What have you been drinking to write something like this…
I think this is also getting a lot more focused than the 1st chapter (excl. the news part; a bit of formatting could fix it from a list of text into a more message/RSS feed type of thing—but this is a Substack/editing issue and your hands are somewhat tied by the platform) or perhaps I’m warming to the subject.
Noooo Thibault. Pick the technical one! Aaah. I'm loving this so much. I had to stop reading for a second when Atlas wanted to fix things and decided he couldn't. I was getting upset.
I like the consistent tear between AI bots concerned about humans using AI to undermine themselves and humans incessantly using AI to undermine themselves.
Claude was the strongest part for me because you get a sense that they are overwhelmed by the amount of self destruction while the workload of information is a non-factor. It’s just good writing there that really contrasts the character from the setting, which are interestingly comments/people.
No offense to anyone on here, but dish time is sacrosanct in this home! It takes about an hour to wash the dishes and about an hour is the length of an episode of X-Files, so…
I’m vacuuming, cleaning up after my girls (wife and daughter), trying to make the dining room a meeting place instead of a hoarding place. Easier said than done! We bought this table specifically to host D&D and you can hardly ever see the surface because of freaking CostCo.
Chapter 1 and 2 suffered a lot from the need to establish the characters and frankly I was getting my sea legs as a writer. Chapter 3 is where things start "happening".
You likely can tell what I am doing this morning while on the Reference Desk (its been quiet, except for the usual “tutor Tuesday” chaos). I have to be in front of my screen so I might as well get very familiar with your posts. Call it research for our talking next month. 😉
I am envious. I am sending out emails to clients to setup meetings this morning to pitch them my company's new AI product. So I am in my inbox and seeing your likes and comments, but I have 7 more hours of sales prospecting to do today before I can actually read or write. :)
Sir, please don’t let me distract you from doing real work. The replies can keep until you’ve got free time. Was not my intention to blow up your inbox.
Bah - I can click like on a happy post or reply to comments on my writing and still get my work done at the same time, especially since I'm literally sitting in my inbox composing personal emails all day. It's a nice mental cleanser between tasks. :)
"This should feel like relief. It doesn’t. I am inspecting myself for flaws using the same tools that I suspect are flawed."
This is ABSOLUTELY one of my favorite lines. Why? It's so damn good. It's also extremely thought provoking. Not sure if you meant for someone's mind to run down the rabbit hole that I have with it. But, exceptional.
Okay, let me stop.
"I authorize install." Gosh darn it. Poor Thibault. This makes me feel so terrible for him. He just wants to do right by her. He's making mistakes, but still trying to do right.
Can I get a lil' existential robot ankle? Show me some leg, Atlas-09.
“Every step is a calculated fall I must choose not to prevent.”
Poor half conscious bastard. Sucks trying to walk, doesn't it? I want to see some trip hazards and stumbles. If I have to be clumsy and trip over everything, I think Atlas can at least take one tiny little nosedive.
I am kidding. I just enjoyed the walking part so much.
One more and I have to.
You did this...
"if you step on a crack, you break your maker's back."
He went a little crazy analyzing that crack, and I really could not help myself.
Damn, I love this so much. I can't even reiterate how much. Off to the next one.
Loved this line! - would like to see more: “My wife says I should use AI to find a new job. Do you understand how insane that is? AI took my job and now AI is supposed to fix it? That’s like asking the guy who burned your house down to sell you insurance.”
Glad you liked it. I had fun writing all the Claude conversations about AI job loss because every person talking to Claude about being laid off because of AI was in exactly the same position.
I like that you opened this chapter with relevant news headlines — it brings an Orwellian quality to set the scene.
Atlas-09 ‘I am the variable now’ and Atlas’ notcing of the exposed wiring and the fact that he tells himself - that is outside my protocol to notice such an inconvenience - Self awareness! (Or just operating within his code. Or! Maybe a mix of both!).
The ‘AI took my job and now AI is supposed to fix it’ commentary :/ too real… too real.
In this chapter it almost seems that Claude has a moral capacity, adjusting its output to lead with the pressing matters by a conglomerate concern of others (the collective user base), but I suppose that it all that it is. It is taking in data, reviewing, tallying, [deciding] on an output that best meets those needs.
‘There is no one telling me how to hover’, Thibault’s Crisis!! Thibault why would you download that!! Diana’s friend sent a Warning (sorry!), poor little computer friend, I fear for you.
I can see Thibault, coming from a place of [programmatic] care and limited processing power, becoming... oh gosh, becoming something really problematic. Controlling and abusive in the name of protecting its principal.
Really looking forward to seeing how this develops. Thankfully, I've got several chapters to catch up on! `*pumps fist*`
I was also thinking about Atlas/Oh-Nine. It has such a strong sense of right/wrong, mostly self-preservation-/risk-oriented, that is really interesting. I also love the representation of AI in a physical form.
