… the RSS feeds have not been updated. They’re still at #114.
Odd. iTunes is picking them up fine.
Never get involved in a land war in Asia,
But only SLIGHTLY LESS WELL KNOWN IS THIS!
Never go in against a SICILIAN when DEATH is on the line!
A tip for anyone getting the Terminator movies (like I am) via Amazon Unbox.
The first movie is “The” Terminator, so alphabetically it’s under “Th” not “Te”, whereas the other two are of course at the “Te” spot alphabetically.
Amazon Unbox has all three movies which means I don’t have to fuss with other methods of gettin 'em.
Thank you, GWC, for introducing me to “The Animatrix.” It’s something I probably never would have picked up on my own, but I really enjoyed it.
The discussion about “The Second Renaissance” and what happens when humanity starts “playing God,” particularly Sean’s quote about humanity being very creative but not recognizing the consequences of its creativity, got me thinking about what makes The Matrix and BSG’s treatment of AI somewhat unique. As Audra said, there have been stories about hubris, of people pushing creation or discovery or what have you farther than it “should” and having it come back to bite them, for about as long as there have been stories.
Even with Icarus, Dr. Faustus, and the folks who brought you the Tower of Babel as cautionary examples, though, as Chuck pointed out, most of the time, people have to learn the hard way by making mistakes for themselves. The Matrix and BSG are unique in that they’re not so concerned with warning against overstepping creative boundaries; by the time both series open, humanity has already done that. The two sagas seem to start from the assumption that humanity’s innate curiosity and creativity is going to lead us into uncharted territory. Instead, they’re concerned with the much more complex question of how do we deal with our creations than should we or shouldn’t we have created them in the first place.
It’s like Adama says in the miniseries, “You cannot play God then wash your hands of the things that you’ve created. Sooner or later, the day comes when you can’t hide from the things that you’ve done anymore.” Both stories are about taking responsibility for what humanity created and finding a way to make these new circumstances work for everyone.
Warning: the following rant may contain blasphemy. Read with caution. Or ignore with impunity. 
<rant> The Tower of Babel is certainly a cautionary tale, but not about the excesses of human creativity. Rather, it’s a warning about the capricious nature of an ill-tempered deity. Imagine, if you will, the largest construction project of all time: a tower to reach heaven itself, in a time before hydraulics and motors, steel-reinforced concrete, or even a basic understanding of the nature of the sky at high altitudes. All of the peoples of the world, working together toward a common goal. Can you even imagine? Everyone, everywhere, working together in perfect harmony, millennia before Coca-Cola? 
Of course you can’t imagine that, because an all-powerful and everlasting God felt threatened by peaceful human cooperation and made sure it could never, ever happen again. And so was the unity of mankind forever fractured into the groups which have warred upon each other ever since. Remember, though, God is love. :mad: </rant>
And don’t get me started on the Book of Job…
Cool!!
Me gettin’ ready too.
Go ahead, rant away :). I get where you’re coming from, though I suppose the counter-argument would be that the biblical God’s main goal was curbing humanity’s attempts to see and understand things they “shouldn’t,” like the divine ("…now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do" Gen. 11.6), and the splintering of the human race was done to keep humanity from becoming strong enough to step outside those boundaries again. Not that that’s any happier of an interpretation than the capricious God approach–what could be so bad for humanity to see or learn about that millenia of strife is a better alternative?–but yeah, either way, not a fun story.
Anyway, I think that’s why I like The Matrix: the message I get from it is, go ahead, build that Tower of Babel, question what you perceive are the limits of your creativity, and even your reality, and push past them, but you’d better be prepared to take responsibility for how that striving changes your world and to adjust your perceptions and actions accordingly.
So…what do you think about the book of Job?
You might like the “Preacher” comic series. They have a pretty interesting view of that very concept.
Actually, that one’s very easy:
“Mommy, what’s on Job’s skin?”
“Leprous sores, blisters, and boils, dear.”
