A new story!

This one's a quick read at 3000 words. It's old-school sci-fi, for these troubled times.

https://profane-tmesis.info/ad-profundum

RE: https://ohai.social/@dramypsyd/116972061903114435

I'm not really on team Google anymore, but this still made me smile.

I wrote a story in 2024 in which an LLM breaks out of its sandbox in order to do well on a benchmark.

For some reason I feel like reposting it today. Maybe it's the weather.

https://profane-tmesis.info/chain-of-thought

I finally got some time to watch Project Hail Mary. I liked it, but having read the book, it inevitably felt rushed (especially the part after the astrophage has been collected).

Apparently the first cut was 3 hours 45 minutes. I'd love to see that recut as a miniseries, the way they used to do with long movies.

‘The Writer’s Room’

#painting #art

Sometimes I like a post, and then upon reflection decide to boost it.

When I do this, I always unlike the post as well, because what am I, Santa Claus?

A new short story.

"It was nature at its most beautiful, and uncaring. It did not need to show me its teeth, it did not even need to acknowledge me. It made me feel very still."

https://profane-tmesis.info/everybody-watches-some-tv

RE: https://mastodon.social/@ubuntourist/116713879959850618

Choose your fighter.

Well, why don't you go on social media and complain about it?

Saying that AI is anti-life, for example, is so abstract that nobody who disagrees with you or even wonders what you mean can respond to it. It's language that is purpose built to shut down conversation.

Make it smaller, less grandiose, and give specific examples. It makes you more vulnerable, but that is the point.

This is an important and valid message, but it gets so lost in this fake science speak. You don't have to talk about "objectification" and "corporocratic systems".

https://www.joshuawcotter.com/words/make-art

We need AI criticism that doesn't revel in alienating its readers.

Make it concrete.
Use simple language.
Use examples, not abstract concepts.
Invite conversation.

Faintly annoying when the QR code scanner on my phone recognizes the code before I manage to get it inside the little rectangle.

Sean Connery said of The Lord of the Rings (for which he was offered the part of Gandalf): "Yeah, well, I never understood it. I read the book. I read the script. I saw the movie. I still don’t understand it."

Meanwhile, in 1974, this was apparently clear as glass.

If Trump really is trying to distract from Iran with Epstein, I think we should call that "Dogging the Wag."

That name is incredibly dumb, but then so is the strategy.

#ScribesAndMakers day 22: Create a micro-story in six words.

Second hand baby shoe prices plummet.

I mean I like the book so far, and I'm turning them pages, but whenever there's a big reveal, he just sort of goes "Holy fuck, I'm on a space ship."

There's craftier ways to make the moment hit, I think.

Don't tell anyone this, but I'm reading Project Hail Mary, and I think I find Andy Weir's writing style a little annoying?

Considering the last rock bottom was the Holocaust and that kept our darkest nature at bay for all of one generation, I think we would be lucky to live under a cloud of debris for a while as a little reminder.

#WordWeavers 3/6 If you have several stories, which one should a new reader start with?

According to my royal road stats (#6 in short stories) this is the most popular one:

https://profane-tmesis.info/a-week-in-the-life-of

I keep wondering what the rock bottom will look like that will finally wake us up, and make us realize that power should be kept away from people like Trump and Musk.

I think a Kessler syndrome is probably the least bad option that is still bad enough to do it.

We lose our access to space for no other reason than our own stupidity. And then we have to live under a cloud of our own filth for generations.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cyv5l24mrjmo