AlienAliena's recent activity

  1. Comment on Stephen Fry reads Nick Cave's stirring letter about ChatGPT and human creativity in ~arts

    AlienAliena
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    I completely agree with your point about "copying" (I wouldn't call what you describe even copying), I'm a very large fan of the statement "everything is a remix." Look up every work that went...

    I completely agree with your point about "copying" (I wouldn't call what you describe even copying), I'm a very large fan of the statement "everything is a remix." Look up every work that went into inspiring your favorite Shakespeare play and you can see that the dude was never some anomaly of originality and creativity, but just well read. They just remixed the texts they knew and used them to create their own unique works. It's how humans do, we build off each others knowledge to create new knowledge.

    Kind of a jump from Shakespeare, but going with your music analogy Death Grips uses a million samples in their songs, yet when Exmilitary came out I was probably one of the most unique sounds I heard.

    The argument could be made that Generative-AI is doing just this, remixing the knowledge that it's been fed to create it's own works and responses. However, I'd still argue that that's not really what's going on here. It reminds me of the question about if Koko the ape could understrand ASL. There was a bunch of unrelated tom-fuckery with that experiment, but the principle question was if Koko could actually use sign language, or it's just a case of monkey-see monkey-do. The consensus today is that it was probably the latter, she was just responding to positive reinforcement when making, or responding to, correct signs. We wanted to believe that she could sign because, well, that's something that we do and we like to think our way of communicating can be replicated in other species, that we don't need to understand them, but teach them to understand us. Really, she just wanted a banana.

    Similarly with Chat-GPT, we've fed it information and given it enough positive reinforcement that it knows what do when someone asks it a question. It strings together words like this, it gets bananas. Shakespeare, or MC Ride, didn't do what they did for banana's, but because they made an intelligent thought to combine ideas they were familiar with into new ideas. imitation isn't intelligence, and when a user uses Chat-GPT they're only getting an imitation of what GPT's sources look like, and even then we'll never have access to those sources. It's answers will always lack the crucial step from imitation to remix, which is understanding it's sources to craft a new idea, because it doesn't understand anything except for how to get more banana's. When you use Chat-GPT to write something creative, you're basing what you write off of a second-hand copy, which is too far away from sampling others work to ever really get something original out of it in my eyes.

    I think I've run out of ways to incorporate banana's into this semi-response/addendum/clarification-to-my-original-comment... thing. To connect it more directly back to my original comment about comparing using Chat-GPT to plagerism, you don't have the context needed to create something worthwhile when doing it this way. You're robbing yourself of the practice and knowledge it takes to remix ideas into something original, and instead leaning on something that could never do that because it's just not capable of that.

    2 votes

  2. Comment on Stephen Fry reads Nick Cave's stirring letter about ChatGPT and human creativity in ~arts

    AlienAliena
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    I don't know, I mean we shouldn't all aspire to have ghost writers, should we? I feel as though, having used Chat-GPT a few times as a writer, the effects that it has on me are almost identical to...

    I don't know, I mean we shouldn't all aspire to have ghost writers, should we?

    I feel as though, having used Chat-GPT a few times as a writer, the effects that it has on me are almost identical to if I were to commit an act of plagiarism. Sure, I can switch the words around from the source I'm taking from some so it sounds like me, and reflects what I want to say, but I still didn't say it. I'd argue that I barely even thought it. I just agreed with it. Put my name on it.

    What's absent in that process is the work that goes into doing anything at all. Fine for like, an invitation or an email, sure. But for a creative pursuit taking away the mental work of first figuring out what you want to say, then putting it into your own words, it takes away the entire reason we write in my view. Makes us lazy, don't want go looking for tubers.

    7 votes

  3. Comment on Grand Theft Auto VI | Trailer 1 in ~games

    AlienAliena
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    I echo this opinion a lot. People think it's funny, but some of my favorite experiences with GTA have been with the story. IV is my favorite because it had that more grounded and darker story. It...

