Apparently, literary types think I’m a freaky weirdo they don’t want to deal with — even if I’m willing to pay them to help me work on my manuscript. So, as I transition from the first to second draft, I’m faced the realization that I’m on my own.
In short, I’m going to have to bootstrap it.
With that in mind, I’m “forcing” myself to read, read, read. I have a small library of books I need / want to read. And some of those books might seem unexpected. I’ve come to believe that leadership and character are connected so I have decided to read a lot of leadership books.
I want to understand in an abstract way, what makes a “leader” and how I could apply the associated principles when it comes to fleshing out characters — especially my heroine. It’s all very abstract, but I think if I read up on leadership I think it will help the end result.
But it really, really bothers me that literary types are so dismissive of me because they don’t like my personality. Yes, I’m a kook, but that’s typically how creative types act. So, it’s weird that literary types would be so snooty with me just because I can come off as a drunk crank.
All of this, of course, happens in the context of me worrying about what happens when literary agents do “due diligence” on me when I begin to contact them during the 2023 querying season. My fear is, of course, that they will look at places like this website and be shocked at how weird I am and decide to have nothing to do with me.
The more I look at Twitter as we experience something akin to a mini-Singularity associated with OpenAI ChatGPT, the more alarmed I find myself becoming. Not with the idea that there might be some sort of Terminator-like “Judgement Day,” but, rather the exact opposite.
There will be no need for our AGI overlord to blow the world up — humans will be so busy giving up any agency they might have to the decision making ability of an AGI. Given with the faux-AGI of a really smart chatbot, I see people pretty much just turning everything over to it.
Students no longer want to study. Adults think they can just have the chatbot do their work while they stroke one out to porn. Meanwhile, worst of all, all the same partisan bullshit we’ve seen with every other element society is now corrupting the chatbot revolution.
As such, THE political and societal issue of 2023 and beyond could very well be who gets to regulate the “bias” of chatbots (and, later AI.) When everything hinges on the “objective truth” of a chatbot because people are fucking lazy and refuse to talk to each other because of politics, then the whole woke vs. unwoke debate becomes white hot.
In the Second Trump Administration, I could see there being some sort of FCC-like agency design specifically to “purge” AI of any “woke” bias because children no longer learn anything but, instead, are trained on how to ask better questions of chatbots.
MAGA Nazis will scream bloody murder if a chatbot doesn’t give them the answer to “what is a woman” that they expect. They will say that chatbots are nothing more than CRT shills infected with the “mind virus” of the “woke cancel culture mob.”
I’m not exaggerating. That’s exactly what is going to happen — you see it already on Twitter with the usual fuckwit MAGA Nazi “thought leaders” whining that they can’t get their hate validated by a chatbot.
Of course, there is the even more darker scenario where the United States splits into to nations, one Red, one Blue and while Blue America is enjoying the fruits of an unfettered Singularity, Trumplandia will use chatbots to atomize Red States into a techno-autocratic state. Good times!
I think some of all of this comes from how the human mind is hard wired to believe in a god. So, people, presented with something like a chatbot, fall into the trap of thinking they can “pray” objective questions to the chatbot and get some sort of “objective revealed truth” that they can spread to the world. All you need is a burning bush and some stone tablets and it’s a story as old as history.
In short — we’re fucked. Humans are just too lazy to put up much of a fight with chatbots or AGI. It will be interesting to how all of this ultimately shakes out.
I’m beginning to see an alarming number of obviously very lazy people on Twitter saying they’re already pretty much handing their lives over to the OpenAI ChatGPT. They seem to wax poetically about how they’re going to be wealthy and successful just by asking the chatbot questions. They’re going to eat bonbons without a care in the world.
So, this lead me to wonder — how are these people going to get fucked over?
I suppose that after some political, economic and societal turbulence the issue will be boiled down to, “Can you ask the chatbot a knowledgeable, well-crafted question?”
While I’m sure there are uneducated, lazy morons who have a knack for asking chatbots a good question, within a generation it’s possible that there will be a cultural imperative to find who can ask the absolutely best question. Instead of lazy people being able to do nothing and make a lot of money, the very same people who run the world will now have to learn the very same things they always have learned — and have the same connections through college, etc — so they know when the output of the chatbot is wrong.
The point is — humans are humans and society is society. You have to work to be a success: being lazy never got anyone anywhere. And even then, drunk bonkers people like me who might otherwise be successful won’t be successful because the Elites think we’re weird.
Everything is horrible. Always has been, always will be. It’s just not possible for there to be N+1 happiness in life, no matter the technological revolution.
With the news that a major fusion technology breakthrough will be announced soon, given the other technologies that are rushing towards similar breakthroughs I find myself thinking about one thing — the technological Singularity.
The Singularity is the moment in time when technology goes so fast that human culture simply can’t keep up. Usually, the Singularity is associated with ideas like AGI, everyone living forever because we can upload our minds into a database…and fusion power.
While I’m not prepared to think we’re on the cusp of living forever, if things like the metaverse, AGI and fusion power (!) all become a part of everyday life at the same time, that sure does sound a lot like at least a “soft” Singularity, if nothing else.
