Category: Uncategorized
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The Door in the Hall
Here again is my first post, first published on February 2nd 2023. I think it is worth revisiting, since it encapsulates one of the key features of fantasy: the unexpected. I set it up as a thought experiment, for myself as well as for any visitors who wanted to try it. You are walking down…
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On fantasy and AI
As I have previously written, the goal of fantasy is exploration. Whether we are writers or readers, we are not delving into the mysteries of a bicycle, or quantum mechanics, or the origins of humankind. These are matters that are by turns fully understood, obscure but predictable, or involving a high degree of speculation. Whichever,…
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Burial Service
Every year the amount of knowledge in the world doubles, so every year the challenge to manage it all doubles, and the challenge to communicate across specialist fields likewise increases. The Tower of Babel had nothing on what we are facing now. Trust essential to the running of communities, of nations, begins to teeter, and…
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Foundations of fantasy
/ According to the much quoted story, Albert Einstein once advised a woman to read him (her?) fairy tales “if you want your child to be intelligent”. True or not, the connection between the imagination and intelligence is undeniable. Just like some of the latest AI machines, the brain is a device for making connections,…
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The human gift
Fantasy is the art of being ‘elsewhere’, and as such it had spread itself through all the arts; including fiction, drama, poetry, music (where as fantasia it steps outside the formal rules of composition), surrealistic art (where it challenges our understanding of the world) and dance, to name a few. Fantasy takes many guises, from…
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A journey in time
One of the nice things about fantasy and SF is that one can put human nature into an unfamiliar environment – perhaps a fantastic world, or, as in this case, a futuristic technology. The following is an extract from my as yet unpublished third novel. The devices mentioned are designed to bring back old memories…
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Imagination and its enemies
Over the past few years I have become increasingly aware of two very important processes at work in the world. One is dogmatism, and the other is a kind of open-minded skepticism, which for the sake of simplicity I will call doubt. Dogmatism is comforting: for example we might regard a particular religion is ‘the…
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The Maid
As another take on artificial intelligence in the not so distant future, here is a repeat of a post a number of readers have enjoyed. Do check it out if you haven’t already …‘This is Ethel.’Mrs Lundy stared, first at the striped coat, and then at the woman beside him, immaculate in her pin striped…
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The Final Solution
“I tell you, anything more advanced than a factory machine must go!”Sir Graham glared out from under his eyebrows. “Must go,” he repeated.The six members that constituted the board of the Humanity First Foundationnodded respectfully.“We do have some very useful house robots,” ventured the youngest at the ta-ble. She had taken advantage of mechanical help…