Second Order Consequences

The title 'Generative A.I - We Aren’t Ready' just about sums up the possible problems with AI generated work. The possibility that it will make the internet a thing full of trivia and or affidavits for stuff is no big stretch given what we've seen so far, just with the volume turned up to eleven.

Oh well, if something is too good to be true it probably is.

Still, grist for the mill, and in my case why AI is not the thing we imagine it will be in my Gate Walker setting, where it's very much constrained by law from widespread use.

AI Existential Crisis

  

I found Two AIs Have An Existential Crisis (GPT-3) on YouTube, as one does, and a few seconds later I wondered if this simulation proves that humans are nothing more than Chinese rooms masquerading as sentient individuals.

I'm odd like that.

Edit: I dived deeper into this channel and found another one Halcyox that has a load more conversations generated by prompts.

An Epiphany and Revelation

Epiphany

A moment of sudden and great revelation or realization.

‘Then, as if we all have an epiphany at the same moment, we simultaneously yell out.’

Revelation

Used to emphasize the remarkable quality of someone or something.

‘seeing them play at international level was a revelation’

I couldn't resist the Agent Smith call out for the title. Consider it a Mum joke. The change forced on the Wachowskis's while making their movie to change humans from CPUs into batteries, is now a meme.

The joke is that social media marketing algorithms exploit human behaviours to turn us into 'batteries' to power businesses is a tad ironic. Here's a link to a book extract on Amazon I read:

 Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now

Makes you think.

AI Visual Processing

An observation about visual processing. dancing ballerina / spinning dancer optical illusion made easy.

A personal anecdote.

One evening, I remember walking up St. Martin's Lane on my way home from work. I had a moment where my brain failed to understand what I was looking at. I saw a person with no face. The eyes nose and mouth were missing, the face was blank flesh. It was just for a moment, then the eyes, nose and mouth appeared.

I suspect this illusion happened due to tiredness and the level of light.

Log 2014 20th Jul: Countdowns

The first countdown is LonCon 3, with less than four weeks to go.  I'm on another panel too, details to follow during the week.  The other countdown is the rewrite of my novel Bad Dog, which I hope to have done by the time LonCon 3 comes around.  If only to say I have a novel out doing the rounds, but more importantly, just to get what feels like an anvil off of me.

So this week Hulk smash puny chapters that make up act three.  Word count hard to estimate, because I'm in negative numbers, with the running total now standing at 86,701 words.  When I started the rewrite the novel came in at a hefty 93,075 words; so Hulk smash!

We finished re-watching Stargate Atlantis this week.  Season five had the feeling of watching a cat take a pratfall, regain its composure and pretend what happened was what it meant to do all along.  By that I mean the ending was rushed to tie up all the loose threads of the plot before the show was cancelled.  As a season some of the stories, while nice enough, were quite frankly not necessary to the overall plot; namely the Wraith problem is left hanging.

We've started re-watching Person of Interest, and wow it's better than I remember it, and that is saying something.  Why this wasn't on the short form Hugo list is beyond me (perhaps people think of it as a contemporary police procedural conspiracy thriller, which given the Wikipedia entry is not that surprising).  Still, to me, it's quite clear by episode twelve that Person of Interest is so much more.  The Kurzweil shout out in the previous episode being the first giveaway, and the ending scene from the machine's point of view being the other.

I shall be keeping out an eye in case they drop in references to Hugo de Garis and Marvin Minsky next, because both of these men have made predictions about the future of AIs, which is a topic I find fascinating as someone who trained as a cognitive behavioural therapist.  It's also a central theme in Ghost Dog, my third novel.  So that's it for another week.  I hope you all had a great weekend, and catch you on the bounce.

Ki Agency

Well Saturday I was off to to meet and listen to Meg Davis talking about being an agent, like in the Matrix; sort of one of these novels has a future, the other does not kind of thing.  She was very entertaining, witty and handled the questions put to her with aplomb.  She certainly gave me a lot to think about, and I liked the approach she has to being an agent representing writers in the ever changing world of publishing.

This has also been another week with further storms on the internet as otherwise nice and reasonable people decide that fisking (a new word to me, which describes a person blogging about another person's blog in great detail demolishing arguments point-by-point) is in someway useful in developing a dialogue that promotes joint understanding.  

Colour me unimpressed with the way social media is leading to twitter-storms of hate.  

I am reminded that we all think that our opinions are chosen based on evidence; whereas the research shows that we find our opinions as we go along, and then look for evidence that supports our choice, and discounting any evidence that contradicts it.  This largely means that rather than being open to other peoples opinions, and generating consensus, or agreeing to disagree we see strife and division among those that have more in common than they acknowledge.

This last week has seen me working on my first novel as I go through and address some of the story pacing problems my beta readers highlighted, which I did by reordering the scenes to make for a stronger first act.  

