[ExI] Beowulf

[Mike Dougherty]

On Nov 20, 2007 5:55 PM, Bryan Bishop <kanzure at gmail.com> wrote:
> It might be interesting if each of the actors start to invest the
> megabucks into digital avatars being created for them - mostly the
> audio - so that they can work on as many movies as they possibly want,
> i.e. selling a "package". Of course, they would have to be doing tens
> of movies at once to make it worthwhile (otherwise they could just
> speak into an audio setup at home and be done with it).

...and we'll be so sick of that actor's voice that they'll completely
devalue themselves in the process.

I see realistic rendering of voice signature going immediately into
fantasy worlds - You want to speak with Celebrity X?  For only $4.99 a
minute you can have a one-on-one chat with them.  Of course what
you're really talking to is a weak AI around a narrow topic base.  I'm
pretty sure there would even be a market for something as simple as
Eliza if it sounded like whatever famous person the caller wanted and
could "chat" using only the phone as an interface.  (simple speech
recognition input, voice generation output, basic Eliza engine in
between)

I recently had box seats for the Flyers/Rangers hockey game.  We're
sitting in this mega-million dollar stadium, surrounded with
technology to broadcast every detail to potentially millions of
viewers when I realized the absurdity of these grown men vying for
control of the puck.  They might have been apes literally using sticks
to keep control of a prized rock.  Then I realized our spectator
interests were no different than viewing gladiators in the Coloseum.
Despite our advancements, humanity is generally the same pack of
animals it always has been.  I guess that's good or bad depending on
how to see it.