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ourflagmeansgayrights · 2 years

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ways i want stede to be taken down a notch by his crew in season 2:

stede was only the captain of The Revenge because he had money. he did nothing to earn his position elon musk, anybody? but in season 2 he doesn't have that anymore. i would love a conversation where the crew really spells out for stede that they don't owe him shit. i would really love a full episode abt stede proving to the crew that he's worth following. just more building on the scene from episode 9 where the crew is standing up for him and stede says the bit about "a people-positive management style." really dig into what actually makes a good leader, and what about stede's personality that makes him actually worth following.

i want to see stede really come to terms with olu's line about "we don't do this because we like it, we do this because we don't have any other choice." in the first episode stede blew past this line because he was still operating on wilful ignorance ("some of us thrive on danger!"), and then it was immediately overshadowed by stede realizing his life was literally in danger. he never really thought about what it meant to not have any choice about this lifestyle. and now that he doesn't have all his money, he's got a lot less options than before, but he still has a connection to high society that the rest of his crew doesn't.

sort of in the same vein: stede realizing the privilege of being able to read. when lucius tells him none of the other crew members can read, stede sort of... scrunches his face in disgust?? which is crazy to me. literally what kind of people did he think became pirates???

yknow what actually the last two things can be summed up as just: stede realizes how much harder everyone else's life has been. maybe like, an episode where we see how stede ended up hiring everyone, what they told him when they were applying to the job versus the real reasons they ended up on The Revenge. god this could easily be done in a parody of real-life modern interviews: "why do i want this job? oh, i'm just really passionate about this field and i love being a pirate so much! i'm totally a team player and i love working for long hours and living with my life literally constantly in danger :)" and stede is just like "wow! you sound like a real go-getter!"

would like to see stede and the gang trying to steal a ship, and stede realizing how much of a leg up he started with by building his own fucking ship. i mentioned this a bit here but i will truly never get over this. he built his ship. he built his ship. literally what kind of pirate builds their fucking ship. what the actual fuck. yeah calico jack is an asshole but he literally had a point where he called stede a store-bought pirate.

last but not least: i need the crew to give stede shit for making the Black men on his crew pretend to be slaves in the first episode. this bit, more than anything else, is what i want to see addressed next season. maybe tie it in to the first thing on this list: stede is coming up with a plan, and it involves pretending to have money, and as he's coming up with the strategy he tells olu and roach "and you'll pose as my help again" and they both decide "actually, fuck that, we're not doing that shit again for you." they tell him how much that shit sucked, how degrading and uncomfortable that was, and they point out that he's not really their boss anymore. just... god i rlly want the crew to call him out for this.

basically, stede's growth in season one was learning about how the things he sees as his weaknesses (being non-violent, being emotional, being "feminine" because he likes clothes and flowers and fancy interior design) are at worst just neutral traits and at best are actually his biggest strengths, and coming to terms with how the fact that he didn't fit in his old life isn't just because he's not good enough, it's just not the world for him. i want his arc in season 2 to be about actually learning about this new world he's chosen to live in, learning that it's not just the thrilling adventure he thought it was, and basically just learning that his experiences are not universal.

#and like stede being privileged doesnt take away from the fact that the homophobia/toxic masculinity/general abuse he faced Sucked Ass #u can be privileged and still have trauma. yknow #anyway. how do ppl write thousands of words of meta on the regular ive made 2 posts today and i have shit i actually need to work on #ofmd #our flag means death #our flag means gay #ofmd meta #stede bonnet #stede fucking bonnet #og #txt #mine #meta #s2 predictions

