Fred's Blog

Author: Fred Rothganger

  • Data is a well-written android

    —

    by

    Fred Rothganger
    in , ,

    Crystal and I recently started watching through Star Trek: The Next Generation (STNG) with our 9-year-old son Justin. This series play during the late 80s and early 90s, and ironically it is now several generations back in the Star Trek universe. One of the central characters is an android named “Data”. I continue to be…

  • Is the Turing test passé?

    —

    by

    Fred Rothganger
    in ,

    My editor Suzan Troutt sent me an email this morning, pointing out the recent Turing test conducted by the University of Reading in collaboration with the EU RoboLaw project. Their results have been sufficiently debunked by various analysts and comment threads, so I will not spill more ink on it here. In the novel SuSAn…

  • Hand signals

    —

    by

    Fred Rothganger
    in

    A few days ago I was biking to work in the back neighborhoods behind my office building, when I came to a stop sign. Meanwhile, a woman was driving a minivan down the other street, the one without a stop sign. I always dread these moments because most drivers don’t know what to do (and…

  • Rainbow

    —

    by

    Fred Rothganger
    in

    This morning as I biked to work, the sun caught the back of my glasses and flash-blinded a small streak across my eye. Then most amazing thing happened. As the dazzled spot slowly faded, I saw a rainbow! The glasses must have split the light enough to bleach my cones differently based on color. It…

  • Her — a disembodied relationship

    —

    by

    Fred Rothganger
    in ,

    Just watched the movie “Her” last night with my wife. Had to fast-forward through the sex and foul language to make it acceptable to both of us, so saw maybe 95% of it. This is a truly amazing movie. It hits a slew of substantial philosophical points, and also challenges us about our relationships. There…

  • Orwell was wrong

    —

    by

    Fred Rothganger
    in ,

    Among other things, 1984 is a mid-life crisis: Winston is a middle-aged man with declining health, estranged from his wife in a loveless marriage. He realizes that everything he built his life on is wrong, and goes on a journey to figure it out. Along the way he has an affair with a younger woman…

  • 1984 belongs to all of us

    —

    by

    Fred Rothganger
    in , ,

    I recently took the plunge and decided to read George Orwell’s 1984. Turns out that because I am a US citizen, I cannot have free access to 1984 until 2044! But that is only if Congress does not pass another law, extending copyright length yet again. I paid to read the book. Along with the…

  • Transcendence – Surprisingly intelligent

    —

    by

    Fred Rothganger
    in ,

    The trailers for Transcendence suggest a relentless action-thriller based on the premise that cybernetics eats your soul. The reviews are mixed. Some people on Rotten Tomatoes say that the movie lacks intellectual coherence. I was obligated to watch it since I am writing a series of novels on the general topic of Strong AI and…

  • Google owns my soul

    —

    by

    Fred Rothganger
    in

    There’s an old superstition that if someone can create an image of you, they have power over you, even to the extent of imprisoning your soul. In order to make this blog visible, I am taking the easy path. I let WordPress tie into my installation. And this morning I linked my G+ account, allowing…

  • Too much violence, not enough sex

    —

    by

    Fred Rothganger
    in ,

    My wife Crystal asked me how I would do Noah differently. There are three vices a writer may choose: profanity, violence, and sex. It seems Aronofsky falls squarely into the violence camp. One thing I learned from writing my first novel (SuSAn) is that I much prefer sex. Think about it! A small band of…