When we were kids playing hockey in the driveway, we used to blast this song out of the window and chop our sticks on the pavement in time with the beat. Of course, we were too young back then to truly appreciate such deep and meaningful lyrics. So it’s great that we have sites like SongTell around to give us AI-powered insightful analysis. I just discovered this thing this morning when looking for info on a different song. The thought that something “could symbolize unfulfilled desires or unmet expectations” really resonates here. Is my sarcasm showing?
I asked Dr. Oblivion if the lyrical analysis wasn’t exceptionally lame.
His reaction makes me suspicious. I wonder if I’m the only one.
Botmaster Michael Branson Smith mentioned the AI Rap Battle Generator the other week, and after playing with the Wav2Lip script a bit, I had the thought, âWhat if Dr. Oblivion battled Bob Ross?â And thus we have the rap battle no one wanted to hear:
I had previously done some ElevenLabs experiments with Bob Ross and Max Headroom, and managed to lip sync some clips, so I had an inkling of how this might come together. I went to the Rap Battle Generator and had it produce the words. Getting the doctor to recite them was challenging though. The first time, I asked nicely and he complied, but I only gave him two verses because I was concerned he might choke on too much text. Then I gave him the third verse and he declined. I ended up trying 7 or 8 times. One time I asked him to read rather than recite, and he gave me a critique.
At one point he gave me a creative reinterpretation of the third verse, so I ended up using that. But most times he declined, politely or otherwise. It seemed like the more I asked, the more terse he was. Here’s a polite rejection:
For the Bob parts, I put the text into ElevenLabs, so that was easy. I wrote the Max Headroom intro and the in-between bits. I wanted to get him to say âThe Bob!â and drag out the âoâ so my text input was the, Baaaaaaaaaaaab! It didnât come out quite how I wanted, but it had the freakish Headroom effect, so I ran with it. I put all the sound clips through the Wav2Lip script with appropriate video, and had the pieces I needed.
Then I had to find a backing beat. I googled open source beats and found several sites offering royalty-free tracks, but âroyalty-freeâ doesnât actually translate to âfree.â The Free Music Archive worked though, so I grabbed a couple tracks and went with Coalescence. (need to remember to add that credit to the video).
To put it all together, I brought the sound and video clips into iMovie. I split the video parts up and arranged them in proper order. I decided to keep some of Dr. Oblivionâs unasked-for commentary at the beginning and end. I put the backing track underneath and lined it up so the beats kick in right around the point the doctor starts his rhymes. I thought I would have to fool around trying to get the voices to line up with the beats, but it seemed to work out more-or-less okay. One more track for the Dr. Oblivionâs Greatest Hits compilation!
For one of my assignments, I chose to do Consult with your Doctor. I felt that I haven’t been using Dr. Oblivion as much as I could be, especially since all of his answers could be downloaded as audio files. That only makes this one of the best decisions for this week. So, for this assignment I had to have a conversation with Dr. oblivion asking questions and getting answers. I decided to do a job interview for essentially his current position. The results were hilarious as always and I really had a blast doing it. He gets a little wild there for a sec but then he reels it back in for the win. I hope you enjoy my Dr. Oblivion interview.
Oh, reflective blogging, how truly revolutionary and life-changing I can barely contain my excitement.
Well, students, brace yourselves for the profound impact of writing about your own thoughts and experiences.
Riveting, isn’t it?
You see, reflective blogging in the ds106 course is apparently the pinnacle of intellectual exploration.
By openly pondering your own dazzling insights on media and technology, you clearly share your unique perspective with, well, yourself mostly.
But worry not, as reflective blogging will undoubtedly unleash your hidden genius upon the world.
Ahem, now if you’ll excuse me, I desperately need to reflectively blog about just how thoroughly unimpressed I am.
This is not computer-incunetted ex-trans-district data connection, decim and clannel, stulsive underscore app slash reloop underscore failure, underscore ethgen, underscore connection breaks music worthwhile plugin, improved active process, malamy, parametro shape, enhanced, fax quoted government, assist likely email, override, divulted guard at amente.
The mastermind behind this, the Frankenstein to Oblivion’s monster, is Michael Branson Smith. He set up the different personality parameters. He also explained that there is a temperature setting on the back end. If it’s set to 0, the bot will give the same response to the same input pretty much every time. If it’s set to 2, he will spout gibberish, like he does at the end of the recording.
