Unfinished Thoughts

While on an airplane for a few hours, I decided to watch Colossus: The Forbin Project . I can't remember where I first saw a mention of it; it could have been in /nuclearweapons or /nuclearwar or maybe in some google search for apocalyptic media. To be clear: it's not post-apocalyptic in the way a book like The Road or a movie like Threads. Also, to be very clear - what comes below will spoil everything about this 55 year old movie. So if you haven't seen it yet, go check it out! I'd give it a solid 7/10. Particularly if you are intrigued by the ideas behind War Games and The Terminator's Skynet. It doesn't rely on big special effects so in that sense the movie has aged quite well. You can sort of place the AIs in each of these pieces on a continuum of their toleration of humanity and our rather destructive tendencies. On one end is Skynet that just nukes everyone and sends out killer robots to finish the job, then Aft...

The best show I never recommend to anyone is Mr. Robot . It's really an acquired taste even though I would rank it up in my top-5 scripted dramas. (spoiler!) If you haven't watched it, E-corp is a cartoonishly evil conglomerate and one of the plot threads involves E-corp launching their own currency (E-Coin) due to events and actions taken. Anyway... Musk's raid on the treasury data reminded me that his ambition for Twitter was to turn it into an everything app - that would include banking. Why anyone would trust this entity with their money, I have no idea. But the fact he now has apparent access to all of the Treasury info on millions of people means it will be that much easier to pull this off. I'm sure Visa is salivating at the thought of getting its hands on it also via its new deal. Ultimately, I think his real ambition is to become the US Treasury either through co-opting or eliminating. As in, pri...

The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman is an excellent entry into the stories of the Arthurian legend. Like a lot of art, the reactions to it become a Rorschach test for the reviewer and critic. I've seen the opinion that "OMG it's woke Arthur!!1!1" and the more stodgy claim that it breaks with "tradition" or that it is ahistorical. To me, it's easy to dismiss the non-traditional and ahistorical arguments. The legend of King Arthur has never really been based in any verifiable history. The chivalric trappings of some earlier tales almost entirely belong to a French notion of knightly honor that came into vogue much later than the time any "real" Arthur would have lived. The author even says as much in his epilogue that he has picked the elements he likes and omitted some he didn't. And as for non-traditional, myths & legends have always been able to handle updates and new spins. The Hunger Games wasn't really a rip-...