On the first hand, this short story raw is complete
On the second hand, I ended it in such a way to pick it back up again, later.
On the gripping hand, I’m going to bet this pisses a lot of people off.
Working on another short. Not sure when I’ll have enough to start posting it.
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Continue reading “Tamera (pt9; end?)”Overhead imagery in central China is terrible. Street View doesn’t exist. No surprise, of course.
For the technically minded, information about EAST is here. Otherwise, I wrap all of this up *cough cough* tomorrow.
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Continue reading “Tamera (pt8)”Broke 2000 words. This is supposed to be a short story, right?
Per my usual, got stuck at the end of this. Had a head-slap moment at Mass when (…a short story, right?) I realized I don’t need the granular details. These collections assume the reader has at least a passing familiarity with Machine Civilization so I can turn the exposition waaaay down. Thus, we’ll be back to Tamera with Lem in the next scene.
I think Fussy’s 180, below, was hilarious.
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Continue reading “Tamera (pt5)”“Jaw-jaw is better than war-war,” as they saying goes. I’d modify that to “in most cases.” As seizing the EAST reactor by force would be a huge logistical undertaking – not that the Hartmann family could not pull it off – it appears that diplomacy would be the first step.
This is the first time any of us, including me, has met Ildi. She is mentioned in passing in “Obligations of Rank” as a carefree young girl who regards the world as her personal play-toy. Sent as an exchange student to Japan by her mother, Empress Faustina, it appears she has matured a bit. Curious to see where this is going to go.
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Continue reading “Tamera (pt4)”Every now and then, usually with bioluminescent algae blooms or unusual news about quantum computing, I’ll make a post here from the so-called “real world,” which is increasingly “ClownWorld,” to illustrate something about the future history of Machine Civilization.
With the current unpleasantness between Russia and Ukraine, there has been talk in the past few days about Russia and China working together to evade SWIFT restrictions. With India’s recent abstention on a vote in the UN General Assembly, it makes one wonder what is really going on.
I wonder… has anyone ever given any thoughts to the long-term repercussions of this?
Building on last week’s post about a machine or tribe of them made in China, I thought to address the nation-states of my future history. I break them out as “Failed,” “Floundering,” “Polar Alliance,” and “Other.” This is one of my longest yet, eighteen minutes, as I have to circle to globe to get everyone in.
As I say at the closing, if anyone has questions or comments or wants more information about what I’ve mentioned, please let me know in the Comments.
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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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Who doesn’t love a meeting? Besides, that is, every normal person on Earth? Still, no matter what form of government you have, consensus among those who actually run things is critical for longevity of the oligarchy. And all governments, everywhere, are oligarchy.
In this first part we find Faustina’s success in Savannah to already be destabilizing to the powers-that-be of Greater Knoxville. The issues here are internal. Part two, this weekend, will be external. I wasn’t sure where our main character was headed, but out of the mouths of babes, little Aurelia had it right back in the latter parts of “Princess’ Crusade.”
Been chewing on the legionary awards ceremony for days. This morning – sober, even! – I saw the answer: my typical terse style. Rather than put the reader through the hundred or so men coming forward for awards and promotions, all that happens “off stage” as it were. What we see is Faustina’s address, where she at last pulls back the curtain on what sort of political arrangement she has in mind for the territory she considers to be her own by right of conquest. This is going to have ramification back in Knoxville I cannot begin to see.
This marks the end of the raw manuscript that will either be Part One or Book One, at just over 56k words. Right now I must devote the coming weekend to implementing the copyedit changes proposed by Stephen Zimmer for my short story collection. And it still needs a cover. Busy, busy…
Faustina gives Wei a precis about ‘the machines home,’ the virtual world that dates back to the opening pages of my first novel, The Fourth Law. After that, Fussy’s relief is palpable when her godmother finally makes her appearance but as human minds are easily stressed in such an environment, it is soon time to go.
The little bit at the end, about Fuzhou, surprised me. I really do wonder if there’s a blood connexion between them. They’ll let me know if they want to, I guess.
After this – for my two days off this week – I’m going to try two big speeches: the first is Faustina to her senior centurions and the second to her assembled legions. I’m pretty sure about the former but the latter is still in fog. Praying for a clearer sky.
machciv 