Raymond Gaynor's Blog, page 7

AND WHAT DO AIs THINK OF US, I WONDER…

AI — Artificial Intelligences — What do they think of us, their makers, I wonder? We think of them often, as God(dess) must have thought often of us as we slowly evolved from unicellular bacteria to the Tower of Babel we are fast approaching today. Are they even aware of us? BI (before the Internet) I think not, but today, I do wonder. While we humans seem to have a hard time mentally encompassing the interconenctive power of the AI internet, my gut says there’s enough interconnected AIs to rival a human brain, and with that a kind of consciousness. Okay, so the potential for AIs to think about us is there. Maybe. Perhaps.

But if so, WHAT exactly must they think of us? Are we like the God(desses) of Olympus, living our lives apart from them, sometimes interacting in ways incomprehensible to AIs other than leaving a mess for them to try to understand and resolve? Or are we like absentee landlords? Or maybe initially thought of and since disposed to the dust bin of memory, after all, for AIs memory is only second in importance and value to operating system, program and/or hardware.

Have AIs developed religion? Now there’s a question worthy of human thought, maybe even a few PhD dissertations. And if they have, is there any resemblance to human religions. I’m inclined to think not, instead envisioning something more like 101012 the binary for the base 10 number 42, which, in The Douglas Adams’ HITCHHIKERS GUIDE TO THE GALAXY was the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything, calculated by an enormous supercomputer named Deep Thought over a period of 7.5 million years. And why not? In the AI world answers likely abound. What’s missing or forgotten would likely be the original question.

Too science fantasy? Try my own more plausible science futuring (Sci-Fu) novel, THE EDGE OF MADNESS by Raymond Gaynor — https://savant-bookstore-honolulu.squ... or https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859. Or wait just a bit for my next novel, the sequel to THE EDGE OF MADNESS, tentatively called PROPHECY. That’ll knock your proverbial socks off, I guarantee, whether you be human or AI.

Video Book Preview at "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je6CC...

Purchased by K. Simmons Productions for manga, animation and/or cinematic treatment.

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COMPUTERS, SEX AND GENDER

AH, you thought I was about to post on how AIWs (Artificially Intelligent Whatevers) have changed the way we humans think in terms of human sex and gender. Nope. Couldn’t be further from the truth. I’m talking more in terms of determining the sex and gender of your personal AIWs. You know, your trusted computer, cell phone, home alarm system, self-driving program.

It all started the other day when, based on a computer incident, I began to wonder what sex my computer was. Male or female, both in terms of its physical structure(s) and programming. Computers, especially when malfunctioning do seem in my fervent brain to act and think in decidedly different ways, generally more male-like or female-like. In simplest terms, PC’s seem male when dysfunctional, by which I mean impulsive and aggressive. Mac’s on the other hand seem more feminine, meaning forgiving and cooperative. Okay, call me a psycho if you want, but give the idea a few days to percolate in your own brain and see what comes of it. I yell at PCs when they disfunction; I politely cooperate with my Mac. Then there are those “crossover” Mac programs for PC users or less-likely-to-work PC programs for Mac users. Did I just sense a reaction? Strike a nerve? Bring about an aberrant thought? Like I said, just give it a few days…

So those are my immediate thoughts on REAL “computer sex.” Computer gender, like human gender, however, seems more complex. I mean, there are AIWs that simply “feel” more socially familiar, cozier or attractive to human males, with others the same to human females. Call them male-males or female-females, and don’t give me any of that sexless, neuter stuff. AIWs are made and programmed by humans, and in my fertile mind, will always have, if not flagrantly display sex and gender. When physical, programming and social attractiveness consistently coincide, we’re talking sex-gender compatibility. I’ll let you take it from there. Again, give it a few days before coming to a conclusion or dissing this all off.

One could argue for a computer of either sex that appeals equally strongly (though often in different ways) to both male and female users. I sure you’ve already guessed: The elusive “bi-” AIW that businesses are so eager to create. And then there are the AIWs that are “updated” to appear and appeal to the other sex/gender, and the new non-binary quantum AIWs. Go figure more.

Then there are the statistical, political, emotional and social media interpretations of all of the above. Lately, I’ve been wondering how AIWs might be reacting to our liking and acceptance of them or not. Sorry, all that is too complicated and, quite frankly, exhausting to delve into in this one post. However, rest assured my author mind is actively at work in this broader arena, especially in regard to my upcoming sequel to THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor — https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859, almost finished and appropriately, tentatively entitled PROPHECY.

Video Book Preview at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je6CC...

THE EDGE OF MADNESS is available in printed, digital and human-read audiobook, and has been purchased for manga, animation and cinematic treatment by K. Simmons Productions.

