I have tried to keep up with the exponential advances of technology, especially by reading the increased coverage in The New York Times and following a few online posters. I've then posted excerpts I've found especially interesting on X, LinkedIn, and, more recently, Substack and Bluesky. In early October, I managed to keep up with NYT, but I fell very far behind on online posts. One of the people I follow is Peter Diamandis, founder of the X-prize and Singularity University. Diamandis is an unabashed techno-optimist, but he also frequently addresses the troubling practical issues that threaten the progress to a future of hyperabundance. I made a special effort to catch up with Diamandis' Substack posts. Now at the end of October, I'm only a few behind. I never did catch up with the others I would like to regularly follow, including The Rational Optimist Society, Future Perfect, and AI and the Future of Work. Exponential growth will do that to you.
I was talking about audible versions of books with some writer friends who pointed out to me that the standard version of Word has a link called Review. Under that is the command "Read Aloud." It is there to use for any draft. I tried it. It was terrible; stilted and robotic. Apparently, there are options for other voices. Another alternative is 11ElevenLabs.
The Westbank Writers group produces a quarterly publication that I have mentioned before (Blog #29 - Write On). This quarter, we picked the subject of dreams and nightmares. I did not feel especially inventive, but I managed to crank out 1700 words entitled Dreams: Current and Recurrent. I wrote about the recurrent dreams I had that I only much later realized stemmed from seeing the Sorcerer's Apprentice segment in Fantasia when I was three years old. I also described some more recent dreams that involve getting to a place from which there is no way forward. I think they were about death.
On a different theme entirely, on October 13, I ran into a colleague in the department who, in turn, had run into a math professor as they happened to walk from the parking garage to our building. The math professor explained that his whole department was in an existential crisis after Open AI posted the solutions to several hundred intractable math problems. There was great uncertainty regarding what it meant to do fundamental math research anymore, never mind how to advise students. That evening, I attended the dinner for our colloquium speaker, Aaron Zimmerman, from the Department of Physics who works on analyzing the gravitational waves from merging black holes at the edge of the observable Universe. Over dessert, the conversation turned to the effects of AI and the math trauma. It transpired that no one in the astronomy department, at least none at the dinner that evening wrote code anymore; not the professors, not the students. They have gone completely to "vibe coding," devising and manipulating prompts and letting Claude do the work. They were not especially happy but acknowledged the inevitability. A couple of days later, I joined a lunch sponsored by the university Academy of Distinguished Teachers. Once again, the theme turned to discussing the math trauma with a professor of mathematics.
In my previous blog (#33 - Bombshell), I discussed the news that my agent, Regina Ryan, was retiring. I was concerned that she might not help me find a new agent. I was mistaken in that. She is indefatigable and engaged in separating gracefully. I raised the issue of asking Prometheus, the publisher of The Path to Singularity, to do a paperback version. At Regina's suggestion, I had a Zoom call with her and Joanne McCall, my independent publicist for Path, on October 15. Joanne followed up with an email and some thoughts about the advantage of my point of view as a non-expert with a broad perspective, an aspect addressed by Neil deGrasse Tyson in the forward to the book. Regina then asked me to construct a pitch letter she could take to Prometheus. I drafted that, which makes the pitch for a paperback, volunteers a new introduction discussing the changes since Path came out (tremendous! Exponential growth again) and an epilogue looking to the near future (impossible, but what the heck.). I also hinted at the possible need for a revised title. Neither Regina nor I really liked the original one. She and I will iterate on the pitch.
I continue to actively participate in the Westbank Writers group. On October 19 we had a visit by Ben Rehder, a local mystery writer. He wrote six novels set in Texas for St. Martin's Press. He then managed to get the rights back and wrote many more, about 1 per year, left his job as ad copy writer, and now supports himself. He uses Kindle Direct. He did not like Amazon Ads. He recommended Kindle Countdown or Amazon Free to give away the first book of a series to promote the sales of others. His audio books sell well. He recommended a local Austin firm, Audio Book Creation, ATX.com. A local film person, David Marion Wilkinson, helped him get a contact with Warner Brothers, and they are working on the film of one of his books. Wilkinson had a role between film agent and production company. Rehder named that role, but I did not catch it. Rehder said I would need a film agent to start that process. I might try to contact Wilkinson about a film of The Krone Experiment but have not done so. I gave Rehder a book business card for The Path to Singularity. Might have sold a book.
A few tidbits. Any writing counts. In retirement, I have tried to cut down on writing letters of recommendation, but sometimes special circumstances prevail. I wrote a bunch of letters for two deserving young women in October. I continue to poke around with Amazon Ads, but it's not working for me. The local Alien Majesty Books (Blog #31- Professors Who Write) emailed that they would not be stocking The Path to Singularity. My retired colleague Greg Shields has watched the YouTube version of The Krone Experiment (Blog #30 - The Krone Experiment Adventure) five times!