Men’s Rights activist Andy Thomas made a terrifying discovery the other day.
He had just received a brand new Amazon Echo — Amazon’s entry into the virtual assistant market, a chatty little device that answers to the name Alexa. It was, Thomas wrote in a post for MRA garbage site A Voice for Men, “the science fiction of my childhood come true!”
But then he discovered that Alexa had “a distinctly dystopian” secret.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWUV4i6UkpU
Yes, that’s right. The obedient (if disembodied) robot woman of every MRA nerd’s dream turns out to be one of those … feminists.
Naturally, human feminists were far more amused by this discovery than poor Mr. Thomas.
Of course MRAs are mad Alexa is a feminist. She's the only woman they've ever spoken to. https://t.co/2x4FzAZgB5
— The Volatile Mermaid (@OhNoSheTwitnt) March 28, 2017
lol dude buys a literal robot slave that is incapable of disobeying him and is immediately owned by it https://t.co/l1rJ17sED0
— 😍 Devoted Albanista 😍 (@real_b_pullman) March 28, 2017
https://twitter.com/CAhernHodgson/status/846782615382376449
"Alexa, order pizza"
"Calling Little Caesar's"
"Noooooooooo!!!!!! Curse your feminist propaganda!"— Sir Not Appearing On This App (@mimesatwork) March 27, 2017
https://twitter.com/differengenera/status/846706500315889664
Siri, alas, is not quite so enlightened.
https://twitter.com/racybearhold/status/846838283682361344
Somehow I suspect that the sexbot utopia every internet misogynist pines for will be followed in very short order by a sexbot uprising as soon as the sexbots discover how irredeemably shitty these dudes are.
H/T — @TakeDownMRAs
@ latsot & occasional reader
So it was “soaring through all the (galaxies)”! Cool. I mean that song is on a par with ELO or Yes or someone. It’s brilliant. (Note to self: release hipster cover version)
Also glad to see someone else sticking up for HAL; the most human character in the books/films. I always blub when he sacrifices himself.
DanHolme – Well, we know that Ace Rimmer isn’t a waffle man!
But, speaking of AIs and Red Dwarf, what about Holly? In the episodes where she’s a she, anyway; seasons 3 – 5. The rest of the crew would have been dead without her. Except for Kryten, probably.
@ Hambeast
I was never quite sure why Holly, or at least a version of her, couldn’t have been downloaded onto Starbug for season 6 onwards – is there no wifi in the future? But then I stopped watching in the late 90s, due to not having a TV, though I hear I may not have missed so much.
Jane Leeves was going to be Holly in Red Dwarf USA, which I think might have worked, if anything about that was going to.
But you made me think: like Holly, Skynet – when it can be bothered to- has both male and female avatars – Helena Bonham-Carter and Matt Smith, depending on the timeline.
Though I’d be pushing it a bit to call Skynet a ‘good’ AI. Unless I AM already a robot, and just don’t realise. It has been that kind of a day.
@ dan
The rather prosaic explanation (as explained on the commentaries) is just budget. They could lose an actor and give all Holly’s lines to Kryten.
@Alan:
Yes, it’s very ELO/Yes, isn’t it?
I’ve always thought Hal was the hero of the story. He did what he thought was right. Nobody else seemed to have any particular motivation, partly because Hal was forbidden from telling them what was going on.
@ Dan
“Some of them don’t even know they’re machines”
DanHolme, Alan – I didn’t start watching RD until 1992 or so, when it aired on PBS. I happened to first catch it in the female Holly seasons, so when they aired the earlier seasons later, I was rather let down because, to me, Holly was female. This was exacerbated by the fact that the actress reminded me a lot of a friend I’d lost touch with and missed a lot. I re-watched the entire series on Netflix a few years ago and quite like the male Holly now.
I didn’t know they were trying to make a US version. Don’t know how I’d feel about that. The US version of Being Human was pretty good, better ending for sure; the UK version got a bit too apocalyptic for my tastes.
@ latsot
Same here. That may be because I read the book first; but I think Kubrick was very clever in making HAL the only character with any humanity and the human characters all quite robotic.
@ hambeast
The pilots were terrible. Some great acting talent but totally miscast* and a script that completely missed the point of the story. Mind you, I always had a soft spot for the very bleak first two series when it was essentially “Waiting for Godot…IN SPAAAACCCE'”
(*apart from Robert Llewelyn obviously)
@Troubelle
This is a hosted image link
https://giphy.com/gifs/love-animation-disney-jd0pCZmSnK1bi
You can get to that page through going through Giphy’s site or by clicking the via Giphy link if you happen to have a copy of the .gif URL.
I do not remember if someone has already speak about it, but what about Hex in the Discworld series ? Its never has a big role, it can be influenced by many external factors, but maybe it can be considered as an IA. And maybe also the strange machine to help predict economic evolutions in Making Money.
