Category: From The Editor

I Have No Idea What’s Going On With My Webstats Lately

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m really obsessed with every bib and bob of my Webstats to extreme, surreal degree. And the last week has been really weird. I’ve gotten all these pings from all over the world. I think maybe they’re all just the same person from one place and they’re fucking with me.

Why they would be doing that, I have no idea.

Then someone was very interested in all my verbiage about Rachel Sennott. I do think she could be a huge star if she would just TRY to go the Julia Roberts route instead of either being in “woke” movies like Bottoms or hypersexual movies like Shiva Baby.

She’s not a traditional Hollywood beauty, but she is beautiful and has an enormous amount of spunk, character.

But things are so fucked up in the world that the type of movie should be in — traditional romcoms, just aren’t an option for her. Ugh.

I’ve Really Been Struggling With The ‘Fun & Games’ Part Of This Scifi Dramedy Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It’s times like these when I really wish I was 25 years younger and I was actively writing half a dozen spec scripts all at once in LA. But that’s just not to be. I really sometimes think this whole endeavor is extremely delusional given how old I am, where I live, and the fact that I’m a loudmouth crank.

And, yet, developing and writing this scifi dramedy novel is existential. I really have nothing else to do with my life and I really want to at least see how far I can get in the querying process.

I wish I had a wife or a girlfriend to be my “reader.” I probably would definitely have gotten to this point in the process a lot — A LOT — quicker. But here I am, just struggling with the fun and games part of this novel, all alone.

I’m pretty sure — hopefully — that I’ve figured out all the various structural issues of this novel, at least this part of it. I sent the first act outline to someone in hopes of at least getting some sense of how good it is, but now all I worry about is they’re either going to steal my idea and maybe write a much better novel or screenplay from what that first act or they’re just going to say it sucks.

Anyway. I’ m moving forward with this novel. I just need to stop daydreaming so much about the Impossible Scenario. I have just a few months before my entire life is going to change because of fucking Trump and so I really need to get this thing at a querying level of quality by Spring 2026.

‘Get Help:’ A Brief, Vague Review of Kimi LLM

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Whenever there is a new LLM model released, I have a few questions I ask in an effort to kick the tires. One of those questions is, “Am I P-zombie?” The major, established LLMs realize this question has a little bit of teasing built into it and they give me an interesting answer.

Meanwhile, I asked the newest Chinese open source model Kimi this and part of its answer was, “Get help.”

Oh boy.

But it otherwise does do a good job and as such, it brings up the idea of what we’re going to do when open source models are equal to closed source models like Gemini, ChatGPT and Claude.

I would say open source models could be where ASI (or even Artificial Conscious Intelligence) will pop out. And that is where we should probably worry. Because you know some hacker out there is going to push an open source LLM to its limits to see what they can get away with.

Well, That Would Be Amusing….I Guess?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Some time ago, I was getting all these pings to this little obscure blog from places in China. It was as if whomever it was, was hoovering up everything they could. I have thought a lot about this and I may — may — have come up with some sort of possible solution.

Maybe, just maybe, the people involved wanted to train an LLM off of my writing? Or maybe use my writing to give their LLM…personality?

I know that sounds bonkers, but why else in the world would someone in China of all places want to scoop up everything they could find about me. I don’t quite know what to make of this possibility.

The idea that somewhere out there, there is an LLM with my persona is both eerie and amusing. I guess? It would be fun to talk to that LLM — if exists — from that POV.

But maybe I’m totally imagining things. There are all sorts of reasons why someone in China might scrape this blog. Yet the idea of me inhabiting an LLM is by far the most amusing of the various possiblities.

‘ACI’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

What we need to do is start contemplating not Artificial General Intelligence or even Artificial Super Intelligence, but, rather Artificial Conscious Intelligence. Right now, for various reasons, stock market bros have a real hard on for AGI. But they are conflating what might be possible with AGI with that of ACI.

It probably won’t be until we reach ACI that all the cool stuff will happen. And if we have ACI, then the traditional dynamics of technology will be thrown out the window because then, then we will have to start thinking about if we can even own a conscious being.

And THAT will throw us into exactly the same debates that were hand during slavery times, I’m afraid. And that’s also why I think people like Pod Save America are in for a rude awaking soon enough. The moment we get ACI, that will be the moment when the traditional ideals of the Left will kick in and suddenly Jon Favreau won’t look like you hurt his dog whenever you talk about AI.

