Dec. 22nd, 2018
DS9 rewatch(es) crossposts
Dec. 22nd, 2018 01:21 amPost dates indicate that my two rewatches were in 2016-2017 (first cut) and 2017-2018 (all the others)—not as large a gap as I thought! This is easily my favorite Trek, and rewatching it when coping with my dad's terminal diagnosis was equal parts healing/cathartic/exhausting. TW for a lot of cancer-talk under various cuts.
( Rewatching DS9 under fascism )
( Rewatching DS9 during the cancer times )
( Rewatching DS9 during the cancer times: longform )
( The Occupation )
( 4.6 Rejoined )
( 5.2 The Ship, 5.3 Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places, 5.5 The Assignment, 5.6 Trials and Tribble-ations )
( 6.21 The Reckoning )
( 6.24 Time's Orphan )
I've been watching DS9 every night for the last two months and I think there literally has not been a single evening when I have not cried at least once
#they're good cries—accessible cathartic non-headyache little cries; probably the exact emotional outlet I need rn #with some exceptions (cough 'The Vistor' cough ugly crying cough) #(and I still haven't been able to make myself watch 'Ties of Blood and Water'—I think I need to; I just can't) #but every time I go to wash my face after I get that wave of 'is this too much; what's the line between wallowing and processing #between triggers and catharsis?' #and what do I do when I finish this season and run out of episodes? what escape/outlet is there then?
( Jadziea spoilers )
( Rewatching DS9 under fascism )
( Rewatching DS9 during the cancer times )
( Rewatching DS9 during the cancer times: longform )
( The Occupation )
( 4.6 Rejoined )
( 5.2 The Ship, 5.3 Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places, 5.5 The Assignment, 5.6 Trials and Tribble-ations )
( 6.21 The Reckoning )
( 6.24 Time's Orphan )
I've been watching DS9 every night for the last two months and I think there literally has not been a single evening when I have not cried at least once
#they're good cries—accessible cathartic non-headyache little cries; probably the exact emotional outlet I need rn #with some exceptions (cough 'The Vistor' cough ugly crying cough) #(and I still haven't been able to make myself watch 'Ties of Blood and Water'—I think I need to; I just can't) #but every time I go to wash my face after I get that wave of 'is this too much; what's the line between wallowing and processing #between triggers and catharsis?' #and what do I do when I finish this season and run out of episodes? what escape/outlet is there then?
( Jadziea spoilers )
Spoilers! also character death and suicide and existential horror; but what you should really worry about is some aggressive spoilers for a good game.
( A Machine for Pigs sidenote )
( SOMA isn't horror (and that's good!) )
( SOMA timeline )
( Responses to Catherine in other people's LPs )
( A Machine for Pigs sidenote )
( SOMA isn't horror (and that's good!) )
( SOMA timeline )
( Responses to Catherine in other people's LPs )
( Windows's Cortana and the potential for AI bond creatures )
The Family Dog from the New York Times
When Sony stopped manufacturing replacement parts for its Aibo pet robot, owners scrambled to save the robot-dogs that had become part of their families.
( Projection: the human half of the equation )
( A sexbot addendum )
The Family Dog from the New York Times
When Sony stopped manufacturing replacement parts for its Aibo pet robot, owners scrambled to save the robot-dogs that had become part of their families.
( Projection: the human half of the equation )
( A sexbot addendum )
( Ginger )
( Apocalypse )
( Ruby )
( Anonymous asked: What is The Path? )
( Carmen )
( Carmen pt 2: Grandma's house )
( Robin )
( Some more to say about Red Riding Hood )
( The Girl in White )
( In conversation with another player )
( Apocalypse )
( Ruby )
( Anonymous asked: What is The Path? )
( Carmen )
( Carmen pt 2: Grandma's house )
( Robin )
( Some more to say about Red Riding Hood )
( The Girl in White )
He is more than just a symbol of the dangers of sexual deception; he is the agent of change.
