April 7, 2026
OK, so I have been pulling my hair out (what’s left of it) the past few days over trying to understand an email thread with “Draft2Digital.” (Note to self: this occurred in early 2024; evidently, forgot to post it! The first thing that goes is memory, and the second is…umm…)
Let me sum up. (If you’re not interested in a rant-n-rave about the state of the independent publishing industry, you can skip to the part where I list the URL for my new book Bringer of Light… 🙂
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March 12, 2026
“As a science fiction author, I’ve always loved hearing from fans of my fiction,” [US based author Jason Sanford] tells the Guardian. “But now when someone emails saying they loved one of my stories, my first thought is that this is yet another scammer setting me up for the kill.”
Yet another reason I hate AI.
I, too, have been contacted repeatedly by people claiming to be literary agents, or to have connections with major publishers or bookstores.
I don’t trust any of them. And that’s sad.
All I want is for people to read and enjoy my work. Not steal it, scrape it, resell or repackage it. And certainly not to think I’m eager to give them thousands of dollars for horrible AI-generated videos.
It’s impossible to make a living as a writer.
September 26, 2024
According to Thorne, who served as a consultant on the science of Interstellar, quantum mechanics could hypothetically explain a way to time travel via wormhole. So far, it’s a thought experiment that leads to the conclusion that you’d lose information along the way—not very practical.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/deep-space/a62175728/interstellar-travel-wormholes
First off, I’m incredibly annoyed at the way WordPress has screwed up the “quotation” function. It seems they are more focused on encouraging bloggers to use AI to write.
Uh. I don’t need AI. I blog. The end. WTH is the point of using AI to write my thoughts? It’s already being trained to USE my blog in the first place! Idiots.
OK. Second, the Popular Mechanics article I’m linking to is entitled “Interstellar travel is possible if we break into a higher dimension, scientists say.”
Only, that is NOT what scientists say. It’s still a thought experiment!
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September 2, 2024
Footage making the rounds on social media shows what appear to be astonishingly lifelike humanoid robots posing at the World Robot Conference in Beijing last week.
But instead of showing off the latest and greatest in humanoid robotics, two of the “robots” turned out to be human women cosplaying as futuristic gynoids, presumably hired by animatronics company Ex-Robots.
https://futurism.com/the-byte/chinese-company-humanoid-robots-humans
Apparently some people were convinced these women were actually robots.
For real? This just seems like another crass, sexist attempt at titillating fanboys.
May 10, 2024
Technology is becoming marvellously intuitive. After booking a holiday with friends, we were surprised to discover Google had already added the dates…
When Google Gets it Wrong
Google Maps initially listed our house with the correct address but also my family name —- because it thought it was a company.
It took them half a year after I complained about privacy violations to take the name off…
And they also took off the address!
And there is an abandoned house repurposed as an arts and crafts society event place that has the same address as us!
Annoying.
Not the arts and crafts society folk. They’re pretty cool. 🖼️ 📷 🎨
March 21, 2024
On March 13th, someone on Goodreads shelved Bringer of Light, and on March 14th gave it a one-star rating, the lowest possible.
On March 15th, Bringer of Light was finally published online.
I flagged the “review” as violating Goodreads policy, and received an email saying the company would deal with it appropriately.
Six days later, the one-star “review” still stands.
It’s been very tempting to post a comment. But for the moment, I have resisted.
If you don’t like my work, that’s fine. But it is simply mean-spirited to try to judge it without even bothering to read it.
There are lots of trolls out there. They must be starving for attention.
Poor buggers. You’ll have to find food elsewhere.
February 22, 2024
What bores you?
What doesn’t?
OK, I guess I’ll play along…
October 26, 2023
We compared current scientific theories of what makes humans conscious to compile a list of “indicator properties” that could then be applied to AI systems.
We don’t think systems that possess the indicator properties are definitely conscious, but the more indicators, the more seriously we should take claims of AI consciousness.
https://theconversation.com/why-chatgpt-isnt-conscious-but-future-ai-systems-might-be-212860
Last year, an engineer for Google who was working on what was then called “LaMDA” (later released as “Bard”) claimed that the software had achieved consciousness. He claimed it was like a small child and he could “talk” with it.
He was fired.
Bard, ChatGPT, Baidu, and so forth are advanced chatbots built on what’s called “Large Language Models” (LLM) and can generate text in an instant.
But the programs are not AI, strictly speaking. They have no sentience.
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July 28, 2023
US Congress: We want the truth!
Former military pilots: UAP is real!
Me: Wtf is a “UAP”?
April 12, 2023
The bankruptcy filing by Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit Holdings Inc (VORB.O) has dealt a blow to Japan’s hopes of building a domestic space industry, with plans for a Kyushu-based spaceport designed to attract tourism on hold for lack of funding.
https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/virgin-orbit-bankruptcy-casts-shadow-over-japans-space-dreams-2023-04-07/
Granted, this news is from four or five days ago.
Still, it’s jarring to see TV news about JAXA and NASA doing “joint” explorations of Mars, and then see a constant failure of JAXA to do anything based in Japan.
Something is seriously wrong with this space agency. And I suspect it has nothing to do with the scientists or astronauts.
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