My Thought on A.I.

 Before I get into it, yes, I know it’s actually a LLM, basically just a very sophisticated predictive text.

As an author, I’ve been dealing with A.I. for years. Long before ChatGPT even existed, there were programs you could pay for that would write anything you wanted in whatever style you liked. They started using them to write news articles and clickbait (sorry but “Groom upset that Bride asked her ex to walk her down the aisle” is not real).

But AI has done more than that. I used to freelance. I wrote websites and other content in exchange for money. But I had to stop. Once those programs came out, I couldn’t keep up. “Why not use them yourself?” you ask? Ethics and integrity aside, it’s not that simple. If I went to a freelance writing site, I’d find a handful of people from third-world countries applying to every single job. They then used AI to do the work for them. But they could afford to ask for a pittance. I could not afford to work for those prices, even if I did use AI, because I have a higher cost of living in the US. Now it’s even worse because the jobs themselves are drying up (why pay someone when I can get chatGPT to think for me?)

So I’ve been pretty vehemently anti-AI for a while.

I get the appeal, or at least some of it. AI can make cover art. It can edit (kinda). It can help you brainstorm (kinda). It can make rough drafts. Hell, it can just make the book. Now, I have artist friends, so I know how terrible it’s been for them. That’s why I will always pay an artist to make my covers. And I’m also better at editing and writing and plotting than any AI. They are trained on a lot and end up becoming an average.

But what I don’t get is why you would bother. A fellow writer recently defended it, saying most of the authors in the Con scene are using AI in some capacity. I hope to GOD she’s wrong. Because if you don’t enjoy it… stop. Trust me, we know when there’s no passion for it. The industry is now flooded with slop. And AI is now training on slop. It’s just going to get worse. But not in the way you might think.

If you are using AI for even something as benign as asking the capital of Rwanda, you are outsourcing your thinking, your critical thinking skills. They did a study recently of people who have used ChatGPT for 4 months and already found significant loss of cerebral function. Let me reiterate that for.

Generative AI literally makes you stupid.

I kills critical thinking, it kills imagination, it kills the ability to determine quality.

Seriously, if you want a story, GO GET A BOOK. I guarantee you there’s one already like it. If you want to write, WRITE IT YOURSELF. The act of writing it makes it so much better. And it makes me better. If you are a student, GET OFF CHATGPT because it may well be causing permanent, long-term damage to your future.

We all want product now. Capitalism has won. We’ve forgotten that the act of creating is the point.

A Milestone

 BEHOLD Hixonites. I HAVE RETURNED from my cave of hyperfocus. And I bring tidings of joy!

I have finished the rough draft of my third book! At the moment it is a little over 50k words long. I was getting a bit worried there, but I’m sure it will get longer once I go through it again.

That means in 2023 I have written and mostly edited a book (my second, “Fate & Fortune”), written a children’s book (working with the author, my good friend Monica Marier, on the pictures for it, “Brian Buys a Brachiosaurus”), recorded an audiobook, written several small “bathroom reader” type books (rough drafts), and finished the rough draft of another book (Book #3, “A Date with Destiny”)! And it’s only mid-November!

As soon as my cover artist finishes and the formatting is completed, I will also be able to say that I published my first book! I’ll be a published novelist!

I cannot express how pumped I am about this, not to mention how proud I am of myself.

So, I have a month and a half until 2024. What shall I accomplish?

Here’s a list of things I could tackle:

• finish editing Book #2 and send it off to an editor
• hire a cover artist for Book #2
• get my website up and running
• make ads for Book #1 and figure out how to get them out there
• look into events where I can sell (probably author signings and the like—getting a table will have to wait until I have more products to sell)
• “master” the audio for my audiobook and figure out how to get it set up
• record audio for Book #2 OR look into Forteller and see how that process works and its cost
• figure out this whole “social media” thing to start getting my name out there more
• get some short stories into some publications to start getting my name out there more
• look into ARC readers (do I need them?)
• start writing Book #4 (which I’ve already outlined and am SUPER stoked about writing—it continues the story of Scribble and Paul from Book #1. It will be titled “A Sinister Hope”)
• start writing Book #4 (a creative nonfiction piece I’ve been trying to write for years. obviously whichever one I decide to write first will be #4)
• figure out how to link ads to Amazon in such a way that it increases my profits
• edit, format, and finish the bathroom readers
• write more bathroom readers (I’m planning a series of them that, who knows, might become a compendium)
• write and record music to play at the start and end of the audiobook

I clearly will not be able to do all, or even most, of these things in the next month and a half, so I will need to prioritize. And I have several other novels in mind that I want to get to after these, so from the look of things, I have my work cut out for me.

Oh yeah, there’s also Thanksgiving and Christmas, the Board Game Rundown, and family obligations. In addition, my father has Lewy Body Dementia (and probably Alzheimer’s). He’s currently in hospice and we do not know how long he has. For all the wonderful things happening right now, there are some pretty unpleasant ones, too.

Until next time, keep reading, keep creating, and have a happy Thanksgiving!

Automaton

This post has little to do with writing, but it does have to do with unbounded creativity.

Back in college I took a rather enjoyable sculpture class.  This was when I didn't know what I wanted to major in yet, so I was taking everything I could to figure out what I wanted to do with my life.  I could rant and rave about the idiocy of the education system that does not give a rounded education to its youngsters, but that would be for another post.  In this class of mine, we had something like 11 projects we had to do.  The first one was simple, to make an object into something it wasn't, and I did an OK job at it.  Not great, but OK.  The second, however, required us to come up with a toy that moved.  I made an airplane with a propeller that turned when the wheels did.  I did very well on it.  The third was the last project I did.  I don't even remember what it was, because I didn't do what the professor asked.  Instead, I started to make a a crank-work box.  I designed it with 5 moving elements all relating to time, built every part of it (including making the gears by hand), and tested it until it worked almost perfectly.  There was also another automaton box I made, a gift for my at-the-time girlfriend.  These two projects not only counted for the other 9 assignments, but got me an A in the course.  Here are a few examples of automata.  I recommend checking out a few more videos; they can be quite impressive.

Ever since then, I have had a love of automata and woodworking.  I even designed some complicated projects, but never got around to them.  It has been some time since I thought about any of them.  Today, I was drawing with my daughter and listening to "Rainbow Connection," from the Muppets.  Suddenly I was inspired!  I remember one of my old projects that involved Kermit sitting on top of a log with a banjo.  A tape played the song, and attached to the motor of the tape player was a dowel that moved cams which controlled Kermit's mouth and arm, so that he sang and played in time to the music.  One of the biggest flaws of this was, however, that the dowel and cams would add resistance, which would slow down the song and possibly break the tape player.  Besides, who uses cassette tapes?

Now my idea is to make it a crank-work automaton.  Attached to the main shaft are the cams, still controlling the arm and mouth, and on the other end is a disc - one part of a music box.  The chime portion would be beneath, so that as you turn the crank you both play the song and make Kermit move!  Another thought, if I can make it larger, would be to actually use banjo strings that are plucked on the inside.  I hope I can remember these ideas in case someday (yeah right) I get a woodworking studio and have the time to work on these.  Even though I likely will not get to do these things, I still love to come up with ideas like these.  They keep me thinking, keep my mind creative.  If I get stuck in part of my story, sometimes it is a good idea to switch things up and step back from it for a short while.  Tell me what you all think.