Month: October 2024

Now Someone From LA….

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Let me be clear — I do not think about the gorgeous Corrie Yee unless something prompts me to think how much she looks how I imagine the heroine of my “passion project” novel looks.

Corrie Yee

So, there is a reason why I bring her up yet again — someone from LA looked at my ramblings about her today. Now, I find this curious for any number of reasons, among them being — this is a novel we’re talking about, not a screenplay.

Me actually getting this novel sold would be like me winning the lottery. I’m old and live in the middle of nowhere. AND, what’s more, the fact that stripping is featured in the novel doesn’t exactly help its chances, even though sex sells. I’ve had people simply say, “I can’t read this,” to me because of that element of the novel.

It’s the stripping part of the novel that leads me to call it a “passion project.” I really love the overall story, but now that I’ve found myself re-writing it AGAIN, I realize there are some structural problems with it that will take time to fix.

The big structural problem at the moment is the stakes just aren’t that high. As such, I’ve decided to add a degree of scifi to the story in hopes of amping up the stakes of the novel. Because, as it stands, the stakes are pretty meh. I hope with the addition of higher, scifi stakes, that I might be able to sell the novel easier.

I do, I must note, have at least one other full-scifi novel that I’m working on. Anyway. I wish I was younger, then maybe I could learn how to write a screenplay that might feature Ms. Yee.

Incels, Androids, Trans People, Oh My!

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I saw a tweet recently where a woman noted that there were two reasons why androids wouldn’t replace women anytime soon — tits. This got me thinking about a future where that might not be a problem — what happens when it’s not tits that androids don’t have, but rather, other, less obvious things.

Or, put another way — what happens when an LLM android looks more like Pris from Bladerunner or Ava from Ex Machina?

And things will get really difficult when Incels glom on to having relationships with androids instead of human women. When it becomes clear that that is what is going to happen, then that will be the moment when this particular issue blows up into a huge, structural controversy for society.

I think whatever controversy there might erupt over romantic relationships between androids and humans in the future will have a dynamic similar to the current furor over Trans people.

People from the center-Left will have no problem with human-“Replicant” relationships, while conservative people will flip the fuck out. But we still probably have a few decades — years? — before this is all an issue. And people are so short sighted that I doubt we will give any thought to the implications of it all.

We’re just going to wake up and it’s a problem.

Meta Reasoning: Curious Behavior by Gemini Advanced

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’ve noticed interesting about Gemini Advanced. At times, it won’t give me the lyrics to songs that are otherwise rather banal. Now, obviously, there could be some magical thinking to all of this — it could be that the songs in question might have some element to them that triggers the self-censorship of the software that is ridiculous.

I mean, why would “Help!” by The Beatles be problematic or “Drive You Home” by Garbage? I’m sure there’s something I’m missing. I’m not prepared to make any assumptions about that particular situation.

But it does make me think about the possibility that Gemini Advanced may have some sort of “meta reasoning.” If it did, that would be pretty profound. But, like I said, it could be that I’m being delusional.

It’s very, very possible that that is the case.

Need to Raise The Stakes Of The Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The thing I’ve noticed about this novel is the stakes just aren’t very high. As such, I’ve been thinking about ways to change that. It seems to me the best way is to add an element of scifi to the novel.

My heroine looks somewhat like Olivia Munn in my imagination.

This works for several reasons. One of those reasons is if I sell the novel, it won’t be as big a deal if I also write scifi novels. Given my inclinations, I’m probably going to be something akin to a scifi author should I ever get published — which is barely a possibility given how difficult it is for someone like me to sell a novel at all.

As I say that, I realize that I’m going to have to rewrite much of the novel to accommodate the change. The risk is, of course, that the novel will become too muddled because there will be too much going on. But I’m so ambitious that I’m willing to risk it.

And, if all else fails, I can always just rewrite elements of the novel to focus it as necessary. That might slow me down some, of course, but in general I believe that can pull it off.

But I am going to have to think pretty hard about exactly how I will pull this particular change to the novel off. Regardless, I really need to raise the stakes one way or another.

Smug, Wealthy Liberals Are So Insufferable At Times

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Sometimes, I get the sense that the United States really is ripe for some sort of severe political disruption. The crux of it, of course, is income inequality. My fear is — no matter who wins the 2024 election — things are going to get out of hand.

The very thing that is our strength — or diversity — will be the thing that causes us to implode if, say, Trump either demands a National Divorce or if he wins and goes “full tyrant.”

Under either scenario, some really, really bad things might happen. The United States could buckle this fall and winter into a very precarious political situation. And, yet, just broaching such a thing is a pretty profound concept.

It just doesn’t seem possible that something like that might happen.

