Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Again, for a while. Sometime before 2025, the processing power of computer chips will equal that of the human brain. Exactly when this will happen is up to debate because of reasons too complicated to go into here. Eighteen months later, it will double, eighteen months after that, it will double again. A PC as powerful as human brain, even if it isn't "self-aware" like HAL in 2001, will have enough smarts to be able to understand what you're telling it to do, and then accomplish that task.

When the software to colorize black and white film was developed, someone had to go through the film, frame-by-frame, to complete the process. Last I heard (and this was more years ago than I can remember), all they had to do, was hand colorize the first frame of any scene, and the software would take of everything else in the scene, no matter how many frames it might be. Presumably, the software is more capable than ever. At a guess, it'd be able to follow actors through the film, and identify locations, so that it could colorize an actor in every scene where he appeared in the same outfit, as well as recognizing when an actor returned to a previous location, and automatically colorizing that location based upon the palette used the first time.

Already, lots of software developed today, has enormous amounts of code that is either checked or generated by the computer. Hand coding is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. The software necessary for the operation of your computer is too large, and too complex, for people to understand. This will only continue.

If you haven't read The Singularity is Near by Ray Kurtzweil, I urge you to do so. I think he's overly optimistic about how wonderful the future will be, but in terms of how fast tech is going to advance, he's basically right. Less than 100 years from now (assuming we don't wipe ourselves out), you will be able to sit down in front of your TV and say, "Show me a Star Trek movie based on Shakespeare's The Tempest with the original cast" and your computer will be able to generate it for you on the fly, if no such movie already exists.

Humans are not beautiful and unique snowflakes. Asimov's "psychohistory" basically nailed when it claimed that humans could be reduced to mathematical formulas.

So we could actually have Data doing Shakephere?

You could have Data doing Marilyn Monroe, if that's what you wanted. (In every sense of the term.)

Ten years ago I saw a demo for a software program for engineers, which could be used to create the blueprints for an entire building. It could handle not only the basic appearance of the building, but every nut and bolt used in the creation of that building, including ancillary components like the plumbing. If you decided that you wanted to change the size of the bolts used to hold the sewer pipes together, all you had to do was select one bolt, alter it, and then make a global change. The software would not only do that across however many files were tied to that blueprint, but alert you to potential problems caused by this change, and make suggestions on how to correct it. Today, not only is more of the development process automated, but you can click a few buttons and it will send the files to machines which will begin to make the parts with little to no human involvement. Ten years from now, that human involvement is going to be even less. Similar types of software already exist for animators and the like.

Could you say, write your own version of the Star Wars prequels and program the computer to make the prequel you want?

Ayup. You can kinda do that now. There's animation sites out there (I don't remember the names, or I'd post links to them) which have pre-built characters (that you can customize easily enough), which work on basically the same principal. You'll end up with something that looks like the South Park version of Star Wars, but compared to traditional methods of doing animation, the amount of work you'd have to do is almost nothing.

On a related note: This just hit the news.

Pics and video at the link.

Possible cameo spoilers...

Ha ha. I would actually get a big kick out of this if true.

As long as he doesn't get any lines and is killed finally, I'm fine with it.

That would be funny, and help up tie a loose end...

It would be funny if the recreated the Robot Chicken clip with Vader and Jar Jar.

Kirk has been revived. Chris Pine does an excellent job.

New ad.



Somebody gonna get blowed up real gud!

for now.

Kevin Smith says it compares to Empire: http://www.latimes.com/entertainmen...rs-rogue-one-premeire-20161211-htmlstory.html

And Wesley Crusher said it reminded him of how he felt in 1977. Getting excited!

Hmmm. I'd take recommendations from people with the privilege of an early screening with a pinch of salt. Not bad to hear either...

Nothing I've read or heard about it gives me one of those "damn! I hope they don't do that!" feelings though.

Damn, just managed to get tickets to my local theater for a showing at 10:10pm on Thursday - thought there's be no hope in hell but it worked.

FUCKIN EH!!

The guy from the New Yorker seems to have hated it.

By contrast, the guy from i09 loves it.

Scares? Don't remember ever being frightened by a Star Wars movie. I got to see this.

I was 8 when the first one came out, and the monster in the trash compactor did scare me.

Meh. The New Yorker has had its head up its own arse for decades. I take this as a good sign.

Also, in another article, the reviewer admits he never saw any of the Star Wars films until 2016.

When he was five?

I was seven, and the burned bodies of Owen and Beru Lars disturbed the shit out of me.

Yep, I've got tickets for 7.30pm tomorrow night and since I live in a more civilised timezone I will spoiler the shit out of it for you!

I've been reading the reviews and I have read all the spoiler leaks. I think this is going to be a really good movie, and vastly more original than Force Awakens. However, what concerns me is that it's once again a "safe" movie in that it plays on the love of middle aged "original" fans like us...and that bothers me a bit, not a lot, but a bit because it reaffirms Disney taking the least risk route, rather than truly being creative, which was Lucas's parting wish.

I was ten and nothing about the movie "scared" me per se. It was the first movie I had ever seen and I was impressed mightily with it. I went with a bunch of my oldest sister and a bunch of her friends.

Today, there is a Walmart supercenter where the drive in used to be.

I get what you're saying, but the two teens and pre-teen that live in my house loved Force Awakens and are as excited as I am for Rogue One. If it works for young fans as well as nostalgic old timers, is that not a suitable achievement?

Well, here in The States "ROGUE ONE" comes out TOMORROW NIGHT in various theatres around the country.

Is anybody here seeing it Thursday night?

And in 3D or just in regular viewing?