My fear is, of course, that all these technologies are going to strike at the same time that we’re going through a massive political crisis in late 2024, early 2025 as we finally try to figure out what the fuck we’re going to do about the Trump Problem.
But, as an aside, I will note that if we reach fusion then I will have to begrudgingly admit that when my Traditionalist relative — who is a climate change denier — said “well, technology will solve it” might have been right. There is a chance now that we may end global climate change because, lulz, we achieve fusion power.
And, yet, even if we achieve fusion power, the kneejerk partisanship that created my relative’s climate change denialism will still be there. And that’s a real problem. Just like how being famous doesn’t solve any of your problems, so, too, will the Singularity not solve the severe political division found within the United States.
If anything, there’s a risk that when we’re confronted by even BIGGER issues — like “What the fuck are we going to do about AGIs?” we’re going to be so divided that Blues will have one absolute opinion about AGIs while Reds will take the exact opposite position out of spite.
Anyway, I don’t know how much all of this is my usual the-worst-case-scenario-is-going-to-happen inclinations and how much is this might actually happen. It’s actually pretty rare for human history to take the absolute worst case scenario, but has been known to happen on occasion.
The thing about the OpenAI ChatGPT is it’s so new that we don’t have any frame of reference in our collective mindspace to understand What It All Means. As such, each individual imbues it with their own hopes and dreams. In short, it’s existence is something of a Rorschach Test.
From what I can from people’s reactions to using OpenAI ChatGPT on Twitter, here are some of the initial hot takes.
First, you have people who know what they’re talking about when it comes to AI and programming. They generally roll their eyes at how exciting everyone is getting. I suppose these people are so focused on the promise of Artificial General Intelligence that they just don’t see what the big deal is about an advanced chatbot.
This reaction reminds me of how a lot of old school programmers on Usenet back in the day were completely blase about the Web because not only did it use the old-as-hell TCP/IP but they saw the implementation of HTML used by early Web browsers as nothing more than a clumsy “hack.”
Next, there are people who are unhappy that they can’t destroy the world (yet) using a chatbot. They bitch and complain that all their nefarious plots are hampered because the chatbot has been NERFed as to be “unusable” for their eager plans for global domination. They all come across as rather spiteful, bitter people.
Then there are people who seemingly think that because ChatGPT can’t do everything they want it to do that it will fail. These are often the same people who blather on about how they want a subscription service or how OpenAI simply MUST charge for the service as soon as possible.
Then there are the fucking idiots who are so intellectually lazy that they think all their (homework) problems are solved and they can just sit back and never think — or write — again. These are usually younger people and the fact that we may raise a generation who doesn’t even know HOW to write is rather alarming, to say the least.
As for me, I’m very much in wait-and-see mode. I just don’t know what to think of it. I do think that 2023 will probably be the breakout year for a number of different technologies, chatbots included.
For someone who is paranoid that a rival has somehow gotten ahold of the outline of my novel and they are going to steal a march on me and write a screenplay using it, I somehow still feel compelled to give updates.
Anyway, you can’t live in fear and the narrative in my head that would make such an event possible is pretty bonkers. You have to make decisions on what you do know, not on what you don’t know.
Between now and Christmas, I’m going to read, read, read as much as I can. I’m kind of obsessed with reminding myself of the mechanics of development as well as how to flesh out my characters to give them motivation and desire. Around Christmas, I’m going to read the whole first draft. Then I’m probably going to write some sort of cohesive summary of the story before I flesh out the outline AGAIN and use THAT to write the second draft.
That’s the goal, at least.
Still on track to query my first novel during the fall 2023 querying season.
I don’t know what to tell you on this one. Over the last few days, I’ve begun to get a steady trickle of new followers who obviously hate my politics. It’s a very surreal experience.
In a way, a follower is a follower and should some third party look at my follower list and it’s 10,000 people, they won’t care much if a third of them hate my guts.
I suppose I should tone it down some if people who are at the polar opposite of the political spectrum want to use me as some sort of confirmation that they should start a civil war. Ugh.
But I am who I am. I generally mean well, or, as the late Annie Shapiro said of me, I’m a “delusional jerk with a good heart.” It is a testament to how fucked up our political system is that someone such as myself, who thinks of myself as a “moderate” has become a “radical moderate” because of the rise of MAGA Nazism.
And, by definition, to have really strong opinions on Twitter is inevitably going to draw attention to you and, as such, you get hate followers.
I am not an expert on AI, but I did live through the early days of the Internet / Web revolution and it’s very interesting how similar it is to the rise of chatbots and, potentially AGI.
Everyone is coming at ChatGPT from their own personal direction because it’s so new that we don’t have any established idea of what it is or its place in society. As such, everyone projects on to it their hopes and fears — which is exactly what happened when it became clear that because of the Web the power of the Internet would soon be harnessed for the average person.
Before I go any further, I have to note that chabot technology is just one of several different emerging technologies that are probably all going to go mainstream at some point between now, and, say 2025. Things like the metaverse (Web 3.0) chatbots, the blockchain, robotics and automation are all going to fuse into an event that might be something similar to a “Singularity,” or at least a “soft” one.
