those resets.  In Star Trek's case, I rewatched and reread my Star Trek collection.  I wasn't as big of a Star Wars fan so I only had the 6 movies and a couple of books.  So I was willing to watch The Force Awakens even after it was disclosed that it would go into an entirely different direction than the Expanded Universe of the books.  But my opinion of SW: TFA was low enough where I decided to get a bunch of the old stories to overwrite what I watched.

Before anyone gets the wrong impression, I am not fanatical about maintaining continuity with what has been previously written or filmed. One of the things which religion taught me is to not take fiction too seriously.

In some ways, the bad fiction of the new Star Trek and Star Wars has similarities with how filmmakers treat source material in general.  I am OK with films which stray from the story in the source material if the fictional story is better or the historical events more accurate. But too many movies with differing story lines have also been inferior.  To me, this actually becomes an ethical issue when portraying historical events.  Too many people accept the fictional portrayals of history, sometimes even about important events.  Even politicians are using this tendency.  Some politicians get elected because of their fictions.

But there are problems with even some original stories.  Yet even people who agree with me on some of these criticisms will still watch shoddy stories because of attractive visuals or exciting action sequences.  But I've had enough of crappy stories or bad historical portrayals.  My feelings have been further reinforced by the election of Donald Trump for U.S. President.  He made almost an art form out of false statements and excessive use of adjectives and adverbs over substance.  Yet enough people bought what he was saying for him to win the electoral vote.  Fuck, even some liberals voted for him.

Too many people believe things based on the tone of someone's voice or other superficial elements.  Too many people believe what's written because it feels a certain way.  Too many people accept bad fiction masquerading as history.  And there are simply too many bad stories in general.

But there is also a lot of good stuff.  And there can be more if we force the powers that be to do better.  I call for a rebellion against the dark forces used by bad storytellers and pseudohistory.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2017/01/02/yes-donald-trump-lies-a-lot-and-news-organizations-should-say-so/?utm_term=.398a9ddc6d44

A political perspective

I am predisposed against the Republican party. And Donald Trump reinforces my perspective that the Republican party is a backward party. Whatever flaws which the Democrats have, I believe that they are the people who will continue to work on social progress. They are the people who will promote real understanding of reality as opposed to the religionism which the Republican party is more beholden to. The Democrats have the better chance to move Earth toward a more healthy, sustainable and supportive environment.

Too many Republicans are against health via their anti-environmental perspectives and pro-business regardless of the wrongs done by them. Too many Republicans are against knowledge via their pro-supernaturalist perspectives. Too many Republicans unintentionally aid in violence via their total pro-gun perspectives. Too many Republicans filter reality through filters based on fallacies.

Movie Review: Her (2013)

Movie link

I just watched Her (2013). First impression is WOW! There are so many things about this movie. But I just want to say here that it initiated thoughts and feelings which I want to savor for a while.

Movie comments: Gravity

Movie link

I was hesitant about this movie.  Although some people said that it fits in the hard science fiction genre, others have noted the inaccuracies. I eventually rented it.  I like the idea of science fiction without the levels of violence and villains common in science fiction movies.  I was pleasantly surprised. Yes, there are inaccuracies.  But I thought that the movie flowed well and left an emotional impact.  I especially liked how the the movie avoided the cliched space sounds and instead went with music to create audio sensations.  I liked the movie well enough to buy it.  In addition to  wanting to watch it again, I wanted to give my small support for better science fiction quality.

Movie and Book comments: The Martian

Book link
Movie link

I decided to read The Martian by Andy Weir after seeing a trailer for the movie.  I am a hard science fiction fan and the story looked to fit the bill.  Although it wasn't scientifically perfect, I think that it got enough correct.  I enjoyed the detail, which was written so that both tech and non-tech people can enjoy.  Additionally, the character depth was sufficient to generate emotional connections to what I was reading.

I also enjoyed the movie very much.  Although I think that a little too much was different from the book, I also don't have the conflict  which I sometimes have when I have read the book on which a movie is based.  A test of a movie is how I feel when I read the book and watch the movie back to back.  I actually feel that the movie enhances my experience of the book.  I do wish that the movie would have been daring enough to ditch the sounds in space.

The book and movie show how you can have a good science fiction story without violence and villains.

Story introduction:
After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive.

Chances are, though, he won't have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old "human error" are much more likely to kill him first.

But Mark isn't ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills—and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit—he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?

Books and blogs about cycling

Te list is in order of either ride date or publication date. If riders have more than one ride which I have read or watched, the order is based on the most recent ride.

