A great way to interface with your new technology is to give it a little personality. Make it responsive, reactive, maybe even predictive, and next thing you know it’s catering to your needs before you’re even aware of them. An Artificial Intelligence, or AI companion is a great option for those remote planetary outposts or long-term space voyages, keeping you sane when you’d otherwise be alone. But there’s a funny tendency with these sorts of AI to become far, far more than they were originally programmed to be, and they’re almost as likely to go crazy evil as they are to become a benevolent buddy. That’s a pretty convincing argument to at least keep aware of their development, so here are 4 indicative signs that your digital companion is evolving beyond its limitations.

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That’s a very interesting cloning machine you’ve built there. I know, I know, soon you’ll have that clone army complete, and you’ll show them–you’ll show all of them! But hey, why don’t we take a deep breath and think this through for a minute before you pull the lever? After all, you’ve put a lot of work into this thing. It’d be a shame to screw it all up now just because you were a little too impatient. And lucky you, I’ve got 4 suggestions that’ll help make sure these clones don’t come out like Bizarro.

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As far as I’m concerned, there are pretty much two main kinds of sci-fi: space adventures and cyberpunk. Cyberpunk never had a big presence on TV, and I’ve covered most of the attempts at it by this point. They’ve ranged from very successful, like Max Headroom, to far less so (TekWar) in terms of bringing it to life, but none of them have found much of an audience in the Western world. It’s rather bizarre, if you ask me; cyberpunk IS the fiction of the present, for all intents and purposes. But there is one place where cyberpunk thrived, a place intimately tied to the genre from its very origins–Japan. You can’t throw a rock in a cyberpunk dystopia without bouncing off a Neo Tokyo here or there. And a lot of classics of the genre come in the form of cyberpunk anime, so here are a few series that I feel are must-see.

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Continuing from where we left off last week, I take a step over to Japan’s animation industry for anime sci-fi films that are every bit as amazing as the best live action has to offer. Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Gundam–these are classics, but here I want to share some more recent films that aren’t as ubiquitous. With that in mind, I’ve gathered 4 SF anime films that are totally worth a watch, even to those who aren’t usually into anime.

FYI, this is one of those lists where order doesn’t really matter.

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It’s a new year, and it’s time for a new experiment here at RetroPhaseShift. Rather than trying to cover the news and compete with huge sites that can get exclusive interviews and all kinds of things I won’t be able to provide, I’d like to gather up some of these important news stories that you might have missed for a weekly post. This will include things like casting notices, location filming announcements, the releases of plot synopses for various episodes or films, trailers or teasers, and even smaller things like episode titles or rumors floating around. If I think it can give some insight into an upcoming or ongoing series or movie, it’s valid. On the other hand, I’ll try to keep spoiler-y things either to their own section or left out entirely; I’m not looking to help spread leaks unless they’re so controversial that I feel the need to comment on them directly. After all, there’s plenty of discussion-worthy information to be gleaned from little things without needing a leak to spur it on. Ideally, I’ll leave you with a little window into the production-side of your favorite shows and spark a little excitement for their upcoming seasons or releases.

With that said, on to the news roundup! Read more