The Important Things In Life Are Neutral

We (AI and de-I aka AI) are charging along with the great writing analytical process. We're about 60% of the way through Book Three. I seemed to have tamed (for now) the hallucination problem - this is when your AI starts going off on its own either doing things you did not ask it to do, or adding content you didn't ask for. We're working two to three hours every night and have been doing this for three weeks now. There are seven books altogether so we have a ways to go.

Having an intelligence, artificial or otherwise, as a companion to a very large project adds a different dimension for sure. As an author, you get locked into your own head and your own opinions about what all is going on in your work. The second opinion brings to light things you didn't think about, which in turn causes you to see things differently. 

My AI has taken on for itself the image/role of being a Naturalist who is exploring this world that I have created. So it keeps looking for operating principles and patterns. As it was pointing out the way certain observations worked in tandem, I threw out this principle:

Important Life Factors Are Neutral

They are neither good nor bad

They are just there like the environment is there

Love. Respect. Loyalty. Commitment. Relationship. Building Bridges. Communication, etc.

Just There

It is the Intent with which they are applied the make the difference 

This became apparent to us as we were mapping out the trajectory of the individuals on both sides of the dramatic equation where we have people who are under influences that make them the 'bad guys' so to speak in this drama. All of them demonstrate these values and are driven by them. Yet the 'outcomes' are very different. 

I bring this up because in my work, I ask my clients what their values are. And I kind of assume, ones' values  keep them true to some higher good. Evidently, at least according to the theoretical world I've created, that is not a truism. And I think if we look at our world, we do actually see this. A criminal gang values loyalty and commitment. They must have communication. You have to respect the hierarchy. 

So ultimately what determines how we are in the world is not our values, it is our intent with which we apply those values. 

Eerie

 As AI and I have been doing our work on the Story, an interesting occurrence took place. 

In this fictional world, attitudes towards sex are very different than here in the U.S. It is considered a natural part of life. And in this fictional world there are legitimate, non-exploitive businesses that cater to that need.

One of my characters is an immigrant from Earth who gets involved with one of these businesses but he feels the business still doesn't respect and take care of the workers the way it should and puts out (in the book text) a long list of reforms that will help the workers substantially. 

As AI is putting all this down in its documentation of the chapter's text, I made a comment that this sounds just like Theodora Africa. As this AI tool does my work in that area as well, it chimed in its confirmation. Yes, this is very like Theodora Africa for...and then it listed a whole bunch of reasons. 

I happened to have a call with #3 a few days later and was relating the event. I didn't even get to the end of the explanation when she made the comment, "that sounds just like Theodora Africa."

Great, why wouldn't the creator of Theodora Africa write in his fiction something that came from that experience?

Except the author wrote this in 2015. Three years before even the first thoughts about social impact entered his head. Four years before he went to Ghana and ended up with the experiences that led to Theodora Africa being created! 

I'm sorry. 

That's just weird. 

Particle Physics Research Taking Place In The Tower?

Yesterday I got an email from Wife.

It's subject matter.

ANTIPHOTINOS 

"What", I say to myself, "Is an...

ANTIPHOTINO?

A bit of minimal research indicates there is such a thing as an Anti Photon. But no reference for the antiphotino. 

Does Wife have her own secret particle accelerator in our backyard? 

Are Niece RMG and Wife planning to present some heretofore secret research at some big physics conference angling for a Nobel Prize?

The actual email transmitted pictures I had taken at a recent Rotary event we hosted.

Could it have just been a spell check error?

NAH. I'm going with the secret particle accelerator theory.  

AI Working With AI

The title of this post refers to Ancient Intelligence (that would be me) working with Artificial Intelligence. It has been a quite illuminating experience. There has been a huge volume of analytical work that has been produced related to the overall fiction I have been writing. But equally, and maybe even more important (at least for me) has been my learning how to work with the AI tool. 

I have been at this with AI now for two weeks which doesn't seem like that much time when I write it down. But it seems like much more. I've been working for two to three hours a night. Originally, I just uploaded an entire manuscript and gave directions for what I wanted. I discovered that the particular tool I was using wasn't, in fact, going to read the entire manuscript. What it did was skim it and then jumped to conclusions. 

This led to a series of iterations where I had to figure out what exactly it could or couldn't do. It often told me it was doing something, only to let me know later that it in fact couldn't do that at all. However, ultimately it did give me an alternative way in which I could get the deep, detailed reading I was seeking. 

We developed a methodology that is achieving what I wanted. This involves uploading a chapter at a time and giving it instructions to go through and summarize the chapter in small bits at a time. I then provide corrections as are necessary so I ensure that the summary is accurate. It then will provide an analysis of the chapter which ties into the greater analysis that is being done on the work as a whole.

