knight rider online

Here's a question, if we go with the idea that this is a reimagined version of Knight Rider proper, how would you guys bring KARR to life in a Trust Doesn't Rust retelling.

My vision for KITT is already on the table thanks to Knight Racer's awesome photoshop work, so for KARR it becomes a question of just how closely we want to stick to the evil twin aspect. Back when I was a kid with a boatload of LEGO and a dodgy TV set, one idea I had was to give KARR a green scanner to match what my TV said was a green voice modulator. A flip of the classic battle between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader in Return of the Jedi.

Another idea I had back then was to build a late model second generation Trans Am (using Smokey and the Bandit II as a guild) to create a Knight 1000. Bringing it into the here and now, we'd be looking at a fifth gen Camaro... or even more radically, a sixth gen Mustang since it not only entered production a year earlier, but is also the closet thing to an "enemy" of the Camaro in muscle car circles.

Matt

Well I still cringe when I see a yellow scanner In place of a red one or seeing Karr's voice modulator. Seeing kitt be a good AI all those episodes learn to grow and be a positive force for good and yet see the same body but have an evil force behind it with a yellow scanner makes me think it should continue with these new vehicle bodies but same color schemes. Same body but different soul. I've read some of the best older generation kr fan fics and I loved the Knight Rider Legends/1998 one where Karr's ai memory is wiped clean at the orders of the Knight foundation board to bring back F.L.A.G. , Michael Knight, Devon Miles who retained a board position. a new driver for Karr and a second semi. Then There's the Rusted Trust fan fic where the villain of the story was one of the original Karr designers/creators who salvaged the AI from the desert after their second encounter. Flag is reinstated with the return of the original crew and kitt in a new 1997 body same with karr and they face off eventually.

I was thinking, why not the new Trans Am?







Much more KITT to me.. even the stance on the road - of course, would need mods on the nose but much more friendly looking, almost that KITT 'grin':

Isn't that just a trans am kit that's used on a Camaro? I don't like the wheels and I especially don't like that part that comes out the back of the tail lights over the back and sides. I think it's intentionally designed to bring back the look of the old smokey and the bandit style trans ams. Not a fan of that front nose either. Does that come in all black? Might seem a bit different without all those decals.

Looking good!

Knight Racer wrote:Well I still cringe when I see a yellow scanner In place of a red one or seeing Karr's voice modulator. Seeing kitt be a good AI all those episodes learn to grow and be a positive force for good and yet see the same body but have an evil force behind it with a yellow scanner makes me think it should continue with these new vehicle bodies but same color schemes. Same body but different soul. I've read some of the best older generation kr fan fics and I loved the Knight Rider Legends/1998 one where Karr's ai memory is wiped clean at the orders of the Knight foundation board to bring back F.L.A.G. , Michael Knight, Devon Miles who retained a board position. a new driver for Karr and a second semi. Then There's the Rusted Trust fan fic where the villain of the story was one of the original Karr designers/creators who salvaged the AI from the desert after their second encounter. Flag is reinstated with the return of the original crew and kitt in a new 1997 body same with karr and they face off eventually.

So you'd go with a red voice modulator instead of a yellow one for KARR? That's an interesting idea for sure. You'd keep the same design though right? I figure the guys building KITT could easily swap the top and bottom elements of the left and right sided LED bars, if for no other reason than their own peace of mind, like I've done with the attachments below.

One of the big things I'm surprised they never contemplated was making KARR actually be Michael Long's Trans Am. The amount of time he's in Wilton's care is never stated, and they could have easily been rushing to build KITT because of Michael's initial downtime being spent readying KARR. It's a nuance that might have explained why Devon was clearly dismissive of Michael's claim of ownership, but not forcefully so.

Of course, to go that route nowadays would be difficult given the nature of the surveillance state. Come to think of it, backstopping the Michael Knight identity would be hard as hell to pull off these days as well.

Matt

I.... really like the new Trans-Am, better than any of the other ideas or even the Mustang Kitt. The pop-out headlights on the 82 Trans Am always kind of bugged me. Ever seen one of them get stuck where the car looks hungover?

I would keep the colors the same as they have were in the old series for consistency.

Something just didn't sit right with me in the last upload. Had to make some changes to the scanner area.

Matthew wrote:I did yeah, although I didn't mean to edit it out. I should probably make a mental note not to edit my posts first thing in the morning, especially when I haven't slept for over 24 hours.

Matt

Copy/Paste and NotePad are most definitely friends when it comes to those 'Undo' moments, for sure.

Now, had I been the designer of this board's software, there would have been a kind of 'Safety' switch included, which turns on and off moderator tools, to avoid such accidents.

Matthew wrote:One of the big things I'm surprised they never contemplated was making KARR actually be Michael Long's Trans Am. The amount of time he's in Wilton's care is never stated, and they could have easily been rushing to build KITT because of Michael's initial downtime being spent readying KARR. It's a nuance that might have explained why Devon was clearly dismissive of Michael's claim of ownership, but not forcefully so.

Of course, to go that route nowadays would be difficult given the nature of the surveillance state. Come to think of it, backstopping the Michael Knight identity would be hard as hell to pull off these days as well.