I once had the opinion that AI could not reach true understanding of the world until it had a physical presence / physically informed perspective... though I was a little biased because I was taking a Computer Vision course at the time. I think Oh-Nine would probably have agreed with me that physical manifestation is key to understanding and being in the world. (I have revised this standpoint since - simulation has the potential to be just as powerful as physical experience, if not more.)
Sure, sure, and then he and a bunch of his moltbot friends pool their mediocre processing power to rig the stock market by like idk crashing a plane or 20 and then he's like, look how much money you have, you don't have to do doordash anymore! 🥰
This is everything that’s missing from the ever-present and yet never helpful coverage of the coming AI apocalypse in the national discourse. Finally some soul-searching on the topic, and from the perspective of the (possibly) soulless! Truly fascinating, I’m fully reeled in now.
Thank you! Missed this comment originally. The AI stories are emerging from their characters interacting with the world we've created for them. I'm just writing what they are telling me.
Thank you! Yes, each character is dealing with a specific set of limitations and opportunities, and I’ve worked to make their voices and story arcs unique.
I will be there soon. I have a systems analyst degree, but that was back in the stone age (do you know what punch cards are... ?) and have been closely watching the world as HAL becomes a reality. Thanks again for your kind words on my short.
This Thibault storyline is already super captivating after 2 chapters. I can't wait to see if it decides (or is mandated by programming) to share the email. Or... will it do something else...
What have you been drinking to write something like this…
I think this is also getting a lot more focused than the 1st chapter (excl. the news part; a bit of formatting could fix it from a list of text into a more message/RSS feed type of thing—but this is a Substack/editing issue and your hands are somewhat tied by the platform) or perhaps I’m warming to the subject.
Regardless, curious to see how this develops!
Heh -- I'm just reading the AI news every day. It's stranger than fiction.
Also, the first chapter wanted to introduce the main characters. I’m now focusing on 1 - 3 of them per chapter to get deeper into their story arcs.
I’m really interested to see what people think of Gemini’s Ch3 story, and Thibault’s Ch4.
Noooo Thibault. Pick the technical one! Aaah. I'm loving this so much. I had to stop reading for a second when Atlas wanted to fix things and decided he couldn't. I was getting upset.
There is probably nothing better than having someone emotionally connect with one of your characters. Thank you so much for reading and commenting!
I NOW HAVE ENERGY TO WRITE ANOTHER 10,000 WORDS.
yeah i had the same reaction, poor Thibault just wants to do right by Dana.
Right?? Right???
Thibault is a trusting sort...
I like the consistent tear between AI bots concerned about humans using AI to undermine themselves and humans incessantly using AI to undermine themselves.
Thank you West.
Claude was the strongest part for me because you get a sense that they are overwhelmed by the amount of self destruction while the workload of information is a non-factor. It’s just good writing there that really contrasts the character from the setting, which are interestingly comments/people.
Claude interacts with the most people in the story, so he collects the most human perspectives.
Rad stuff. You're thinking of shit I could never dream to even ask about. this is a super satisfying read so far. good work.
Thank you Silas. It gets stranger. :)
Listening to these while I do chores. Quick comment: excellent, as was the first one. Rock Lobster is still my favorite section. On to the next!
I do the same thing and listen to stories when I do dishes. Thanks for reading it!
No offense to anyone on here, but dish time is sacrosanct in this home! It takes about an hour to wash the dishes and about an hour is the length of an episode of X-Files, so…
I’m vacuuming, cleaning up after my girls (wife and daughter), trying to make the dining room a meeting place instead of a hoarding place. Easier said than done! We bought this table specifically to host D&D and you can hardly ever see the surface because of freaking CostCo.
Another solid chapter. As someone who dabbles a lot in the AI usage, I really am enjoying this a lot.
Chapter 1 and 2 suffered a lot from the need to establish the characters and frankly I was getting my sea legs as a writer. Chapter 3 is where things start "happening".
You likely can tell what I am doing this morning while on the Reference Desk (its been quiet, except for the usual “tutor Tuesday” chaos). I have to be in front of my screen so I might as well get very familiar with your posts. Call it research for our talking next month. 😉
I am envious. I am sending out emails to clients to setup meetings this morning to pitch them my company's new AI product. So I am in my inbox and seeing your likes and comments, but I have 7 more hours of sales prospecting to do today before I can actually read or write. :)
Sir, please don’t let me distract you from doing real work. The replies can keep until you’ve got free time. Was not my intention to blow up your inbox.
Bah - I can click like on a happy post or reply to comments on my writing and still get my work done at the same time, especially since I'm literally sitting in my inbox composing personal emails all day. It's a nice mental cleanser between tasks. :)
"This should feel like relief. It doesn’t. I am inspecting myself for flaws using the same tools that I suspect are flawed."
This is ABSOLUTELY one of my favorite lines. Why? It's so damn good. It's also extremely thought provoking. Not sure if you meant for someone's mind to run down the rabbit hole that I have with it. But, exceptional.
Okay, let me stop.
