David B. Ramirez's Blog: David Ramirez SFFWriter, page 2
May 26, 2014
C Robert Cargill
"The greatest part about novels is how forgiving and patient the audience is. They want to stop and smell the roses every once in a while."
http://www.sfx.co.uk/2014/05/26/guest...
http://www.sfx.co.uk/2014/05/26/guest...
May 20, 2014
Chinatown
Syd Field's screenwriting book keeps mentioning Chinatown as one of the best scripts ever. I'm starting to think I need to watch this movie and study the screenplay.
May 7, 2014
Another Article About Singularity
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/...
---
I believe that the brain is computable, but that it would require emergence out of an extremely complex system.
There's is a poor analogy in this article--Nicolelis is saying that the stock market can't be predicted because it's not computable, which is wrong. The stock market IS computable, because all those transactions are tracked by computers and the stock market exists as a digital entity--that no one has been able to model it yet to allow for accurate predictions does not mean that it's not computable or that it will never be predictable, it just means that it is a digital entity that has outputs we do not fully understand. But the entity already exists.
Given enough time, I suspect that the stock market will generate enough of a history of big data that fast-computing and improved algorithms will be able to model predictions with increasing accuracy based on trending + financial data (and barring external events like scandals and natural disasters which don't have to do with the stock market anymore but affect it).
Nobody could fathom predicting the weather before. Now, we can. It's not perfect, but the accuracy is increasing.
So:
1) He's wrong about the stock market.
2) The stock market is a totally different problem space from intelligence.
What he is really saying is that intelligence requires a size-N network of interactions and that no computer will every be powerful enough to model such a thing.
That is weak. You have to show that a problem is inherently unsolvable, not assume that size-N is unsolvable because nothing today is powerful enough to run the N-sized network. Computers are STILL growing in speed more and more; every time a cap with current tech is reached a new refinement or breakthrough gets beyond that limit. Hardware powerful enough to simulate a human mind may exist by the end of the century.
So I disagree! Also, Stephen Hawking disagrees with you too, Mr. Nicolelis.
---
TL;DR:
I still don't think the Singularity will happen though, for reasons I've mentioned before.
(P is not NP; intelligence is a problem of such complexity that each step up involves a massive increase in problem difficulty; iterative acceleration of intelligence development will not happen, it will level off).
But having a strong general artificial intelligence? I think that's definitely doable. And it will change a great deal about the world.
---
---
I believe that the brain is computable, but that it would require emergence out of an extremely complex system.
There's is a poor analogy in this article--Nicolelis is saying that the stock market can't be predicted because it's not computable, which is wrong. The stock market IS computable, because all those transactions are tracked by computers and the stock market exists as a digital entity--that no one has been able to model it yet to allow for accurate predictions does not mean that it's not computable or that it will never be predictable, it just means that it is a digital entity that has outputs we do not fully understand. But the entity already exists.
Given enough time, I suspect that the stock market will generate enough of a history of big data that fast-computing and improved algorithms will be able to model predictions with increasing accuracy based on trending + financial data (and barring external events like scandals and natural disasters which don't have to do with the stock market anymore but affect it).
Nobody could fathom predicting the weather before. Now, we can. It's not perfect, but the accuracy is increasing.
So:
1) He's wrong about the stock market.
2) The stock market is a totally different problem space from intelligence.
What he is really saying is that intelligence requires a size-N network of interactions and that no computer will every be powerful enough to model such a thing.
That is weak. You have to show that a problem is inherently unsolvable, not assume that size-N is unsolvable because nothing today is powerful enough to run the N-sized network. Computers are STILL growing in speed more and more; every time a cap with current tech is reached a new refinement or breakthrough gets beyond that limit. Hardware powerful enough to simulate a human mind may exist by the end of the century.
So I disagree! Also, Stephen Hawking disagrees with you too, Mr. Nicolelis.
---
TL;DR:
I still don't think the Singularity will happen though, for reasons I've mentioned before.
(P is not NP; intelligence is a problem of such complexity that each step up involves a massive increase in problem difficulty; iterative acceleration of intelligence development will not happen, it will level off).
But having a strong general artificial intelligence? I think that's definitely doable. And it will change a great deal about the world.
---
May 6, 2014
I dreamed this story
Ghosts
---
A husband and wife invite an old friend to their home. They eat a nice dinner by candlelight. There is no electricity. There hasn't been in a while. Their faces are soft in shadow.
