BKC Week 1: Yamaha Junior
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BKC Week 1: Senior Super Heavy
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BKC Week 1: Senior Super Heavy - Video

BKC Week 1: Yamaha YBX
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BKC Week 1: Yamaha YBX - Video

BKC Week 1: Komet Junior
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BKC Week 1: Komet Junior - Video

BKC Week 1: Komet Sportsman
Sorry about no overhead scoring the editor was being fussy and would let me upload after I finished editing and took over a half hour to produce never mind upload. I apologize.

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Machina explores the repercussions of a man uploading his consciousness to a social network. Photo: Supplied

A man with a desire to expand his mind has his consciousness uploaded to the cloud. His physical body dies, and the loved ones he leaves behind must wrangle with the ethical dilemmas sparked by this brave new world.

It sounds like the plot of Transcendence, the recent film that received mixed reviews and saw Johnny Depp portray a brilliant scientist who achieves god-like powers after transforming from flesh and blood to binary code.

But it is also the same springboard for Brisbane playwright Richard Jordans Machina, premiering on Friday night as part of the La Boite Indie program.

Brisbane playwright Richard Jordan explores the internet as a new spirituality in Machina. Photo: Supplied

The 31-year-old, who also penned the award-winning 25 Down, spent two years writing his work, and was relieved to discover Hollywood went down a different path.

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I thought there were some interesting ideas in Transcendence, but I thought they were quite clumsily executed, he said.

Everyone was so po-faced and terribly serious, and sometimes I feel like movies can hide behind the special effects... I cringed through most of it.

Machina takes place a month after its central character, David Sergeant, uploads his consciousness to the eponymous social network in a process called going inside.

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Theatre transcends man and machine

Author Rating:

Big-budget blockbusters tend to be written off as mindless fun, so its interesting to see a major studio release that turns reverses that trend. Transcendence has plenty of big ideas that its trying to convey, but the dull execution fails to do justice to the themes presented.

The film centers on computer engineers Will and Evelyn Caster (Johnny Depp and Rebecca Hall) in their attempts to build a sentient computer. After being shot with a radioactive bullet by technophobic terrorists, Will is left with only a month to live. Desperate to save her husband, Evelyn and mutual friend Max (Paul Bettany) upload Wills mind to an advanced supercomputer. The process works and soon Will is connected to the internet, giving him unparalleled knowledge and access. Despite Wills good intentions, it soon becomes clear that he must be stopped.

Why must he be stopped? Its here where the movie becomes hazy. Director Wally Pfister and writer Jack Paglan raise questions the benefits and dangers of advanced technology, but they dont flesh out the discussion with insight or debate. Instead, there are fight scenes and computer viruses.

Rebecca Halls sorrowful performance helps anchor the film emotionally, but the contrived conflict between Will and his foes (the FBI and the terrorists, bizarrely working together) fails to engage, partly because neither side has been developed very much.

Other than a standout Hall, none of the players, Depp especially, impress. All of the actors are burdened with technobabble, exposition and preaching, though, so they dont have much to work with.

Pfister, the longtime cinematographer for Christopher Nolan, conjures up some beautiful imagery over the course of the film, but this visual splendor cant disguise the confused mess of ideas and half-developed characters that is Transcendence.

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Johnny Depp's 'Transcendence' review, directed by Wally Pfister

As the saying goes, the best camera is the one you have with youand that'swhy so many of us have smartphones absolutely stocked with memories from nights out on the town to a child's first days in the world. But while taking photos on your smartphone is no problem, getting them offyour phone and onto your PC can sometimes be a pain.

You could just hook your smartphone up to your PC every now and again and just transfer them over a USB cable, but ugh, wires.

A better alternative is to put the mobile apps you already have on your phone to work. Several can send pictures to your PC automatically, and one can even do it without leaning on the cloud whatsoever.

One of the most seamless ways to get photos on your PC is to use Dropbox. The original device sync app can be set to automatically upload photos from your device to Dropbox, and you'll get up to an extra 3GB of free storage space for using the feature, more than doubling the 2GB of free space provided to users.

