Elon Musk has a new girlfriend. The couple’s courtship appears to have started with a very nerdy in-joke concerning the so-called Roko’s Basilisk. So, today: what is Roko’s basilisk? Or, if you prefer, a nerdy concept about future AI overlords that could land you a nerdy partner.
Category: Science fiction
I love science fiction. There are things I write which don’t really fit in the science category, but not in the tech or writing category either, so they end up here.
What do the Matrix and Black Mirror have in common? Well, both don’t adhere to the law of energy conservation. Let me explain why.
What do Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk, and Bill Gates have in common? They’re all afraid of the dangers of AI. Talking about the dangers of AI leads quickly to the technological singularity. And that leads to an explanation of what the singularity is.
Last week I covered the basics of time travel stories and why they are great for science fiction writers. This week: what not to do when writing time travel stories. Be warned, this can ruin movies and books for you, and I don’t mean by spoilers (I’ll try to play nice), but by taking your first step along the I-nitpick-movies-and-books-too-much path.
When you think of a good idea for a science fiction story, time travel quickly comes to mind. Paradoxically, time travel stories are both incredibly hard to write and have been done to death. And then some.
Why do writers like them so much? What are some of the ideas and common pitfalls? I’ll talk about the first this week, and cover pitfalls in a second post.