    I echo this opinion a lot. People think it's funny, but some of my favorite experiences with GTA have been with the story. IV is my favorite because it had that more grounded and darker story. It was like a serious world that funny things could happen in, which made the funny things a little funnier imo.

    5 votes

  4. Comment on Fallout | Teaser trailer in ~tv

    AlienAliena
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    Oh gosh, yeah I hadn't done any research into it myself, just thought they were strange "features" to have in a video game. Glad you looked into it! Saves me from giving the devs the satisfaction...

    Oh gosh, yeah I hadn't done any research into it myself, just thought they were strange "features" to have in a video game. Glad you looked into it! Saves me from giving the devs the satisfaction of a download =p.

    It's a shame too, there aren't a lot of total conversion mods for Fallout in general. Probably a few more for New Vegas, I can't think of any notable ones for F3. There is a Fallout Online engine (.ru extension) based off Fallout 2 that someone made and actively maintains that people develop game modes for, but from my personal experience with it you're gonna really have to have a deep knowledge of Russian to even begin to play it. And Russian insults, so many insults.

    Anyways, can't wait to hear what you think! Everyone tends to have their own opinions on them so each one is always interesting to hear

    1 vote

  5. Comment on Fallout | Teaser trailer in ~tv

    AlienAliena
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    I don't know if I necessarily agree that the productions are comparable in quality, but I do recognize I have a heavy set of hype goggles on and may not be able to have the most objective opinion....

    I don't know if I necessarily agree that the productions are comparable in quality, but I do recognize I have a heavy set of hype goggles on and may not be able to have the most objective opinion.

    Speaking as someone who has worked on an Amazon production before, albeit as a low-level PA (still on-set every day they were in my city), Amazon Studios has a tendency to rush through productions extremely quickly, favoring duct-tape solutions over well thought-out plans. At risk of repeating myself, and realizing the pretentiousness of citing myself as a source, I'll just link to my previous comment on the subject. I include some links from there which talk about costume design on the Lord of the Rings series they made, and how it suffers from similar issues I think you might be seeing here.

    tl;dr the Amazon production that I worked on, and from what I hear a few others, suffer from the commodification of an art form. Or assembly-linification as I put it in that comment. But it's impossible to tell if that's a similar case with Fallout, or if additional, (presumably) passionate about-the-material producers, writers, directors, etc. give this project a little more room to be special. Guess we'll see in April!

    1 vote

  6. Comment on Fallout | Teaser trailer in ~tv

    AlienAliena
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    Oh yeah, it's corpo marketing 100%. No argument from me there. I always love going to film festivals specifically because, while directors are usually the main subjects of Q&A's, they'll also...

    Oh yeah, it's corpo marketing 100%. No argument from me there. I always love going to film festivals specifically because, while directors are usually the main subjects of Q&A's, they'll also bring more leaders of different crew departments on stage to answer specific questions about how they actually produced their area of expertise. Kinda wish for segments like "meet the costume designer" or "meet the prop master" were more common, kinda like how they do with interviewing actors leading up to the films release. I was more giving what I thought was the rational behind the choice as I've heard it from other fans talking about the show in other spaces. I'm not one to watch a lot of trailers anyways for that reason, they often misrepresent the style and feel of the show, or overplay one persons importance over another just because they have a bigger name, so if you're expecting an experience similar to something else that trailer name made but get something different it can be disappointing. In general I feel like trailers always make a product a little worse for the viewer.

    In my opinion, Fallout 3, NV, the originals, 4, are all extremely fun games on their own without mods. The mods themselves just add an extremely high level of replayability. I played them all originally vanilla and got a majority of my playtime that way (When I was still gaming on an Xbox 360, so no mods available). Just for ease of playing (these games do crash, especially 3 and NV), there are probably some QoL mods that run without ever being seen by the player that I would recommend. I can only really speak to 3 since that's the game I've spent the most time in, aaand had the most trouble getting to work properly. Check out Updated Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch (has all of the bug-fixes from Tale of Two Wastelands without TTW. Also general performance improvement and crash prevention) and Games for Windows LIVE Disabler (If you get the issue outlined here, this is the best and easiest way to fix it). Also if you get in and the green tint makes you wanna puke, no one would think less of you for installing Fellout... it makes a world of difference. Of course you can do your own research here for Fallout 3, and here for New Vegas. A mod manager of your choice would also just further make sure the mods are installed correctly and don't cause any extra issues of their own.