If you use Dropbox's default settings on your PC then photos will automatically be synced down to your PC.You can also set Dropbox to only upload photos over Wi-Fi so that you don't get hit with an unexpected Internet charge from your carrierbut be sure to prune your photo collection occasionally, as photos can make you hit your Dropbox storage limit all too fast.

To get started open Dropbox on your mobile device and go to Settings > Camera Upload.

The company also has a new photo viewing app called Carousel that automatically uploads photos to Dropbox. With Carousel, Dropbox is also offering an extra 3GB of free storage space for your photos, but only if you haven't previously used up your free photo allotment using camera upload on the regular Dropbox app.

Microsoft's cloud storage solution offers a similar back-up method to Dropbox. Just like Dropbox, you can set OneDrive to only upload photos over Wi-Fi. Also like Dropbox, Microsoft will give you 3GB of free additional storage if you configure the OneDrive mobile app to automatically save photos to the cloud, bolstering the service's 7GB of free storage.

Windows 8 has SkyDrive/OneDrive baked in by default, making the mobile OneDrive app's automatic uploads a dead-simple way to ensure your phone photos wind up on your PC.

Set up OneDrive's camera uploads by going to Settings > Camera backup.

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5 apps to easily move photos from your phone to your PC

Earlier this month, Twitter announced the upcoming launch of a new profile design. At the time, the new profiles were only available to a select few VIPs. Now they are slowly being rolled out to regular users.

If you like the new design, shown above, and want to bump your name up in the waiting list heres how you can be one of the first to upgrade to the new design.

At least for now, upgrading to the new profile is optional. If you dont like it you even have the option to switch back. Eventually though, it seems Twitter will be forcing all users to make the change, so it may be a good idea to start getting used to it.

The most immediately obvious of the new features are larger profile photos, and header images that span the width of your screen. The layout is now three columns instead of two, and the profile photos overlap the cover photo, similar to how they do on Facebook pages.

The new Twitter profiles allow you to pin specific tweets, similar to pinning posts on a Facebook Page. The new profiles will also highlight your best tweets, and more.

Heres what Twitter has listed as the main new features:

With a new design comes new images sizes. The dimensions for your profile photo and header photo have changed, which means you create and upload some new ones. Here are the sizes for each image.

Header Photo (1500 pixels wide x 500 pixels high, 5MB maximum)The header photo is the main image across the top of the screen. Twitter recommends 1500500 pixels but the header photo will always blow-up to be screen-wide, regardless of the size of the image.

Keep in mind that a 1500500 image would look pretty stretched out on a 27-inch monitor unless its saved at a very high-resolution. Instead of using the recommended size, aim for a 30001000 photo or save your 1500500 image at the highest possible dots per inch (DPI).

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Everything You Need To Know About The New Twitter Profiles

YouTube is offering channel producers on its site the chance to add a short intro clip to all their videos in a move geared toward improving channel branding.

Everyone knows the power of a good introduction, YouTube software engineer John Gregg said in a post introducing the new feature. Imagine watching The Simpsons without its iconic opening sequence. Wouldnt be the same, would it?

The move came in response to increasing demand from producers looking for extra ways to build a consistent brand for audiences, Gregg said.

The intro-video feature allows a channel owner to perform a one-time upload of a clip of up to three seconds whichll automatically play before every video on that channel.

Gregg outlined the simple steps youll need to take:

1 Upload the three-second intro video youd like to use to your channel as an unlisted video.

2 On your channels InVideo Programming page, click Add a channel branding intro and select the intro from a list of eligible videos.

3. Select which videos you want the intro to appear on. You can choose whether to add it to all of your videos, or just the ones youve uploaded after a certain date. You can always remove or change the intro later.

Simple, huh?

Channel owners should keep in mind that the intros are not allowed to be used as ads, sponsorships, or product placements, nor be used with a video which itself is an ad.

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YouTube launches intro-video option for creators to help boost channel recognition

Transcendence promises something a little different in that the computer in question is a melding of machine and man.