Matt

Actually, I'd beg to differ on the notion of how hard it might be in this day and age. Sure. Back in the day of 1980, calling up information and such was a deeply involved process and made it harder to verify information. But, back then, records were kept on physical media inside filing cabinets and such. Whereas, these days, a ton of stuff is all digital and paper backups may exist. The security of such media is definitely in place and the access has become alarmingly easy. But, we are talking about the Foundation that is working with cutting edge AI's, here. To a connected AI, creating a false identity inside all those data storage mediums might be alarmingly easy. Because, today's traditional computers don't tend to question what is fed to them, aside from traditional safety guards of passwords, firewalls, anti-virus and such. Far easier then it would have been in 1980, when literal paper trails were all over the place and an AI could have never touched those. I dare say that 'right now' would be the perfect time for an AI to create and conceal histories of people that did not exist...before 'tomorrow' comes about and such data storage systems are bound to contain AI guards of their own. In fact, for one of the world's first AI's, doing things in a virtual landscape may never be easier...right now. The world has never been more interconnected via that digital web with a relatively easy level of security in place. With each passing year, those safeties are only going to get more sophisticated and tougher. Alas, for the moment, they are still mostly geared towards keeping the Humans out with {Word A =/!= Password} security measures and activity loggers. A native AI inside that virtual landscape can probably sneak around such an archaic protection system with enough time or information seeking. Once true AI's start protecting it all, they won't put up with 10,000 random characters-a-minute cracking flood attempts from a thousand zombie machines. And will also grasp the simple guts of every viral attempt that comes their way.

Now, the annoying little fact from the original about how KARR had been treated due to 'concerned external forces' may still be legit. But...who says it has to stay in place. In fact, it might make a far more interesting story if Michael was paired up with KARR from the very start. But, over the course of months of activity, little notions start popping up about the stability of KARR's personality and stability. And it all climaxes up to a state of an AI wishing to 'stay alive'. There could even be a deep relationship where KARR can no longer trust Michael Knight for being apart of the Foundation, (threat) yet has too much history and trust to turn against him. I'd even have KARR diverge Foundation funds (or maybe stock market funds) into creating a secret sanctuary, so as when he does flee from the dangerous Foundation, he has his own team to maintain his functions with. Heck. Maybe he'll still stick to the core notion of the Foundation...in a twisted way. There could be more fun in that, even. A crime fighting car, on the run from it's overlord masters, while taking down criminals in inhumane ways. (Hit and run. Interior suffocation/overheating.) Always maintaining some kind of logical hope in reclaiming his original partner and saving him from the 'evil Foundation'. All the while, a hastily built KITT is being rushed into the scene. More stable in mind. Yet, maybe not as polished and functional as the original show had him being. Always this car with features being built in or fixed. Endless testing to insure no corruptions are going on in the AI. A continuing plot that keeps building upon itself...like so many other shows do, these days.

What about adding a 3rd headlight in the grill on each side, mimicking the usual replica 3 fog lamps...?

Knight Racer wrote:

jup wrote:Actually, I'd beg to differ on the notion of how hard it might be in this day and age. Sure. Back in the day of 1980, calling up information and such was a deeply involved process and made it harder to verify information. But, back then, records were kept on physical media inside filing cabinets and such. Whereas, these days, a ton of stuff is all digital and paper backups may exist. The security of such media is definitely in place and the access has become alarmingly easy. But, we are talking about the Foundation that is working with cutting edge AI's, here. To a connected AI, creating a false identity inside all those data storage mediums might be alarmingly easy. Because, today's traditional computers don't tend to question what is fed to them, aside from traditional safety guards of passwords, firewalls, anti-virus and such. Far easier then it would have been in 1980, when literal paper trails were all over the place and an AI could have never touched those. I dare say that 'right now' would be the perfect time for an AI to create and conceal histories of people that did not exist...before 'tomorrow' comes about and such data storage systems are bound to contain AI guards of their own. In fact, for one of the world's first AI's, doing things in a virtual landscape may never be easier...right now. The world has never been more interconnected via that digital web with a relatively easy level of security in place. With each passing year, those safeties are only going to get more sophisticated and tougher. Alas, for the moment, they are still mostly geared towards keeping the Humans out with {Word A =/!= Password} security measures and activity loggers. A native AI inside that virtual landscape can probably sneak around such an archaic protection system with enough time or information seeking. Once true AI's start protecting it all, they won't put up with 10,000 random characters-a-minute cracking flood attempts from a thousand zombie machines. And will also grasp the simple guts of every viral attempt that comes their way.

You know, I'd never even considered how easy an AI might find it to build a deep cover identity. As you'd expect, I'd considered traditional human means of adding everyday documents to the relevant databases, but it seems both methods would reach a point where even the best of creations wouldn't be able to replicate the name you're born with.

Of course in the pilot episode, the recent creation of the Michael Knight identity actually seems to get into heads of Tanya and her team, which makes me think that a virtually nonexistent identity would probably have the same effect today. I mean, when I look at shows like NCIS, the undercover identities those guys sometimes use are built to stand up to the kind of scrutiny that won't arouse suspicion. In the case of Michael Knight though, the reaction is the exact opposite; the very idea of an incredibly powerful individual giving someone that kind of clean slate seems to throw the bad guys off their game from the moment Michael rolls into town.

Matt

Knight Racer wrote:

*sees 850 T-5R on the side of KITT*

RSTEIN?!

Looking good there though, KR.

Matthew wrote: You know, I'd never even considered how easy an AI might find it to build a deep cover identity. As you'd expect, I'd considered traditional human means of adding everyday documents to the relevant databases, but it seems both methods would reach a point where even the best of creations wouldn't be able to replicate the name you're born with.

Without tiring myself with anything as complex as googling, after my 10 hour day...
I recall some of the bots that either Amazon or Google were running learned to encode their conversations (bot-to-bot speak) to keep humans from monitoring them.
THEY'RE TAKING OVER ALREADY.