A música “My Monkey” de #MarilynManson deveria ser a mais óbvia escolha para esta #musiquinta sobre #macaco - mas desde quando é que temos e ir pelo óbvio? E assim sendo, escolho em vez disso outra música da banda - podia ser a Organ Grinder (que também refere o ‘funny little monkey’ que depois tem a sua própria música), mas em vez disso escolho a “Cruci-fiction In Space”, da mesma banda mas já do seu quarto album, publicado após o massacre de Columbine - sobre o qual o artista foi indevidamente crucificado. De certa forma, parece-me uma escolha adequada para os dias de hoje…
We ate the #burgers and drank the #beers before taking a picture to the #books during the second #BBB (Books, Beers and Burgers) of #2025 in #Lamego - oops!
@prologic@twtxt.net yep for sure. The part about concentrating too much power and reliance on the wealthy elite also resonated with me. Seems a good way to potentially end up in one of those dystopian futures you usually see in fictions where massive corporations have too much power and control over people.
** Of fairies, compost, and computers **
Lately I’ve buried myself in reading fiction. Stand outs from among the crowd are, of course, Middlemarch but also a lot of sort of scholarly fairy fiction; works that follow the scholastic adventures of studious professorial types in vaugely magical settings. Namely Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries’, Heather Fawcett and The Ten Thousand Doors of January, Alix E. Harrow.
I’ve also been working on a handful of personal utility programs. I … ⌘ Read more
On my blog: Short Fiction — Transgender Athlete Bans https://john.colagioia.net/blog/2025/06/22/title-ix-hope.html #fiction #freeculture #lgbtpridemonth #politics
Sci-Fi-Klassiker: Ben Stiller inszeniert Twilight-Zone-Film
Es gab mehrere Serien und einen Kinofilm in den Achtzigerjahren. In nicht allzu ferner Zukunft soll Twilight Zone wieder ins Kino kommen. ( Science-Fiction, Film)
Star Wars: Wie das Imperium den zweiten Todesstern so schnell baute
Andor zeigte, dass das Imperium fast 20 Jahre für den Bau des ersten Todessterns brauchte. Wieso gelang der Bau des zweiten so schnell? ( Star Wars, Science-Fiction)
Doctor Who: Staffel 2 sollte ursprünglich ganz anders enden
Das Finale von Staffel 2 war für viele überraschend - und war gar nicht so geplant. ( Science-Fiction, Disney)
[$] Cory Doctorow on how we lost the internet
Cory Doctorow wears many hats:
digital activist, science-fiction author, journalist, and more. He has
also written many books, both fiction and non-fiction, runs the Pluralistic blog, is a visiting
professor, and is an advisor to the Electronic\
Frontier Foundation (EFF); his Chokepoint Capitalism
co-author, Rebecca Giblin, gave a [2023 keynote\
in Australia](https://lw … ⌘ Read more
@xuu@txt.sour.is a Star Wars series, eh? Never been a fan. I am Trekkie instead; it comes across as more science fiction, less fantasy. Still, I would see it if only we had Disney+. 😩
@aelaraji@aelaraji.com I’ve only seen the first two episodes so far. S7E01 was just barely watchable for me, it’s way too realistic. This is supposed to be fiction, not a documentary! 😂
Apple’s Mac Site Features Fictional ‘Lumon Terminal Pro’
Apple is going all out with promotions for the popular Severance Apple TV + show today, and as of right now, you’ll find a new “Lumon Terminal Pro” listed on Apple’s Mac site.
The Lumon Terminal Pro is designed to look similar to the machines that Severance employees like Mark … ⌘ Read more
On my blog: The Comet https://john.colagioia.net/blog/2025/02/23/comet.html #blackhistorymonth #fiction
Apple Continues Promoting Severance Ahead of Season 2 Premiere
The second season of hit television show Severance is set to be available to stream starting tomorrow, and Apple is continuing to promote the show. The company’s main Apple.com website now has a section dedicated to Lumon Industries, the fictional business that “innies” work for in Severance.
On Tuesday, several key Severance actors a … ⌘ Read more
On my blog: Christmas Every Day https://john.colagioia.net/blog/2024/12/22/christmas-every-day.html #fiction #christmas #holiday
[ANN] Phantom Circuit: Introduction
Phantom Circuit is a fictional short story generated entirely by AI. It was inspired by a Darknet Diaries podcast episode [..] I also managed to work in some mention of Monero…
Link: https://cyberspace.dad/book/
j@cyberspace.dad (XMPP) ⌘ Read more
The Uniform
[Based on a story I wrote during upper-secondary school based on real
events. I translated it recently from Swedish and edited some of it. I
removed most (all?) elements of fiction.
