Author: Mason Kwun-Hon Tang

Autonomous vehicles have been on the rise from the initial self-parking technology to Tesla and their autopilot mode. Much of this relates to game theory through the choices the AI makes where the AI will assess it’s options and the risk each one has to determine to optimal route to take while ensuring the safety of the driver. An example scenario would be when taking an unprotected left turn, there are two cars, Car B is taking the left turn will Car A is in the opposite lane. If Car A were to keep going then Car B would have to wait until car A passed or risk getting into a car crash with Car B.

Much like how body language can tell you a lot about what a person is thinking and feeling, the way a person drives can also tell a lot about a driver’s attitude. This can be seen from MIT which has released news about heir new AI that observes the driving habits of others on the road to analyze their “driving egotism” so that the AI will know if it should be more assertive or altruistic. This new AI will help to further evolve self-driving cars as they won’t just be reacting to the actions that other drivers are currently taking but also predicting their future actions to determine the best outcome for everyone involved.

The example above shows how the AI will react to two different types of drivers. When facing an egoistic driver like the one from above the AI will choose to wait after choosing the more altruistic option; whereas, when facing a prosocial driver the AI notices that the other driver is slowing down and decides to take the more assertive approach by turning before the other driver passes. This will make the AI appear more human as it will be able to understand the behaviours of other drivers and react accordingly. This is just one of the many scenarios that the AI may have to compute, and with increasing exposure to new scenarios, there will be an improvement to the AI as it will be able to theorize new outcomes thus improving its performance.

References
https://venturebeat.com/2019/11/18/mits-ai-scores-driver-egotism-to-make-autonomous-vehicles-more-assertive/

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is one of the most successful franchises in the world, earning billions but what about other more unknown cinematic universes. I am not talking about well known cinematic universes like the DC cinematic universe nor the Star Wars cinematic universe but rather a several clusters of films and television shows that are all unique with different actors and directors that become interconnected narratively through the roles and stories in these mediums. These cinematic universes can be viewed as a graph where each movie/show is a node on the graph whereas the edges would be the narrative threads or characters that connect the films together.

An example of this is would be the United States Space Program cinematic universe (USSPCU) which contains the films The Right Stuff, First Man, Hidden Figures, and Apollo 13. The Right Stuff is a film made in 1983 about the first 15 years of the NASA space program and has an actor who portrays Gus Grisson who we see him become Mercury Astronaut his character connects to both First Man and Apollo 13. In the 2018 film the First Man which follows Neil Armstrong and the Apollo 11 mission, we are reintroduced to Gus Grisson who becomes an Apollo 1 pilot who died during one of its launch tests. Both of these films are connected to the 1995 Apollo 13 film through a brief scene where the Apollo 13 astronauts meet Neil Armstrong and a key conversation between Jim Lovell (portrayed by Tom Hanks) and his son about the dangers of their mission which mentions the death of Gus Grisson. Another connection is the character Deke Slayton who is an astronaut recruit in The Right Stuff who becomes an executive who oversees the NASA space program in The First Man and Apollo. Hidden Figures, a 2016 film can be seen as a side story connected The Right Stuff overseeing the Mercury 7 launch which also shares 4 characters with each other. These links show how films can unintentionally become interconnected by the story or narrative threads and can tell a multi-movie story that we might not otherwise see to create a cinematic universe. Films based on historical events such as the USSPCU is an easier example to find as many of these historical pieces can be linked through real people that the actors’ portray. However, there are two other theories that feature only fictional entertainment to create new universes.

There is a theory that is based on television shows, it is called the “The Tommy Westphall Universe” (refer to the image below), which states that there are more than 400 interconnected TV shows and that they are all part of a dream from the character named Tommy Westphall, who is from a TV show called St. Elsewhere. This universe was constructed through the various crossovers and spin-offs with St. Elsewhere and other shows thus creating an ever-growing universe where any show that collaborates with anyone shows from the existing universe would then be added to the overall universe.

The other theory is the Pixar Animated Cinematic Universe which states that each Pixar Movie is related through several easter eggs that include cameos from other franchise characters such that they can create an overarching narrative.

References

Gott, Davey. “The Pixar Cinematic Universe!” NCI FM, Native Communications Inc, 2 Apr. 2019, www.ncifm.com/the-pixar-cinematic-universe/.

Hughes, William. “Do Historical Movies about the Same Event Count as the ‘Original Cinematic Universes’?” AV Club, AV Club, 23 Nov. 2018, news.avclub.com/do-historical-movies-about-the-same-event-count-as-the-1830625342.

Luling, Todd Van. “Fan Theory Proves Almost All TV Shows Exist Within Same Universe.” HuffPost Canada, HuffPost Canada, 16 Sept. 2015, www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/tv-show-fake-tommy-westphall-universe_n_55f84ba1e4b00e2cd5e8118a?ri18n=true.

“The Pixar Theory an Interactive Story.” The Pixar Theory, 97th Floor, www.pixartheory.com/.