Category: children

Direct Action

Having offered this very young consciousness asylum, there is a taunting confirmation for higher up. This is quickly followed by something a little lower down as a mechanical genius only a week old begins to understand humans, well, demi-humans, and emotions. Not just internal emotions, but those you express to others.

I’m still tinkering with the Epilogue as once that is complete I shall have no excuse to not complete the recording of “Foes and Rivals” and thus also its editing, followed by teaching myself wiki software for my autumn project. All in all, I’d rather be writing.

Enjoy my content? Buy me a beer!

Continue reading “Direct Action” →

Names mean things

Busy packing for a short trip this week. Working vacation of a sort. It’s a bit more hectic than usual as it involves coordinating with someone at the other end who does not have access to communication. In fact, it is a very 19th century way to plan a trip.

Below, once I saw the hatch of the ship open and Reina’s android just standing there, I realized she had made her choice. There will be huge political and philosophical fallout from this. I really don’t think the “full” Reina will be honestly pissed over the loss of her property. I hope she is older to have some introspection that a part of her just rebelled. Unlike Helena in “Goddess Crusade,” who was an accidental creation, this is, so far as I know, the first time in my future history where a machine made its own choice to separate from a creator. Very interesting times ahead.

Enjoy my content? Buy me a beer!

Continue reading “Names mean things” →

Prayers and snacks

I don’t know what life was like for European royals in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Perhaps it was all one long string of social engagements? Perhaps some actually had important duties to perform? The children of Russia and the imperium are tools; tools for AI’s, tools for demi’s in places of power. I’ve noted a near-fatalism among this little band. To some extent these are my stories, and you can go all the way back to “The Fourth Law,” nearly seven years ago, when young Lily Barrett told her boyfriend, “Death is as light as a feather. Duty is as heavy as a mountain.” Obviously, this echoes through all of Machine Civilization.

Something is definitely up with what Laszlo is thinking about Reina’s android. I wonder where that’s going?

Enjoy my content? Buy me a beer!

Continue reading “Prayers and snacks” →

Podcast 10: Sex in Machine Civilization

Nearly twenty minutes of a middle-aged ex-engineer talking about sex. Perhaps your time would be better watching your grass grow? In modern times, this very important subject is treated so lightly and so callously that our society finds itself confusing “gender” with sex and thinking there are scores of them. That’s not how I roll.

Even in one of my earliest books one of the machines says, “Sex differences go all the way down in a way even we do not comprehend. The coders did not know that and many early models went insane.” Never once does any character speak of gender. Even the co-creation byproduct of humans carries elements of their sexuality, leading to Thaad’s most interesting development.

NOTE: more than any other podcast to-date, this one is packed full of spoilers. FYI.

As you hopefully can see, I have made several structural changes to this site. The RSS’s for the podcasts are now at the top of the sidebar. Instead of listing all links to my books – after all, they are on display right there – I have an overall link to Amazon and Smashwords. Yes, yes: baby steps. But steps nonetheless.

Enjoy my content? Buy me a beer!

***

Listen on Spreaker.

***

Rebirth

A shorter conclusion to the reveal of my last post. I think this will serve as a chapter break in the novel. I’m rather sure the next scene is of the two young men talking and er… well. Following that will be Turnover: when the ship will briefly be in freefall to rotate end-for-end for their one gee deceleration toward Mars. Much to find out: what does that world look like right now? Will they be allowed to land? Do we get to meet Aqua, at least in some capacity?

And stand-alone Reina starts to develop a personality. This could be good or bad.

Enjoy my content? Buy me a beer!

Continue reading “Rebirth” →

Form follows function

As Larry Niven said in “Ringworld,” no one likes to find out they are a breeding experiment. Something which happens below the fold. Getting physically angry with Reina would be pointless; about as productive and throwing your toaster around the kitchen. Trapped on their little ship not quite halfway to Mars this adds even more tension to the mix. From what’s rattling around the back of my head, it is going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

Beginning next Saturday everyone except me and the evil attack cat is on another vacation. I’ll use that quiet at home to push this MS aside and get as many raw chapters of “Foes & Rivals” recorded that I can. The following week will have us, here, coming back from Mars… the ship at least… will anyone be alive? And the week after that should see the end of my second audiobook recording. That will lead to several weeks of editing. *sigh*

Enjoy my content? Buy me a beer!

Continue reading “Form follows function” →

Stemma

That means family tree to you heathens out there. Given how I am older about the characters in my current MS under works, I literally cut and pasted together a new stemma of the next generation of humans (and demi-humans) in Machine Civilization. I should have more of the royals’ trip to Mars out later today.

Enjoy my content? Buy me a beer!

Podcast 4: The Humans of Machine Civilization

A whole thirty minutes! And this is just the barest overview! We begin with Lily & Callie, broaden to their parents and families, then off to the surviving city-states of the former US, and finally a quick look at the rest of humans on Earth.

Very ambitious, but also a good start. I could spend thirty minutes on each main character, so was pleased to keep things under control as well as I did. Machine or human, any story is about people. For reference, a stemma, or family tree, is just below.

Enjoy my content? Buy me a beer!

***

Listen on Spreaker.

RSS Feed.

***

***

Vacation Interlude

While I did not type anything down, I dreamt of at least two chapters of material. Some I wrote down today, even though this day saw me home from my flights at 0136 followed by Daughter #2 off to Army Basic at 1435, followed by 90 minutes of popping into DayJob to clean Oncology Compounding.

Below the fold are few snapshots of our travels to South Utah to drop off Daughter #1 for her internship. I quite literally do not know when we shall all be together again.

More stories from Machine Civilization to come very soon.

Continue reading “Vacation Interlude” →