Raymond Gaynor's Blog, page 50

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Wishing Everyone a Happy Holiday Season (we deserve one don’t you think?) and a Deliciously Pink New Year as well! View my video holiday card from me and the publisher of THE EDGE OF MADNESS, Aignos Publishing | an imprint of Savant Books and Publications, below (presented with permission).

Sincerely, Raymond Gaynor

The Edge of Madness
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859

Co-author with A. G. Hayes of QUANTUM DEATH (Savant 2016) and with William Maltese of TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009)

Author website at https://garymartine.yolasite.com/raym...

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Savant Books and Publications | Aignos Publishing book purchase page at https://savant-bookstore-honolulu.squ... (Complimentary 10% off Suggested Retail Price with fast, free shipping within USA using “ONLINE” discount code at checkout)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ac7_3...

NEW REVIEW FOR THE EDGE OF MADNESS!

MY personal thanks for Jim Currie for this review of my newly released book, THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor:

"Radically original while chilling and shocking. A dark vision of the future reminiscent of Brave New World but on steroids, the title page should be plastered with a warning: not for the sentimental or faint of heart. 'This is not a game. Enter here at your own peril and keep a defibrillator handy. Medical power of attorney should be assigned to someone you know very, very well.'

"Right away the reader becomes observer of the pulsing, sensate world of the fetus, yet with dawning awareness of painful shocks to come when removed from the warm and comforting nurture of the amniotic sea. Somehow the newborn survives, only to proceed to the insults of a soulless education system and carefully calibrated culture vacant of significant choice or opportunity for deep human connection.

"THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor is one those realities that makes you instantly appreciative of nature walks, the aroma of good coffee and the cheer of a crackling fire. At the same time you aren't sure if it's a good idea to doze off and take the chance of a techno-nightmare that reprises the madness but without hope of return. Be very afraid."

Jim Currie, Author of IN DIRE STRAITS and SADDAM'S PARROT

The Edge of Madness

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859

EROS

I’VE long wanted to comment on the inclusion of eroticism (Greek “eros”) in literature, and especially in THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor, and in it’s prequel, TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009) by Raymond Gaynor and the incomparable William Maltese, so here goes:

I’ve always taken a Platonic view (i.e. by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato) of the erotic, as Wikipedia states, of it being a transcendent manifestation when the subject seeks to go beyond itself and form a communion with the object/other.” There are lots of well-appreciative comments an author can receive about a book, but none higher than when a reader mentions existentially wanting to commune with a character in a novel. It generally requires, for me wearing my reader’s hat, holistic desire based on total immersion into the character and total investment in of my body, thoughts, emotions and spirit. Gender, in my opinion, surprisingly doesn’t always matter, be one heterosexually or LGBTQ inclined.

It’s been said that “a clear generic demarcation between the erotic and the pornographic” is impossible, but I personally don’t believe that is so. The difference is in the total investment in of not just feelings and thoughts but the spirit as well. One doesn’t necessarily have to be invested in the spiritual aspects of communion to be sexual, but what elevates or “literizes” the act of procreation if you will, to love, romance and eroticism is exactly that: the spirit. At least that’s my opinion as a writer of novels that often contain erotic elements. In due deference, it really isn’t the act of procreation or “sex” that’s necessarily erotic, but the engagement of that part of ourselves that’s outside of our mortal cage. Physical sex isn’t even essential to be erotic, as evidenced in Draff Rob Brie [Septican-Smite] and Billie Frann Frank [Tordon-Cass] public coming-of-age Sweet Sixteen Salsa Sexcapade. Haven’t read that yet? Grab a copy of THE EDGE OF MADNESS and see for yourself:

The Edge of Madness

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859

A “NEW” DEMOCRACY

CURIOUS to know the financial cost of a representative democratic election in USA, I wasn’t surprised to run across an article estimate of $14 billion. That’s about $3.5 billion a year given this happens every four years. It came to my attention when reading the articles, that we could save all that money if we simply allowed the Supreme Court or the House of Representatives to determine who will be President and Vice-President on behalf of the citizen voters.

All right, so at least for this election, it’s possible that, as some are demanding, should the Supreme Court or the House of Representatives determine the presidency, that it’s possible that we’d be presented with another four years of the current President. Interesting, as that would neither save any money (in fact, it would add considerable cost to this year’s election cost), nor reflect the will of the people or the electoral college.