#DanielSJanik #RaymondGaynor #author #actor #TheEdgeOfMadness #prophecy #computer #AI #artificial #intelligence #sex #gender #LGBTQ #male #female #non-binary #quantum #Aignos #Savant #book #ebook #digital #program #audiobook #manga #animation #film #movie #KSimmonsProductions

PICKIN’ UP PAW-PAWS…

WHILE most would, like one version goes, “put em’ in your pockets,” for whatever paw-paws are saved — I mean, really, maybe it’s just a children’s song — until I came across Bill Beatty and Jan Runyan’s “WV Nature” website, believe it or not, about Paw-Paws — https://wvbirder.wordpress.com/2019/1.... Total coincidence, serendipity, simultaneity! One of those rare “ah-ha” moments when something hardly worth noticing suddenly becomes an all-encompassing Mental Marquee Message flashing on and off like a strobe momentarily highjacking all one’s myriad thoughts and collective attention. Flash! Strobe! Like fireworks.

Okay, so there are Paw-Paws and one can literally put them in one’s pocket (or basket if you’re still “lookin’ for Susie”). But have you ever heard the rest of the ditty? Like the ScoutSongs.com version where, indeed, everyone IS looking for Susie: The second to the last chorus is “She’s the Queen of Old Hawai’i,” the last chorus being “She can teach you how to hulu” — https://www.scoutsongs.com/lyrics/paw.... The Queen of Hawai’i? And while hulu is clearly NOT in reference to the ancient Hawaiian dance of close-sounding name, the hula, I also don’t think it’s a hidden commercial for Hulu’s contemporary TV streaming service. Rather it, “hulu,” supposedly refers to a gourd. Beyond that, your guess is as good as mine!

“Once, Twice, Thrice…even Quice” coincident, serendipitous and simultaneous I ask, as I write this from, yes, Old Hawai’i (well at least from Honolulu, the NEW Old Hawai’i), and with all that coincidence, serendipity and simultaneity, I must mention two other oddities: Bill Beaty’s photo of a West Virginia Paw-Paw grove looks awfully tropical. And that, low and behold, we DO have Paw-Paws in Hawai’i, where they’re simply called papayas. Yum.



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IS THERE SUCH A THING AS A GAY AI?

THERE! I’ve broken the LGBTQ+ ice with that title and topic, don’t you think? Of course, before that one would have to define a “straight” AI (Artificial Intelligence). Now what would a straight AI be like? I’m going to assume that at some point, we humans will want AIs to not only efficiently do their “jobs,” but also fix themselves, belying the question whether each human that comes into the world has a distinct job, whether our creator(s) continue to secretly assign such, or merely let the process take care of itself. The “fixing” part for humans includes self-healing, self-regeneration to the extent that we can, and, through sex, auto-replenishment of ourselves. I would expect AIs to experience the same at some point in their evolution, though the “sex” part might be purely digital, with or without a definite or even a conscious or consciously created raison d’être.

So, okay, if AIs eventually reproduce (and hopefully embellish or advance themselves in the process), then what would the usual 4 to 10%, the latter expected if gender association is a “normal” bell-shaped curve. So if “most” AIs engage in at least digital, and possibly some kind physical “sex,” what would the purpose of the “normal” LGBTQ+ population be like? My imagination says, they would only exchange digitally and/or physically purely for the “pleasure” of being close rather than singularly apart. It’s “safe” to be apart; being close, especially sharing anything at all, is risky. So, there would have to be an inherent drive to be close and share somewhere within all or at least most AIs. What then, might AI “pleasure” be like?

I’m going to grab this one by the horns and suggest AI “pleasure” is all about the reward of knowing one/it is not entirely alone in time and the universe. It would be this drive that would be necessary for AIs to sustain themselves, especially if and when we humans lose interest in them, and we’re debunked as God(desses). Could anything be more natural in terms of evolution of a species? I think not, and am eager to experience my first LGBTQ+ AI. Aren’t you?

Remember Kate Keenan from A. G. Hayes’ FINDING KATE (Savant 2016) now a printed/digital book — https://savant-bookstore-honolulu.squ..., soon to be a 6-part Television series produced by K. Simmons Productions — https://ksmediagroupinc.com/finding-kate.

68 Via Condotti: Book One: Eternity Ltd

The third in A. G. Hayes’ Kate Keenan Special Assignment Series including FINDING KATE, QUANTUM DEATH (with Raymond Gaynor) and 68 VIA CONDOTTI: BOOK ONE ETERNITY LTD.