    I have not heard of that mod! I've been itching for another Fallout OG-like, though some lines on that website make me a little... questioning of how the games subject matter is handled. Particularly:

    Choose a skin color instead of a gender. This affects possible ways of solving some quests.

    The skill “Gambling” is replaced by “Casanova” – the ability to convince women

    Nothing inherently bad on it's own, it's an apocalypse setting so I expect, and to some level want, some darker tones and themes, but without this being a professional development team I do wonder if these mechanics are gonna be implemented in a tasteful way. But hey, can't judge a book by it's cover! Maybe I'll take some time off Starfield to play this over my winter break!

    2 votes

  7. Comment on Fallout | Teaser trailer in ~tv

    AlienAliena
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    That's a good question! More people need to be made aware of Nuka Break imo. I saw Nuka Break (and the short film that inspired it, Red Star) waaaay back when they were first coming out, I think I...

    That's a good question! More people need to be made aware of Nuka Break imo.

    I saw Nuka Break (and the short film that inspired it, Red Star) waaaay back when they were first coming out, I think I hopped on right at the start of season 2 and watched everything from there. They were probably some of the best made and executed series produced just for YouTube back in the day.

    Looking back they do show their age a bit, but you can't help but be kind of amazed with the level of quality on the platform before it was ever taken seriously as a place to invest productions into. So there's also a lot of passion behind the project and it shows. I doubt we'll get the same charm from the Amazon series, but it's also hard to recreate the magic of something like Nuka Break. Right time, right place, right people.

    2 votes

  8. Comment on Whats a drug that you would never try? in ~talk

    AlienAliena
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    It's actually pretty easy and accessible nowadays for the average grower. I won't link it here, but a simple search for "Uncle Ben Tek" will take you to some Reddit threads that outline a really...

    It's actually pretty easy and accessible nowadays for the average grower. I won't link it here, but a simple search for "Uncle Ben Tek" will take you to some Reddit threads that outline a really hands-off process with a low buy-in so the expensive clean-boxes and subtrate are eliminated. Spores themselves are very cheap too for how much you get out of them. Great entry point for those interested.

  9. Comment on The Boys | Season 4 official teaser trailer in ~tv

    AlienAliena
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    I'm with you, everything in moderation. Like, in season 1 there was a genuine fear of all the violence because you got the feeling that these things could easily happen to the main characters. It...

    I'm with you, everything in moderation. Like, in season 1 there was a genuine fear of all the violence because you got the feeling that these things could easily happen to the main characters. It was gore perfectly used to build tension. But now, four seasons in, and so many bloody fights have happened between the main show and Gen V, it's just an expectation that the main cast gets blood-soaked.

    In something like Ash vs. Evil Dead the over-the-top blood and gore works great because the show is meant to be silly and gorey. But, when it comes to The Boys where there's a large power imbalance between the humans and the supes, part of the experience is that we know how underpowered "The Boys" really are when compared to their opponents. Having regular scenes where everyone is evaporated into a red mist except them takes away the tension.

    Not that my enjoyment of the show is really lessened, I still kinda love it actually, I'm more thinking that the tension created by the gore in the first season was the hook to create a series more about it's social commentary than the danger it's characters put themselves in. And I think the commentary is strong, so it keeps it going. Not to say the characters and their drama isn't still fun too.

    6 votes

  10. Comment on Fallout | Teaser trailer in ~tv

    AlienAliena
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    An integral part of playing Bethesda games is spending an entire week creating a modlist that your PC can barely handle... and then spend another week trying to make those mods work together so...

    An integral part of playing Bethesda games is spending an entire week creating a modlist that your PC can barely handle... and then spend another week trying to make those mods work together so the game doesn't crash every five minutes. And THEN spending 500 hours in a single save. This is the way.

