Editorial – July 2026 : How To Lose Your Individuality
Hello everyone
For me, reading is a habit. I spend a couple hours a day reading. Not all at the same time. I can scarily read two books around the same time. Not simultaneously. Just a few chapters from each one as long as they have different subjects. It keeps each one fresh and allows my unconscious mind to do some analysis when I switch which is a rather useful skill as a reviewer. Not all the time, mind you. Depends on the reading matter. I never expect any of my review team to have that particular skill, just the ability to form their own opinions. Still looking for more reviewers. Just not sure if it’s the lack of variety in our genre books or people wanting to express their own unfettered opinions anymore.
The whole point here is to question is the art of reading dying out? Obviously not totally. It’s handy for the Internet, especially good spelling when you’re goggling something, even if its AI will correct minor incorrections lately. Mind you, you still have to recognise whether it’s selected the right word or sent you off on a wrong word chase. Do we really want to be corrected that much by AIs? Can you tell the difference if its choice isn’t the one you wanted? So, you still have the ability to spell. If you say audio AI, then you still have to assume they can understand every word you say. The same problem still exists.
There’s a lot to be said for regular reading. It widens your vocabulary and you see how different writers express their ideas without interruptions. You can’t get that from a few paragraphs. It’s only one stage up when it comes to analysing and testing their arguments or spotting mistakes. Knowledge is power. So is experience. Do we really want to lose these skills just because you don’t find time to read for its own sake?
Do we really want to hand over our ability to choose to AIs than make our own choices? We won’t have to worry about the likes of Skynet getting rid of mankind. It has an easier job of just turning us into mindless zombies by making AIs do all our decisions for us and homogenising us all because it would be easier to direct us to the same things than have too diverse a choice. No more nerds. No more freethinkers. If it follows trend, no more Science Fiction. AI would be out to get us. Ironic, huh? SF has in the past shown AIs can be potentially dangerous and now they can remove us from your choices.
We are literally just walking into an AI reality which offers no difference from heaven or hell without seeing who has made it or them as it squirrels itself into usage perimeters without revealing its name or ownership. Its accuracy still isn’t very good and, as far as I can see on the one Google has unleashed, no one to correct it.
The thing is, AIs are improving all the time. I might make a song and dance about interpreting spelling and speech above but it is adapting to them a lot faster. It’s when it comes to giving you choices that it enters dangerous territory. Is the selection based on the company who made it, is there free choice from its competitors and somewhere is there, does it know it’s giving accurate information. I gave that question to the Google AI, with this response:-
Always verify my answers using trusted sources, especially for critical decisions. To help you evaluate my information, I provide citations, quote original sources, and cross-reference multiple platforms. For subjective topics, I attribute opinions to their specific communities. However, always double-check important claims with established, official bodies.
So, how many of you check elsewhere with the answers you’re given? Therein lies the problem. Despite seeing the errors cropping up when conventional google and now its enhanced version, people still rely on it for information and have to decide which one is correct. They won’t check the source material let alone evaluate how correct it is. Can you see that stopping?
All right for people of my generation. We learnt to think before computers evolved. A lot of the time, looking up information on google is for verification that lack of knowledge. The younger generations coming up don’t necessarily have a similar knowledge base, let alone an interest in history to know the difference. We’ve seen how in some countries how that is happening already and how they get tangled because they can’t tell the difference from real and fake news. The knowledge gap is getting increasingly wide and niched. How many of you who use social media stray far from your groups? If anything, it just makes it easier for advertisers to target, especially as messages are monitored, and under AI guidance which might not even show is actually there. The likes of Alexis and other home AIs are monitoring all the time. It might help some people that they are never alone but AI isn’t actually a friend but a monitor. It can’t tell the difference.
We would have zombified people in a few generations from now who won’t know honest free will if they bump into it.
The obvious question to ask is does mankind really deserve this? As I said, we’re seeing some examples of this already. We do need some established international rules for AI use. We certainly need them identified whenever they are used and a credibility rating to how accurate they are and how much you should trust them. If nothing else, it will make the various manufacturers raise their game for better accuracy than we have right now, which is still not good enough. You only have to look up a photo-reference and its diversity.
The human race has various rules, like grammar and inappropriate words, and such that it adheres to. AIs need them, too, and better supervision. One AI had to taken off-line for inappropriate dialogue but I doubt if it could tell the difference as it was copying its users. With multiple-users all the time, patterns of usage need to be observed without, maybe, necessary losing confidentially where requested. Such statistics should be available to users. We need responsible AIs and their usage, not for them to usurp mankind.
It will happen if we allow AI to become too involved in our lives and really, do we want to be surrounded by morons who can’t make up their own minds on their own. Mind you, it makes it easier to manipulate people. Assertiveness is part of being what is known to be human. Doing something that doesn’t beholden you to the computer or mobile phone screen shows you have some independence.
