J. Craig Wheeler

My publicist, Joanne McCall who works out of Oregon, wrote, "Techround magazine is looking for expert predictions for robotech technology in 2025. They will likely speak to a number of experts, many of whom are in that industry. Your comments would likely be a different point of view. I don't think we should shy away from this. Do you care to share your thoughts? It may give us some nice coverage." Techround mostly promotes startup technology. I had to think for a bit to decide whether I might have something to say to them. I decided I could give Techround a shot if they are interested.

 

One thing I could talk about is the AI embodiment movement. Here is a quote from Chapter 1 of The Path to Singularity, "The outcome of combining these current technologies will be AI-powered robots with situational awareness that can move about freely and witness the world in diverse ways, many beyond human capability. Already the embodied AI movement is well underway at Alphabet and myriad startups. These machines will synthesize and learn from that sensor data, write their own evolving code, invent, strategize, think, make decisions, and act. Ever faster. Inhumanly fast."

 

I've had some other things going on. I thought I was too late to get an entry in the October Good Systems newsletter of the local ethical AI enterprise, but it turns out they did give a short blurb:

"Dr. J. Craig Wheeler has a new book coming out, "The Path to singularity: How Technology Will Challenge the Future of Humanity," published by Prometheus Books. The book will be released on November 19, 2024. The book is now available for pre-order from the publisher, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and our local bookstore, BookPeople."

 

While scanning that October newsletter, I realized that they also take note of people doing podcasts. As a result, yesterday I sent them links to the two podcasts I have done and a little descriptive text:

• Tech It Out (a radio show and podcast) with Marc Saltzman (Podcast Link) This was a short podcast, about 12 minutes talking about how technology threatens to advance more rapidly than we can adjust as individuals and societies. How did we get here? What is going on now? What are the prospects?
  
  
• Boundless with Richard Foster-Fletcher. (Podcast Link) This was a longer broadcast, 1.5 hours, for a British audience.

This may make it into the November newsletter. I'll send them other podcast links as I get them.

 

Yesterday I had lunch with some members of the university Academy of Distinguished Teachers. I handed out the business cards designed by my son, Rob. They show the book jacket cover on the front and on the back a QR code link to the publishers page on the book, a jacket quote, "'Wheeler thinks big thoughts about everything, with deep insight and crystal clarity. It's all on display in this wonderfully wide-ranging and terrifically accessible book about science, technology, and the future of humanity. Everybody should read it!' -- John P. Holdren, Science Advisor to President Barack Obama.,"  and a link to my website.

 

I dropped off one card at the Provost's office and was reminded of a Faculty Book Reception to which I have now applied. Date TBD. Then I dropped off a business card in the President's office. He probably will not see it, but it will kick around in his suite. I actually left the card with the policeman who guards the presidential offices. He was a little abrupt at first, but then relaxed when he realzed I was not a pro-Palestinian protestor and actually gave me a little smile. After that, I dropped off a business card and a signed copy of the book in the office of the Vice-President for Research, Dan Jaffe, who, as Chair of the Astronomy Department, gave me permission to teach the Future of Humanity Course that kick started the whole thing. Then I stopped by the astronomy department, left a business card with a couple of friends, one with the Director of McDonald Observatory, and a bunch on a table in a central area. I also talked with Emily Howard who does publicity, social media, etc., for the department and observatory. Emily reiterated that while she could not blatantly sell the book, she could talk about it on her social media feeds. She asked for a list of my podcasts, and I sent that to her. Perhaps we'll get some feedback from a sizeable audience. 

 

I also explored the Chambliss Writing Award of the American Astronomical Society, which I won with co-author David Branch of the University of Oklahoma in 2017. Turns out it is too late for the 2025 award, but I'll try to remember to enter in 2025 for the 2026 award. This award leans toward technical writing, and Path may be viewed as too "popular," but it's worth a shot.

 

I have a half-dozen podcasts scheduled in November. This publicity business is somewhat amusing, but it's been a month since I've written a word on my current book.

I've been busy with some book stuff and some astrophysics, including a wonderful October Craigfest organized by some of my ex-students to celebrate my retirement.

