Humorous & Interesting AI Talk on Sri Lanka

There is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) website Talk to Transformer which had been in existence until it got discontinued this week. Despite the sad news, this blog post is paying tribute to this bot. The user types in some text and presses the ‘Complete Text’ button which generates additional material. The button changes to ‘Generate Another’ once it has been generated. It gets its content ideas from going through the Internet. It is created by Canadian machine learning engineer Adam King. The material it gives is often funny and sometimes even true. I decided to post a collection of Talk to Transformer content that I initiated relating to my country Sri Lanka. As my hometown is Colombo, I did make many references to the city. I will give my thoughts alongside them.

The Country

I’m starting with topics about the country itself. The first one relates to Colombo, Sri Lanka with it

giving a fictional account of Colombo & Sri Lanka from someone married to a Sri Lankan. I’d like to

point out that I didn’t specify the wife's perspective. It came up with that on its own.

This one relates to the issue of bribery & corruption with a fictional person talking about it.

This one is about Colombo. It obviously doesn’t contain 25% of the world’s urban population. The

city names for Colombo aren’t real. I really like “The City of Night” as I think Colombo looks its best

at nighttime. I don’t think the statistics in the second paragraph are accurate.

Here’s something positive about Sri Lanka from an imaginary traveller. The places mentioned don’t

really exist in Sri Lanka.

Music

This section deals with music. I’m going to feature content about two types of Sri Lankan music,

being the Portuguese influenced baila and sinhala pop. These are false, and as a result of it, it’s

quite funny. 

My favourite instrument is piano. So I put in a question about piano in Sri Lankan music. I’m pleased

that it mentioned rock music, as I like piano in rock music. A Sri Lankan classic rock song I love is

“Api Kawruda” by Senaka Batagoda. I wrote a blog post about it. It features great piano by Janath

Kulathilake. 

Sci-Fi/The Future

I’m beginning this section featuring Sri Lanka involved in sci-fi hollywood films. It’s imagining

Christopher Nolan shooting a sci-fi action film in Sri Lanka, which I’d like to see. When it comes to

his sci-fi action films, I love “Inception” and am looking forward to his upcoming film “Tenet”. It seems

that in this fiction below, he’s trying to attract politicians with the reference to luxury vehicles. 

I’m now featuring Sri Lankan sci-fi content. The following two topics deal with points I mentioned in

my article “The Potential of Sri Lankan English Comics”, with this one dealing with time travel. I

wonder what it means how this time traveller “warps”. 

Here’s a story of aliens landing in Sri Lanka in Viharamahadevi Park.

The last one is asking what Sri Lanka will be like in 2050. It’s false, with it giving a contradictory

argument about size and population. The figure it mentions of 8 million square kilometres is roughly

the size of Brazil which is in stark contrast to Sri Lanka’s 65, 610 square kilometres. A population of

4 million people in 8 million square kilometres is the exact opposite of density. This one is so funny.

I hope you enjoyed this. I’d be interested to hear people’s interpretations of content featured here

and/or expansions of them. This is an example of the funny side of AI. 

The Potential of Sri Lankan English Comics

Comic books are a popular form of entertainment throughout the world offering stories in a variety of

styles and genres. As a Sri Lankan who enjoys comic books, I would like to see Sri Lankan English

comics. Sri Lanka has had comics for some time, but there are only a few comics in English. Sri

Lankan English comics are slowly starting to emerge. In this article I am listing types of English

comics I’d like to see Sri Lanka produce.

Social Commentary

There could be social commentary on issues facing Sri Lanka. Examples of this include both the

good & bad of social media, the problems of crime, the cost of living problems, bribery & corruption,

issues of discrimination, the rule of law or the lack of it, the lack of road discipline among others.  

History

Stories of Sri Lankan history could be featured in graphic novel form. History could range from
prehistoric stories such as tales of Sri Lankan Kings to 20th century events such as the story of Sri

Lanka’s independence. There also could be fictional stories set in the past.

Politics

When it comes to political stories, one story I’d like to see is a political hero. It would be a story of a

minister who is one of the good politicians with integrity. This politician is not pleased with the

existing political culture Sri Lanka has and takes steps to improve it discreetly in order to protect his

or her job. This character would prevent corrupt persons comprising politicians, public servants,

business people or ordinary people from carrying out their plans. Another thing this hero would do is

expose corrupt politicians and public servants resulting in them getting out of office.

Humour

Sri Lankan comics offer potential for humorous stories showcasing Sri Lankan humour. A famous

brand of Sri Lankan jokes are Udurawana jokes. These jokes are about a Sri Lankan who doesn’t

know English very well. Udurawana jokes could be presented in comic strip form.   

Graphic Novel Adaptations

When it comes to graphic novels, there could be graphic novel adaptations of successful Sri Lankan

novels, including those which originated in Sinhalese, Tamil and English.

Superheroes

As superheroes are popular, I think Sri Lankan English comics have an opportunity to feature Sri

Lankan superheroes. I think villains superheroes could take on include the underworld and corrupt

politicians, businessmen & public servants.

As a sci-fi fan, I would love to see Sri Lankan sci-fi superheroes. Sci-Fi superheroes could be those

without superpowers who become superheroes with a tech-supersuit that does amazing things.
Another type of sci-fi superheroes are those who obtained superpowers via contact with technology or alien life forms. This goes into my next type of comic, that being sci-fi.