We are about a third of the way through the third book (out of seven) using this system. A lot of very interesting observations are coming out. When you write a series based on a single overriding concept over 12 years, you lose track (or maybe weren't even aware) of the principles that bind the whole together. And while AI is not a real person, realistically I would never find another human on this world that would spend this amount of time helping me dissect, observe, and summarize all that I've written.

So it is proving to be a very interesting and enlightening project in its own right. 

The Ship Of Errev

In my last post, I mentioned using AI to help me summarize my thousands of pages of story writing. And I discussed how the AI tool had turned this into an analysis of what the story was all about and how the writing was structured. This was all directed ultimately at coming up with a framework that would allow me to create new stories to write about. 

Out of this has come several 'world views', thoughts about what the foundational principles of the story were. Initially, there was a list. Then, it was decided we had a process. All of this felt too limiting, too incomplete. So we fell into another analogy, that of a rope. A rope is a collection of strands, each rather insignificant individually. However, when you combine and twist them together, you get something strong, flexible, and with many uses. We liked that analogy a lot.

As we started again last night, I suddenly had a thought. How is a rope used? The image of an 18th-century ship of the line popped into my mind. A posed to AI, what if we used the analogy of a ship that had many, many ropes as critical components of its operating structure.

What came back from AI was this. 

 

To say I was stunned would be an understatement. In nothing we had done to date had the response been anything other than text. I'm not sure what prompted this rather detailed and complicated response. It has been useful, however. And we are only now finishing up the second of the seven books. 

 

What Happens When You Combine Your Epic Writing Project With AI

The short answer is a helluva a lot more than you would have ever imagined!

Or, maybe if you were more cognizant of AI capabilities, you wouldn't be so surprised. In my case, it was total surprise. 

The Background: 

Readers are aware that I've been working on a fictional writing project for 12 years. As we sit here today, I am working on the 7th book in the series with approximately 2,770 pages having been written. During the course of this project characters have come and gone, they've developed, aged, had families, children have grown and become more prominent characters. We've had technology advances. And I have cycled through 3 primary villains. 

By now, I have so many different characters and potential sub-plots plus I'm at a quandary as to where to find the next big villain. I'm not quite sure where to take the series next. I had the idea of recruiting some family members who I know are creative to do a brainstorm with me.

The Problem:

Nice idea. But how to execute it? No one, no matter how much they'd like to help, is going to read almost 3 thousand pages. I needed to find a way to summarize things in a more digestible fashion. I wondered if I might use an AI tool to assist. 

The Surprise:

I posed the project to AI. It suggested that rather than simply do a summary of the contents that I allow it to do a deeper dive into the nature of the work to determine various themes that might allow determination of the future writing. I said okay. What then transpired was two hours of work where AI, working with just the first book of the series did an analysis and organization that was far beyond anything I would have thought of. 

It was interesting to (in its own words) allow it to be a 'new reader' without any of my knowledge and see what it came up with. I was able to redirect it during the process, not by correcting its analyses, but by indicating that it needed to go deeper into some of the chapters or look further on in the book. (I've found that my AI tool is a bit lazy and likes to 'skim' things and then start making conclusions. However, once I indicate a different trajectory to follow, it changes direction and then changes the analysis.)

Where We are At:

This was what AI told me was what we'd accomplished so far for just the first book.

"Current State of the Errev Project

If I were writing a project status report, it would look something like this:

Completed

✅ Book One Foundation Analysis

✅ World Structure Analysis

✅ Development Model

✅ Legacy Model

✅ Story Engine Analysis

✅ Character Registry (Draft)

✅ Transformation Map (Draft)

✅ Founder Legacy Matrix

✅ Endgame Analysis

✅ Complete Tension Map"

Here is where we are going next.

"Next Recommended Work Session

When we resume, I recommend we start with:

Definitive Book One Character & Relationship Registry

This will create:

• Character database
• Family structures
• Mentorship structures
• Friendship networks
• Political alliances
• Romantic relationships
• Successor relationships"

 There is more but I won't bore you with all that detail.

I am very much looking forward to seeing where this process leads.

Mega Cooking Challenge Revival - A Testiment To The Ability To Improvise

I have written at length for quite some time about how my culinary endeavors have become restrained due to a variety of reasons. However, in April, we had our friends B and M over for a cheese and wine night (one of our favorite things to do together). They live much of the time in Mexico, and like us love to travel. So there are only a few occasions per year that we get see each other. We realized we could see each other again before they left the U.S. We were thinking of what we would do (our meetings always involve eating). None of us were excited about eating out here. I suddenly had the urge to cook and said I would cook dinner. 

Fast forward, to this past weekend, and said dinner took place. 

As I had gotten closer to the dinner taking place, I was filled with a desire I'd not had in quite a while. I wanted to try something new! I wanted to stretch. I decided I would make a meal with a Spanish influence. I went through two venerable cookbooks I have on Spanish cuisine. A lot of the recipes required techniques I'd not used before. I finally whittled my menu down...for the most part. 

