Saturday, November 08, 2003
How strict is Singapore?
OK, chewing gum's banned. But they're witty enough to sell little "Chewing gum banned, $1000 fine" gee-gaws at the airport....
Thursday, November 06, 2003
Bye...
I'm off to watch rugby for a couple of weeks. May drop by a few times, but in the mean-time, check out Rugby (World-Cup) Round-up, where I'll be busy, busy, busy....
Wednesday, November 05, 2003
More Matrix, more the time
Gregg Easterbrook manages to avoid offending anyone in a rapid critique of military tactics across virtually all Sci-Fi films. Why not use bombs, he asks, and it's a valid Matrix question too.
The only series where it *really* makes sense is Dune - there they have a) a big prohibition on AI, b) shields that stop fast moving objects, and c) a delightful interaction between shield and laser technology that means one hitting the other effectively causes two nuclear-style explosions around the objects. With those premises, you have to go hand-to-hand...
Easterbrook also heralds another step towards ubiquitous computing. An issue that hits at the Matrix - if the machines built the tunnels (as it seems), or even if humans did, why not seed them with nanotech (or at least insect-tech) to track human movements, ships, etc...
The only series where it *really* makes sense is Dune - there they have a) a big prohibition on AI, b) shields that stop fast moving objects, and c) a delightful interaction between shield and laser technology that means one hitting the other effectively causes two nuclear-style explosions around the objects. With those premises, you have to go hand-to-hand...
Easterbrook also heralds another step towards ubiquitous computing. An issue that hits at the Matrix - if the machines built the tunnels (as it seems), or even if humans did, why not seed them with nanotech (or at least insect-tech) to track human movements, ships, etc...
I have seen the future, and it is "eh".
Warning - I've been to see Matrix Revolutions. This isn't a review, and it isn't really an attempt to explain WTF is going on in the film. I'm sure someone somewhere will have a better idea. Though I doubt it was the writers - they appear not to have a clue. Scroll down....
More...
Matrix Revolutions - WTF?
Not really a question I can answer. There's not some grand, over-arching explanation of what's going on. There's a reference by the Oracle to "The Source", something Neo is heading towards/drawing on that lets him do stuff outside the Matrix. And he finishes heading, Christ-like*, towards something that might be viewed as The Source. But this doesn't really tie together the influence on the outside world, the idea of "The One", and the roles of the Architect and the Oracle.
At least those two make a little sense. There's a lot of "two sides of the same coin", "find a balance", "local equilibria" notions floating around in this film. SPOILER - Smith and Neo, Oracle and Architect, man and machine? Lots of that. SPOILER the Oracle seeking peace, the Architect seeking dominance, etc.
And I suppose that some sort of peace at the end of the process, with the way left open at the end of the (surely inevitable?) video game for a little more explanation, works. But all the philosophy spouted in the earlier films doesn't really go anywhere.
Philosophical notions noted:
1) There's a little touch of semi-Wittgensteinian thought when an Indian program and Neo have an exchange:
Neo - "Love is a human emotion"
Program - "Love is a word, whose meaning is the connection it relates to" (approx)
As a good Wittgensteinian, that works for me. You manage to work around all the stuff about Private Languages (or, rather, the referants of languages being ineffable "internal objects" of others, such as an emotion that you can't *know* another is experiencing). And you do that by noticing that's not quite how words get their meaning - they get it from observable** actions and behaviours.
"Only of a living human being and what resembles (behaves like) a living human being can one say: it has sensations; it sees; is blind; hears; is deaf; is conscious or unconscious" (Philosophical Investigations I, 281).
Or, to add on - it loves.... The programs in the Matrix see, are blind, do or do not have sensations (Smith seems the one that smells....), and, it seems, love. Work through the Private Language Argument (that link hasn't been checked by me for quality, I concede) if you want to know more.
2) There's an awful lot of the Nietzschian about the final battle. Why does Neo keep fighting - SPOILER "Because I choose to". Because without being able to assert the "reality" of the values he espouses, he, I take it, creates their meaning through acts that affirm/create his beliefs/wishes.
