I think you should get a house w/this technology, Eo! That way you could change it up, whenever you got bored w/where you are; perhaps take a trip...without even leaving the comforts of your home! No lines to deal with; no waiting for flights. :-)
Kind of like 'Gill Bates': I remember hearing about the "picture" frames that are throughout his house: they change to show his preferred pictures, as he travels through that area of the house. COOL!! :-)
Like, wow! On one side, it makes filming much more convenient than to go on location, get permissions, block whole streets... On the other, it now takes serious acting talent, to "make believe" when all you're really staring at is blank (or "green") screens. They even faked a live news report blooper! Ker-ray-zee!
"I think you should get a house w/this technology, Eo!" Naah! Like with hi-def TVs, "wait for 3-D". Better to have a scenery that DOESN'T feel like it's flat and a mere couple of feet in front of you, no?
But, still... when I go out on my balcony, even though it's always the same land I see, the scenery keeps changing with the time of day, the weather, the seasons... When I see a bird, I know it's real, even if it's far. When I hear a hoot, I know there actually is an ancient symbol of wisdom striking terror in the hearts of prolific rodents and hunting them for Nature's balance. When I look at the forest trees, I know it IS as vast as it appears. I know I can open the door, and walk that way, in the real world, for genuine discovery of the unknown (or the familiar! :-).
This is why I've never been much for inflatable dolls. Even a life-like sex-bot would only be a fancy toy for me. Cinema is all about IMAGES, selling you dream, and awesome-looking at that. And, in fact, it's GOOD that you can come out of some movies and know you're not in their high-adrenaline, sometines horrific universe. Saw, Die Hard, or Titanic for that matter! But for some things, if it's not real, it's just not the same, you know what I'm sayin'?
Perhaps this is why the U.S. Army is having such a dire disappointment after recruiting enthusiastic videogame prodigies. There's plenty of hardened veteran soldiers in Lebanon, I've met several. They can tell you, one's spirit when "it get real" cannot be replaced with anything. One of them told me about once, during the civil war, when he was on sniper guard duty, and an enemy militia man stepped within the "legitimate fire perimeter", while a kid was playing nearby. "You know why I didn't shoot? That kid might very well have been one of theirs, and an enemy in the near future. But I couldn't be the cause of him seeing a man die before his eyes. So I didn't shot the militia man, and he left without even suspecting his life was mine." You don't learn such stuff at the military academy. Only by living a civil war, and gazing deep into your own soul.
Hate them as you may, those terrorists are actually ready to turn their very death into a weapon. That's pretty impressive. (Pretty stupid too, and insanely hateful, but let's stick to the point.) No virtual simulation prepares you for facing someone who DELIBERATELY LOSES in order to have you "pwned", when there is no Reset button. Especially the blow to your spirits when you know he's coming at you precisely to die. These psychos, they know damn well the efficiency of what they are doing against "queasy Westerners". Especially, of course, those who TRAIN the kamikazes.
Well, a rather sinister example to make my point: you can never fully replace "the real stuff". Not when it starts to matter. Works in movies, because movies at the very start cease being real, they're just images of people acting.
Even if/when we have perfect holodecks like in Star Trek, with volume, shape, solid feel, even smell... it's never truly like the real thing. A simulated hologram isn't a real person. And a holographic video-conference in a holodeck remains a simulation of actually being there with the people: you can communicate, but no more. You can't kiss for real with your wife, f'rinstance. There's always some difference.
I sure hope that difference doesn't become, in a very near future, an impossible luxury exclusive to the most fortunate.
I like having a real cat. When he's out, I can't summon his presence by pressing [Ctrl-Home]. I worry for real. I'm happy for real to see him return. Ambiguous feelings, not all of them positive, but real. And I'm appreciative of their worth.
You have no idea how important a simple gesture, when you're physically present with a person, can sometimes be. It can save lives, just by being a real contact, by making what you say more than mere words to someone who needs to believe you.