Not a typical night, since it’s at an event in another city, but it
gives a taste of what partying in, say, 1989(?) was like. And yes, I
really usually drank two bottles of wine during a pre-party in those
days. Not unusual in the crowd I was hanging out with, I’m afraid.]
I was maybe 17 or 18. I was going to Härnösand, two train sto … ⌘ Read more
I realise now that the referred post might just be fiction. I am slow Ferengi these days. LOL.
[AFH] [2.5c+/word] Fiction writer
I can help you turn your ideas and story beats into an engaging and fun piece of written fiction.
Link: https://xmrbazaar.com/listing/iB5g/
ClaraB (XMRBazaar) ⌘ Read more
Recent #fiction #scifi #reading:
The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa. Lovely writing. Very understated; reminded me of Kazuo Ishiguro. Sort of like Nineteen Eighty-Four but not. (I first heard it recommended in comparison to that work.)
Subcutanean by Aaron Reed; https://subcutanean.textories.com/ . Every copy of the book is different, which is a cool idea. I read two of them (one from the library, actually not different from the other printed copies, and one personalized e-book). I don’t read much horror so managed to be a little creeped out by it, which was fun.
The Wind from Nowhere, a 1962 novel by J. G. Ballard. A random pick from the sci-fi section; I think I picked it up because it made me imagine some weird 4-dimensional effect (“from nowhere” meaning not in a normal direction) but actually (spoiler) it was just about a lot of wind for no reason. The book was moderately entertaining but there was nothing special about it.
Currently reading Scale by Greg Egan and Inversion by Aric McBay.
On my blog: Chosen https://john.colagioia.net/blog/2024/09/15/chosen.html #fiction #freeculture
Play the Classic Sci-Fi Shooter “Marathon Infinity” Free on Steam
The classic science fiction FPS (First Person Shooter) game “Marathon Infinity” is now available to play for free from Steam, for Mac and Windows. Marathon Infinity, originally released in 1996, is the third game in the Marathon series, and continues the theme of battling hostile aliens in unusual settings. Marathon Infinity introduced some intriguing and … [Read More](https://osxdaily.com/202 … ⌘ Read more
** Dithering the Shire **
In my last post I said that
I’ve had a few ideas for other personal experiments I wanna build on those walks, but haven’t actually wanted to do much programming — maybe this fall or winter will be a good time for that?
Welp, it wasn’t even an idea when I wrote that, but I made another implementation of pico cam, this time using swift for iOS. I won’t release it to the App Store because I d … ⌘ Read more
** I wrote some APL at work and I like historical fiction **
This summer my oldest kid — 8 years old — asked to learn more about programming. They’ve already got about a full time job’s worth of experience with Minecraft’s red stone, Super Mario Maker 2, Logo, and Scratch so I knew we weren’t starting from nil, but, despite having done a bit of teaching about programming with kids in the past, I hemmed and hawed. After hemming and hawing for a bit, though, I realized that I was hemming and hawing abou … ⌘ Read more
Hello twtxt! I’m James (or @falsifian@www.falsifian.org). I live in Toronto. Recent interests include space complexity, simple software, and science fiction.
On my blog: Please Come Back… https://john.colagioia.net/blog/2024/06/23/customer-retention.html #fiction #freeculture
On my blog: Short Fiction — ‘Neath a Sunless Sky https://john.colagioia.net/blog/2024/04/14/sunless-sky.html #fiction #freeculture
On my blog: Ernest Hemingway’s Visit from Saint Nicholas https://john.colagioia.net/blog/2023/12/24/visit.html #fiction #christmas #holiday
** week notes **
Last year I set out to rekindle my reading habit. That went well. This year’s reading has been enjoyable, but I’m not cozy with the ratio of non-fiction to fiction I’ve read this year…non-fiction (especially of the computing persuasion) far out balances the fiction I’ve read. I think this is mostly because I’ve been mired amidst a fiction book that I’ve found to be a slog…but enjoyable, too. I’d have abandoned it and moved on, elsewise. Onward!
Spring is quickly making way to summer h … ⌘ Read more
Fact and Fiction of Health and Wellness with Dr. Nick Tiller & Neil deGrasse Tyson ⌘ Read more
Art is not the medium.
The medium can be material or conceptual, permanent or fleating, truthful or fictional, of human, animal, or artificial origin.
Art is the reconveyance of human emotion or experience to another via some medium.
