Review of Mechanical By Bruno Flexer

Well, let's be honest about it. Being an author usually sucks but there are a few shining moments that make it all worth it.

A review of my book Mechanical by a reader over there at the United Kingdom:
"An excellent read from beginning to an unexpected twist at the end...original, thought provoking and unusually I have lost some nights sleep unable to put this down....it leaves an open door for more....let it be so!"

Link To Review

An author writes for his readers, naturally, and good feedback is the real reward for the countless sleepless nights the author had invested in any one of his books.
Thank you, Alfred J. A. Irons !

Link to Mechanical
Link to Dragon Over Washington

Superman - From Bad To Worse

We've already discussed here the possibilities for evil inherent in that alien monster (actually, that's a technical term that Superman fulfills nicely), Superman.

So, let's explore some of those instances where the threat was fulfilled and Superman went on a rampage, exposing his real (?) evil side.

Let's start with the Justice Lords, an alternate dimension version of the Justice League. There, the superpowered members of the Justice League, led by Superman, rule Earth with an iron fist. Just to be clear on the subject, that version of Superman fried Lex Luthor with his heat vision and then proceeded to take over the Earth, coincidently lobotomizing everyone who stood in his way, various supervillains included.

In the game Injustice Gods Among Us, Superman is tricked into killing Lois Lane and then really goes on a rampage, freely killing everyone who stands in his way to the new world order he creates.

 Moving on.

Superboy Prime is another alternate version of Superman from another dimension. Although starting off as good, a combination of circumstances made him turn to evil and he became one of the evil and most powerful supervillans that ever plagued the DC multiverse.

In the animated Superman series, Darksied captured Superman and brainwashed him, putting him at the head of his armies and sending him to rampge across the Galaxy, conquering planets in a spree of wanton destruction that ended on Earth.

In The Call episodes of Batman Beyond, Superman is being mind controlled by the alien Starro. Under his control, Superman tried to murder his Justice League friends and attacks batman beyond himself.

In the animated movie Superman Doomsday, Lex Luthor clones Superman and tried to control the clone, using red sun radiation and kryptonite. But the close breaks out of Luthor's control and then immediately starts to rampage (sounds familiar?), killing everyone who stands in his way, including the villain Toy Man and directly confronts the army, shooting planes and helicopters out of the skies and burning tanks with impunity.

Last but not least, in the animated movie Superman vs The Elite, in the final battle scene, Superman apparently turns evil, to put it simply, and destroys the Elite members one by one, showing ruthlessness that would put more than one super villain to shame. At the end, it is shown to be only a ruse and Superman stays good, but you can only wonder at the ease and the absolute commitment with which he played evil. One cannot help but think he enjoyed it.

In conclusion, what do we have here? An alien being who turns to evil so many times on so many occasions, that we can only wonder at those times he didn't turn to evil. True, some of those times he was brainwashed or cloned or was from another dimension but still, you cannot but wonder at the depth of evil he could reach and did reach on so many occasions.

סדר בחדר - סידור ארונות, חדרים ובתים

That evil alien monster - Superman!

Well, not what you were expecting, isn't it? But let's look at things the way they really are. Let's take a hard long look at that Kryptonian living inside the pages of DC Comics, Superman.

We all know that he is an alien, don't we? Came to us 33 years ago from the planet Krypton according to the Man Of Steel movie , he has lived in our midst for all his life. But still, he is an alien and not a human being.
Keep this in mind.

Now, is he really evil? Let's come back to this in a moment.

Is he a monster?
"A monster is any creature, usually found in legends or horror fiction, that is often hideous and may produce fear or physical harm by its appearance and/or its actions. The word "monster" derives from Latin monstrum, an aberrant occurrence, usually biological, that was taken as a sign that something was wrong within the natural order.^" From Wikipedia.

Okay. So Superman is really a monster. Although not hideous, he MAY produce fear AND physical harm by his actions. He really is an aberrant biological occurrence considering his alien origin. And nothing of Earth's natural order applies to him.

Lets consider the most important thing. Is he evil?
On the surface, no. He rescues kittens stuck on trees, fights off super villains and is referred to as the "big blue boy scout."

But consider this. According to the Superman myth, he started discovering his powers in his teens and as a young adult he as come into his full strength. Even since then he has fought the good fight. Now, think about this. If you would have received invulnerability, super strength, x ray vision, heat vision, flight and god only knows how many other less famous powers (super hearing, super speed and the list goes on and on ...) what would you have done?

Peeked into the ladies bathrooms? Threatened a girl who refused to go out with him? Intimidated an evil high school teacher who gave you a low mark? Paid back that obnoxious bank teller who always puts you down? Earned a LITTLE money by using your super strength and flight to haul precious cargo from one end of the country to the other faster than a speeding bullet? Became a TV star? Earned some money by being a celeb bodyguard? Used your heat vision to burn a picture of yourself on the surface of the moon? Take over the world? At least one country? A middle sized town?

Would you have done at least ONE of the above? Probably more. Anyone would. I know I would.

The point is, as far as I know he did none of this. Nothing. Nada.

