That is to day, they don't function without a response to an outside stimulus. If we cut all stimulus off from the human body - eyes, ears, etc - we would still think.

That's simply not true. We have a rich, wonderful variety of artificial intelligences. While some of the toy intelligences focus on imitating human beings, there are a lot of very serious intelligences doing very real work, and they're not human in any way.

At the same time, the assumption that computerized intelligence is going to resemble human intelligence is an incredibly stupid idea.

I was looking for an animated gif of her pouring sugar to post instead, but couldn't find one in 10 seconds, so quickly gave up.

you can only play chess if you can see the board

It Two's voice, the bit about drawing the line turns into a classroom lesson, almost.

House Of Leaves is not a book. It is an artifact. You do not read it. You wander through it.

Check the Orphan Black site- this is just the GIS result.

What I love about it is that the film builds a character, and a world, and then shows us that the world is demonstrably better without the character in it. His existence is a drag on the universe, and everything he does simply makes the world worse for everyone in it.

I quite liked Buried, though. While I avoid most films involving "bankable" stars (too often, the "bank" substitutes for a good film), I'm actually tempted by Gravity.

Fun fact: the first time I read "The Invisibles", I didn't know that the issues were numbered in reverse for the final volume. I read them in numerical order, not chronological.

Dear "creators",

Oh, wow, I mean- the bit where Doc and Monarch bond over being pathetic losers? That was my favorite part of this season. It was pitch perfect. It very well may have been the best moment in the entire series, at least if you're looking for everything the series is about, everything it means, and the entire point to…

"It's better than a touchpad". That's hardly a recommendation, although that's only true for most of your commodity laptop touchpads. The MacBook touchpads are the best, and for daily-driving are better than a mouse (but obviously, not for gaming, even if I did beat Portal using nothing but a touchpad).

It's not mechanistic in the least, but it is conservative. I start with the assumption that the universe is parsimonious. If there is a "why" behind things, then the universe is not parsimonious- events and objects in the universe are not sufficient to themselves, they need some sort of purpose which is not contained…

Detroit just declared bankruptcy. Corporations are running governments. Governments are employing robots as killers.

superman

I dunno, she doesn't seem to get stuck in stupid situations. She makes decisions that she knows could lead to serious danger, but does it because it's the right thing to do. She's not my favorite character on the series, but she drives a lot more story than simply being "the girlfriend".

I have a few rules I use to define "sense".