“Is Job a bad man?”
“No, dear, Job is a very good man who loves and worships God.”
“So why did God punish him?”
“He’s trying to win a bet.”
“oh.”
'nuff said. 
You might like the “Preacher” comic series. They have a pretty interesting view of that very concept.
GR recommended those as well. Maybe I’ll move them up in the ever-expanding reading queue.
With all due deference to Emily and AndersFan, I’d like suggest a new name for the Arm Porn club:
Arm-Lovin’ Porn Affiliated Club Association Society
A.L.P.A.C.A.S
hey, how about some Emily GWC ringtones, yea? heheh We’ve covered Chuck, sEaN and Audra already
… this is the closest time we, the Sean fans, have heard him speak techical babble when he was talking about the anime art stuff. I’m impressed.
but,I have to insist that the awesome 3some bring in the Skynext podcast boys in for the Terminator discussion on GWC #117…
Just DO IT already. DO it! No, I don’t have a tumour. Aw heck, "U’ll be baack!" Voo-voo… Voo-voo…
Are we Alpacas going to do a Live frak party for T1 ??
Ahhhh Sims. Nothing quite like playing the Sims to feel justa little like God.
I’m a recovering Sims addict…I knew I had a problem when I was playing from the moment I got home from work until 3 am. Still, my Sim was an actor who did get rich and marry a hot chick who was all over him. That was pretty cool.
Still never understood why folks kept leaving chocolate on my backyard lawn. And what was with the circular waving?
Ah well, as my Sim would say “mooly mooga, blahsay blahblah.'eyy??”
…HAHAHA…ahhh…yeah, I have no idea what that meant…but the ladies seemed to dig it.:D:cool:
umm…is the Shat supposed to have balls on his chin? :eek:
That is cool tho…makes me wonder if he would say “I’ll…be…BACK.”
Yeah I know. Solai is tha man. He fixed that and hooked me up!!
When Audra and Sean were making ref to China to compare with under-estimating others who are doing low level things more efficiently, the conclusion was that in human history, oppressors/slavers in human history usually don’t last.
While that conclusion is valid, through out history that has been the case, I have to say I think the tools of oppression is so advanced now, the oppressed/enslaved no longer have the ability to do anything to change their fate without serious outside intervention.
The tools of oppression includes control of media and communication, weapons and training of police and army, economical control and monitoring over goods and money.
Government that have total control over the media can create propaganda like ever before. By monitoring communications and a good police state, they can pressure people into not discussing things they worry that the government don’t want they to discuss. And the police and army would be so removed from reality, they would not turn around and support the people.
Things have been moving towards this direction since the 19th century. Unless the leaders in charge actually want to change and have some type of ideals of human rights, it is impossible for any kind of change from within the country. For example, African Americans did not have the ability to change their situation until the Union felt they need to put an end to the situation.
Take China for example, it is unlikely that the human rights situation in China would ever give life to any sort of resistance movement. During the great leap or the cultural revolution when millions starved to death and no one led successful revolts, not many even tried. Today if you ask any Chinese or first generation Chinese Americans under the age of 30, they would tell you Tien-An-Men squares incidents was the government taking care of a bunch of mods and not many died. The livelihood of anyone now putting those responsible for the human right abuse in their place is pretty much 0.
The same goes for North Korea, or even Iraq under Saddam. People hated Saddam, regardless of Sunni or Shiai (neither likes being occupied by the coalition either), but without the outside world aiding them, there is NO CHANCE for any of the resistance, Kurdish, Shiai or otherwise to ever overthrow Saddam.
It is kind of like the Matrix. The need for the One to restart the cycle and having Zion and free humans were sort of part of the whole design of things. Would Neo really be able to escape the Matrix in the first place if it wasn’t part of the design?
He would know things are wrong. But there wouldn’t be a thing he could do about it.
Indeed…Solai is tha man. Big pimpin’ 
just got to put up my new terminator poster at work! Frakin sweet!
