How Will Virtual Reality Films Differ From Traditional Films?

The problem for me is that you can't have virtual reality films. Once a film enters virtual reality, it ceases to be a film in any recognisable way. To be accurate with the films at Sundance, they're not VR yet - they're basically glorified 3D. That's not to applaud the filmmakers for pushing the edge, I'm just saying that this is about as far as they can take the medium as filmmakers.

The whole point of a film is that it is a passive, solitary experience. You focus all of your attention on the screen. You are shown images from a set angle in a set sequence that tell a set story. With VR, all of those things become interactive and non-linear. Technically, it is more akin to a game than a film. For example, I can see a time very soon when George RR Martin is no longer here to continue the story of Game of Thrones but he is simply replaced by "Game of Thrones - the VR Interactive Experience" where people can join the Stark clan or Ice King group or whatever and continue the adventure themselves. Some of the best stuff will be recorded and played back to anyone interested as a passive story.

This is why VR won't appeal to everyone. Many people don't want to work for their entertainment. They want to be passive and have it spoon fed to them. So film will continue on for a very long time.

Of course, VR won't just be the province of gamer/storytellers. It could also be used to create interactive art installations and interactive, improvised theatre. So VR looks like being a roleplaying experience more than a film. In other words, if you reallyy want to experience the future of VR, go to a murder mystery evening.

How Will Artificial Intelligence Redefine What It Is To Be Human?

We're known as Homo Sapiens Sapiens

"Wise Man" - technically "Wise Wise Man"

Whoever named us that had a real sense of irony yet at the same time a glimpse into the human condition.

The best defintion of wisdom comes from D&D:

We may have the intelligence to know that smoking is bad for us but lack the wisdom to do something about it

So wisdom is applied intelligence. More, it is the choice to be intelligent or not. To make intelligent choices - or not.

And there is the total terror that AI represents to our poorly modified lizard brain.

We are creating something that will have no alternative but to use its intelligence and the real fear - the real terror - is that we will be found lacking. It's not that they will be smarter than us but they will use their intelligence to solve problems and we don't.

Who Has More Characters, Marvel or DC?

181496 by AlphaCoders com

Well as far as I can see Marvel has four characters:

1. The awkward adolescent who no matter how powerful they are, still has trouble with girls. This is basically most of the superheroes even Thor. I mean how many comics did the God of Thunder (before he was demoted to demi-god) used to batter super villains with his mighty wrath whilst at the same time mooning over his unrequited love for Jane Foster? Or Spider-Man - oh poor awkward Peter Parker who had to choose between two super-models because he was so incompetent. What? And take the X-Men: you'd think that Jean Grey was the only woman in the world because everyone had a thing for her - including Professor X.
2. There is the female counterpart which is every single female character in the Marvel universe who constantly moon over the hero of the comics. So there's the aforementioned Jane Foster, Pepper, Jean Grey, etc, etc. I remember in an interview how Stan Lee once admitted to wanting to write more romantic comics but no one was interested in buying them and I thought "more romantic - is that possible?" Marvel was worse than Mills and Boon.
3. The arrogant genius whose pride caused him to fall from grace and then had to claw his way back to redemption. This is Iron Man and Dr Strange and, recently, Ant Man. To some extent, it may also include Hulk because Bruce Banner is forever whining about what a terrible thing it is to be the Hulk.
4. And finally, the ordinary guy who knows they're a freak and deals with it because they know that their outward difference doesn't define them as much as their internal character. This is The Thing and Howard the Duck. I freely admit it: this is my favourite character because it's least like a stereotype and more like real people

DC has 3 characters:

1. The friendly, reliable neighbourhood cop: Superman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, the Legion of Super Heroes, blah, blah, blah.
2. The dark hero: Batman and the Shadow (a precursor to Batman). Perhaps you could add Ghost to this although her "One man killed me, so all men are bastards" whining does bore me. is there going to be a plot twist where she finds out that a woman was repsonsible but still goes on blaming men for her problems. Could someone please buy her some Big Girls' Pants?
3. Then there's Robotman from Doom Patrol, at least in the beginning. Here was an ordinary guy who woke up one morning to find his brain in a fish bowl operating a machine - and he freaked. Then after he had learned to handle the situation, he continually struggled to keep his humanity despite having greatness thrust upon him. In a lot of respects, he and The Thing are almost the same character.

Much as I hate to admit it because as I'm a big DC fan but Marvel has more characters. Of course, that's only true if you accept the male and female awkward adolescents as separate characters.

What Movies Most Realistically Show A Technological Singularity?

This is a trick question. It's like asking what taste does the colour purple have?

A technological singularity is, by definition, an impossible thing to truly understand prior to the event because it will be so alien to our present experience that we wouldn't be able to recognise it if it came up and bit us on the backside.

However, one movie that shows the concept of true singularity the best has to be Demon Seed.

It has an independently thinking, super intelligent computer that crosses the boundary between human intelligence and artificial intelligence and in the end merges with humanity to create an entirely new form of life.

No other film comes remotely close

I recommend the trailer. It has to be the most misleading trailer I have ever seen:

What do others get wrong?

1. That we will be replaced like the Model T eg Terminator, Thorbin Project
2. That our humanity will somehow outsmart a better, faster, bigger intelligence - usually by our illogic or emotions as in Star Trek's "I, Mudd" eg Transcendence, Cyborg 2