tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post7334546047568139100..comments2024-03-19T05:35:07.296-07:00Comments on CONTRARY BRIN: Surrogates -- substituting for good storyDavid Brinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comBlogger115125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-56493768101453785592015-11-03T23:08:21.305-08:002015-11-03T23:08:21.305-08:00Hey Dr. Brin,
I enjoy your work immensely. I alwa...Hey Dr. Brin, <br />I enjoy your work immensely. I always appreciate and enjoy the cute little Jewish references that only members of the club would likely pick up on. I am proud to be among the many who have seen Surrogates and said, "Hey, this is totally a knock-off of Kiln People". To be quite honest, I thought calling the golems and being invented by a Dr. Maharal may have played some part in the powers that be choosing to go with the Surrogates script, as people may have gotten the impression that you were having a little too much fun with it rather than writing serious hard sci fi. What do I know? Anyway, it was a fun book and I hope you will eventually get credit for being the inspiration for the movie.<br />Looking forward to more great work! -MSemeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01839865861573787484noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-20747784209950003172010-11-25T04:21:11.650-08:002010-11-25T04:21:11.650-08:00I must admit I did enjoy the film but... much pref...I must admit I did enjoy the film but... much preferred your book!<br /><br /><a href="http://www.funkycanvasart.com/movie-paintings-14-c.asp" rel="nofollow">Movie Paintings</a>Movie Paintingshttp://www.funkycanvasart.com/movie-paintings-14-c.aspnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-50986398802889456542010-03-08T16:34:38.176-08:002010-03-08T16:34:38.176-08:00The technology in "Surrogates" closely r...The technology in "Surrogates" closely resembles the technology that Osaka University Prof. Hiroshi Ishiguro is working on in real life. I interviewed Ishiguro for The Daily Yomiuri newspaper when the film came out in Japan this year. If you'd like to know what life with a real surrogate is like right here in 2010, read on at http://bit.ly/aO4sQtTokyo Tom Bakerhttp://tokyotombaker.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-23773710762027614262009-11-29T15:49:56.967-08:002009-11-29T15:49:56.967-08:00I read Kiln People a short while ago and loved the...I read Kiln People a short while ago and loved the depth of the book, the wonderfully worked out implications and the strong positive way in which personality shines through the physical medium of the kilned simulacrum, coping with the disabilities and temporal fragility of a body that is falling apart.<br />I started buying the book for people as a feel-good gift, but since surrogates has come out, people are telling me, yah, yah, we saw the movie.<br />So I finally saw the movie, and it was so terrible that I just had to Google Brin and Surrogates to see if you had anything to do with it. I think you've held back with your critique of it, because if there is one unforgivable sin, it is the squandering of a brilliant idea. NONE of the implications of the idea of surrogacy were worked out. <br />And now this "been-there-done-that" attitude of people who've seen the movie is just doubly grating, for they ain't seen nothing yet...<br />Unless, they read Kiln People, that is...<br />Anyway. Cheers for a great book. There is simply NO comparision with the movie. <br />All the best,<br />ShakharShakharnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-57771144201590591372009-11-13T16:40:03.295-08:002009-11-13T16:40:03.295-08:00Wasn't there a Keith Laumer story around this ...Wasn't there a Keith Laumer story around this same theme? I think it was called Body Builders or something like that. Anyway it definitely featured the gladiatorial contest angle.Gordonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-64857523623153598462009-10-28T21:14:00.489-07:002009-10-28T21:14:00.489-07:00Biggest problem with "Surrogates": no nu...Biggest problem with "Surrogates": no number in the title.<br /><br />For some reason, Bruce Willis movies with a number in the title are usually the good ones: 5th Element, Sixth Sense, 12 Monkeys.<br /><br />If Leslie Dixon had snuck a number into that title (I dunno, like K1ln P303pl3) maybe somehow magically it would have gotten greenlighted by Paramount and shot with Willis and some clever director.<br /><br />I know I'm proposing a stupid theory, but at least it's based on stupid facts!TCBhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08153506222271955110noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-51763502825395581502009-10-28T13:16:27.276-07:002009-10-28T13:16:27.276-07:00on to next postingon to next postingDavid Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-41761755864719248672009-10-28T12:59:09.716-07:002009-10-28T12:59:09.716-07:00Computers, yes, but more important is the mutation...