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nityarawal · 5 months

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11/26/2023

Afternoon Songs

Got My Groceries

Got My Ramen

Staying In

Until Children

Come

Tires Leaking

Lexus Lemon

Who'd You Sell Me

To For AI

Rewind

Or BBVA

Google

Prototypes

Dr. Singh Says

Cybertrucks Weren't

Elegant Enough

With His 200k Bonus

He's Getting A Sports

Car

Why'd They Take Me

To Hospitals

To Discover My Car

Choice

Why'd They Sell Me

Out

At Moreno Valley

Hospital

To Learn About Solar

Ask About Elon

Do I know Of Grimesz

Lots Of People

Took My Data

For Several Years

Puzzle Pieces

Still Coming Together

The Physicists Lair

Was My Son Abducted

To Space X

Can't Anyone Tell Me

The Truth

Are My Kids Alive

Or Dead

Of Course I Want

To Move On

Re-Marry It's True

But I Have A Loyalty

To My Children

Parents

Won't Choose Without

Them

I Need Them Here

To Know Our Truth

If My Son Wants To

Go To Mars

And He's Still Strong

Enough

If My Daughter Wants

To Go

Than We Can Make

Another Universe

I Can't Commit

Without My Children

My First Loyalty

Is To Them

Been Waiting

7 Years

Need Their Safety

Immediately

Do You Know What

It's Like To Miss Mom

For Even A Day

Why'd All These Moms

Sell Me Out

Steal

For What They Can't

Pay

How Will We Punish

Them

For Hurting

#Nitya4Eternity

Shall We Send Them

Back

To Their Native Lands

These Girls Owe Me

Everything

Do I Take Their Kids

Jobs

Money Homes

Do I Take Everything

They Own

Lots Of Deserving

Moms

Needy Kids

Could We Ask The

Attorneys Of America

And The Government

Not To Come Anywhere

Near US

They Make Us Nervous

So Many Bots

Trolling Incoherent

Why'd Our Government

Support Trolls

A Man Is Not Deserving

Just Because

An Officer

A Man Not Deserving

Just Because

He Wants To Offer

A Man Is Deserving

Who Gets My Kids

Refunds Me

And All The Deserving

Committed Moms

Thankyou Please

Merci

Peace,

Nitya Nella Davigo Azam Moezzi Huntley Rawal

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nottobeadickoranything · 8 months

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I hate twitter so much I won't even use my google account to log on there, which as of its rebrand, is now thoroughly impossible to view anyones account. It only lets you view singular tweets if you have no way to log in. Dogshit place, Elon is a failure at everything he does and a liar about every aspect of his entire life.

Every single Californian resident since 2000 should class action Elon Musk for stealing our taxes and lying about how hyperloop being much better than our high speed light rail project. He's been nothing but a drain on CA's tax system. He owes me, you, everyone money.

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popwasabi · 3 years

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“The Other Guys” wants cops to go after the real criminals

Before director/writer Adam McKay pivoted into populist screed’s against capitalism and political corruption in films like “Vice” and “The Big Short” he was largely known as one of the many “dumb comedy” directors working in Hollywood.

In fact, with major productions such as “Anchorman,” “Talladega Nights,” and “Step Brothers” he could almost be billed as THE dumb comedy director or certainly THE Will Ferrell director at least.

(To a certain extent, THE John C. Reilly director too.)

Those movies are certainly divisive amongst some filmgoers, as you either fall into the “turn your brain off and laugh” category or the “this is pure nonsense” crowd. I’m somewhat in the middle on all of it but one McKay/Ferrell vehicle provided a bridge between the “dumb comedy” years and his more serious satires of American politics and that movie was 2010’s “The Other Guys.”

Billed as just another parody of buddy cop flicks, “The Other Guys” is a comedy that still holds up pretty well by today’s standards. Mark Wahlberg in many ways plays an unhinged caricature of every tough guy persona he has ever played in detective Hoitz and perhaps more brilliantly Ferrell, as detective Gamble, is allowed to be the straight man of the duo for change, finding humor in a more subdued performance. Together they form a kinetic duo that play hilariously well off each other in a film that is rarely dull from start to finish.

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(Flawless logic here in the famous Tuna vs Lion debate)

“The Other Guys” takes some decent shots at the violent nature of cop culture from excessive police overreach in the film’s hilarious opening scene to cops’ shoot first ask questions later approach with detective Hoitz backstory involving shooting Dereck Jeter during game 7 of the World Series. In between more typical Ferrell comedy flare involving hot wives and ex-wives, hobo sexy orgies, and TLC references there’s a lot of pointed, tongue-in-cheek humor at the police that one can find great humor in.

It’s a descent satire of the cop movie and the culture around law enforcement on this alone but McKay’s real target isn’t the police so much as it is who the police aren’t going after.

