Very tired. More things here later.
Sorry there hasn’t been a comic in a while. The one I’m working on is the exact height of Dustin Hoffman, so it’s taking a little while.
UNTIL THEN, if you are within reasonable driving distance to Portland, Oregon, why not head over to my studio’s open house on December 5th, aptly titled The Legend of Webcomics: a Hyperlink to the Past?
What:
It’s an open house for my studio, and there will be discounted merch, signings, and the last five Hob Books in existence for sale! I am opening up my secret fortress for the public to see for the first time, along with some other great webcartoonists.
Who:
My studio mates Meredith Gran of Octopus Pie and Luke Mahan of Selfish Steam, as well as Dylan Meconis of Family Man and Erika Moen of Dar! They’ll all be selling some fun things and are well-trained for shmoozing and hanging out.
Where and When:
December 5th
Dunning-Krueger Studio
1515 SE 46th Ave.
Portland, OR 97215
Also you can Facebook RSVP
The winner of the drawing is Ann Kennedy! Congratulations, Ann! She’ll be receiving a signed 2009 DC Sketchbook and a hand bound 2nd Edition Hob softcover!
The answers to the costume contest are as follows (from left to right):
- Alina Tokamak as Pris from Blade Runner
- Tiny Carl Jung as Jiminy Cricket
- Baby Hob as Orko from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe
- D.H. Ron as Max Fischer from Rushmore
- Dmitri Tokamak as Moebius’ Arzach
- Kimiko Ross as the Machine-man/Robot Maria from Fritz Lang’s Metropolis
- Number Zero as Captain Jean-Luc Picard from Star Trek: TNG
- Number One as Commander William T. Riker
- Number Two as Counselor Deanna Troi
- Number Four as Lt. Commander Geordi LaForge
- Dr. Obab (I also accepted Rupert) as Michael Jackson from Smooth Criminal
Hope you all enjoyed participating! Remember, the contest may be over, but you can still download your own copy of the donation wallpaper:
Check it out: the donation wallpaper this month is all fancy and Halloween themed! For a donation of any amount, you can download it at various sizes! (Make sure to click “return to vendor” to get to the download page)
But wait, there’s more! If you can name all the costumes in the wallpaper, you’ll be entered in a random drawing to win a copy of the 2009 Sketchbook AND the 2nd Edition Hob Softcover book! All you have to do is:
- Mail me your guesses at dresdencodak@gmail.com
- Title the email “DC Halloween 2009″
- Include both the names of the DC characters and what they’re dressed as
- If you get them all right, you’ll get a chance to win both books!
- A winner will be selected and announced on Friday, October 30. The deadline for entries is Thursday, October 29th.
***UPDATE: THE SKETCHBOOKS ARE SOLD OUT. THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO BOUGHT ONE!***
So with convention season over, I’m now able to sell the leftover 2009 Dresden Codak Sketchbooks to you folks on the internet! There aren’t a lot left and they probably won’t ever be reprinted, so get yours while you can! It includes:
The next comic is trudging along, but until then I’ll be appearing at the Alternative Press Expo in San Francisco this weekend, Oct. 17-18! And this will be the very last show to get your hands on the Dresden Codak 2009 Sketchbook!
Check out this map to see where my table is!
So SPX two weeks ago was a great time, and the Dresden Codak Sketchbooks were a hit! I nearly sold out, so this weekend for Wordstock I’ve printed up 200 new copies. Just remember, unless you are going to APE next week, this will be the last and only time the 2009 Sketchbook will likely be available!
The Wordstock Book Fair @ the Oregon Convention Center
777 NE MLK Jr Blvd
10am-6pm
Dresden Codak: Table 825
Saturay & Sunday Oct. 10&11
So this last weekend I was very privileged to be invited to attend the Singularity Summit in New York, an annual meeting of minds to discuss the implications of growing (and possible accelerating) technologies. Now, despite having written a comic story about this very subject, I’ve never actually been in to an official gathering of these folks before, and didn’t really know what to expect.
Highlights:
- The audience was of a much higher caliber than what I expected. Beforehand I had a lurking fear that Singularitarians were actually mostly navel-gazing sci-fi geeks who were more interested in a “nerd rapture” than the facts of emerging technologies. In truth, it turns out that I was likely the dumbest guy in the room, with essentially all the attendees being very educated, thoughtful and (often) professionally successful individuals. It was an interesting mix of industry leaders, scientists, economist and skeptics all possessing the necessary faculties for diverse and sober views concerning the subjects at hand. Folks were friendly, too, and mingling in between talks I could always make my way into a group where interesting conversation was going on.
- The selection of speakers was very diverse. I was concerned that the majority may involve a cheerleading squad for a particular view, but in fact topics and speakers ranged from those who believed in an inevitable “hard takeoff” Singularity to those who though *some* singularity was necessary to avoid existential risks to AI researchers who believed that belief in the Singularity is just a cognitive bias that futurists have. Regardless of their views, though, every speaker treated the subject matter as a very serious and legitimate topic of discussion and investigation.