The computer said I did 1,392 words, but my manual tracking suggests that only 399 of these were actually new words.  The rest of this weeks writing has been me working on other things, with 785 words for a review for a magazine completed, and 1,392 words review for someone else.  So after being ill for three weeks it feels like I've at least put my feet back in the water and started paddling again with a total of 3,407 done.  

As some of you may know I am an avid model maker and wargamer  and you can catch up with my hobby stuff here, which will take you to the latest blog entry. 

I read Tom Kratman's Caliphate last week, which can best be described as a near future dystopia.  He is an interesting writer, if only because he deliberately goes out of his way to bait readers with his views that are quite right wing.  Not to everybody's taste, but I think one should always be open to reading books that one finds challenging, and he certainly does that in spades.

TV wise this week was spent finishing off watching Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig.  This is one of my favourite Japanese anime shows, and while it can be a bit opaque at times for Western viewers, the themes and underlying plot that the stories in each episode illustrate are very thought provoking, while remaining entertaining too.

Ghost Spin

Well I've been rather unwell for the last two weeks, after the cough that started at PicoCon fully engaged me, and made me feel like death; as in death would be a blessed relief from trying to eject my lungs from my body.  

By Tuesday of last week my rib cage was protesting about being in the ring with Mike Tyson, and while I am now much better, for definitions of better that I no longer think I'm going to die, it's not what I can call a productive couple of weeks.

So no work done on my fourth novel, but I did manage to write 1,600 words to finish a review for a magazine.  

So I don't feel like the last two weeks has been a complete waste, but I do feel like I'm going up the wall from the frustration of being so ill.  My partner has been most supportive.  Last Sunday week I spent listening to podcasts, and falling asleep while enjoying them, which may sound perverse, but really wasn't, as I was feeling so ill.

Anyway, I finished reading Chris Moriarty's Ghost Spin, which ended in much the same way as the TV show Quantum Leap did, with our heroine and AI companion jumping off into the Cosmos to do whatever had to be done, and be part of the whole of existence.  

The novel in turn enthralled me, fascinated me, and confused me.  Not sure I'm clever enough to understand all the things that Chris was discussing.  Still, a good read, even if I felt the ending didn't quite deliver on the promise of the story.

Moving on, we have now finished re-watching Game of Thrones season one and two, and have now worked our way through season three, which is stonkingly good, but I have some reservations about the world of Westeros, and the story in general.  

First off Westeros seems to be stagnant, as in nothing is progressing; It seems that all the inhabitants can look forward to is another thousand years of slavery, bad dentistry, and a lack of soft toilet paper.  

In some ways I find the world of Westeros less convincing than that of Marvel's Asgard in that regard, and to be honest the Thor movies are not really about convincing world building, though I did enjoy watching Thor: The Dark World this week, we missed it while it was at the cinemas, so, but as we have a big screen and an excellent surround sound system we still got to see it as intended.  

Just to say that I'll continue watching the GoT TV series, but I am not going to read the second volume of the series.  Too depressing for one thing, and too long for another.

Spin Control

Another week, another dollar.  Bit of mixed bag for me this week as I started to come down with a chest infection on Wednesday, and as a result felt a little under the weather.  My partner decided to take Friday off, so I spent it doing relaxing hobby stuff.  

So this weeks writing total was 3,116 words, with the month's running total at 15,920, leaving me 34,472 words into my current novel.  One day was a negative word count day, due to editing and revisions made in light of mistakes I caught, and feedback from my Alpha reader that pushed me to clarify some background world building stuff that I had put off for far too long.

Reading wise I've started Spin Control by Chris Moriarty, re-reading as it has been so long since I read the first two books I wanted to refresh myself about the story and characters before beginning Ghost Spin.  

This is definitely one of those cases where the time between books coming out was so long that one has forgotten why one enjoyed reading them in the first place.  I plan never to have a seven year gap between novels if I can help it.  

I'm speaking with my readers hat on here.  As a writer I can see that things may not be so simple and the time it takes to write a story, is however long it takes the writer to finish it.  

BTW she has a blog here, and a website that is well worth reading here.  Chris is one of those authors I've not met who I would like the opportunity of meeting at some point, she sounds like she would be interesting to hang out with.

On other fronts, my friend Julie Mellors, photographer extraordinaire sent me a book When Cultures Collide by Richard D. Lewis, which I found maddening to read.  

On one hand it gives a good overview of the importance of differences between cultures when doing business with them, on the other it reads like one of those horoscope books that purports to describe all Aquarians as whatever.  It has a bibliography, which is a good point, a glossary and index.  So at least a nod in the right direction, but I would have liked to have seen references, footnotes and statistics to support the statements made.

On what we've been watching this week, well we finished season three of The Professionals.  