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(For the record, peacocks and cops, for that matter, don’t fly.)

2008 probably feels like eons ago to many of you at this point but it was the year I personally came of age. I had graduated high school, The Lakers were good again, “The Dark Knight” and “Iron Man” had just come out, I had hopes and dreams as I entered college at San Jose State and oh…the Great Recession had just started!

I’m not going to go into extreme detail here but our economy had it’s worse collapse since the Great Depression caused by the subprime mortgage crisis due to vast widespread failures in financial regulation, breakdowns in corporate governance, vast trading and over borrowing, housing bubbles bursting, and heads of businesses just vastly ill-equipped to handle their hubris in that moment.

Major businesses and banks were on the verge of collapsing and then at the last minute the US government passed a $700 billion, with a capital B, bailout to put them all back in the green.

Corporations like Bank of America, Citi Group, Morgan Stanley etc received between $10-$25 billion each for their struggles and were able to stay alive in the country’s ever worsening state. This was great, except 2.6 million average working-class people lost their jobs during this period, including my father.

By the way, a guy like Joseph Casano, an executive at AIG, got a $34 million bonus for helping lead companies such as his into the recession.

This is McKay’s real target in “The Other Guys.” The satirical cop humor is largely window dressing to draw audiences in to the theaters so that he can show all of them who the real criminals of this country are.

As the plot of the story starts to kick into full gear the more obvious culprits of a typical Hollywood cop movie are dismissed. Though Hoitz is convinced it’s more the usual cop movie style villains of “sex and drug traffickers” at first, Gamble slowly pieces together a plot of dastardly insider trading. What it ends up being is that the bad guy is really just a doofus hedge fund manager named David Ershon played comically by Steve Coogan who made one too many bad investments to bad people.

Ershon has put his people and the people he owes money to deeper into the red, not at all unlike the wealthy CEOs and bankers who messed up the country during the 2008 recession, and it has led him to take desperate action to get everyone’s money back. Ershon, of course, tries to get Hoitz and Gamble off his tale by bribing them in a variety of hilarious ways (one of the funnier sequences of the film) but eventually gets caught up with the SEC and those who prosecute white collar crime (who are unsurprisingly also in bed with the people he owes money to).

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(Somehow, I don’t think this is far off from reality...)

Hoitz and Gamble continue on the case but find that taking on white collar crime is…complicated to say the least but most importantly ineffectual as detailed in this scene.

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(Again, probably not far off from reality...)

The 2008 recession, wiped out millions of jobs, with rural parts of the country getting hit the hardest and in many ways still feeling the effects today. If you were a POC you were even more unlikely to not recover from the crash. Property values plummeted, student high education success rates dropped, opiod overdoses from “unemployment deaths” and many more awful things happened during this period of great economic distress.

And what happened to the folks largely responsible for causing this mess? They got a fat fucking payday and a dismissive finger wag largely by our own government.

“The Other Guys,” more or less, ends the same way. Despite putting away Ershon, the company he was swindling, who gambled their people’s money, was still bailed out by the US government. A real “happy ending” that is played as a dark, matter of fact, joke before the credits roll.

(Again, we laugh but how far off from reality is this really?...)

I graduated from college in 2013, tens of thousands in debt from student loans and trying to navigate a largely bereft job market where wages had largely not changed in as many years. In 2008 average rent cost about $850 a month, by 2013 it was $953, today in 2020 it’s $1,097. The average entry level salary (for a clerical/ office professional) between 2008 and 2018 went from $46,886 to $45,882 showing a decrease in value.

In 2008 the richest man in the world, Warren Buffet, was worth $64 billion. The richest man in 2020, Jeff Bezos, is worth $200 billion.

If the fact that Jeff Bezos is worth more than some countries on this planet doesn’t make you infuriated alone I don’t know what will.

Btw Buffet’s net worth increased as well to $79 billion himself, in case you think it’s “unfair” to compare him to Bezos.