<i><br />Computers, yes, but more important is the mutations in corporate structures that make actually producing product incidental to profitmaking.<br /><br />There's always been a little of that but now-a-days ... <br /></i><br /><br />This is so relevant to Dr Brin's comments on satiation. Businesses have always had to be profitable because they can't survive otherwise. But back in the old days (Gosh, I feel like my dad when I say that), there could come a point at which the particular business made ENOUGH profit to be comfortable concentration on its actual mission without WORRYING about profit any more.<br /><br />The way things are today, all a business CAN do is worry about profit. By the rules of the game as perceived by everyone who blindly defends capitalism or "the free market", a company can never reach any sort of satiation point. All it can ever do is want more.<br /><br />All businesses want to maximize their profits of course, but having "maximize profit" as one's MISSION STATEMENT makes as little sense trying to maximize your personal happiness by resolving to do "whatever makes me happiest." It sounds good on paper, but reality doesn't work that way. It's a total confusion (if not reversal) of the concepts of objectives, stragegy, and tactics.LarryHartnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-38445076247774730342009-10-28T12:17:09.108-07:002009-10-28T12:17:09.108-07:00"...At some point computers allowed companies...<i>"...At some point computers allowed companies to start doing their accounting in horrible (and much more profit oriented ways)...."</i><br /><br />Computers, yes, but more important is the mutations in corporate structures that make actually producing product incidental to profitmaking.<br /><br />There's always been a little of that but now-a-days ... well, look at our American civilian aerospace industry. Boeing used to be about making really good planes, now I don't think there's a single engineer on the board. The 787 is built of parts from around the world not because it makes engineering sense but because that allows playing one supplier off another to keep prices low.<br /><br />Whether the thing actually flies doesn't matter. It rolled out on 7-8-7 and might get into the air. Someday. Without the investors who sold their stock on 7-9-7.rewinnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14008105385364113371noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-90677499168354983812009-10-28T07:08:19.599-07:002009-10-28T07:08:19.599-07:00Gilmoure said...
I think a lot of it is due to...Gilmoure said...<br /> <i>I think a lot of it is due to the requirement that every movie a big studio produces has to be a hit to break even, per Hollywoodland accounting rules. Used to be, you had movies coming out every week (Casablanca was one) and profits accrued over all your production. There was enough wiggle room per movie to allow directors and writers to have fun with them. </i><br /><br />Absolutely. At some point computers allowed companies to start doing their accounting in horrible (and much more profit oriented ways).<br /><br />Instead of accounting based on the whole company, or quarters etc. Now many places run numbers daily, or even hourly. <br /><br />(I currently work in the food industry, where sales/ workforce numbers are done daily and individually. Friday busy days don't pay for slow Mondays anymore... every day must pay for itself ... please note that there is plenty of money fro the big boys the old way, but there is MORE money to be squeezed otu by doing daily accounting).<br /><br />Movies are the same way. Everything must be a hit. The massive hits no longer pay fro the flops (well they do, but it is more grudging than ever)... <br /><br />Spending the PROFIT of a hit on a movie that did poorly makes the rich kids cranky. In the older system, that money didn't become a profit until much later in the timeframe of the company's accounting year (or quarter).<br /><br />We live in an instant accounting availability greed system.<br /><br />Every word, image, and semi-colon must create the maximum profit all the time. It is just the escalation and sharpening (to a razor's edge) of previous behavior.<br /><br />Not a conspiracy... but it is the type of thing that tends to happen when you give moneys sharper rocks (they start carving up other monkeys and taking their stuff).Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02098928104275469639noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-71529302337200542872009-10-27T23:06:12.563-07:002009-10-27T23:06:12.563-07:00Someone recommended the movie Children of Men but ...Someone recommended the movie <i>Children of Men</i> but I can't recommend it at all. Read the original book. It's infinitely better than the movie.