— "The Path of Needles or Pins: Little Red Riding Hood, Terri Windling, on the role of the wolf
( In conversation with another player )
Little girls, this seems to say,
Never stop upon your way.
Never trust a stranger-friend;
No one knows how it will end.
As you're pretty, so be wise;
Wolves may lurk in every guise.
Handsome they may be, and kind,
Gay, or charming never mind!
Now, as then, ‘tis simple truth—
Sweetest tongue has sharpest tooth!
Coming to the end of the crossposts! This wraps up most of the video game content. Some of these are old and profoundly overwritten; the discussion of projection vs content/subtext vs text is also nicely explored in But What I Really Want is to(o) Direct by ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
franzeska.
( The rebels are just as dangerous! )
( Fast travel )
( The end of Yume Nikki; suicide TW )
( Pokemon are friends: projection in Pokemon Black )
( Projection vs content/subtext vs text )
( A specific example in Revenant Wings )
( How and why to fix the OT3 in Miracle Mask )
franzeska.( The rebels are just as dangerous! )
( Fast travel )
( The end of Yume Nikki; suicide TW )
( Pokemon are friends: projection in Pokemon Black )
( Projection vs content/subtext vs text )
( A specific example in Revenant Wings )
( How and why to fix the OT3 in Miracle Mask )
I've recently run into a lot of stories about robots, androids, and artificial intelligence, an umbrella of tropes in which I am ridiculously invested. Here's a few of them, with thoughts about how they explore the trope. Lots of them are short form and super accessible!
"Everyone Will Want One," Kelly Sandoval
Young woman unable to successfully socialize with her peers is given an intelligent artificial pet that analyses socialization and prompts her to act in personally beneficial ways. There's a lot going on here: social normativity (with a sidenote of neuroatypicality), toxic socialization, companion animal tropes, the effect of social media and technology on socialization, and a bit of a cop-out ending; but it's a ridiculously effective combination of companion animal and personal assistant AI feels.
"Eros, Philia, Agape," Rachel Swirsky
Woman purchases an AI companion with malleable programming which is able to adapt itself to her desires as it matures; falls in love with the AI, and gives him the ability to control is own maturation. Intelligent sex robot involved in mundane family drama is well-intended but not always successful—the erstwhile normalcy, while set up as intentional contrast, is so normal as to be boring. But! these AI brains! they're brilliantly imagined. Toggleable malleability is a lovely speculative concept: relatable enough to function as commentary, alien enough to be mind-broadening; the formation and ownership of consciousness is taken to some unexpected places.
"For Want of a Nail," Mary Robinette Kowal
A small technical difficulty with a family's recordkeeper AI snowballs into a family drama. This AI isn't conceptually groundbreaking, but it's so well integrated, from the archaic search for a hardwire to the internet-outage-writ-large metaphor of unconscious dependency. This AI is simultaneously viewed as human and machine, both by character and narrative, and the violation and unreliability of programmable consciousness is at the core of the story.
"Ode to Katan Amano," Caitlín R. Kiernan
Summary is effectively a spoiler, oops oh well: An android in an abusive relationship with a human explores a similar power differential with a life-size doll. The sliding scale from subservient entity to autonomous intelligence is what makes AI so compelling, both as thought experiment and wish-fulfillment—like companion animals, they are intriguing because they have the potential to be the perfect companion, slightly less than us, created for our use; but they carry the threat of sapience. (I've discussed this conflict before.) Kiernan's story is a pointed look at the power imbalance of manufactured companionship; it's intimate and unsettling.
Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie [future Juu: and sequels!]
Previously a ship with dozens of subsets and hundreds of potential physical bodies, able to interact independently but forming a cohesive conscious whole, this AI is now reduced to a single human-bodied instance. This is one of the most mind-broadening AI I've encountered, literally: to learn to think laterally, to engage the multi-instanced, tiered-but-united, pseudo-omniscient first person narrative, is a rewarding bit of mental gymnastics. It raises questions of identity and then integrates them into the plot: which level or aspect of a multi-instanced entity is "self"? Is self ever static, ever united, regardless of form?
