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Showing posts from October, 2017

>How Blade Runner 2049 prepares us to welcome robots for real

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How Blade Runner 2049 prepares us to welcome robots for real Sony Pictures Victoria Lorrimar , University of Oxford and Michael Burdett , University of Oxford The idea of dangerous, inhumane artificial intelligence taking over the world is familiar to many of us, thanks to cautionary tales such as the Matrix and Terminator franchises. But what about the more sympathetic portrayals of robots? The benevolence of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator character in the later movies of the franchise may have been the exception in older portrayals of AI, but human-like machines are often represented more positively in contemporary films. Think of Ex Machina , Chappie or A.I. Artificial Intelligence . This shift is very likely representative of a wider shift in how we think about these technologies in reality. Blade Runner 2049, long-anticipated sequel to the original 1982 Blade Runner film, is a part of this shift.

Blade Runner's chillingly prescient vision of the future

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Blade Runner's chillingly prescient vision of the future Marsha Gordon , North Carolina State University Can corporations become so powerful that they dictate the way we feel? Can machines get mad – like, really mad – at their makers? Can people learn to love machines? These are a few of the questions raised by Ridley Scott’s influential sci-fi neo-noir film “ Blade Runner ” (1982), which imagines a corporation whose product tests the limits of the machine-man divide. Looking back at the original theatrical release of “Blade Runner” – just as its sequel, “Blade Runner 2049” opens in theaters – I’m struck by the original’s ambivalence about technology and its chillingly prescient vision of corporate attempts to control human feelings. From machine killer to machine lover Even though the film was tepidly received at the time of its release, its detractors agreed that its imagining of Los Angeles in 2019 was wonderfully atmospheric and artfully disconcerting. Looming over

Revenge porn laws may not be capturing the right people

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Revenge porn laws may not be capturing the right people Research has shown that 23% of young Australians have been subjected to image-based abuse. Shutterstock Terry Goldsworthy Australia is moving quickly towards creating laws to deal with the perceived menace of revenge porn. Both the Australian Capital Territory and New South Wales have recently introduced specific laws, bringing them into line with Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia. But the creation of new offences may not be the panacea it is intended to be. Instead, we should focus our efforts on overcoming investigative challenges and implementing crime prevention strategies in a more practical approach. What do we mean by revenge porn? When it first became an issue, “revenge porn” referred to the unauthorised public release of intimate images that arose from a relationship. However, the term is now used to capture the illegal distribution of intimate images,