Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
" I try to sit down at the typewriter four times a day, even if it's only five minutes, and write three sentences. And if I feel like going on, or if something turns me on I'll just keep writing till I'm written out."
- Roger Zelazny
 |
| Synthespian | ||
| A synthetic media personality. |
The word "synthespian" appears in Gibson's work, but was coined by Jeff Kleiser. Kleiser and Diana Walczak created the first digital actor for their 1988 short film Nestor Sextone for President.
The film Final Fantasy is almost entirely populated by digital actors, but has an astonishing realism. The liquid-metal robot for Terminator II is another example.
| "What did Blackwell mean, last night, about Rez wanting to marry a Japanese girl who isn't real?"
"Idoru," Yamazaki said... "'Idol-singer.' She is Rei Toei. She is a personality-construct, a congeries of software agents, the creation of information-designers. She is akin to what I believe they call a 'synthespian,' in Hollywood." |
| From Idoru,
by William Gibson. Published by Putnam in 1996 Additional resources -
|
See a brief excerpt of Nestor Sextone at about 2:00 minutes into the following video.
"Max Headroom was written and directed by Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel (now of MJZ) and they used Matt Frewer in makeup to represent a CG character. We were poking fun at them in Nestor Sextone for President: Nestor is running for president of the synthetic actors guild, and promising that humans in makeup will no longer take work away from synthetic actors." - Jeff Kleiser
This term is somehow reminiscent of Robert Heinlein, for me. It is a portmanteau word combining "synthetic" and "thespian" (actor). See Idoru for additional information.
Compare to Adam Selene from Robert Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (1966).
Comment/Join this discussion ( 2 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Idoru
More Ideas
and Technology by William Gibson
Tech news articles related to Idoru
Tech news articles related to works by William Gibson
Synthespian-related
news articles:
- Emily Lifelike Animation Sets New Standard
- James Cameron's Avatar Synthespians
- Synthespian Wannabe: Tron Legacy's Jeff Bridges
- Disney Keeps Backups Of Star Wars Franchise Actors
- Xinhua AI Anchor Puts CGI Face To Automated News
| BabyX AI Real Enough For You |
| Someday, You Might Like VR Enough To Move In |
| Gatebox Virtual Girlfriend Perfect For Budding Salaryman |
| Sophie, Your Virtual Assistant |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
'... the young men in the streets who applied polyimde OLED body film to their bared shoulders.'
'Bioengeering had put out a spec report on the long crawly things five months back.'
'The air-taxi found its way past and around other ground-cars...'
'They tried to use it today and it wouldn't work. No colors and no ceph patterns, neither one...'
'Cerebral Electromagnetic Emmission Amplification and Relay System — call it artificial telepathy, if you like.'
'[It] caused his televised image... to mouth the vowels and consonants beautifully.'
'There was almost no sound, just a steady velvety whirr as the taxi sped along.'
Life imitates anime art.
