Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Undeniable Logic

New package in the mail contains these goodies is being received by Mean Girls Yarn Club participants. Inspired by the movie, I, Robot that came out in 2004, you may not remember a Mean Girl in it, but she didn't think she was one either.

V.I.K.I. was an acronym in that movie for Virtual Interactive Kinetic Intelligence and was the artificial intelligence that is used by civilization. I should say 'will be' instead of was, as the film takes place in the future, 2035 to be exact. It's all very confusing since the original I, Robot was written by Isaac Asimov in the 1950's, but for now, let's skip the time-line issues, and just focus on what we have here.

VIKI may not have been created to be a Mean Girl but, as her creator Dr. Lanning says, 'There have always been ghosts in the machine. Random segments of code that have grouped together to form unexpected protocols... engender questions of free will, creativity, and even... what we might call the soul.'

Perhaps it is these random segments that VIKI collects that changes her. Until this point in history three laws protected man, which were that humans were never to be harmed, that all orders by humans must be obeyed and that the robot must protect itself as long as the first two laws weren't violated. However, she comes to enact a plan to save humanity by controlling them. VIKI points out,

'You charge us with your safekeeping, yet despite our best efforts, your countries wage wars, you toxify your earth and pursue ever more imaginative means of self-destruction. You cannot be trusted with your own survival.... To protect humanity, some humans must be sacrificed. To ensure your freedom, some freedoms must be surrendered. We robots will ensure mankind's continued existence. You are so like children. We must save you from yourselves.' 

The effect on me with this movie is, keep the robots away from my yarn stash!

If I could describe the package, the first thing I notice is the lovely yarn.
It's a mix of pale cool colors, blue sky, lavender and lime green. I spoke with KnottyLa about the colors chosen, and she said it was the colors found in the the good robot Sonny, and later in VIKI's positronic network pictured when Spooner injects it with a large dose of nanites. A stitch marker that also looks like one cyber bit escorted by two purple seed beads. There is a wand of rock candy, with resembles VIKI to me, possibly upon clean-up, a glob of cyber bits. REALLY hope that's not spoiling anything for anyone. There is also a little notions pouch whose fabric is a field of pale blue with white veins of circuitry in them. It's more likely the fabric designer was thinking of Italian Glass tile, but they aren't here right now to say.

The package contains:
  • Yarn, Mean Girls' Yarn Club, Ep VII, The Final Frontier, "The Ghost in the Machine" by Dizzy Blonde Studios, 100% Merino Wool, Superwash Sock, approx. 560 yards/512 m., 4 oz/115 gm 2 ply, Gauge: 6-8 spi on US #1-3
  • Zippered notions pouch by RKSmom
  • Nom is a stick of Rock candy, in ice blue.
  • Stitch Marker is a bottle glass blue, cut glass with purple accent beads
Pattern Recommendations (links are to the patterns listed in Ravelry):

For Knitters:
For Crocheters:
~Written very late at night, pardon the blurry edges, by Tammy Burke, a nobody you may recognize as a terrible giggler from the Fiber Hooligan podcast that ended last year, currently assisting the Yarn Thing podcast with Marly Bird, and sharing every funny and interesting thing she can about knitting, crochet or just yarn in general in her own Facebook Group, Pursuit of Happy Knits. Once upon a time she was interviewed for being herself by the Knotty Girls, she considers herself a fan of Dizzy Blonde Studios and loves getting to show her appreciation with properly spelled adjectives and way too many commas. The above article was written with love and ability to do research, without much knowledge but with aim toward that which is fun.

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