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Thoughts about a TOS revival with AI technology

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You wouldn’t do it now, but back in the day when 1960’s Mustangs were daily drivers they were certainly driven in the snow.

That said even if I had a Revology Mustang I wouldn’t drive it in the snow.
 
My 2012 is in the garage until the temperature hits 66°F and it’s nice enough to put down the top. My ‘66 otoh… that was an entirely different story. It was a sin what I did to that car.

But my love for that car says a lot about why I am hanging out in this thread. :P
 
I have a 2004 Ford Crown Victoria LX with 128,000 kms. Not a classic by conventional perceptions, but I love this car. I inherited it seven years ago when my father passed away and I've tweaked it to make it more my own (most of which is under the skin). Years ago this is certainly not a car I would have ever seen myself buying, but now I like it a lot more than the vast majority of whats available in the new car market.

For one thing it doesn't have a goddamned iPad tacked onto the dash. I don't have to go though a fucking digital menu to listen to music or adjust the climate controls.

Every year I get easily two or three offers to buy it. But I'm not selling.

 
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So this uses AI for the TOS cast voices, was made all the way back in 2014 and looks and sounds like a CG animated show from the late 90's.
I believe this video uses the real voice work of the original cast from the 1990s computer games. That is what I want to see. Good solid animated episodes with the original cast.
 
I believe this video uses the real voice work of the original cast from the 1990s computer games. That is what I want to see. Good solid animated episodes with the original cast.
Ahhhhhh okay, that makes a LOT of sense because I was sure AI voices weren't that good ten years ago. With today's tech and a lot of effort I'm sure you could, though.

Does anyone know which game?
 
Um... this is the TrekBBS. We're all living off of a dead corpse to one extent or another.
Not sure what you're talking about, there's a global franchise happening right now that's more popular than it's ever been.
 
Well, that's a different way of saying that at any given moment in time there are good things and there are bad things. That's inarguable.
That is true but I was trying very broadly to say that things like ethical awareness in many areas are better now, global awareness of economy, pollution, population, environment, etc etc make people better aware of the existing problems than the past.

A more specific example:

People romanticize the past but if you're not white, drop yourself into 1930s USA. No one would care there would be no ACLU on your side, others of like awareness, you'd be alone and very likely not having a great time. Drop a white guy or woman YMMV.

So even though racism is still a problem, it's totally different "on the ground". Romanticism goes out the window.

There are a thousand other examples big and small: air conditioning, catalytic converters, microchips, etc.

I'm just someone that is okay with the original 79 episodes. Heck, if that was all there were, I'd still be okay.

A view. A myopic one, but a view.
 
A view. A myopic one, but a view.

Myopic? As in narrow-minded? There are only 79 episodes. That’s it. Anything more - even generating ultra-real, pseudo-TOS versions of TAS episodes - doesn’t involve any of the actors’ work beyond their voices. And we’re discussing something beyond that - something that doesn’t involve any human work whatsoever.

Narrow-minded individuals are less inclined to listen to, and seriously consider, alternative viewpoints. Does something so entirely, quantitatively, and qualitatively different qualify as an “alternative viewpoint”? By definition, it is “artificial”. Isn’t that reason enough to reject it as not even being an “alternative viewpoint”? Does a plant-based hamburger qualify as a hamburger, and if so, at what point does its “fakeness” disqualify it? Is a mudpie a hamburger? A plastic burger? And are you myopic if you choose to limit your hamburger consumption to beef and reject impossible burgers, mudpies, and plastic burgers?

I think what we are really talking about is whether a person who rejects AI-generated content that aims to imitate human-generated content understands that the thing they are rejecting is fake and that they are rejecting it because it is fake and not because they believe it is an alternative - as in not TOS - viewpoint.
 
Myopic? As in narrow-minded? There are only 79 episodes. That’s it. Anything more - even generating ultra-real, pseudo-TOS versions of TAS episodes - doesn’t involve any of the actors’ work beyond their voices. And we’re discussing something beyond that - something that doesn’t involve any human work whatsoever.

