“When I was younger, I knew nothing and had the confidence to prove it.” — Evan Robertson
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Posted in Other | Tagged writing, Writers, Thoughts, #365Ways, confidence, #365Ways2026 | Leave a Comment »
“…I guess what I’d say is that the best way to predict the future is just observe very closely the present. So it’s close observation of what’s going on in at a moment. And it’s also, the other thing is being interested in the thing you’re interested in rather than the thing everybody’s talking about… that’s good because it means that it’s gonna be fresh and different.” — Michael Lewis
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Posted in Writing | Tagged writing, creativity, Writers, Thoughts, advice, #365Ways, prognostication, curiosity, #365Ways2026 | Leave a Comment »
“Zero is the only amount that gives you
r bodynothing to build on.” — Arnold Schwarzenegger [strike-through added]
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Posted in Writing | Tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, creativity, persistence, Thoughts, Writers, writing | Leave a Comment »
A quick programming note: Mr Man and I are going to have a little end-of-summer time off and will be in and out and doing stuff, most of it fun. Long-time readers of this blog will know what that means: that’s right, more quotes and pretty pictures!
I’ll be back soon, but until then, here’s hoping you also have time to do interesting things with your favorite people.
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Posted in Other | Tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, note, summer fun, Thoughts, time for a little break | Leave a Comment »
I’m reading a collection of sci-fi stories about robots and AI with some really interesting and thoughtful takes on the topic, and just finished a particularly good one by Will McIntosh, “Nic and Viv’s Compulsory Courtship.”
The Year’s Top Robot and AI Stories: Second Annual Collection by Allan Kaster
I can’t share that particular story (but the library is your friend! the book is also available on Kindle Unlimited if you partake), but here’s another piece by McIntosh that you might like.
Defenders – Lightspeed Magazine
There was nothing to see yet; they were still above the smoky cloud-cover. It was hard to believe Australia was down there. Over the past twenty-eight years it had taken on almost mythical dimensions in Lila’s mind, and knowing she would see it any moment, see what it had become, set her heart pounding.
Enjoy!
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Posted in Other | Tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, AI, free fiction, future, ideas, Lightspeed, prognostication, reading, robots, sci-fi, Thoughts | Leave a Comment »
“I believe that books-and all stories—are magic. They connect us, they shape us, and they make us more than who we are by causing us to care about the impossible—to care about people who are living lives that never were and never could be.
Real magic.” — Sarah Beth Durst
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Posted in Other | Tagged Thoughts, magic, reading, #365Ways, empathy, #365Ways2026 | Leave a Comment »
Do you like your fiction with a whole lot of responsibly deployed science? Seven Rasmussen, astrobiologist and author, has some suggestions for you!
An Astrobiologist’s Guide to the Best Sci-Fi Reads
Flex your mantle cavities over here, because I’m going to tell you about my favorite books and the science in them, from the astrophysics of Gideon the Ninth to the evolutionary biology of Children of Time. Please bear in mind that my choices (in no particular order, mind you), while they are technically opinion, they are absolutely correct, written in stone, and enforceable by federal law.
In case your to-be-read list needs a bit of a boost:)
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Posted in Other | Tagged inspiration, science, Fiction, scifi, reading, #365Ways, #365Ways2026, astrobiologist says, suggestions | 1 Comment »
Some days you just don’t feel it, whatever “it” may be. I’ve been there, certainly, we all have, but today I’m not talking about myself.
I’m talking about AI. (Or as John Scalzi puts it, “AI.”)
Here’s (my tongue-in-cheek analysis of) the issue: I have a nonfiction project that’s been sitting on the back burner for a while (fine, years) because I’ve been avoiding the tedious formatting work required to put it all together. Like a more complicated version of getting Excel to extract URLs from a long list of hot links; hardly rocket science but annoying to have to do by hand.
What if, I asked myself, I could get this new fangled tech-no-logy to do that boring work for me? I’m not interested in it as a creative tool, but is this the sort of task it might do well?
At first, the answer seemed to be a solid yes. Terrific, I thought, I just need to prep a list of inputs and I’ll be good to go.
But that was yesterday.
Today, I used the same prompt and got a much different, and not nearly as useful, answer. Many followup prompts along the lines of “Hang on, this isn’t at all what you gave me before” and “Please return the thing I asked for, for crying out loud!” later and I have come to the inescapable conclusion that the program just isn’t feeling it today.
It also got me wondering: Is this the way actual intelligence arises from the primordial soup of 1s and 0s, in a haze of distracted mediocrity and foot-dragging compliance? More Murderbot than Star Trek’s tirelessly competent Data? And if so, what does that mean for the future?
Here’s hoping for a better tomorrow!
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Posted in Other | Tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, AI, projects, reasoning with bots, speedbumps, technology, Thoughts | 2 Comments »
… and I don’t regret it!
“A slice of cake never made anyone fat. You don’t eat the whole cake. You don’t eat a cake every day of your life. You take the cake when it is offered because the cake is delicious. You have a slice of cake and what it reminds you of is someplace that’s safe, uncomplicated, without stress. A cake is a party, a birthday, a wedding. A cake is what is served on the happiest days of your life.” ― Jeanne Ray
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Posted in Food and... | Tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, baking, delicious, food, quotes, Thoughts |
In case you’ve been wondering what happened to that stray SpaceX rocket part heading for the moon?
New photos show site where SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket crashed into moon
And if you, like my friend Elaine Midcoh (great story, recommended!), are interested in the legal status of lunar-based events, this article has some preliminary thoughts.
A rocket crashed into the moon. It was harmless, but the next one might not be. – SpaceNews
Despite a lack of momentum toward a new legal framework, there are substantial mechanisms that can be taken now to mitigate harm from cislunar activity.
Best to prepare now, I think, while the regolith is still clear.
“If you believe you can accomplish everything by “cramming” at the eleventh hour, by all means, don’t lift a finger now. But you may think twice about beginning to build your ark once it has already started raining” [rocket parts]. — Max Brooks (with a minor addition)
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Posted in Science! | Tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2026, #whoops!, inquiring minds, littering, moon, NASA, shouldn't there be a fine for that? | Leave a Comment »
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