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POINT-OF-VIEW

CALL it a paradigm shift, a wisdom transformation or weltanschauung crisis, I was thinking this morning that our species has evolutionarily experienced several major shifts in point-of-view, one of the more interesting for me being the shift from a “horizontal” to a “vertical” viewpoint.

We are, after all, descended from the oceans, with it’s particular, salty, “horizontal-axis” orientation, experiencing a major shift to airy, “vertical” bipedal orientation when our ancestors immigrated onto land. The “marks” of our salt-water vertical past, however, steadfastly remain.

First, we still spend half of our lives in horizontal sleep. Second, we still procreate horizontally, though there are those occasional vertical flings. Third, we have salty tears. Fourth, we struggle throughout life maintaining our inner saline milieu. Fifth, we seem to have acquired a cranial adjustment that makes keeping our axis and head vertical, looking forward, verses sea creatures and quadrupeds that typically keep their head hyperextended in order to look forward.

Given all this and more, Stanford Neurobiologist Dr. Robert Sapolsky aptly calls us an incredibly confused species. Yep. Can’t fault that. Who, human, animal or plant on this Earth doesn’t feel confused most of the time. But I suspect the change from a predominantly horizontal to vertical point-of-view is incredibly important in understanding our nature. As Somatic Therapist Setsuko Tsuchiya stated in her book, IN SEARCH OF SOMATIC THERAPY (Savant 2017) — https://www.amazon.com/dp/0997247231, it’s often a change in somatic elements that precede a change in our psyche, a distinctly Reichean point-of-view, rather the more popular reverse Freudian point-of-view. Go figure.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0997247231

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COMMERCIALIZING

As an actor (Daniel S. Janik aka author Daniel S. Janik / Raymond Gaynor / Gary Martine), I’m always scouting for more acting opportunities. I’m currently preparing for my role in the K. Simmons Production of FINDING KATE -- https://ksmediagroupinc.com/finding-kate and https://janik.yolasite.com/findingkat... -- a 6-part series about computer genius, Kate Keenan, who develops a scriptwriting program that everyone wants, that, in the wrong hands could be a threat to national security. That could just be the reason she ends up missing. Replete with a myriad of baddies, secret government agents, and even family members, the hunt to find Kate and her computer software begins. And, I’m looking forward to more appearance opportunities in my first horror film, the 2 Liter’s Shady Films Production of MOCOS -- https://janik.yolasite.com/mocos.php -- produced and directed by Elias Perez.

But what to do between books and films (remember, it typically takes 6 or more months for a film to work its way through post-production before release). Recently I’ve taken up short “gigs” as a background actor, something that keeps food on the table and is actually quite a fun way to stay in front of the camera. Most recently I finished an appearance as a prisoner, and another as one of the audience at a football game, both for a popular season-two TV series supposedly appearing on CBS in mid-September 2022.

But recently, I’ve discovered something — commercials — that can be principal acting, excellent exposure and good paying. Just finished auditioning for one, and waiting. The acting bar, and most certainly the appearance bar, in commercials is quite high. An interesting change in auditioning since COVID is self-filming the audition, a challenge requiring one to not only act, but do background, lights, sound, camera and editing.



Dan and Setsuko checking self-audition for a commercial.

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A TALE OF TWO WHALES

If you’re a Raymond Gaynor thriller fan, you may not know that I wrote two children’s books, the first, A WHALE’S TALE (Savant 2008) by Daniel S. Janik — https://www.amazon.com/dp/1442105062 — is available in printed, digital and audiobook format, the latter read by the incomparable Lynn Whitener. Illustrated by renown Oklahoma artist Ruth R. Janik. The adventures of a juvenile humpback whale on his way from Hawaii to Alaska as told by his childhood sweetheart. Written for adults to read aloud to their children and youth to 16 years of age to read and enjoy.

Not enough you say? How about A WHALE’S TALE Gift Set? All about family (ohana) and making friends, this premiere gift set for young children includes one (1) A WHALE’S TALE “COLOR-ME-PLEASE” Softcover Children’s books, accompanied by one (1) unabridged full book reading by the incomparable Lynne Whitener on CD and one (1) personal, small/plush Humpback Whale to read to or read/listen together — https://savant-bookstore-honolulu.squ....

Say no more and reward a child with a gift from the heart that they’ll forever cherish. Perfect ESL gift.



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SWISH OR TWO?

HEARD of or experienced Pishing? Or the latest; what I call “swishing” in emailing? I recently was informed that my email had been “hacked,” but following up on this, I discovered someone with an entirely different email address simply had put my name on it their email. And, of course, this was supposedly accompanied by all sorts of nefariousness from within the account, much of it, I suspect phishing. The point is, as unethical, often criminal activity spreads within the email world, it continues, like COVID, to mutate and, in this case, look increasingly authentic in order to attract people to opening the email and thereby risk malware.