Which may or may not be authentic to the syphyllitic loon, but makes for a nice mirror position to Smith, who has a more classical "will to power" interpretation. And also reflects the main forces, the Oracle and the Architect, who appear to have played chess through the films.... (I said "game" when I first typed that - wonder if it means anything?)
3) The Frenchman (as I'll call him, as the full name's far too hard to cope with - "Merovingian" indeed) crops up with his fetish-wear followers, partner who's over-excited by the notion of love, and "evil" bargains to behold. He doesn't really add much in this film either, except an opportunity to see a girl who thinks a neck-brace sexy - could have skipped his part. No real philosophical twist here, except the notion of pragmatism gets a kung-fu airing...
So it's all a bit beyond me. If there's going to be an explanation, then this site's speculation about a Matrix 4 would, however, fit fine with that. However, the way they'd have SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER twisted endings to fit casting availability would be shocking...
"Dead in Matrix 4?
There are contradictory announcements:
FilmRot.com (in January): "Producer Joel Silver and Village Roadshow are so rapturous with the reception The Matrix Reloaded has got, that plans are quietly underway for a fourth adventure of the mind-boggling sci-fi sensation. Just one problem – Keanu Reeves has already told them he's not doing it. If the Matrix 4 gets the greenlight, as insiders are expecting, it looks like there will be a new face playing Neo or a certain character missing from the next chapter."
...and...
Joel Silver: "I don't know [whether there will be a Matrix 4]. I know the story that the boys wanted to tell ends at the end of Revolutions."
Later (May) the Joel Silver (producer) said in an interview, that there won't be any Matrix 4, no matter how much money Matrix 3 makes:
Joel Silver: ''That is the end. It is concluded. This story is over."
The Matrix writing and directing team of Andy and Larry Wachowski had made it clear there would not be a fourth. Keanu Reeves (Neo) and Carrie-Anne Moss (Trinity) stated, they won't take part in a forth film.
Keanu Reeves said in an interview (with Time) that The Matrix was "about birth", "the second is life, the third is death".
Joel Silver also said (does it mean something anyway if producers talk?):
Joel Silver: "Well, the story that the boys wanted to tell ends in Revolutions. I mean, could they continue the story, the characters? Look, they can. All of this stuff that we're talking about, they wrote. They wrote all of this. They are passionate about the project, about this idea that they came up with, about this world that they've created. I'm sure that if they wanted to continue writing whatever they can, they can. This story does end at the end of Revolutions."
Now my question: If #1 is true and there will be a Matrix 4 and Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Ann Moss won't play, does that mean both die in Matrix 3? Cast your vote: Who will die? "
* I'm sure that a future civilisation, trying to piece Christianity back together from all available evidence, will have a very confused time, with allegorical bits of footage confusing things no end. Are the sentinals romans....
** No, I'm not a behaviourist - if you know what that means, you probably know where I'd go with my argument if you pressed me. Leave me alone, this is a film review...
More...
Matrix Revolutions - WTF?
Not really a question I can answer. There's not some grand, over-arching explanation of what's going on. There's a reference by the Oracle to "The Source", something Neo is heading towards/drawing on that lets him do stuff outside the Matrix. And he finishes heading, Christ-like*, towards something that might be viewed as The Source. But this doesn't really tie together the influence on the outside world, the idea of "The One", and the roles of the Architect and the Oracle.
At least those two make a little sense. There's a lot of "two sides of the same coin", "find a balance", "local equilibria" notions floating around in this film. SPOILER - Smith and Neo, Oracle and Architect, man and machine? Lots of that. SPOILER the Oracle seeking peace, the Architect seeking dominance, etc.
And I suppose that some sort of peace at the end of the process, with the way left open at the end of the (surely inevitable?) video game for a little more explanation, works. But all the philosophy spouted in the earlier films doesn't really go anywhere.
