Determined: I would watch the hell out of a Dead Like Me/Hannibal crossover series, web or otherwise. I mean, just IMAGINE the kick off exchange.

George and Rube are sitting in Der Waffle Haus. George looks angry, confrontational, defensive. George-like. Rube looks concerned, angry, incredulous. Rube-like.

Rube: So what the hell happened?

George: What happened? He fucking made me is what happened!

Rube: What do you mean he made you? What'd you do, wave a giant flag around that said "I'm here to take the soul of your four o'clock so he doesn't feel it when you gut him like a blue fin tuna?"

George: Not exactly.

Fades into George sitting in The Best Office Ever. She's finishing up some childhood anecdote, trying to relate it to her current unlife (again). There is a pause.

Hannibal: Ms. Lass, in our time together, I've come to notice two things: 1) You and a cadre of individuals I can only guess are your friends have been following me, for some time; and 2) None of you…smell quite right. Is this accurate?

George: …m-maybe…? Fuck, I dunno! [Thinking:] Wait. Did he just say he could smell me?

Hannibal: Well then this just leads us to one obvious question, does it not?

George: [Thinking:] Shit. Here it comes. [Out Loud:] Why are we following you?

Hannibal: [Smiles] No, not at all. The question, Ms. Lass, is would you care to join me for dinner?

The rest practically writes itself!</p>

Hey, buddies.

Look, before this gets any more awkward, I think you should know that I work toward making a world where magic & cybernetics are accepted as investigative categories in widespread/mainstream capacity. Cybernetics is on its way, but magic? A little tougher.

Oh. You mean you already know all of that about me? Well... Huh.

Anyway, if that's the kind of thing you dig, you can find more here: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwT-l2KJb7hmejB2NXBsczdYem8/edit?usp=sharing here: http://www.laval-virtual.org/2013/?p=308 & here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1roA-ZIZ7Tw3rSDeUjOMqk7LTWnvkqiZBi78Tl3p0CGU/edit

So I was rejected from the 2013 International Association for Computing and Philosophy. I knew it was likely that I'd be rejected, but it A) It's at the University of Maryland at College Park, MD, during B) July 15-17 2013 (the weekend of my birthday), and C)…Well. Just read the full email and reviewer's comments, below:

( Read more...Collapse )

As they say, ” Success always occurs in private, and failure in full view.”

So, fuck it, whatever, right? I guess that just means it’s time to figure out how to make the nuances of my position clearer, in under 4000 words.

To that end, if anyone wants to read this unoriginal and underdeveloped argument which rests on a too-vague definition of magic, which adds nothing to the discourse, here it is: Natural, Artificial, and Rational: At the Intersection of Magic and Autonomous Created Intelligence

I know, I just made it sound So Intriguing, how could you resist, right?

Right.

ANYWAY, if you want to read the general CFP, to see what they were looking for (content, length, girth, etc) that's Here. Of specific interest is Track II, or the "Minds and Machines" track.

And that's today's mood, in context.

Enjoy.

UPDATE: She has been found at Lake Ella in Tallahassee just a bit ago.

Missing Child Alert: Thomasville, Georgia

Be On The Look Out for: blue 2001 ford expedition, license plate BKH 2467

Niana Williams pink shirt with flowers, pink pants, silver and pink shoes

Abducted by Savine (Saline?) Williams, a 36 year-old black male

Thomasville Police Department: 229 224 8830

"Dear authors,

"We have successfully received your paper:

"Authors: Damien Williams
Title: Natural, Artificial, and Rational: At the Intersection of Magic and Autonomous Created Intelligence
…
Category: Consider for Publication in IACAP 2013 e-Proceedings
Track: Minds and Machines

"Thank you for submitting to IACAP 2013.

"Best regards,
EasyChair for IACAP 2013."