 

On the book side, The Path to Singularity has moved well into the production phase. Neil DeGrasse Tyson contributed his foreword justifying why, as a scientist and a concerned citizen, I'm entitled to write such a book. The jacket has been designed. I had to scare up some quotes, blurbs, for the jacket and am hugely grateful for the busy colleagues who contributed, some at the last minute. Nobel Prize winner Brian Schmidt wrote from an airport in Dubai. He called it "one hell of a book" in an email and wrote "Wheeler prepares the reader to be aware of the rapid changes that are now ongoing. A highly informative and unsettling book." Astronomer Royal Sir Martin Rees seemed to resonate more deeply than I anticipated. Martin said he was "hugely impressed with the book" and wrote "Advanced technology—bio, cyber, and AI—can be our salvation; it can also trigger devastation that cascades globally. This comprehensive, clear, and authoritative book is just what's needed to raise awareness of these issues." John Holdren is an old friend from my undergraduate days at MIT with a long string of laurels who served as President Obama's Science Advisor. John wrote, ""Wheeler thinks big thoughts about everything, with deep insight and crystal clarity. It's all on display in this wonderfully wide-ranging and terrifically accessible book about science, technology, and the future of humanity. Everybody should read it!" My ex-student and current director of the marvelous enterprise The Austin Forum on Science and Society, Jay Boisseau, wrote "This timely and essential book empowers readers to grasp the intricacies of our rapidly evolving world and become proactive participants in shaping our future." I met Chad Jenkins, professor of robotics at the University of Michigan at a local symposium organized by the Good Systems group for ethical AI here in Austin. Chad said, "The Path to Singularity gives entree into the mind of scientists and roboticists as we grapple with these emerging forms of intelligence. Through its coverage of the essential history, insights, and questions of AI, this book is sure to become required reading for my students."

 

The book is scheduled for release on November 19. I have a publicist at Prometheus Books, Chloé Hummel, and, at the urging of my agent Regina Ryan, I have engaged an independent publicist, Joanne McCall who works out of Oregon. Between the two of them, they have arranged seven podcasts with more likely. Going to be a busy November. I did the first two podcasts in October. Here are my reports:

 

I did my first podcast today, strictly audio, that Chloé arranged and sat in on. Tech It Out hosted by Marc Saltzman (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/astrophysicist-j-craig-wheeler-joins-us-to-chat-about/id1272785252?i=1000673579728). He does radio broadcasts to 110 stations connected to Radio America and posts to his podcast subscribers. I didn't get a number for the latter. He said he expects to release the radio and podcast this weekend, maybe as soon as Friday.  

 

We only talked for about 10 minutes and Marc greased the wheels by sending questions in advance. I composed some answers and then paraphrased them as we talked. I think it went fairly well. Here is the Q and A.

 

  Before we talk about the book, can you clarify to our audience what "singularity" refers to, exactly

Time when "computers/AI" become more capable in every aspect of human activity and then race ahead at the speed of light rather than the speed of biology.

  Congrats on your latest book, The Path to Singularity: How Technology Will Challenge the Future of Humanity. Please tell us about it at a high level

Technology threatens to advance more rapidly than we can adjust as individuals and societies. How did we get here? What is going on now? What are the prospects?

  What unique view do you as an astronomer and astrophysicist have on this topic?

I naturally put human life on Earth in the context of the reach of space and swaths of time revealed by astronomers. We live in a Universe that is 14 billion years old, on a planet that is 5 billion years old. We have developed technology that is as smart as we are and the techniques to guide our own biological evolution. What next in the vast sweep of time to come?

  As a side note, I'm a fan of Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson. How cool is that for him to write the forward to the book. Are you aligned in your view – or concerns – of the future.

Very cool! I think we are roughly aligned in both our views and concerns for the future of humanity.

  What's a greater threat to humanity: AI, genetic engineering or exhausting Earth's resources?

Everything, everywhere, all at once! The next decade or two is likely to see simultaneous vast changes in the capability and effects of AI, artificial alteration of human evolution, and huge changes in our environment due to climate change.

  Will there be jobs for those willing to work in a future dominated by automation?

It is not clear to me that there will be sufficient jobs for all who care to work as AI becomes rapidly more capable. This is a complex and critical issue.

