Friday, September 28, 2007

Where's the Ghost?




Human Machine Interface

Another week has now gone by and it's now time for another blog. I didn't get too much accomplished on Zaren's World, but I did read an interesting article called "Your Outboard Brain Knows All" by Clive Thompson in Wired Magazine. I found it interesting as the article puts a different spin on sci-fi theory of a Ghost, a term that I am using in the story I'm writing. What's exactly is a ghost in sci-fi terms? A ghost is when an Artificial Intelligence is able to collect enough random data that eventually it will build the right random code to create something akin to the human soul.
This article takes this in a different direction on how we humans are becoming the Ghost of the machine as we choose to rely on technology more and more on such things as remembering cell phone numbers and street addresses, something that not too long ago we would have had to either memorize or write down. A quote from the author say "My point is that the cyborg future is here. Almost without noticing it, we've outsourced important peripheral brain functions to the silicon around us."
I have to say that I believe him to be right. I don't know how many times I've gotten a phone number a just stuck it in my cell phone and forgot about it. I still don't remember the numbers to probably three fourth's of the people in my cell phone. That includes my own bestfriend.
If you get a chance, check out the article in Wired Magazine, or if you'd like to see the authors other works, he's got a blog called Collision Works that you can check out.

EDIT (October 7th, 2007): I found the article online. Here's the web address: http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/15-10/st_thompson

Sunday, September 23, 2007

So many ideas and yet so little time.

Alright, after a month your aspiring author has finally found the time to post another blog. First things first, I must apologise for being late with the blog. I know I said that I would post weekly, but it been a busy month. This pass month I've had to deal with Residual Military Training, Lock Down, Inspections, parade practice, really hard tests, and being a backdrop for a television show called The Impossible Dinner. To say the least, this past month has been quite busy.
On that note though I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that I have made progress on Zaren's World. About five pages written progress and about two or three chapters plotted. The bad news is that I'm obviously still not done with that first chapter and as things have been going lately I can't guarantee that I'll have it done this month either. Although, If the first chapter does get finished by some miracle this is the first place I'll make sure to have it posted. For you all to read along with a summary of the rest of the story.

On a different note I have somewhat of a survey to ask. What would you think of a zombie t.v. series kind of like Dawn of the Dead or 28 Days Later? I asked this question in my class and every single person agreed that it would be a bad idea on the basis that it would be the same thing over and over again. I disagree with this as I think the story could be quite deep if there was enough characterization and the progression of how they lived. I don't know about you, but I didn't want the movie Dawn of the Dead to ever end. I personally wanted to see further how they would live in this post apocalyptic world. So yeah, give me some insight. If things go well with this story, I may see about writing a script for a Zombie based T.V. series and maybe selling the idea off. We'll see. Until then, I should be posting next weekend. Hopefully.