Sometimes I think the reason people aren’t angrier about this worldwide is 1) a bunch of us think we are all one hard working day away from being filthy fucking rich ourselves, one of the many great lies of capitalism and 2) many of us don’t actually know just how big a BILLION dollars is, so here let me help you all out:

With COVID in 2020 we’re seeing it all happen again, just as it did in 2008. Record unemployment rates, small businesses closing, evictions skyrocketing because no one can pay rent and all we got for it was a $1,200 band-aid (assuming you did get yours). Meanwhile billionaire slugs like Bezos and Elon Musk saw their net worth rise sharply during this period, hell even the fucking Lakers got a $4.6 million dollar “small business” loan (though they did return it…only after getting caught…).

The highest sum of cash ever stolen from a bank was $18.1 million (equivalent to roughly $30.1 million now) in 1997. These are the people cops and other “loose cannons” in popular actions movies are usually running up against. If you think stealing $30.1 million is a lot of money worth sending the cops over then $700 billion of our own tax dollars given to people who ruined the lives of millions of Americans should make you fucking furious. The only real difference here is one was made legal by our own elected government.

Adam McKay’s “The Other Guys” may be on its surface just another “dumb comedy” that mostly satirizes cops, but its villains are very real and unfortunately as American as apple pie. Under capitalism our labor only continues to get devalued every year (even the skilled positions), while the richest 1% of the human race only get fatter with their wealth. Things are only getting more expensive and the working man is getting priced out of more and more daily luxuries and even essentials. This way of life is not sustainable, especially for our environment which these dragons continue to plunder, and eventually we will need to actually hold our overlords accountable for letting it get this far.

If we don’t, they will continue to steal every penny in our pocket and bleed us dry until the next disposable drone can fill our place. If law enforcement won’t take this on, sooner or later we might have to…

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Remember, pimps don’t cry...

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informationactionradio · 5 years

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Someone Else’s Babeh </3

Concept: You bump into your favourite superstar Alex Turner with his girlfriend Taylor Baggs in a super cool exclusive night club where you’re out with your best friend Alexa. Taybaggs a threesome but Alex has other ideas.... :)

It’s Saturday night in High Green, Sheffield, England, and Y/N is so pumped to go to the amazing cool new nightclub called YOU’RE MY TOP with her best friend Alexa Vandenberg who she has known since she was 3 years old!!! “Alexa I’ve known you for so long this is crazy we are basically twins everyone has always said so” you shout over the loud sound of the queue “Oh my god Y/N I know ever since that first day we met in kindergarten we have been best friends!! :)”.

The line quickly moves along and Y/N pulls her ID out of her alligator skin shoulder bag while pushing her light brown curtain fringe out of her eyes to see the bouncer’s face clearly “Ow do gehls? Ay up, ‘ed in now tha” he says.

Y/N and Alexa walk confidently into the room, their matching Topshop stiletto shoes stepping in time to the beat of the indie music playing in the club. They weren’t like the other popular girls in their school; they were outsiders and they listened to bands other people had never heard of and didn't fit in. Yeh could say, like, they were nowt post-mix lemonade n’tha.

Suddenly! Y/N faints on the dance floor “OH NO!” mutters Alexa.

“EEH BY GUM! Shuft up everehbodeh, get a’gate tha, this gehl has fallen on’t floor” a voice exclaimed from across the club. Alexa rushed to her fallen princess on the illuminated dance floor. Y/N began to stir and opened her eyes to see a pair of beautiful sparkling brown eyes staring as deep as the pacific ocean into hers. She recognised those eyes immediately; they were the eyes of celebrity superstar Alex Turner from the Arctic Monkeys, her favourite band ever. She owned every t-shirt and knew the lyrics to every song and knew them before they were popular. Y/N was the biggest Arctic Monkeys fan ever and now she was finally meeting the man she had followed for years, it was like a dream come true.

“Yeh alright there babeh? Yehr lookin’ a littul rig-welted down thereh” Alex smiled kindly and he looked like he would take care of her, she wished he could take care of her forever. “Yes Alex I feel great now” she smiled as he helped her stand up and the whole club stopped dancing and clapped for them. It was so romantic. Y/N forgot about Alexa and headed to the bar with Alex “I’ll buy yeh a Tropical Reef luv, only two pound fifteh”. He was so thoughtful way more thoughtful than all the other guys.