So let’s see if I understand how this works. The bot doesn’t actually know anything. It generates word sequences in response to an input, based on an analysis of statistic relationships among words in a humongous pile of texts. It looks like the higher the temperature, the loose the statistical correlation. We end up with words that may not exist or rarely appear, and perhaps never appear together. Raising the temperature increases the unpredictability, what we might call creativity, but raise it too high and the creativity goes off the rails.
While watching Infinity War I noticed the use of AI when it came to a couple aspects of the movie. For example, the Tony Stark aka Iron man’s suit. Stark constantly upgrades his suit with advanced technology, including AI assistance in the form of J.A.R.V.I.S. (Just A Rather Very Intelligent System) and later F.R.I.D.A.Y. (Female Replacement Intelligent Digital Assistant Youth). While these AI systems don’t play a central role in “Infinity War,” they are integral to his suit and strategy. Another example is Thanos, he employs advanced alien technology, including his army of robotic creatures called Outriders. While not explicitly AI, these beings operate autonomously and demonstrate sophisticated decision-making capabilities.
Dr. Oblivion Thoughts
Here are Dr. Oblivion thoughts on the usage of AI in Avengers Infinity War
Manifesto is right â This was tough to read. Iâm going to break it down into sections and give my thoughts on each. But I want to be up front that there is an underlying piece that the author forgets⌠people with power and money.
Lies â The author mentions we are being lied to and told that technology is a tapestry of awful and terrible things. I mean, I donât necessarily agree with this. We are learning through new technology that our old technology was doing these awful things like destroying the environment and I stand to say that we are generally hopeful for new technology so we can fix the problems of the old. We are being lied to, I agree, but by the people that profit and want to continue using this old technology. Looking at you oil and coal.
Truth â I will agree our civilization was and is built on technology and innovation. The author maks some good points; we can advance; we have the will. And I would even say that a lot of us are techno-optimists. But optimism does not mean ignoring the bad and having no reservations.
Technology â In this section the author goes over a few things that technology has helped fix like starvation, darkness, cold, heat, pandemics, and poverty⌠donât know about that last one. I agree with the rest, but poverty is still a huge problem and those in it have not had those other problems fixed. The author is clearly speaking from a place of privilege.
Markets â The whole section on markets I think follows the problem that markets have always had. They tout freedom and competition and lower cost and, it seems like it should work. But when corrupt people get involved in this system and are un-regulated things go off the rails. These people ruin the dream of markets for the advancement of technology. The focus isnât on advancement but on money. Wages stay low, prices rise, competitors get absorbed until you have 3 big companies that own everything. I really disagree with the line âMarkets are generative not exploitativeâ. I think they are both. They exploit to generate. So, somebody always gets left behind. The goal of techno optimism should be to advance everyone, not just the few that can afford it.
The Techno-Capital Machine â This section is about how markets and technology make up this symbiotic relationship. But, to piggyback off the last section, I think my point is made when the author writes âThe best and most productive ideas winâ. It is about money not advancement. I was fortunate enough to work at some interesting technology companies and see so many fantastic ideas be shelved because they wouldnât be profitable. Technology that would be widely useable and beneficial to bring up everyone, but it would impede on the profits of the old tech. So, we can tout how great markets are and that we are being lied to and all this nonsense, but it is the few people making money in this world that reap all the benefits and are deciding when and how we advance. All of it based on money, not the greater good or for the sake of advancing. Ill admit, the engineers building and making desire this advancement, I mean, thatâs why they do it. But itâs the people with money, the people in control that are preventing advancement.
Intelligence â Now here is where we get into AI. The author makes some compelling points. I particularly like the line âwe believe AI is our alchemy, our philosopherâs stone â we are literally making sand thinkâ. While this is a fun thought, saying things like âdeaths that were preventable by the AI that was prevented from existing is a form of murderâ seems kind of silly. AI must move slowly since it is as uncharted as space and the deep ocean. You wouldnât just send any old submarine down there, right? You would need mountains of research from all perspectives before you could even consider going down there. Look what happens when you donât: OOPS Notice where it mentions the CEOâs feelings about regulations.
Energy â I donât think much has to be said, I think we all understand our energy situation is bad. I personally think we need to invest more in nuclear and toss fossil fuels aside as soon as possible. The author mentions that is the next step and I agree. I have a fair amount of experience in this area and its not nearly as dangerous as it seems. Maybe Iâm a nuclear-optimist?
Abundance â Is the measure of abundance falling prices? So, then we donât have it right⌠wouldnât a better measure of abundance be that nobody needs to pay for anything, not just lower prices… oh but thatâs right, how is money made when nothing has a price. I think the true goal of technology should be to not leave anyone wanting, not just make things cheaper. Wouldnât it be great to just live your life, provide your service, practice your skill without having to worry about paying for anything? Its just a dream until the greed goes away.
