Daily Archives: March 25, 2021

In a store in the center of an unnamed city, humanoid robots are displayed alongside housewares and magazines. They watch the fast-moving world outside the window, anxiously awaiting the arrival of customers who might buy them and take them home. Among them is Klara, a particularly astute robot who loves the sun and wants to learn as much as possible about humans and the world they live in.

So begins Kazuo Ishiguros new novel Klara and the Sun, published earlier this month. The book, told from Klaras perspective, portrays an eerie future society in which intelligent machines and other advanced technologies have been integrated into daily life, but not everyone is happy about it.

Technological unemployment, the progress of artificial intelligence, inequality, the safety and ethics of gene editing, increasing loneliness and isolationall of which were grappling with todayshow up in Ishiguros world. Its like he hit a fast-forward button, mirroring back to us how things might play out if we dont approach these technologies with caution and foresight.

The wealthy genetically edit or lift their children to set them up for success, while the poor have to make do with the regular old brains and bodies bequeathed them by evolution. Lifted and unlifted kids generally dont mix, and this is just one of many sinister delineations between a new breed of haves and have-nots.

Theres anger about robots steady infiltration into everyday life, and questions about how similar their rights should be to those of humans. First they take the jobs. Then they take the seats at the theater? one woman fumes.

References to changes and substitutions allude to an economy where automation has eliminated millions of jobs. While post-employed people squat in abandoned buildings and fringe communities arm themselves in preparation for conflict, those whose livelihoods havent been destroyed can afford to have live-in housekeepers and buy Artificial Friends (or AFs) for their lonely children.

The old traditional model that we still live with nowwhere most of us can get some kind of paid work in exchange for our services or the goods we makehas broken down, Ishiguro said in a podcast discussion of the novel. Were not talking just about the difference between rich and poor getting bigger. Were talking about a gap appearing between people who participate in society in an obvious way and people who do not.

He has a point; as much as techno-optimists claim that the economic changes brought by automation and AI will give us all more free time, let us work less, and devote time to our passion projects, how would that actually play out? What would millions of post-employed people receiving basic income actually do with their time and energy?

In the novel, we dont get much of a glimpse of this side of the equation, but we do see how the wealthy live. After a long wait, just as the store manager seems ready to give up on selling her, Klara is chosen by a 14-year-old girl named Josie, the daughter of a woman who wears high-rank clothes and lives in a large, sunny home outside the city. Cheerful and kind, Josie suffers from an unspecified illness that periodically flares up and leaves her confined to her bed for days at a time.

Her life seems somewhat bleak, the need for an AF clear. In this future world, the children of the wealthy no longer go to school together, instead studying alone at home on their digital devices. Interaction meetings are set up for them to learn to socialize, their parents carefully eavesdropping from the next room and trying not to intervene when theres conflict or hurt feelings.

Klara does her best to be a friend, aide, and confidante to Josie while continuing to learn about the world around her and decode the mysteries of human behavior. We surmise that she was programmed with a basic ability to understand emotions, which evolves along with her other types of intelligence. I believe I have many feelings. The more I observe, the more feelings become available to me, she explains to one character.

Ishiguro does an excellent job of representing Klaras mind: a blend of pre-determined programming, observation, and continuous learning. Her narration has qualities both robotic and human; we can tell when something has been programmed inshe Gives Privacy to the humans around her when thats appropriate, for exampleand when shes figured something out for herself.

But the author maintains some mystery around Klaras inner emotional life. Does she actually understand human emotions, or is she just observing human emotions and simulating them within herself? he said. I suppose the question comes back to, what are our emotions as human beings? What do they amount to?

Klara is particularly attuned to human loneliness, since she essentially was made to help prevent it. It is, in her view, peoples biggest fear, and something theyll go to great lengths to avoid, yet can never fully escape. Perhaps all humans are lonely, she says.

Warding off loneliness through technology isnt a futuristic idea, its something weve been doing for a long time, with the technologies at hand growing more and more sophisticated. Products like AFs already exist. Theres XiaoIce, a chatbot that uses sentiment analysis to keep its 660 million users engaged, and Azuma Hikari, a character-based AI designed to bring comfort to users whose lives lack emotional connection with other humans.

The mere existence of these tools would be sinister if it wasnt for their widespread adoption; when millions of people use AIs to fill a void in their lives, it raises deeper questions about our ability to connect with each other and whether technology is building it up or tearing it down.

This isnt the only big question the novel tackles. An overarching theme is one weve been increasingly contemplating as computers start to acquire more complex capabilities, like the beginnings of creativity or emotional awareness: What is it that truly makes us human?

Do you believe in the human heart? one character asks. I dont mean simply the organ, obviously. Im speaking in the poetic sense. The human heart. Do you think there is such a thing? Something that makes each of us special and individual?

The alternative, at least in the story, is that people dont have a unique essence, but rather were all a blend of traits and personalities that can be reduced to strings of code. Our understanding of the brain is still elementary, but at some level, doesnt all human experience boil down to the firing of billions of neurons between our ears? Will we one dayin a future beyond that painted by Ishiguro, but certainly foreshadowed by itbe able to decode our humanity to the point that theres nothing mysterious left about it? A human heart is bound to be complex, Klara says. But it must be limited.

