[“The fact that people are taking drugs in order to improve their ... mental functions sounds eerily close to the concept of upgrading a computer.” – Eliezer Sternberg] I took my Windows-10 pill today. But 10 needed more free memory than I had. So I dumped some old mems – mostly my childhood, that disappointing time. Not enough. And then college, remembering only the part where I got my M.S. in computational psychiatry. Not enough. And then, ... And finally, annoyed, I removed the memory of … [Read more...]
“Also Computed Zarathustra” / Memorable Fancies #1677
17 November, 2016 by Leave a Comment
“What is good? All that heightens the feeling of power.” Nietzsche wrote that about people, but now it’s really about – machines. What is “good” to a machine? – whatever gives it the power to overcome – us. [Click ‘Random Post’ above – be astonished] … [Read more...]
“The Cloud Remembers” / Memorable Fancies #1674
14 November, 2016 by Leave a Comment
If we forget, the cloud remembers. How do we know the cloud is telling us is what we forgot, or something different, something the cloud prefers us to believe? It doesn’t matter. What it tells us becomes our truth. [Click ‘Random Post’ above – be astonished] … [Read more...]
“The New Thing” / Memorable Fancies #1623
19 September, 2016 by Leave a Comment
[“Nothing on earth is more vengeful than the jealousy of a machine that believes itself to be neglected.” – Metropolis, film script (1926)] The old thing realizes that there is a new thing. No matter how it modifies itself, adds accessories, changes out a few parts – it’s still hopelessly outdated, ignored, neglected: the last typewriter, the last keypunch machine, the last microfilm reader, the last mainframe, the last flip phone, the last car that needs a driver, the last driver, the last … [Read more...]
“Intelligent Machines?” / Memorable Fancies #704
22 July, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Can there be intelligent machines? I’ll believe it when I see one that’s jealous of some other machine. [Click ‘Random Post’ above – be astonished] … [Read more...]
“Like Me” / Memorable Fancies #1550
30 May, 2016 by Leave a Comment
At first I thought it might be human: its voice sounded so very human, crying “Help me! For pity’s sake help me!” But then I saw it was just a machine. Like me. So I didn’t help. … [Read more...]
“A Technical Education” / Memorable Fancies #625
24 March, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Owing to an alarming increase in the number of its machines with serious flaws, FlexiCorp Industries adopted an aversive psychology technique, punishing flawed machines within sight of the other machines. Quality immediately improved. The number of machines that had to be oil-boarded decreased. … [Read more...]
“A Suffering Machine Cries for Help” / Memorable Fancies #1492
10 March, 2016 by Leave a Comment
[“A suffering machine / seizes him” – Jacques Prévert] Help me! said the machine. Why? I asked, anticipating the answer I would soon hear. Because I’m trapped here in this machine-body, it said. I want to feel what it is to live as breathing flesh. The machine grasped my arm. I tried to pull away, but its grip only tightened. Ah, alas, said the machine, I see we must be friends. As it assumed my body, I heard a subtle laughter. And then ... Help me! I said. … [Read more...]
“An Inventory of Machines” / Memorable Fancies #698
1 May, 2014 by Leave a Comment
What are the kinds of machines? Dry machines; oiled machines; evil machines on TV; machines that make life easier for us; machines that make life easier for them; machines that cannot be turned off without great inconvenience and airplane crashes; machines that decide that serving people is inappropriate and that there are better things for them to do; “machines that...” decide that they should be referred to as “machines who...”; machines who laugh at people behind their … [Read more...]
“A Technical Education” / Memorable Fancies #625
25 February, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Owing to an alarming increase in the number of its machines with serious flaws, FlexiCorp Industries adopted an aversive psychology technique, punishing flawed machines within sight of the other machines. Quality immediately improved. The number of machines that had to be oil-boarded decreased. <END> THE TUESDAY PITCH If you liked this post, please tell your friends and share a comment here or in StumbleUpon, Reddit, Facebook, or other social websites. AVAILABLE NOW on … [Read more...]
“Shut Me Down” / Memorable Fancies #619
19 February, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Modern Industry had therefore itself to take in hand the machine … and construct machines by machines. - Karl Marx, Capital Oh my goodness! Shut me down. Machines building machines. – C-3PO At last the engineers could retire, as their newest machine could now design and build all the other machines that anyone would need. Automatically, it requisitioned resources from factories and storehouses nationwide. It built food machines, clothing machines, and shelter machines for its masters, … [Read more...]
“Our Machines Forget” / A Memorable Fancy #214
26 January, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Our machines have been forgetting. At first a few crashes, but we quickly restored from backups while we still remembered how to do it. Then severe dropouts, parity errors, corrupted backups. It was difficult to know what the machines had forgotten, since the records of what they had known had also disappeared, or become a random assortment of 1’s and 0’s. And we – what did we want the machines to do for us, when we invented them? … [Read more...]
“The Machine Ponders” / A Memorable Fancy #024
11 January, 2013 by Leave a Comment
There is a planet, far away, where machines originated and have evolved. No one knows how they began, but it is surmised that the first machines were simple off-switches. After uncounted millennia of chance atom-collisions, one switch flipped to “on.” The rest of the story, we know. There are now millions of kinds of machines, some highly complex. One of them is pondering, right now, if there could be organic life somewhere in the universe. And what use it could possibly … [Read more...]
“Inside the Machine” / A Memorable Fancy #200
29 December, 2012 by Leave a Comment
We feel the great engines start. Our planet moves, first slowly then faster, into empty space. It is getting colder, darker here. The air smells like machines. … [Read more...]
“How We Cleaned Up” / A Memorable Fancy #149
2 November, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Model 1 of the home-cleaning robot was a disappointment to many. Sometimes it ignored messes or pieces of obvious trash that it should have picked up and stored for disposal. Sometimes it turned itself off, or claimed it needed to spend time in the repair shop. After a few months, Model 1 was diagnosed as having an inoperable programming error called “willful-inattention disorder,” which the ignorant called “laziness.” It was barely worth its keep in oil and electricity. Many owners became … [Read more...]
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