  What implications arise if we solve aging? How will society adapt to the challenges of perpetual youth?

I think insufficient attention has been paid to the attempts to extend human healthspans and lifespans. If we beat biological death, there will be vast implications for our cultures and societies. Where do we put all the babies if the old folks don't fade away?

  Where's the best place to pick up your book. Is it a paperback, hardcover, or ebook? All three?

The hardcover is available now for pre-order from Prometheus.com or anywhere else you normally purchase books. The formal release date is November 19. I hope there is a paperback. I'm not sure about the plans for an ebook. Chloe?

 

Chloé checked in real time. The answer is that the Ebook will be released along with the hardback on November 19. There are no current plans for a paperback. First gotta sell some hardbacks. I also checked on the first print run. 2500 hardbacks.

 

While Chloé was checking on that, I worked in a comment to Marc on my concerns for AI enabling mind reading and writing and the privacy and ethical issues involved in that. Marc edited that in very smoothly. I spontaneously referred to AI, genetics, climate change, and mind reading as the "the four horsemen of the technological apocalypse."

 

Marc said my sound was good. I managed to brush the mic twice, but Marc said he did not hear it and would edit out any issue.

 

My only first-time slip was that Marc asked at the very end about a website that addresses all my writing. I was not prepared for that. He asked if people can just browse for J. Craig Wheeler, and I mumbled something about Google not efficiently finding my Authors Guild site and rattled off the url. We agreed that was too awkward for his listeners, and he will edit that out. Afterward, I checked my site again with my Firefox/DuckDuckGo browser and lo and behold, up came the AG site near the top. So, I checked with Chrome, and it showed up there, too. I guess I've managed to get enough people to look for the site that it is starting to register with the browsers (as Joanne predicted).

 

I have another podcast tomorrow, 1.5 hours. A different deal, but I think I'm ready.

 

The next podcast was rather different, about an hour and a half with British podcaster Richard Foster-Fletcher of Boundless (https://www.spreaker.com/episode/ai-humanity-s-evolution-and-our-place-in-the-cosmos-with-professor-j-craig-wheeler--62404997). Turned out I had both the words and the stamina. I don't expect anyone to listen to all this, except maybe for drivetime.

 

There have also been emails, hundreds of emails!

Amazingly, to me, it has been a year and eight months since that last blog post. I have not been asleep. A lot has gone on and adding to the blog was just not the highest priority.

 

In Fall of 2022, my agent, Regina Ryan, began sending out the proposal and faced some resistance. A common theme was "why publish on book on AI when the author is not an expert on AI?" I think my book is about more, but you have to face the world as it is. I tried submitting a couple of opinion pieces to the New York Times to garner attention. No luck. We kept revising the proposal. By November Regina decided to halt her sending out the proposal for the season and pick it up again in the spring. I rearranged the order of the chapters putting those on biological issues, including the evolution of humankind, in one group later in the book.

 

Looking back, one huge disruption was the announcement of Open AI's LLM ChatGPT in November of 2022. I'm trying to publish a book on the technological future of humanity and a revolution just occurred in the digital aspect of all that! Is my book now too late? I had intended it to be a primer. My response was to think (hope!) that with all the attention on ChatGPT, a significant piece of the world would appreciate a book that helped to explain what was going on and that a primer was just the thing. Of course, I had to go through the book and add some description of ChatGPT and its progeny.

 

In the meantime, Regina and I were discussing the structure of the book. She had always had an issue with the first chapter that was, frankly, somewhat pedantic. It was a remnant of the first lecture i gave in my class in 2013 outlining the astronomical background that lead us to today. That was relevant material, but it better belonged elsewhere in the book. I finally threw out that chapter and wrote a new one giving it a more "hair on fire" aspect suggesting how close we might actually be to development of an artificial general intelligence, designer babies, and mind-probing.

