Christopher B. Wright's Blog, page 4

The Points Between: Part Two, Chapter Two

Mysteries of Light and Shadow

Matthew sits on a cushion to Simon’s right, shifting awkwardly as one of his knees knocks against the side of the table. Simon waits patiently as Matthew settles in, then gestures toward the food.

“Eat. You are hungry. The table is full.”

It is a wide, long table, with settings for ten. Set in the center are dishes filled with lamb, cured ham, chicken, fruits, raw vegetables, and many different kinds of bread. Matthew’s stomach rumbles again, and Matthe...

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Long-time visitors to this site know that this is the season when technology rebels against me. It’s usually this time of the year when I try to upgrade or migrate the website in some way, causing the site to go down for weeks or months at a time.

It’s practically a punchline at this point, which is why some of you may not be surprised that, after finally starting to shake off the lethargy that has crippled me artistically for… er… a while now, I suddenly found myself beset by technical c...

Try Again Tomorrow

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CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 License. Comic Transcript

(MARK exits “his apartment” and sees his new surroundings for the first time.)

MARK: Okay, so I just need to find the building with the green… whoah.

MARK: Green dome, green dome, green dome… I see a turquoise dome…

MARK: …and pretty much every other roof is gray or red or brown. So turquoise is probably the one I want.

MARK: Looks like a pretty long walk though.

(Sile...

Mysterious Phone Call

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CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 License. Comic Transcript

(Phone ringing)

MARK: (Shouting) OK, FINE!

MARK: What?

MYSTERIOUS CALLER: Is this number 33?

MARK: What are you talking about?

MYSTERIOUS CALLER: Look at your phone. There should be a number at the base.

MARK: It says 21.

MYSTERIOUS CALLER: Excellent. Good morning 33! I think it’s time we had a little chat.

MARK: Are we having it Base 10, or Base 16?

MYSTER...

Not Quite There

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CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 License. Comic Transcript

(Phone ringing.)

MARK: Shut up.

(Phone ringing.)

MARK: Shut up!

(Phone ringing.)

MARK: I hate landlines. I hate them so much.

(Phone ringing.)

MARK: This is exactly why I got rid of mine. I haven’t had one since… 2007…

(Phone ringing.)

MARK: Wait a minute…

(Phone ringing.)

MARK: Shut uuuuuuuuuuuuup!

Weird Outside Place

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CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 License. Comic Transcript

(MARK is laid out on his couch, unconscious.)

(MARK wakes up.)

MARK: Ugh.

MARK: How did I get on the couch…?

(MARK goes over to the window and raises the blinds.)

(MARK finds himself overlooking an elaborate building with large courtyard bordered by thick shrubbery.)

MARK: Right. Back to bed until the weird outside place goes away.

Sterner Stuff

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CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 License. Comic Transcript

NARRATOR: MEANWHILE, in a part of the story that has already been drawn…

KING: Has anyone seen Mark?

ALEX: He quit.

KING: He what?

ALEX: Yeah, yesterday. Came into work in a fury, shouted at Henry for about ten minutes, then left.

KING: Wow. I guess he finally reached his breaking point.

ALEX: I’m surprised, to be honest. I always thought he was made of sterner stuf...

Resignation

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CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 License. Comic Transcript

PANEL 1: Dark and ominous clouds.

PANEL 2: An empty road.

PANEL 3: A car approaches.

PANEL 4: It’s Mark, driving his car.

PANEL 5: Closeup of Mark behind the steering wheel.

PANEL 6: Mark driving his car toward the Ubersoft office complex. A large sign says “Ubersoft: Our Lawyers are Better”

PANEL 7: Mark walking down a dimly lit hallway.

PANEL 8: Mark throws ope...

The Breaking Point

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PHIL: Here’s where you’ll be working. We need you to sift through the preliminary training data pool and determine what content is most suitable for our model.

(MARK types at the computer)

MARK: Yikes, there’s a lot to go through here. Where’d you get all this?

PHIL: Oh, that’s the easy part. All we do is email every user who has signed up for any of our services and tell th...

The Wrong Three Letters

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CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 License. Comic Transcript

PHIL: I know AI gets a bad rap from… well, a lot of people, but Ubersoft is convinced that our specific implementation is going to change everything.

MARK: For the better, or for the worse?

PHIL: Competition in this market is fierce, so we need to make sure our LLM is robust, capable of handling any situation that gets thrown at it. That’s why we’re devoting so many resources t...