One chilly morning in January, I phoned Squid for his birthday. As I padded barefoot between the living room window and the kitchen talking about how far up the simulated brainstem one might nestle robot :: human affective bonding, I casually made reference to a story idea I had. “Oh, wow,” he said. “You have […]
"The Chair" is (a)live! (And in NATURE!) Read More »
For your listening pleasure: That’s Steve Reich, courtesy of Karl Schroeder, who I woke up for crépes on Saturday, and who is an expert in obscure and improbable rocketry. Other discussions included, in no particular order: Racefail 09 Paranoia Agent The Shine Anthology Mushishi Twitter This MDES programme The Fleet Foxes Kings, and why you
The weekend in links Read More »
I’m about to write about robots entering a Costco. The nice thing about writing my robots is that they can actually move like this: Also, I have things to do today. So “Now Get Busy” is my new theme song for a bit. And yes I got a plan I’m a carry out it Yes
Without anime, I couldn't write action scenes. Read More »
Here is a sampling of my various projects: “There’s a present outside your window,” Singer says. Now Brandon does get up. He pads to the window and opens it. The shutters squeak dryly. Outside, hovering, is their drone: four wings, all black, her hindparts heavy with twelve hours of surveillance. “Hello, Tink,” Brandon says, extending
…OTB is, according to one blogger, one of the best new stories of 2009. (Thanks again, Dave. You’re the best pal ever.)
Courtesy of my pal Dave, I learned that Lois Tilton at the Internet Review of Science Fiction had some pretty nice things to say about my story “Off-Track Betting” from Flurb #7. One of the things I like best about this review — aside from the fact that Ms. Tilton recommends my story — is
I was raised Catholic. I should know the answer to this. But somehow it just never came up, in catechism. If you asked me what various theologians would have to say on the issue, I might be able to speculate (Augustine would likely say no, on the grounds that robots have no soul to save;
Can the Church baptize robots? Read More »
“Do you remember your bad dream, from this morning?” “…No. No, wait, yes I do. I dreamed you were a robot. A Von Neumann!” “That’s right. You were shaking all over, and you kept saying, ‘They’re taking over! They’re taking over!’ I reached over to wake you up, and you were terrified of me.” A pause.
I sometimes dream my own story. Read More »
I had a good weekend. It involved learning Japanese, visiting The ROM, and learning how to play Crokinole from Karl Schroeder, who is enough of a crack shot that he can manipulate the board such that you might feel a little bit better about your total lack of hand-eye coordination, until you realise what he’s
A weekend well spent Read More »
Today while writing about my VN, I realised I would have to dismiss a cool-but-unlikely feature. It’s the kind of feature that would have looked great on film but bad on paper — the sort of thing one of my workshop members calls “The Refrigerator Problem”: namely, a plot device whose problematic elements don’t occur