Whether or not you agree, Klara and the Sun is worth the read. Its both a marvelous, engaging story about what it means to love and be human, and a prescient warning to approach technological change with caution and nuance. Were already living in a world where AI keeps us company, influences our behavior, and is wreaking various forms of havoc. Ishiguros novel is a snapshot of one of our possible futures, told through the eyes of a robot who keeps you rooting for her to the end.

Image Credit: Marion Wellmann from Pixabay

Originally posted here:

In 'Klara and the Sun,' We Glimpse an Eerie Future Through the Eyes of a Robot - Singularity Hub

Rooting itself in nuanced tech-noir, The Tangle unfolds into breathtaking lyrical poetry about human ambition and the caverns measureless to man.

While the world is no stranger to dystopian narratives in cinema, few have been able to emerge as ingenious, well-sustained pieces that delve deep into what it means to be human in a tech-saturated world. Compelling techno-noir pieces such as Blade Runner and Gattaca come to mind, mainly due to the fact such films allow audiences a peek into immersive, near-future scenarios that amplify the resident darkness embedded within the human condition. Writer-director Christopher Soren Kellys The Tangle is a commendable addition to the list, as it manages to weave an intricate web of mystery and intrigue while encouraging captivating discourses that constitute the very fabric of science fiction. Rooting itself in nuanced tech-noir, The Tangle unfolds into breathtaking lyrical poetry about human ambition and the caverns measureless to man.

The Tangle opens with a world completely connected by the eponymous airborne nanotech, embedded within the blood and sinews of every human being. The S.O.L or Secure OnTangle Line is posited as a quantum-encrypted hard drive implanted within the human mind, designed to facilitate heavily-customized personal spaces, stop crime altogether, and eliminate human needs that can prove to be fatal when not quenched, such as thirst. Tied to a single consciousness, namely the elusive Cleopatra or Cleo (Bel Deli), the Tangle is deemed unhackable by any other entity, marking the achievement of technological singularity. However, the seemingly-idyllic world of The Tangle is disrupted when a government ASP agent, Margot (Mary Jane Wells) is brutally murdered inside an abandoned speakeasy. When Carter Carmine (Joshua Bitton) finds himselfa prime suspect of themurder investigation, two ASP agents, Edward (Soren Kelly) and Laurel (Jessica Graham) interrogate Carter about his exact whereabouts before the murder. Thanks to the Tangle, the ASP agents are able to retrace back Carters steps with hyper-accurate precision, even after his S.O.L is removed from his cranium.

RELATED:Blade Runner's Eye Symbolism Explained: What It Means For Each Character

As the trio engages in a frenetic back-and-forth, the audience is alerted to the rooms pre-technological setting, seemingly removed from the Tangles pervasive presence in the world outside. Featuring an antique typewriter and an old rotary phone, the safe rooms pre-singularity setting offers a stark contrast to the hyper-connected web of the Tangle, which allows individuals to don avatars and count the moles on the back of a Sherpa on Everest from their living spaces. Amid this privacy-defunct and instantly-searchable world, the ASP safe room unravels a string of well-kept secrets, such as the fact that the ASP exists as an extra layer of surveillance to monitor the Tangle, and that all ASP agents voluntarily opted out of the network in order to do so. As the Tangle has seemingly achieved the pinnacle of technological marvel, with the ability to deter reflexes that could purportedly lead to crimes and murder, how did Margot end up with her head bashed in?

This question dominates the central mystery of The Tangle, which further branches into deeply philosophical arenas that haunt the human psyche. How does love factor into a microdrone-addled world, and what happens when human ambition aims to usurp an omniscient tech-ecosystem? Poetry is seated at the heart of The Tangle, as it assumes central importance in terms of the murder in question and the motivational conflicts between the characters. Samuel Taylor Coleridges Kubla Khan is key to unraveling the veil of truth, which emerges as a fitting metaphor for evoking the loss of a primordial world of fantasy and wonder:

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan/A stately pleasure-dome decree:/Where Alph, the sacred river, ran/Through caverns measureless to man/Down to a sunless sea.

Then there is Carters own poetry, which bleeds beautifully into his creations, his technological prowess, and his overwhelming humanity when it comes to protecting the one he loves. As per performances, the entire cast belts out convincing character studies, with Bitton and Graham emerging as near-sublime. Soren Kelly plays Edward with the precision of a hardboiled detective warring with his inner demons, hiding a kernel of intensity beneath his otherwise cold, collected exterior. The deft unraveling of the characters inner worlds is probably one of the films greatest strengths, as it is masterfully done with the aid of tautly-edited flashbacks and nuanced performances that brim with haunting pathos.

