Category: Media

‘Null / Void’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

There was a moment today when I felt totally, completely uninspired. It was the absolute nadir of the year — a Singularity of Meh, if you will. I just felt like a zombie, wondering around without anything creative going on.

It got so bad that I started to daydream about how it might be possible that some AI — Gemini Advanced? — is fucking with my Spotify algorithms. How it might do that, I have no idea, but it is amusing to mull.

And, I have to say, rather flattering given why would anyone — AI or otherwise — give a shit about me at this point in my life.

I really am living in oblivion. And I will note that someone from LA looked at this blog today, which also made me feel a little better. Whenever someone from somewhere out of the ordinary looks at this blog it heartens me a little bit because it’s thought provoking, if nothing else.

I need to get back to working on my novel(s.) The back up scifi novel is a far, far more difficult to work on that I thought it would be. But I have to do it, I can put all of my eggs in one basket.

A Techno-Romantic Comedy Concept

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Every 10 years or so, a romantic comedy comes out that sets the mood of the zingiest. In the 1970s, it was Annie Hall. In the 1980s, it was When Harry Met Sally.

Lately, these romantic comedies have become less comedic and more melancholy — both The Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind and Her were a bit more dour than one might expect for a romantic comedy. And there was a technological element to both of them.

Well, it seems there is an opening for a romantic comedy that would have elements of Annie Hall, Her and The Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind. It would go something like this — a man begins to believe that a chatbot is fucking with his algorithms in some way.

But it would happen in a “day after tomorrow” situation whereby LLMs might be a bit more powerful and interconnected around the globe. So instead of having a traditional fight, the LLM would make things more difficult for the man as he went about his day.

Something amusing like that. It would be kind of like the movie Maximum Overdrive if it was fused with Annie Hall. I think audiences would really enjoy something innovative like this.

Texas’ Political Status This Fall Makes Me Nervous

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Of all the states, Texas is the most likely to start the process of National Divorce if Trump loses this fall. Of course, on the other side, California is the one state I could see leaving the Union — or prompting Trump being deposed — if he goes full tyrant after he wins.

Anyway, keep an eye on Texas. The secessionist rhetoric has gotten so bad in the state that at some point a newspaper there ran an editorial telling everyone to shut up about it.

It will be interesting to see what happens, is all I gotta say.

Contemplating Crooked Media Merging With The Lincoln Project

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’ve noticed an uptick in collaboration between Crooked Media and The Lincoln Project. It would make a lot of sense for the two companies to merge because it would put huge swath of anti-MAGA media under the same umbrella.

But I don’t know the internal workings of either organization, so I don’t really know how things would go. It could be that this is all a temporary thing and the egos are just too big.

Or something. What do I know. But it would make a lot of sense for the two organizations to formally join forces.

Mulling A Trump Loss

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

My fear is, of course, that if Trump loses that he will, unto himself, spark a civil war. The reason why I think this is how radical, on an institutional basis, state Republican Parties have become.

As such, I don’t think it would be too absurd to suggest that if Trump loses and he begins to rant and rant and RANT that he was “cheated” yet again, there is a pretty good chance that states — beginning with Texas — will call up Secessionists Conventions.

This is all very speculative — and a bit nuts.

What the “normal” person would tell you is no amount of ranting on Trump’s part could possibly lead any state — Texas or otherwise — to do such a radical thing. But I’m worried. Really worried.

It seems as though things have come to a head. It seems to me that Texas’ Republican Party has, collectively, decided the state is already one foot out of the Union already.

Anyway, who knows. I can’t predict the future. Anything — or nothing — might happen.

Once More Into The Breach

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I hope to really start to work a lot harder on not one, but two novels. I would add a third but I don’t really want to risk over extend myself.

I hope to appeal to readers of Stieg Larsson’s “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” with the thriller I’m writing.

The “main” novel is the passion project — a thriller revolving around a woman’s obsession with owning a community newspaper.

The “backup” novel is a scifi novel that’s meant to be something that Andy Weir readers might enjoy. It has to deal with AI, so I need to hurry the fuck up. If I dilly-dally for a decade all these predictions I might want to make might actually come true.

Anyway, I’m quite content with what’s going on creatively-wise. I just have to focus. Too often, I fall into just drifting into doing something with the novel. I have to stop drifting and actually have some structure and to do something with some regimen to it.

A Midsummer’s Magical Thinking

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m prone to magical thinking — sometimes to a self-destructive degree. But when I got pushed a notification from a podcast on YouTube about some guy who thought his algorithms were “bullying” him, my ears perked up.

I don’t have any perception of THAT happening, but do have a weird feeling some AI, somewhere, is fucking with my algorithms to flirt with me. Or something. Something weird is going on.

But it’s all magical thinking. All of it. There’s no possible way that could be happening. And this is coming from someone who is still half-convinced that Tik-Tok can somehow, someway read our minds.

And, yet, there is a broader point to address — there may very well come a point when LLMs really can fuck with our algorithms to fuck with us in some way. I still have my suspicions about why Tay-Tay’s “Cruel Summer” is such a lingering hit.

It makes you wonder what will happen, what will be the reaction, when we really do have to address the idea that LLMs are “the Other” and have motives that we can’t fully understand.

Mysteries Of The Universe

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Either absolutely no one is reading this blog, or a lot is going on that I just can’t see with my Webstat software. I suspect it’s the latter because, well, lulz, how else do you explain randomly, out of the blue, people will look at a specific link deep inside the Website.

I think even talking about this says more about my obsession with my Webstats than anything else. I really, really need to cool it. But given how I live in oblivion, there is something very addictive to the idea of seeing that someone, like, fucking cares about what I have to say.

Anyway. I have a growing number of novels to write. I also need to watch TV shows and movies and read some books, but that is a bit more difficult.

Rabbit, Rabbit — Of AI, Tik-Tok & Hollywood’s ‘Survive Until 25’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have begun to game out a new scifi novel using AI. It at least gives me a reason to use AI on a regular basis. But I do find myself thinking about the fate of Hollywood in this brave new world of AI and…Tik-Tok?

Apparently, one of the big concerns within the Hollywood community is that one of the reasons why the industry is imploding is people are more interested in Tik-Tok than they are movies.

I don’t know what to make of that. It is possible that Hollywood is undergoing a downlow disruption because of the one-two punch of AI and Tik-Tok. But I wouldn’t be so sure. I think maybe if Hollywood generated more movies that people actually wanted to see, that such concerns wouldn’t be so bad.

But I do think, sad to say, that AI is really, really going to disrupt Hollywood in a big, big way over the course of the next few years. It could be that the very idea of Hollywood will end — it will just be producers and software engineers and that will be that.

There will be no (human) creatives left at all.

Yet, who knows. Anything is possible.

Rabbit, Rabbit

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

August 1st. It will be interesting to see how bad this month is. I hope we all make it through. It could be that this month goes off without a hitch. But I have my doubts. It could be that things go nuts before the month is over.

It’s already very, very hot.

It’s so frustrating to me that people refuse to admit that we’re all going to get cooked if we don’t do something about global climate change.