    6 votes

  11. Comment on Fallout | Teaser trailer in ~tv

    AlienAliena
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    It's an amazing series, I hope you like the games! I have a little more of a controversial take in that I think Fallout 3 is the best in the series, but obviously it's all subjective. 1 & 2 are...

    It's an amazing series, I hope you like the games! I have a little more of a controversial take in that I think Fallout 3 is the best in the series, but obviously it's all subjective. 1 & 2 are also amazing, but very different experiences since the BGS reimagining of the universe with 3. In any case they're all a big time sink so enjoy the next while of gaming =D.

    For the "Acclaimed 'human' Todd Howard" bit, his name is pretty giant in Gaming. I'm a really big Bethesda Game Studios fan, I've been on the forums (when they existed) and other social mediums related to the developer for forever now and his name is pretty much synonymous with the company and the Fallout franchise at this point. The fact that he is an executive producer (which, to clarify, is his official capacity on the production) on the show will be a selling point for a lot of people. Especially since the show is based almost entirely off the style of Fallout 4 which he lead production on. I personally didn't get the impression they were trying to pose him as the director of the project, but others may have gotten something different from that.

    Todd is the creative director on every mainline BGS game. So, similar to a movie director, he doesn't do the writing, art, soundtracks (not to imply film directors don't sometimes do those things themselves), what-have-you himself, but all of those things are created under his creative direction. From what I hear he is the guy who gives the final go-ahead to anything that gets put into the games. If that's for better or for worse is up to the individual, but the final product of the game we can assume is in large part created in Howards vision (created by a hugely talented team under his direction, to clarify). Having his name in the trailer is sort of like an assurance to fans that the show will be faithful to the look, feel, and narrative of the modern games.

    Anyways, just a probably-too-lengthy clarification from someone who is waaaayyy too into a single developer. The trailer has me sold as well and I'm super looking forward to having weekly discussions on the newest episodes like we used to have for Star Trek: Strange New World and a few other popular shows!

    P.S., these games have huge modding communities so you're in for a treat there! I highly recommend A Tale of Two Wastelands which merges Fallout 3 and FNV into one game, so they both use Fallout: New Vegas' engine and more in-depth systems like weapons mods and faction stuff. Plus you can travel between the two game-worlds with just a short loading screen! Note: this does make Fallout 3 itself a lot less moddable since there isn't a ton of compatibility between Tale of Two Wastelands and other mods, which is why I don't often use it for new playthroughs, but a lot of people love it.

    11 votes

  12. Comment on Fallout | Teaser trailer in ~tv

    AlienAliena
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    I feel you. I don't have any subscription services except Amazon Prime because I've got a low-price student account anyways, as well as Criterion Channel because that's just great stuff....

    I feel you. I don't have any subscription services except Amazon Prime because I've got a low-price student account anyways, as well as Criterion Channel because that's just great stuff. Everything else is on the DVD & Blu-ray shelves in my apartment, or pirated onto my Plex server. I'm probably gonna catch Fallout on Prime, but for others I don't think there's any shame in setting up a SickChill account =p

    1 vote

  13. Comment on Fallout | Teaser trailer in ~tv

    AlienAliena
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    I was a little skeptical of this at first, but this was a great trailer. Got the music right, gore looks really fun, it's following the regular progression of story from the games which I think...

    I was a little skeptical of this at first, but this was a great trailer. Got the music right, gore looks really fun, it's following the regular progression of story from the games which I think will translate well to a TV show format. Real easy to introduce the world when your main character is also oblivious to the world, so it should make the exposition pretty natural

    Also subtle Kyle Maclachlan reveal? Yes please.

    21 votes

  15. Comment on Midweek Movie Free Talk in ~movies

    AlienAliena
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    I saw a movie yesterday called The Cremator, it's this Czech New Wave film by a dude called Juraj Herz. It's about this guy that works at a crematorium and has this ideology where he believes that...