Sci-Fi

Sci-Fi is the type of comic I’d most like to see. Sci-Fi is perfect for comic form as it allows the

comic artists to draw creative and enjoyable imagery. Sci-Fi is at its best when it discusses the human condition. Sri Lankan sci-fi comics could discuss the human condition and of course Sri Lanka & its society.

There could be stories set in the future offering two possibilities which are:

• A dark future showing us where we as a country do not want to go to.

• An optimistic future showing us where we as a country wish to be. 

Another option is an alternate version of the present which could go in all sorts of different ways.

• An alternate universe Sri Lanka which is worse than our current setup. This would show us where we as a country do not want to go to.

• An alternate universe Sri Lanka which is better than our current setup. This would show us where we as a country wish to be. 

• An alternate universe Sri Lanka which is neither better nor worse but simply different.

Some Sri Lankan sci-fi stories which could be featured are aliens landing in Sri Lanka (It could be in

an open way or where only a small number of people get into contact with the aliens), a Sri Lankan

inventor inventing a new piece of technology and its implications for Sri Lanka (and possibly the

world), time travel stories which go to the past and/or future, a Sri Lankan or group of Sri Lankans

travelling into space set in the present or the future.

International Themes

There a number of international themes which could be featured. Some stories could deal with Sri

Lanka’s relationship with the outside world. An example of this is a story about a Sri Lankan

Ambassador to the United Nations. There also could be adventure stories with heroes based in Sri

Lanka who travel the world and also have adventures where their friends from overseas come to

visit them.

Many Sri Lankans have good knowledge of the world, so we can use our international knowledge to

write stories set in other countries. This would be examples of comics made in Sri Lanka appealing

to a global readership.

Export Product

When it comes to comics printed and/or published in Sri Lanka, they could be an export product that

generates revenue for the country. They would be read by Sri Lankans around the world as well as

people native to other countries.

Unity

English speaking comics would have an opportunity for unity. These would be Sri Lankan stories in

English showing Sri Lankan characters dealing with both common Sri Lankan and universal themes

enabling it to appeal to Sri Lankans of different ethnicities.

Final Thoughts

We can look to both American and European comics as influences. It’s worth noting that comics

could also have combinations of some of the different types I mentioned above. An example is the

Belgian comic The Adventures of Tintin. Tintin is an adventure comic that is also a comedy which

goes around the world. It has also delved into other genres throughout its course which include

mysteries, spy stories and sci-fi. I would like to see a Sri Lankan version of The Adventures of Tintin.

We should also create some comics that are unlike any comics created elsewhere in the world.

I hope you enjoyed my thoughts on the potential of Sri Lankan English comics where I gave different

types of Sri Lankan English comics that can be created. I would enjoy hearing others give their

thoughts on Sri Lankan comics they’d like to see.

If Tintin Were Set in The Present Day

Tintin is one of the most iconic comic book characters in the world. His adventures existed in the 20th century from the 1920s to the 1970s (or 1980s if you count the unfinished adventure Tintin and Alph-Art). I thought it would be interesting to write down ideas that could be explored in Tintin if there were Tintin adventures set in the present day. In this article, I am giving a list of what I’d like to see in present day Tintin. While most ideas are specifically related to the present day, there are a few that are simply things we haven’t seen before in Tintin I’d like to see. Let’s begin.

• Have Professor Calculus invent green technology, and not as a joke, but as cool useful technology that actually works especially with the environmental issues we’re currently facing.
• Tintin has had science fiction stories and elements, so have a science fiction story. It could be based on an invention of Professor Calculus or deal with issues of artificial intelligence.  
• Have an adventure where Tintin, Captain Haddock and Snowy take on ISIS in the Middle East. It could be tied to the state of Wadesdah (a fictional country run by the heroes’ friend Emir Mohammed Ben Kalish Ezab).
• If there’s a way to deal with it, feature the contemporary problem of racism and hatred in some of the stories, e.g. it could be with Syldavia (a fictional country in Tintin) electing a populist leader.
• Syldavia is enemies with their neighbouring state (also fictional) Borduria. Borduria is an aggressive state and they have the dictator Marshal Kurvi-Tasch who’s mentioned but only appears in photographs. Have the Bordurian leader Kurvi-Tasch appear and be the main villain of the story.
• Have a story dealing with cyber crime.
• Bring the Panama Papers into Tintin, and have some Tintin villains being part of it.
• Have a story dealing with automation.
• I did say to have a science fiction story, but I would like to see another specialised form of science fiction, which is time travel. Have a story where the heroes go back in time to an incident involving Captain Haddock when he was much younger with Captain Haddock avoiding contact with his younger self. Show the contrast between the two of them and the story would involve the heroes stopping the villains from altering history. Differentiate the two Captains by making the younger Captain Haddock without a beard.
• I would like to see a subplot in a story of insurance agent Jolyon Wagg suffering due to the annoying things he’s done to Captain Haddock.
• Captain Haddock’s Butler Nestor is very formal and we see little of what he’s really like as a person. Reveal what he’s really like by showing him interact with others casually, and possibly have his interactions with the heroes getting less formal. There could be a story of Nestor getting kidnapped with the heroes going to rescue him. That would give the opportunity to delve into his personality.
• Incorporate drones (the type that take videos and photos) into a story.

I hope you enjoyed my list of what I’d like to see in present day Tintin. I’d be interested to hear what your thoughts are on these ideas, if you have any expansions of them or if you have ideas of your own.