Thoroughly enjoyable, probably for all the wrong reasons, but the wit and banter between the three main characters is entertainment at its best.  Next week I guess we will be getting back to Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig, which is one of my all time favourite anime shows.

Lest We Forget

Remembrance Sunday, lest we forget.

Yesterday I was at a writers critique group day, my second as a visitor, before I have to choose to become a member, which I did.  If for no other reason that I need social contacts who get what I'm doing.  I enjoyed reading both the stories that were discussed and feel I have a good chance of fitting into this group.  Unfortunately, no more meetings until the New Year.

This week has been busy with me going to the inaugural lecture of Professor Alex Blakemore who kindly invited me to attend.  This was an outstandingly good lecture on genetics and copy number variants that I took a lot away from.

Writing wise I managed 4,743 words this week, which brings the running total up to 73,559.  I got some very positive feedback from the last chapter from my Alpha reader, which is always heartening.

I'm still reading A Game of Thrones, there's a surprise, not!  He does go on a bit.

Finished watching Arrow though.  An adaptation of the DC's Green Arrow that is very good.  The first four episodes were outstandingly good.  They gripped one from the get go and I was of the mind that this was as good as Person of Interest.  

However, while both shows share similar themes, technological Batman style vigilant, Arrow is bound by its tropes, whereas Person of Interest takes the tropes, twists them and then shreds them before moving on.  

So, if you are a superhero fan then Arrow is well worth watching, if you want to see a good superhero show and don't know where to start then likewise Arrow is a good place to start.  If you are not into superheroes you may find the story a bit melodramatic and farfetched.

Writing Log 130922

Laser project my partner is working on.  Real science stuff.  Image © Imperial College 2013

Okay this week I finished reading my Sandman collection, and while by the end of it I was enjoying the process of reading it. Also,  it occurred to me that I have changed over the years, and that my annoyance at being slowed down by changing between text and image processing was a sign of me getting older, and probably an indication of age related process.  I also took a moment to reflect upon a comment made by a comic artist friend of mine that my script for The Bureau was in his opinion not drawable, which is arguable, but I can see where he was coming from, and tend to agree.

Of course last year when I dragged the text out to work on I found myself getting into an awful mess with the task of converting it from a script into a novel.  I remain hopeful that when I get back to working on it, sometime early next year, I hope that the experience gained from writing three first drafts will get me over the hump, so to speak.  I certainly feel that I have developed as a writer during the course of this year; both from a structural perspective and that I have become more skilled with words.

So this week I have managed to write 6,518 words, bringing my running total up to 40,247, and by comparison to the previous novels at this same time I am ahead of where I was when writing them.  For instance Bad Dog at the six week point I had written 29,998 and Strike Dog a very similar 29,772.  For me the lesson learnt here is that I get caught inside my own assessment of how I'm doing and think I should be doing better, when in actual fact I am doing better.  Score one point for keeping a log of my word counts, not for the numbers per se, but to keep one grounded in one's progress.  I am clearly writing consistently and the amount I'm able to write is increasing.

Away from my neurotic self obsession with failure I've been watching more Stargate SG1.  Finished season five, which was note perfect.  Not a single episode was filler.  Best season so far.  Just started season six and while it remains good, some episodes are not necessary to the overall plot behind the story arc.

Reading wise I'm still labouring my way through The Emperor's New Mind, which couldn't be more densely written if it tried.  Sorry, Hawking's did a far better job with his Brief History of Time in conveying complex ideas in an accessible manner, and I know that a lot of people who bought this book and were unable to finish it, because they thought it was hard going.  Trust me when I say that Penrose's book is a much harder read. 

Principle of Angels

Another week another dollar and on the internet people have been upsetting others with their views.  Oh wait it's the internet, people are always getting upset over something someone else has said.  

So no change there then.

I've just started skimming through The Society of Mind by Marvin Minsky, which is nearly thirty years old according to the copyright date inside.  

Had I done my research before buying it I probably wouldn't have bothered with it.  Not because it's a bad book, or because it's arguments are not interesting, but just because it isn't really telling me anything new that I didn't already know from primary research sources. 

If unlike me you have not been following the research into artificial intelligence then I would highly recommend this book as a good introduction to the debate on why we can make artificial non-human minds.

What is interesting is that this book is in opposition to Roger Penrose's book The Emperors New Mind, which is equally old with an original 1989 copyright date.  I've put this book down to rest, because it is hard going with pages of formulas.  Penrose takes the opposite stance to Minsky and argues against artificial intelligence.

I think both authors are right, but for different reasons.  

Will we be able at some point make artificial intelligence like Minsky suggests?  Undoubtedly the answer is yes, but with certain terms and conditions that require that our technological civilization lasts long enough to achieve them.  

I would liken AI to nuclear fusion and say it's about fifty years away, except that nuclear fusion is likely to happen within the next fifty years, whereas AI is in my opinion less likely to happen within that time frame, and therefore Penrose is right in that we don't know what we don't know to make an artificial mind.