All of a sudden Y/N saw a tall person wade through the crowd towards Alex. She was carrying a dog you hoped was sleeping. She was wearing a pink cowboy hat and neon green cowboy boots and she had an angry look on her face... “Oh my god Alex who is this then??” she said. Alex turned around looking super cool and calm as he always did “calm down lass, this poor gehl Y/N done gone and fehnted on’t dance floor just now and am tryna hydreht er”.

Suddenly Taylor jumped, her dog woke up and she was seemingly surprised it had started moving again. “OK guys we should take Y/N back to our place I have some good ideas and also Scooter wants to go ok let’s go” she grabbed both your hands and suddenly you were at their house. You were so drunk you didn’t remember the taxi ride but Alex said Elon Musk himself was driving the Tesla! In High Green how cool was - that!

You and Alex were sat on the sofa. You admired all his awards in his cabinet, his model hotels that he had built in his spare time, and his computer which looked like it came fresh out the 1990s. Alex was so cool and not like the other boys he was different, he actually cared and was cool . to know. “OK guys so should we have a threesome” announced Taylor as she walked into the room wearing Alex’s Riddler costume from the previous Halloween. “OMG Taylor I told u not to wear that” Alex said as he began crying because Taylor stole his Riddler costume from the previous Halloween.

Y/N thought, right that’s it. She can’t make Alex cry his music has done so much for me and also it was so mean for her to steal that! “Taylor I’m making a stand. I’ve had a lot of people in my life who have been mean to me I’ve had a hard life I don’t want Alex to be your doormat for you to step on in your ugly cowboy boots” Taylor was so shocked she dropped her glass of $15000 red wine on the pristine white carpet.....

Y/N suddenly fainted again on the white carpet........

To be continued.....

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blograzorwit · 6 years

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Jest A Minute (23/2/2018) from Subroto Mukherjee

