You're looking at Less Wrong's discussion board. This includes all posts, including those that haven't been promoted to the front page yet. For more information, see About Less Wrong.

[LINK] Transcendence (2014) -- A movie about "technological singularity"

8 Post author: shminux 21 March 2013 04:51PM

Transcendence is an upcoming movie, starring Johnny Depp:

Two leading computer scientists work toward their goal of Technological Singularity, as a radical anti-technology organization fights to prevent them from creating a world where computers can transcend the abilities of the human brain.

It could be fun to speculate what the spin will be and how many standard pitfalls they will hit. I also wonder which side I would be rooting for. From the scarce descriptions available, it does not seem to be based on the idea of recursive self-improvement, but rather on mind uploading.

Comments (20)

Comment author: RomeoStevens 22 March 2013 12:09:41AM 5 points [-]

High concept sci-fi regularly goes from pre-production to the trash bin, wake me when principal photography gets started.

Comment author: Elithrion 22 March 2013 12:22:29AM 2 points [-]

Shooting is apparently scheduled to start April, so you probably don't have long to wait.

Comment author: RomeoStevens 22 March 2013 12:35:59AM 0 points [-]

without a director?

Comment author: Elithrion 22 March 2013 12:38:15AM 2 points [-]

Imdb lists Wally Pfister as director. The shooting date is also from its Q&A thing.

Comment author: RomeoStevens 22 March 2013 01:30:40AM 0 points [-]

awww crap, cinematography was a huge glaring weakness of Nolan's films. This does not bode well.

Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 22 March 2013 02:38:38AM 8 points [-]

This never boded well in the first place.

Comment author: ESRogs 02 January 2014 12:56:13AM 0 points [-]

Why do you say? Are you expecting this to be a net negative contribution to the public consciousness of AI risk?

Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 02 January 2014 01:10:57AM 2 points [-]

I'll be very surprised if it's not.

Comment author: chaosmage 07 January 2014 05:42:46PM 3 points [-]

The trailer includes a sequence where some nanotech wizardry starts to devour things in order to build hardware, so this isn't a movie about the fate of just a few people like The Lawnmower Man, but talks about the end of the world in earnest.

At least one of the people behind the movie expects superintelligence to be "likely to happen in our lifetimes" and got Ben Goertzel involved somewhere in the sidelines.

Have you taken these points in account in your prediction?

Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 08 January 2014 02:21:28AM 1 point [-]

They do not alter it.

Comment author: gmaxwell 21 April 2014 07:19:28AM 0 points [-]

Now that the movie is out, how would you rate your prediction in hindsight?

Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 21 April 2014 05:44:41PM 0 points [-]

I haven't seen the movie and have no intention of seeing it, but from others' reviews I'd rate it as correct.

Comment author: [deleted] 22 March 2013 04:42:44AM *  1 point [-]

Really? I think it's the only reliably good thing about them. He reminds me of M. Night Shyamalan in that way.

Comment author: atucker 21 March 2013 05:38:58PM 9 points [-]

Given that Johnny Depp appears to be on the Singularity side (as the uploaded human), I suspect that they'll be portrayed sympathetically, even if the ending isn't exactly happy.

Comment author: Elithrion 21 March 2013 06:02:31PM 3 points [-]

Apparently an early script summary leaked. Spoilers:

Nppbeqvat gb gur fhzznel, n tebhc bs nagv-grpuabybtl greebevfgf nffnffvangr Jvyy, Riryla hcybnqf uvf oenva vagb n cebgbglcr fhcrepbzchgre. Nygubhtu fur ng svefg svaqf gur rkcrevzrag frrzf gb unir tbar jebat, orsber gbb ybat Riryla svaqf Jvyy erfcbaqvat va pbzchgre sbez.

Fur tbrf ba gb pbaarpg Jvyy gb gur Vagrearg fb ur pna uryc znxr shegure fpvragvsvp oernxguebhtuf. Jvyy nfxf Riryla gb pbaarpg n zvpebcubar naq n pnzren hc gb gur pbzchgre fb ur pna frr naq fcrnx gb ure nf jryy.

Jvyy perngrf n onpxhc bs uvzfrys gb rirel pbzchgre va gur jbeyq, naq sheguref uvf jbex guebhtu npprffvat bayvar vaqrkrf. (Xbfbir gbyq GurJenc guvf cybg cbvag vf ab ybatre va gur fpevcg.) Jura gur nagv-grpuabybtl betnavmngvba svaqf bhg, gurl gel gb fgrny gur fhcrepbzchgre naq qrfgebl vg, ohg Jvyy ab ybatre arrqf gur pbzchgre gb fheivir.

Comment author: Vaniver 21 March 2013 09:33:13PM 1 point [-]

Fb, guvf fhzznel fbhaqf n ybg gb zr yvxr Tubfg va gur Furyy.

Comment author: Cthulhoo 22 March 2013 08:34:53AM 2 points [-]

Be gur ynjazbjre zna.

Comment author: MichaelHoward 22 March 2013 01:14:52PM 1 point [-]

Be gur svefg rcvfbqr bs Znk Urnqebbz...

Comment author: lukeprog 21 March 2013 07:16:46PM *  0 points [-]

Chris Nolan is executive producer.

Comment author: ESRogs 02 January 2014 12:53:31AM 1 point [-]