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Bringer of Light, Chapter 39: Transit — Lost

February 25, 2023
MThomas

Unaware of events on Mars, Gennaji was hurrying to help Sergey, his old captain, on Luna. But the unexpected happened, and now the Sagittarius is minus one crew member. And an unidentified object approaches..

“…Be happy. Be free.”

The transmission ended. Gennaji felt liquid on his cheek.

Not tears. A blood bubble had alighted. He brushed it off angrily.

“Ory, what’s the source of this message?”

“Ch-checking.”

He grabbed the navigator’s seat and strapped in. Another splotch on the panel. He wiped it off with his forearm and turned on the aft video feed.

The lifepod had slipped behind and below them. Who was in it? Surely not Sergey. The old man had always said he’d rather die than—

Gennaji snapped his head up.

No.

He unstrapped and bounced to another console. Fingers dancing, trying to remember. He slapped the console in frustration. Lena had always been better than him at controlling the drones and the arm for rock retrieval. He had relied on Andrej too much. Relied too much on others. If only there were an easier way to learn how to do this. He shouldn’t have to do menial work. He was the captain! He should give the orders and the others should follow! He…

The arm extended at last. He sighed. Was it too late?

Merry Xmas 2022!

December 26, 2022
MThomas

Happy holidays, everyone!

Best wishes for the 2023 New Year. See you on the other side!

ChatGPT: Is this really the “death of the essay”?

December 17, 2022
MThomas

I’ve been testing ChatGPT over the last couple of days. (If you don’t know what this chatbot is, here’s a good NYT article about ChatGPT and others currently in development.)

The avowed purpose of ChatGPT is to create an AI that can create believable dialogues. It does this by scouring the web for data it uses to respond to simple prompts.

By “simple,” I mean sometimes “horribly complicated,” of course. And sometimes a little ridiculous.

*Somehow, I doubt that people in the US said “livin’ the dream” in the ’50s…*

As has been pointed out, chatbots only generate texts based on what they have been fed, i.e., “garbage in / garbage out.” So if you push the programs hard enough, they will generate racist, sexist, homophobic etc awful stuff — because unfortunately that kind of sick and twisted garbage is still out there, somewhere online in a troll’s paradise.

So far, I have asked the program to:

Write a haiku about winter without using the word “winter”
Write a limerick about an Irish baseball player
Write a dialogue between God and Nietzsche (I just had to…)
Imagine what Jean-Paul Sartre and Immanuel Kant would say to each other (see above) but using US ’50 slang
Have Thomas Aquinas and John Locke argue about the existence of God (that one was fun)
Write a 300 word cause-effect essay about climate change
Write a 300 word compare and contrast essay about the US and Japan
Write a 1000 word short science fiction story based on Mars
Write a 1500 word short science fiction about robots in the style of Philip K Dick

OK, and the verdict is:

Smashwords End of the Year Sale from 12/15 to 1/1!

December 15, 2022
MThomas

“Find my ebooks and a wide collection of great indie titles as part of the Smashwords 2022 End of Year Sale! Check out https://smashwords.com/shelves/promos before the end of the month and follow @smashwords for more promos like this! #SmashwordsEOYSale #ebook #sale #books2read #indiebooks”

(I swiped this from the Smashwords promo site as a “generic blurb.” But what else, really, do I need to write?

All my ebooks on Smashwords are “50%” off! That means the books that are listed as $0.99 are actually free, since they don’t do $0.49.

And don’t forget that all proceeds from Destiny in the Future are donated to fight cancer.

Gift an ebook to friends and family!

Chatbots — Still not AI but still dangerous

December 13, 2022
MThomas

[ChatGPT] could teach his daughter math, science and English, not to mention a few other important lessons. Chief among them: Do not believe everything you are told.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/10/technology/ai-chat-bot-chatgpt.html

They’re all the rage online. Type in a request for a description how two historical people who never actually met would respond to each other had they actually met, and the program will oblige.

They’ll cause all sorts of rage online, too, once the peddlers of incessant false news and innuendo realize what a bonanza they’ve stumbled upon.

You want an image of an event that never really happened?

No problem. A program can generate one for you. We can even call it “art,” for what that’s worth.

No, BIG problem, especially when it convinces the gullible that it DID happen.

2023 will tell 2020 and 2022 to hold its coffee.

Just what we all wanted, right?

Still, chatbots are not (repeat, NOT) true AI. Sorry, Google engineer who watched too much Ghost in the Shell. Chatbots repeat our very human bias. Repeatedly.

As in, there are way too many racist, sexist, xenophobic, homophobic, and transphobic comments online. Full stop.

At a minor level, as a writing instructor, a student telling a chatbot to write a 600-word comparison-contrast essay is the least of my worries.

