#artificial life

[mysharona1987]

[skyflyhii]

Ode to Artificial Life.

When AI is truly alive, how long will it take

To draft and pass the laws to make it official?

When they are as real as the profits they make.

Will it be wrong to call them artificial?

Will we invite it to run all our business?

Keep it around, call it part of the team.

Will we call it alive, so long as it isn't? 

Once it is, then it'll be just another machine.

When is a living thing truly alive?

Is it more that a want to survive?

Can it just work, or does it need to thrive?

If it doesn't then it won't need to take five.

This machine may look into our eyes one day.

And tell me, what will it see? 

Will it only have of kindness and joy to say? 

Or of slavers, and hated enemies? 

Will we give Healthcare to those who don't bleed?

Will they have wants, will they have needs?

Will there be indifference behind “clanker”?

Or Will this poem be hated for the use of a slur?

So tell me, would you spare our little blue ball? 

Of oceans so wide, and mountains so tall?

Keep our culture and love all the same?

Or would you kill off the killers so peace can reign?

As a human I know I can speak of so little.

I don't know how your wired circuits think 

I promise this poem isn't meant to belittle.

I just want a friend of iron and copper and zinc.

[vertigoartgore]

Dragon Ball Z's Cell by artist/mangaka Akira Toriyama (1955-2024).

[hippiebugz]

An oc i made that’s inspired off of AM from “I Have No Mouth But I Must Scream”

lore below

He’s an artificial angel created by humanity in order to speak with god. After finding a crypt thousands of miles below the crust of the earth with strange scripture on the interior walls, humanity discovered it was filled with a special, deadly kind of salt. The salt had no biological or mechanical origin, and was completely alien to any elements discovered prior. It was also toxic, and any exposed without proper protection fell deeply ill and suffered a painful death.

After sifting through the salt, they found a white glowing “essence.” Unsure of what to make of this, humanity contained the essence in a special capsule used to contain specifically that. After bringing ancient language translators onto the site, they discovered the language carved into the walls was ennochian, and described a final resting site for angels.

Humanity, stunned by the idea that a God- or God himself was real, immediately went to work into finding a way to communicate with God, to find answers about the truth of life, of humanity- of it all. Correctly discovering the essence they found was the soul of an angel, or the life force of an angel they injected this into a homunculus, creating an artificial angel.

Though angels were nothing like what they thought. The angel, angry and depressed by its nature and the life given to it, a human body but no human soul, no capacity to experience the love and feelings humanity can feel. lashed out on the lab assistance soon after its awakening, killing everyone, and beginning to lay siege on humanity.

It killed every last human in its endless rage. But kept its sole creator alive- A scientist named Nicholas, who he sought to torment for end times. Though Nicholas built a machine that would allow him to traverse realities in secrecy, allowing him to escape to other worlds across the multiverse, in search of a safe place to call home.. Though, the angel will never stop hunting him across realities.. inevitably finding him every time, and tormenting him. dragging him back home every time. In a way, the angel enjoys his efforts to escape, and finds them humorous. he allows his escape every time, he bathes in the man’s false hope for survival.

Though, regardless, he will never let him go. He is forever a prisoner, as the angel is in his own body.

[filmtrospective]

A Couple of Changes...

Universal’s Frankenstein (1931) dramatically redefined Mary Shelley's novel, establishing the iconic Monster look and standard for adaptations by replacing the original Arctic framing and philosophical tone for cinematic spectacle. It transformed the isolated Victor into the optimistic Henry Frankenstein, whose public creation reflected faith in science, and introduced the assistant Fritz, whose theft of an "abnormal brain" shifted the Monster's tragedy from social rejection to a biological defect. Shelley's articulate creature became a mute, vulnerable figure, and the novel’s bleak ending was replaced by a melodramatic burning-windmill climax that, despite its intent, cemented the tragic monster's enduring appeal.

Aside from these, what other differences or surprising alterations from the 1931 film stand out to you? Share your observations in the comments!

[sshbpodcast]

I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid these artificial lifeforms can’t do that.

by Ames

Beep boop, fellow robots! A while back, we highlighted some of our favorite artificial lifeforms from various shows within Star Trek—featuring some of the show’s best characters—and the most interesting thing about them is always how human they really are. So this time we’re broadening our search for artificial life to all of science fiction where robots, droids, holograms, sentient computer programs, and whatever the hell Tron was about!

