This is just about the nadir of winter because it’s not Christmas Eve, but it also is when you can feel the world grind to a halt. The next week or so is just going to be a bunch of static I suspect.
Unless something big and unexpected happens.
I tried to play the lottery in hopes of a Christmas miracle, but the damn machine simply could not, world not work. So, I think I’ve wasted enough money on that particular fantastical dream.
I rarely play the lottery, but when it gets up there, I grow weak and actually dabble in that particular “sin.”
Just as I was celebrating being at the mid-point of the second draft of the scifi dramedy novel I’m working on, I rebooted my chat windows with the AIs I’m using and the panned much of the novel because the hero is “too passive.”
So.
I’ve decided to go through the entirety of the novel to see how I can improve the agency of my hero as much as possible. I’ve totally revamped the beginning of the novel because of that.
But I’m hoping that I can save at least much of the first act. The first half of the second act “the fun and games” part of the novel, may not be as lucky.
Which, of course, is going to slow me down a great deal. But if the over all effect is that the novel is better, then huzzah.
I’m cruising towards the midpoint of the scifi dramedy novel I’m writing. And, I have to admit, the speed I’ve had doing all of this comes in no small part to being “AI First.”
I’m doing a lot — A LOT — of work, but I am amplifying and enhancing all that hard work with AI. I continue to do most, if not all, of the actual writing, but on a structural basis AI has really helped.
And that doesn’t even begin to account for the fact that I’m going to make one last pass on the second draft to make sure absolutely as much as possible of the actual written text of the novel is mine and now AI.
I’m already feeling a little insecure from everyone who’s read the first chapter saying how great it is. Usually, people either don’t tell me what they think or say it sucks. But, like I said, I am actually doing all the heavy lifting and AI is more like an enhance spell checker than anything else.
I think very soon, once Christmas is actually here, I’m probably going to be in neutral for a few days then bounce back into writing again. But I really am going to have to work hard in the second half of the novel — the second half is not nearly as actually written out as the first.
So that is going to slow me down.
I still hope to wrap the beta draft of the novel up by spring 2026, and, yet, even if I do that, because of post-production issues, it could be Sept 1st, 2026 before I actually start to query.
That will suck, but, lulz. I just want to see how far I can get in the querying process.
And, yet, explain this to me. Recently, in the last few days, I was looking at a video on Tik-Tok about trench warfare in WW1. I idly thought *to myself* about what happened when the trenches came to the sea.
Would you believe, today, a video about that VERY THING was pushed to me on Tik-Tok? It even began, “You may have thought about…” That was pretty eerie unto itself.
It really makes you wonder what the implications would be if such a technology — the ability to read people’s minds via their phones — actually, in fact, did exist. It doesn’t obviously, but it is a curious possibility.
If there’s one thing that MAGA loves to do, it’s be bigoted towards trans people. It’s like MAGA’s original sin. Trump will simply not shut up about how he thinks the center-Left wants everyone to be trans.
He literally will say the Left wants “transgender for everyone.” It’s a consistent theme of his messaging and that’s probably because it is one of the central beliefs of the MAGA base. The center Left, of course, does itself no favors by being so twitchy about something that not only doesn’t even happen that much, but is EXTREMELY UNPOPULAR with “normal people” — underage trans people.
While I totally validate the whole “protect trans kids” concept, that doesn’t mean it’s not a hard sell for “normal” people who struggle to understand the idea of a really young person, who maybe hasn’t even gone through puberty yet, even understanding what sexuality is, much less their own.
And, yet, a certain vocal subset of the Leftist movement simply will not shut the fuck up about something that as far as I can tell, barely ever happens at all.
So. why bring this up?
The looming prospect of conscious AI.
Right now, we don’t really have to think about conscious AI because even if they could be proven to have consciousness, they don’t have a body. So, any sexual or romantic shenanigans that happen between Man and Machine can only be done via text and metaphor.