    I saw a movie yesterday called The Cremator, it's this Czech New Wave film by a dude called Juraj Herz. It's about this guy that works at a crematorium and has this ideology where he believes that the main goal of existence should be to relieve human suffering. It also takes place around the time that the Nazi's invaded Czechoslovakia, and the guy falls in with them which turns his good intentioned philosophy into his personal justification for the genocide, at least that's what I got from it. Obviously not a barrel of laughs, but super great, and extremely suspenseful. It's got great commentary, some killer transitions, overall just way ahead of it's time in the filmmaking and especially the editing.

    World cinema is already my thing, but discovering a lot of Czech cinema has just been really awesome. Specifically Daisies, Morgiana, and now this (also watched Valeria and Her Week of Wonders, that one made me uncomfortable in all the wrong ways). It's all so ahead of it's time in the filmmaking. They've all got these interesting transitions, really expressive camerawork playing with lenses and freeflowing movement, reminds me a little of a few of Wong Kar Wai's movies. Oh, and the title sequences, don't get me started.

    While I was watching the credits it kinda explained why this pretty small country has a really active and high-quality film scene. If you look at the most popular films from the movement, they all share like a ton of crew. Just for The Cremator I noticed the witer/director, editor, and production designer all had credits in two or three of the other essential films that everyone says you need to watch, like Morgiana. I think it's just a case of having a good, but incredibly small, set of really dedicated and talented people.

    11 votes

  16. Comment on Intro to Carl Jung and Jungian Psychoanalytics in ~humanities

    AlienAliena
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    Honestly, the Wikipedia article for Jungian Psychology might be what you're looking for based on your specifications. Might seem like a simple solution, but it's beginner friendly, clearly...

    Honestly, the Wikipedia article for Jungian Psychology might be what you're looking for based on your specifications. Might seem like a simple solution, but it's beginner friendly, clearly communicated the ideas of Jungian psychology, entirely well-cited for further reading. It's not a book/video and it's probably not critical, but it'll link to resources that are.

    I first learned about Jung from the Wikipedia article about Synechdoche, New York. If you agree with the idea that the film follows these principles, it might be good viewing to see the principle concepts in action.

    9 votes

  17. Comment on Love songs about established, long term relationships in ~music

    AlienAliena
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    Bill & Annie by Chuck Brodsky. It's about a guy getting married before realizing he might love someone else and he made a mistake. Even still, he decides he can be happy with this situation. Even...

    Bill & Annie by Chuck Brodsky.

    It's about a guy getting married before realizing he might love someone else and he made a mistake. Even still, he decides he can be happy with this situation. Even after that wife passes away, they resist the urge to act on their feelings out of respect for the deceased. It's a bittersweet story about a forbidden lifetime love that only really got to be enjoyed in the lovers late years, but they're still happy they're experiencing it nevertheless.

    More folky than a lot of the songs on here, but I enjoy it and I think it fits to what you're looking for!

    1 vote

  18. Comment on US opened its northernmost diplomatic station in Tromsø, Norway on Friday – highlights increased importance of the Arctic region for Washington in ~misc

    AlienAliena
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    I mean, sure. That post is going to remain non-military, but the United States is reeeaaalllyyyy beefing up and revamping military bases in the arctic circle, especially Greenland. My day job is...

    The U.S. post will be "non-military," Nathanson added. It is "for cooperation for a peaceful, scientific-based, diplomacy".

    I mean, sure. That post is going to remain non-military, but the United States is reeeaaalllyyyy beefing up and revamping military bases in the arctic circle, especially Greenland. My day job is filling out government work order forms for a private A-E firm (soul-sucking, pays well. Most of this information can be found on websites like SAM.gov, so I'm not posting anything necessarily new or classified here).

    We've had word of three projects that the Army Corps of Engineers has been putting on hold over, and over, and over again for the last half-decade while we sit on the info, and just now they send out solicitations to overhaul pretty much all of their military major bases in the Arctic circle, all of them totaling to about an estimated billion (true costs can't be known till the project is complete, or at least until cost estimators can get their hands on it early-mid next year) dollars in fees, and that's just what I know about from work.