3 comments:
I think you should get a house w/this technology, Eo! That way you could change it up, whenever you got bored w/where you are; perhaps take a trip...without even leaving the comforts of your home! No lines to deal with; no waiting for flights. :-)
Kind of like 'Gill Bates': I remember hearing about the "picture" frames that are throughout his house: they change to show his preferred pictures, as he travels through that area of the house. COOL!! :-)
Like, wow!
On one side, it makes filming much more convenient than to go on location, get permissions, block whole streets...
On the other, it now takes serious acting talent, to "make believe" when all you're really staring at is blank (or "green") screens.
They even faked a live news report blooper! Ker-ray-zee!
"I think you should get a house w/this technology, Eo!"
Naah! Like with hi-def TVs, "wait for 3-D". Better to have a scenery that DOESN'T feel like it's flat and a mere couple of feet in front of you, no?
But, still... when I go out on my balcony, even though it's always the same land I see, the scenery keeps changing with the time of day, the weather, the seasons... When I see a bird, I know it's real, even if it's far. When I hear a hoot, I know there actually is an ancient symbol of wisdom striking terror in the hearts of prolific rodents and hunting them for Nature's balance. When I look at the forest trees, I know it IS as vast as it appears. I know I can open the door, and walk that way, in the real world, for genuine discovery of the unknown (or the familiar! :-).
This is why I've never been much for inflatable dolls. Even a life-like sex-bot would only be a fancy toy for me.
Cinema is all about IMAGES, selling you dream, and awesome-looking at that. And, in fact, it's GOOD that you can come out of some movies and know you're not in their high-adrenaline, sometines horrific universe. Saw, Die Hard, or Titanic for that matter! But for some things, if it's not real, it's just not the same, you know what I'm sayin'?
Make-believe can only take you that far.
[Don't miss the sequel, "out now"]
["The Post II, this time it's serious!"]
Perhaps this is why the U.S. Army is having such a dire disappointment after recruiting enthusiastic videogame prodigies.
There's plenty of hardened veteran soldiers in Lebanon, I've met several. They can tell you, one's spirit when "it get real" cannot be replaced with anything.
One of them told me about once, during the civil war, when he was on sniper guard duty, and an enemy militia man stepped within the "legitimate fire perimeter", while a kid was playing nearby. "You know why I didn't shoot? That kid might very well have been one of theirs, and an enemy in the near future. But I couldn't be the cause of him seeing a man die before his eyes. So I didn't shot the militia man, and he left without even suspecting his life was mine."
You don't learn such stuff at the military academy. Only by living a civil war, and gazing deep into your own soul.
Hate them as you may, those terrorists are actually ready to turn their very death into a weapon. That's pretty impressive. (Pretty stupid too, and insanely hateful, but let's stick to the point.) No virtual simulation prepares you for facing someone who DELIBERATELY LOSES in order to have you "pwned", when there is no Reset button. Especially the blow to your spirits when you know he's coming at you precisely to die.
These psychos, they know damn well the efficiency of what they are doing against "queasy Westerners". Especially, of course, those who TRAIN the kamikazes.
Well, a rather sinister example to make my point: you can never fully replace "the real stuff". Not when it starts to matter. Works in movies, because movies at the very start cease being real, they're just images of people acting.
Even if/when we have perfect holodecks like in Star Trek, with volume, shape, solid feel, even smell... it's never truly like the real thing. A simulated hologram isn't a real person. And a holographic video-conference in a holodeck remains a simulation of actually being there with the people: you can communicate, but no more. You can't kiss for real with your wife, f'rinstance. There's always some difference.
I sure hope that difference doesn't become, in a very near future, an impossible luxury exclusive to the most fortunate.
I like having a real cat.
When he's out, I can't summon his presence by pressing [Ctrl-Home]. I worry for real. I'm happy for real to see him return.
Ambiguous feelings, not all of them positive, but real.
And I'm appreciative of their worth.
You have no idea how important a simple gesture, when you're physically present with a person, can sometimes be. It can save lives, just by being a real contact, by making what you say more than mere words to someone who needs to believe you.
But enough getting poetic. :-)
["The End?..."]
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