Should such an event happen, what to call this “new” democracy? An oligarchical, monarchial, authoritarian or totalitarian “democracy?” Or maybe something entirely new. Perhaps an “entitled” democracy? Or, since the popular vote would no longer determine the President and Vice-President, perhaps just drop the word “democracy” altogether?

Are there historical examples of purported democracies reverting or converting to another form of government? Hmmm. How about Athens reverting to an aristocracy after 140 years of near “pure” democracy. The Roman “Republic” reverting to an empire after 450 years of representative democracy. The French “Republic” after the Revolution reverting to a military dictatorship after seven years of attempts to establish a democratic system. The Russian Provisional Government reverting to a one-party/four-republic state after 9 months of democratic contention. The Weimar Republic reverting to a fascist dictatorship after 14 years of contentious representative democracy. Poland reverting to an authoritarian regime after 28 years of semi-democracy…Benjamin Franklin is said to have thought that the United States would do well to last for 200 years. George Washington, the first President, is said to have said, “I do not expect the Constitution to last for more than 20 years.”

The point I’m making is not that democracies ultimately fail, but that a democracy, whether “pure,” “representative,” or semi-democratic are, by the very nature of being a democracy, subject to change. That they can “come and go” is, in my opinion, a testament to their flexibility and durability. The real question is whether a democratic government ever actually votes freely to convert to another form of government, or whether the conversion is affected by a minority using extra-democratic methods. I think mostly the latter, though in times of war or dire national crisis, citizens might vote freely to temporarily give all power to a single autocratic or military dictator.

The bigger question, then, is not whether the United States is destined to die as a constitutional representative democracy, but in these times of national crisis, what the majority of freely voting citizens need, want and desire, and are willing to compromise and work towards. One of the worst case scenarios is presented in Raymond Gaynor and William Maltese’s TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009), and a plausible result in Raymond Gaynor’s newest novel, THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020). Both books, while fiction, portray events not unlike those unfolding today.

Total Meltdown: A Tripler and Clarke Adventure

The Edge of Madness

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je6CC...

THE FIFTH DIMENSION

DURING my lifetime, I’ve witnessed the entire universe shudder briefly as it assumed a fourth dimension. Now it had to be viewed as having length, width, depth and time, the latter recognizing that everything in our universe is rushing headlong at different speeds and in different directions, it being necessary to specify the exact moment in time of a measurement as the next moment it will be different.

A new physics Theory of Everything that continues to intrigue me is that of M-Superstring Theory (MST – entirely different from MBS who, in my humble opinion, may be the occult power behind our contemporary moment-in-time universe). To bring together MST and Super Gravity Theory requires exactly 11-dimensions, that is, seven more than a four-dimensional universe. An interesting effect is the existence of multiple universes (a “multiverse” of universes), something I’ve suggested may be a partial source of the recurrent religious beliefs in a purgatory, heaven and hell. But more of that in another post. Right now, I’m focused on the fifth dimension. What exactly is it? What’s it like?

The fifth dimension is a mathematical abstract that neatly and seamlessly ties together gravity and electromagnetism (or the main fundamental force constantly distorting spacetime) which seem inexplicably separate in regular four-dimensional spacetime. It is said to be an unseeable “micro-dimension.” According to Wikipedia, Kaluza-Klein theory suggests that the fifth dimension “would be rolled up into a tiny, compact loop on the order of 10 to the minus 33 centimeters.” Light, which is visible to humans, is caused by rippling in the higher dimension just beyond human perception, similar to how fish in a pond can only see shadows of ripples across the surface of the water caused by raindrops.

That’s, of course, an attempt at “visualizing” in our human minds a physical-mathematical abstraction far too small for most to imagine. I like to think of it in allegorical terms as today’s Internet of Things, a digital abstraction of everything that exists in our more easily envisioned four-dimensional world. The Internet of Things (IoT) is, by definition, a reflection of all that can exist, either physically or in thought. It is, like the “real” fifth dimension, both infinitesimally small yet enormously large quantitatively speaking. Given the nature and extent of human thought, it is more circular than linear. New products are constantly being generated as contemporary thoughts ripple on its surface just beyond human perception until that defining “Aha!” moment when it crosses over from the IoT to our reality. And, sometimes fortunately, sometimes unfortunately, we typically “see” Platonic shadows projected on the cave wall of reality, the result of the intersections between the two worlds rather than in their fullness in our own sensation-determined reality. Consider, for example, the results in our contemporary “real” world of the concept of the splitting of the atom. In my visualization of the IoT as an allegorical fifth dimension, I can easily imagine not only how it “bubbles” and overflows into our contemporary physical world, but how our actions in our contemporary physical world bubble and overflow into the IoT, the two constantly changing (“updating”?) both reality and its digital reflection.

