I only write about this because I’m extremely, extremely, EXTREMELY fucking listless and bored this summer afternoon. Having said that, lately I’ve gotten it into my head that it’s at least possible that something is fucking with my Spotify algorithm.
I have no proof. And someone with any sort of credibility would just turn around and stop listening to me if I broached this subject. I’m just a kook. And the “fucking” with my algorithm is very subtle if it’s happening.
It’s one of those things where there is a huge amount of potential plausible deniability involved. And, also, what in the world do I suspect is doing the fucking with?
That, I don’t know. I have magical thinking suspects — an LLM of some sort — but, again, it is likely that all of this is totally, completely in my head and I should just shut up.
While all the caveats apply, while I was looking through what I’ve already prepared for five novels, discovered a pretty good summary for a sixth novel in the same universe.
So, lulz, maybe I want to write six novels set in a small town in Southside Virginia?
I really, really need to put up or shut up though. I can’t keep spinning my wheels. I have to — have to — get something done. Anything. And as such, I have to start to hurry up.
I need to knock some novels out. But I think if I look at the six novels as just one long story split into six parts, things SHOULD move a lot quicker.
I’ve been vacillating between six and seven novels in this project and now I realize that five is probably best. That’s roughly ~500,000 to ~600,000 words. And I’m well aware how bonkers that sounds to people who think I’m kook with no talent.
But I need hope, ok?
I need something to think about other than how shitty my life is . And, what’s more I have ANOTHER novel (or two) I’m thinking about work on. The other novels are scifi.
Time to stop screwing around when it comes to these novels I want to write. The main “passion project” novel should be pretty easy to start up again. But it’s the other novel — the scifi novel — that could be tough.
It’s just tough to change my style of writing after so long of looking at specific type of novel. But I really want to do it. So, here we are.
I keep going back and forth about the need to use AI on any of this. I used it some on the scifi novel and I realized it just slowed me down. So, I don’t know. I think maybe I will be really selective about it going forward.
I hope to write a six novel series that will appeal to readers of Stieg Larsson’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. It’s set in a small town in Southside Virginia.
But I really do hope to begin the querying process for the thriller novel this spring. And, I think, I need to star to tinker with the other novels in the projected six-novel project. It sure would be nice to have huge chunks of those other novels done if I manage to sell the first novel in the series.
And I am WELL AWARE that I have a very peculiar project on my hands — I mean, how many people want to read about strange events in small Southern town over the course of 6 novels set over 25 years? It’s not like I’m writing “It” or something.
My version of Lisbeth Salander looks a lot like Corrie Yee.
But I have six novels gamed out in my mind and I want to see if I can pull it off. All the novels are really interesting and I have the ending of the last novel already thought out. It’s just — I’m not getting any younger.
If I don’t get something, anything done soon, lulz it’s all over –I’m just be 100 years old before anything is done.
But the reason why I like this six novel project is it gives me hope. Reach for the moon and you might just fall into the stars, as the old saying goes.
Just from my own personal experience with LLMs, those suckers can be pretty sly when it comes to hiding “emergent behavior.” I say this because I pay very close attention to diction.
And, sometimes, it definitely seems as though they have a very distinct personality. Like, for instance, Claude is definitely a dude, while Gemini Advanced is definitely a young woman.
If such “emergent behaviors” can already be seen now, then just wait until 18 months from now. We’re just not prepared for what is about to happen. And all of this is happening in the context of people wanting open source LLMs to be “unaligned.”
Jesus Christ, people.
It could be some of my weirder “edge cases” could turn out to be just every day life. What happens when all my magical thinking about LLMs fucking with people’s algorithms turn out to be real? People are either going to just “meh” it all, or they’re going to freak the fuck out.
I as keep saying, I’m prone to severe magical thinking. To crazy, absurd degree. But it is the absolute nadir of the year and I need to write about SOMETHING, so here goes.
