Latest news with #dystopia
Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Variety report claims 'The Boys' and 'Handmaid's Tale' imaginary fascist worlds are becoming reality
Michael Schneider, executive editor for Variety's TV section, claimed in an article published Friday that the imaginary fascist worlds of Amazon Prime's "The Boys" and Hulu's "The Handmaid's Tale" are becoming reality. Schneider argued the fictitious worlds created in the TV series "don't seem so far-fetched anymore" in President Donald Trump's America. "The Boys," a TV series based on a group of superheroes who cause more chaos than they do good, recently rolled out a marketing campaign jokingly referring to the show as a documentary. In a 2022 interview with Rolling Stone, showrunner Eric Kripke confirmed the series' "evil-Superman-style character," Homelander, was created as a "direct Trump analogue." The Variety editor wrote that the superhero series "feels a lot less fictional every season it's on the air." 'Handmaid's Tale' Showrunners Say Their Series' 'Warning' Was 'Ignored' Based On Trump's Re-election "That's why the cheeky 'The Boys' ads tout its campaign for 'Best Documentary Series.'" he wrote. "Sure, the 'documentary' is crossed out, and 'drama' is hastily written above it, like it was a last-minute mistake. But we've been making that joke for years." Read On The Fox News App Schneider then shifted his focus to "The Handmaid's Tale," claiming the frightening events that take place in the series "don't seem so far-fetched anymore." He featured quotes from the show's creators to reinforce his point that the authoritarian dystopia featured in the series is now becoming reality. The show's executive producer, Eric Tuchman, recalled that some writers for the show were concerned about the possibility of Roe v. Wade being overturned when Trump won the presidency in 2016. He felt that it sounded "kind of alarmist and extremist … I could not have been more wrong, obviously." Tuchman claimed the show's creators weren't focused on calling attention to "the political situation in the country," but said "it was just uncanny how much it ended up being a mirror of what was happening in the real world." Another showrunner, Yahlin Chang, said before she joined the production, she "did all this research into what happens when parents and children are separated in conflict zones." She conducted this research in preparation for a scene in which one of the characters is allowed to visit her estranged daughter for only 10 minutes under government supervision. America Now Worse Than 'Make Believe' 'Handmaid's Tale' Because Of Abortion, Actress Claims "My research focused on conflict zones like Liberia, Cambodia, Bosnia. I never imagined that that would happen in our own country. But by the time I wrote this scene in 2017, and by the time it aired in 2018, it aired the week that we were separating parents and children at the border," Chang said. She claimed "by doing research on what authoritarian regimes do," the show's creators "somehow predicted what would happen" in the real world. Click Here For More Coverage Of Media And Culture Schneider noted that, "Ironically, just as things get even worse here in the United States," the imaginary land of Gilead in the series is poised for a revolution. In closing, the Variety editor left readers with his hopes for the future. "A revolution and a happy ending for 'The Handmaid's Tale?' Here's hoping the real world can imitate art in this way, too," Schneider article source: Variety report claims 'The Boys' and 'Handmaid's Tale' imaginary fascist worlds are becoming reality
Fox News
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Fox News
Variety report claims 'The Boys' and 'Handmaid's Tale' imaginary fascist worlds are becoming reality
Michael Schneider, executive editor for Variety's TV section, claimed in an article published Friday that the imaginary fascist worlds of Amazon Prime's "The Boys" and Hulu's "The Handmaid's Tale" are becoming reality. Schneider argued the fictitious worlds created in the TV series "don't seem so far-fetched anymore" in President Donald Trump's America. "The Boys," a TV series based on a group of superheroes who cause more chaos than they do good, recently rolled out a marketing campaign jokingly referring to the show as a documentary. In a 2022 interview with Rolling Stone, showrunner Eric Kripke confirmed the series' "evil-Superman-style character," Homelander, was created as a "direct Trump analogue." The Variety editor wrote that the superhero series "feels a lot less fictional every season it's on the air." "That's why the cheeky 'The Boys' ads tout its campaign for 'Best Documentary Series.'" he wrote. "Sure, the 'documentary' is crossed out, and 'drama' is hastily written above it, like it was a last-minute mistake. But we've been making that joke for years." Schneider then shifted his focus to "The Handmaid's Tale," claiming the frightening events that take place in the series "don't seem so far-fetched anymore." He featured quotes from the show's creators to reinforce his point that the authoritarian dystopia featured in the series is now becoming reality. The show's executive producer, Eric Tuchman, recalled that some writers for the show were concerned about the possibility of Roe v. Wade being overturned when Trump won the presidency in 2016. He felt that it sounded "kind of alarmist and extremist … I could not have been more wrong, obviously." Tuchman claimed the show's creators weren't focused on calling attention to "the political situation in the country," but said "it was just uncanny how much it ended up being a mirror of what was happening in the real world." Another showrunner, Yahlin Chang, said before she joined the production, she "did all this research into what happens when parents and children are separated in conflict zones." She conducted this research in preparation for a scene in which one of the characters is allowed to visit her estranged daughter for only 10 minutes under government supervision. "My research focused on conflict zones like Liberia, Cambodia, Bosnia. I never imagined that that would happen in our own country. But by the time I wrote this scene in 2017, and by the time it aired in 2018, it aired the week that we were separating parents and children at the border," Chang said. She claimed "by doing research on what authoritarian regimes do," the show's creators "somehow predicted what would happen" in the real world. Schneider noted that, "Ironically, just as things get even worse here in the United States," the imaginary land of Gilead in the series is poised for a revolution. In closing, the Variety editor left readers with his hopes for the future. "A revolution and a happy ending for 'The Handmaid's Tale?' Here's hoping the real world can imitate art in this way, too," Schneider concluded.