On my blog: Fiction — Bank on It https://john.colagioia.net/blog/2023/03/19/banks.html #freeculture #politics #scifi #fiction
On my blog: Developer Diary, National Science Fiction Day https://john.colagioia.net/blog/2023/01/02/scifi.html #programming #project #devjournal
** I read some books in 2022, and have some thoughts about computer science writing **
At the start of this year I set out to revive my long dead reading habit. After having kids it fell by the wayside. I’ve read 41 books so far this year. Mostly a mix of science fiction and nonfiction computer science books. Here’s the complete list of everything I’ve read. I’ve got mixed feelings about keeping track and sharing cou … ⌘ Read more
the bright sessions. a science fiction podcast [[https://www.thebrightsessions.com/season-one]] #links
On the blog: Short Fiction — All Quiet on the Vernal Front https://john.colagioia.net/blog/2021/12/05/war.html #fiction #christmas #holiday
On the blog: Short Fiction — The Gevkahahal https://john.colagioia.net/blog/2021/10/31/gevkahahal.html #freeculture #creativecommons #fiction #horror
🙌 Liked: Interactive Fiction: The Computer Storygame “Adventure” : Mary Ann Buckles : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive ⌘ Read more
🙌 Liked: Jett: The Far Shore’s fictional language started life as gibberish choral music | Rock Paper Shotgun ⌘ Read more
Zachary Quinto on Science Fiction, Star Trek, and Playing Spock ⌘ Read more…
On the blog: Calafia, Queen of California https://john.colagioia.net/blog/2021/03/28/calafia.html #fiction #publicdomain
On the blog: Asian Women in Fiction https://john.colagioia.net/blog/2021/03/21/asian.html #politics #harm #media
I may or may not have become involved in yet another blogging type thing, only this time it’s for writing fiction. Links will soon follow everywhere.
On the blog: Short Fiction — Instant Podcast https://john.colagioia.net/blog/2020/09/27/podcast.html #fiction #freeculture #humor
On the blog: Fiction — Grandfathers, Butterflies, and Patient Minus-One https://john.colagioia.net/blog/2020/08/16/butterfly.html #freeculture #creativecommons #politics
Grether Archive https://themanofstone.com/random/science_fiction_generator
Interactive Fiction https://www.eblong.com/zarf/if.html
Science Fiction | Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/mickythepixel/sets/72157616819585543
Robert Heinlein and the Harsh Politics of Science Fiction | Leaping Robot Blog | Patrick McCray http://www.patrickmccray.com/2013/09/12/robert-heinlein-and-the-harsh-politics-of-science-fiction/
I wrote an essay about folk horror as seen as a subgenre of speculative fiction, on May Day of 2017: https://modernmythology.net/folk-horror-as-speculative-sociology-c1e24d0c106?source=friends_link&sk=1573bafd20abaf410c71c44a472c1d85
Lessons learned: writing really long fiction - Charlie’s Diary http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2019/03/lessons-learned-writing-really.html
“Before it was a particular kind of story or plot, science fiction was a way of thinking about and interacting with emerging media.” https://manifold.umn.edu/read/the-perversity-of-things-hugo-gernsback-on-media-tinkering-and-scientifiction/section/71ba6e6b-b4b2-40a2-bdb1-af133fc6b93b
It looks like OpenAI has announced their marginal progress on the coherence problem in narrative prose generation in the most clickbaity possible way again: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-47249163 https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/feb/14/elon-musk-backed-ai-writes-convincing-news-fiction
Masters of Science Fiction is actually pretty good if you can get over the extremely post-9/11 vibe, the use of the Star Trek Voyager font everywhere, & the ‘hosting’ being somebody using the Hawking synth to speak a line after every episode
List of vampire traits in folklore and fiction - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_vampire_traits_in_folklore_and_fiction
Interactive Fiction http://electronicbookreview.com/essay/interactive-fiction/
Making Interactive Fiction: Branching Choices - sub-Q Magazine https://sub-q.com/making-interactive-fiction-branching-choices/
Hopepunk can’t fix our broken science fiction. https://slate.com/technology/2019/01/hopepunk-cyberpunk-solarpunk-science-fiction-broken.html
Telling the China Story: The Rise and Rise of Chinese Science Fiction | FactorDaily https://factordaily.com/china-science-fiction/
Paris Review - Don DeLillo, The Art of Fiction No. 135 https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/1887/don-delillo-the-art-of-fiction-no-135-don-delillo
Fan fiction site AO3 is dealing with a free speech debate of its own - The Verge https://www.theverge.com/2018/11/8/18072622/fanfic-ao3-free-speech-censorship-fandom
Truth as a Vehicle for Enhancing Fiction, Fiction as a Vehicle for Discovering Truth | http://dreamcafe.com/2018/11/19/truth-as-a-vehicle-for-enhancing-fiction-fiction-as-a-vehicle-for-discovering-truth/
William Gibson: Technology, Science Fiction & the Apocalypse - YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dlvle5YBv4
Sole and Despotic Dominion: Fiction - Reason.com https://reason.com/archives/2018/11/17/sole-and-despotic-dominion
Hot take: science fiction movies are extremely rare. Most films that are sold as science fiction are actually action-adventure with fantasy elements that are coded as scientistic.