<br /><br />Okay, looks, here's the thing: in the book, everyone was old. The youngest characters in the narrative were middle aged. This had tremendous resonance. Because young people are so rare, in the book you can see that the human race is dying. It's tremendously poignant. There's a key scene in the book where several of the protagonists come across a ruined chapel with deer in it and one of the main characters mutters, "Why can't they leave it alone, it will all belong to them soon enough." In the movie this scene was changed to a ruined deserted classroom in an abandoned school. Probably because the producers got nervous about offending anyone by suggesting a mass abandonment of religion.<br /><br />In the book, the situation looms so much more powerful than in the movie because we get a visceral sense that there are no young people in the world. The movie fills the screen with young people, typical twenty-somethings, because marketing types old the studio suits that's what sells at the movies. Maybe it does. But it's completely wrong for the movie because the book was all about how the human race is dying and most people are over 40. The protagonists in the book are almost all middle aged or older. That had enormous power in the book and changing that ruined the movie. The film frankly looked just like our world today, tons of young people, almost nothing was visibly different except for the absence of very young children. But the book was completely different and immeasurably better than the movie. <br /><br />Avoid the stupid badly made film of <i>Children of Men</i> and read the original book.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-21162393457410691472009-10-27T22:58:48.479-07:002009-10-27T22:58:48.479-07:00And now, more rays of sunshine from Afghanisvietna...And now, more rays of sunshine from Afghanisvietnamstan:<br /><br />http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20091027/us_time/08599193238600<br /><br /><b>"Afghanistan's few roads are now increasingly monitored - and mined - by insurgents, meaning that many of the 180 U.S. outposts spread across the country can now only be reached by helicopters. "We don't have freedom of movement on the ground," a senior Army logistics officer says. "We're resupplying between 30% and 40% of our forward operating bases by air because we just can't get to them on the ground."</b><br /><br />600 billion dollars a year spent on what is allegedly the world's "greatest military" and we can't even resupply our own troops except by helicopters. At this point, I'm beginning to suspect that America has achieved full-scale <i>impotence</i>, militarily speaking. Looks like the Tijuana police force could defeat the U.S. army handily.<br /><br />America has become a pitiful helpless giant, and we've bankrupted ourselves to do it. Time to shut down our military, junk all the Ming of Mongo death rays and Atragon flying submarine watchamacallits (Osprey VTOL helicopters, F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, whatever they call these bogus gimcrack hunks of junk) that don't work anyway, and discharge all our military personnel and let them go back to selling meth on the streets and jacking peoples' cars.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-57295089145345095282009-10-27T15:30:31.079-07:002009-10-27T15:30:31.079-07:00Charlie Rose as scripted by samuel becket
http:/...Charlie Rose as scripted by samuel becket<br /><br /><br />http://ifocos.org/2008/05/05/the-future-is-um-sigh-devoured-by-the-present/David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-91712414209332841042009-10-27T12:55:54.955-07:002009-10-27T12:55:54.955-07:00Thomas said... The current trend of remakes and se...<b>Thomas said...</b><i> The current trend of remakes and sequels (and thefts) is an indication that people in the movie business haven't found their own voices (or haven't been allowed to) and the copies are falling a bit flat with the consumers.</i><br /><br />I think a lot of it is due to the requirement that every movie a big studio produces has to be a hit to break even, per Hollywoodland accounting rules. Used to be, you had movies coming out every week (Casablanca was one) and profits accrued over all your production. There was enough wiggle room per movie to allow directors and writers to have fun with them.