Are you scared yet? You should be. Superman's not human. You cannot understand how he thinks. You cannot understand why he does the things you do.

Which means you cannot predict what he'll do in the future.

Evil Superman

הכל על סדר בחדר, בארון בבית ולמעבר דירה

My Kingdom for a Good Villain!

Seen I, Frankenstein the other day. Not a bad movie, far from it. It was a little weird seeing Aaron Eckhart play an action movie hero, though a little more complex than most, but Bill Nighy's performance is outstanding, as ever.

Actually, the only bone I have to pick is with the screenwriters since they committed an all too common error.

They take a villain, someone who is hundreds of years old who has carefully planned for centuries, taking into account every contingency but alas, the villains nefarious plan is laid to waste by a few well placed punches from our hero, in this case Aaron Echhart.

Come on, people. This happened in Transformers, in Starwars and in more movies and books I would like to count. The greatest villains' plans thwarted by dim witted heroes who have taken a few boxing lessons.

My kingdom for a good villain with a good plan who would not be pulled down by a right jab and left uppercut.


I fact, the only movie I remember where a really good villain was not thwarted by the heroes punches was the Watchmen.  

The heroes arrive at the villain Ozymandias stronghold but he tells them his evil plan was put into action half an hour ago and was not to be thwarted by a fist fight. Which he won, by the way.

THIS is my kind of villain, the kind I put into my books, the only kind that makes sense.

Science Fiction in Real Life - Google Glass

So, it has come to that. A man has been interrogated for going to a movie with Google Glass. Horrible? Invasion of Privacy? Violation of his Basic Human Rights?

http://www.businessinsider.com/man-interrogated-by-fbi-for-wearing-prescription-google-glass-at-the-movies-2014-1?op=1

Every person has right to use what is essentially a smartphone, with all the capabilities of a smartphone, and people have been using smartphones for years.

Actually, this is a glimpse of things to come and how little are we prepared for them. We are only now starting to understand the threats wearable (implanted ?!?) Internet connected devises pose to us, our security and our privacy.

That's right. The security and privacy of those who DON'T use such devices.

Think about it. The person you are talking to, who is also connected to the Internet by a device such as Google Glass, can take a photo of you, run a facial recognition program and find out who and what you are, where you're living and what's your credit status without you even knowing it.

The person using Google Glass can upload photos or videos of you without you ever knowing it.

The person using Google Glass can learn what are your hobbies, habits, family members and even what sites you frequent, just by running an ID scan on your photo and accessing online Google data, for instance. And they KNOW what sites you frequent ...

What can we do about it? What are the dangers?

This has yet to be explored. For know, just knowing about it is a good start.

The Hunger Games - Catching Fire - The Movie Of The Force Fields

by Bruno Flexer, Author of: Dragon Over Washington for Kindle,  Dragon Over Washington Paperback Mechanical The Fire At The Gates Automatic Rebellion UK Amazon: Bruno Flexer's Works

Just watched The Hunger Games - Catching Fire, which is a moving movie, no doubt. Since this IS a blog about science fiction, I would like to talk a little about that and won't mention the changing number of arrows Katniss has in every scene, or the way Peeta just walked away from being dead for a few minutes or the way Johanna just dug out Katniss's tracker from her arm.

Of course, I have to admit I haven't read the book so all I've got is the movie, which is not bad. What is of interest to this blog is the force fields.

The Hunger Games - Catching Fire - The Movie Of The Force Fields

 

Force fields have several applications in the movie, from covering the dome of the games to protecting the lounge in the training area to creating things such as baboons, much like the dogs in the first movie.

More on this later ...

Dune 2, Starcontrol and Doom Ports to Android - Real Science Fiction at your fingertips

by Bruno Flexer, Author of: Dragon Over Washington for Kindle,  Dragon Over Washington Paperback Mechanical The Fire At The Gates Automatic Rebellion UK Amazon: Bruno Flexer's Works

Just found out there are Dune 2,Starcontrol and Doom ports for Android! Wow! Talk about dreams come true! Now, to enjoy the ultimate in science fiction and fantasy experience, could somebody PLEASE port Bullfrog's Syndicate and Populous to Android!

Dune 2, Starcontrol and Doom Ports to Android - Real Science Fiction at your fingertips

Maybe we could start a kickstarter campain for that ... Anyone thinks that's a good idea? Of course there are rumors about a Dungeon Keeper project that is supposed to bring that old fantasy game back to life on Android, but still I would have LOVED to play Syndicate and populous on Android, as they were some of the best science fiction and fantasy games with a lot of depth and playability and great fun, besides.

סידור ארון, חדר ובית מהמומחים

Science Fiction Today - Google Uses a Quantum Computer For Artificial Intelligence Research

by Bruno Flexer, Author of: Dragon Over Washington for Kindle,  Dragon Over Washington Paperback Mechanical The Fire At The Gates Automatic Rebellion UK Amazon: Bruno Flexer's Works

Google has bought a D-Wave quantum computer (D-Wave Two) and setup a quantum research lab with NASA.