At the Black Edge

Our arms have grown
deep and wide as snowfields,
covering everything, drawing the trees, the stars,
the deer and the tall cities around us.
It is too much
for them to bear, and we
who demand such close knowing
we approach the atom
to explain the mountain. Already we see
the gods taking flight like a cloud of swallows,
their homes which are horses, and fish, and fish-
hooks becoming hard and pale as jewels
in our embrace. At the black edge
of the world two or three flowers are tossing
in the approaching blizzard of our words.
We cannot hear them singing
above our exquisite howl.

The last remaining tickets for Neil Gaiman's "The Ocean At The End of The Lane" signing at Agnes Scott, in Decatur will be available Wednesday May 1st! So if you or anyone you know was unable to buy a book/ticket to the event, your chance is coming soon!

Purchases can be made in person at the store, online at http://www.eagleeyebooks.com/productview.asp?prodID=627, or by phone at 404-486-0307

This event is brought to you by Needcoffee.com, Eagle Eye Book Shop, Agnes Scott College, and the Decatur Book Festival.

Watch These Spaces and TELL YOUR FRIENDS.

Let's just stop lying, today. Let's be 100% honest. That's not hurtful, or cruel, or crass, or tactless, that's Honest.

That means you include all the feelings and nebulous emotions, you provide the motivations and the understandings. Be Honest.

I can be truthful and engage in subterfuge--i can tell you the literal truth and have you interpret it however you want-- but that's not being Honest.

I can present the facts to you, arrange them neatly, and have that tell you nothing other than precisely what it tells you.

Honesty is vulnerability. Honesty is openness. Honesty implies trust and strength of conviction and a determination to not give a fuck, come what may, because, if you're honest, someone might take offense and, if you're honest, someone might think you're strange and, if you're honest, this whole project could end in a very unpleasant manner.

I get focused on honesty when I don't think I have enough of it in my life. I usually only think this hard about honesty when I feel as if I'm not being honest, either out of "necessity" or out of fear of the consequences, which, most of the time, are the same thing.

I work with Dragon*Con, but I don't like very many of their practices, their ties, and how they treat people. I work with the people with whom I work because I think that in some perhaps very small way they understand; I think they get the project I'm about. But they may come to think I'm "on their side," in all ways. I'm not. When I'm vocal about the things I find wrong with Dragon*Con, those who are vociferous in their opposition may come to think that I am on their side, in all ways. I am not.

But I can't be completely honest with everyone about everything, because some of those components that comprise my Being Honest aren't mind to share, are they? And sometimes they affect more people than just myself, don't they?

So maybe we can't be completely, 100% honest, today. Maybe we can be that honest with some people, and as honest as possible with others.

And maybe that's what we started out trying to do, anyway, but what happened was that we got so focused on what we had to hide that we forgot to think about what we could share.
Let's try for honesty, today. It might hurt, a lot, but maybe we can do something better with it in the long run than the circumlocutory bullshit.

If you've ever wanted to hear me lecture, here you go. Have some recordings from my Oglethorpe class, this semester.

Some of these aren't great, and I know that, but some of them are fantastic, and I know that too.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwT-l2KJb7hmVG53UWJTMTQxUXM/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwT-l2KJb7hmR1RFYllUdW1sNlU/edit?usp=sharing

The English Beat - [Mirror in the Bathroom]-- I initially uploaded these for some students who were late to the semester and who missed some classes. I figured I'd put my work where my... Work is?

Regina Spektor - [Don't Leave Me (Ne Me Quitte Pas)]--- 9 hours of me talking to you. That should help you sleep at night

Enjoy, or don't. Whatever.

If I were a god, I think my sole decree would be something like "Treat Each Other With Equality And Respect, Because If I Start To See Any Systematized Inequality and Injustice, Then I'm Burning This Fucker To The Ground."

Just something I thought you should know.

I focus a lot of my time on philosophical and religious systems where the elimination of attachment & desire are key. Probably because I can’t let go of anything and want everything.

Because sometimes its 4am, you're grading papers, and no one else is awake. So here.

