Summer Wars, the acclaimed new anime I mentioned last month, is about a virtual world called OZ which the director, Mamoru Hosoda, acknowledges has deep parallels with Second Life. Here's a perfect example of that: In the movie, one of the heroes is a lanky furry called King Kazma, and a dangerous, sentient AI within OZ is named... wait for it... Love Machine. Here's Kazma confronting Love Machine, he of mouse ears and toothy grin:
I wonder if Hosoda got the idea to call it Love Machine after reading about Second Life founder Philip Rosedale's plans to create a sentient AI in SL, which is being built by his new company, called (oh yes) LoveMachine. Here's a bit more about the Love Machine of Summer Wars from the Wikipedia page (possible spoilers ahead):
Love Machine, an artificial intelligence running in the OZ mainframe... continues to steal accounts, and hack into car navigation systems and other computer mainframes... [then] assimilates more accounts and causes it to grow into an immense botnet, before redirecting Arawashi, an orbiting satellite, on a collision course with a nuclear power plant.
On the off chance he's successful at creating what another Second Life founder half-jokingly called "Skynet", I hope Philip watches this movie first.
Hat tip: Fallon Winnfield.
Glad I'm not easily brain washed lol, though I'm definitely adding this to my DVD wish list.
Posted by: King Kazma | Tuesday, January 11, 2011 at 07:47 AM
I'm pretty sure that's some kind of asset server they're running around, too. (all those random objects on the shelves.) :P
Posted by: Adeon Writer | Tuesday, January 11, 2011 at 09:59 AM
Oz is basically what the hype of 2007 expected SL to become by now. A virtual world where the worlds structure is maintained by out sourced code monkeys. Where people use it every day to complete tasks such as do bank transactions and paying taxes. Where businesses can connect to peoples avatars. and its all available through your phone. No SIM boarders.
I love the variety of Avatars, this is an awesome film.
Posted by: Loki | Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 05:02 AM