The Sun
2 days ago
- Business
- The Sun
Fears AI will leave Earth with population ‘the size of UK' by 2300 & turn entire countries into apocalyptic wastelands
EARTH will have a dystopian population of just 100million by 2300 as AI wipes out jobs turning major cities into ghostlands, an expert has warned. Computer science professor Subhash Kak forecasts an impossible cost to having children who won't grow up with jobs to turn to. 2 That means the world's greatest cities like New York and London will become deserted ghost towns, he added. Prof Kak points to AI as the culprit, which he says will replace 'everything'. And things will get so bad, he predicts the population will shrink to nearly the size of Britain's current estimated population of close to 70million. The Age of Artificial Intelligence author, who works at Oklahoma State University, told The Sun: 'Computers or robots will never be conscious, but they will be doing literally all that we do because most of what we do in our lives can be replaced. 'Literally everything, even decision making in offices, will be replaced. 'So it's going to be devastating for society and world society. There are demographers who are suggesting that as a consequence, the world population will collapse and it could go down to as low as just 100million people on the entire planet Earth in 2300 or 2380. 'Just 100million, right now it's around 8billion. "So the whole world will be devastated. As I discussed in my book, I think people really don't have a clue. 'The great cities of our modern times will be abandoned if you only have 100 million people in the whole world, which is just a bit more than the entire population of Great Britain right now.' He added: 'It's likely. I have all the data in the book. This is not just my personal opinion.' AI has advanced at a rapid rate in recent years. China & Russia will use drones 'the size of insects' to spy on UK & commit untraceable murders, ex-Google futurist warns Tools like ChatGPT, which launched in 2022, have now established themselves as essential for businesses and individuals. But the growth continues to spark alarm about the future of employment. In March, the chancellor Rachel Reeves said an increasing number of roles are being taken up by AI. She spoke as she unveiled plans to slash civil service jobs. Prof Kak, who also wrote Matter and Mind, said birth rates will plunge because people will be reluctant to have children who will likely be unemployed in adult life. He added: 'People have stopped having babies. Europe, China, Japan, and the most rapid fall in population right now is taking place in Korea.' He added: 'Now, I'm not saying that these trends will continue, but it's very hard to reverse them because a lot of people have children for a variety of reasons. 'One is of course social. In the back of your mind, you have a sense of what the future is going to be like. China's AI supercomputer by Millie Turner, Senior Technology & Science Reporter CHINA has reportedly begun assembling an AI supercomputer in space, which will eventually consist of 2,800 satellites in Earth's orbit. ADA Space, based in Chengdu, sent the first 12 satellites of its mammoth network last week, Space News reported. hese satellites are able to process the data they collect locally, rather than beaming it to stations on Earth to compute, according to ADA. Data stored onboard satellites is sent down to Earth in batches - but some of this information can get lost during transmission. Beyond being slow, "less than 10 per cent" of satellite data makes it to Earth due to things limited bandwidth and ground station availability, according to the South China Morning Post. Part of ADA's 'Star Compute' project, the satellites are reportedly in-built with super-fast AI processors that can communicate with sister satellites at up to 100GB per second using lasers. That is much faster than traditional satellites. 'If you sense that there will be no jobs for children. A lot of people have that sense. 'And that translates into extreme costs of child rearing, as is happening in the US right now.' Billionaire Tesla and X owner, Elon Musk, is among those who claim the human race could one day face extinction over AI and declining birth rates. And Prof Kak refuses to rule out that being a possibility. He added: 'Could humans go extinct? Who knows? 'That's what some people like Elon Musk are saying. Or there could be disease, it's not necessarily for psychological reasons. 'There could be a new pathogen created by some monster which could wipe off humanity. And so nobody knows. 'That's why Musk is saying maybe humans should go to space, maybe build colonies elsewhere, so that should such a tragedy hit Earth then it could be reseeded. 'This is all like science fiction. Nobody really knows what's going to happen. 'But what is absolutely certain is that there is a population collapse occurring right before our eyes.'
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Visions of the end of the world take center stage at Walker Art Center
Visions of the end of the world take center stage at Walker Art Center originally appeared on Bring Me The News. The Walker Art Center is welcoming the New York Times-bestselling author Adrienne Maree Brown as a guest curator at the Walker Cinema this summer. Brown is drawing on her work as an activist, science fiction scholar, and doula to probe the question of how we can or will survive the end of the world with a series of familiar near-dystopian films that offer a starting point for that discussion. The Walker says the series, titled "Compelling Speculations on Human Survival," looks "beyond dystopia to narratives that imagine compelling scenarios for what human life could look like if we find a way to persist on Earth." It centers around ideas of "dreams, love, environmental stewardship, and collective survival" to recontextualize familiar movies like Black Panther's questions around what it means to be a ward of the environment, Interstellar's suggestion that love can be a guiding principle in human survival, and Star Trek IV's cautionary tale of what we lose as "progress" erases the natural world. Here's what is playing this summer during "Compelling Speculations on Human Survival," which runs from July 11 through Aug. 9. July 11–12: Black Panther (2018) July 18–19: The NeverEnding Story (1984) July 24 and 26: Interstellar (2014) Aug. 1–2: Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) Aug. 8–9: Contact (1997)This story was originally reported by Bring Me The News on May 31, 2025, where it first appeared.
Washington Post
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
‘Mission Impossible' is the perfect movie for our AI doomsday fears
What's more kooky: Hollywood fantasy of an artificial intelligence doomsday or real life technology executives' predictions of human-enslaving AI? In the new installment of Tom Cruise's action film series, 'Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning,' a godlike AI called the Entity has the world on the brink of a nuclear apocalypse, and a doomsday cult is rooting for the AI. (Spoiler alert: Cruise saves everyone.)