But there’s a key difference between the physical-mathematical fifth dimension and the IoT. The former exists along with all its side effects because it at least mathematically has to. The latter exists because we’ve made it so. I would ask in closing, does one actually affect the other? Have we finally seized nature and created the underpinnings to yet another, in this case ultimately human, multi-dimensional universe?

Intriguing idea? Check out my newest book, THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor. Taking up where TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009) by Raymond Gaynor and William Maltese left off, NewAmerica, a shadow of its former United States of America, provides a challenging and dangerous future place for three young firebrands to live.

The Edge of Madness

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859

…IS IT NOT ME?

PEOPLE often ask me if the characters in my books are fictitious, or based on people I have come in contact with during my life, or actually me in disguise. The answer is yes. While all of the above are guilty, much of the character of my principal protagonists and antagonists come from reflections on my own life and experiences. I find it makes them more alive, convincing and realistic, since, well, they’re from actual memories.

Okay, so I’m not an olfactory (“smell”) savant like Draff Rob Brie [Septican-Smite] in THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor, or a political genius like Shawn Clarke in its prequel, TOTAL MELTDOWN by Raymond Gaynor and William Maltese, or a secret agent working for Cerberus like Joseph Falk in QUANTUM DEATH by Raymond Gaynor and A. G. Hayes. But they are a lot like me in their intellectual awareness, double-barreled emotion and fearlessness in the face of challenge. In addition, like the first two protagonists, there’s the issue of LGBTQ and bromance, and the last one, straight love and romance.

There’s also the issue of location. Being a military brat, I’ve traveled to all 50 states, living, at least for a short time in half of them. Anchorage, Seattle, San Fran, Los Angeles, San Diego, Salt Lake City, Denver, Tucson, Yuma, San Antonio, Chicago, Kansas City, Huntsville, Washington DC, you name it, I’ve either visited or lived there. Add White Horse, Dawson City, Vancouver, Halifax, Frankfurt, Stockholm, Oslo, Helsinki, Amsterdam, Madrid, Paris, Bern, Vienna, Rome, Athens, Moscow, Novosibirsk, Tokyo, Honolulu (okay, I’ve never been to the United Kingdom, Australia or Africa but they’re definitely all on my bucket list), and I draw strongly from my memories of what makes each location, the culture and people unique. That gives my stories, in my opinion, a strong sense of plausibility and presence.

My supporting characters are often drawn, again, from personal experience. When traveling, keeping conscious and, as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had his famous protagonist Sherlock Holmes say, seeing rather than simply observing, individuals replete with unique characteristics and foibles, jump out and into the mind, one after another. The hardest part is remaining conscious and storing away their characters for later literary use. The eminent writer, Sigmund Freud has pointed out that in the average person, ninety-five percent of brain activity is unconscious. Half of the challenge of authoring is moving the balance towards consciousness of the unconscious, and half of the excitement of reading is witnessing another do just that. It’s what I like to call “inspiring” one’s readers. Waking them up. Reconnecting them to the myriad senses and feelings constantly swirling about.

My narration is third person, past tense (though my KINGSLEY & I series by Gary Martine, another nom de plume, was written in first person, present tense like a private diary to lend a sense of naughty voyeurism to the exploration of a questionably bisexual love affair). I like a literary quality narration. It’s something a reader can hold onto when the characters, dialog or action gets unruly. It also lends contrast to the characters, making them, in my opinion, stand out even more as living, breathing individuals.

Having said all that, it’s not the pieces but the whole that makes a work great. I invite you to get hold of a copy of my latest work, THE EDGE OF MADNESS and tiptoe right up to the brink of the precipice, experience at gut level a plausible future, then return and marvel at the feeling of being alive in the here and now.

The Edge of Madness

Total Meltdown: A Tripler and Clarke Adventure

Quantum Death

Kingsley & I

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859

IS IT ME, OR...?