 

In spring of 2023, Regina and I continued to wrestle with how to revise the book and proposal in the new world of ChatGPT. We worked with the title "Wild Ride Ahead: The Future of Humanity and Technology." The New York Times began writing essentially daily articles on AI. I checked that ChatGPT and others did not seem to have absorbed the full texts of my novels. They did seem to have digested online commentary about them. Otherwise, I have not used LLMs. I signed the letter calling for a hiatus on AI LLM work, knowing the letter was pointless. Regina and I debated the last sentence of the book. I ended up with a judicious use of quotation marks to enunciate what I was trying to say. We settled on a revised proposal in May 2023 and Regina began sending it out. She got some more declines. Finally, on June 29, she got a positive response from Jonathan Kurtz at Prometheus books. I enjoy the irony of publishing a book about the new era of promethean developments in technology with a publisher of the same name. We rapidly decided that we would sign with Prometheus despite a somewhat lean advance. That began a whole new phase of hurry up and wait as contracts were interated and signed and the production process lumbered into action. I submitted my draft on October 20, 2023. I heard nothing until December 12 when it was summarily accepted. The title was changed to "The Path to Singularity: How Technology Will Challenge the Future of Humanity." I can work with that. A cover was designed. I reviewed the copyedited version in April, 2024. The book is scheduled for release in November 2024. Pre-orders available now.

 

I had known Neil Tyson since he was in graduate school here at the University of Texas. I watched with delight and amazement as he became Neil DeGrasse Tyson through talent, hard work, and his natural charisma. I had not been in touch with him for a long time, but in August 2022, I succumbed to pressure from Regina to see if he would write a foreward to the book. To my pleasant surprise, he graciously agreed. After the sale to Prometheus, he carefully read the whole book in detail and sent insightful comments on sentence structure, punctuation, and the functioning of the publishing business. Just before the new year, he sent the text of his foreword. He captured exactly the spirit of why a scientist, and especially an astrophysicist, is entitled to write on topics of general interest beyond their specific technical expertise. This was the heart of the discussion I had had with Regina for two years.

 

Throughout this interval, I continued to fiddle with this website. There is no question that Google and other search engines know about it, but it does not come up in a generic search on my name. Not enough traffic, I guess. I don't know what to do to imporove the situation. I have to become an expert in search engine optimization when I would rather be writing.

 

I'm looking forward to the publication of the book, but feeling some trepidation about marketing and publicizing that needs to be done before then.

 

Meanwhile, I'm about 2/3 through my dad's biography. I need to get back to that.

 

 

What happened to the book proposal mentioned in that post of April 25? Ah, well you might ask. Despite the aid of the Author's Questionnaire and a fair amount of work, my agent, in her quest to make the strongest case we could, kept thinking of new additions and refinements. We need a punchy Sales Handle to lead off. A couple of sentences that will make an acquisition editor hunger for more. Refined sales points. Can you get Neil deGrasse Tyson to accede to having his name used as at least considering to write an introduction? You say it is important that you have the broad perspective of space and time of an astronomer? Justify that in pungent prose. Say something about the James Webb Space Telescope, a hot new topic that is in the public's eye. Iterate on the title and explain your choice. Name some "comparable books," not necessarily on the same topic, but related best sellars to imply that my book is too, if only given the chance. Expand the list of competitive books, sort them into old and newer, explain how your book is different. Compile a list of of potential blurbers. Among a dozen others, I listed Elon Musk, an Austin businessman, and Jeff Bezos, a Texas businessman. If anyone has contact info, please let me know. List all 107 companies you mention by name in the book in case some might want to buy copies. Do you have as many Twitter followers as Beyonce (answer: no)? Write an annotated table of contents giving a synopsis of each of the 15 chapters. Re-write all that; you sound like a college professor! This is a sales pitch. Title all the subsections in each chapter and hence in the sample chapters.

 

This may sound like I'm complaining, but the fact is while the work was taxing, it was also stimulating. My agent made me dig deep into what I was writing and why. In any case, it took several months of intense work that then slacked off in midsummer and continued until today. In the meantime, I found bits and pieces to add to the book, another 8000 words. The draft is now 128,240 words.

 

My agent debated whether to submit the proposal over the summer or wait until after Labor Day when people were back at work. She finally elected the latter. When things slacked off on Brains, Genes, and the Cosmos, I worked on the biography of my father, tentatively entitled Eniwetok. There is a connection. I mean this to be not just the story of one man, but a reflection on the technology that developed over his lifetime. He worked on inertial navigation and ICBMs, a solar eclipse, the first hydrogen bomb, a proposed atomic airplane that could fly forever (at 200 mph 200 feet above the ground; it was destined to be heavy and slow. JFK cancelled it), weather satellites, and finally on the Apollo Program.