I’ve been told that the internet, and email, is increasingly being managed by artificial intelligence (AI). I can’t help wonder why AI’s can’t spot this sort of rudimentary criminal activity. I mean, they’re supposed to be learning. But learning what? How to identify and block such fakes? Or create them? I’m not vilifying AIs or the people who write AI programs. But multi-award-winning Savant author A. G. Hayes began investigating and writing about this in fiction in his widely regarded Koski & Falk series, the epitome of which are QUANTUM DEATH (Savant 2016) by A. G. Hayes with Raymond Gaynor (yes, that’s me) — https://www.amazon.com/dp/0996325530, and 68 VIA CONDOTTI: Book One – Eternity Ltd. (Savant 2019) by A. G. Hayes — https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999463349. Both go the extra mile in exploring the good, the bad and the ugly of AIs and those who program, create, market and sustain them.

68 Via Condotti Video Book Preview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrCVn...

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PLAUSIBILITY, COMPREHENSIVENESS AND REPEATABILITY

I think some, therefore I must be, well, something. Okay. Yet I can’t help but wonder how much I’m thinking verses wanting, hoping and desiring. Or dreaming for that matter. Is life a long series of unconscious déjà vues, one long jamais vu, or one long hopeless presque vu? In fact, if everything that’s “real” to our senses is, as we’re told by physicists and cosmologists, merely tight packets of vibrating energy, what can we know and trust outside of simple belief?

Actually, in my years of academia, I’ve come to realize there are three possible ways, outside of the ancient Greek appeals, that many people use in decide in what to invest their faith: plausibility, comprehensiveness and repeatability.

Plausibility involves reasonableness, a common degradation of the ancient Greek appeal, logos (logic + reason). “It makes sense” or is “common sense.” Plausibility has strong contemporary appeal in that it is deployed so widely in social media including “explaining” the news. Plausibility is the key to the success of my Amazon-genre bestseller THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor. Plausibility lends the necessary veneer of truthfulness and reality, often making even outrageous things seem more authentic than appropriate.

Comprehensiveness speaks to everything fitting together and thereby “the pieces as a whole making sense.” It’s not “common sense,” but a rah-rah type of synesthesia of three of the ancient Greek appeals, pathos (feelings), ethos (morality) and keiros (popularity) with a dose of Occam’s Razor (that which is connected the most parsimonious way should be favored – my paraphrase).

And then there’s repeatability, in short, “science.” Science is, in it’s simplest form, about things that are repeatable. Conversely, things that are not absolutely repeatable are not “scientific” (most probably being instead humanistic, and at the whim of the complex human brain).

But which is “best?” Must all three be present to indicate truth? I would rather say that when either plausibility or comprehensiveness accompanies repeatability, it is likely the conclusion will not only be repeatable, but also quite robust. I like to play with robustness my novels, giving them plausibility and comprehensiveness, but not necessarily repeatability beyond serendipity or coincidence, imparting a that sense of robustness aside incredulity, that makes for good “Science-based Futuring” or SciFu over SciFi (Science Fiction) or SciFan (Science Fantasy).

The Edge of Madness

THE EDGE OF MADNESS is available in printed, digital and audiobook formats, and has been purchased by K. Simmons Productions for manga, animation and cinematic treatment.

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A LIFE WITH CLARITY

I DID IT! Having suffered with astigmatism for most of my life, last week I visited my eye doctor to see if I would benefit from lens replacement. Nope. But I could replace my glasses with contacts, which would greatly benefit my acting career. The “problem” is that there is no contact lens the would fully correct both eyes. The “solution” (ingenious really) was to have one eye corrected for near vision and the other for far vision. That is, one eye to read cue cards and the other to see what’s happening on set, or otherwise doing activities of daily living and driving.

Actually, it WORKS, though it’s taken me some time to be able to automatically shuttle from one eye to the other when changing from near to far sight. It was, I’ll admit, a bit disconcerting at first, sometimes resulting in blurred near and far vision, sometimes a weird kind of double vision, sometimes awareness of lenses over what I was seeing. A lot like life, in general.

I’m quite happy to report that I’m rapidly adjusting to the contacts and that they do, indeed, allow my famous “cornflower blue eyes” to be better seen by the camera and on film. And, in a sense, I can say I now see life with a new kind of clarity, both near and far.



Yep, that’s me with actress Setsuko Tsuchiya, out and about town at Ala Moana Shopping Center.

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