EVERYONE about me right now seems tightly focused on COVID-19 and it’s highly public and most obvious effects on human health and mortality. And well we should be, given the current, astronomically high incidence and mortality rates in the USA. A month ago, no one in my circle of friends had seroconverted. Now we are collectively mourning the deaths of entire families we know. But there are other, more subtile effects that are becoming increasingly noticeable.

The first was the interrupted redistribution of goods and services, demonstrated by Amazon’s priorities. As a citizen, I want to profusely thank Amazon for being there and doing the right thing for its customers when few others would or could. As an author, however, book sales have dropped to near nothing, and the few books selling are mostly eBooks. Notwithstanding, it’s not all Amazon’s doing. Or it might be. It’s hard to tell being “in” the pandemic rather than having the privilege of looking at it historically from “outside.” Pre-COVID, there was a push by large-scale publishers to move solely to eBooks: less cost, faster fulfillment, more profit, more money. By reprioritizing printed books and relegating them to 3 weeks to 3 months shipping, Amazon, I hope unwittingly proved another “nail in the coffin” of printed books, at least for a year or more. As an avid reader and author, it’s hurt a lot as my eyes and heart aren’t at all fond of the “reading electric.”

Next it seemed was services. Most services traditionally involve large groups and/or face-to-face situations. Besides the actual loss of individual humans providing the actual services, the prevailing “Americans Only” mentality and and lack of infrastructure alternatives seemed to take their toll, first on quality then on diversity and finally quantity of services. Restaurants, for example and in particular, seem to me to be succumbing to COVID on these multiple fronts. Personally, I’d consider ordering out if any restaurants were open between 9 and 10 a.m. to take orders. In my neighborhood, only one.

Next seemed to be provisioning. Some forms of meat became scarce or, at the least inferior in quality and more expensive, sometimes at twice or thrice the price. For a while, powered milk, yeast, flour, toilet paper, rice and other commodities irritatingly disappeared from consumer shelves, reminding me grimly of my visits to grocery stores in the former USSR in the 80s. Then, diversity and quality of vegetables and now fruit as well. The same grocery bag that used to carry out $25 in foodstuffs now carries $125. And, while I’m largely vegetarian (meaning the increased costs are not solely related to meat) I eat quite a lot of fruit. Call me a fruit bat, but that’s where I’m currently seeing a lot of the impact. Especially given all of the above AND winter approaching AND — dare I say it — the, I’m assured over and over, non-existent climate change impacts.

Next seems to be digital services, whether internet or radio frequency based. I regularly check my “internet speed” as, despite the claims by internet service providers of unbelievable speed, actual service at my house often fluctuates a lot. Lately, it seem that internet sites are changing faster and faster in one way or another, basically monitizing every possible, often already existing free service, or failing to provide support when systems increasingly error or a customer-provider mismatch occurs. Yesterday, I finally received in the mail the “non-binding dress crew-length socks” I ordered online, though out of the package, they proved too large with over an inch and a half of unfilled sock past the toes (I didn’t know socks came in different sizes) and as knee-high compression socks. I’m still trying to contact the seller, but last time we connected (for only a few moments before being abruptly disconnected), I was still trying to understand what sounded the service provider was trying to say in a heavy India dialect over the background sounds of screaming children and blaring Indian radio music. Hmmm. If this is America First, then I’d gladly accept America Second, whatever that might be.

I think the biggest impact, however, is yet to come and it’s going to be initially in the transportation industries. Whether by air, ship, train, bus, car, bicycle or walking, the transportation industries haven’t yet been able to restructure their infrastructures to ones based on the health and safety of individuals rather than moving mass groups at the lowest tolerable safety, comfort and price. Sad, because I believe those industries that can make the change will survive, even thrive, in a future world where pandemics are no longer singular events.

Then there’s education, once again struggling, this time with trying to shift emphasis from teaching large groups to supporting individual learning by various means that can address the health and safety concerns of partents. I’ve long held that “classroom” teaching with its distinct power imbalance between “teacher” and “student” plays directly into the role of societal violation and trauma with all its attendant negative side effects. Changing to more individualized, self-directive learning has yet to begin in earnest. As far as safe, individual, interactive, holographic instruction with mentors who can demonstrate rather than teach how to approach a problem, the mentor and students residing safely within their own domiciles which learning is going on…read UNLOCK THE GENIUS WITHIN (Rowman & Littlefied Education) by Daniel S. Janik or my latest work, mentioned below.