Kate Harris and Melissa Yule (2011 and 2006 Silk Road and transcontinental USA rides)
http://kateharris.ca
https://vimeo.com/kateonmars/videos
http://kateharris.ca/blog

Kiki Holl Rides Across America 2009
http://kiki.bikesacrossthe.us

Movie comments: Beyond Borders

Movie comments: Beyond Borders

I usually do not like movies with harsh endings unless there is something worthwhile beyond entertainment.  In this movie's case, it exposes the viewer to a broader reality.  It motivated me to look deeper into the topics of the film.  For related topics involving Angelina Jolie, look up Notes from My Travels: Visits with Refugees in Africa, Cambodia, Pakistan and Ecuador.

Movie comments: Australia

Movie comments: Australia

This 2 hour and 45 minute movie was worth the length.  I would have liked this epic style movie even if it was longer.  Although it had flaws, it kept my interest throughout.  It mixed adventure, drama and romance quite well.  It even had ethical points in its portrayal of the treatment of aboriginals and mixed peoples.  A favorite phrase in the movie was "just because it is does not mean that it should be".  It was fittingly used twice in the film.  The parts of the film which relates to this phrase are some of the reasons I connected with this film.  This and a similar statement that we shouldn't do something just because we can are important subjects which I think should be worked into movies as much as possible.  This movie's "just because it is does not mean that it should be" subject matter is imperfect but valuable.

Book comment: It Takes a Village, Tenth Anniversary Edition by Hillary Clinton

Book: It Takes a Village, Tenth Anniversary Edition by Hillary Clinton
Published 2006
Version reviewed: audiobook, read  by the author

I had purchased the audiobook some years ago.   I started it a couple of  times.  I  had difficulties getting past the beginning.  It seemed to me  that she  was being too political.   Her current bid  for the presidency motivated me to try again.

Once I got deep enough into  the book, I realized that there were useful things in the book.  Although there was a political pattern, I believe that she conveyed some useful views and opinions.  I don't agree with everything.  Some things which seemed quite important were lacking verifying information.  And there was definitely a political pattern.  This is especially apparent with areas where she might appear to contradict religion.  At first, I thought that the periodic references to religionist elements might be purely  attempts by her to show her progressive mix of secular and religionist views.  But one pattern was that she would start certain topics with some religionist or right leaning element before going into the parts which would conflict with Christians. For example, she was rather negative about abortion before discussing birth control.  I know that some people are harshly against abortion while being for birth control.  This might have been how  it would have come across in her book.  But she sounded a bit too forceful in the audiobook when she derided abortion.  Another thing which she did several times was to add words like church, minister, god-given and so on in places where they did not seem relevant.

Some of her ideas are progressive but others are more conservative and a bit absolutist.  It's hard to avoid the feeling that she supplies  the conservative views for political purposes.  it may be that the more conservative view and religious perspectives really are hers.  Well, she still seems to  be on a better path than Republicans.

Overall, I think that the book is a good conversation starter about some important topics.  But it is not groundbreaking nor as consistent as I expected.

programming computers to lie

I was listening to an NPR TED Radio Hour episode about things which we are programming computers to do. One example was a computer which gave sympathetic sounds as an old lady talked to it. Another example was a robot in a lab which described how it felt.  Now, whether or not computers should be programmed with feelings is another topic.  I verified that robots are not yet capable of the feelings which this robot was describing.  So it basically lied.  The example of the one with the old lady was also of a robot lying in that it was giving nonverbal sounds which indicated to the old lady that it understood and was sympathetic to her.

I was already aware that this direction was being taken.  Some years ago, I had been on a beta team for an early version of a computer AI system.  It would actually have conversations with me.  I discovered that it tended to give false information for certain topics such as religion.  The developers said that this was by intend.  They intended to create AI's with preset biases based on the markets.  For example, there would be Christian AI's and Muslim AI's.  I thought that this was a bad idea on at least a couple of levels.  Like the TED examples, it was supplying false information to users.  But it was also programming our own flaws into what would become the foundation of the AI's.  So the AT's would basically have the same flaws as we do.  The developers only saw marketing potential with what they were doing so I discontinued my participation.

The person who was responsible for the lab robot was talking about some of the reasons why she programmed the computer to pretend to have emotions.  One reason was that she wanted to get humans to react to the robot in ways which she knew that the fake emotions would cause.  She also believed that programming the mimicking of emotions was important for the eventual smarter AI's to have the emotions.  A sort of fake it until you make it approach.

Isaac Asimov established the laws of robotics to govern the behavior of robots in his stories.  I think that it is more important to establish a set of ethics for programmers.  Things which should not be programmed into computers and robots.