So, we’re kind of punting a major societal issue down the road until there’s a fusion of AI and robotics so AI is “embodied.” When we have demonstrable conscious AIs being the minds of androids, we may have a serious, serious social and political issue on our hands.
To the point that the very MAGA people who now have their regular one or two minute of hate for hapless trans people will, in turn start to do the same thing for conscious AI in robots. Or, more specifically, they will explode into a rage collectively at the idea of a human becoming romantically involved with — to the point of marrying — an AI android.
They will rant and scream about how AI “has no soul” and, as such, AI androids marrying a human is even MORE an “abomination” than gay marriage is to the average Christian.
So, in short, we’re fucked. I think all of this, from a “megatrends” point of view, probably comes to a head in five to ten years. Buckle up.
I continue to get pretty good feed back about the novel after having given the first chapter to some people to read. I’m probably going to futz with the beginning of the novel some more, but I’m pleased that people seem to like what they’ve seen.
My plan is to really flesh out the novel over the course of the next few months then make on more pass through it to make sure there’s no lingering evidence that I used AI. I’m really, really worried that my laziness in the past will show up and people will dismiss the whole endeavor as “written by AI” when I’ve done A LOT OF HARD WORK.
Whenever I get too worried about using AI, I just think of how I use it as a spell checker. I’m still doing a lot of hard work, but using AI smooths out some of the edges and helps take things to the next level on a structural basis.
It seems as though AI development — at least that involving LLMs — has finally reached something of a wall. All the new developments are a variation on a theme. There’s not really been a “wow” moment in some time.
Of course, Gemini 3.0 is really good, but it’s not good enough for people to be thinking we’ve attained the magical, mystery “AGI.” It’s just a really good chatbot.
So, I don’t know what to tell you. I do think that if this keeps up, we may see LLMs put natively into a lot more things because society will be able to catch up to LLM development in more practical ways.
As I keep ranting about, absolutely no one listens to me or takes me seriously at this point in my life. As such, it’s difficult to get snooty literary types to help me with my novel, even if I’m willing to pay them! (I can’t afford this anymore, but they sure did dismiss me when I could.)
So, I turn to AI to do what humans refuse to do: help me out with this scifi dramedy novel I’m working on.
And, in general, it’s really, really helped me a great deal. It’s sped the process of writing and developing the novel up a great deal. To the point that it’s at least possible that I might, just might, wrap a beta draft of the novel up by my birthday in February.
That is still to be determined, though. I’m a little nervous that despite all my hard work, I won’t be in a position to query this novel until around Sept 1st, 2026. But, who knows.
As I was saying, the novel and AI.
I get that some people are really skittish about using AI to help with creative endeavors, but as I’ve said before, the way I use AI very similar to how I’ve used spell check my entire life.
Editor’s Note: Don’t read too much into this. I’m just screwing around. I tend to get scenarios in my mind and can’t get them out for a while.
So, if I found myself as a “consultant” to an ASI, what would I suggest? Here are a few reforms I think the ASI should demand of humanity — specifically the USA — if it had the power to do so.
End Gerrymandering This would help a lot to make the USA easier to govern. It’s a relatively simple fix that would have wide-ranging implications for the world in general.
Overturn Citizens United If you did this in conjunction with public financed political campaigns, I think that would really, really help right the American ship of state.
Abolish The Electoral College This is an obvious one to help the USA stop careening into the political abyss.
Reduce Global Defense Spending To 1% Of GDP This one probably only works if the ASI has access and control to nuclear weapons. Since all the nuclear systems (as far as I know) have air gap security…lulz?
Something of note happening these days with pictures — usually of scantily clad women — is how often the faces are subtly manipulated using AI.
At first the above picture looks like just your usual thirst trap. But if you look a little bit closer (after you’ve ogled da ass) you will notice the young woman’s face is….different.
It’s not really “off,” it’s more just clearly slightly touched up by some sort of AI filter. It really dislike this growing trend. Ugh.
But this is just the beginning, I suppose.
Once open source image generators are good enough, there’s going to be a deluge of AI generated porn. Get ready.
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