If you have been following us for a while, you should be aware that we are building from scratch, with no knowledge whatsoever, and other ten thousand professional handicaps, a Web TV Show called I AM CLOUD.IA.
Given that any past project we have pursued, successfully, we were in a similar situation, this astronomical amount of challenges ahead of us hasn’t fazed us too much; if at all.
We’re big movie buffs and love this project more than any other we have pursued before because it encompasses everything that we love spending time on. Movies, sci-fi, BOTS (the good kind), AI, filming, and lots of other stuff that in a fashion or another has been part of our life and career.
The Show
I AM CLOUD.IA is sort of a big brother’s show but made entirely of BOTS. Occasionally some humans may show up, but they are more of a cameo presence than active participants. CLOUD.IA is the mother of the bots that will be part of the BOTS family. She was designed by a scientist that had an odd personality with Elon Musk's power of 9 smarts. Just when her AI work was completed, something tragically happens to her. Mysterious in nature but pretty definitive as the end-of-life event. She was murdered and the police had zero clues. Well, office Cristiano Bello wasn’t the sharpest tool in the police station when technologies were at play but he was definitely driven as an authentic Filippino’s bulldog.
Vickie, the murdered scientist, had finished the brain of the main star of the show. She has exhausted all her funds in the pursuit of that quest and was in the final stage of an impressive demo. One that would have secured larger funds from an unknown investor, known in the circle of people with money as Buck. His real name was Lonzo Scaramucci, a hedge fund manager with deep roots in Umbrella Corporation.
Vickie was about to boot the latest version of her AI when suddenly the power went out and her last words shouted painfully in the dark to her smartwatch were “CLOUDIA avenge me”
She had grown heavily paranoid in the last few weeks, her work would have completely changed the way people interacted with each other. Given that Umbrella had everything to lose and their livelihood was at risk with CLOUD.IA becoming a real contender. Speculations were buzzing around, even for folks that previously had completely ignored Vickie.
CLOUD.IA Interface
That is a brief sneak peek of the show and I shared that with the intent of teasing your curiosity, hardening your neurons, and ultimately introducing the challenge of the month. The design of the interface we will be using to portrait this fantastic in the making AI.
They say that the eyes are the portal to the soul and in the case of CLOUD.IA, it is even more true. She is meant to be a mother, being a female willing to pursue life development (nerd!) there’s a mixture of feelings, abilities, and superpowers at play. She keeps an eye on her creations, she looks forward to learning about humans, she gazes over her family like an Eagle would do for her babies. I ran out of analogies for eyes but at this point, you should have gotten a clue that since she doesn’t have a body, her physical representations are through the only prototype Vickie, the old lady scientist had developed.
When looking at other masterpieces in the cinematography world, you can see that the eyes alone and in the same case ONE eye, is enough to portray the story and the feelings attached to it.
In the Lord of the Rings, the eye of Sauron is clearly lacking a body for a good part of the show until the whole story is revealed. It stands tall on a tower because as they say, no good conversation started with a salad, have a shot of vodka.
Therefore the only logical conclusion is that when that design of Sauron came along some alcohol was involved.
So… we followed the instincts and started drinking and while we're not fully yet under the spell of motherland's distillation we kept brainstorming about other movies that have used the eye to portrait a story. Sort of Wilson beach ball in Castaway.
Alcohol has a profound effect on the complex structures of the brain. It blocks the chemicals between the brain cells, leading to the common and often immediate symptoms of slurred speech, poor memory, and slowed reflexes.
Given the fact that I wasn’t slurring more than my usual and Victoria was no less bad memory sector than her normal. We figured to binge-watch Sci-Fi clips from IMDB in search of inspiration while keep pumping the alcohol through our USB port that was connected to our mouth. Yes, we had a USB hub given that we didn’t want to share the glass! I know, I know… Don’t ask!
People in the know about the effects of alcohol on the brain say that If heavy drinking continues over a long period of time, the brain adapts to the blocked signals by responding more dramatically to certain brain chemicals (called neurotransmitters).
In the movie The Social Network the rivers of alcohol seemed to be working so we kept indulging in search of the holy grail of the true eye for CLOUD.IA.
That’s when HAL9000 popped up, clearly at the point of slurred speech. The one suggesting was me, therefore Victoria had to object to the proposal with a sequence of sounds, grunts that I am sure have meaning in some parallel universe. Since I couldn’t fully understand her, not sure if I was impaired with earring or she was impaired by speech. However, Google Intoxicated Wife Translator came to the rescue, and ultimately her concern became clear.
HAL had ONE expression only. I was about to object when she had already drawn in detail her supportive answer.
She was right, I am always wrong. The universe was in balance once again and in the favor of all wives on the planet and surrounding galaxies.
Vickie’s expression switched from this eye look
To this more friendly and drink welcoming mood
See, the eye tells everything about people, bots, and towers on fire named Sauron.
We kept drinking and searching for more ideas, not necessarily better, some critics may add.
The same people in the know about the influence of drinking, say that after alcohol leaves the system, the brain continues over activating the neurotransmitters, causing painful and potentially dangerous withdrawal symptoms.
At this point, we were confident that an eye standing on its own wasn’t enough to represent CLOUD.IA. Yet it had to be a definitive eye. However, a major step forward had been taken, her “body” was going to be a CRT monitor!
I can’t exactly remember how I was able to design in 3D while drinking the cheapest vodka we had saved for cooking… But I clearly remember that the 3D digital world made complete sense while under the influence. Which literally never does when I am sober and I don’t drink close enough to make it count! #mindblowing #realization
Fusion 360, Blender and all other 3D software companies out there should provide a barrel of vodka for every subscription renewal!
Prior to the thought about the CRT monitor, I was thinking of having the eye moving on its own but I was halted in that line of thoughts when I didn’t know how to give a body to an eye that is on a pedestal. That’s when the vodka did it again, I made the eye self expand with spider legs!
Unfortunately, as it was pointed out by Victoria, it “looks evil” to which I had ideas on how to remedy. Unfortunately, her comment was followed by “plus Margot and I HATE spiders”. If you are married and made it past your 50s, you have learned that when a word is stressed with a higher pitch, whatever the subject, it has already been vetoed. The only possible action to be undertaken is to stop talking, have another shot, accompanied with “honey you are right”. After Corona exploded and people were locked down in homes with their families those were are the only ones approved by the World Health Organization.
Summing it up
We’re going for an omnipresence feeling. You know that CLOUD.IA is there but you can’t pin it to one body, but rather to a voice and a feeling.
We will be using a CRT monitor with a faded UNIX cursor color to communicate with others when no speakers are on. And like all babies coming to life, eyes speak before the nightly cries.
There will be a gradual promotion of the eye’s evolution along with several expressions. Starting with just plain text, then ASCII playful forms until a full CGI style evolves.
In the next episode of how the sauce is made, I will go more in-depth about what this experience will look like. I hope you enjoyed the style and information of the post. Let us know in the comments your ideas, thoughts, and whatnot.
Between a shot of vodka and some NFTs don’t hesitate and have a bLife movement, trust me that you won’t regret it. Aloha.
The bLife Movement™ founders.
🌴 Have a bLife moment, every day and for no reason whatsoever 🤙🏽