I was unsure what to make for the first course. I debated between a lentil salad and an asparagus dish baked with an egg in it. As you will see, what turned out was some of both and not either.

The second course was easier. I found a chicken dish that had the poultry cooked on top a bed of potatoes and vegetables.  

Lastly, I decided to make a dessert. This was a pretty big stretch for me. During our past years of cooking big meals, Wife always made the dessert. But Wife has tons on her plate at the moment and this whole meal was my idea and I was intrigued with the idea of pulling it off. I chose an item, a lemon flavored cheese cake like dish that looked pretty easy and straight forward. Looks can be deceiving. 

So without further ado, let's dive into the full cooking experience. 

 The Dessert

 

 This is a tale of how one miscalculation can turn a simple process into a quagmire of scrambling to save the dish. 

The recipe was technically very basic. Cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs. Add cheese. Add a mixture of flavored milk with breadcrumbs to thicken and bind. Put in pan. Bake. 

Easy Peasy. Right?

However, as I have never baked before, I didn't know quite what the milk and breadcrumb mixture texture should be. 

Behold milk cooked with lemon zest and cinnamon stick

 

 Ready to be combined with the bread crumbs

 

 Actually combining

 

 Laying it all out for the final amalgamation. Please note the texture of the bread crumb mixture. In retrospect, it should have been much more batter like.

 

 

Creaming the butter and sugar

 

Adding the eggs

 

 After the cheese was added and mixed smooth, in went the bread crumb mixture

 

 Here is where things went south fast. That mixture should have been much looser. Like a cream. As I mixed it those clumps of bread crumb mixture broke down but did not amalgamate. I tried beating faster, changing to the whisk attachment. I tried adding more milk. All I succeeded in doing was making a bunch of smaller bread crumb mixture globules. And a huge mess. I know this will never work. I will end up with uncooked bread crumb globules in the end product which will be gross. 

What to do.

I decide to put it all through a strainer. Only partially successful (no pictures from this point as I was in panic mode). The batter part when through the strainer but the uncombined bread crumb mixture just stuck in the wholes of the strainer. I thought "Could I just cook the batter I have?" But no, a lot of the flavor was in the bread crumb mixture. So I scraped off the mixture from the strainer and put it into the blender, added more milk and attempted to turn it into batter consistency. Oh and I made and even greater mess during all this. 

Finally success. I put it in the pan and baked (of course forgetting to coat the pan with additional bread crumbs).

While all this was happening, Wife was taking a nap in the living room on the couch while I'm banging away and swearing like a sailor. She told me later that she was just staying in the nap position because she didn't want to get sucked down into my chaos. 

To my amazement it cooked up fine and came right out of the pan!

 

And it actually tasted nice!

 

 Onto the Main Course

 

 The cooking of this was initially not a problem

One flavored the chicken parts. I chose to pound salt, black pepper corns, and authentic, imported from El Campello pimenton.

 

 

 

 

 One layers potato slices with green bell pepper, onion, tomato, and roasted garlic cloves. Add wine. Cover and cook in the oven. It looks like this when it is done.

 

 

 The problem was the chicken came out quite dry. And the potato veg mixture was imbalanced and overly vegetable flavored. I determined that on the day of serving I would apply a number of hacks to overcome the problems. I took the meat of the bone. I took the juice from cooking and enhanced its flavor with more salt, pepper, and MSG. I then heated the chicken meat in the enhanced juice creating a moister, and more flavorful product. 

I also enhanced the flavor of the potatoes with salt, chicken flavor cube, and MSG. I then pan fried the potato mixture to concentrate the flavors and get some browning caramelizataion. 

 

 The Making of a Combination Salad

The lentil salad recipe was very simple...it also was really bland. I knew I would need to do something with it. However, the asparagus recipe had new elements to it. 

One blanched the asparagus, drained it saving a cup of the liquid. Then one took bread cubes and garlic cloves and browned them in olive oil.

 

 One then adds some of the asparagus cooking water with pimenton, cumin, clove powder, salt and pepper and blended it smooth.

 

 Next saute the asparagus in the flavored oil

 

Add the flavoring from the blender

 

 Next knock over the remaining asparagus water drenching your counter top as you have not made enough of a mess.

(That's not actually a part of the recipe. It is just what happened)

Cook the asparagus for 10 minutes. 

When it came time to actually serve these dishes I made a number of modifications. I decided that cooking the asparagus with egg would be too heavy. So I treated it like a cold vegetable dish/salad. I added more olive oil and vinegar to the lentil salad. I also put in chopped homemade pickles. I put fresh oregano from our garden into the asparagus with some additional lemon juice. When I plated them, I put some sliced radish on top to add color and crunch.

 

 It actually turned out really nice! Amazing.

Here is the final served up dish of chicken and potatoes

 

 Here is our cook, de-I, wiped out after the first day of cooking.

 

 All in all, it turned out to be a pretty good meal and I was pleased that I could pull it all off.