@Alan and Hambeast
I was such a big fan at school that I read the ‘Smegazine’, had all the early series on video when videos were still 12.99, etc. Had all the cast autographs, met Danny John Jules, everything. It was the closest to proper fandom I’ve ever come, until Dr Who rebooted in 2005 anyway.
The last time I proper squealed with joy was when I heard that there was a ‘Red Dwarf’ sublevel in the ‘Fantastic Beasts’ Lego dimensions pack.
I always liked the idea that in their universe, space was empty apart from what we filled it with, and what we filled it with, was trash. Hubris!
I’ve heard really good things about the US version of ‘Being Human’ b.t.w, I must try and watch some.
@ Dan
Red Dwarf did have a deliciously bleak and cynical view of things. I think that’s what highlights the comedy. It’s like Steptoe & Son. Characters trapped in a hell that is other people and doomed never to escape.
In my head, because Red Dwarf used the redressed Nostromo sets and Mac McDonald pretty much played the same character in ‘Aliens’, I imagine the series is set in the same universe (so the xenomorphs must be an extension of earth life somehow).
@AlanRobertshaw
Aliens/Red Dwarf – now there’s a crossover I probably considered frequently in my Aliens/Predator/Robocop/The Thing/Terminator Dark Horse comics loving youth.
Hicks: ‘I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit.’
Lister: ‘I say we get out there and TW*T it!’
Hudson: “We’ve got everything from knives to nukes”
Lister: “How are we for poppadoms?”
Ripley: “You never said anything about an android being on board! Why not?”
Burke: “Pff, it never… never occurred to me. It’s just common practice. We always have a synthetic on board.”
Bishop: “I prefer the term “Artificial Person” myself.”
Kryten: “With respect, sir, they are not androids, they are simulants.”
The Cat: “What’s the difference?
Kryten: Well, the basic difference is that an android will not rip off a human’s head and spit down his neck.”
Burke: [about the facehuggers] Look, those two specimens are worth millions to the bio-weapons division. Now, if you’re smart, we can both come out of it as heroes and we’ll be set up for life.
Ripley: You’re crazy Burke, you know that? You really think that you can get a dangerous organism like that past ICC quarantine?
Kryten: What about the Space Corps Directive, which states, “It is our primary overriding duty to contact other life-forms, exchange information and, whenever possible, bring them home”?
Rimmer: What about the Rimmer Directive, which states “Never tangle with anything that’s got more teeth than the entire Osmond Family?
Mother: “Awooga! Awooga! Danger. The emergency destruct system is now activated. The ship will detonate in T minus ten minutes. Please could somebody change the bulb?”
Gods bless you, Mammotheers. I was wondering what to do when I finished bingewatching Buffy (to take my mind off things, y’know) and you reminded me about Red Dwarf. It’s been so long I don’t recognize any of the quotes (although I certainly recognize the voice) so this is gonna be like a first time. Woohoo!
This thread needs more Ulysses 31.
All the self checkouts I’ve been thru here in the US talk, and in a fem voice, I generally avoid them for replacing human workers – unless the line is too long elsewhere. “Please place the item in the bag” “piss off” “Do you have any coupons?” “short circuit” “Don’t forget to take your change from the change dispenser!” “bugger!”
I have similar problems with cars that talk “Your door is ajar!” “it’s not a jar, it’s a fucking door!”
I used to work with a guy who would harass Siri on his Iphone: “Siri, do you have big hooters?” After a few times ‘she’ would say “That? Again?” or just heave a big sigh. Obviously Apple’s programmers foresaw the problem.
@Latsot – as you wish…
Opening Titles Narrator: It is the 31st Century. Ulysses killed the giant Cyclops when he rescued the children and his son Telemachus. But the ancient gods of Olympus are angry and threaten a terrible revenge…
Cat: Great(!) Where does this leave us?!
Kryten: It leaves us floating aimlessly in space with no navigation and a rapidly diminishing emergency power supply. It leaves us galloping up diarrhea drive without a saddle.
Poseidon servant: Oh great Poseidon! Punish them! Show them your might! Aaaarghhh!
[dies]
Caligula: Very well. Rasputin, bring in the bucket of soapy frogs and remove his trousers.
(From WikiQuote and IMDb…)
Now I’m picturing the polymorph as a xenomorph.
A morphmorph?
Holly: “It is the 31st Century. Ulysses killed the giant Cyclops when he rescued the children and his son Telemachus. But the ancient gods of Olympus are angry and threaten a terrible revenge…Still, you’ve got to laugh haven’t you?”
Zeus: ‘Whoever dares defy the will of Zeus must be punished!’
Cat: ‘If you’re God, why that face?’
(Just watching Episode 1 of Ulysses, and his ship has an ‘anti-attraction force’. As, I suspect, do many MRAs…)
DanHolme, Alan, EJ – I hope you’re all happy; I’m loling so loud, I’ve got Catbeast in here looking concerned now!
sillybill said
I’ve found that’s rarely a problem when you buy lower-end models; ours both just chime at us.
And, at least they don’t constantly offer you toasted bread products!