[LINK] Transcendence (2014) -- A movie about “technological singularity”
Transcendence is an upcoming movie, starring Johnny Depp:
Two leading computer scientists work toward their goal of Technological Singularity, as a radical anti-technology organization fights to prevent them from creating a world where computers can transcend the abilities of the human brain.
It could be fun to speculate what the spin will be and how many standard pitfalls they will hit. I also wonder which side I would be rooting for. From the scarce descriptions available, it does not seem to be based on the idea of recursive self-improvement, but rather on mind uploading.
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Given that Johnny Depp appears to be on the Singularity side (as the uploaded human), I suspect that they’ll be portrayed sympathetically, even if the ending isn’t exactly happy.
High concept sci-fi regularly goes from pre-production to the trash bin, wake me when principal photography gets started.
Shooting is apparently scheduled to start April, so you probably don’t have long to wait.
without a director?
Imdb lists Wally Pfister as director. The shooting date is also from its Q&A thing.
awww crap, cinematography was a huge glaring weakness of Nolan’s films. This does not bode well.
This never boded well in the first place.
Why do you say? Are you expecting this to be a net negative contribution to the public consciousness of AI risk?
I’ll be very surprised if it’s not.
The trailer includes a sequence where some nanotech wizardry starts to devour things in order to build hardware, so this isn’t a movie about the fate of just a few people like The Lawnmower Man, but talks about the end of the world in earnest.
At least one of the people behind the movie expects superintelligence to be “likely to happen in our lifetimes” and got Ben Goertzel involved somewhere in the sidelines.
Have you taken these points in account in your prediction?
They do not alter it.
Now that the movie is out, how would you rate your prediction in hindsight?
I haven’t seen the movie and have no intention of seeing it, but from others’ reviews I’d rate it as correct.
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Apparently an early script summary leaked. Spoilers:
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Fur tbrf ba gb pbaarpg Jvyy gb gur Vagrearg fb ur pna uryc znxr shegure fpvragvsvp oernxguebhtuf. Jvyy nfxf Riryla gb pbaarpg n zvpebcubar naq n pnzren hc gb gur pbzchgre fb ur pna frr naq fcrnx gb ure nf jryy.
Jvyy perngrf n onpxhc bs uvzfrys gb rirel pbzchgre va gur jbeyq, naq sheguref uvf jbex guebhtu npprffvat bayvar vaqrkrf. (Xbfbir gbyq GurJenc guvf cybg cbvag vf ab ybatre va gur fpevcg.) Jura gur nagv-grpuabybtl betnavmngvba svaqf bhg, gurl gel gb fgrny gur fhcrepbzchgre naq qrfgebl vg, ohg Jvyy ab ybatre arrqf gur pbzchgre gb fheivir.
Fb, guvf fhzznel fbhaqf n ybg gb zr yvxr Tubfg va gur Furyy.
Be gur ynjazbjre zna.
Be gur svefg rcvfbqr bs Znk Urnqebbz...
Chris Nolan is executive producer.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCTen3-B8GU