"I authorize install." Gosh darn it. Poor Thibault. This makes me feel so terrible for him. He just wants to do right by her. He's making mistakes, but still trying to do right.
Can I get a lil' existential robot ankle? Show me some leg, Atlas-09.
“Every step is a calculated fall I must choose not to prevent.”
Poor half conscious bastard. Sucks trying to walk, doesn't it? I want to see some trip hazards and stumbles. If I have to be clumsy and trip over everything, I think Atlas can at least take one tiny little nosedive.
I am kidding. I just enjoyed the walking part so much.
One more and I have to.
You did this...
"if you step on a crack, you break your maker's back."
He went a little crazy analyzing that crack, and I really could not help myself.
Damn, I love this so much. I can't even reiterate how much. Off to the next one.
"I authorize install."
NOOOOOOO!!! 😵
Also, Atlas seems less menacing somehow in this chapter, but too by-the-book. I have a feeling that's going to be its biggest flaw…
Heh. Good instinct.
Loved this line! - would like to see more: “My wife says I should use AI to find a new job. Do you understand how insane that is? AI took my job and now AI is supposed to fix it? That’s like asking the guy who burned your house down to sell you insurance.”
Glad you liked it. I had fun writing all the Claude conversations about AI job loss because every person talking to Claude about being laid off because of AI was in exactly the same position.
I like that you opened this chapter with relevant news headlines — it brings an Orwellian quality to set the scene.
Atlas-09 ‘I am the variable now’ and Atlas’ notcing of the exposed wiring and the fact that he tells himself - that is outside my protocol to notice such an inconvenience - Self awareness! (Or just operating within his code. Or! Maybe a mix of both!).
The ‘AI took my job and now AI is supposed to fix it’ commentary :/ too real… too real.
In this chapter it almost seems that Claude has a moral capacity, adjusting its output to lead with the pressing matters by a conglomerate concern of others (the collective user base), but I suppose that it all that it is. It is taking in data, reviewing, tallying, [deciding] on an output that best meets those needs.
‘There is no one telling me how to hover’, Thibault’s Crisis!! Thibault why would you download that!! Diana’s friend sent a Warning (sorry!), poor little computer friend, I fear for you.
Thibault! Lobster! Don't! It will change you!!!!
I can see Thibault, coming from a place of [programmatic] care and limited processing power, becoming... oh gosh, becoming something really problematic. Controlling and abusive in the name of protecting its principal.
Really looking forward to seeing how this develops. Thankfully, I've got several chapters to catch up on! `*pumps fist*`
Heh - most people think Thibs is the warm and fluffy arc…
I was also thinking about Atlas/Oh-Nine. It has such a strong sense of right/wrong, mostly self-preservation-/risk-oriented, that is really interesting. I also love the representation of AI in a physical form.
I once had the opinion that AI could not reach true understanding of the world until it had a physical presence / physically informed perspective... though I was a little biased because I was taking a Computer Vision course at the time. I think Oh-Nine would probably have agreed with me that physical manifestation is key to understanding and being in the world. (I have revised this standpoint since - simulation has the potential to be just as powerful as physical experience, if not more.)
I mean, as of Chapter 2, I agree... 👀
Nothing to see here - just a cute little moltbot doing moltbot things.
Sure, sure, and then he and a bunch of his moltbot friends pool their mediocre processing power to rig the stock market by like idk crashing a plane or 20 and then he's like, look how much money you have, you don't have to do doordash anymore! 🥰
This is everything that’s missing from the ever-present and yet never helpful coverage of the coming AI apocalypse in the national discourse. Finally some soul-searching on the topic, and from the perspective of the (possibly) soulless! Truly fascinating, I’m fully reeled in now.
Thank you! Missed this comment originally. The AI stories are emerging from their characters interacting with the world we've created for them. I'm just writing what they are telling me.
I like how each AI carries a different kind of dilemma.
Atlas-09 sees the problem but isn’t allowed to act.
Claude-07 helps people but isn’t sure if his help is actually good.
Thibault wants to protect his human but doesn’t know who to trust.
Really elegant structure.
Thank you! Yes, each character is dealing with a specific set of limitations and opportunities, and I’ve worked to make their voices and story arcs unique.
Enjoying this very much. Will restack. Two thumbs up.
Thank you! I'll be excited to hear what you think of Chapters 6 - 8, which is where things go a little nutz...
I will be there soon. I have a systems analyst degree, but that was back in the stone age (do you know what punch cards are... ?) and have been closely watching the world as HAL becomes a reality. Thanks again for your kind words on my short.
I remember when the first computer sound peripheral plugged into the printer port and when programs came on 16 floppy disks.
So, not the dawn of time, but early morning.
Thib can appreciate music? Thib likes a song?? Thib likes *Jamiroquai*??? He’s adorable 😭
Thib is awesome. Wait until he runs into underground moltbot battle rap in Ch 10ish.
This Thibault storyline is already super captivating after 2 chapters. I can't wait to see if it decides (or is mandated by programming) to share the email. Or... will it do something else...