Ass Man.

Category: ink on art

Which is what we called “Asset Management” behind the scenes, while I was writing it. Of course, back then I didn’t know I was writing it for Keanu fucking Reeves. Apparently they mentioned my name on some ComicCon panel about a month ago, which effectively lifted the embargo (“Brag #2” was as far as I […]

Continue reading » 17 Comments

Meet the New Boss. Same as the Old Boss.

Category: climate, politics

“In 1933, people were not fooled by propaganda. They elected a leader who openly disclosed his plans with great clarity. The Germans elected me… ordinary people who chose to elect an extraordinary man, and entrust the fate of the country to him. “What do you want to do, Sawatzki? Ban elections?” —Adolph Hitler, “Er Ist […]

Continue reading » 144 Comments

Some People Just Want to Watch the Internet Burn.

Category: a-life, evolution

A Blast from the Past: Cyberspace lasted a bit longer— but space implies great empty vistas, a luminous galaxy of icons and avatars, a hallucinogenic dreamworld in 48-bit color. No sense of the meatgrinder in cyberspace. No hint of pestilence or predation, creatures with split-second lifespans tearing endlessly at each others’ throats. Cyberspace was a […]

Continue reading » 56 Comments

The Three-Bragger Problem

Category: ink on art, writing news

Preamble: OK, I lied. Said last time that this time was gonna be about science, and no more of this fluffy promo bullshit. And I meant well. But this time, the fluffy promo is about me. And it’s cool. And more to the point, I don’t have to spend hours doing research on things I […]

Continue reading » 46 Comments

Two-Step Forwards, Ten Years Back

Category: ink on art, interviews

I know, I know. Two pimpage posts in a row. Not my usual shtick, and I assure you not any kind of new normal; the stars just aligned that way this time around. For what it’s worth, next time I expect to be talking about Darwinian evolution in digital ecosystems, complete with a tortured retcon […]

Continue reading » 61 Comments

Alevtina and Tamara and Lyonka, Oh My!

Category: ink on art

(As usual, click on any of the following images to embiggen. Although I really shouldn’t have to be telling anyone that.) You might have seen a dude by the name of Dimitry SkoLzki hanging around the gallery hereabouts. He did these distinctive black-and-white sketches—they have an almost almost wood-cut vibe—inspired by characters and events in […]

Continue reading » 28 Comments

Meet the New Boss. Same as the Old Boss.

Category: fiblet

—Our Father, Who Art in… But father‘s out of style, isn’t it? They call you The Admin now. The Board. Creation was a group project. I don’t know how they know that, but apparently there are a lot of you. Maybe I should call you Odin, or Thor. Or—Loki, given the way things are falling […]

Continue reading » 27 Comments

An evolutionary biologist and a science fiction writer walk into a bar…

Category: climate, evolution, In praise of biocide, interviews, public interface, scilitics

Last month it was the Atlantic, where I pretended to know something about AI. This month it’s the MIT Reader, and the subject is The Imminent Collapse of Civilization. Honestly, I had no idea I was such an expert on so many things. This time, though, I’m not so much an expert as a foil. […]

Continue reading » 270 Comments

Underdog Overdrive

Category: ink on art, reviews

First, a PSA: In keeping with my apparent ongoing role as The Guy Who Keeps Getting Asked to Talk About Subjects In Which He Has No Expertise (and for those of you who didn’t see the Facebook post), The Atlantic solicited from me a piece on Conscious AI a few months back. The field is […]

Continue reading » 91 Comments

Terry Gilliam’s Air Canada

Category: AI/robotics, legal

Being who I am, I tend to portray my futures in the spirit of Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four or Brunner’s The Sheep Look Up. Sometimes, though, reality turns out more like Gilliam’s Brazil: just as grim, but hysterically so. Take my short story “Collateral”: a tale that (among other things) asks about culpability for decisions […]

Continue reading » 30 Comments