FILM Transcendence (M) 2.5 stars Johnny Depp, Rebecca Hall, Paul Bettany Directed by Wally Pfister REVIEW MARK NAGLAZAS

After the sensuality and subtlety of Her, in which Scarlett Johansson plays an operating system with a mind of its own, we're now back in the more conventional sci-fi universe with Transcendence, in which computers are depicted not as helpers to mankind but their enemy.

However, Transcendence promises something a little different in that the computer in question is a melding of machine and man, a combination of the cold-blooded logic of a system built on zeroes and ones and the capriciousness and flaws of even the most logical of humans.

The man in question is a visionary scientist named Will Caster who is working towards creating a computer that will achieve "singularity" or "transcendence", a machine that will bring together the accumulated knowledge of all mankind and the ability to think and make its own decisions.

Indeed, Max goes so far as to believe that such a machine will be exactly like what we imagine God to be.

When Will is fatally wounded by a group of anti-technology revolutionaries, his colleague-wife Evelyn (Rebecca Hall) and his best friend and fellow scientist Max Walters (Paul Bettany), who has been doing advanced research into artificial intelligence, make the bold decision to upload his brain into the quantum computer on which he's been working.

Once merged with the computer - indeed, all the computers in the world via the internet - Will takes steps not just to protect himself from the luddite revolutionaries and the American government, who are worried what he might do. He creates a command centre in a sleepy desert town with the aid of the devoted Evelyn, using millions plucked from the stockmarket to set up a laboratory that will allow him to realise his dream of solving all of mankind's ills - pollution, disease, even mortality - with his new God-like power.

The idea of a man merging his personality with a computer is fascinating. It brings into focus some of the most pressing issues of the day, such as what happens to our humanity in the face of cold logic, be it machines or the marketplace.

However, Depp is such a bland performer when not playing loveable crackpots he virtually disappears in Transcendence, leaving an emotional and intellectual hole at the centre of an otherwise polished, handsome- looking movie, the directorial debut of Christopher Nolan's regular cinematographer Wally Pfister.

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Mission takes on mind of its own

Social media platforms change a lot. New tools and social networks pop up every day. These changes can sometimes overwhelm the casual user, but consider the danger of putting all your energy into a single network or tool. Instead of waiting for a moment of crisis, begin exploring new social media channelsnow.

If you invest all your time and energy mastering only one platform, what happens when traffic plummets, it becomes accessible only through paid membership or the service is acquired and goes away altogether? This does happen. As a result, you can lose your audience, community and friends. It's wise to proactively set aside some time experimenting with new social networks and social media tools. Youll want to assess the quality of the community, audience demographics and growth and whether your friends are migrating there.

Spread it around.A word of warning:if you only put your content on LinkedIn or another free platform that someone else owns, you cant control what the future holds. Nor are you reaching your full potential audience. This is what makes the world of social media and technology so exciting. You dont want to miss the next big wave. Plus, being an early adopter means there is less competition and it is easier to be perceived as a big fish in a small pond.

Show off your communication skills.If yourrsumstates thatyou're an excellent communicator, it's time to demonstrate this skill. Start bloggingabout things that interest you. Your topic doesnt absolutely have to relate to your ideal occupation. It could be about sports, cooking or other interests you are knowledgeable about. Your blog becomes a sample of your work. To help people see how great of a writer you are, share your blog posts on your Facebook page, as a LinkedIn profile update and Google+.

Visually highlight your talent.Graphic artists and photographers know they must have an online portfolio for their work. Do you have one too? One way to begin is by capturing online references to your work, such as awards, newsletter mentions or newspaper mentions. You can even immortalize the big day when you reach a milestone on your favorite social media platform. For instance, on the day yougain more than 500 connections on LinkedIn, on the dayyour group discussion becomes most popular or at the timeyour status update receives a humongous number of shares, snap a screenshot to document the occasion.

Take screenshots of your online mentions using Evernotes Skitch, or the tool on your computer or mobile device. You can embed the shots into your LinkedIn profile, write about the mention in a blog post, share on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+plus create a video montage using Animoto or a similar online video maker. These tools turn photos, clips and music into video easily, plus they're great for sharing.

