March 27, 2006
Kane, Bree, Hal and more
- Still waitin’ for that Citizen Kane moment
- From the maker of Disney spin-off games, Desperate Housewives: the videogame. Here’s early screenshots.
- Is Controller Design Killing Creativity in Video Games? (Answer: Yes! We need interfaces that are more than a few buttons and a joystick, i.e., language!)
- Hal’s Legacy: 2001’s Computer as Dream and Reality, from MIT Press. 50% off right now.
- An old link, but worth noting: Warren Spector is developing a Source/Steam title.
March 27th, 2006 at 7:19 pm
Yikes, just realized the Hal book is from 1998. Consider this newer one, which I believe Michael contributed an essay to, although I can’t find a table of contents anywhere.
March 27th, 2006 at 9:33 pm
Yes, I have an essay, Reading Hal: AI and Representation, in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (edited by Robert Kolker). The book is intended for film studies folk. In my essay, I examine how Hal functioned as a representation of AI specifically to the AI community: “As a representation, Hal, and the role he plays within 2001, both captures preexisting intellectual currents that were already operating within the field of AI, and serves as an influential touchstone that had a profound impact on individual AI practitioners and on the aspirations of the field.”
Here’s the full table of contents:
2001: The Critical Reception and the Generation Gap – R. Barton Palmer
Auteur with a Capital A – James Gilbert
The Gravity of 2001: A Space Odyssey – J.P. Telotte
Kubrick in Space – Stephen Mamber
Of Men and Monoliths: Science Fiction, Gender, and 2001: A Space Odyssey – Barry Keith Grant
The Cinematographic Brain in 2001: A Space Odyssey – Marcia Landy
Reading HAL: Representation and Artificial Intelligence – Michael Mateas
Kubrick’s Obscene Shadows – Susan White
Double Minds and Double Binds in Stanley Kubrick’s Fairy Tale – George Toles
March 28th, 2006 at 1:38 am
About the Desperate Housewives game, according to Reuters, actually the developer is Liquid Entertainment, creator of the PC game “Dragonshard.”
Plenty of cynical commentary at Guardian Games blog.