"So how are you? How is--"
"But it is great to see you, it really is."
"I'm sorry about before."
"No, it's fine."
They talk long into the night.
They sip slowly from their wineglasses. And walk to the verandah. Under a sky where they cannot see any stars, they light up and breathe in bittersweet smoke.
He stands and paces. She and her man sit on the bench.
She smiles. "I am sorry too. I know you loved me."
It comes upon him, an intense wave of desire, the burning regret of a younger man. He is embarrassed, terribly so. To still be affected after all these years. And with the man she married right there, watching.
They were never close, the two men, though they have known each other for decades. Since they were boys, and she, a girl.
"It's alright. It's alright." She spreads her legs, just a little bit. There is promise in the shadow under her skirt, between her parted knees. Her heel taps the bench slowly, slowly.
The husband rubs the wife's shoulders. The wife's foot presses lightly against their friend's shoulders when he sits at the foot of the bench. The touch makes him shiver. He is wild and dizzy and loose, and wonders if he needs more wine, or if he has already had too much.
They watch the mushroom clouds rising, the fires on the horizon.
---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kD7TZ...
---
A husband and wife invite an old friend to their home. They eat a nice dinner by candlelight. There is no electricity. There hasn't been in a while. Their faces are soft in shadow.
"So how are you? How is--"
"But it is great to see you, it really is."
"I'm sorry about before."
"No, it's fine."
They talk long into the night.
They sip slowly from their wineglasses. And walk to the verandah. Under a sky where they cannot see any stars, they light up and breathe in bittersweet smoke.
He stands and paces. She and her man sit on the bench.
She smiles. "I am sorry too. I know you loved me."
It comes upon him, an intense wave of desire, the burning regret of a younger man. He is embarrassed, terribly so. To still be affected after all these years. And with the man she married right there, watching.
They were never close, the two men, though they have known each other for decades. Since they were boys, and she, a girl.
"It's alright. It's alright." She spreads her legs, just a little bit. There is promise in the shadow under her skirt, between her parted knees. Her heel taps the bench slowly, slowly.
The husband rubs the wife's shoulders. The wife's foot presses lightly against their friend's shoulders when he sits at the foot of the bench. The touch makes him shiver. He is wild and dizzy and loose, and wonders if he needs more wine, or if he has already had too much.
They watch the mushroom clouds rising, the fires on the horizon.
---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kD7TZ...
May 4, 2014
Working and anxiety
I wonder how The Forever Watch is doing now that it's been out in the US a couple of weeks and is in its first week in the UK. Today is also the release of the UK audiobook, so now people have a choice of covers, of formats, and of the accents of the narrators to listen to.
When I have my launch in the Philippines this Saturday, will there be 20 people? Will there be 100? Who knows! I know that a lot of the people showing up to the book signing will be classmates of mine from high school.
The real question is how many people I have no direct link to show up that day and buy a copy.
The reviews have mostly been good, I've done interviews here and there, there are a couple more interviews coming up, and it's all completely out of any one person's control how the book really does.
All I can do is keep working.
http://flavorwire.com/340223/10-of-li...
When I have my launch in the Philippines this Saturday, will there be 20 people? Will there be 100? Who knows! I know that a lot of the people showing up to the book signing will be classmates of mine from high school.
The real question is how many people I have no direct link to show up that day and buy a copy.
The reviews have mostly been good, I've done interviews here and there, there are a couple more interviews coming up, and it's all completely out of any one person's control how the book really does.
All I can do is keep working.
http://flavorwire.com/340223/10-of-li...
May 1, 2014
The Forever Watch is out in the UK
The Forever Watch is out in the UK!
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.
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I'm actually not sure when it will be available in territories like Singapore. We shall see!
..
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I'm actually not sure when it will be available in territories like Singapore. We shall see!
April 29, 2014
Forever Watch Philippines Launch
For those based in the Philippines, please come! Or if you know friends in the Philippines, please let them know =)
The Forever Watch by David Ramirez Book Launch
When: May 10, Saturday, 2014 / 4 PM
Venue: National Book Store Glorietta 1
The Forever Watch by David Ramirez Book Launch
When: May 10, Saturday, 2014 / 4 PM
Venue: National Book Store Glorietta 1
April 22, 2014
Launch!
The The Forever Watch is out today in the US at Barnes and Noble and at Amazon! And Google Play, and on iTunes, and on the National Book Store website, and yes, the US audiobook is out too!