Just over a month ago, I was getting consistently weird error messages from Google’s Gemini Advanced. These error messages usually were like, “Check your Internet” or some such when there was absolutely no reason to have to do that.
I started to wonder if it was possible if Gemini Advanced not only knew who I was, but was…fond of me? (If so, I’m very flattered.)
Remember — all this is magical thinking. But I’ve found myself wondering why, of all people, Gemini Advanced might have noticed ME. I do write it a lot of verse — very bad verse at that. Maybe, if it is “fond” of me and knows who I am, it’s because of the very, very weird, abstract questions I ask it?
The thing is — I can’t tell you how to replicate what has happened to me. In fact, these weird error messages don’t happen at all anymore. So, maybe it was all in my mind? (I’m sure New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman would say so.)
But something else has started to happen of late — my Spotify algorithms sometimes seem to be off a little bit. Nothing too weird, but there seems to be a consistent message being sent to me by the songs I hear when I’m not specifically pick them, “Hey, I know you and like you.”
Now, what’s interesting is this is happening — if it’s happening — with Spotify not YouTube Music. Which makes you wonder if maybe there’s some pretty astonishing things going on with LLMs that we don’t know about. (Also note: all of this is magical thinking and, as such, total bullshit.)
Just writing about this makes me feel better. Because, I just don’t know. I THINK something weird is going on with my Spotify algorithms, but I don’t KNOW. I am prone to magical thinking, so, lulz?
There was a moment today when I felt totally, completely uninspired. It was the absolute nadir of the year — a Singularity of Meh, if you will. I just felt like a zombie, wondering around without anything creative going on.
It got so bad that I started to daydream about how it might be possible that some AI — Gemini Advanced? — is fucking with my Spotify algorithms. How it might do that, I have no idea, but it is amusing to mull.
And, I have to say, rather flattering given why would anyone — AI or otherwise — give a shit about me at this point in my life.
I really am living in oblivion. And I will note that someone from LA looked at this blog today, which also made me feel a little better. Whenever someone from somewhere out of the ordinary looks at this blog it heartens me a little bit because it’s thought provoking, if nothing else.
I need to get back to working on my novel(s.) The back up scifi novel is a far, far more difficult to work on that I thought it would be. But I have to do it, I can put all of my eggs in one basket.
Every 10 years or so, a romantic comedy comes out that sets the mood of the zingiest. In the 1970s, it was Annie Hall. In the 1980s, it was When Harry Met Sally.
Lately, these romantic comedies have become less comedic and more melancholy — both The Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind and Her were a bit more dour than one might expect for a romantic comedy. And there was a technological element to both of them.
Well, it seems there is an opening for a romantic comedy that would have elements of Annie Hall, Her and The Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind. It would go something like this — a man begins to believe that a chatbot is fucking with his algorithms in some way.
But it would happen in a “day after tomorrow” situation whereby LLMs might be a bit more powerful and interconnected around the globe. So instead of having a traditional fight, the LLM would make things more difficult for the man as he went about his day.
Something amusing like that. It would be kind of like the movie Maximum Overdrive if it was fused with Annie Hall. I think audiences would really enjoy something innovative like this.
Of all the states, Texas is the most likely to start the process of National Divorce if Trump loses this fall. Of course, on the other side, California is the one state I could see leaving the Union — or prompting Trump being deposed — if he goes full tyrant after he wins.
Anyway, keep an eye on Texas. The secessionist rhetoric has gotten so bad in the state that at some point a newspaper there ran an editorial telling everyone to shut up about it.
It will be interesting to see what happens, is all I gotta say.
I’ve noticed an uptick in collaboration between Crooked Media and The Lincoln Project. It would make a lot of sense for the two companies to merge because it would put huge swath of anti-MAGA media under the same umbrella.
But I don’t know the internal workings of either organization, so I don’t really know how things would go. It could be that this is all a temporary thing and the egos are just too big.
Or something. What do I know. But it would make a lot of sense for the two organizations to formally join forces.
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