Flying on a McCloud

Hey everybody out there in the blogverse,

I do have to admit that my title this week sounds a lot like a McDonald's commercial rather than enthusiasm for our guest speaker here at NDSU, Mr. Scott McCloud.

If anybody out there in the world is interested in comics, or the ability to simply understand media in a little more detail, then please check out some of his books. I have read one for my Visual Culture and Learning class here at NDSU titled "Understanding Comics", which was a quick read while also being very informational. The ideas that McCloud writes about can be transformed to understand most types of media, such as movies, pictures, or, obviously, comics.

Anyways, the reason I am writing about this man is because he visited our campus here in Fargo, N.D. for a portion of his 50 state tour. McCloud's ideas have become very mainstream in the last ten years or so, which prompted the college here to have him come and speak to some students and members of our community.

McCloud's presentation was a little more than an hour, which was then followed by some Q & A afterwards, but it was all professionally put together and executed without a hitch. McCloud, the family man, even had his wife and children sitting in the front row to help him with the presentation. As, the presentation began, McCloud describes the 5 different questions that need to be answered when creating or understanding a comic, while eventually diving in to his childhood by the end, explaining how this passion for comic book story and artwork inspired him for the rest of his life. He also mentions the different established forms of comic books, such as graphic novels, manga, and the European style of artwork, along with the future of the industry, which included web comics that were both fun and creative in their design.

Overall, I was thoroughly impressed by Mr. McCloud and his presentation, which was a beautifully put together slide show consisting of almost 700 slides (which strangely went by extremely fast). I recommend any person out there to read one of his books, of which I have only read one but others do exist, and learn a little about "Understanding Comics".

Have a good one gore fanatics.

Intelligence and Humanity. Who would have thunk it...

Hello again party goers,

Here I am again writing another blog for my Electronic Communications class at NDSU. This time around we are looking at the question: "Can human thought be replaced by machine?"

I do believe that a machine can replicate anything to the extent that it is programmed, meaning that if it were programmed to replicate human thought patterns then it could definitely do a good job at fooling someone for at least a little while. I do not believe that a machine can actually create human thoughts, however, to the extent that most human beings are capable, simply because, although a computer can move extremely fast, it doesn't improvise or understand obscure references to forms of media and entertainment. The example in "Computing Machinery and Intelligence", when they give different questions to a computer, which then creates slight pauses to imply human thought process, answers the questions correctly in every instance. If a machine would really be able to replicate human thoughts, then it would also have to replicate error, which it would then have to be taught. For that matter, a computer also probably couldn't provide such thoughts that deal with emotion, except for the replicating of another beings expressions. I am of course talking of cybernetic organisms, versus the programs that are created to replicate human interaction with computers, for which my class recently watched a video on Google Tech Talk.

Anyways, I do love this type of subject matter, although I am freaked out a little by the thought that a computer, cyborg, or even a program can replicate myself to the extent that nobody would even recognize who they are talking too. On the other hand, I do enjoy the luxuries that are created by the uses of computers everyday, and if one day they decide to use me for a power source like in the Matrix, then I'll catch to hell with it I'll catch you guys on the flip side watching my horror films until then. By the way check out "Grindhouse" if it is the last thing you ever do.