First All-Artificial Feature Film Released

Hugh "Nomad" Hancock writes "Machinima.com have just released the DVD version of Killer Robot, award-winning filmmaker Peter Rasmussen's buddy movie about two mining robots who set out to protect their "meat-sack" masters from a master mining robot gone insane. The twist here is not only that it's Machinima, made in 3D Game Studio, but that even the actor's voices are computer-generated using programs like Festival, making this possibly the world's first all-artificial movie."

Comments

For More Machinima goodness...

[Apocalypse111]

Go check out www.redvsblue.com The funniest Halo stuff you'll see outside a warthog jumping contest.

People are confused

[NEOtaku17]

Most of the posts so far are pointing out that because it was not made by AI it is not a completely artificial movie. What they are trying to say is that it is the first completely artificial movie product(basically when you see the movie there aren't any real traces of human actors/voiceactors).

Silicon

[Anonymous Coward]

Just for the record, there is a big difference between silicon and silicone.

Silicon: is a non-metallic element used in the manufacture of electronic components like Integrated circuits, as well as glass and many other things. In its raw for it is rather like sand.

Silicone: is a rubbery or liquid compound which includes silicon as one of its primary components. Silicone is used for rubber materials including molded plastics, sealants or caulks, and breast implants.

Silicon != Silicone

Silicon/Silicone - more specifically

[Rei]

More specifically, silicon is an element, and silicone is a molecule.

Silicone is a chain of ...-Si-O-Si-O-Si-O..., with two electrons available from each Silicon for bonding (typically with hydrogen, but you can add most functional groups there and still get a stable molecule). While it is most famous as a lubricant in standard long pure chains of Si, O, and H, it gets a lot more interesting, chemically, when you start replacing the hydrogens (just like hydrocarbon chains do ;) ).

You can make pure Si chains, but they don't get very long before they fall apart. Silicon comes in two primary forms: amorphous and crystaline.

Other common silicon-based terms:
Silicates: Silicates are primarily SiO4 tetrahedral structures (compared to Silicone which is usually in chains - think of it as the difference between diamond and petroleum). Probably their most useful form, industrially, are zeolites (wherein one of the silicons is relaced by a metal ion); these have all sorts of useful absorbative, catylitic, and even superacid properties in some cases.

Silanes: Chains of silicon bonded to hydrogen; the simplest form (often called simply "silane") is SiH4, and is roughly a silicon equivalent of methane, apart from the fact that it spontaneously combusts in normal atmospheric conditions. They are less stable than silicone and their hydrocarbon equivalents in general, although this can be remedied by having functional groups being involved (organosilanes). Silanes are very useful in sealants and paints, as well as their electrical and optical properties.

Silanols: Silanes with an OH; generally being water-soluable, they are widely common in earth's oceans, and have all sorts of interesting chemical properties and bonding structures naturally. More than anything else, silanols have led to speculation that silicon-based life could be possible on other planets. They can form hydrogen-bonded membrane-like sheets, various catylitic complexes, etc.

Various types of silicon compounds can also form rings as carbon chains do, although you won't get any benzene-style rings (also, silicon resists double and triple bonding as well).