Anatomical Experiment--------------------------------------- So what did you do on V-Day? A couple of medical students told me they spent the day in medical studies -- doing anatomical experiments. Like what? Like lying next to each other to see how well their own anatomies could coincide! *** Swine Flew-------------------- The huge hanky-panky at the banky, the latest big fat bank scam involving jewelers, pen makers and who not -- you know how I see it? I see it as a case of swine flu. Or rather swine flew. I mean, before our authorities could detain those scheming, scamming swines, the swines flew out of the country. *** Gem of a Jeweler---------------------------- I am already scripting a thriller, a film in which our Indian agent Gems Bond goes abroad to hunt down a gem of a jeweler called Nirav Modi. Not only that. After tracking down this jeweler, our Bond hits the jeweler where it hurts the most -- in his family jewels! *** My Own Trusted Bank------------------------------------ If any greedy pig (with contacts in high places) can steal the money I keep in my trusted national bank, then this is what I will be doing now : keep my money in my own trusted bank at home -- my piggy-bank. *** Bankers and Bunkers------------------------------------ Over 1 lakh crore! Yes, this is the eye-popping amount that countless willful defaulters owe our banks. It has become a case of bankers and bunkers. Taking loans from bankers and doing a bunk abroad to hunker down in a safe bunker in some overseas tax haven. You know, we have a good laugh when some politico, bureaucrat or official gets caught with his foot in the mouth. Now it would give us the same pleasure to see such defaulters getting caught with their foot in the mouth of our watchdogs (ED, the CBI, etc). *** Serial Groom------------------------ So what else is new? Yawn-yawn-yawn, Imran Khan got married again. So I say to our own Shashi Tharoor, buck up, man, and do something or this Pakistani stud-boy/playboy will leave you behind as a serial groom. I hope this marriage lasts. I mean, going by the track record of Imran's married life, I hope this marriage lasts -- at least till the end of this month! After all, his last marriage barely lasted to the end of the honeymoon (or as I prefer to call it, the horny-moon). *** Sex Pistol!------------------- Here's Trump's great solution to crazed, armed killers barging into US schools : teachers should carry guns. What next? Kids should start packing pistols in their school bags? I suspect this idea sprang from Mr Trump's own colorful past when -- well armed -- he used to date the ladies (including porn stars and Playboy bunnies). I mean, well armed with what can be described as a sex pistol! *** Poor Innocent Trump-------------------------------- Poor Donald Trump is now playing the Donald Duck -- ducking for cover!They (Trump haters) are now really digging up his past and finding his extra-marital links to porn stars, Playboy bunnies and what not! Here is how I look at it. Did Mr Trump go out with those ladies? NO! As far as I am concerned, he just went out for a sandwich -- which is the absolute truth! (Because he got himself sandwiched between a porn star and a Playboy bunny!) *** Shame on you, Uncle------------------------------------ Today the US is the mightiest military and economic power in the world. You bet, Uncle Sam is the all-powerful Mafia Don, the Big Boss ruling over this planet as its Godfather. He can impose his will on any country, usurp the lion's share of this planet's natural resources and even merrily dump his waste on the rest of us! He can do anything, get anything and get away with anything! He can hang despots like Saddam and toss arch-enemies like Osama bin Laden to the sharks in the sea. He can stop communism in Eastern Europe and terrorism in the Mid East. He can stop anything that's against his interests and anyone who is against him. Only one thing he CANNOT stop! He cannot stop his own home-grown crazed terrorists from targeting his own poor innocent school children! *** Indo-Canada Human Traffic------------------------------------------ The Canadian First Family is here in India on a visit. A big welcome to them. Indo-Canadian ties couldn't be better than ever before. The only concern (for Canada at least) could be the one-way human traffic. I mean, given the number of Indians moving to Canada, there could soon be more Indians in Canada than in India! *** The Real Sparklers------------------------------ I tell you, the Trudeaus have to be the cutest First Family in the world. Did you see them posing for pictures at the Taj and the Akshardham Temple, spinning the charkha at Sabarmati Ashram and, best of all, rolling rotis at the Golden Temple? While in Mumbai, they met our Bollywood folks at a get-together and, guess what, they emerged as the real sparkling stars of the event, leaving our film star (even top ones from Aamir to SRK) looking like scruffy extras on a film set! *** Sunny Effects------------------------- Heard this? In AP, a farmer has installed a life-size image of Sunny Leone in his crop field. Now the crops (which were wilting and sagging before) are standing erect! And the farmer's stud-bull is fit to be tied it's getting so horny! *** Jumping Outta One's Skin------------------------------------------ Hoo boy, Bollywood's Jumping Jack is in the news after a long, long time. And for what? Ha, for jumping into the bed of (oh my God) a female relative half a century ago! Just imagine his awful fright! This skeleton from a long, forgotten past suddenly popping out of the closet must have made our poor Jumping Jack jump right out of his skin! *** Rotten State--------------------- Turns out that around 11,700 employees who got jobs with our Maha State Government did so through fake SC/ST certificates! Can you believe that? Hey, since we live in India, I SURE CAN! You know what, Hamlet knew nothing -- NOTHING -- when in that play of Shakespeare he lamented the rotten state of Denmark. 4 centuries later, he should have been around today to see the rotten state of affairs in our local state! *** Hit And Run In Space?------------------------------------- Elon Musk just sent his sporty Roadster automobile rocketing into space! Is it any wonder aliens living in far, far galaxies don't care to come anywhere near our planet, solar system or galaxy? They fear if they come anywhere near our part of the cosmos, they will get hit by the missiles we keep test-firing into the sky. Or, one minor error on someone's part and our collective stockpile of nukes will blow not only us but them poor aliens as well out of existence! And now those poor aliens have another fear. If they venture anywhere near our galaxy, they will get run over by Elon Musk's hit-and-run sports car recklessly racing though space! *** Let's Not Meet By Accident!-------------------------------------------- Pretty hair-raising stuff, you know! The other day, two airliners nearly collided over Mumbai airport! They missed each other by bare seconds! The pilot of one plane later told the pilot of the other plane : "Nice to meet you BUT NOT LIKE THIS -- IN MID AIR -- NEARLY BY ACCIDENT!" *** Bollywood's Idiots------------------------------- According to a recent piece in our local tabloid Mumbai Mirror, there are Bollywood celebs who are into black magic, voodoo and such mumbo jumbo rubbish! They use such witchcraft to cast curses on hated rivals! Also they believe it will deflect jinxes being put on them by rivals! I believe nothing could be more STUPID than being such SUPERSTITIOUS FOOLS! You know, Elon Musk is searching for intelligent life in outer space. I feel I have something in common with him. I am searching for intelligent life right here in Bollywood! *** Hard To Face Facts-------------------------------- Girls drinking beer are a concern to the Goa CM. I'd like to reassure the honorable chief minister that whisky may be RISKY but with beer, have no FEAR. *** Groovy New Drink----------------------------- And, to sign off with cheers, we hear that UP will bottle and market cow urine as a zingy new health drink! Wow! Let me tell you, this is bad news for germs and good news for us. I mean, the moment we take a sip of this fizzy new cola, all the germs in our guts will leave our body -- IN SHEER DISGUST! ***