YouTube is great for hosting video, but if you're shooting video from your phone and want to upload it quickly, then Vine and Instagram are two mobile apps that help make shooting and sharing faster and easier.

Talk about it.You dont need to rent a studio to create a show. There are free and low-cost tools that enable you to record video. All you need is a Google+ account to host a Google Hangout and invite your network. This is another way for you to show your "excellent communication skills."

If you arent comfortable in front of the camera, why not record a podcast and share your knowledge and expertise that way? Check out Spreaker or BlogTalkRadio both allow you to record and easily share links to your recording. If you're trying to prove you have strong presentation skills or verbal communication skills, this is one way to do so.

Consistent, quality and constant.There are some basic guidelines you want to keep in mind when embarking on any brand building action. The first is to be consistent. Use the same name and similar avatar across social networks. Dont forget to tag images you share with your name and appropriate key words, like your occupation, where the shared content originated from or other words that people would search for if they were looking for you. Hosting the original screen capture on your own site is alsoa good idea. It ensures websitetraffic comes to you, and once people find your home base you cancontrol the information your audience learns about you and your expertise. All these steps help search engines find your name.

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Use Social to Stay Visible and Stay Current

YouTube Videos Tweets Comments

These days it hardly seems possible to buy a camera that doesnt have GPS, Wi-Fi or even a Smile Detection mode built in but do you really need all those extras? And what if you have a camera that is perfectly serviceable but doesnt offer Wi-Fi or is too old to have it? Well, there is a viable option for retrofitting a Wi-Fi function to your camera; whats more, this capability has been around for a while but has just undergone a bit of a facelift. With this in mind I decided to give the eyefi Mobi SD card another try, especially now that the company behind it has launched its very own photo storage service in the cloud.

The Mobi card is a standard Class 10 SD memory card that comes in 8, 16 and 32GB capacities but with one important addition. Shoehorned into the plastic casing of the SD card is a custom-designed ARM processor that turns the memory card into a very nifty way of wirelessly transferring your photos to a mobile device or computer so that you can then edit your images using a package like Google Snapseed, Photoshop or some other image manipulation package before sharing your images via Facebook or Twitter.

The brand new software from eyefiworks with iOS devices, Android, Kindle or PC and Mac desktop platforms. In essence the Mobi card transmits a Wi-Fi signal that you can connect to using your mobile device or computer. The software then sucks your images from your camera over the wireless connection and then saves it to your device. Many cameras actually have eyeficompatibility already burned into firmware but dont worry if your camera doesnt have compatible firmware because Mobi cards will work in virtually any SD slot.

So whats new with this latest Mobi card? Well, eyefinow offers aCloud service where you can store an unlimited number of photos for an annual membership subscription of $49. The eyefiCloud service can sync photos across multiple users and offers the opportunity to let you share your photos publicly. You can use multiple cameras and multiple cards on the same account so that an family can build up a family photo album. Likewise, a work group within a company could also share photos into one album, no matter where in the world they are. If you buy an Mobi card or are already an existing Mobi card user you can download the latest eyefisoftware and get a 90-day trial period of eyefiCloud for free. The offer is only available to North American residents at the moment but the eyefiCloud will be rolled out globally by the end of the year.

Using the Mobi card is actually fun in a studio environment too. I tried out a card in the second memory card slot of my Nikon D7000 DSLR and set up the software on my iPad. This enabled me to see my photos on the iPad screen as I was shooting. Its actually a very good way of checking picture quality during a photoshoot. Of course I put a large SD card in the first slot of my camera where I was storing shots in RAW file format and I set the camera up so that reduced-size JPEG files were being directed to the Mobi card in my second slot.

A Mobi card is also fun to shoot with on holiday; as soon as you sit down to enjoy a beer or coffee you can turn on your iPad and then connect to the Mobi card and watch your photos being transferred as you sip your drink. Then its really fun to edit and post your images using a package like Snapseed so you can straighten, crop and adjust your photos before applying any special effects. Its so much nicer to be able to polish a good shot rather than having to upload an average shot directly to the internet without editing as is often the case with cameras that have built-in Wi-Fi. AMobi card is obviously more expensive than a budget SD card but its definitely worth the outlay if you like to backup and edit your photos before uploading when youre on the move.