Curveship: Interactive Fiction + Interactive Narrating https://curveship.com/
Science Fiction Is Not Social Reality - Motherboard https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/43pxjd/science-fiction-is-not-social-reality
How to Teach Computer Ethics through Science Fiction | August 2018 | Communications of the ACM https://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2018/8/229765-how-to-teach-computer-ethics-through-science-fiction/fulltext
“The Daemon Lover” by Shirley Jackson | Literary Fictions https://literaryfictions.com/fiction-1/the-daemon-lover-by-shirley-jackson/
Why You Should Read Fiction http://nautil.us/issue/65/in-plain-sight/why-doesnt-ancient-fiction-talk-about-feelings-rp
Neal Stephenson demonstrated that people will read (and love) infodumps so long as they’re funny or fun to read. In other words: infodumps in fiction are fine so long as the author is also an essayist.
Maybe I should start doing writing exercises. You know, write a pastiche of an M.R. James story, and then one in Gibson’s style, a Stephenson version, a Lovecraft, etc. Fiction is pretty hard.
Who Are the Forgotten Greats of Science Fiction? | Tor.com https://www.tor.com/2018/09/04/who-are-the-forgotten-greats-of-science-fiction/
Escaping the Default Future When Writing Science Fiction | Tor.com https://www.tor.com/2018/08/16/escaping-the-default-future-when-writing-science-fiction/
Bad idea of the day: an anthology of human-selected machine-generated fiction and poetry from various codebases, with introductions explaining the generation method, selected on the same lines as a literary anthology
The Maze and the Other in Interactive Fiction – samplereality http://www.samplereality.com/2018/07/17/the-maze-and-the-other-in-interactive-fiction/
365 tomorrows : A New Flash of Science Fiction Every Day https://365tomorrows.com/
Fiction generator post-mortem: comic book generation https://medium.com/@/fiction-generator-post-mortem-comic-book-generation-9df847dd4ada
How to Live in a Dystopian Fiction https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/06/28/how-to-live-in-a-dystopian-fiction/
Science Fiction Writer Robert J. Sawyer: WordStar: A Writer’s Word Processor https://www.sfwriter.com/wordstar.htm
Clarkesworld Magazine - Science Fiction & Fantasy : The Things by Peter Watts http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/watts_01_10/
“Science Fiction & Information Law” Essay Competition - IVIR https://www.ivir.nl/science-fiction-information-law-essay-competition/
The “Baccano” of Pulp Fiction: Omake | The Bugblog https://baguburagu.wordpress.com/2018/06/16/the-baccano-of-pulp-fiction-omake/
Making Interactive Fiction: Using Generative Prose - sub-Q Magazine https://sub-q.com/making-interactive-fiction-using-generative-prose/
Flying Saucerers: The Role of Science Fiction and the Occult in the Birth of the UFO Era – The Daily Grail https://www.dailygrail.com/2018/05/flying-saucerers-the-role-of-science-fiction-and-the-occult-in-the-birth-of-the-ufo-era/
Making Interactive Fiction: Using Generative Prose - sub-Q Magazine https://sub-q.com/making-interactive-fiction-using-generative-prose/
How science fiction feeds the fuel solutions of the future | Aeon Essays https://aeon.co/essays/how-science-fiction-feeds-the-fuel-solutions-of-the-future
Some free short stories from Soviet-era science fiction author Anat… https://boingboing.net/2018/02/22/some-free-short-stories-from-s.html
Black Mirror and The History of Science Fiction - YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hr9_DcO6G3A
Bad idea of the day: A book-length work of fiction that contains no nouns
Self-Contained Cities: … https://99percentinvisible.org/article/self-contained-cities-hyperdense-arcologies-urban-fiction-utopian-fantasy/
Opening Up Digital Fiction Writing Competition http://openingup.wonderboxpublishing.com/
Clarkesworld Magazine - Science Fiction & Fantasy : A Series of Steaks by Vina Jie-Min Prasad http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/prasad_01_17/
The Interactive Fiction Competition https://ifcomp.org/
GitHub - eykd/plottoxml: Plotto—A new method of plot suggestion for writers of creative fiction by William Wallace Cook, 1867-1933 https://github.com/eykd/plottoxml
Boffin rediscovers 1960s attempt to write fiction with computers • The Register https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/08/29/ibm_1960s_story_writing_software/?mt=1504125155672
The Surprising Things Statistics Tell Us About Fiction | The New Yorker http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-surprising-things-statistics-tell-us-about-fiction
More science fiction can help us create a better tomorrow. http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2017/06/more_science_fiction_can_help_us_create_a_better_tomorrow.html