Then there’s our already failing health care system, again constructed around mass or group infrastructure from clinics to hospitals to laboratories, already stressed to the max and failing. The change in this sector will, I predict, be a particularly difficult one given the potential for constantly increasing “profit” available to businesses and the unconstrained greed that many display today. Most await a vaccine and a “return to the way it was.” I don’t know about you, but I’m not inclined to want to go back to the past. I’m tired of being a sardine in a can, being able to still recall the days when a primary health provider focused all attention on the safety and health of his or her patient. I think I’d rather go back to the future.

I could go on, but time and space simply don’t permit. It’s all about reversing the general business trend to do everything en masse to maximize increasing profit, when, in fact, the real index of success isn’t money or increasing profit, but the quality of service provided to individuals. That’s what humans remember in the long run. Go figure. So, having frothed and pontificated enough for today, I can only suggest reading my newest work, THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor. Neither dystopian nor utopian, it incorporates a new approach to better infrastructures and their effects on daily life. Call it science-based futuring — SciFu — addressing, yes, all of the above in a not necessarily braver nor surprisingly more authoritarian world.

The Edge of Madness

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859

FACTING, FROTHING AND FUTURING

HAVING posted extensively on Facebook and Goodreads regarding my latest curmudgeon thoughts as well as if and how they relate to my new SciFu (Science-based futuring) novel, THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor, I want to take a moment to relate my opinion on the differences between froth from fact. Not necessary, you might say, in this emerging world of docuverts, fake news, propaganda, deceptive advertisements and social-bashing, which is quickly becoming a new “norm” (as long as it makes money and the deceivers don’t get “caught” and arrested or at least socially shamed). A longtime adherent of the ancient Greek ideals behind factually-supported”critical thinking” (logos or good reasoning and logic), avoiding the classical appeals that are based primarily on pathos (appeal though emotionality), ethos (appeal to the readers or dominant religion or morality), keiros (appeal based on a popular authority or leader) and numos (appeal to the law), avoiding the long established “logical fallacies” like non sequitur (“it doesn’t follow”), post hoc ergo propter hoc (assuming that if “A” occurs after “B” then “B” must have caused “A”), ad hominem (attacking or slurring the character of a person rather than arguing his or her assumptions, arguments, facts or conclusions), ad populum (presenting what “most people” think, to coerce one to think the same way), Petitio Principii (circular argumentation that “begs the question” ), presenting “anecdotal evidence” and others. The first, logos, has truth-value that one only needs to evaluate and confirm in order to establish fact that can be subsequently cited. All the latter, have little to no truth-value (though they may be quite persuasive) and should not be subsequently cited, especially as fact.

In essence fact is something presented that includes sufficient logos for the reader to ascertain it has full truth value (“is factual”). Anything else is froth and should not be regarded as true or factual, and should never be cited as truth or fact especially in a subsequent logos appeal.

Now, you may laugh at this, or consider it overly academic, but if you look at what’s being stated in the world today, especially in the social media, most if not all is froth, often so appealing as to be accepted and perpetrated as true or factual. And therein lies the danger, especially to a democracy: People need to be able to easily separate truth from froth, non-fiction from fiction, fact from opinion in order to meaningfully “vote.”

So what about overlap like in novels (e.g. historically-based fiction), comedy or satire? Like science(-based) fiction or fantasy, and the new genre I proposed in writing THE EDGE OF MADNESS — science-based futuring or SciFu? Futuring or Futures Study, I believe, is a new form of “proof” relating to M-Superstring Theory, the proposed fourth method of “proving” something, the classical three being authority, science and statistics. In futuring, one assumes what’s scientific (repeatable) and projects it into a plausible future that readers can use to decide whether to continue current actions or inactions, or change, negating the futuring. Or as Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky in his pioneering works on “biospherics” said, seizing the future of our own evolution, taking it into our hands like responsible adults rather than following our errors blindly like child-victims.

The Edge of Madness

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je6CC...

DO WE REALLY NEED POLICE?

