Picture removed.
This is remarkable. The face you are seeing is computer-generated. It is a result of a new approach to programming which provides a database of celebrity images and then directs an artificial intelligence program to correct its mistakes, for lack of a better phrase, as it refreshes the image over and over in the process of creating a completely new persona. It gets better at it (because it judges itself) and thus makes the image less fake looking over time. Until we get something like this. Which is not a real person and, I think, fundamentally unsettling.
I have read science fiction novels where a hypothetical machine civilization does some weird stuff with humans. Like make art out of them. The author Greg Benford comes to mind, and the Terminator movies eventually went there too. But the ability to create images like this is still startling. Are we going to get to the point where we must ask them to leave us alone?
We are trying to get our baseball season started but the rain continues to fall here. The fields are so wet the season has been pushed back. It feels like we’ll never play a real game. But maybe a domed stadium is a curse not a blessing looking at the way the Blue Jays are playing. They need rainouts. Badly.
My sons and I have decided we are going to watch GOT for sheer enjoyment. It has disappointed this season but maybe that’s because we waited two years for new episodes. And forgot it was just a television show. And underestimated the problems the writers had to face wrapping this thing up. And they blew it with getting rid of the Night King in episode 3! But I digress. Enjoyment only, from now on.
Hard at work on short stories this week too. Here is an excerpt:
While that guy was off being successful, he of the ringing in his head was not. He fought on because it was what he knew. But each punch to the head, no matter how light, felt like he was being hit by a war hammer. He tried to change his style, but he wasn’t that quick. And his arms were too short to dance and stick. He had to take longer and longer between fights. He got tired of being hungry in those blank periods. And having people who he knew from the fights look at him with that combination of derision and pity.
I realize I have focused down on the fight game in the Southlands. And I’m not done with it yet. Stay tuned.
Have a great week!