Writing
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How worried should we be and why? This is a meandering essay about language, intelligence, and the claims of AI enthusiasts and catastrophists. Although I’m no expert, given how little we really know about human cognition relative to its infinite complexity, I am skeptical about both apocalyptic and utopian predictions AI and our future. What…
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(originally posted on Your Angry Pediatrician on Substack, lightly edited) This is a story of how in science, despite our attempts to achieve some understanding of objective reality, context still matters. What seems like a good idea in one instance can become a really bad idea in another, not because the science changed, because it…
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The explosive growth of AI technology raises a host of concerns. Data centers hosting AI servers are projected to consume unsustainable amounts of electicity in the near future. At the same time, despite the wonderous achievements so far, critical questions about what society gains from this technology remain unanswered. Our challenge is addressing the issues…
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I wasn’t planning to write on this topic again so soon, but I guess the state of the world is such that it can’t be avoided. I recently needed to avail myself of the services of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, using their online portal. First, what a wonderful service! Kudos to the hardworking…
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Staying ahead of current events is a constant challenge for Science Fiction writers. What seemed like gee-whiz future tech yesterday is now sitting on the kitchen counter. If you are not careful, the future you create may end up looking like a bad episode of the Jetsons. Thanks to a recent post by Cassie Kozyrkov (@decisionleader.bsky.social), we…
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One challenge all writers of fiction encounter at some point is how much detail to give, especially around interesting plot points. Too much, and you risk killing the narrative flow by sounding tedious and pedantic. Too little, and the reader may become confused and lose interest. I call this Breadcrumbs versus Spoonfeeding. Every cool story…
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One thing about writing in the SF genre is the challenge of constraining your speculations by what known science says is possible, or if you really want to loosen up, what might be possible. To do that, you have to get into the actual science quite a bit to make sure you know where the…
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Welcome to the Robert Wack Author web site, very much a work in progress. As I continue building this out, I’ll update you on upcoming publications, some thoughts on the writing life, and other interesting nuggets about science fiction, history, culture and why we do this (reading, writing, imagining). A quick note about AI: I…
Robert Wack 