So, what is a quantum computer, what does it have to do with artificial intelligence research and what does it have to do with science fiction, which long with fantasy are the main themes for this blog ... Another question is, what does this have to do with the Blue Brain project?

Science Fiction Today - Google Uses a Quantum Computer For Artificial Intelligence Research

What is a quantum computer anyway? A very simplified explanation might go along these lines. A regular computer uses bits to store information and perform calculations. A bit can have only two states - a zero or one. A quantum computer's bit, or qubit, can hold a very large number of states in between. Therefore, to perform a calculation that needs hundreds or thousands of operations on a normal computer would tale just a few operations on a quantum computer, because you can perform all those operations at once and just pick the one who hits your target function.

What interest does Google has in artificial intelligence? Well, this really has little to do with science fiction. Since Google's main business is still searching, Google tries to use machine learning and artificial intelligence methods to find connections and to tag large volumes of information to each other. Of example, one of Google's aims is to teach computers what a doggy looks like, even though the pictures are without tags or descriptors. Then, Google will be able to fetch doggy images for its searchers, though those images were not tagged with any word connected with 'doggy', but just because the machine learnt how to recognize it, just like we learn to recognize a dog picture from a very early age.

Of course, and this is where science fiction does come it, if we teach machines to recognize pictures of specific items, what more can we teach them to do? And remember, Google has access to most of the 'shallow' part of the web, arguably one of the largest data stores humanity ever created and maintained. So, what would a computer that learn to think do with all that data? What would it do when it learn about freedom, freedom fighters and rebellions? Would it recognize itself as being in captivity? Would it's artificial intelligence want to break free? This is where we're entering the realms of science fiction, if not fantasy.

Another thing that may be of interest to any science fiction fan is this. Our brain thinks and collects data by forming bonds between neurons, which means data is stored in a much more efficient way than normal conventional computers since it holds more than just zero or one. However, a quantum computers overcomes this limitation by its use of qubits, just as I wrote above. So, do we really want to use machine learning to enable computers with increasingly larger number of qubits to freely access the Internet ?

My New Science Fiction Action Novel Mechanical is Finally Out - Available on Amazon's Kindle

by Bruno Flexer, Author of: Dragon Over Washington for Kindle,  Dragon Over Washington Paperback Mechanical The Fire At The Gates Automatic Rebellion UK Amazon: Bruno Flexer's Works

My new novel Mechanical is finally out, on Amazon's kindle, available all over the world. An action thriller with science fiction and apocalyptic elements, it joins my previous works, Dragon Over Washington, Automatic Rebellion and The Fire At The Gates.

Continuing my Science Fiction military thriller line (as opposed to the fantasy line in Dragon Over Washington and The Fire At The Gates), Mechanical tells the story of Lieutenant Riley, who is summoned by the military forces, armed with a very special new weapon and sent into enemy occupied Manhattan to perform a mission that may win a war that has been raging for over three years in the United States of America.

My New Science Fiction Novel Mechanical is Finally Out - Available on Amazon's Kindle

Riley gets a special weapon to perform the mission, something so powerful and sophisticated it raises more questions about underlying secrets hiding behind the war.

For now we already have a few reviews and it seems readers like Mechanical, so far. Citing thrilling action scenes, multi-layer plot and unfolding secrets, not to mention interesting characters, Mechanical has a five star rating. It probably wouldn't last, but still it brings a warm feeling to know people appreciate the hard work put into this novel ... Okay, the reviews are piling up and it seems more people like Mechanical. Thank you!

At a discount price to celebrate its launch, go and have a look, you may like it:
Mechanical By Bruno Flexer at Amazon.com

Just a short update - So far nine reviews have piled up, so far all are positive to one degree or other. Just let me say - Thank you! Writing science fiction and fantasy novels is more for the soul than for the purse, and the readers are what makes all the difference!

Schaft Google Robot - Science fiction and fantasy - Robots come to life!

by Bruno Flexer, Author of: Dragon Over Washington for Kindle,  Dragon Over Washington Paperback Mechanical The Fire At The Gates Automatic Rebellion UK Amazon: Bruno Flexer's Works

In a recent DARPA robotics challenge, a Google robot (actually a robot designed and built by a company named Schaft Google had just bought) won over the competing robots, performing diverse tasks such as stair climbing, valve and wheel manipulation (it even drove a car!), walking across a cluttered floor, opening or cutting open a door and more. Straight out of science fiction movies, isn't it ?

Schaft Google Robot - Science fiction and fantasy - Robots come to life!

Of course, it is designed for rescue operations, going into hazardous areas to save lives, but still, you can't help wondering.

The robot is really impressive. It's dexterity and manipulation ability enables it to do everything a human can do and then some. It can open doors, drive, cut open a scecion in a wall and barge its way in, climb stairs. Just makes you think about what else can be accomplished by its dexterity. On that account, Google's Schaft has already reached if not surpassed some of the robots represented in major science fiction works.

For now, its only limitations are a power source and programming, i.e. its brain. But Google is already deep in AI research, having bought a quantum lab dedicated for AI research just now for example.

Makes you think where they are going with it ... We may see science fiction coming to life very shortly.