The real Singularity, of course, will happen whenever we move past chatbot technology into the realm of Artificial General Intelligence. If you hook that up to robotic trends…yikes.
But back to chatbots.
I just can’t imagine that we’re all going to be using one chatbot — OpenAI ChatGPT forever going forward. I suspect that numerous other chatbots of equal or greater ability will pop out in the next few years. I say this because if you were to talk to people in 1945 about nuclear technology they might make a lot of assumptions on the idea that only the United States would have The Bomb going forward.
It didn’t happen with the a-bomb and it’s not going to happen with chatbots. In fact, if Moore’s Law is to be believed, we’re going to be aswash in chatbots as major company — and a lot of start ups — get woke to how advantageous it would be to them to have their own advanced chatbot to use. So all the people who seem to think that ChatGPT is going to somehow overthrow Google should probably slow their roll.
Another thing to note — and this one really grinds me gears — is how the extremes on both sides of the political spectrum seem really invested in chatbots. You have your usual suspects of ‘woke” people complaining about the stupidest shit — well beyond the obvious, legitimate concerns about potential abuse for racist or misogynistic behavior. They get upset if the chatbot is somehow goaded into doing something that they perceive as not following their “woke” media narrative.
Meanwhile, on the OTHER end of the political spectrum in a much more ham-handed way, you have the fucking MAGA Nazi cocksuckers who apparently want chatbots to be “Ultra-MAGA” so they can turn around and use that as justification for their own form of Social Darwinism.
As I’ve said before, I would feel a lot better if we had a functioning political system. As it is, we’re on our own. It’s inevitable that as chatbots grow in cultural importance — and more and more children turn to it to do their homework, the batshit fucking bonkers MAGA people are going to scream at the top of their lungs that chatbots are “woke” and the only way to stop their spawn from being “indoctrinated” into the “woke cancel culture mob” is for the Second Trump Administration to regulate it parrots MAGa doctrine.
I wish I was exaggerating. I really do. But I’m not. This is what I literally think will happen at some point in the not-so-distant future. Or, it could be, that instead of the Second Trump Administration doing it, the issue will be regulated differently in the new Blue Union as opposed to Trumplandia after we have a National Divorce and Second American Civil War.
The point is — things are on the cups of getting very, very turbulence on not just a technological basis, but a cultural, economic and political basis as well. The next few years could be some of the most dramatic in human history — or at least since the end of WW2.
Cal it “The Fourth Turning” or “The Great Reset,” or whatever the fuck you want. There’s not going to be any narrative or value to it while it’s happening and it’s going to be scary as hell to live through. There’s a reason why “May you live in interesting times” is a curse.
I’m pretty much left of center and a fan of the Crooked Media podcasting network, but the latest “Offline” episode made me feel like picking up a pitchfork and charging the nearest ivory tower.
So, Jon Favreau was talking to this dude from Washington University about how horrible social media is. I totally agree with that premise, but there were times when the conversation really sounded like a smug liberal circle jerk.
“Oh, if only we could limit how much the Plebes could annoy us on social media,” seemed to be the gist of what they were talking about at times. The reason why this annoys me is I know that I am, despite me agreeing with them politically in general terms, just the type of person they would love not to have to deal with.
The guy even said at one point, in a wistful way, how great it was back in the day when there were three TV networks and an established “reality” where people like him could just tell people like me what to think. I also found amusing that he would explain exactly what he wanted — a return of traditional gatekeepers — then turn around and poo-poo the idea that that was exactly what he was talking about.
It seems to me that what was really going on was the guy was using everyone’s general distaste of social media as a cover to mentally masterbate about how great it was when Plebs knew their place in society and did not really have any way of talking to people like him in a practical manner.
The cat is out of the bag when it comes to social media and rather than looking back to an era that will never come back, I would much rather want to know how we can make social media better without letting smug pointy headed academics limit my ability to express myself online.
This post is vague because I’m lazy and don’t feel like doing the basic research necessary to make it more specific and I don’t feel like having to risk catching the guys attention and having him complain in The Atlantic about how a bonkers drunk like me picked on him.
Henry Ford changed the lives of millions of people in a practical, beneficial way. He was also an astonishing antisemite. So spare me the fanboy whining about how we can’t criticize Elon Musk just because of all the “cool” things he’s up to.
The more Musk leans into being a MAGA Nazis golden child, the more dangerous he becomes — and more danger not just America, but the entire globe faces. He’s adding to an already unstable situation in the United States by being a MAGA Nazi “edgelord” on the very service that he owns.
All of this is part of a broader, even more alarming trend — MAGA Nazis are politically and culturally ascendant. They hate to admit it because they’re about the catch the car again because then they would have to admit that maybe their rage over the “woke cancel culture mob” is…a little too much?
Anyway, I’m growing more and more alarmed by Elon Musk’s shenanigans. He’s really helping to make the next election — or the time immediately after the next election — a potentially extremely dangerous not not just for Americans, but the globe as a whole.
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