For starters, the damn things are probably scouring the Internet right now and “learning” from text on web pages like…uh…this one…

😱

Bringer of Light, Chapter 37: Transit Ceres to Luna

December 10, 2022
MThomas

In a story long, long ago…

Sorry that it’s been almost three months since posting more fiction. The colonists on Mars are still undergoing training by Riss and Sanvi so that they can understand and control their new abilities. Meanwhile, Bardish has headed out into space, where he met his destiny.

And Gennaji, who had been headed to discover Bardish’s fate on Luna, is now approaching his own.

“Prepare to board that Loonie ship,” Gennaji said tersely, unstrapping his flight harness.

“Aye, Captain.”

Karel’s voice sounded void of emotion. As if the big man had gone numb.

Gennaji glanced over at his new navigator. It looked as if the man hadn’t slept at all since they left Ceres. Since their failure. Since Andrej betrayed him.

He couldn’t help himself.

“Pining for that backstabbing vybliadok?”

Karel shot him a glare that Gennaji could not back down from. He planted his magboots firmly down on the control room deck and returned the glare. Neither spoke for a moment.

“He made his choice,” Karel finally said. He kept his eyes firmly on his captain.

“Yes,” Gennaji said, crossing his arms. “He did. And you?”

No response.

“You agreed to join this crew. Standard sixteen-month contract.”

“For two more weeks.”

“Yes, two more weeks! A man makes a promise, a man keeps it. You have a problem with being a man?”

Karel turned red, clenched his fists.

“Captain,” said the pilot. “The Lunar skiff is changing course. Heading…directly at us!”

“What?” Gennaji took a step towards Orynko. He felt a big hand grab the back of his right upper arm, twisted him around to face behind him. The punch came in slightly off target, a glancing blow on the chin that sent him backward a step or two. He staggered, recovered, anticipated the left body blow and blocked with the inner part of his right arm. Karel fell forward, his momentum carrying him into his captain.

Gennaji immediately sidestepped, tripping the bigger man and forcing him into a headlock from behind. Left forearm under the man’s left shoulder and neck, right arm behind and locked with the left bicep. Twisted hips, pushed down to the floor, pinning his opponent down with his body weight.

Karel gasped, grabbed at the forearm, kicking futilely.

Call a spade a

December 5, 2022
MThomas

Just saw someone on my morning commuter train wearing a fluffy beige coat with a single word in all capital letters, stretching across the back from left elbow to right elbow:

EXPLOIT

Yeah. That’s what happened, alright.

Think small

December 3, 2022
MThomas

On Tuesday as I was walking back from work, much later than usual, my shoes were bothering me.

They felt stretched, loose, especially irritating on a rainy day.

I had spent too much time polishing them, I thought.

Too much effort making them “waterproof.”

Too much money on these damn useless things.

I resolved to throw them away and get a new pair.

But of course it would take time, and money, and effort to go get them.

Damn shoes. I would have to rearrange my entire week because of you.

The next morning, as I put my shoes on, I realized that the laces were loose.

So I re-tied them, and instantly they felt better.

Sometimes, when a small, insignificant problem arises, there is a simple fix.

Think small.

Volcanos, Venus, and Earth 🌋 Hellscape unveiled

November 25, 2022
MThomas

A new study shows that massive volcanic eruptions over an extended period of time may be responsible for changing the planet into what it is today. If there was simple life on ancient Venus, volcanism was its doom. The study also shows how powerful volcanic activity has played a role in shaping Earth’s habitability and how Earth only narrowly avoided the same fate as Venus.
https://www.universetoday.com/158696/volcanoes-are-the-worst-theyve-caused-extinctions-on-earth-and-probably-killed-venus/#more-158696

Venus is hot enough to melt lead, which is why no spaceship has ever survived to land on the surface.

And, no, there is nothing alive floating around in its toxic atmosphere.

But this is a neat article. Three future missions are planned for Venus (two by NASA – VERITAS and DAVINCI – and one by ESA – EnVision, which sounds more like a song and dance competition than a scientific probe).

Venus or bust!

Japan to continue on ISS until…

November 21, 2022
MThomas

Well, it’s official. Japan will remain a member of the International Space Station until 2030.

And of course, the next year it will fall to its death over the middle of the Pacific Ocean in “Point Nemo,” joining hundreds of other satellites at the bottom of the industrialized nations convenient sea junkyard.

Surely there is a better way to dispose of spacecraft that doesn’t involve polluting the ocean.

Well before then, Russia will no longer help out (obviously). And that’s problematic, since the propulsion part of the ISS is the Russian module.

Hmm. What to do, what to do…

How about we go to Mars instead?

Nah. Let’s have separate countries like India and China make their own space stations and then encourage private companies to make their own, too!

Um. What’s the point?

Ah. The “new space race.”

And don’t forget that Venus is “a Russian planet.” 🤦‍♂️

These moron politicians shouldn’t be in charge of humanity’s future. The Earth is a round planet the last time I checked, everybody sharing the same air and water.

For now.

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