The General Knight Rider thread.

[Candleicious Ghost]

My memories of this were that it was cheesy and super corny, but that we had some fun watching it when it was new.

I bought the series a while ago but really struggled to watch it all the way through. I feel like it didn't age well at all.

They keep trying to revive this. I feel like they should have left it be.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

Stam Fine recently did a whole series overview of Knight Rider and the various attempted revivals/reboots.

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[Candleicious Ghost]

Stam Fine recently did a whole series overview of Knight Rider and the various attempted revivals/reboots.

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I honestly didn't mind the 2008 revival version.. Never saw Team Knight Rider but did see clips, that jet, no fucking way would it be able to do that

 

[Christopher]

Never saw Team Knight Rider but did see clips, that jet, no fucking way would it be able to do that

Team Knight Rider was probably the dumbest incarnation of the franchise, and that's saying something.

 

[Candleicious Ghost]

Team Knight Rider was probably the dumbest incarnation of the franchise, and that's saying something.

It was like a C5 Galaxy with tilting wings that could do full VTOL

 

[Owain Taggart]

I honestly didn't mind the 2008 revival version.. Never saw Team Knight Rider but did see clips, that jet, no fucking way would it be able to do that

Yeah, I didn't mind it either. Although I have to say I felt the Mustang was less convincing as a KITT than the original Trans-Am, and it had less personality going for it. There are rumours of a Pontiac revival, and if that's the case and they revive the Trans-Am along with it with an updated look, I think it would be a good option for a Knight Rider reboot.

 

[Skipper]

There are rumours of a Pontiac revival, and if that's the case and they revive the Trans-Am along with it with an updated look, I think it would be a good option for a Knight Rider reboot.

I don't know if a nice car would be enough to convince me to watch a possible remake. I don't think a couple of stunts, however well done, would be enough. Or a banter, however funny, between the protagonist and the equivalent of ChatGPT.

 

[Christopher]

Or a banter, however funny, between the protagonist and the equivalent of ChatGPT.

That's either giving ChatGPT way too much credit or KITT way too little. KITT is the kind of actual strong AI that the makers of large language models try to fraudulently pass off their products as when they're really just brainless predictive-text calculators that need gigantic, environment-destroying data centers to run enough brute-force calculations to create the illusion of an intelligent response, the modern equivalent of an infinite number of monkeys with typewriters.

 

[Owain Taggart]

I don't know if a nice car would be enough to convince me to watch a possible remake. I don't think a couple of stunts, however well done, would be enough. Or a banter, however funny, between the protagonist and the equivalent of ChatGPT.

Well, of course writing and execution is half the battle. And it would be kind of ironic if ChatGPT were used to write KITT's dialogue.

 

[Christopher]

Well, of course writing and execution is half the battle. And it would be kind of ironic if ChatGPT were used to write KITT's dialogue.

The two statements contradict each other. If you want good writing, no LLM will ever be capable of it. And the WGA would probably raise living hell if the producers tried to cheat human writers out of work that way.

 

[Owain Taggart]

^Oh I know, I was being facetious to show how absurd it would be. And I know William Daniels for instance is vehemently opposed in using AI, just to use him as an example. No, I don't think using AI would be a good idea.

 

[Candleicious Ghost]

KITT being invented in the 80s is also pure science fiction, we just didn't have the chip technology for that or the memory storage in a small space such as a car body. OK sorry I had to nitpick LOL

Interesting though that the series they did predict

Onboard maps and I think a kind of GPS to guide the car to its destination, things we have now.
Onboard entertainment systems. In some episodes you see Michael playing games on KITT's screens

That's two I can think of, ooh here's a cool link

Six ways Knight Rider predicted the future

Dave Lee looks at some of the inventions seen in Knight Rider that eventually become reality.

www.bbc.com

 

[Owain Taggart]

KITT being invented in the 80s is also pure science fiction, we just didn't have the chip technology for that or the memory storage in a small space such as a car body. OK sorry I had to nitpick LOL

Ironically, these days, that kind of storage could probably fit in a mini-SD card hidden inside the glove compartment or something like that.