THERE’S a movement afloat to decrease or eliminate police funding in lieu of a slew recent civilian killings by police. Several have spoken up regarding the use of the military (even martial law) when citizens gather en masse, others on restructuring, retraining or increasingly funding them based on the important function they serve in any organized society, with every possible suggestion in between. So what’s the underlying problem? Why suddenly are so many civilians being publicly killed?

First, I believe, the civilian police in many cities during this decade have slowly been “militarized” in terms of equipment, operations and objectives, making lethal force more likely to occur. Second, I believe, their objectives in some cities have been “politicized.” Finally, I believe, the measure of their effectiveness has been most recently shifted from preserving lives to being scrutinized as to whether they are profit-making, a distinctly “businessified” point-of-view. Militarized, politicized, businessified. Especially so in light of recent suggestions by top political appointees to use the military and civilian police together to support the declaration of martial law and allow the military to direct a new presidential election.

This, again in my opinion, is one of several signs or results of the world entering into a new “Dark Age.” In my (Raymond Gaynor) and William Maltese’s book TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009), we explore the dissolution of the USA as a moral and economic power — a former nation of free traders — due to militarization, politicization and businessification, followed by NewAmerica’s return from the resulting Dark Age in THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Savant 2020) by Raymond Gaynor. Both explore a myriad of issues including plausible resulting changes in human views on morality, sex, LBGTQ, society, education, transportation, environment, religion, and, yes, the practical application of business, money and power. In THE EDGE OF MADNESS, there are enforcers rather than police or military — feared but only obliquely by civilians mainly because of their peculiar leadership role. Police? Sort of. Big Brothers? Sort of. A new form of rule or containment by tyranny? Not really, if by tyranny you mean the unjust, cruel or oppressive wielding of absolute power and authority. In my newly released book, one Enforcer kindly assists the protagonists in an otherwise awkward situation. So do we really need police? Let me ask that in a more fundamental way: Do we really need male fathers, and, if so, what kind?

The Edge of Madness

Total Meltdown: A Tripler and Clarke Adventure

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859

CAN AUTHOR’S BE PRE-PARDONED FOR BOOKS THAT LIKELY WON’T SELL?

AH! Gotcha there, didn’t I? That statement is what would be called a “mash-up” in literary genre jargon. It’s a statement constructed in pop-speak combining several gone-viral issues into one question that seems to mean one thing, but could mean countless ones. It’s the heart of comedy — the “inside joke” that leads the listener or reader to a false or unexpected conclusion. Worse yet, an entirely plausible appearing question that’s not at all plausible. Sort of. No, completely impossible. And yet? I would hold, it’s the basis for the world drama surrounding politics. What can one do but laugh?

But why are such statements or questions “funny,” and why does it conjure smiles or laughter? The great psychiatrist, Dr. Sigmund Freud, felt that we laugh to release tension and “psychic energy” that builds from incongruities and paradoxes. That is, it’s an emotional “reset” when the human computer experiences a glitch or is subject to a real or imagined informational overload (a sort of distributed denial of service hack). However, Ben Healy in an article entitled “What Makes Something Funny?” in the March 2018 issue of The Atlantic says, “Researchers found only 10 to 20 percent of remarks that prompted laughter to be remotely funny.” Hmmm.

Part of the problem is based on the definition of the word, “funny.” I mean, it’s supposed to be fun, amusing, hilarious. But it can also mean unusual, unexpected, incongruous. So, something funny, should be, at the least, amusingly incongruous. According to the same article, another way of saying this might be that humor is a mental reaction to a struggle to distinguishing true from false, right from wrong, and harmless from dangerous — not all all funny in the first sense. Alternatively, there’s the “quantum theory of humor” within which scientists are attempting to see if artificial intelligences (AIs) can create images that appear “funny” to viewers, alongside legions of attempts at creating authentically funny chatbots. Is this the prelude to AIs writing books and hosting talk shows? And what if something is definitely comical to one AI about a statement or question created to be funny by another AI, but, seriously, not all all funny to a human?

Anyway, in answer to the question “Can authors be pre-pardoned for books that likely won’t sell,” I would say, no, if all AIs are issued credit cards, but yes, if political institutions soon begin issuing indulgences. Is that funny or not?

Sincerely,

Raymond Gaynor
Author of THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020); Co-author with A. G. Hayes of QUANTUM DEATH (Savant 2016) and with William Maltese of TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009)

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The Edge of Madness

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859