Columbo

I've been watching this 1970's detective show again, and I'm trying to put a finger on what makes it so good. I don't re-watch many shows, but I keep getting the urge to watch Columbo, even though I've seen them all. I know it's not nostalgia, because I never watched the show growing up. My …

The Sirens of Titan, by Kurt Vonnegut

The Sirens of Titan was clever, fun and charming, as is everything by Vonnegut that I've read. And it also says a lot about how the world works. The plot centers on Malachi Constant, son of the luckiest man on Earth, who invested in the stock markets using the Bible as a guide telling him …

Ad lib writing

I haven't been doing a lot of writing lately, and what I have been doing has been completely improvised and for no purpose other than my own entertainment. Of course, I do hope other people end up enjoying it, but if they didn't and told me to stop, I wouldn't. It's sort of cathartic, liberating …

Citadel of the Autarch

I finally finished this amazing series, by Gene Wolfe.  I have been continually impressed by these books, and the conclusion was no different. These books all seemed to have a theme to them, or a focus. The first book I felt was more about the world, and though the story was exciting and interesting, I felt …

AI to End the Human Race?

You may have read one or more articles today about dire warnings from scientists about AI. This is because Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk and others have signed an open letter detailing their concerns about the advancement of artificial intelligence technology. If you read the letter, you will see that it is much along the lines of …