The Atlantic | Neal Stephenson’s Most Stunning Prediction
The sci-fi legend coined the term metaverse. But he was most prescient about our AI age. By Matteo Wong
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notfromhere@lemmy.ml 6 months agoAccording to Le Chat,
The author you’re thinking of is Neal Stephenson, and the book is “Snow Crash” published in 1992. In the book, he coined the term “ractors” for actors who perform in front of motion-capture cameras to create lifelike animations. He also predicted the use of CGI and AI in filmmaking to create movies with long-dead actors.
14th_cylon@lemm.ee 6 months ago
perishthethought@lemm.ee 6 months ago
<cough> William Gibson <cough>
perishthethought@lemm.ee 6 months ago
Oh snap, thanks - I was mixing up The Diamond Age with another book, yes. Ractors are from Stephenson, but I also had another author’s books in my head. See? Feeble mind. There’s still another woman author I need to track down and re-read here.
perishthethought@lemm.ee 6 months ago
Aha! I found it –
Remake by Connie Willis
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remake_(novel)
Remake is a 1995 science fiction novel by Connie Willis. It was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1996. The book displays a dystopic near future, when computer animation and sampling have reduced the movie industry to software manipulation.
Great book, well worth reading still.
GammaGames@beehaw.org 6 months ago
I asked Perplexity with “What is the scifi book from the 90s that had “ractors,” where a person would act in front of a camera and a computer would animate a CG model?”and got (what other commenters are saying) is the correct answer:
The science fiction book from the 90s that featured “ractors,” where a person would act in front of a camera and a computer would animate a CG model, is not directly mentioned in the provided search results. However, based on the description of “ractors” and the context of computer animation and CG models, it seems you might be referring to “The Diamond Age” by Neal Stephenson, published in 1995. In this novel, the term “ractor” (short for “interactive actor”) is used to describe performers who participate in interactive theater through virtual reality environments, which could align with the concept of acting in front of a camera to animate a CG model. However, since this specific detail is not found in the search results, this answer is based on existing knowledge outside of the provided sources.
Sources [1] [PDF] TEAM LinG - The Swiss Bay theswissbay.ch/…/Thinking_Animation_Bridging_Gap_… [2] CG Historical Timeline – Computer Graphics and Computer Animation …pressbooks.pub/…/cg-historical-timeline/ [3] Psychological Impact and Influence of Animation on Viewer’s Visual … www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9453061/ [4] 3D film - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_film [5] Sci-fi interfaces | Stop watching sci-fi. Start using it. scifiinterfaces.com [6] Looking for SciFi novels where people are turned / copied into AIs - Reddit reddit.com/…/looking_for_scifi_novels_where_peopl… [7] Reviews: Terminator 2: Judgment Day - IMDb www.imdb.com/title/tt0103064/reviews/ [8] Sci-fi room Challenge 2021 WIP - Personal Space Ration - CG Cookie cgcookie.com/…/11796-sci-fi-room-challenge-2021-w…
halm@leminal.space 6 months ago
It just cited the wrong Neal Stephenson book, so not way off.
perishthethought@lemm.ee 6 months ago
Great book, eh. So many interesting ideas presented in there.