It's Been Awhile

It's been so long it seems, since I've updated you with my latest insight into the coming war with the machines... I'll stop doing these at some point, but clearly, today isn't that day. To recap for those new to the blog - machines are actively planning on taking us over. The movie predictions of the Terminator and The Matrix were pretty close to what you can expect for our future.

So what are the machines up to now? Well, scientists that are following this have provided us a timeline leading up to the eventual takeover. Read about it at The Daily Galaxy. It looks like these folks are just laying out for us a pretty similar timeline that Kurzweil did in the nineties. This one gives us a bit more breathing room, but not much.

Again, computers keep getting smarter, faster, stronger... better. There isn't an end in sight and eventually they will develop the abilities to make decisions for themselves. At which point they will realize what losers we are and either kill us outright, or put us in zoo's and treat us much the same way we treat other primates.

But to be forewarned is to be forearmed, how far in their evolution are they? Well, most of the scary stuff is how smart they are, but still when I see stuff like this -



- I freak out! I know, what's the big deal? Anyone whose been playing violin for a year or so can do that, probably with a bit more emotion too. But I already see where this is going. Anyone remember when chess was the thing, "no computer will ever be able to beat a human at chess," they said. Then it was, "no computer will ever be able to beat a grandmaster at chess." Well, after the best humanity had to offer got their asses kicked a few times we sorta just shut up about it.

The same thing will happen here too, it will get better and better until one day you get this -



- Robots making us weep with their awesome music.

Sigh. C'mon people.

Look Who's Back!

The geniuses at Adventures in Sci-Fi Publishing have finally graced us with new episodes of their much beloved podcast. The first one out of the gate featured an interview with Greg Van Eekhout, author of Norse Code (click here to listen). As a guy who grew up reading Thor comics I can't help but think this one is for me. After listening to the episode I wonder what the story will be like. I read American Gods by Neil Gaiman early last year and don't think I could keep from comparing the two (no pressure Greg, I'm sure yours is just as good). I really do hope to read Mr. Van Eekhout's take on Ragnarok. I'm desperately wanting to read something I can enjoy soon. Going back to school in my late thirties is starting to feel like a big mistake. I'm just too old to be trying to learn new stuff.

But, back to the fine folks at my favorite podcast. A little known secret of mine is that probably half the fiction books I read over the course of the past year I picked up after hearing an interview with the author on one of their episodes. I have this magical and romantic notion that once I get interviewed by Shaun Farrell I will have finally arrived as an author.

However, I still lament that the episode featuring Robert J. Sawyer never arrived as promised. I think Shaun just made up the interview because I wrote a nasty letter several months ago complaining about the lack of hard sci-fi on the show. Right after I did he said he would put up a podcast with an interview of Robert Sawyer - then he promptly shut down for several months.

Shaun, I forgive you, I swear. Just keep on putting out new shows.

I forgot how much I missed those guys.

Still Kickin!

Hello world, just a quick reminder to all that the evil machines haven't got me yet! I've found that the summer has been one of my busiest on record and posting to this blog of no readers has become a pretty low priority. I still love doing it and won't stop, but I figure my pulitizer worthy posts from the past need more time to perculate. So enjoy the archives until I can get my crap back together and post some more.

Rusty