Sarah A. Hoyt's Blog, page 41

Down With Technocracy

In the 2000 election my brother told me he didn’t understand why I was so worked up. Both the candidates were basically technocrats and their program was very similar.

As we’ve come to find out, he was right. Wrong also, of course, but ultimately right.

Of course there were differences between Bush and Gore, beyond the question of which noses would be on the through. The left in the US seem to be the only true believers in communism left in the world. Even those at the top seem vaguely...

Meme Into the Darkness, Meme Till Dawn!

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The Finite Pie

One of you left a comment, which unfortunately ended up in moderation, so I didn’t even see it until I was rescuing something else. (For obvious reasons for me, less obvious things for her (because she doesn’t post her reasons/life here on the regular) neither my assistant nor I have been QUITE on top of pending and held comments these last few weeks.) Anyway, so I answered him late and it probably fell through the cracks.

His comment was that he often shares my posts, but in a group so...

The Slicing Edge of Freedom a Blast from the Past from May 24, 2017

The Slicing Edge of Freedom a Blast from the Past from May 24, 2017

I’m sorry I’m so late with this.  The post at MGC took far longer than I expected.

I started to explain how much more freedom we, who deal in stories and words, have nowadays.  I don’t know if anyone who is not in the business can fully appreciate how much.  It’s so much, in fact, that many in the business still don’t believe it.

I remember circa 98, when no one was buying Darkship Thieves blowing up with someth...

Pebbles And Votes

As some of you know I watch very little TV. Even very little SF TV. I’ve assumed for QUITE a while this means I’m extensively broken and not normal. I mean my father used to tell people I didn’t watch TV in the same tone that you warn someone your kid has a handicap. It’s not exactly wrong. I work around it just like I work around the driving phobia.

Mostly, if a series makes enough impact, you guys will eventually tell me all the highlights and important points with references over tim...

TWO COMPUTERS by Bill Reader

Two Computers, by Bill Reader

Imagine if you will two computers.

One computer is built in a fuchsia case. One computer is built in a chartreuse case. Every component part of these computers is identical—same CPU, same GPU, same RAM, same motherboard.

But— and now we’ll look at two random examples of computers from the whole nation—the computers are running different operating systems. We will call these operating systems A and B.

Operating system A (OS-A) is a pain in the tail to...

Well, Obviously!

Quite obviously the promo post will be tomorrow. Sorry.

Thing is, you see, there’s this book. It’s 212 thousand words. I … It might be the weirdest thing I ever wrote, and it has kidnapped my mind for the last several months.

This morning, when I woke up, I thought I was fifty pages from the end. It was just about fifty pages from the end. I just finished … an hour ago. So maybe now I can go back and finish Witch’s Daughter and Winter’s Prince. Maybe even during the time in Portugal...

Things You Don’t Know You Need

When I did my fundraising in July, one of you sent me a litter robot. (The picture above is AI generated, because the box is under a cabinet in the bathroom and devilish to take a picture of.)

I don’t remember who sent it, so this is my thank you.

At the time I thought it was a strange gift, even knowing I’m cat-infested, and perhaps a little too expensive, so that I was cringing because I do that.

To clarify we used to have two litter robots. They’re very convenient, because they a...

Meme It While It’s Legal

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The Stodgy Past Generations

Our idea of the past has no relationship to reality. Specifically, our idea of “past generations.”

A few years ago, I accidentally found myself reading a page where some young women were talking about Christmas gifts. One of them was going on about how she was buying her mother — of all things — a vibrator. Because she thought her — Catholic, married, about my age — mother needed to find out that vibrators existed, and how wonderful they were. (Because her mother specifically had told her...