Philosophical notions noted:
1) There's a little touch of semi-Wittgensteinian thought when an Indian program and Neo have an exchange:
Neo - "Love is a human emotion"
Program - "Love is a word, whose meaning is the connection it relates to" (approx)
As a good Wittgensteinian, that works for me. You manage to work around all the stuff about Private Languages (or, rather, the referants of languages being ineffable "internal objects" of others, such as an emotion that you can't *know* another is experiencing). And you do that by noticing that's not quite how words get their meaning - they get it from observable** actions and behaviours.
"Only of a living human being and what resembles (behaves like) a living human being can one say: it has sensations; it sees; is blind; hears; is deaf; is conscious or unconscious" (Philosophical Investigations I, 281).
Or, to add on - it loves.... The programs in the Matrix see, are blind, do or do not have sensations (Smith seems the one that smells....), and, it seems, love. Work through the Private Language Argument (that link hasn't been checked by me for quality, I concede) if you want to know more.
2) There's an awful lot of the Nietzschian about the final battle. Why does Neo keep fighting - SPOILER "Because I choose to". Because without being able to assert the "reality" of the values he espouses, he, I take it, creates their meaning through acts that affirm/create his beliefs/wishes.
Which may or may not be authentic to the syphyllitic loon, but makes for a nice mirror position to Smith, who has a more classical "will to power" interpretation. And also reflects the main forces, the Oracle and the Architect, who appear to have played chess through the films.... (I said "game" when I first typed that - wonder if it means anything?)
3) The Frenchman (as I'll call him, as the full name's far too hard to cope with - "Merovingian" indeed) crops up with his fetish-wear followers, partner who's over-excited by the notion of love, and "evil" bargains to behold. He doesn't really add much in this film either, except an opportunity to see a girl who thinks a neck-brace sexy - could have skipped his part. No real philosophical twist here, except the notion of pragmatism gets a kung-fu airing...
So it's all a bit beyond me. If there's going to be an explanation, then this site's speculation about a Matrix 4 would, however, fit fine with that. However, the way they'd have SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER twisted endings to fit casting availability would be shocking...
"Dead in Matrix 4?
There are contradictory announcements:
FilmRot.com (in January): "Producer Joel Silver and Village Roadshow are so rapturous with the reception The Matrix Reloaded has got, that plans are quietly underway for a fourth adventure of the mind-boggling sci-fi sensation. Just one problem – Keanu Reeves has already told them he's not doing it. If the Matrix 4 gets the greenlight, as insiders are expecting, it looks like there will be a new face playing Neo or a certain character missing from the next chapter."
...and...
Joel Silver: "I don't know [whether there will be a Matrix 4]. I know the story that the boys wanted to tell ends at the end of Revolutions."
Later (May) the Joel Silver (producer) said in an interview, that there won't be any Matrix 4, no matter how much money Matrix 3 makes:
Joel Silver: ''That is the end. It is concluded. This story is over."
The Matrix writing and directing team of Andy and Larry Wachowski had made it clear there would not be a fourth. Keanu Reeves (Neo) and Carrie-Anne Moss (Trinity) stated, they won't take part in a forth film.
Keanu Reeves said in an interview (with Time) that The Matrix was "about birth", "the second is life, the third is death".
Joel Silver also said (does it mean something anyway if producers talk?):
Joel Silver: "Well, the story that the boys wanted to tell ends in Revolutions. I mean, could they continue the story, the characters? Look, they can. All of this stuff that we're talking about, they wrote. They wrote all of this. They are passionate about the project, about this idea that they came up with, about this world that they've created. I'm sure that if they wanted to continue writing whatever they can, they can. This story does end at the end of Revolutions."
Now my question: If #1 is true and there will be a Matrix 4 and Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Ann Moss won't play, does that mean both die in Matrix 3? Cast your vote: Who will die? "
* I'm sure that a future civilisation, trying to piece Christianity back together from all available evidence, will have a very confused time, with allegorical bits of footage confusing things no end. Are the sentinals romans....
** No, I'm not a behaviourist - if you know what that means, you probably know where I'd go with my argument if you pressed me. Leave me alone, this is a film review...
