A bad administrator is more concerned with reports than with decisions. He wants the hard record which he can display as an excuse for his errors.
Lord Leto II
Today’s quote
April 3, 2024
Do not trust those who believe themselves too much
March 16, 2024
Who is the most confident person you know?
“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance”)
Continue ReadingBringer of Light – pre-order now!
March 13, 2024
Today’s quote
March 2, 2024
Show me a completely smooth operation and I’ll show you someone who’s covering mistakes. Real boats rock.
Frank Herbert, Chapterhouse: Dune
From the Thought Police files…
February 25, 2024
If you could permanently ban a word from general usage, which one would it be? Why?
I would not ban any words from any language, ever. I am not a Language Nazi.
People should learn that words have power, words hurt, and words heal. People should learn when to say or write what to whom, when and where. Banning language does not prevent people from using language, and in fact simply adds to language power.
Only Nazis ban language. Think for yourself. Grow up!
Booooooring
February 22, 2024
What bores you?
What doesn’t?
OK, I guess I’ll play along…
- Boring people
- People who talk a lot but say very little
- Morning “news”
- Talk shows
- Game shows
- Most TV, to be quite honest
- Pop music. Of any era.
- Dancing
- Politicians
- Business people
- Pointless paperwork
- Activities that require no thought or skill
- Card games (seriously…sorry, I just don’t get the attraction)
- Long lists about boring things (hey!)
Today’s quote
February 22, 2024
Never attempt to reason with people who know they are right!
Lord Leto
Bringer of Light available for pre-order!
February 15, 2024
The moment we’ve all been waiting for is nearly here!
Bringer of Light is finally set to be released on March 15, 2024! (Click the link to see a book synopsis and two brief excerpts; Smashwords also has an excerpt from the beginning chapters.)
Stop by Draft2Digital to see links to your favorite bookstore online!
UPDATE: I have some difficulty convincing D2D to distribute to Amazon. Therefore, I have decided to publish Bringer of Light directly on Amazon. Stop by here to order for Kindle (released March 15th). Paperback and hard cover are also in the works.
AI and the future of warfare (as predicted)
September 23, 2023
Both Russian and Ukrainian forces are integrating traditional weapons with AI, satellite imaging and communications, as well as smart and loitering munitions, according to a May report from the Special Competitive Studies Project, a non-partisan U.S. panel of experts. The battlefield is now a patchwork of deep trenches and bunkers where troops have been “forced to go underground or huddle in cellars to survive,” the report said.
https://www.reuters.com/technology/human-machine-teams-driven-by-ai-are-about-reshape-warfare-2023-09-08/
I found it interesting that many people online were commenting about Iain M Bank’s take on AI (for an in-depth analysis of his Culture series check this out on Blood Knife) and how he “predicted” all this.
Uh. You know, I’m not sure whether Banks wrote much about integrating traditional weapons with AI (since I haven’t read his series). But I do know that PK Dick wrote a short story called “Second Variety” about trench warfare and AI robots making more versions of themselves and taking over the world.
He wrote it in 1953.
(You can read it at Project Gutenberg.)
That is waaay before the Culture series.
Sigh. Read the classics, guys.
Dear Diary – May 12, 1999
September 11, 2023
Just because you aren’t paranoid doesn’t mean that they aren’t out to get you.
M Thomas Apple Author Page 