It's not because I don't think it can't be done, it's because I don't think we have the theoretical base on which to construct minds outside of the good old fashioned biological imperative to reproduce ourselves.  I'm firmly in the camp that humans are biological machines, but we don't even have a pathology of mental illness that would at least be evidence that we understood how a mind works (my core professional area).

Back to the internet and the greying of the SF Worldcon, sorry can't resist commenting.  

Lot's of furore amongst those that chat about some stuff about the BOF* at this years Worldcon and where have all the youngsters gone?  And OMG it's the end of fandom as we know it unless we do something.  Then comparisons are made with DragonCon and why can't the Worldcon be more like that?

All I can say is that in 1939 the SF Worldcon the idea that media convention where actors were feted was probably not in the forefront of peoples minds.  The Worldcon has historically been a convention for people interested in reading and writing SF.  

As for encouraging the youngsters who go to ComicCon and DragonCon to go to a Worldcon, I would suggest that unless they are interested in reading and writing then one is probably on to a hiding for nothing.  YMMV, feel free to leave comments.

Back now to what I'm reading.  

I'm currently well stuck into Jane Fenn's Principle of Angels, which I'm looking forward to finishing off this afternoon.  I'm really enjoying it and Jane's voice is so clear that I feel I'm having a conversation with her about the story and the ideas she is developing as I read each page.  Highly recommended.  

On the watching front; we are still working through Stargate SG1, now on season four.

On my own writing, my work in progress has seen me add another 7,901 words to the first draft of my third novel, which now stands at 30,702 words in total.  An interesting development in how I write has occurred (the dynamic of plot versus characterization), so obviously I've blown through one of these learning points on the curve to becoming proficient novelist.

*Boring Old Fogey, or other equally suitable and or offensive term for the letter F of your choice.

Stargate SG1

Well it's the end of week two on my project and I managed to type a useful 8,803 words this week, which brings the running total up to 15,150 words in total.  

So not a bad place to be at the end of two weeks of writing, especially considering that Friday was a bad day where I wrote nothing because I was too tired to stay awake.  One of those days when my rheumatoid arthritis got the better of me.

Yesterday I stated reading Charlie Stross's Atrocity Archive and a rollicking good read it is too.  I, being typical me, read the second book in the series first, but even though the novels have a cast of characters that carry over from one to the other; I think I can safely say you can read them out of order, on the basis that I did and nothing untoweird came out of Planck space and turned me into goo.

I'm also reading Roger Penrose's The Emperor's New Mind, which is less than easy going due to the amount of mathematics strewn about the pages, and a tendency to literalism to illustrate a point e.g.: three pages full of zeros and ones to illustrate a u Turing machine code in binary.  

I think it may take some considerable time for me to finish this book as it makes for slow reading.

We are still watching Stargate SG1 and are now well into the second season of this long standing show.  Some episode are a little bland, or the tropes have become too familiar, but there again this show started in 1997, which is sixteen years as the crow flies.  

So I'm pretty disposed to liking this show as it has lots of good memories attached to it, and reminded me why I spent ten years playing in live action role playing game inspired by it.

Person of Interest

This week we've been watching Person of Interest, which was recommended to us by my friend John Medany.  It has sucked us both in and we've been watching three episodes a night.  The cast is excellent too and Michael Emerson who plays Mr. Finch is incredibly good.  I also like the female Detective Carter played by Taraji P. Henson who looks and feels to me like a real woman.  Great writing that both inspires me to do better and makes me feel totally inadequate to the task at the same time.  My recommendation is that you just throw your money at the computer screen and buy it now.  Come back and finish reading this blog later.

Went to see Pacific Rim, and you can read my perspective on the film here.

Reading wise I started Charlaine Harris's the first book in the True Blood series; Dead Until Dark.  Enjoying it, and it certainly makes a change from what I usually read; it's light and fluff and doesn't require anything deep from the reader.

I'm also reading a non-fiction book recommended to me by my friend Alex Stewart of Ciaphas Cain fame, on plot structure.  Called Into the Woods by John Yorke it has so far proved to be an excellent read, but I find myself reacting quite strongly to the outdated Freudian psychology used to talk about character motivation.  I will probably do a fuller overview when I've finished and given it some more thought.

Well after fifteen weeks I have finished the first draft of Strike Dog, the second of three novels I plan to write.  I found myself going through a steeper learning curve than during my first novel Bad Dog, because the structure and plot were more complicated this time round.  I now feel a bit empty as I write this, and need some time to recharge the creative juices.  So my plan is to catch up on some reading and then start the third novel, Ghost Dog, in a couple of weeks time.

So this week I wrote 4.648 words, running total for the month was 18,513, and the grand total for the first draft stands at 95,285.  Permission to cheer loudly granted!