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Picks: August

Hello everyone! Sorry there was such a delay in getting my reviews out, I was in Europe for two weeks so of course there was a slight delay in getting everything out. I'm back now though, so without further ado here are my picks for August!

Theme: Artificial Intelligence



Album: Kid A

Radiohead


Why I chose this Album: I've had my eyes on the theme of "Artificial Intelligence" for quite a while. Earlier this year during my own time I listened to the album "OK Computer" by Radiohead and was completely blown away by how good it was - and was told that this album, the direct sequel, was just as good. I've heard that it's one of the most influential albums of all time, the greatest left turn in history, and the most successful transition in style of any band ever. It's been built up a lot and I would've listened to it earlier had I not been doing YOC, but I knew from the beginning of the year that I wanted to pick this album for this specific theme. Now it's finally time for me to give it a listen, and I could not be more excited.

Film: Ex Machina

Alex Garland


Why I chose this Film: Can you think of a more fitting film for the theme of "Artificial Intelligence" than "Ex Machina"? Actually maybe you could, there are an abundance of movies about AI in popular culture nowadays, but I still think It's one of the definitive ones, and most important I have not seen "Ex Machina" yet! Having just watched "2001 a space odyssey" for the month of June, and "Her" being one of my favorite films of all time, "Ex Machina" is one of the last standing big budget, critically acclaimed Films revolving around AI that I have yet to see. I just hope it can be as thought provoking and engaging as the other two films I mentioned above. It has big shoes to fill.

Book: I, Robot

Isaac Asimov


Why I chose this Book: Lots of people know of the blockbuster film "I, Robot" staring Will Smith, but what many don't know is it's actually based on the 1950s novel by Isaac Asimov of the same name. It is a compilation of short stories taking place in post AI United States society, and offers great insight into how people for a long time have considered the evolution of AI in society would develop. It was actually pretty hard to find a novel whose narrative theme revolves around "Artificial Intelligence", but it not having much competition does not take away from the fact that I expect it to be a fantastic novel.

Game: NieR: Automata


Why I chose this Game: Back in 2017 a younger me was struggling to play browser games due to his Desktop being a piece of shit. He saved up some money, and decided to put it all towards buying a brand new gaming Desktop. The first game he wanted to play? "NieR: Automata". He gets everything set up, buys the game (at full price no less,) plugs in his controller, and? The controller doesn't work. This was enough (in addition to discovering Hollow Knight) for me to drop this game entirely, but now it's time to make my 2017 self happy and finally get around to this masterpiece. There were a lot of games I could have chosen for this theme as AI is about as over-saturated a theme as you can get in gaming, but none I wanted to play as much as "NieR". Originally I was going to play "Portal" so I could finally tick off puzzle game for the year, but it didn't fit into the theme of AI quite as well as I assume "NieR" will. It's been a long time coming, I just can't wait to finally see what all the hype is about.


...

And those are my picks for August! Hope you guys are excited for this theme, I've been waiting for it to come around for a while but didn't want it to be right after the theme of "Space" since they do overlap a bit. I'm still playing a bit of catchup on everything I missed while in Europe, I'm hoping to have my reviews for July come out a bit quicker than my reviews for June did. No promises though 😁. Next up is my review of Bohren & Der Club of Gore's "Black Earth".

Until then!

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