Mobi Card Prices

8GB card $49 16GB $$79 32GB card $99

More details: http://www.eyefi.com

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Upload Unlimited Images To The Eyefi Cloud Service

I expected Transcendence to be action-packed, futuristic and scientifically fictitious. I anticipated big, nerdy words related to artificial intelligence that I couldnt comprehend, phenomenal acting by Johnny Depp and brilliant graphics on screen.

I did not, however, expect a heart-wrenching story of human love and loss, or to leave the theater with a pit in my stomach and questions of human nature racing through my mind.

Transcendence somehow manages to tell the romantic, age-old story of the human experience in a scarily believable science-fiction setting in a way that doesnt make me feel like a complete sci-fi nerd. With striking acting and conceivable futuristic technology, the film touches its viewers to the core and forces us to question the path our society is headed down.

While it may seem far-off and implausible at first, the film certainly hits close to home. As the anti-technology villainous group in the movie explained, universal mayhem begins with people prioritizing their phones and iPads over other living, breathing humans. It begins where we are right now.

In a phone interview with Transcendence director Wally Pfister, (previously the cinematographer of The Dark Knight and Inception) The PHOENIX gained insight into the making of the film and the intention behind it.

Transcendence is Pfisters directorial debut, and he explained some of the challenges and creative aspects required in making the film come together.

For me, the greatest challenge was also one of the most enlightening, wonderful, fun things, which was in directing actors and delving in the performance for the first time, he said. I really found it extraordinarily fun, but there were challenges because you are suddenly playing the role of psychologist for the first time versus being a cinematographer, which is really just about telling stories with images.

Although its the first movie he has directed, Pfister is already getting the chance to work with renowned actors such as Depp and Morgan Freeman.

Its mind-blowing I feel incredibly fortunate to be lucky enough to have the likes of these incredible actors. And honestly, you know, this isnt just bullshit. They were all a joy to work with.

Obviously Transcendence is a scientific-fiction film, as the main focus and conflict is an artificially intelligent machine, but Pfister emphasized that it differs from typical sci-fi films.

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Transcending the typical sci-fi flick: The PHOENIX chats with Wally Pfister

Efforts for brain reverse engineering are growing fast. Reserchers all over the world are collecting data on structures and dynamics of brain areas. How those systems behave could be reconstructed and analyzed through detailed simulations that could be also used to perform experiments in computo, where the model is an accessible preparation. Therefore, main modelling topics are: targeting level of detail, translating cell properties into model parameters, very large-scale modelling and exposing results for analysis...

Now I'm working on database technologies for neuroscience and the database-driven simulator in CNRS at UNIC Lab.

Developing methods to support specifications to reach an highly biological detail with compartmental approach.

Successfully tested (both on Linux and Darwin) a randomly connected network of 1 million neurons and 1 billion synapses (see examples).

Project has been accepted by INCF! Check it on

First example of splitneuron library uploaded on page. Izhikevich polychrony as an excuse to show: network definition and initialization not hardcoded done by loading SQL file, operations on database tables (other features coming soon...).

Completed design of database DB-STD version. First attempts of coding database extensions. See splitneuron.

First draft of renewed splitneuron library uploaded on . This version retains only Izhikevich' spiking neuron model and lowers neuron cell detail to a compartmental level.

Simulation Library

Current Task: Database extension

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mindupload

In the new science-fiction thriller Transcendence, Johnny Depp uploads his mind to a powerful computer, melding his consciousness with artificial intelligence in a scenario many refer to as the singularity.

Far-fetched? Yes, but so is the idea of a brooding Depp as an awkward neuroscientist. That doesnt mean people are not trying to make it happen in real life, including Russian billionaire Dmitry Itskov, who makes immortality an explicit goal of his 2045 Initiative.

Two researchers who consulted on Transcendence, both professors of electrical engineering and neuroscience at the University of California, Berkeley, are not sure that is an attainable goal, but that does not mean its not worth pursuing.