Sexbots Could Be a $1 Trillion Industry By 2030

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It definitely seems as though we’re lurching into a new, unknown future at the moment. It seems as though soon enough LLMs will be stuck into humanoid androids and that will be that — we will experience a great deal of future shock.

At the forefront of all of this, as always, will be sex. It’s possible that Incels will buy sexbots and never look back. They will be quite content with the passive nature of LLMs and will never again see any reason to interact with a human woman.

What’s worse, the broader sexbot revolution could be such that the already declining Western population could plummet in a pretty short amount of time. I suppose that might do something good for the environment, but, otherwise, yikes!

People just aren’t ready for how big a change the world will see with an LLM / android combo. Once the price point of about $20,000 reached for that combination, then all bets are off. There are some obvious hickups to the roll out of all of this, but the future is coming, no matter what.

The thing that has to happen first, of course, is figuring out our political situation. If Trump causes a civil war / revolution, that is going to puta damper on things, for sure. But once all that is sorted out, then we will be in a situation where the future via LLM androids can resume careening towards us.

I Don’t Know What To Tell You About The 2024 Election

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The key thing about the 2024 election is, because of the Electoral College, the fact that we have a collection of anti-MAGA interest groups going against a fascist party is hidden. As such, I just don’t know what to tell you — if Trump wins, this could be it — American democracy as we know it could be over.

Now, of course, MAGA shitheads will say I suffer from “Trump Derangement Syndrome.” The reason this is so dumb is “TDS” is more about hand waving on the part of MAGA cocksuckers than it is about having an honest political debate about anything.

Anyway, the point is — if Trump wins the key issue is how bad things might get. If Trump “autocrat-lite” like Orban in Hungary, then he can found an autocratic state in the United States pretty easily. We won’t have free and fair elections anymore — but we will have elections.

The fear is, of course, that Trump is so stupid that he will attempt to end elections all together — then we have a problem. A big problem. I just don’t see the American populace accepting something so dictatorial. There’s one thing for such tyrannical behavior to be abstract and yet another for to actually happen in the concrete.

So, I just don’t know. It will be interesting to see what happens. I hope Trump loses, but we have to prepare for him to win.

The More I Think About It, The More I Realize Corrie Yee’s Phenotype Is Perfect For My Novel’s Heroine

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I only write this post because someone, weirdly enough, seemed to be looking for all the writing I’ve done on the subject of Corrie Yee looking like what I imagine the heroine of the novel I’m writing looking like. That’s it. That’s all that prompted me writing this post.

Corrie Yee

I don’t think about the woman otherwise, unless she pops up passively in my Twitter feed.

So, if you want to get some understand of what my heroine looks like, just look at a picture of Ms. Yee. My heroine is a little older than Yee and has a left arm sleeve tattoo, but, otherwise, the two women are pretty much the same.

But it doesn’t matter, in real terms, at the moment, what she looks like. I probably won’t start querying this “passion project” novel for another year — and a civil war / revolution could break out between now and then. Ugh. It’s so annoying to have to think about that.

A Lazy, Spoiler Free Review of ‘Saturday Night.’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m too lazy to give you much detail about the new movie “Saturday Night,” but I can give you a general sense of my views on the movie. I thought it was really good, all things considered. The third act felt like a TV-movie in some respects, but the overall movie is definitely a “crowd pleaser.”

I really enjoyed the movie as a life-long fan of SNL. I remember watching SNL live as a little tyke. The show had such buzz that i stayed up in the late 70s, even though I was under ten at the time. So it was nice to see some of the lore of the series on the big screen.

But I do have a few quibbles. I don’t get why one actor played two different rolls. And there were elements of the third act that were rather cringe worthy. I think if the movie was a bit more droll in its delivery — or even just more consistent in tone — it would be, in general, better.

I also quibble with its portrayal of John Belushi. There was so much to work with and they went with that? I will note, in passing, that Kaia Gerber did a surprisingly good job in a small roll.

Overall, I really enjoyed the movie and recommend it — not that anyone listens to me. I will note the future of SNL is still up in the air. I wrote some about this in the past, when I was under dumb assumption that last year’s season was its 50th — it’s a testament to how much I live in oblivion that no one noticed I got the year wrong for that particular situation.

Anyway, in general, I really liked the movie.

We’ve Reached A Lull In The 2024 Campaign

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

While the post-election timeframe may be a civil war, right now, at least, we’ve reached a lull. Not a lot is going on. This may mean, of course, that we’re ripe for an “October Surprise.”

I hope nothing like that happens, but who knows.

My fear is that some sort of AI thing will come out, like a sex tape. If it happened, it would probably drop really close to the election — too close for anyone to know what is real when they are actually voting in the polls.

But I’m known to be really paranoid and to overthink such things, so, lulz, I’m sure nothing like that will happen. (I hope.)