So, if you're into Scifi that's different and a little genre-breaking, with flavors of noir and horror and cyberpunk, give it a shot =) Please review it on B&N, Amazon and/or Goodreads if you like it.
Also, there are 2 more days to vote on the Qwillery's Debut Author Challenge Cover Wars for April 2014, so please vote for my book's cover if you think Thomas Dunne/St. Martin's had the best design. The Deadroads cover also has a lot of votes....
http://qwillery.blogspot.com/2014/04/...
#TheForeverWatch #launchday #cover #contest
So, if you're into Scifi that's different and a little genre-breaking, with flavors of noir and horror and cyberpunk, give it a shot =) Please review it on B&N, Amazon and/or Goodreads if you like it.
Also, there are 2 more days to vote on the Qwillery's Debut Author Challenge Cover Wars for April 2014, so please vote for my book's cover if you think Thomas Dunne/St. Martin's had the best design. The Deadroads cover also has a lot of votes....
http://qwillery.blogspot.com/2014/04/...
#TheForeverWatch #launchday #cover #contest
April 18, 2014
The Weirdness of Good News
Things went well in __.
So, yeah. Great news! It's an opportunity to work with and learn from people who just move in a different circle of experience. At the same time, it's more work.
I mean, as a result of this meeting, I have literally twice as much I have to get done before September. And the extra work may not pan out, in fact, it is likely that nothing material will come of it.
Oh, but it is a chance that must be taken even then. You never know when another chance like it might appear! And if I flub it.... well, it would have been improbable doing it the normal way anyhow.
On one of those anonymous writer forums, I talked about my situation, and most of the advice was to *not* take the chance and do it the normal way.
Well... that may also be why only one other regular in that forum is making money from writing.
You don't grow as a writer unless you're trying stuff you haven't tried before, and this is definitely something new to me. If you don't reach, why bother? Make me king!
So, yeah. Great news! It's an opportunity to work with and learn from people who just move in a different circle of experience. At the same time, it's more work.
I mean, as a result of this meeting, I have literally twice as much I have to get done before September. And the extra work may not pan out, in fact, it is likely that nothing material will come of it.
Oh, but it is a chance that must be taken even then. You never know when another chance like it might appear! And if I flub it.... well, it would have been improbable doing it the normal way anyhow.
On one of those anonymous writer forums, I talked about my situation, and most of the advice was to *not* take the chance and do it the normal way.
Well... that may also be why only one other regular in that forum is making money from writing.
You don't grow as a writer unless you're trying stuff you haven't tried before, and this is definitely something new to me. If you don't reach, why bother? Make me king!
April 16, 2014
The Opposite of Writer Blues
I'm supposed to be sleeping, but my heart's kinda racing and the brain is burning through possible ideas I can share at tomorrow's meeting so I'm not a spaced out dreamy zombie.
Fly there, wait, meet, talk, go to X, watch stuff happening, say hi, talk some more, and somewhere in there, hopefully I express a vision for what could be. Without being too hyper, or finding circumstances so surreal that I come off as tranquilized. Then I'm on an overnight bus back to Oakland.
[I should have probably gotten a flight for the return too, but I felt a strange desire to take the bus.]
Yeah, I've noticed recently that when I've gotten good news, my feelings don't show up on my face or in my voice. I think the surprise is dimming my natural responses or something! Or maybe it's that I'm still stressing about the next project which has a deadline creeping inexorably closer. Jetlag. Combination of things!
Fly there, wait, meet, talk, go to X, watch stuff happening, say hi, talk some more, and somewhere in there, hopefully I express a vision for what could be. Without being too hyper, or finding circumstances so surreal that I come off as tranquilized. Then I'm on an overnight bus back to Oakland.
[I should have probably gotten a flight for the return too, but I felt a strange desire to take the bus.]
Yeah, I've noticed recently that when I've gotten good news, my feelings don't show up on my face or in my voice. I think the surprise is dimming my natural responses or something! Or maybe it's that I'm still stressing about the next project which has a deadline creeping inexorably closer. Jetlag. Combination of things!
David Ramirez SFFWriter
As Facebook winds down its free organic reach, I'm exploring other places to begin posting regularly.
I've thought about messing with blogspot and tumblr, but I'd prefer something with a more naturall ...more
I've thought about messing with blogspot and tumblr, but I'd prefer something with a more naturall ...more
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