Such a cool collection of interactive voice response systems, with high fives out to everyone who thought up great (and ofttimes obscure) “talkie computers” from decades of sci-fi from the 1950s to the 2000-teens. By name…

• kedamono x7
• Joe Bloch x10
• dhwood
• Burning x4
• Kelley Strang
• dhwood
• brightrock
• Clayton
• Pixel I/O
• pavellishin x2
• Clayton
• @CarsTheElectric
• Steve Silvas x2
• Matt Sheehe
• Ben
• Matt Sheehe
• Joe Bloch
• pavellishin
• Matt Sheehe x2
• Lela x2
• NP
• Clayton x2

The list of talkie computers we collected is “Robby the Robot, Adam Link, Jupiter 2, Landru, M-5, Nomad probe, The Oracle, Beta-V, HAL, Colossus, BOXX, Thermostellar Triggering Device, IRAC, the Übercomputer, C-3PO, Alex 7000, Proteus IV, Zen, Orac, Slave, V-Ger, Artificial persons, Dr. Theopolis and TWKE-4, MU-TH-UR 6000, KITT, Replicants, Image Machine, MCP, SAL, Max, Holly, Kryten!, L7, 790, Sphere, Ship [sic], AMEE, Ship, Andromeda Ascendant, Zero, S.A.R.A.H., Andy the Deputy AI, Icarus, KITT, Otto, Gerty, and Jarvis.” Think you could name the movies and TV shows these are from just from these names?

The next step is to build a collection of the scripts of these interactions, since we’ll be analyzing any peculiar, non-standard-English that we find. I’m down to provide these scripts myself, but it would be easier if we crowdsource it. If you’re up to it, head to the following form to add the metadata and line-by-line script of the interaction. You can often find the scripts with a simple Google Search, or by (popping in the VHS/DVD/Blu-Ray you own, finding a video of the scene on some online video service and transcribing it from there. We are interested in word-perfect transcriptions. Don’t sweat it if you don’t have the time yourself. As of Thanksgiving weekend, I’ll manually complete any unfinished ones that I find.

The form to add scripts: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/
1fLJKW_PviuWezpDKtUrnMO8IH3CE_f9fT4FpQznI6oo/viewform

Hey small slice of the internet. I’m working with an awesome linguist, Anthony Stone of operativewords.com, on a project and since I don’t know everything but you do, I’m wondering if you can help. We’re collecting examples of scenes from more serious movies and TV shows where a human is interacting with a artificial intelligence primarily through speech.

Example 1

In the ST:TOS episode "Mirror, Mirror" Captain Kirk speaks with his computer to learn if the ship could be used to get him back in the "good universe." (This dialogue was featured in the Learning chapter of the book.)

Example 2: In the movie "Logan’s Run" Logan speaks with the Übercomputer twice: once for questioning about the ankh, and once to report his findings about Sanctuary.

There are others, but we’d like to collect as many examples as we can to get a good "corpus" to work from on this sooper secret thingy. But of course it’s in the service of a blog post, so contribute away, and we’ll thank you in the post once it finally comes out. What do you think: Can you name any?

Today Ender’s Game hits cinemas in the United States, and there’s controversy around it. A number of folks have asked if I would be seeing it and/or reviewing it for scifiinterfaces.com, in light of the boycott against it.

In case you didn’t know, the author of the original work is a far-right-wing extremist who amongst other things, has used his notoriety to spread lies about and fight against gay rights, as well as being a vitriolic board member of the hate-group-with-a-baked-cookie-name National Organization for Marriage. (arensb on Epsilon Clue has a well-sourced article that traces many other examples, should you want to check on details.)

Is it possible to separate an author from his or her work?

Can you enjoy the Ring Cycle or The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock as a Jewish person? Can a misogynist enjoy The Avengers? Should you see Minority Report if you believe depression is, well, real? Can you watch Rosemary’s Baby if you’re firmly against statutory rape? I’m being oblique with the references, but each is a genuinely tricky question. There are lots of angles to fret over. Is the author still alive? Was the distasteful part a privately held opinion or public efforts? Is the content of their work distasteful, or just their real-world actions? In the case of Ender’s Game, should you “punish” the cast and crew who worked on the film but are outspoken in their support of gay rights and condemnation of Card? There’s even some evidence that Card won’t be getting any money from the film at all, but is profiting from the increased book sales that the movie has engendered. So what then? What good does the boycott do? It’s a rich topic, and worth discussing with friends and family at the next lull in conversation.

Ultimately I’ve decided not to see the film in cinemas. One’s efforts of avoidance should correspond to the toxin in question, and Card has proven himself to be deeply toxic. Plus I don’t want to encourage a sequel or franchise, where he might make money or his books sell more as a result.

I may watch it on a plane, or borrow it from a local library once it’s there. I want the movie industry to know that it needs to think about the people with whom it does business, either as an author or a producer, and money is the thing that will get their attention. Even though there are plenty of talented people who worked on the film, I just can’t stand the idea of putting money into Orson’s filthy wallet, directly through salary/residuals, or indirectly through book sales, that he’s going to use against me, my family, and my friends.

I’m still making my mind up about whether to review the interfaces and interaction design. It’s something that I can uniquely offer to the cast and crew for their efforts. But I’ve got months before the movie is released to DVD & Blu-Ray to decide that.

Every thoughtful sci-fi fan should wrestle with this question. Some people I greatly respect have looked at the same questions and come to the opposite conclusion. They will see the film. If you’ve decided you are going to go, please consider buying a “hater offset” (my term: it’s like carbon offsets, but you know, for Card) and make a donation for the cost of your ticket to a pro-queer charity, like SkipEndersGame or EqualityInitiative. If they strike it big as a result of the “buyer boycott,” it will send an equally big message to the film makers.

And as an added bonus, I’ve included trailers for other films you might want to see around now.

While sitting down to rewatch The Fifth Element with friends last night, I realized that the Intro Planetscape is one of the most common sci-fi tropes that I can think of (even if it has little to do with interfaces.)

That realization in turn made me want to make a Name That Intro Planetscape online quiz. I’d love some help. Do you have a favorite planetscape that appears in the first minutes of a sci-fi film? Tweet a screen cap of it with in the formula:

Hey @MakeItSoTweets, check out this #introplanetscape from the first few minutes of MOVIENAME.

Oh, be sure and attach the high-resolution screen cap, since that’s, you know, the point. When I get about 20 of them I’ll post a page with them all in a quiz format and credit the first people to provide particular ones. Nerd fame?? 3. Profit!