 

We are now in what I hope are the final iterations on the proposal. Double spaced with now four sample chapters, it comes to 41,000 words and 147 pages. There is some chance it will go off to publishers next week.

I have just sent off to my agent a draft of a book proposal for my book tentatively entitled Brains, Genes, and the Universe: the Technological Future of Humanity. The notion is that she will use that to approach publishers, trigger a bidding war, and the book will end up a New York Times bestseller. I'm not holding my breath.

 

It has taken quite a while to get here. I finished a draft of the book, 120,000 words, last November after two Covid years of regular effort. My agent then had me prepare an Author Questionnaire with all sorts of information about me, the book, and how we might sell it. That took me a couple of months of steady work, an hour or so a day, with iterations with my agent. That then led to filling out a template for the formal book proposal, making judicious use of the material from the Author Questionnaire. One portion of the proposal calls for an annotated Table of Contents that was forbidden from using any actual text from the book. I confess, I cheated and pulled some text from the book in my first pass through summarizing 15 chapters, but then I went back and edited to remove any self-plagiarizing. I'm not sure what the point is, but rules is rules.

 

The proposal also called for three sample chapters. I have to pick only three chapters from 15, each my precious baby? I picked the introductory chapter and two on brains, one on artificial brains, and one on the real thing.

 

I'm sure there will be more iteration with my agent, but we are getting closer to making the pitch and maybe getting out of the extensive spec work phase.

I wrote The Krone Experiment long ago, its sequel, Krone Ascending, more recently. I still have aspirations to write at least a third book in the series. My son, Rob, is a film maven. He and I wrote a screenplay of The Krone Experiment, and Rob made it into a micro-budget full-length film here in Austin. It did not open the doors we had hoped at the time although we both tried flogging it in various ways. We remain convinced that it would make an exciting film if done with a proper budget and special effects. While the project lay fallow for many years, the development of streaming represents a new market and new domain for material. The Queen's Gambit was a successful streamed film based on a decades-old novel. "Why not us?" I thought.

 

I stumbled on a connection to the agent who represented the estate of Walter Tevis, the author of the original novel, The Queen's Gambit. We seemed to have a constructive Email conversation until she asked for our specific aspirations for what we would want from a production company; payment for the rights to the novel and screenplay, and perhaps an opportunity to write a treatment for a series. She dropped us like a rock and suggested we talk to one of the big artist agencies in LA. I still do not know what happened.

 

I poked around on the Web and came up with some possibilities for LA film agents while being basically leery of the prospects of a cold call. I drafted a pitch letter and was on the verge of sending it to one agency when Rob thought about it and suggested we be cautious. We have a substantial intellectual property (IP); books, screenplay, film. Are we sure we have the rights in place? What about the Japanese translation?

 

That led me to contact a local attorney, the spouse of an astronomy colleague, who has connections to the local music industry. I had tried to talk to her a decade ago, but she had felt our film project was too far from her expertise at the time. Since then, it turns out, she has had considerable experience with TV and streaming. To our pleasant surprise, she agreed to meet us last Friday at a pleasant hole-in-the-wall bistro for a pancake and coffee breakfast to talk, pro bono. She completely agreed with Rob. We really need to get our ducks in line before approaching an agent. Make sure the rights to the books (hardbacks, paperbacks, Ebooks, foreign rights), the screenplay (which was optioned twice), and the film (actors were unpaid, but promised a share of future profit) are secure. Do formal copyrights with the Library of Congress. Maybe form a limited liability corporation to hold all the IP rights. Establish and activate a fan base. Many people have read the books and seen the film, but how to draw on that? Update The Krone Experiment website (www.thekroneexperiment.com). Hire a generalist attorney, maybe a literary lawyer in Austin, to handle the IP. Beware publicists, there are a lot of bad ones out there.  

 

That's a heavy lift. We'll take a deep breath and have at it.