<br /><br />One of my favorite movies is John Huston's <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dead_(film)" rel="nofollow">The Dead</a></i>. It's based on a James Joyce short story (same name) and I really can't see any major studio making this movie today. Is one of those layered films where everything speaks.JuhnDonnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06795417373366495092noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-26127128275676218352009-10-27T08:32:48.685-07:002009-10-27T08:32:48.685-07:00Anyone happen to see Astroboy? I saw it the other ...Anyone happen to see Astroboy? I saw it the other day, and it's a great movie. It's geared more towards kids, but it's still great for the older crowd, too, and it's good science fiction, too. It's not all "Astroyboy saves the day!", either; he does, but he gets a LOT of help from regular people, and one of the most heroic deeds in the entire movie is actually done by not just an 'average joe', but an old, geeky scientist. It's a light-hearted adventure, but it's still a very enjoyable science fiction movie.Ilithi Dragonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10300247936272572280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-56263275122773735292009-10-27T00:48:27.069-07:002009-10-27T00:48:27.069-07:00Good post and useful as well and as i have interes...Good post and useful as well and as i have interest in <a href="http://www.cyberdesignz.com" rel="dofollow" title="Web Designing" rel="nofollow">Web Designing</a>sites but i like your blog too!<br />so thnx for the sharing of information!James prakerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11208374447501434177noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-85340696430131153082009-10-26T17:36:25.581-07:002009-10-26T17:36:25.581-07:00Off topic: a final muse on the 350 day, and a few ...<i>Off topic: a final muse on the 350 day, and a few not very serious 'Earth' predictions... although muses have a way of leading on...</i><br /><br />Hmmm! Is this <a href="http://www.350.org/about/blogs/350-navy-new-york-fleet" rel="nofollow">the harbinger of Sea State</a>? No! It's the 350 navy heading for the UN headquarters! (ie quite the opposite, when you think about it!)<br /><br />densenab: the d-oh! point where you *finally* get something that should have been blindingly obvious!<br /><br />Does <a href="http://www.350.org/about/blogs/worldwide-scrabble-complete" title="3-5-0 in three different countries" rel="nofollow">this depiction of '350'</a> qualify as a 'geological-scale sculpture'? Would actually *achieving* 350 ppm qualify? (We're 10% over as it is!)Tony Fiskhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14578160528746657971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-28780121769073517622009-10-26T11:49:16.512-07:002009-10-26T11:49:16.512-07:00Sometimes I think Hollywood is afraid of deeper me...Sometimes I think Hollywood is afraid of deeper meanings.<br /><br />The KILN PEOPLE soulistics and the questions about what makes us... well US is a subject that is rife with problems. While remote controlling a younger Bruce Willis is simple and has no complexities at all.<br /><br />It can be done. There are thoughtful movies with deep meaning. I usually have to rent them, or watch them late at night on cable (not THOSE movies).<br /><br />I love to watch all the little details in the background of movies. Where all the little things hide behind the action explosions and characters blurting the main theme out loud at the end of the movie (when it hasn't been reduced to the 1 word title).<br /><br />(Not Surrogates specific commentary) <br /><br />I always have a little hope that the main character eats Froot Loops as a symbolic nod to who he is, rather than reverse product placement. <br /><br />The 300 Basketball trophies HAVE to end up with a basketball throw someplace <br /><br />But the Froot Loops and the fact he owns a plaid brown fold out couch serves to give me a little more hope for the character and the film when he later jumps into his BMW with a rocket launcher and slays the baddie with the twirly mustache (cracking wise all the way).<br /><br />I see all that little stuff as the cast and crew's defiant attempt to make something deeper than a spec sheet and a formula.<br /><br />In a lot of ways this is how the low-budget, right to DVD movies fail for me. They are more about the formulas than the big boys.<br /><br />Writing is the same way. A lot of people start writing "like" authors that they read, only finding their own voices later.<br /><br />The current trend of remakes and sequels (and thefts) is an indication that people in the movie business haven't found their own voices (or haven't been allowed to) and the copies are falling a bit flat with the consumers.<br /><br />People are misidentifying parts of the greatness of an existing film (or story) as a formula, rather than a whole.<br /><br />It is all an art, not a science.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02098928104275469639noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-83279446541599356402009-10-26T10:14:27.446-07:002009-10-26T10:14:27.446-07:00TwinBeam said...