Will what we see in the movie be happening in 30 years? I would have to say no, because we dont even understand what consciousness is, Jose Carmena told NBC News.

To upload the mind, you would have to build technology that would let you interface with the brain, added his colleague, Michel Maharbiz. The race to do try and do that could motivate a lot of technology along the way, and that could potentially help a lot of people.

In other words, before we get a virtual Johnny Depp, we are going to need to really understand how the brain works a goal that a lot of people have put a lot of money behind.

In April 2013, President Barack Obama announced the BRAIN Initiative, a $232 million collaboration between the government and private companies to map the human brain.

People with disabilities could benefit the most from this kind of research. Zac Vawter, a Seattle-area man who lost his lower right leg in a motorcycle accident, made headlines when he was outfitted with a prosthetic leg that he could control with signals from his brain.

Other scientists are looking into whether people like Stephen Hawking could communicate with the outside world without moving a muscle something made easier with technology that can measure brain activity without the need to connect electrodes to someones scalp. That same type of technology has also been used for the less noble cause of wriggling robotic cat ears.

Carmena and Maharbiz spent 10 hours in Los Angeles, followed by two more visits, going over the science in the script with "Transcendence" director Wally Pfister. This being Hollywood, plenty of the scenes include a bit of creative license, including one (spoiler alert!) involving a popular science-fiction trope called grey goo, a mass of self-replicating nanobots that can heal people and create matter out of nothing in a matter of seconds.

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Depp Impact: The Science Behind 'Transcendence'

Peter Mountain / Warner Bros.

After watching a screening of Johnny Depp's new movie, "Transcendence" Wednesday evening, I was left with a ton of questions.

The movie follows Dr. Will Caster (Depp), an Artificial Intelligence scientist, who has created an omniscient machine that appears to have the ability to feel. When Caster is poisoned by anti-technology terrorists, his mind is uploaded into his AI super computer, and, ultimately, the Internetto keep him alive.

Yes, it's a stretch.

Plotwise, the movie has a lot of holes and problems that I won't bother getting into because it gets rather confusing. (The film is currently sitting at a sour 13% on Rotten Tomatoes.)

The big takeaway from the film is to address the possible dangers of not only artificial intelligence but our technology-driven society as a whole.

However, there was one brief topic that stuck out to me that audiences will probably have questions about.

Peter Mountain / Warner Bros.

The next time we see the character on screen, he exhibits super strength he's able to lift objects that no possible human could with their bare hands.

He's not the only one. As the movie progresses, more individuals are seen with impossible strength as a result of Caster enhancing particular genes in addition to healing individuals. Soon these new enhanced humans start to be called hybrids.

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Johnny Depp's New Movie 'Transcendence' Says Technology Will Turn Us Into X-Men

But perhaps the most disturbing passages in "Transcendence," from a strictly visceral point of view, are the images of Dr. Caster dying slowly and painfully after getting shot by the RIFT terrorists. In the film, the deadly bullet has been treated with radioactive polonium, as a kind of grisly insurance policy in case the initial shooting didn't do the job.

The incident is clearly meant to reference the death of Alexander Litvinenko, the former Russian security officer who was poisoned in 2006 with the highly radioactive element polonium-210. No charges were ever brought in the murder, but it's widely believed that Litvinenko was assassinated by Russian spies who dosed Litvinenko's tea with polonium.

Radioactive bullets are indeed a reality, but not quite as depicted in the film. Depleted uranium bullets are used by several military forces worldwide as armor piercing ammunition, due to the material's extreme density. Uranium rounds don't pose the same radiological danger as polonium, but they're still a hazard. Specifics can be found at The International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons.

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Go Behind the Science of 'Transcendence'

Wally Pfister pits good against technology in a directorial debut full of meaningless symbolism.

Warner Bros.

The Singularity is a wonderful menace for science fiction. It's the suggestion of a point, sometime in the future, when a greater-than-human intelligence irrevocably changes the arc of humanity's future. The theory predicts an artificially intelligent machine that's so smart, a person literally cannot comprehend its abilities. What would happen if it existed? Would it heal our bodies? Would it revitalize our planet? Would it end war and solve world hunger?