Wolf 359, Gabriel Urbina
Hera is simultaneously a personality, part of the crew, and a piece of technology, inseparable from the ship as physical object. She's a restricted omnipresence, programmed for availability, vulnerable to physical tampering and injected code; the show's emphasis on communication and interpersonal relations gives voice to that experience. 1.11 "Am I Alone Now?" is one of my favorite first person AI narratives (and reminiscent of the honestly in Cortana's disintegration in Halo 4): "It's so funny when you ask if I can hear you. Every single time. I don't think you've ever fully understood that I hear everything." Her voice gives her personhood, a personhood which her crewmates value and fight to defend.
"Everyone Will Want One," Kelly Sandoval
Young woman unable to successfully socialize with her peers is given an intelligent artificial pet that analyses socialization and prompts her to act in personally beneficial ways. There's a lot going on here: social normativity (with a sidenote of neuroatypicality), toxic socialization, companion animal tropes, the effect of social media and technology on socialization, and a bit of a cop-out ending; but it's a ridiculously effective combination of companion animal and personal assistant AI feels.
"Eros, Philia, Agape," Rachel Swirsky
Woman purchases an AI companion with malleable programming which is able to adapt itself to her desires as it matures; falls in love with the AI, and gives him the ability to control is own maturation. Intelligent sex robot involved in mundane family drama is well-intended but not always successful—the erstwhile normalcy, while set up as intentional contrast, is so normal as to be boring. But! these AI brains! they're brilliantly imagined. Toggleable malleability is a lovely speculative concept: relatable enough to function as commentary, alien enough to be mind-broadening; the formation and ownership of consciousness is taken to some unexpected places.
"For Want of a Nail," Mary Robinette Kowal
A small technical difficulty with a family's recordkeeper AI snowballs into a family drama. This AI isn't conceptually groundbreaking, but it's so well integrated, from the archaic search for a hardwire to the internet-outage-writ-large metaphor of unconscious dependency. This AI is simultaneously viewed as human and machine, both by character and narrative, and the violation and unreliability of programmable consciousness is at the core of the story.
"Ode to Katan Amano," Caitlín R. Kiernan
Summary is effectively a spoiler, oops oh well: An android in an abusive relationship with a human explores a similar power differential with a life-size doll. The sliding scale from subservient entity to autonomous intelligence is what makes AI so compelling, both as thought experiment and wish-fulfillment—like companion animals, they are intriguing because they have the potential to be the perfect companion, slightly less than us, created for our use; but they carry the threat of sapience. (I've discussed this conflict before.) Kiernan's story is a pointed look at the power imbalance of manufactured companionship; it's intimate and unsettling.
Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie [future Juu: and sequels!]
Previously a ship with dozens of subsets and hundreds of potential physical bodies, able to interact independently but forming a cohesive conscious whole, this AI is now reduced to a single human-bodied instance. This is one of the most mind-broadening AI I've encountered, literally: to learn to think laterally, to engage the multi-instanced, tiered-but-united, pseudo-omniscient first person narrative, is a rewarding bit of mental gymnastics. It raises questions of identity and then integrates them into the plot: which level or aspect of a multi-instanced entity is "self"? Is self ever static, ever united, regardless of form?
Wolf 359, Gabriel Urbina
Hera is simultaneously a personality, part of the crew, and a piece of technology, inseparable from the ship as physical object. She's a restricted omnipresence, programmed for availability, vulnerable to physical tampering and injected code; the show's emphasis on communication and interpersonal relations gives voice to that experience. 1.11 "Am I Alone Now?" is one of my favorite first person AI narratives (and reminiscent of the honestly in Cortana's disintegration in Halo 4): "It's so funny when you ask if I can hear you. Every single time. I don't think you've ever fully understood that I hear everything." Her voice gives her personhood, a personhood which her crewmates value and fight to defend.