Changing technology’s effect on theater explored in book
“Before he died, my philosophy professor asked me to promote his upcoming book,” a man wrote. I was intrigued.
“Surviving Technology, Lessons from Theater: The New Necessities for Living a Human Life,” by University of Texas professor Paul Woodruff, explains why theater is under attack by technology, and why that matters. Woodruff’s previous book was favorably reviewed in The New York Times, and his articles have been published widely.
Tech matters a lot in entertainment. In 1876, Richard Wagner used different circuits of natural gas for stage and audience, alternately plunging the audience into total darkness, to force them to pay attention to the stage. Their inattention reminded me of an audience at a magic show I saw at a fancy hotel. Several people kept using their phones even after the magician politely asked them not to. One lady was so obnoxious, she had to be ushered out.
Live theater has plummeted, Woodruff writes, because people prefer streaming videos. It’s hard for a static stage to compete with today’s movie marvels. But artificial intelligence poses an even bigger challenge. There may come a time, he writes, when we cannot disconnect from AI even when we want to. But he also points out that humans have always overestimated technology’s dangers. One day, AI may become wise enough to prevent the harm we fear the most.
APPLE OWNERS SKIP THE ANTIVIRUS
“I have Norton antivirus for my Mac Pro, two iPhones and a Windows computer,” a reader wrote. “They want over $168 for renewal. What do you think?”
I say forget it. Let’s start with Apple devices. According to Forbes Advisor, Apple’s operating systems protect your iPhone and Mac from viruses and malware. Apple agrees that you don’t need
antivirus or cleaning software on either one. What’s more, some antivirus solutions can actually slow your computer or make it buggy. Even if you install apps from unknown, risky sources, your files on Macs and iPhones are encrypted, protecting them against ransomware and other kinds of attacks. For more info, do a Google search on “Apple security built right in.”
For Windows computers, the built-in Windows Security is enough, as long as you don’t get in the habit of clicking suspicious links.
READER QUESTION
“If one has installed CCleaner, would using the Windows one be a conflict?” asked a reader. The answer is no.
She’s talking about Windows Disk Cleanup. I didn’t run into any problems running it just before using the free CCleaner but I see no reason to run it again. Just now, Windows got rid of around 20 megabytes of junk. CCleaner removed over four gigabytes worth.
CCleaner offers more advanced cleaning and optimization features than Windows Disk Cleanup. You can use it to remove temporary files, clean up the registry, manage startup programs, and uninstall applications more effectively. However, be careful with these powerful tools. If in doubt, leave it alone. I only use CCleaner for getting rid of junk files.
To start, open CCleaner, click “Health Check,” and let it run. When finished, click “Custom Clean.” Custom Clean allows you to remove junk from programs that might otherwise be missed. For me, this includes temp files downloaded by the Brave web browser. Chrome, Edge, Safari, Firefox and Opera are automatically cleaned. You can ignore CCleaner’s nags to switch to the paid version.
AI POLITICIANS
Recently, I talked to Jason Palmer, the guy who beat President Joe Biden in the American Samoan primary. You can talk to him too. He’s created an artificially-intelligent version of himself. Just don’t ask him about donuts.
Palmer, an American businessman, spent $25,000 to develop his AI chatbot. Talking to it is much like talking to the real Jason. Though he won’t answer personal questions or offer an opinion on every issue, he apologizes nicely when he can’t. I asked him about taxes, AI, the environment and more. To talk to him yourself, go to PalmerforPresident.us and click “Palmer AI.”
CHATGPT WITH A BODY
I just watched a robot with an amazingly human voice. It’s nothing like Alexa’s or Siri’s robotic tone.
A man, from a company called Figure, asked the robot for a snack. It correctly picked out an apple from a bunch of items on a table and gave it to the man. While picking up trash and putting it in a bin, it explained why it picked the apple. “It was the only edible item I could provide you with,” it said. It also put away its own dishes on a drying rack nearby, then explained why it did everything it did, in answer to the man’s question.
You can watch the robot in action by Googling the words “ChatGPT with a Body, Watch a Creepy Demo.” The robot was created by a team that included Brent Adcock, founder and chief executive officer of Figure, plus the engineers he hired from Boston Dynamics, Tesla, Google Deep Mind, and Archer Aviation.
INTERNUT
“Watch a swarm of robots lay artificial pheromones like ants.” Search on that phrase to discover the wonders of “stigmergy,” a kind of coordination that works when one creature influences another.
The basic idea of robots working together to manipulate their environment isn’t new. The breakthrough came when researchers from the Free University at Brussels, Belgium, figured out how to automate the design process, saving hours of costly manual labor.