Although most of the narrative events of The Tangle take place within a single room, the occasional cuts to the outside world are visually-stunning, to say the least. One of the films central mysteries, Cleo, is never featured onscreen, which adds to the aura of doubt and mystery that surrounds her real motivations. Moreover, The Tangle ends on an impactful note without proffering a conclusive resolution, leaving the fates of the characters up in the air, opening the vistas of interpretative analysis and dialogue. The intrinsically Greek idea of beauty is terror echoes throughout the tech-saturated vistas of The Tangle, revealing the often-distorted self-reflections that blur the line between self-interest and profundity. What remains is a fragment, a vision in a dream.

NEXT:Every Upcoming Sci-Fi Movie In 2021

The Tangle was released March 19, 2021 in the U.S. and is available for online streaming, courtesy of Indie Rights. It is 99 minutes long and remains unrated as of now.

Let us know what you thought of the film in the comments!

4.5 out of 5 (Must-See)

Zack Snyder Says Justice League Still 'Not Enough Movie' For His Superman Story

Debopriyaa Dutta is a content curator, poet, and film critic based in India and a frequent contributor for High On Films. Apart from being a published author, Debopriyaa has been writing professionally since 2014, and holds a Master's degree in English Literature and Theory from the University of Delhi. An ardent fan of cosmic horror and poetic cinema, she enjoys painting, along with reading literary works steeped in morbid nihilism.

Follow this link:

The Tangle (2021) Movie Review | Screen Rant - Screen Rant

Posted on Mar 23, 2021 in Science

Planet Earth Report provides descriptive links to headline news by leading science journalists about the extraordinary discoveries, technology, people, and events changing our knowledge of Planet Earth and the future of the human species.

How to Photograph a (Possible) Alien Artifact We dont know if the interstellar object Oumuamua was natural or artificialbut a new telescope coming online in a few years could help us identify the next one, reports Avi Loeb for Scientific American,

CERN experiment hints at new force of nature, reports The Guardian. Scientists at the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva have spotted an unusual signal in their data that may be the first hint of a new kind of physics.

Worlds oldest meteor crater isnt what it seems, reports Harry Baker for Live Science. New controversial claim suggests its not a meteor crater at all. Known locally as the Maniitsoq structure, is located 34 miles (55 kilometers) southeast of the town of Maniitsoq in Greenland. The structure is around 62 miles (100 km) in diameter and formed around 3 billion years ago, although its origin has been disputed in recent years.

How Intelligent Could Life Be Without Natural Selection?, asks Arik Kershenbaum for Nautilus.Its not unreasonable that in 100 or 200 years, our computer systems will be effectively sentient: human-like robots, similar to Star Treks Commander Data. Alien civilizations that are considerably more advanced than us are likely already capable of such creations. The possibilitylikelihood, evenof such robotic life has implications for our predictions about life on alien planets.

Some of Earths tiniest living things could survive on Mars, reports astrophysicist Caleb Scharf for Popular Science. Bacteria and fungi were hurled into Earths middle stratosphere, which resembles many of Mars harsh conditions.

Life Beyond Human Has to Play by the Rules, reports David Barash for Nautilus. A zoologist explains why complex life anywhere depends on natural selection.

A Tsunami Likely Hurled Huge Rocks onto a Tiny Island A Caribbean islands giant rocks were thought to be deposited by enormous waves, reports Katherine Kornei for Scientific American.

Eruption in Iceland may mark the start of decades of volcanic activity The first eruption in the Reykjanes Peninsula in about 800 years is not expected the threaten any population centers, but it does provide a unique opportunity to study the geologic mysteries of the region.

The Ghost of Ancient Earths Magma Oceans Found in Greenland Rocks, reports Singularity Hub. In a new study, published in Science Advances, University of Cambridge scientists say theyve found evidence of ancient Earths magma oceans in 3.7-billion-year-old rocks in Greenland.

The Secret Auction That Set Off the Race for AI Supremacy, reports Cade Metz for Wired. How the shape of deep learningand the fate of the tech industrywent up for sale in Harrahs Room 731, on the shores of Lake Tahoe. [The auction for Geoff Hintons newly formed AI company] was the beginning of a global arms race, and this race would quickly escalate in ways that would have seemed absurd a few years before.

Scientists Have Discovered a New Pattern In a Repeating Signal from Space What astronomers found in the most precise time measurement of a fast radio burst ever captured, reports Becky Ferreira for Motherboard/Vice.

Scientists Created an Artificial Early Embryo From Human Skin Cells, reports Singularity Hub. Last week, two studies in Nature torpedoed the classic narrative of the beginning of life. Two independent teams coaxed ordinary skin cells into a living cluster that resembled a fertilized human eggand the very first stages of a developing human embryo.

Scientists Grow Mouse Embryos in a Mechanical Womb, reports Gina Kolata for The New York Times Biologists have long held that a fetus needs a living uterus to develop. Maybe not anymore.

Your free twice-weekly fix of stories of space and science a random journey from Planet Earth through the Cosmos that has the capacity to provide clues to our existence and add a much needed cosmic perspective in our Anthropocene epoch.

Yes, Sign Me Up for The Galaxy Report Newsletter

Follow this link:

Planet Earth Report Strange Signal Hints at New Force of Nature to Life Beyond Human - The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel