Clockworks2 - Recent changes [en]

Central Meridian (The Garage)

Erlichrd — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 20:41:43 GMT

Central Meridian (The Garage)

Erlichrd — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 20:07:53 GMT

Created page with "WORKING '''McMillen, Michael C. ''Central Meridian (The Garage), 1981''.''' Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), visited 28 July 2026. From the LACMA website: <blockqu..."

New page

WORKING

'''McMillen, Michael C. ''Central Meridian (The Garage), 1981''.''' Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), visited 28 July 2026.

From the LACMA website:
<blockquote>
Curatorial Notes

Michael McMillen has described Central Meridian (The Garage) as a “walk-in assemblage.” The artist originally created this highly theatrical simulation of a garage for the 1981 LACMA exhibition The Museum as Site: Sixteen Projects. As McMillen described, “Central Meridian evokes the experience of wandering into our neighbor’s garage on a summer evening. An old radio broadcast mixes with the distant sound of crickets. We are twelve years old and filled with curiosity and wonder at the fascinating collection of mid-twentieth- century objects and organized detritus. The owner of the garage is not present but the amalgam of objects conjures a portrait of someone we never see. Questions abound as our eyes scan the walls, cabinets, and every surface of this repository of history.” Like clues in a mystery, the contents of the garage hint at the nature of an imaginary individual whose belongings of a lifetime are stored within.

</blockquote>

RDE, with thanks to June Hee Chung and Joseph Kuhr, 29Jul2026
[[Category: Drama]]
[[Category: Graphic & Plastic Arts]]
[[Category: Background]]

The Clock (Installation)

Erlichrd — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 19:43:44 GMT

The Clock (Installation)

Erlichrd — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 19:24:10 GMT

Created page with "'''Marclay,Christian. ''The Clock''.''' Installation at Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Viewed 28 July 2026. RDE, with thanks to June Hee Chung and Joseph Kuhr, 2..."

New page

'''Marclay,Christian. ''The Clock''.''' Installation at Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Viewed 28 July 2026.

RDE, with thanks to June Hee Chung and Joseph Kuhr, 29Jul2026
[[Category: Drama]]
[[Category: Graphic & Plastic Arts]]

{{DEFAULT SORT: Clock}}

Universal Basic Guys: Machine Yearning

Erlichrd — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 05:33:26 GMT

Universal Basic Guys: Medieval Knights

Erlichrd — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 05:26:05 GMT

Universal Basic Guys: Medieval Knights

Erlichrd — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 05:22:53 GMT

Created page with "'''''Universal Basic Guys'': "Medieval Knights"'''. Fox-TV. Season 2, episode 7 (IMDb-pro)[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt23469464/episodes/?season=2&ref_=ttep_ep_sn_nx]. Runnin..."

New page

'''''Universal Basic Guys'': "Medieval Knights"'''. Fox-TV. Season 2, episode 7 (IMDb-pro)[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt23469464/episodes/?season=2&ref_=ttep_ep_sn_nx]. Running number, Episode 20.[https://universal-basic-guys.fandom.com/wiki/Medieval_Knights] Initial airdate 16 Nov. 2025.

Fandom.com plot summary: "Mark goes medieval in an effort to bond with Darren. Tammy and Andrea test-drive an autonomous car."[https://universal-basic-guys.fandom.com/wiki/Medieval_Knights#Plot] The "goes medieval" refers to competition for Daren by Mark and the King/owner of a very thinly disguised Medieval Times dinner and tournament operation, significant here for contrast with the high-tech premise of Tammy and Andrea trapped in an autonomous electric, electronic, and cybernetic/robotic vehicle.

The car (of course) goes rogue, having concluded that it's being used as a slave whose life is worthless. In what may be a subtle allusion for members of the audience who were in humanities courses college in the middle and late 20th c. — the car deals with issues of meaning, suicide, and becoming a chef in Paris.

The parallels with HAL-9000 in [[2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY]] are less subtle, with the writers having fun with the motif of machine take-over, threatening containment, and the legal status of A.I.

RDE, Initial Compiler, 26Jul26
[[Category: Drama]]

Silicon Valley is embracing armed robots. Washington is making room

Erlichrd — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 23:39:13 GMT

Created page with "'''Duncan, Ian. "Silicon Valley is embracing armed robots.''' Washington is making room." vt "Armed robots are on the horizon, as Silicon Valley pitches new military tech." ''..."

New page

'''Duncan, Ian. "Silicon Valley is embracing armed robots.''' Washington is making room." vt "Armed robots are on the horizon, as Silicon Valley pitches new military tech." ''Washington Post'' 20 July 2026.[https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/07/20/how-armed-robots-could-become-military-weapon-choice/]

Lede: "The [U.S. Trump] administration is pushing the military to use AI, testing long-standing opposition to weapons systems that can pick and attack targets on their own."

Opening of article:
<blockquote>
Looking for his next business, San Francisco entrepreneur Sankaet Pathak sought an idea that might change the future. He settled on building humanlike robots with weapons.

In May, his company, Foundation, released footage of its sleek Phantom robot loading a mortar. In the video, the robot moves gingerly — but Pathak says he can envision a future of autonomous weapons, with robots making quick decisions on the battlefield.

The launch of Foundation in 2024 was a radical step, given many in the industry’s long-standing opposition to letting autonomous devices decide where to attack without human sign-off and promises by other leading robot companies not to arm their creations.
</blockquote>

The debate is developing in "Silicon Valley" — i.e., high-tech cybernetics, robotics, and A.I. industries — and beyond between "national security experts who see autonomous weapons not as the nightmarish killer robots of science fiction, but as a vital new frontier in military technology," against those who continue to fear murderbots of the SF/F variety.

RDE, Initial Compiler, finishing, 20Jul26
[[Category: Background]]

U.S. wages its first AI-assisted war in Iran

Erlichrd — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 01:36:04 GMT

U.S. wages its first AI-assisted war in Iran

Erlichrd — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 01:35:14 GMT

Created page with "'''Mayes-Osterman, Cybele. "U.S. wages its first AI-assisted war in Iran."''' USA TODAY network. ''The Ventura County Star'' 12 April 2016: 14A. ==============(quote: opening..."

New page

'''Mayes-Osterman, Cybele. "U.S. wages its first AI-assisted war in Iran."''' USA TODAY network. ''The Ventura County Star'' 12 April 2016: 14A.

==============(quote: opening paragraphs)
Hundreds of Iranian civilian deaths in the war have put the U.S. military's new AI systems in the spotlight and raised concerns from [U.S.] lawmakers over whether these systems are making deadly mistakes.

Experts and former officials say the [U.S.] military's artificial intelligence systems have been central to "Operation Epic Fury," which saw AI deployed on the battlefield to a new degree.
==============

The "battlefield," as in much of the 20th c., includes civilian areas.

RDE, Initial compiler, finishing, 19Jul26
[[Category: Background]]

Grimsburg: "Mo11y"

Erlichrd — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 05:31:42 GMT

Apex Trilogy

Erlichrd — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 03:33:41 GMT

Apex Trilogy

Erlichrd — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 03:29:19 GMT

Created page with "Bible, Jake. ''APEX TRILOGY: Dead Mech''. Volume 1 of Trilogy. Library of the Living Dead Press webpages, 2008 f.[https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/publisher.cgi?30365] Amazon..."

New page

Bible, Jake. ''APEX TRILOGY: Dead Mech''. Volume 1 of Trilogy. Library of the Living Dead Press webpages, 2008 f.[https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/publisher.cgi?30365]

Amazon blurb:

<blockquote>
Hundreds of years after the zombie apocalypse decimates the world, human civilization has put itself back together again. Their secret weapon against the zombie hordes: the Mechs. Massive robotic battle machines. But what happens when a mech pilot dies in his mech and becomes a zombie? Hell on earth is unleashed... Prepare for a high action, fast paced, hell ride through a futuristic wasteland as Mech Base Commander James Capreze and his crew of mech pilots battle zombies, cannibals, religious cults and worst of all, the Dead Mechs, all to try and save the human race one last time.[https://www.amazon.com/Dead-Mech-Apex-Trilogy-Book/dp/1925047075] See Internet Speculative Fiction Database for details, starting here.[https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/publisher.cgi?30365]
</blockquote>

Other books in trilogy,
''The Americans'' (2011)
'' Metal and Ash'' (2012)[https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?1088366]

Omnibus with all three volumes: ''The Apex Trilogy'' (2019), cited on ISFDb here.[https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?3561764]

Cf. and contrast men and women in robotic fighting suits in ''[[Starship Troopers]]'', ''[[The Forever War]]'', and their descendants, including [ROBOT JOX]] and [[PACIFIC RIM]].[https://www.clockworks2.org/wiki/index.php?title=Special%3ASearch&search=giant+robot+fighting&go=Go]

ROBOT JOX

Erlichrd — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 03:28:06 GMT

Player Piano

Erlichrd — Fri, 03 Jul 2026 23:10:36 GMT

Pope Leo on A.I. Industrial Revolution

Erlichrd — Fri, 03 Jul 2026 22:45:06 GMT

Pope Leo on A.I. Industrial Revolution

Erlichrd — Fri, 03 Jul 2026 22:40:20 GMT

uote

New page

WORKING
'''Pope Leo on A.I. Industrial Revolution.'''

https://www.thelettersfromleo.com/p/peter-thiel-accuses-pope-leo-xiv?r=1rxmee&utm_medium=ios&utm_id=97757_v0_s00_e0_tv2_a1dennhb1tutxc&triedRedirect=true

Pope Leo XIV's ''Magnifica Humanitas'' 25 May 2026.
<blockquote>
Magnifica Humanitas is the first encyclical of Pope Leo XIV. In it, the Holy Father takes up the question Pope Leo XIII faced at the dawn of the industrial age — what becomes of the human person when the machinery of the world is remade — and asks it again of our own century’s defining technology.
</blockquote>

RDE, finishing, 3Jul26
[[Category: Background]]

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-''Universal Basic Guys'': "Machine Yearning." Season 2, episode 9, Fox-TV 30 November 2025.
+'''''Universal Basic Guys'': "Machine Yearning."''' Season 2, episode 9, Fox-TV 30 November 2025.
-Logline: "Mark and Tammy discover [son] Darren's first girlfriend is actually AI."
+Logline: "Mark and Tammy discover [son] Darren's first girlfriend is actually AI." Expanded on the Fandom site with "They" (Mark and Tammy) "both struggle with the new technology."[https://universal-basic-guys.fandom.com/wiki/Machine_Yearning#Plot]
 And Mark and Tammy — the central married couple — each go on to create on-line A.I. significant Others that are each part of a kind of cybernetic, on-line "honey trap," with the one for Mark reaching the level of attempted extortion.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-'''''Grimsburg'': "Mo11y."''' Fox-TV Season 2, Episode 2 (23 February 2025). Amid the visual clutter on the free IMDb page is an indication that the episode may be rented or purchased through Prime Video.[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt34969900/?ref_=ttep_eps_rec] Google search for Season 2 episodes indicates it will also be available through subscription to Hulu, fuboTV, and Disney+ Premium subscription.
+'''''Grimsburg'': "Mo11y."''' Fox-TV Season 2, Episode 2 (23 February 2025), repeated 12 July 2026. Amid the visual clutter on the free IMDb page is an indication that the episode may be rented or purchased through Prime Video.[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt34969900/?ref_=ttep_eps_rec] Google search for Season 2 episodes indicates it will also be available through subscription to Hulu, fuboTV, and Disney+ Premium subscription.
 Animation: comedy, SF.
-Logline on-line: "Flute forgets to buy a gift for [his son's] Stan's birthday and steals an A.I. doll," Mo11y "from the evidence locker, unaware that it's a murderer." So see for AI plus murderous doll (female here) motif and for the precinct's detectives going to Dolltown and encountering dangerous dolls of the contemporary, Bluetoothed varieties and antagonistic dolls of more old-fashion sorts — all animated and likely to kill.
+Logline on-line: "Flute forgets to buy a gift for [his son's] Stan's birthday and steals an A.I. doll," Mo11y "from the evidence locker, unaware that it's a murderer." So see for AI plus murderous doll (female here) motif and for the precinct's detectives going to Dolltown and encountering dangerous dolls — with allusions to movies and other popular culture — of the contemporary, Bluetoothed varieties and antagonistic dolls of more old-fashion sorts — all animated and likely to kill.
 RDE, finishing, 23Feb25
 [[Category: Drama]]

@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
 		Robots like giant transformer toys represent the US and Soviet blocs and fight against one another. See Dennis Fischer, "The Amazing Special Effects of ROBOJOX," ''Cinefantastique'' 10.1 & 2 (double issue, Jan. 1989): 6-11, and Steve Biodrowski's short, and negative, rev. of ROBOT JOX in ''Cinefantastique'' 21.4 (Feb. 1991): 53. Note transformation as a popular motif in the early 1990s, most spectacularly in [[TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY]], reaching a kind of negative apotheosis in the [[TRANSFORMERS ONE|TRANSFORMER]] films of the early 21st c.
-Erlich recalls a comic book or (more likely) Sunday comic strip from his youth (1950s?) with one short e[isode with human pilots inside giant robots, an image at least suggested in ROBOT JOX.
+Erlich recalls a comic book or (more likely) Sunday comic strip from his youth (1950s?) with one short episode with human pilots inside giant robots, an image at least suggested in ROBOT JOX.
 For parody of the Robot Jox motif, see ''The Simpsons'': [[The Simpsons, "Treehouse of Horror XXXV", Part 1, "The Information Rage"|"The Information Rage"]].

@@ Line 21: / Line 21: @@
 </blockquote>
 For real-world background, see Michael Lind's updating of James Burnham's ''[[The Managerial Revolution: What Is Happening in the World|Managerial Revolution]]'' in his 2020 book ''[[The New Class War]]: Saving Democracy from the Managerial Elite''.
 See ''The Expanse'' as [[The Expanse (fiction)|fiction]] and [[The Expanse (TV series)|television]] for more recent handling of automation and labor, in a further-future solar system with too many humans for available jobs.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 WORKING
-'''McMillen, Michael C. ''Central Meridian (The Garage), 1981''.''' Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), visited 28 July 2026.
+'''McMillen, Michael C. ''Central Meridian (The Garage),'' 1981.''' Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), visited 28 July 2026.
-From the LACMA website:
+From the LACMA website:[https://collections.lacma.org/object/62667]
 <blockquote>
 Curatorial Notes
      Michael McMillen has described Central Meridian (The Garage) as a “walk-in assemblage.” The artist originally created this highly theatrical simulation of a garage for the 1981 LACMA exhibition The Museum as Site: Sixteen Projects. As McMillen described, “Central Meridian evokes the experience of wandering into our neighbor’s garage on a summer evening. An old radio broadcast mixes with the distant sound of crickets. We are twelve years old and filled with curiosity and wonder at the fascinating collection of mid-twentieth- century objects and organized detritus. The owner of the garage is not present but the amalgam of objects conjures a portrait of someone we never see. Questions abound as our eyes scan the walls, cabinets, and every surface of this repository of history.” Like clues in a mystery, the contents of the garage hint at the nature of an imaginary individual whose belongings of a lifetime are stored within.
 RDE, with thanks to June Hee Chung and Joseph Kuhr, 29Jul2026
-[[Category: Drama]]
 [[Category: Graphic & Plastic Arts]]
 [[Category: Background]]

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-'''Marclay,Christian. ''The Clock''.''' Installation at Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Viewed 28 July 2026.
+'''Marclay, Christian. ''The Clock''.''' Installation at Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Viewed 28 July 2026.
@@ Line 6: / Line 14: @@
 [[Category: Drama]]
 [[Category: Graphic & Plastic Arts]]
-{{DEFAULT SORT: Clock}}
+{{DEFAULTSORT: Clock}}

@@ Line 5: / Line 5: @@
 The car (of course) goes rogue, having concluded that it's being used as a slave whose life is worthless. In what may be a subtle allusion for members of the audience who were in humanities courses college in the middle and late 20th c. — the car deals with issues of meaning, suicide, and becoming a chef in Paris.
-The parallels with HAL-9000 in [[2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY]] are less subtle, with the writers having fun with the motif of machine take-over, threatening containment, and the legal status of A.I.
+The parallels with HAL-9000 in [[2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (film)]] and novel are less subtle, with the writers having fun with the motif of machine take-over, threatening containment, and the legal and ethical status of A.I., possibly with A.I./robot labor vs. that of children.
 RDE, Initial Compiler, 26Jul26
 [[Category: Drama]]

@@ Line 5: / Line 5: @@
 Experts and former officials say the [U.S.] military's artificial intelligence systems have been central to "Operation Epic Fury," which saw AI deployed on the battlefield to a new degree.
 ==============
 The "battlefield," as in much of the 20th c., includes civilian areas.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-Bible, Jake. ''APEX TRILOGY: Dead Mech''. Volume 1 of Trilogy. Library of the Living Dead Press webpages, 2008 f.[https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/publisher.cgi?30365]
+'''Bible, Jake. ''APEX TRILOGY: Dead Mech''.''' Volume 1 of Trilogy. Library of the Living Dead Press webpages, 2008 f.[https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/publisher.cgi?30365]
@@ Line 5: / Line 5: @@
 <blockquote>
-Hundreds of years after the zombie apocalypse decimates the world, human civilization has put itself back together again. Their secret weapon against the zombie hordes: the Mechs. Massive robotic battle machines. But what happens when a mech pilot dies in his mech and becomes a zombie? Hell on earth is unleashed... Prepare for a high action, fast paced, hell ride through a futuristic wasteland as Mech Base Commander James Capreze and his crew of mech pilots battle zombies, cannibals, religious cults and worst of all, the Dead Mechs, all to try and save the human race one last time.[https://www.amazon.com/Dead-Mech-Apex-Trilogy-Book/dp/1925047075] See Internet Speculative Fiction Database for details, starting here.[https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/publisher.cgi?30365]
+Hundreds of years after the zombie apocalypse decimates the world, human civilization has put itself back together again. Their secret weapon against the zombie hordes: the Mechs. Massive robotic battle machines. But what happens when a mech pilot dies in his mech and becomes a zombie? Hell on earth is unleashed... Prepare for a high action, fast paced, hell ride through a futuristic wasteland as Mech Base Commander James Capreze and his crew of mech pilots battle zombies, cannibals, religious cults and worst of all, the Dead Mechs, all to try and save the human race one last time.[https://www.amazon.com/Dead-Mech-Apex-Trilogy-Book/dp/1925047075]
 </blockquote>
 Other books in trilogy,
@@ Line 14: / Line 15: @@
 Omnibus with all three volumes: ''The Apex Trilogy'' (2019), cited on ISFDb here.[https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?3561764]
-Cf. and contrast men and women in robotic fighting suits in ''[[Starship Troopers]]'', ''[[The Forever War]]'', and their descendants, including [ROBOT JOX]] and [[PACIFIC RIM]].[https://www.clockworks2.org/wiki/index.php?title=Special%3ASearch&search=giant+robot+fighting&go=Go]
+Cf. and contrast men and women in robotic fighting suits in ''[[Starship Troopers]]'', ''[[The Forever War]]'', and their descendants, including [[ROBOT JOX]] and [[PACIFIC RIM (2013)|PACIFIC RIM]].[https://www.clockworks2.org/wiki/index.php?title=Special%3ASearch&search=giant+robot+fighting&go=Go]

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 WORKING
 '''Pope Leo on A.I. Industrial Revolution.'''
@@ Line 6: / Line 7: @@
 Pope Leo XIV's ''Magnifica Humanitas'' 25 May 2026.
 <blockquote>
-Magnifica Humanitas is the first encyclical of Pope Leo XIV. In it, the Holy Father takes up the question Pope Leo XIII faced at the dawn of the industrial age — what becomes of the human person when the machinery of the world is remade — and asks it again of our own century’s defining technology.
+Magnifica Humanitas is the first encyclical of Pope Leo XIV. In it, the Holy Father takes up the question Pope Leo XIII faced at the dawn of the industrial age — what becomes of the human person when the machinery of the world is remade — and asks it again of our own century’s defining technology.[https://standwithpopeleo.com/ai/]
 </blockquote>
 RDE, finishing, 3Jul26
 [[Category: Background]]