Why are the Dems covering up for ...<i>TwinBeam said...<br />Why are the Dems covering up for Bush's crimes?<a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-jaffer20-2009oct20,0,7109068.story" rel="nofollow"><br />http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-jaffer20-2009oct20,0,7109068.story</a><br /></i><br /><br />This and comparable matters (such as the continued prosecution of Don Siegelmann) should anger any patriot. Some may say the current administration is trying a delicate balance; our armed forces and Justice Department have been so corrupted by its predecessors that letting out all the pus would be impossible.<br /><br />Personally, I don't buy it, and certainly even if true we should not settle for it.<br /><br />Alternatively, we are simply trapped inside <b>The Idiot Plot</b> and need to wait for the Hero ... because the Writers haven't made us smart enough to rescue ourselves.rewinnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14008105385364113371noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-10310088111171375172009-10-26T09:50:42.861-07:002009-10-26T09:50:42.861-07:00Tacitus: India's getting involved in Afghanist...Tacitus: India's getting involved in Afghanistan already; it's just not repeating the mistakes of the Russians and we Americans before them. China doesn't seem to feel threatened at all despite being "heathens" as you put it; perhaps we should get a clue.<br /><br />But this thread has moved out of Afghanistan so perhaps we should as well.rewinnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14008105385364113371noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-16522505869446976952009-10-26T08:35:26.292-07:002009-10-26T08:35:26.292-07:00I thought you might find this amusing, Dr. Brin: t...I thought you might find this amusing, Dr. Brin: the ultimate in Transparency. ^^<br /><br /><a href="http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1800/fc01797.png" rel="nofollow">http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1800/fc01797.png</a><br /><br />(Freefall is one of the longest-running science fiction webcomics out there. The wolf there is actually a "Bowman's wolf" which was genetically engineered and is considered an artificial intelligence since she was "designed" and another character is an alien intelligence named Sam who outside the environmental suit resembles a bipedal squid or somesuch. It's a fun comic, and <a href="http://freefall.purrsia.com/default.htm" rel="nofollow">can be found here</a>).<br /><br />Rob H.Acacia H.https://www.blogger.com/profile/07678539067303911329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-20875070071292588462009-10-26T08:28:41.223-07:002009-10-26T08:28:41.223-07:00Re: Idiot Plot:
for an example of how you can esc...Re: Idiot Plot:<br /><br />for an example of how you can escape the "evil government vs. plucky lone hero" stereotype, look at the "Millennium" novels by Stig Larssen, expecially the last two ones: the main character is a victim of a cabal inside the intelligence from her early teens, but some devoted investigative journalists, the police and the intelligence branch in charge to protect the constitution cooperate to save her and expose the "something rotten in the state of Sweden" in court and on the press, and the novels and the movies still have a lot of action and are thrilling and fast pacedMarinonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-68519607534875289082009-10-26T00:42:04.690-07:002009-10-26T00:42:04.690-07:00Dr. Brin, if it's not too much trouble, could ...Dr. Brin, if it's not too much trouble, could you give an example how this could be applied to the annecdotes in the article?<br /><br />The JAMA case, for example. They required contributing doctors to disclose where they got funding. They even investigated doctors accused of nondisclosure.<br /><br />However, just the accusation was a bad blemmish on a doctors record (like sexual harrasment charges might be). They made a new rule: no talking about accusations until the results came in.<br /><br />One accuser didn't like that and published his accusation in a newspaper. People criticized JAMA for their 'lack of transparency'. Eventually they recinded the rule and the unwarranted blemishes were back.<br /><br />So, what then? From the authors description it sounds like the rule was a fair and reasonable thing. How could the situation be resolved by turning the light on the bullies? Doing a completely open nondisclosure investigation on anyone who complained? That sounds like mafia style intimidation to me.<br /><br />I'm interested to read your suggestions.sociotardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11697154298087412934noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-55240785161399687202009-10-25T13:52:41.681-07:002009-10-25T13:52:41.681-07:00Stefan, sorry I overstated the case re Children of...Stefan, sorry I overstated the case re Children of Men. I enjoyed the film and yes, everybody had good reason to have been driven mad. I just found the notion of only Britain still standing a bit simplistic and the tyranny a bit heavy-handed.<br /><br />Most transparency excesses are settled by turning the light on those trying to do the bullying. Including "reformers" who don't get it.David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-89162855416753802572009-10-25T12:49:34.061-07:002009-10-25T12:49:34.061-07:00The New Republic article was very interesting. Th...The New Republic article was very interesting. The author wasn't so much opposed to the idea of transparency, as leary of transparency being a panacea. I think Dr. Brin would concede that point.<br /><br />The annecdote about JAMA was especially informative.sociotardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11697154298087412934noreply@blogger.com