 

[Candleicious Ghost]

Ironically, these days, that kind of storage could probably fit in a mini-SD card hidden inside the glove compartment or something like that.

Or even sewn into the lining of clothing

 

[Christopher]

KITT being invented in the 80s is also pure science fiction, we just didn't have the chip technology for that or the memory storage in a small space such as a car body.

Well, that's a given. That's the whole thing that made it a science fiction show. I mean, we didn't have the technology to build lifelike, superstrong bionic arms and legs in the 1970s either. The fact that these inventions were breakthroughs beyond the state of the art for their time was the very thing that made them a unique advantage for the heroes who possessed them.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Or even sewn into the lining of clothing

Yeah, interestingly this line of discussion got me thinking of everything from Trek's commbadge, to Dick Tracy's watch, and I think even Micheal Knight had a special watch that allowed him to talk to KITT didn't he? In this sense, all of this kind of technology would fall under the category of what we now call wearable tech. Even with the modern batch of Trek shows, I think the commbadge is small enough to be sewn into the uniforms. And the current day equivalent would be that of a smartwatch, only without the visual element.

I dunno if I'd ever like something like that to be sewn into clothes though, just for the simple fact surrounding privacy issues, but it might be handy in certain workplaces such as hospitals.

 

[tharpdevenport]

Or even sewn into the lining of clothing

Mini K.I.T.T., like the flying thing from off of V.I.P.E.R.

Otherwise, I'd stick to the watch thing. Years back I would have said wearing a watch would be a kind of a giveaway and make people suspicious, with with various kinds of watches and watch-like devices like Apple Watch and the resurgence of people wearing watches in the last or two, it's still doable.

 

[theenglish]

I dunno if I'd ever like something like that to be sewn into clothes though, just for the simple fact surrounding privacy issues, but it might be handy in certain workplaces such as hospitals.

That's the issue with all modern technology though, and why the science fiction dystopian future is currently winning vs. the more positive futures.
We have really cool tech that was science fiction just a few decades ago, but the reality is that most of our tech doesn't have the memory or processing power to work on its own so our data and privacy gets pimped out to tech companies that don't really give a shit about us. The tech in Star Trek and shows like Knight Rider functioned on its own and didn't need to rely on outside computing power.

 

[Owain Taggart]

That's the issue with all modern technology though, and why the science fiction dystopian future is currently winning vs. the more positive futures.
We have really cool tech that was science fiction just a few decades ago, but the reality is that most of our tech doesn't have the memory or processing power to work on its own so our data and privacy gets pimped out to tech companies that don't really give a shit about us. The tech in Star Trek and shows like Knight Rider functioned on its own and didn't need to rely on outside computing power.

Hmm, true enough. I hadn't quite thought of it that way. I mean, in some ways we are there, yet in other ways we aren't, but in terms of something like the commbadge, I think it always required a ship's computer to link up to in order to work, so in that sense it's not that different from a local mainframe's server/slave setup where the client is routing every command or communication through the ship's computer. I don't remember any instance of the commbadges working when the ship's computer is out of action.

 

[theenglish]

Hmm, true enough. I hadn't quite thought of it that way. I mean, in some ways we are there, yet in other ways we aren't, but in terms of something like the commbadge, I think it always required a ship's computer to link up to in order to work, so in that sense it's not that different from a local mainframe's server/slave setup where the client is routing every command or communication through the ship's computer. I don't remember any instance of the commbadges working when the ship's computer is out of action.

I think while a ship's computer is in range then it's computing power can be used to amplify computing power of various devices, although I don't think that is something that is ever specifically stated, but there's been plenty of times where things like tricorders have been used without a ship nearby. As for communicators, there must have been a time when crewmembers used them to communicate with each other without a ship nearby but I can't think of a specific episode at the moment.