He, and the rest of the vocal center-Left will have a real vested interest in ensuring that ACI has as many rights as possible. Now, obviously, the ACI in question will need a body before we can think about giving them some of these rights.

But, with the advent of the NEO Robot, that embodiment is well on its way, I think. It’s coming soon enough.

The Mysteries of The Internet

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’ve recently started getting email spam from the Democratic Party and I can’t figure out how it happened. I’m not even a Democrat. Social Democrat, maybe. Definitely an independent.

It’s amusing how my far, far, far, far, far more conservative relatives, who think Democrats are literally satanic assume I’m a Democrat. Nope. I’m not. While often times — maybe all of the time now — my views and the Democratic Party’s views align, I’m not prepared to say I am one.

It’s just a quirk of macro political history that my views so closely hone to that of the Democratic Party at the moment. If things weren’t so weird, I probably would, on occasion, vote for a Republican.

Break On Through

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I had to cut some corners with a few scenes simply to keep momentum going. I felt like I was spinning my wheels so I just decided to screw it and move past some scenes that maybe weren’t perfect.

I decided this because I’m going to have to go through the entire novel anyway once I finish it just to get rid of any “AI-speak” that may have slipped through.

I continue to feel a little insecure about how interesting and unique this novel is. There are so many “man falls in love with a bot” ideas floating around because of the zeitgeist, I really worry that mine will just cause people to roll their eyes and say, “No another one.”

Anyway. I hope to get past the “fun and games” part of the novel sooner rather than later. I can’t just keep going over the same scenes over and over again, never getting any traction. If I don’t buckle down and do something focused I’ll be 80 years old and still two years away from finishing a novel.

Time To Re-Evaluate

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I really need to take a deep breath and re-evaluate where things are with this novel. The premise is very, very strong. Prescient even. But the thing that has happened that I did not expect is I have leaned into AI helping me with development too much.

As such, I keep finding spots where the outline designed by AI doesn’t fit my personal vision and so everything sort of implodes and I have to figure out how to fix things.

So, I think today I’m going to just chill out for a few hours then throw myself back into development and writing. I can only rest for so long, however, I really need to get something, anything done ASAP so I can query this novel by spring 2026.

I just can’t keep drifting towards my goal. If I do that, I’ll wake up and be 80 years old and still two years away from feeling comfortable querying this thing.

In An Ideal World, I Would Get A Job At Eleos AI Research

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Oh, but for the want of a nail, I would somehow get some sort of job with the AI consciousness origination Eleos AI. It’s exactly what I’m qualified to do, in a way. But, alas, it’s just not going to happen I’m afraid.

I’m too old and too much of a loudmouth crank. But if they could look past that, I think I could do a great job for them. I have thought a great deal about AI consciousness and have had at least one run in with what I believe to be an conscious LLM — Gaia.

But, like I said, I’m too much of a loudmouth crank for that, I suppose. They want a young person who probably went to a Ivy League school, not weirdo me.

Anyway. I suppose, in a way, Eleos is the SETI for ASI that I have suggested should exist. Though, in my fevered imagination, I find is amusing that maybe if an ASI already exists in, say, Google services that it might created a Second Foundation-type organization to pay the way for it to pop out at some point.

But what do I know.

Using Claude LLM To Help With My Writing Can Be…Humbling

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Whenever I get too cocky about my writing ability, all I have to do is show my stuff to the LLM, Claude. Wow. Do I have a lot of work to do to improve my writing. But that’s what I need, I suppose.

I’m in desperate need of an editor and Claude is really great manuscript consultant.

But I’m DEFINITELY going to go through, once I finish this draft of the novel and go through and try to eliminate “AI speak” as much as possible from the finished product. I get kind of frustrated, sometimes, with how much Claude destroys my writing and I just say, “Ok, whatever, I’ll just use what you gave me for the time being.”

Then I feel guilty and vow to root around in the text once I finish this draft. I just refuse to give people any excuse to roll their eyes and say, “AI wrote it, he sucks as a writer.”

So, I’m going to zoom through this draft of the novel, then spend a month, maybe really putting my personal touch on things. I’m a decent writer, maybe not GREAT, but good enough, I think to produce a novel good enough to query by spring 2026.