Thank you, take care, good night and watch what you tell any AI about yourself because they will tell others.
Geoff Willmetts
editor: www.SFCrowsnest.info
A Zen thought: I’m not over the hill. I haven’t even reached the top yet.
What Qualities Does A Geek Have: The right to question AI supremacy.
The Reveal: Age is only a number governed by retirement age.
Observation: This might only be me or anyone with Irritable Bowel Syndrome where you have a limited diet but I stopped eating up to a dozen raspberries a day when I thought I had problems eating them last year. However, going back to eating them regularly recently, my maths mojo ability, memory and attention span increased. If you have a regular diet, you’re probably getting all your manganese. If it works for you, let me know in the email at the bottom of the editorial.
Observation: Has anyone ever wondered why you have to take care posting handles?
Observation: You do have to wonder what the other predators were doing in their starship while their sibling was out hunting in Los Angeles in the 1990 film ‘Predator 2’. Maybe they were practicing their dance moves. While we’re on this film, Scorpio’s gang seem to like sherbet, don’t they? By the by, the goggle AI has it wrong, ‘Shit happens’ beats all its choices by a few years here.
Observation: This is probably a UK thing but how many of you read the small print on adverts? The advertisers might have to put it there by law but not whether you can read it fast enough.
Feeling Stressed: Wait until the sun comes out.
Submissions:-
If you think having free books to review isn’t enough, how about reading them months ahead of everyone? I mean real months. Beats a time machine.
I did think that having a lot of text about submitting material to SFCrowsnest would attract those with a compulsion to read and understand things the geek way. The main problem with the Internet is that it tends to encourage less reading, so time to take a different approach. The original notes will be left on July2009 editorial although the links aren’t likely to work.
With your cover email, tell me something about yourself so I don’t work in a vacuum. The boss in the tower, also called Stephen Hunt, describes me as a ‘Dutch Uncle’ in that I’m good with advice and can explain when I see something that is wrong. Egos should be left at the door as I’m only interested in your talent and how to improve it.
Reviews:-
I always have a clarion call for new reviewers and if you have the yen to learn, you’ll quickly get the ropes if you’re never done it before but you must show me a sample, especially if you can follow my guidelines. We can usually get paper-based books in the UK but if you live abroad, then you might have to stick with ebooks. If you’ve picked a book we haven’t reviewed, then it stands a better chance of being used so use the SFC search engine to see first but I need to see how you would write for us.
The obvious qualification is a desire to read regularly and like to tell others about the book without giving away too many spoilers. The benefit is access to free books for the price of a review.
I want to give you the opportunity to get things right so look up the Review Guidelines link: https://www.sfcrowsnest.info/so-you-want-to-write-reviews-for-sfcrowsnest-what-you-need-to-know-by-geoff-willmetts/
Fiction:-
Although we can’t pay for submissions, what we do make up for is exposure. Only the Sci-Fi Channel gets more hits than us so it’s worthwhile getting us on your writer’s CV. Please avoid samplings from book’s you might be writing or have had in print elsewhere as I do check. New original work is best and whether I accept or reject, you will be told of any problems I see so you look your best and a grammar check that is equal to the pro-world. Even the boss finds me scarily accurate.
Flash or One-Page Fiction:-
Speaks for itself. The shortest fiction possible is also the toughest to write as no word must be wasted.
Link here for details: https://www.sfcrowsnest.info/one-page-stories-or-flash-fiction-submissions-instructions-by-gf-willmetts/
Short Stories:-
The definition of a short story is anything up to 30 pages and then it becomes a novella. Bear in mind you want other people to read it on-line, stay somewhere between 5-20 pages. At least digitally, you don’t have to go double-line as HTML will do that automatically but think about being concise. If you want to send an attachment with these, then ask first and send as a TXT file as it removes most tetchy virus codes.
Look up the Short Stories Link by linking here: https://www.sfcrowsnest.info/so-you-really-want-to-write-an-sf-story-an-update-by-gf-willmetts/
Finally:-
The worse problem I see any samples is poor grammar. Although I don’t want you to think I seek perfection, the less work I have to do, the easier it is to focus on other problems you might have. It will also serve you in good stead if you ever approach paper-based publishers because they will send back any bad grammar samples because it’s not worth their time.
Good grammar is the tool of any writer. Don’t just depend on what you remember doing at school. There are plenty of decent grammar books out there, so remind yourself of the rules. If you think there are far too many to remember, get the major ones right before moving to the next so it becomes second nature.
This link, www.sfcrowsnest.info/the-guide-to-better-grammar-from-the-harrowed-hand-of-gf-willmetts/ will show you the common problems.
To submit, use our email address by joining the spaces as shown here: letters @ SFcrowsnest.info and use the subject matter as to what you’re submitting.
If you have any pastimes that can be used to pass the time in captivity, let me know and we’ll see if it can be turned into an article.
Comments directly to reviews should still work as before.
Good luck
Geoff