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vennomax · 6 years

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South Korea: Ideal breeding ground for Robots

New Post has been published on http://www.vennomax.com/technology/south-korea-ideal-breeding-ground-for-robots/

South Korea: Ideal breeding ground for Robots

Tech-savvy, community-minded and intensely pragmatic, Koreans might be more eager than many markets to view artificial intelligence as part of the solution, not the problem.

At Incheon International Airport (ICN), outside South Korea’s capital Seoul, a team of congenial staff will help you find your boarding gate or escort you to the nearest lounge. They’re well trained, well behaved and quadrilingual to boot – but they’re not so good at small talk. That’s because they’re robots.

The robotic airport guides, developed by Korean tech titan LG Electronics, have been working alongside human employees since the end of July 2017. Standing 1.4m tall, they move autonomously on a wheelbase, display an LCD information screen and navigate using cameras and ultrasonic, laser and edge sensors. They can also recognise voice and process language.

They’re not the only robots to be making headlines in South Korea, as the country prepares to host the upcoming 2018 Winter Olympics from 9-25 February in the north-eastern city of Pyeongchang.

Others include Hankook Mirae Technology’s towering Method-2, proclaimed to be the world’s first manned bipedal robot, and DRC-HUBO, a humanoid robot with transformer capabilities, created by the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology and 2015 winner of the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) Robotics Challenge. LG has also developed another airport robot, a cleaner that uses mapping and obstacle-avoidance technology to calculate the most efficient pathways and keep the space sparkling.

Robots and related solutions are not just new gadgets, but key technologies to support humans

South Korea, along with its easterly neighbour Japan, has for many years been known for its cutting-edge intelligent designs, having already deployed robotic teachers, industrial manufacturing workers and service staff. Together, they make up a futuristic workforce where autonomous devices are stepping in to fill human roles.

“In our view, artificial intelligence, robots and related solutions are not just new gadgets, but key technologies to support humans,” said Jae-myoung Hong, senior engineer in LG’s Smart Solutions Division. “In some cases, robots may perform jobs that are too dangerous or too complicated for regular workers.”

While South Korea is hurtling toward a brave new world, it’s rooted in a familiar old one, too. It is that ancient heritage, replete with animals who have their own hopes and dreams, trees with souls and mountains with spirits, that may have, in some way, helped influence South Korea’s modern technology.

The innovation powerhouse might not even exist today – at least if Korean folklore has anything to say about it – if it weren’t for one bear who was as persistent as she was optimistic.

The innovation powerhouse might not exist today if it weren’t for one bear

This bear, more than 4,300 years ago, was high atop a mountain with a tiger. They both longed to be human. Taking pity on them, the son of the Lord of Heaven gave them two sacred foods, garlic cloves and mugwort, and told them to ration the supply and stay out of the sun for 100 days. Impatient, the tiger quickly quit. The bear, though, made it to the end of the challenge, transforming into a woman who went on to marry the son of the Lord of Heaven and give birth to a son of her own. Named Dangun, he took the throne and became the ruler of the land.

And so, the Korean kingdom owed its creation to an animal who achieved very human aspirations.

The nation’s foundation myth, celebrated every 3 October, is just one in a collection of animist legends that form a cornerstone of the country’s oldest religion: shamanism. Even today, shamanist attitudes remain “embedded” in the Korean psyche, influencing “business, politics and everyday lives,” according to Kwang-yeong Shin, professor of sociology at Chung-ang University in Seoul.