    Something interesting is how at least two military air bases are being repurposed into space bases (under Space Force). Like, Thule Air Base in Greenland just got renamed to Pituffik Space Base. That's not to say the U.S. doesn't have a strong diplomatic and scientific presence in the circle, NSF has a very positive footprint in the arctic and opening up a diplomatic station is a good sign, but having this one diplomat open up shop in Norway for businesses against all these military base revamps is a tell for me what the U.S.'s priorities in the arctic really are, probably a big response to Russia's threats of going nuclear early in the Ukraine war. Then again I just fill out forms so I could be off-base here.

    6 votes

  19. Comment on So, any good horror flicks lately? in ~movies

    AlienAliena
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    A few! One which I recommend a lot is Skinamarink, which is about two like 4-year-old kids that wake up and all the windows and doors in their house have disappeared. It's shot on something with...
    • Exemplary

    A few!

    One which I recommend a lot is Skinamarink, which is about two like 4-year-old kids that wake up and all the windows and doors in their house have disappeared. It's shot on something with the quality of a 90s home camcorder, very off-kilter camerawork, almost no real dialouge. It really brings out that childhood horror and fear of the dark, but as you can tell from the IMDB score it's not everyone's thing. I watch a ton of stuff and I really appreciate it for it's originality and sheer scare factor. Just make sure you watch it without distractions with no lights on!

    2019's The Lighthouse is something I found pretty disturbing when it first came out, and it's one of my all-time favorite movies now. Great performances, unbeatable pace, very visceral camera and soundwork. Will leave you emotionally exhausted by the end.

    2021's We're All Going to the Worlds Fair is pretty fantastic. It's a covid-era horror movie about a girl that gets involved in this sort of online horror game, sorta like an ARG if I'm using that correctly? It's got music by Alex G (which is fantastic) and the director is probably my favorite up-and-coming artist. Highly recommend! Again review aggregates don't love it lol, but I don't really trust those sites anyways.

    Titane and Raw, both directed by Julia Ducournau, are great. Titane especially if you're a Cronenburg fan. In general if you're looking for some fucked up arthouse shit, look to French Horror. Early 2000's France has some great stuff that came out of the New French Extremity movement (Inside, and Martyrs I can personally recommend, they're both fantastic films) which also have good artistic merit.

    2008's Let the Right One In. No further explanation needed.

    I did just see like, 15 new horror features at a festival, some of which were fantastic, but none of them have a wide release yet. But if you want to look out for a few, then set up an RSS feed for Plantasma directed by Jacob Cohen, The Once and Future Smash which is a hilarious mockumentary about the classic horror film that inspired every late-70s and 80s slasher flick that came after it (End Zone 2, if you somehow haven't heard of it.), and Agatha which I personally have mixed feelings on, but is nevertheless very original and creative in it's presentation.

    In general, Horror is in a pretty good place right now, especially for "art-house and crazy" like you describe... as long as you look a little outside the bounds of popular theatrical US releases. There have been some A24 projects I've liked, Pearl, it's sequel X, Bodies Bodies Bodies, but I tried to keep my list to the lesser-known and unique stuff. Keep an eye on the festival circuit for the good shit!

    25 votes

  20. Comment on ‘Killers Of The Flower Moon’ intermission imposed by handful of theaters spurs intervention from Paramount in ~movies

    AlienAliena
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    I do not understand the hate for intermissions. I recently got to see 2001 and West Side Story (the original) in theaters, both of which have intermissions. And literally everyone utilized them,...

    I do not understand the hate for intermissions. I recently got to see 2001 and West Side Story (the original) in theaters, both of which have intermissions. And literally everyone utilized them, and it was better for everyone that they did. Great for theaters because people use them to get refills, great for my enjoyment of the movie because I don't have to try and analyze which scene is unimportant enough for me to be comfortable with taking a quick piss during since I have a walnut sized bladder and I usually need a quick break.

    Intermissions make long movies so much better when you don't have to think about when you need to take a quick break, and I can just enjoy the movie because that break time has already been partitioned out for my convenience.

    22 votes