Bibliomancy:

Self As I See Me: "Men and circumstances generally modify the ideal train of events, so that it seems imperfect, and its consequences are equally imperfect."

Direct Influence: "In the meantime, without title or stipend, but with all the power he needs, John Strachan reigns supreme."

Goal: "One method is to tape the wire onto the metal on an anvil surface and then planish it in through the tape."

Recent Past: "Contemporary consumers, thus, frequently interpret and use corporate products and messages differently from their original purpose, reshape, and adapt them to personal use, and modify and sometimes pervert their meanings in ways not imagined by their creators"

More Distant Past: "He feels empty, and he stares at the tiny black speck and the Alps."

Near Future: "It was the patient, cut-flower sound of a man who is waiting to die."

Self as Others See Me: "Let me tell you of the fourth whose place you hold..."

Further Future: "She opens the door and beckons him inside."

Emotional State: "It was an ad for Warm Worlds Realty, with headquarters at planet Pengö's south pole."

Ultimate Outcome: "Soiled paper and tissues can easily be disposed of in your mum's purse or the pocket of dad's raincoat."

Overall Clarification: “He hates being pinned down to anything.”


Phonomancy
Self As I See Me: Icon of Coil - Pursuit
Direct Influence: Psychostick - Orange (Clarification: Coil - [Contains a Disclaimer])
Goal: Black Lung - First Movement
Recent Past: Vermillion Lies - 01/23/09 - Riding in the Rain (written by request - with Handsome Chuck)
More Distant Past: Tool - [Useful Idiot]
Near Future: The Clash - [Rudie Can't Fail]
Self as Others See Me: Tom Waits - Face To the Highway
Further Future: Yellow Machinegun - [No Way]
Emotional State: Coil - [5-Methoxy-N, N-Dimethyl: (5-Me0-DMT)]
Ultimate Outcome: The Dresden Dolls - [Colorblind]
Overall Clarification: VNV Nation - [Rubicon] / Decoded Feedback - [Do You See]

Well that latter reading was depressing as fuck. Good night.

Oh wait, one stamp on the whole thing from Almagenes: “I roll about, hoping to be hit by a vehicle of someone else, but at the last minute rolling out of the path of vehicles on Autoroutes […]”

Good night. [Portishead - [We Carry On] ]

So it turns out that not one, but TWO of my jobs somehow screwed me on my withholdings, and thus I owe $540, between state and federal taxes.

Now I just need to call/email the HR departments and make sure it doesn't happen Again, this year.

Mystery Solved.

This was a shitty fucking mystery.

For many are the pleasant forms which exist in numerous sins,
and incontinencies,
and disgraceful passions,
and fleeting pleasures,
which (men) embrace until they become sober
and go up to their resting place.
And they will find me there,
and they will live,
and they will not die again.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/2013/04/10/robot-sex-poll-americans-robotic-lovers-servants-soldiers_n_3037918.html (via grinderbot)

Americans. You are some tawdry, sensationalistic, and yet somehow still repressed mofos, do you know that?

A bunch of people are LITERALLY over here trying to figure out who's at fault if a robot KILLS YOU, and at which point of complexity the responsibility falls to the Thing In Itself, and what gets you to start taking Very Seriously the fact that robots and Autonomous Created Intelligences are THINGS THAT ARE HAPPENING, is somebody asking you, "How would you feel about putting your dick in that/having its dick put in you?"

I'm not saying it's not an important set of questions. I AM saying there are more important ones we should work on, first.

For instance: A conscious machine likely wouldn't want to be called "Robot" because it'd recognise it as a Human word etymologically connected to "Slave."

Imagine this: You don't want children. You NEVER want children. You think children are a terrible idea. This is fine, do what you want. But now imagine that many of the members of your family all want and are in the process of seeking to have children, through various means. So what do you do, in the face of this? You make a series of recordings on various media, telling your family members' future children, that you hate them, you fear them, and you're pretty sure they're going to try to kill you in your sleep, so you'll probably be doing everything you can to get them before they can get you.

