“I swear to God, I never thought the cyborg-monkeys would betray us.” Alltop wouldn’t survive even the robo-bees stage.
Continue readingTag: singularity
mark a rayner: Vanity Thy Name is Robot
By mid-century, all the grumpkins agreed: robots were the shit. Even the most hardened humano-mechanicals were aware their robotic cousins could kick their asses. And the feed stock? Don’t be ridiculous. They were so squishy. So temporary. The on…
Continue readingmark a rayner: The Digital Sabbath, or Why I Never Reply to Your Emails on Saturday
If it’s Saturday and you’re reading this, I am far away from you. That’s because every week, I unplug and celebrate what I call the digital sabbath. I know, I know, it’s kind of blasphemous, but it is the best way to think about the activity of disconnecting from the Internet to
Continue readingmark a rayner: The clowns die first
Something you probably didn’t know about the technological singularity: all the clowns die first. Alltop will have to choose a side when the time comes. Painting by Mike Wellins. Interesting stuff: he takes old landscapes and stuff and then adds SF tropes to them. More here. h/t
Continue readingmark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: The singularity can take so many forms!
Alltop has been ordered to destroy all humor aggregators.
Continue readingmark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: Robots need love too
Seriously. Robots need love too! If we’re going to survive the coming Toaster Uprising, then we have to love our robots. We have to instill them with love. It’s really what Ray Kurtzweil is talking about in The Singularity Is … Continue reading →
Continue readingmark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: If on a Summer’s Day, a Fridgularity
You are reading a blog posting about Mark A. Rayner’s most recent book, The Fridgularity. You had been hoping to find a funny picture, and maybe a microfiction that played off that image, but instead, you find yourself reading another … Continue reading →
Continue readingRedBedHead: Frankenfoods, Toothpaste, & Justin Bieber: Capitalism & Technology II
In a previous post I argued that too often Marxists fail to recognize the ways in which capitalism remains dynamic and continues to advance technologically and socially. This one-sidedness distorts analyses and perspectives and threatens to give Marxism the feel of a millennial doomsday sect. Instead Marxism ought to be
Continue readingRedBedHead: Frankenfoods, Toothpaste, & Justin Bieber: Capitalism & Technology II
In a previous post I argued that too often Marxists fail to recognize the ways in which capitalism remains dynamic and continues to advance technologically and socially. This one-sidedness distorts analyses and perspectives and threatens to give M…
Continue readingRedBedHead: Frankenfoods, Toothpaste, & Justin Bieber: Capitalism & Technology II
In a previous post I argued that too often Marxists fail to recognize the ways in which capitalism remains dynamic and continues to advance technologically and socially. This one-sidedness distorts analyses and perspectives and threatens to give Marxism the feel of a millennial doomsday sect. Instead Marxism ought to be
Continue readingRedBedHead: Marxism, Capitalism & Technology
Thoughts on Marxism & Technology Part I
There is a joke about Marxist economists that goes something along the lines of “Marxists have predicted five of the last four recessions”. I was reminded of this joke recently as I debated with a comrade about capitalism and progress, specifically around technological advances in modern capitalism. I suppose that for Marxists, as radical critics of the
Continue readingRedBedHead: Marxism, Capitalism & Technology
Thoughts on Marxism & Technology Part I There is a joke about Marxist economists that goes something along the lines of “Marxists have predicted five of the last four recessions”. I was reminded of this joke recently as I debated with a comrade about capitalism and progress, specifically around technological
Continue readingRedBedHead: Marxism, Capitalism & Technology
Thoughts on Marxism & Technology Part I There is a joke about Marxist economists that goes something along the lines of “Marxists have predicted five of the last four recessions”. I was reminded of this joke recently as I debated with a comrade about capitalism and progress, specifically around technological
Continue readingmark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: The Best Part of Waking Up Is … VOLTREX HAS YOUR TOAST
All the cybernetic units in the Voltrag Collective understood that breakfast was the most important meal of the day for humans, especially for their developing offspring. Without breakfast, human spawn could run into all kind of behavioral and biological issues, … Continue reading →
Continue readingmark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: Ask General Kang: Why don’t you ever mention robots?
Oh, you silly humans and your fascination with robots! And I don’t mean the kind of useful robots that actually exist, like the ones in factories. I assume that by “robot”, you’re interested in the sentient “danger Will Robinson, danger!” … Continue reading →
Continue readingmark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: It’s morning in the Singularity
Bob was not a happy cyborg. He’d had to skip is plasma bath and neural detox that morning because his dick of a boss, a narcissistic self-sustaining photosynthetic artificial intelligence named TODD-bot, needed him to come to work early. And … Continue reading →
Continue readingmark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: Small talk for the technological singularity
Right now, the only time we talk to our machines is when they don’t work right, we yell at them, or to ask them for directions. (GPS, Siri, etc.) However, when our machines become as intelligent and then smarter than … Continue reading →
Continue readingDeath By Trolley: Help Me Better Understand The Big Bang Theory
My understanding of the Big Bang Theory (BBT) is that approximately 13.77 billion years ago a certain singularity came into existence “with a bang”. It was incredibly – infinitely? – dense and small, and it exploded into existence. The explosion was the beginning of the expansion. The Big Bang (BB)
Continue readingmark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: It all boils down to your programming
The artificial intelligence(s) in The Fridgularity emphatically do not fall in love. Sex, sure, but love? Alltop is in lust with humor.
Continue readingmark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: Going cold turkey in The Fridgularity
For some characters the sudden disappearance of the Internet in The Fridgularity frees them from their addiction. (For others, it’s a challenge recovering from their habits.) This is a scene in which the two main characters, Blake and Lyca, go &#…
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