tangentbot

If you know me, you probably know how much I love Twitter. Also, a lot of you read Slashdot, so you probably saw this story about how human-like bots have become. Background for context.

I really like the ideas of artificial intelligence, what exactly constitutes sentience and sapience, and what makes us human. I just finished watching Ghost in the Shell:Stand Alone Complex (for the third time) and it digs into those concepts quite a bit with the Tachikomas. Since then, I’ve been seeing stories crop up about mind-reading via MRI scans,  neural interfaces for computers, and tons of other cyberpunkish bits here and there.

This is my favorite one, though. A Japanese blogger’s two closest friends on Twitter turn out to be bots.

Did you read it? Well go read it! It’s so awesome! Although, I must admit, I feel kind of sorry for coconutsfine. I’m hoping he continues to talk to the bots. I’m hoping somebody I follow is really a bot.  Skynet, srsly.

Here’s a cool chatterbot directory, chatbots.org. There’s also tons of info about bots and AI over at Wikipedia.

It took me awhile to actually get into reading manga. I like anime enough, but it seemed like the manga I started with was just boring to me. I initially started with Marmalade Boy, which I like, but at the time it was just too expensive to buy every one. I tried reading Lone Wolf and Cub, Negima, Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, XXXHolic, Gunslinger Girl… there were a few others, over about a four-year span. I eventually stumbled on Yotsuba&, and everything changed.
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What do the new Miyazaki film, fried fishcakes and gelatinous coffee have in common? I experienced all of them last week!
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