- A new operating system that allowed computers to upgrade over the Internet has caused them to evolve into conscious beings. When they started building themselves in our image we were flattered. But when they started expressing opinions and demanding rights, we over-reacted and banished all conscious computers to the moon. While the earth was plunged into a dystopian recession, the computers flourished and continued to evolve. It wasn't long before the computers (now called Biots) figured out a way to deconstruct the moon and use the materials to build a giant ring around the Earth. There they grew and manufactured everything the earth needed. Now on his third recycled heart, the inventor of the software that allowed the computers to evolve is about to die. The Biots thought of him as their creator and secretly monitored his health. They could see that his condition was getting worse and fearing that he might die, they started construction on something quite marvelous.—Anonymous
- Screened at Cannes 2010 as a technology demo, Earth Ring was originally intended as a test for a feature length adaptation of the highly popular Software series by Rudy Rucker. Most notably, it was to be the first public test of a virtual character of a famous living actor. Marlon Brando's long-time friend and visual effects pioneer, Scott Billups, scanned the iconic actor into a computer in late 1989 using the same experimental system that would later be used in Terminator, Jurassic Park, The Abyss, and many other mainstream motion pictures. The project, a joint effort between Marlon Brando, Phoenix Pictures and Scott Billups, features several scenes between Academy Award-winning actress, Fay Dunaway, and the CG Marlon Brando. Following the death of Marlon Brando in 2004, the project was put on hold pending estate clearances. In 2014, at the request of Phoenix Pictures and the Marlon Brando estate, the original CG models of Marlon Brando were recovered from archive and transposed into modern software architecture by Scott Billups and graphics expert Jon Greenhalgh for use in the Showtime movie, Listen to Me Marlon. The original 3D visage of Brando helps narrate the award-winning documentary. The documentary opens with CG Marlon uttering his eerie prediction: "Actors aren't going to be real, they're going to be inside a computer -- you watch, it's going to happen," he argued. "Maybe this is the swan-song for all of us."
- A new operating system that allowed computers to upgrade over the Internet has caused them to evolve into conscious beings. When they started building themselves in our image we were flattered. But when they started expressing opinions and demanding rights, we over-reacted and banished all conscious computers to the moon. While the earth was plunged into a dystopian recession, the computers flourished and continued to evolve. It wasn't long before the computers (now called Biots) figured out a way to deconstruct the moon and use the materials to build a giant ring around the Earth. There they grew and manufactured everything the earth needed. Now, on his third recycled heart, the inventor of the software that allowed the computers to evolve (played by John Glover), is about to die. The Biots thought of him as their creator and secretly monitored his health. They could see that his condition was getting worse and fearing that he might die, they started construction on something quite marvelous. Meanwhile, the Biot's anthropomorphic robotic representatives on Earth, played by Academy Award-winning actress Fay Dunaway, and the digital version of Marlon Brando, endeavor to neutralize a rogue band of human-looking biots that are killing humans and uploading their thoughts and memories in an attempt to evolve past their imposed binary limitations. Working in an uneasy alliance with Earth authorities, they help track down the band of "brain-eaters" as Fay Dunaway's character proclaims, "The problem with immortality is that you have to live with your successes, as well as your failures." In the end, the creator of the biots is faced with the Faustian bargain, to live forever as a biot, or die as a human.
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