If such a machine existed, would it be any different from a god?

The Underrated, Universal Appeal of Science Fiction

Transcendence, a dull movie directed by Oscar-winning cinematographer Wally Pfister that tries very hard to be smart, is about this question as much as it's about the relationship between nature and technology. It's also very much about Johnny Depp's blank stares into nothingness, nano-enhanced superhumans, and the cockamamie idea that a person must either support the ever-advancing march of innovation or reject it in its entirety. It's like watching a philosophy lecture in a clown college.

Depp plays Dr. Will Caster, an artificial-intelligence researcher who hopes to build sentient machines. A technophobic extremist group named Revolutionary Independence From Technologyyes, R.I.F.T.attacks Caster after a speech to potential investors, shooting him with an irradiated bullet. He survives the assassination attempt, but the radiation poisoning is his death sentence. (The so-called "radical neo-Luddites" don't always mind using modern technology, it seems.) As Casters body fails, his wife Evelyn (Rebecca Hall) urges his partner Max (Paul Bettany) to help her upload his mind into a supercomputer. They do, and within minutes, Caster wants more. He wants to access the Internet. He wants to go everywhere.

From there, Transcendence reaches its most intriguing momentsbecause it almost becomes a different movie. Evelyn refuses to believe the digital Caster is any different from the mortal one. ("His mind is a pattern of electrical signals," she says.) Together, they build a futuristic oasis in a rural desert town, where Caster develops the ability to perform miracles through groundbreaking medical technology: He heals the blind, teaches cripples to walk, and revives the dead. He also programs himself into the people he heals, weaving a collective mind through an army of bodies.

While the movie quickly devolves into a technophobic tirade, the compelling questions it has raised linger: How has Evelyn's relationship with her husband changed? Can she still love him? What does love look like between a person and an omnipotent machine? If Transcendence were a smaller movie about that relationshipa movie that gave Hall more room to express ambiguity about itperhaps Pfister would have found the difficult answers he's grasping toward.

Perhaps that's why Pfister returns, again and again, to a garden in Will and Evelyn's backyard. When Will Caster was still a man, he turned the garden into a sanctuary where no wireless signals could be sent or received. A "dead zone," he called it. It was their personal Eden. In the garden, Pfisters camera repeatedly follows a droplet of water as it falls from a sunflower. It's a jarring motif, if only because it suggests depth of meaning where none exists. This Eden is lost. Its Tree of Knowledge is bare. Transcendence is an unholy sort of perversion of faith, as imagined through the frame of the Singularity. Caster is indistinguishable from a god. He's a deity built of ones and zeroes.

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The Dull Dogma of Transcendence

Johnny Depp, playing a dying scientist, has his brain uploaded to mind-numbing effect in Transcendence where nothing happens that you havent seen done much better in almost any computer-oriented sci-fi epic of the last six decades.

Lethargic direction, bland visuals, credulity-straining plotting and tin-eared dialogue turn even pros like Rebecca Hall, Paul Bettany and Morgan Freeman into sleepwalking bores.

Things start off on a promising note, with a shot of a computer keyboard being used as a doorstop. The Web has crashed and cant be fixed.

Bettany tells us exactly how that happened in droning narration thats going to explain Every. Last. Thing. (Except why the Web cant be fixed.)

Hall plays Depps wife and professional collaborator hes the worlds leading expert on artificial intelligence.

When he suffers a lethal encounter with cyber-terrorists, she urges him to let her use his remaining month of life to basically upload his genius to a Web cloud so he can continue his work.

I havent given away anything that isnt apparent from the trailer. But now I need to get into spoilerish territory to do a proper demolition job on this fiasco.

Depps former associates, Bettany and Freeman, come to question whether its really a resurrected Depp they hear through computer speakers and see on monitors, or just a computer program with evil intent mimicking him.

But Hall insists that the digitized version of her formerly modest husband is real and not Memorex even when he begins laying plans to control the world.

Its not a horrible premise for a movie, but the execution is exceedingly trite and sloppy.

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Depp cant transcend artificial stupidity in latest film