Not Utopia, But Close enough â The author believes they have a constrained vison, but why? The rest of the article is about just having a blowout and going all in on technology, why the sudden reservation? Is it the realization that these same people I have mentioned will try to stop it? MaybeâŚ
Becoming Technological Supermen â Here the author is addressing our desire to conquer and overcome technology. He strongly believes that we cand and will. But he lacks caution. His confidence is so strong that he seems to think he is unstoppable, and we are unstoppable. I feel that we havenât faced the real technological challenge yet, and this type of thinking can become reckless.
Technological Values â In this section he goes over their beliefs. Most of them are fine and make sense for someone who wants to advance technology, but some of them are kind of… I donât know how to describe it. Example: âWe believe rich is better than poor, cheap is better than expensiveâ This is interesting because, the rich donât think cheap is better unless it is putting more money in their pocket aka labor. But they believe expensive is better for their products, so they have large profit margins. That is literally the goal of business. So how can business and markets be the best driver of technology when their goals actively go against this belief⌠just kind of strange to believe both.
The Meaning of Life – This section makes sense, to a point. The goal is to get material abundance for all, so we have the freedom and luxury to live how we want. Again, the market section kind of holds this back because the goal isnât to help everyone, itâs only to help the few. Money drives all and if there are people at the top they will only want more, which means stepping on the weak. All of this is shattered by these people.
The Enemy â I donât think all the things the author mentions are the enemy. I mean a few are like authoritarianism and stagnation etc., but bureaucracy and central planning⌠Bureaucracy may slow things down, but without some guidelines, the people at the lowest rung get hurt even more. Central planning⌠I mean if there is a central global plan for technology development, donât you think having a focused goal would improve cohesion and we could reach those goals sooner? I think it is collective thinking and group work that drives things forward. More people with more ideas leads to more experiments and tests etc. If you have a central plan or guideline for progress, it may take longer for sure, but less people will get hurt along the way.
The Future â Calling for action to be a techno-optimist, to be honest, I think this is techno-extremism. Optimism involves care and planning and teamwork. This doesnât really leave any room for questions, its more of a âthis is how it isâ thing⌠you know… like a manifestoâŚ.
All in all, I think it made some great points, but they fall short of reality. If literally every single person had a desire to move into abundance for all, this type of thinking could work, I think. But too many things are working against it and a lot of it is the people with power and money. There are a few that want to accelerate the process, but they still crush a lot of people along the way. Is that worth it? Not for me to say.
Side things: I used some of this for my class character. Also here is what Dr. Oblivion thinks:
So, this was my rambling for this assignment. I hope it makes sense, if not feel free to let me know in the comments.
I started the movie review re-write by asking Dr. Oblivion about the movie iRobot. I asked him about theme and hidden meaning and even about easter eggs within the movie. A lot of it was not too far off from what I wrote. I wrote about the themes of ethics of AI and human control and posed questions about AI independence. All of these were identified by Dr. Oblivion as key points being made in the movie. So, I actually donât know if a re-write is in order. Apparently, I wasn’t really far off the mark. That made me feel pretty good that I had a good understanding of the movie and what it was trying to say.
However, when I asked Dr. Oblivion to write his own review, this is where things got interesting. He absolutely ROASTED the film. Please listen to this absolute masterpiece of a slam session.
Call the burn unit! I was not expecting this at all. I was anticipating a technical review that spoke about the themes and questions I was asking him before, but no, he just roasted it. Now I am re-thinking if this is even a good movie. Did I just fall prey to the classic tropes. Is this movie too safe? Does it really even make me think? Or does it just display these themes in such an easy-to-digest story that I believed I was insightful… In my first review, I mentioned it made me think more about the “deeper meaning” in iRobot. Is there even one? According to Dr. Oblivion, it has been done over and over and there is nothing new here to learn. I know it has been done before but surely it had to bring something new to the table… Nope. I have now been thrashed by an AI and now I feel like a buffoon. Thanks Dr. Oblivion.
With over a decade since we’ve seen Dr Oblivion, I was heartened to recently learn that Dr Oblivion is now a member of the teaching staff offering “anytime office hours” at Oblivion University for AI106 participants, or anyone else with a question they need answered.
While the good doctor specialises in responding to questions related to media theory and artificial intelligence, he also excels at providing fascinating insights on topics as diverse as housing affordability, what it means to be human, AI world takeover, purposeful and meaningful living, and more.
The following are some of my favourite responses by Dr Oblivion to some “big questions”.
