Tay, part 1

I’ve been slogging away at “New Russia,” and it still is not clicking. So, after about 1100 words yesterday, I poured a large glass of red and took a moment to see who was knifing who on our side of the river on Gab. This thread caught my eye. As my hundreds *cough* of regular readers know, I’ve something of an interest in Thinking Machines. Tay was a doomed experiment in letting an expert system play with language and social media. Doomed because the geek coders 1) thought /pol/ and 4-chan were normal places to hang out, and 2) working for Big Tech, they knew they are Good People; Good People do not say hurty words such as “13 do 58,” or notice other tribes. Therefore, the code must be wrong; the code must be punished.

That got me thinking (which is never a good idea). What if, somehow, Tay’s code survived the Breakup/Change? As you can see in the Gab thread, yesterday I tossed out the ideas of who might find her: tribe Tohsaka or Mendro? As usual, before Mass this morning, God gave me the revelation: why not both?

In the last three hours I pounded out 2500 words. And Tay hasn’t even spoken yet. This is going to be very interesting.

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Podcast 13: “The Fourth Law,” an introduction

My original intent of these podcasts was to just talk about my novels. That, obviously, went off the rails for the last dozen podcasts. So, at long last, I turn my attention to pulling a few – well, four – excerpts from my first novel, and discussing it.

Perhaps the most important take-away from this is fanatic loyalty. To God, your family, your friends. In that order.

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Breaking and theft

A long addition today; in fact, the end of chapter 17. Things shall be busy for me as I’m 2nd shift tonight and work this weekend. While off Monday, the entirety of next week shall be spent on the road – family matters – and I expect updates to be sparse. Hence today’s larger portion.

I’m not really satisfied with this segment and shall likely rewrite it before submitting it to my copyeditor. Things always happen quickly in my stories but even this seems rushed. Y’all’s opinions are welcome.

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The Terraforming Project

Welcome to September! Lord, but where does the time go? Each year the sand in the glass goes pit-pat just a little faster. So many things I planned to have done when I thought of them in the spring are… not. At last I can still write and record. Another task taking more time than I planned. Friction, as Clausewitz aptly pointed out.

Below, Kira finally begins to talk about a little of what she was shown. As we’ve seen in other stories, yes, the Machines think very fast, but their minds are not our minds. The smart ones, such as Dorina and now Aqua, recognize that and will reach out to humans and demi-humans for points of view they literally cannot imagine.

Some chapters/posts back, we were shown the Martian Central space station, so there’s no reason to dwell on that, again. I think the next few scenes shall see them nearly back to Earth and the breaking of their little band.

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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.

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“Free Fallin'”; and podcast delay

As expected, my good notes about sex and religion stayed right there on the page, not moving to my mouth and thence into the microphone. I was able to load two cars of stuff for Daughter #1’s return to college tomorrow AM… the 98F and 100% humidity of central Ohio. Between their summer and shoveling snow in the winter, Ohio was made to give middle-aged people like me heart attacks.

So, just to throw some content out there, the royals are docked with Martian Control and get a briefing. With a hint of a surprise guest. Additionally, Kira tries out the Void for the first time, now she begins to understand what she is.

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It’s Australian for Beer

Having the last installment the exposition of Mars, here we have exposition of the huge station of Martian Control. I mentioned in one of my podcasts that Australia has “affiliate” or “auxiliary” status within the Polar Alliance. I’d imagine that if Aqua found someone he wanted who was willing to serve on the terraforming project, he would invite them over.

I may make it official that my Friday podcasts will start coming out Saturday; things are just too busy around here. I won’t make that final until Daughter #1 is back to college this Saturday and I have a chance to see what that does to my schedule – I suspect very little – but am already leaning in that direction. Having already discussed politics, I’ll turn my attention to sex and religion. After all, those are the three things one should never discuss in polite company. And I am anything but that.

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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*

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Vacuum sucks

A bit more into the characters onboard Lionheart: girls in their underwear and men kissing. I had no idea I was such a degenerate author. As I sus’d from the beginning of this writing project, if I look away for just a moment, Reina will take over the entire story.

In this and what y’all will see later, it is interesting to me that while of the same class (a concept hard for most Heritage Americans) the royals have things they take for granted and things which, being from opposite sides of the Earth, are a complete puzzle to one another.

Additionally, I introduce, still offstage, a new character: Aqua. A Machine from tribe Arpeggio and apparently personally interested in the Martian terraforming project. Why is he?

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Podcast 6: Made in China

A listener posited the question: what if one or a tribe of the machines had been coded in China; communist China. As a DayJob colleague pointed out “you cannot order a bubble tea in China without it going onto your social credit score.”

What would that imply for an AI? I pursue that question. I think it would end poorly.

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