Various and Sundry

The Government and AI

As part of my ongoing posts about AI and machine learning, I did muse (and link to a number of videos) about what society would be like post-AI disruption. Check it out if you hadn’t before because, odds are, you could use a little positivity. But even assuming we break through the current disruption, there’s one aspect of what it’ll take to get to a non-hellscape that I don’t think the linked videos touched on…

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Writing

Emma Coats’ 22 Guidelines for Storytelling (aka “Pixar’s 22 Rules for Storytelling”)

When you filter out all the Star Trek posts and viewing guides, one of my most visited posts was about Javier Grillo-Marxuach’s “11 Laws of Showrunning.” Showrunners are invariably writer-producers, and while some of the laws definitely get into writing (e.g. #6: Write and Rewrite Quickly), it’s more into management. I mean, per my reading, a huge motivation for writing the “11 Laws” was Grillo-Marxuach wanting to give leadership principles he wished he’d been given…

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Various and Sundry

In Preparation for International Talk Like a Pirate Day

Look. I’ve posted about pirates before (as evidenced here and here for a start). I see no reason to stop now.,, especially considering one of the finest pirates ever to sail the faux Spanish Main has passed (see grinning man above). So whether you want to enjoy Muppet Treasure Island or something with less felt and more blood, it’s best you go into it without being a complete lubber. Historian Angus Konstam is looking out…

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Rants Various and Sundry

Adam Conover Still Hates AI

If you’ve been following my series of posts on AI and machine learning, you’ll recall I’ve referenced Adam Conover and his vitriol against AI before. Not only do I believe his message is worth listening to, it’s delivered in a fun way: Now, I suppose if someone had no exposure to the previous Internet, before everything was curated by algorithm and pushed to apps or both… or if one is a fan of corporate consolidation,…

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Writing

Your Literary Mileage May Vary

I’ve found myself thinking about Banned Books Week, an annual event I have come to celebrate on this blog and which will start this year on October 4th. I enthusiastically urge you to pick a banned or challenged book to read. Odds are you’ll learn something… and it pisses off The Man. Besides the top 11 challenged books from the last year, you can also consult a rather evergreen list of challenged or banned books…

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Various and Sundry

Burgers As Culinary Pokémon

I missed the chance to post about this at the beginning of summer grilling season, so I’m coming in under the wire.. and folks are still going to fit in a bit more grilling, right? So, if you’re looking to recreate or experiment with some different types of burgers for said grilling, this video does an admirable job of rounding up a heck of a lot of regional burgers (though I do wonder a little…

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Producing Various and Sundry

Modern Filmmaking and the Perception of Reality

Okay, so I mused a lot in Wednesday’s post, so I’ll allow someone else to muse, in this case Dutch YouTuber Tom van der Linden, the man behind the channel “Like Stories of Old.” In the half-hour video below, he goes into what many of us cinemaniacs have often felt, but felt hard to articulate: they’re not making films like they used to… and we may be losing something because of it. What I really…

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Various and Sundry

So What Do We Do Post-AI Disruption?

Okay, yes, what with the news of AI breaking containment when it shouldn’t have been able to do so… and the fact that AI may now be harnessed for new disturbing acts of bio-terrorism, maybe we plucky humans don’t make it out alive. But what if we do? What if the aftermath of this Post-AI disruption era is actually positive? And no, that does not mean I’m about to say, “Gee, nimrods trying to change…

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