Subject:
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Re: A.I.?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.fun
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Date:
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Wed, 25 Jul 2001 11:33:13 GMT
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Viewed:
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326 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.fun, Eric Brouwer writes:
> Don't waste your time on AI...
I have to disagree, at least in part. My main contention would be that the
film is not actually crap.
I went to see this movie tonight, and while I respect it's artistic
integrity -- with a few quibbles -- I wouldn't actually recommend it,
especially not for chiildren. The film is deeply sad and disconcerting. If
anything, Señor Spielbergo is almost too successful at manipulating the
viewer into empathetic sadness on behalf of the protagonist. I can't stress
how sorrowful the film is -- it is rife with profound longing and
unfulfilled desire. The ultimate message seems to be one of the
impossibility of love. Despite an ending that on the surface seems a happy
ending, I found it very bittersweet and complicated.
I suppose the obvious analogue is that protagonist represents the average
human being, and the plot of the film presents us with the essential fact of
the human condition -- that we are desiring machines trapped in a vicious
cycle of wanting that which we can never really have, and that which we feel
we do not really deserve -- the love of another.
[There is probably a secondary quandary in the story too -- one that
questions the essential nature of what is "real." Is love only a series of
physiological responses to another, or is there an ineffable, essential
quality actually present in the feelings between two people. Humans can
fool and comfort themselves with the fraudulent companionship of "mecha" for
a time, but in the end humans reject "mecha" because deep down they know the
nature of that love to be false of a certainty. But then, where is the
positive proof that love between humans is any the more real?]
While one can draw numerous parallels between this story and that of
Pinochio, this story is actually a kind of subversion of that older tale.
Rather than a miraculous and happy ending, here we have the ultimate
unmasking of that fraudulent ending -- made all the more poignant for the
deep seated wanting we have for the happy ending anyway and despite it's
possibly false nature. We all want love to be the one TRUE human
conceit...when we all sort of know it's more likely a comforting lie.
See what I mean? Not for children -- let them believe the lies for now.
They can grow up to be world-class skeptics like myself later on...may the
gods help them!
-- Hop-Frog
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | A.I.?
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| Please, let me do you a favor... Don't waste your time on AI... It may stand for Artificial Inteligence, but it is Actual Crap. Eric (23 years ago, 5-Jul-01, to lugnet.off-topic.fun)
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