Then you take these pronouncements and you put them in a safety deposit box under a trust with instructions to deliver them when the children hit 13.

Because that's how you sound when you talk/write stories about autonomous created intelligence.

If you care about the Neil Gaiman signing in Decatur on June 22, then READ CAREFULLY:

"Ok, VERY IMPORTANT. We will begin the ticket sales for this event TOMORROW MORNING starting at 10 am…[We've] been told [we can] start selling the tickets and that is what will happen. Please let everyone that you know who [is] planning on attending the event this information. We are working to get our site ready for ticket sales as we speak."

To Re Cap:
Pre-orders/Tickets for Neil Gaiman signs, “The Ocean At The End of The Lane” Go on Sale Wednesday, April 10th—AT TEN AM EASTERN DAYLIGHT TIME. That is LESS THAN EIGHT HOURS FROM NOW.

1 BOOK PRE-ORDER=1 TICKET. That means, when you pay your $26.99 for your book, you automatically have a ticket to the signing. When you pay your $29.99 for your ticket to the signing, you AUTOMATICALLY GET A COPY OF THE BOOK.

Either way, you’re paying $26.99, and getting two awesome things.

You can place your orders HERE:
Eagle Eye Book Shop
2076 N. Decatur Road
Decatur, GA 30033
Hours & Directions

HERE:
Tel: 404-486-0307

AND HERE:
http://www.eagleeyebooks.com

If it wasn’t obvious, this is me asking you to please spread the word, far and wide.

Thank you.

Assertion: Fully integrated bio-mechanical cybernetic interfaces are the only way to maintain anything approaching a true democracy, moving into and through the 21st century.

So I've said it before and I'll say it again: We've got Neil Gaiman coming to the metro Atlanta area, and NeedCoffee.com and Eagle Eye Books are your best friends for all things related to the event: Contests, T-Shirts, and of course the signing itself.

I wrote up a little something, here, to point you toward the details.

Tell Your Friends.

ONCE AGAIN!

Everyone in the Metro-Atlanta Area, it is my profound pleasure to announce to you that Eagle Eye Book Shop & Needcoffee.com Present Mr. Neil Gaiman, for The Ocean at the End of the Lane

This is the product of literally two years of work and collaboration between Eagle Eye, NeedCoffee, and myself, starting back with the American Gods 10th Anniversary
Tour. We are very pleased that this has come to fruition, and especially at this time, with this being his last US book-signing tour.

Details follow:

WHAT:
The Last US Book-Signing Tour: Gaiman on My Mind: https://www.facebook.com/events/156135491216395/?ref=22

WHEN:
June 22, 2013
Saturday, 7:00pm

WHERE:
Agnes Scott College Presser Hall
141 East College Avenue
Decatur, GA 30030
DIRECTIONS: See Link

Twitters: @eagleeyebooks ; @NeedCoffeeFeed
Facebooks: http://www.facebook.com/eagleeyebooks
https://www.facebook.com/NeedCoffeeDotCom
Websites: http://www.eagleeyebooks.com/
http://www.needcoffee.com/

Tell Your Friends.

But let me make it super clear: Atlantans, Decaturites, and Everyone else in the Metro-Atlanta Area, it is my profound pleasure to announce to you that Eagle Eye Books & NeedCoffeeDotCom Present Mr Neil Gaiman

WHAT:
The Last US Book-Signing Tour: Gaiman on My Mind

WHEN:
June 22, 2013
Saturday, 7:00pm

WHERE:
Agnes Scott College Presser Hall
141 East College Avenue
Decatur, GA 30030
DIRECTIONS

Twitters: @eagleeyebooks ; @NeedCoffeeFeed
Facebooks: http://www.facebook.com/eagleeyebooks
https://www.facebook.com/NeedCoffeeDotCom
Websites: http://www.eagleeyebooks.com/
http://www.needcoffee.com/

Tell Your Friends.