Any kind of non-human being might have a spiritual or super power beyond human capacity

In the Korean shamanist faith, many of whose core elements have been incorporated into Buddhism, it’s not unusual to think that a passing bird could carry the reincarnated soul of your dead uncle, or even that a meaningful memento or particularly beloved musical instrument might have sacred spirits of their own. “We can think that any kind of non-human being might have a spiritual or super power beyond human capacity, whether it is a natural object or artificial object,” Shin told me.

All of which makes the idea of other non-humans – such as robots – adopting human qualities not exactly cause for alarm in South Korea.

“It makes sense that animistic features of shamanism might go well with robots, which are not living agents but have some characteristics of human beings,” said Dong-kyu Kim, a shamanism scholar at Sogang University’s Institute for the Study of Religion.

In this way, ancient spirituality may have primed the Korean people to be more culturally and socially open-minded to autonomous devices than perhaps Westerners. Armed with this accepting attitude, South Korea became an ideal breeding ground, and consumer market, for advanced robotics innovation.

In 2016, South Korea sold more than 41,000 robots, second most on the planet, according to the International Federation of Robotics (IFR). That’s nearly half as many as China, which is more than 25 times as populous and 95 times as big. In fact, South Korea has the highest level of industrial robot density in the world. In the manufacturing industry, there are 631 robot workers for every 10,000 human employees, reports IFR. And in the automotive industry, 2,145 for every 10,000.

There are 631 robot workers for every 10,000 human employees

Some Koreans do feel concerned this will result in fewer jobs for themselves, but in the minds of many, the concern stops there. “Mass media anticipated many Korean people… would lose their jobs. However, that was it,” Kim said. “Since then, it is rare to hear about worry regarding robots.”

Meanwhile in the US, consider the doomsday scenarios depicted in mainstream cinema, from The Terminator to The Matrix to I, Robot, and by the apocalyptic discourse of some of the nation’s tech leaders, like Elon Musk. (According to a recent Pew Research survey, 72% of Americans are in fact very or somewhat worried about the future of automation.)

So, while some people may feel anxious that robots will not only steal all their jobs, but also develop a superior and unstoppable intelligence, stage a coup and, in a Frankenstein-like fate, destroy the very people who created them, Koreans just aren’t that panicked.

Of course, it’s much more complex than that. Koreans have always recognised a certain necessity, too.

After the Korean War, which ended in 1953, the country’s government set out to pull itself out of poverty by putting its manufacturing sector front and centre. That precipitated the need to develop high-tech innovation and a highly skilled workforce – both of which helped make South Korea the economic success story it is today. Indeed South Korea has ranked as the world’s most innovative economy for the past four years in a row, according to the Bloomberg Innovation Index, and the country spent more than any other on research and development in 2014, when measured by share of GDP, reports the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Tech-savvy, community-minded and intensely pragmatic, Koreans might be more eager than many markets, then, to view artificial intelligence as part of the solution, not the problem. Instead of worrying about an AI apocalypse, they’re figuring out how robots can make their lives better, helping to solve a vast range of social troubles from the very small to the large and looming.

LG, for example, is working to develop more and more types of robots that can optimise both the home – from autonomous lawnmowers to smart appliances – and beyond, including hotels, shopping malls, tourist centres and other public spaces. “Our goal is to identify areas where automated devices can add the most value,” said Hong, who expects some of the company’s robots to be ready for commercial release within the next one to two years.

Future applications of robotics innovation could also make it possible for South Korea to not only replace a workforce that’s rapidly aging and retiring, but also care for it. And, perhaps even more urgently, artificial intelligence could play an increasingly important role in defending the country’s DMZ border with North Korea, which has already seen the deployment of semi-autonomous sentries like the SGR-A1, first developed by Samsung.

Back in Incheon, where the robot guides are about to finish their pilot programme, the airport is preparing to welcome some of them as full-time workers in early 2018. So if you happen to find yourself at ICN, keep an eye out for a merry, if mechanical, guide, who will be more than happy to show you around.

BBC.

#Artificial Inteligence #Robots #South Korea

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