WHO BUILT THE HUMANS? will be free in 48 hours.
+ A poll about "AI"
Album of the day, Herman's Rocket - Space Woman (1977)
(I don’t usually email this frequently, but a free day is on the way and I thought I’d let you know a few days in advance. Long story short, WBTH is now available everywhere in eBook. Apple, Kobo, Smashwords, Gardners, your gran’s smart fridge. You name it, it’s there. It’s even coming back to Waterstones).
I’ll email you again on the day to remind you.
So the big news is that WHO BUILT THE HUMANS? is no longer confined to just one online retailer. It is absolutely everywhere. It might even be in your house. It could be driving your electric car. It’s been two days since this change and I’ve already seen a small spike in sales (two sales rather than none) so I am very excited. Things are looking up!
If you’re not fussed about the AI poll and just want to get the book because you already know you’ll love it, click this fancy button. On the 30th June, for a week, WHO BUILT THE HUMANS? will be free for about a week.
I’ve made this promo period massive so if you get this email late, you don’t miss out. It’s the fifth link down the list, should be easy to find.
The poll part
WBTH was all about future tech. From godlike AI systems (genuine AI, not the theft-machine, bullshit-collage stuff we see in the news) to time travelling aliens, the book is full of weird characters that push at the edge of human thought.
A pal in tech tried to get an “AI” to write something in my style, with my permission, but it came out in the same monotonous, sanitized voice that all “AI” comes out with. It even started with “Hello, I am Phillip Carter, author and comedian,” which was so painful, it gave me flashbacks to every single cringeworthy moment in all of human history, like something from a bad movie about reincarnation. The whole passage the machine ‘wrote’ was eerily reminiscent of a soulless poet I once met who genuinely opened his very serious poetry set with, “Hello everyone. I am a sensitive, friendly poet.”
What I’m saying is it’s a shiny, fake surface that is at best one atom thick.
The poet later turned out to be neither sensitive nor friendly, and I see AI stuff much the same. It’s pretending to be art, but the reality is more sinister.
That’s my opinion on “AI art” and writing.
But I want to know your opinion too. Maybe I’m biased.
Many of the writers I know are suffering from anxiety that we may soon be replaced by machines. I was one of them until recently.
Do you believe human writers will no longer be able to make a living?
Would you pay for a book churned out by an “AI” or do human-written stories singularly possess the spark of creativity that you search for?
Will AI stories become the fast food of literature? Will human writing become the gourmet, restaurant quality stuff that only a precious few can afford?
Is literature again a luxury item?
Could a robot ever write WHO BUILT THE HUMANS? THREE?
The answer to these questions interests and unsettles me in equal measure. I’m a full-time writer who, at present, does suffer from some degree of general anxiety due to what my doc thinks is PTSD, so I am conscious of how the condition might affect my view on these things. Perhaps you are more level-headed. Perhaps you work in tech, or are an advanced AI yourself. What do you think about all this?
Should humans be slotted into data caves and forced into nightmare farms so the machines can use our deranged ramblings for content creation?
How many humans would it take to extinguish the sun, exactly?
What if we wet them before throwing them at the sun?
I doubt AI will ever be as weird as I am.
Many humans can’t keep up.
I wear weirdness as a badge of honour.
Never - i feel that there would be no soul in an AI written book nothing can replace a human written book, the passion and imagination alone.....
Thanks for all the love for recent posts Meenaz!