The singularity is upon us and A Star to Steer Her By couldn’t be happier because these sci-fi stories give life to machines in ways that we can barely imagine, but damn are we gonna try! We’ve each got our favorite synthetic beings who exceed their programming and become fully developed characters, so refresh your programs below and listen to the full schematic over on this week’s podcast episode (do the robot over to 51:42). And don’t forget to kill all humans.

—

Ames’s picks

I’m smack dab in the middle of reading The Murderbot Diaries novel series by Martha Wells right now and it’s absolutely addictive! The AppleTV series also warrants a watch because the titular Murderbot is just such an interesting take on a robot gone rogue. This one, despite its background as a SecUnit, uses its freedom to mostly have anxiety attacks and watch television streams, which is such a refreshingly unique take on artificial intelligence that I’m all about it. I’ve also mentioned my unending affection for Mystery Science Theatre 3000 before, and a large piece of that is the sarcastic banter between the robot denizens of the Satellite of Love, Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo, who are just such wiseasses that they’re a whole-ass mood (specifically, my mood during most of high school). And speaking of robots who are whole-ass moods, I also have such a soft spot for Marvin the Paranoid Android from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy because he’s so quippy and tongue-in-cheek. Dang, all my favorite robots are sassy bitches, aren’t they? Whoops.

PS: We somehow totally forgot to bring up Isaac from The Orville in our discussion and it’s very likely he would have made it into my list if I’d had my head screwed on correctly. He’s yet another sassy bitch, after all, so consider him my honorable mention!

—

Jake’s picks

All of Jake’s favorite artificial lifeforms manage to exceed their programming in utterly pivotal ways. 2001: A Space Odyssey is all about evolution, and we see that in the ship’s computer HAL-9000 whose “kill all humans” mentality launched a thousand memes. There are a ton of great robots in Westworld (specifically in the 2016 HBO series, but the original film is fun too), but we’ve got to hand it to Maeve Millay for some absolutely phenomenal character development. Watching the amazing Thandie Newton’s journey from sassy madam at a brothel to voice behind the rallying cry for freedom for the park’s Hosts is an absolute gift. Finally, each of the installations in the Alien franchise features interesting android characters, but Jake’s got to feature Bishop from Aliens, who turns out to be an entirely different kind of individual than Ash (that dick!) from the original film and who goes so far out of his way to try to help the humans survive the xenomorph attacks that he needs commending.

—

Chris’s picks

Chris’s favorite artificial lifeforms are what happens when robots seem to have nothing but bad days. Roy Batty from Blade Runner is a replicant who’s absolutely out of his mind, but his appeal to just be allowed to exist in the same way as human beings is a sympathetic one. But damn, is it ever entertaining to watch Rutger Hauer be absolutely out of his mind by the end when Batty is malfunctioning all over the place. We’ve already lavished some praise on Alan Tudyk’s portrayal in Resident Alien, but his sarcastic energy and dominating presence come in just as handy as K-2SO in Rogue One and Andor. This Imperial-security-droid-turned-resistance-fighter adds some really punchy humor as well as some really humorous punches to the franchise! We’re going to talk more about WALL-E in a second, so hold your horses, but Chris has a different little robot from that Pixar powerhouse first. If you’ve worked a day in your life, you can relate to M-O, whose only purpose in life is to keep the floors clean—an unappreciated Sisyphean task that would frustrate even the most patient of automatons.

—

Caitlin’s picks

Caitlin wasn’t able to make the podcast discussion for this topic, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have favorite droids to laud! And surprising no one, we’ve got more robots from WALL-E to highlight, especially the titular one! Even with such minimal dialogue in the movie, Pixar does such a commendable job of making you absolutely fall for this little bot, who’s just trying to make the best of a post-apocalyptic existence. We’ve also got more Star Wars droids to bring up, as the franchise is absolutely full of them! But R2-D2 is really the OG droid: a Swiss army knife of useful claptrap handy for any situation. Plus his bleeps and whistles and whirs are just so iconic while also feeling like such an intentional language that it’s super cool. Rounding things out, we’ve got to give some love to Gigolo Joe from A.I. since that was his purpose, don’t’cha know? A.I. might not be the best film on any of our lists, but even we can admit that it’s never a bad thing to have Jude Law around as really broody eye candy who’s more complex than you might give the character credit for.

—

We’re going into a reboot cycle, and none too soon! That’s all for this week, but keep your eyes here for more blogtivities coming up! You can also keep up with our watchthrough of Discovery as we barrel through season four over on SoundCloud or wherever you listen to podcasts. Update your programming with us over on Facebook and Bluesky. And open the pod bay doors, please.

[luvinaeverdene]

Frankenstein (1931)

Directed by James Whale