<div dir="auto">Read Blood Meridian, Nick.<br><br><div data-smartmail="gmail_signature">---<br>Frank C. Wimberly<br>140 Calle Ojo Feliz, <br>Santa Fe, NM 87505<br><br>505 670-9918<br>Santa Fe, NM</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Mon, Sep 4, 2023, 1:13 PM Nicholas Thompson <<a href="mailto:thompnickson2@gmail.com">thompnickson2@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div>Hi, Steve, <br></div><div><br></div><div>Thanks for your observations concerning bad hand writing and early typing as shaping The Mind, for better or for worse. My handwriting is hopeless. I cannot even read my own notes. Not sure what it has done to my mind, but it is something else that we share. <br></div><div><br></div><div>I know I am bending the thread, here, but I think of Cormac MacCarthy's <i>Stella Maris</i> as a kind of science fiction ... historical science fiction, perhaps? I have read it twice this summer. A Romance, of sorts. </div><div><br></div><div>Nick <br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Mon, Sep 4, 2023 at 1:31 PM Steve Smith <<a href="mailto:sasmyth@swcp.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">sasmyth@swcp.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div>
<p>Great list Carl! And more interesting yet to me:</p>
<blockquote>
<div><i>I would like to feed...</i></div>
<div><i>...into the AI and see what millennium long sci-fi it
could turn out. </i></div>
</blockquote>
<div>I'm definitely fascinated by the implied interpolation (and
extrapolation?) an LLM can do in what is by definition firstly
*linguistic* space and what that implies for it's ?dual? in
conceptual space?<br>
</div>
<p>and even more interesting:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><i>How would what it writes be different if it could be taught
to write using a nib pen a la Stephenson or a brush on washi
paper?</i></p>
</blockquote>
<p>In my lifetime I have kept various chronicles and correspondence
via handwriting using (mostly) roller-ball ink pens but also for
some periods fountain pens. A great deal more of that type of
chronicle/correspondence was effected on a keyboard much like (or
exactly) the one I'm typing on now (circa 2011 13" Macbook Pro)...
As you all painfully know, I'm pretty prolific in e-mail/e-txt
which reflects a few things:</p>
<ul>
<li>my handwriting is abysmal and can be
physically/emotionally/mentally excruciating to execute
sometimes.</li>
<li>I learned to type at a very young age to compensate for the
above and it really freed me.</li>
<li>I sometimes feel that I am actually *thinking* differently
whilst using the von-Neuman-esque linear "tape" as extended
memory/program-space.</li>
<li>I have at times in my life had a similar experience when
working with mathematical notation and with geometric
constructions.</li>
<li>These experiences are significantly different qualitatively
(when done by hand vs keyboard/mouse/etc)... </li>
<ul>
<li>each mode is distinct with benefits/detractions</li>
<li>I feel I *think* and *feel* differently when coupling my
cognitive self to my recorded/expressive self?</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<p>I choose to use a fountain pen on well-toothed paper when I want
to write "meditatively"... the feel of the nib on the tooth and
the flow of the ink and the smell and the sounds all provide
something similar to "breath work" for me. <br>
</p>
<p>I'm not sure my facility with the keyboard actually serves me.
As many of you may suspect, and I suspect so myself, it allows me
to be much less thoughtful and rigorous than I would be in
handwriting or if I had some other throttle or impedance elements
between linguistic centers and "paper"?<br>
</p>
<div>On 9/3/23 10:44 PM, Carl Tollander
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">Gregory Benford's "Galactic Center Saga".
<div>Greg Bear's "Darwin's Radio" and "The Way" series.</div>
<div>Benford, Bear, and David Brin also extended Asimov's
"Foundation" series - more stuff actually happens</div>
<div>Larry Niven's "Ringworld" and all its spinoffs and
prequels, anything with the character Louis Wu in it.</div>
<div>Neal Stephenson's "The Diamond Age"</div>
<div>Bruce Sterling's "Distraction"</div>
<div>Anything by Terry Pratchett.</div>
<div><span>Adrian
Tchaikovsky's "Children of Time" and sequels.</span><br>
</div>
<div>Lin Carter's short story "Masters of the Metropolis"</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>That should keep you busy for a few days. I suspect not
everyone would think of these as optimistic.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I would like to feed Timothy Snyder's Youtube lectures on
Ukraine </div>
<div>and Neal Stephenson's "Quicksilver" </div>
<div>and Eiji Yoshikawa's "Taiko" </div>
<div>into the AI and see what millennium long sci-fi it could
turn out. </div>
<div>How would what it writes be different if it could be taught
to write using a nib pen a la Stephenson or a brush on washi
paper?</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>R.A. Lafferty wrote sometime ago "Arrive at Easterwine"
about a computer writing a novel from a mashup perspective of
its creators.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Carl</div>
<div><br>
</div>
</div>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sun, Sep 3, 2023 at
11:13 AM Jochen Fromm <<a href="mailto:jofr@cas-group.net" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">jofr@cas-group.net</a>>
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="auto">
<div dir="auto">I have read "Highway of Eternity" from
Clifford D. Simak this weekend, one of the books from the
golden age of science fiction which is comparable to "The
city and the Stars" from Arthur C. Clarke and "The end of
eternity" from Isaac Asimov. Both belong to my favorite
books. Modern authors don't write like this anymore. Their
books are often gloomy and depressive, and do not span
millions of years. What is your favorite science fiction
book? Will the AI breakthrough in large language models
lead to more optimistic science fiction books again? </div>
<div dir="auto"><br>
</div>
<div dir="auto">-J.</div>
<div dir="auto"><br>
</div>
</div>
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