- Ray Kurzweil’s talks were very good as one might expect, though I personally felt these were some of the less exciting parts of the summit. I don’t think it’s any fault of Kurzweil’s, though, since I’m just really familiar with his work and arguments, and it seems like he’s had to respond to the same tired arguments for several years now. Two things that impressed me were the astonishing amount of evidence, detail and overall research he puts into his thesis (far more thorough than any other speakers) and second, the fact that he really looks a lot younger than a man in his 60s. I know some folks take jabs at the astonishing amount of supplements and other dietary/medical steps he takes to increase his lifespan, but it really does seem to have an effect on his vitality and appearance. He could easily be a good front man for the movement, though I noted that he wasn’t presented as such, and a variety of other speakers seemed to be pushed to the forefront instead.
- Eliezer Yudkowsky, as always, was very clever and humorous in his examination of cognitive bias and how downright insane human beings are really wired to be. With a series of statistics (with the audience participating in some questions), he showed how even a “rational” person’s mind can be hacked primarily due to its messy “spaghetti code” evolutionary history. Symptoms of cognitive bias include tending to believe more specific or dramatic threats over more realistic ones (examples included the Bush administration preparing for elaborate “movie threats” while ignoring statistically more likely and dangerous threats like hurricane disasters). With relation to the Singularity, one popular fear is the “Terminator Scenario” where AI becomes violent, humanoid and bend on destroying the human race. Despite having not even the slightest grounds in fact, this image is popular because it’s specific and dramatic. Likewise, in regards to futurism in general, we tend to overestimate the macroscopic (flying cars, jet packs, space travel) and underestimate the advances of the subtle (internet, cloud computing, augmented reality, specific and general AI).
Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and venture capitalist, provided a very interesting perspective. From the view of a technologist and businessman, he believes that the topic that needs to be discussed further is what happens if the Singularity doesn’t happen or doesn’t happen fast enough. He seems to be of the opinion that if it doesn’t develop quickly enough, there could be an incident similar to the ‘dot com crash’ (where investors overestimated tech growth) only on a much larger, more devastating scale. He argued that the Singularity has the potential to be an extremely beneficial trend in the future, but there needs to be a more concentrated economic and industrial effort to ensure that it develops the right way and at the right pace.
Aubrey de Grey may have been my favorite speaker, as the topic of biological longevity research is an area where my education is sorely lacking. Some magnificent leaps and bounds in this field have been made, and Dr. de Grey graphed life expectancy paths (using only the most pessimistic predictions regarding advancements) amongst different age groups today. It was a very thorough talk and, while seemingly optimistic, it involved some of the hardest, tangible science out there. I feel this is one angle of Transhumanism that should get more face time in the public eye. While AI is the more significant thing to watch in the long run (and the most terrifying), aging and longevity research is a very tangible, understandable science with a growing and continuous set of real-world applications that even the harshest cynic couldn’t call useless. On top of that, Dr. de Gray really does come off as a very charming, thoughtful person who is genuinely interested in helping everyone he can (at the expense of perhaps his own longevity).
-Another interesting observation is that half the freaking people at the summit read Dresden Codak. Why on Earth would such important individuals waste their time on this comic is beyond me, but it was kind of neat. Even though I was just an attendee, I’ve never gotten this much attention even at a comic show (on the second day I was even roped into giving autographs in the lobby!). A definite highlight was when Aubrey de Grey pulled me aside to praise my satirical essay featuring Trans-Simianism. Who knew?
Conclusion: a wonderful group of intellectuals discussing a relevant and fascinating array of subjects, from autonomous cars to brain scans to curing blindness to avoiding being destroyed by a superintelligence. Both the speakers and attendees are the type of people I wouldn’t mind seeing again at next year’s summit. If you’re interested in the subject at all (from skeptic to optimist) and can afford the price of admission, it’s definitely an event worth seeing for yourself.
-AD
So hey! I will be attending the Singularity Summit this weekend in New York, and it should be a whale of a time. If you’re interested in things like AI and other emerging technologies, or are just a futurist at heart, tune in to my Twitter thing on Saturday and Sunday for live updates on whatever I think is the most important at the time!
After all, why listen to credible people when you can have a cartoonist filter it for you?
XOXOXOXO
-AD
SPX was great! There were some great comic folks there, including John “The Monocle” Allison, Kate “Fop Chaser” Beaton, Evan “Rice Boy” Dahm, Chris “Ghost Master” Yates, David “Danger Beard” Malki!, Erika “Over 18″ Moen, Jeph “Questionable” Jacques, Dylan “Frostbite” Meconis, Meredith “Octopie” Gran, Rich “Critical Neurosis” Stevens, Danielle “Better at Fighting Stalkers” Corsetto, John “Sad Child” Campbell and many more!
Thanks for everyone who came out. It was a great time for all, I’m sure. And if you didn’t have the best time in my presence then you were doing it wrong.
-AD
Just a reminder, I’ll be at the Small Press Expo in Bethesda, MD next weekend (September 27-28). I’ll have some shirts, comic prints, and maybe just maybe the all-new Dresden Codak 2009 Sketchbook. It has art and things never before seen on internets, as well as a little back story behind the comic. This book will only be available at conventions. Hope to see you there!
