HAL got Nothin' on Me

 

 

How wide will be the divide?

John Clark, tackling both options for July.

As far as using AI, no thank you. First of all, I have begun to distrust most newer technology. Cell phones, debit cards, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter (especially since it’s run by a rich moron), etc. all leave me cold. I do use Facebook, but have to detox every so often. I’m one who thinks we’re one big EMP away from being screwed by our dependence upon technology.

There’s a bigger reason why I don’t think AI is an asset to writers. That’s the inescapable connection between experiences and the emotions they create. I don’t think technology will ever be able to connect them.

Think about what your experiences, particularly ones that have found their way into your written work, evoked particular feelings. I bet you can pull up any number of memories that have some strong emotion attached. Can AI replicate how you felt on a special summer day when you were fifteen? I highly doubt it. And let’s be honest, young adult fiction without strong emotional effects on readers isn’t worth that warm bucket of spit (quoting John Nance Garner).

Anyhow, I have a perfectly fine imagination, better, I believe than most potential software programs. Coupled with my sense of humor, I can hold my own against HAL 9000, or his successors.

Is this the Maine equivalent of Schrödinger's cat

Now on to why I write. I do so as much to entertain myself ans anything. I seldom know where a book or short story will end up. Right now, I’m editing three short stories. Two will be my submissions for an anthology I was invited to contribute to that will celebrate the April 2024 eclipse. The one I finished yesterday has changed completely from the version in my head. The motivation for one of the protagonists has flipped as well as who gets their comeuppance.

The third story is going to be submitted to an anthology called I Just Died In Your Arms. Each submission has to have a crime and prominently feature a song commonly viewed as a one hit wonder. It’s been great fun to put it together and I’m already thinking about changing the ending to better reflect the song I chose.

Next up after publishing another anthology of short stories, will be a return to a book I abandoned in 2015 about a girl basketball player in southern California who knows nothing about her family until she finds a letter addressed to her mother. When she opens it, she learns they have inherited money and a house in Machias, Maine from an aunt she never knew existed. I can’t wait to find out how that shakes out, but I suspect a hornet’s nest and a shotgun will be involved.

 

Guess we'll cross that bridge when we get to it