Narrow-minded individuals are less inclined to listen to, and seriously consider, alternative viewpoints. Does something so entirely, quantitatively, and qualitatively different qualify as an “alternative viewpoint”? By definition, it is “artificial”. Isn’t that reason enough to reject it as not even being an “alternative viewpoint”? Does a plant-based hamburger qualify as a hamburger, and if so, at what point does its “fakeness” disqualify it? Is a mudpie a hamburger? A plastic burger? And are you myopic if you choose to limit your hamburger consumption to beef and reject impossible burgers, mudpies, and plastic burgers?

I think what we are really talking about is whether a person who rejects AI-generated content that aims to imitate human-generated content understands that the thing they are rejecting is fake and that they are rejecting it because it is fake and not because they believe it is an alternative - as in not TOS - viewpoint.
In this case I'm not talking about AI I'm saying we have 900-odd episodes and seeing only 79 episodes as the end-all, be-all of Trek seems very narrow minded.

I'm for not using AI to revive something just to see a Trek zombie clone lumbering around to make old trekkies comfortable and feel safe.
 
Not sure what you're talking about, there's a global franchise happening right now that's more popular than it's ever been.

That feeds off the corpse of TOS. And Trek isn't more popular now than its' ever been. TNG used to finish in the top-20 of the Nielsen ratings, in some major markets, during its run. That was Trek at the height of its popularity.

Why do you think they pulled the TNG cast and Enterprise-D out of mothballs?

A view. A myopic one, but a view.

It is my view. I don't need anyone else to subscribe to it.
 
Why do you think they pulled the TNG cast and Enterprise-D out of mothballs?
To feed off the corpse of TOS? :vulcan:

I'm for not using AI to revive something just to see a Trek zombie clone lumbering around to make old trekkies comfortable and feel safe.
Right now, Star Trek is very much comfort food viewing. That is the primary goal, to increase that feeling of safety in the audience. That is why there is the draw to the TOS era, to use TNG, and the highlight what would be considered massive iconographic touchstones that even casual audience members will recognize, i.e. the Enterprise-D, the Starship Enterprise, Mr. Spock, etc.

The idea that Trek is anything but safe is one that doesn't track with current efforts. When it does things that are unsafe they are declared "out of bounds" and "not Trek." To use a Trek phrase "They are not of the body."

Why? Because it doesn't feel right.
 
There a lot of moving parts involved in creating a television show. And a lot of it is going to be tied to the resources and societal perspectives of when that show is made. Trying to recreate that work many decades later is going to be affected by certain compromises as well as changes in resources and societal perspectives. The question becomes how much are you willing to compromise?

CGI could be used to recreate many of the visual fx of TOS, but you also require the mindset to limit yourself to what the resources of the 1960s could allow if you want to look authentic. And this is the relatively easy part.

The writing will also be challenge. Star Trek Continues did a fair job of it, but they still often missed the mark by incorporating 21st century ideas and perspectives which affected the push for supposed authenticity.

Finally the impossible hurdle of recreating the actors, particularly the original cast. An AI can only approximate the performances, but cannot recreate each actor’s intuitive on-the-spot creativity and improvisation.
 
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An AI can only approximate the performances, but cannot recreate each actor’s intuitive on-the-spot creativity and improvisation.

Perhaps right now, but a year from now? Five years from now? I wouldn’t bet on it. Will it be able to create the person William Shatner’s on-the-spot creativity and improvisation? No, only 1966-1969 Shatner could do that (though 1979 Shatner took a pretty good stab at it). But an AI will be able to examine all the examples of Shatner’s acting and learn everything learnable about his life and experiences and then fashion its own interpretation of how Shatner would have dealt with its script. I doubt anybody will be able to tell the difference, particularly since the only thing to compare it against will be the material the AI used to create it.
 
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