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Who Made Who? An Interview with Iiris Härmä on A.I.

Iiris Härmä’s latest work Who Made Who? examines where artificial intelligence technology is currently headed.

Playing during Doxa Documentary Film Festival, from June 18 to 26. Tickets to an online screening can be purchased here. For information, please visit their faq.

Finnish filmmaker Iiris Härmä is perhaps best known for her documentaries exploring cultural identity. Her first work, End of the Line, is a sociological film about old men losing work at a bus factory and having nowhere else to go. She developed the film at a time when globalization was making waves. The ripple effect is disconcerting. Her degrees in Ethnology and Cultural Studies help pinpoint topics of humanitarian interest. When she graduated with a diploma on film studies from the New School University in NY, the sky’s the limit for what she liked to explore in the cinematic medium–or rather, on what we learn from her discourses.

Her latest work Who Made Who? examines where artificial intelligence technology is currently headed. After her own experiences with it, namely in dealing with automated bank services through the phone, it got her curiosity going. She said another encounter was at a seminar in 2015 at Helsinki, where Michael Laakasuoed talked about the moralities of AI; it was an eye-opening experience. She talked about her inspiration in an interview with the Finnish Institute, and I’m fairly sure she took a lot more out of making this documentary than we as viewers did, as newcomers to a future not everyone is prepared for.

Essentially, this documentary examines the relationship between humans and technology. It’s not too different from Hi. A.I., a film I looked at some months ago (review link here) which dealt with similar themes. I was reminded of how robots can help keep some seniors occupied than the other one concerning Charles attempting to have a meaningful conversation with Harmony; a couple they were not.

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Atari’s Missile Command hits the Mobile World & Fond Memories with Tempest 4K

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Available on iOS and Android

Of all of Atari’s vast catalogue of classic games, the two I played the most were Tempest and Missile Command. With both games reimagined for current gen computers, consoles and mobiles, there’s more than a feeling of nostalgia going on. The latter is released to celebrate its 40th anniversary, and Tempest 4000 (available on Amazon) is available for the Playstation 4 for a little longer than a month. I’ve played the Steam version of the latter for the PC, but using a controller is just not the same as using a paddle.

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Tempest 4K, STEAMed & Reviewed!

Who Made Who By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

* Also available on the
PlayStation4 and Xbox One.

Sooner or later, the game to which I took my nickname from, had to be reviewed. Back in the 80’s with the huge arcade game boom, Atari’s Tempest was the game I fell in love with. Enter 2018, the 4K upgrade is here! I’m not talking about video resolution, but instead, how pumped this latest imagining is. It’s wild and crazy in how tough it gets after six levels from the start. Even after weeks of playing, I’m not completely proficient. The main problem is that no proper controller exists to play the game like it was originally designed.

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Remembering the Golden Oldies with the Digital Comics Museum

The Digital Comics Museum is one of many sites comic book afficinados can visit to read really old comics.

action_comics_1

In the search for great comic books from the yesteryear, most aficionados will have to hit auctions and estate sales to find what they want. Titles from the Platinum Age (1897 – 1938) to the Golden Age (1939-1950), introduced the era of the superhero to more than just one generation of readers, but purchasing these comics now is near impossible. Unless you are rich, forget it.

Thankfully, not everyone is out to make an investment with an Action Comics #1 so they can wind up having a million dollar nest egg to retire on sixty-five years later. There are digital archivists actively looking to preserve this bit of the past for readers preferring online content. To name a few, Pappy’s Golden Age Comics Blogzine and Fury Comics are two very good websites to start digging through. Another archival website is Comic Book Plus, along with the Digital Comics Museum (DCM), which boasts a wide variety of titles available for anyone to read for free (though the operators may ask for donations to help offset the costs of keeping the the website running).

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One Tech Geek’s Dream for Christmas Day

If there’s another nerdy wish list for Santa to look at, I can only hope that maybe one item from this list will be under my tree.

In this case, maybe a few items will finally get a proper release date because they are still stuck in their development cycle. Just maybe, one day, I will find a TARDIS waiting for me to take me on a whirlwind trip around the world. Who doesn’t want to time travel just to witness how the Egyptian pyramids were truly built? And besides, with the first item on my list, I can take home some souvenirs!

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[Victoria Film Festival ’14] Behind the Scenes: Cyber Seniors. An Interview with Director Saffron Cassaday

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

The documentary Cyber-Seniors is getting special sneak previews at film festivals around the world, and at the Victoria Film Festival, it screened February 11th. An added show will also happen on the 15th. On May 2, it will be making its theatrical premiere.

Saffron Cassiday

For the young actress turned director, Saffron Cassaday, this film marks her debut. Many stories are intertwined here: from explaining the origins of what the film title is about — an education program that started in Toronto for showing seniors how to use a computer to effectively communicate — to what these people can do with it, there is even a personal note added to this film.

When Saffron’s sister, Macaulee, and grandfather were diagnosed with cancer during production, that did not bring making this film to halt. Their journey is also chronicled. Having started two years ago, the teaching program called Cyber-Seniors was well underway. When medical issues only showed how effective online communication works for two very close family members, the ties that bind are expressed online too. But that should not stop people from meeting for real.

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