W. Dow Rieder

@riderius.bsky.social

445 Followers 235 Following

Mathematician, writer, lover of books, rememberer of computers past. Writing at Dreamwidth: https://riderius.dreamwidth.org/ My old writing tumblr: https://docfuture.tumblr.com/ Old Stories archive: https://docfuture.tumblr.com/post/62787551366/stories

Cover of Moon Knight 29 by Bill Sienkiewicz
An outline behind a translucent pastels curtain that couldn't possibly be a mostly hidden cat.
A gauzy window curtain on a sunny day mostly conceals something that definitely isn't a cat, because they would be far too stealthy to be seen like this.
A grey cat, sprawled on a cushion, ignoring all rules of comfortable positioning but somehow comfortable anyway.
Foggy the cat, sleeping sprawled partly over the edge of a cat tree bed, looking utterly content.
Canadian speed skater Shannon Remple, from the early 2010s Flicker
A HOI4 light cruiser design with lots of guns.
What are the four core character classes? Wrong answers only.
Norman Rockwell's "Freedom of Speech" painting
Winter diorama lamp base with two dinosaurs making a snow dino, with Christmas trees in the background. Diorama and photo by Natalie Fulton.
A mad scientist Mastermind and his robots hovering in midair, all encased in force fields.
Suppose you're on a game show, and you're given the choice of three doors: Behind one door is a car; behind the others, goats. You pick a door, say No. 1, and the host, who knows what's behind the doors, opens another door, say No. 3, which has a goat. He then says to you, "Do you want to pick door No. 2?" Is it to your advantage to switch your choice?
Pipe with "this is not a meme"
A black cat and a light grey cat snoozing on the carpet, content.
Waif kitty yawning on a window ledge.
Waif kitty with extremely wide eyes, who has possibly never been played with, ever.
Two content cats--one black, one grey--on a carpeted floor.
Far Side "In the days before television" cartoon, with everyone staring at a blank wall.
Black cat sprawled contentedly on a chair with it's eyes mostly closed.
"But Earth doesn't have anything consistent like that yet--and the corporations would fight any changes tooth and nail. Or ignore them and pay the penalties--there are already corporations that pay billion dollar fines and keep doing what they were fined for. Because that still makes more money. Humans seldom create restrictions that work until a disaster has already happened. And once is one time too many for this. The Grs'thnk were fortunate--and they had a nasty war before they achieved the stability they have now. "So I'm going to change the incentives. I'm going to kill corporations until everyone understands that size and 'systemic importance' are no protection, and there's no safety in fraud, misdirection or government corruption. The options are to change form to comply with Grs'thnk transition law, reject the changes and die, or try to fight me and die more quickly. Because I'm not going to allow them to keep existing as incubators for human-incompatible AIs." Flicker raised an eyebrow. "That's pretty harsh. Even I don't think they're all evil." "For most of them it has nothing to do with evil, and everything to do with incentives. If they would voluntarily switch, I wouldn't have to do this. But that would take money, time, and a change of mindset, so they won't. I'll go after some of the worst ones first, especially ones I can take out quickly without disproportionate side effects. Because people won't believe I can drive corporations that are household names out of business until they see it happen. "That's why I exist. I'm the personification of the changes needed to protect humans from hostile AIs. A paradigm shifter that can't be ignored. The Black Swan. The most important thing about what I'll be doing is that, eventually, I'll stop. Because I'm not a paperclip maximizer. But I will give vivid examples of why the restrictions are needed--because if I were a corporation, everyone would already be doomed."
Black Swan couldn't move to gesture at the speed they were talking, but she could alter the light output from her eyes, and they seemed to narrow slightly. "Now imagine an Earth corporation with the same tech. The very first question they would ask is 'How can we use this to make more money?' They'd pile up functional equivalents of that implant, give them goals--and they'd be better and much faster than people. "They'd be able to outcompete anyone that doesn't use them, and they'd adjust usage to get as much out of them as possible, because that's what corporations do. Their incentive structure is to maximize shareholder value--they can be sued if they don't. They're optimizing adapters, working towards specific goals. That's what makes them AIs--it doesn't matter how smart or stupid they are now. And Grs'thnk tech could take them beyond the ability of any human to understand or control--but it would still work." "And their goals have nothing to do with humanity--shareholders already don't have to be human. Give corporations the ability, and they will rather quickly create a dystopia that will drive humans to extinction. Corporations are paperclip maximizers." Black Swan put a surprising amount of contempt into those two words. "The Grs'thnk know this--it's why they don't have corporations, don't create self-willed AIs, and don't allow limitation of liability for the people in charge of any entity that makes money. Those are all pieces of their safety net. And they have other business forms that work quite well--Zirjack certainly has never had any problem making money. "But Earth doesn't have anything consistent like that yet--and the corporations would fight any changes tooth and nail. Or ignore them and pay the penalties--there are already corporations that pay billion dollar fines and keep doing what they were fined for. Because that still makes more money.
A content cat snoozing on a window ledge above some art supplies.
A gray kitty lying on a plastic bag looking cute.
"Cooking wasn't something that fit with my mental model of you. You can port to get food anywhere." "Yes, and I often do." He grinned. "But porting is also very handy when I discover I'm missing a spice or ingredient. Want to know how I started?" "Of course I do." Journeyman had a talent for telling stories that helped Flicker unwind, and he liked to talk while he worked. "Well, a number of years ago--you'll note I'm being deliberately vague about how many--I was doing a lot of alchemy delivery work..." Whatever Journeyman had done with the garlic and onions might not be magic, but it smelled good enough to be. "... despaired of ever being more than mediocre at potion-making," said Journeyman. "But the witch, and I want you to picture her like someone's nice grandmother--except with a little glint in her eye that told you she just might have been a resistance fighter during the war or something--asked if I wanted to know the secret to practicing alchemy. I said I did, and she leaned closer and whispered 'Learn to cook'. So I did." Flicker smiled. "Does it actually help?" Journeyman started scooping food onto plates. "They're different arts. But once you've learned alchemy, it does help, because they have a lot of skills and habits in common. And cooking ingredients are a lot easier to get. Safer, too. I'm still only average at alchemy, at best--it takes decades to get really skilled--but I've been getting better. And I like cooking better than alchemy." He brought the plates to the table. "Dinner is served."
Cartoon of a mad scientist in a lab saying to another scientist chained to a wall: "Me? Mad? Yes! Yes! I'm mad! But I have tenure."
A black cat, sprawled happily amidst stuffed animals.
A grey cat lying blissfully upside down on the floor in a spot where there was previously catnip.
A black cat, lying in a box partially full of white and brown wrapping paper, looking surprised this is not everyone's favorite way to lounge about.
A poor kitty with very wide waif eyes who hasn't been played with nearly enough.
Woman pointing at "'Video games cause violence' Based on the last game you played, what are you getting arrested for?"
A woodchipper.
Khan saying "This *is* Ceti Alpha Five"
Cat looking upside down at a rope toy. She looks perplexed by a deep mystery.
A black cat in a box, near a light gray cat sprawled with several dangly toys. They are diplomatically ignoring one another.
Promo image for "Wacky Races" (the original 1968 version)
Text: "Black Swan, your reign of terror ends here!" proclaimed Firefist, sending a blast of flame from his open palm. Black Swan lept nimbly into the air and spread her wings, leaving a dumpster in the alley behind her to absorb the attack. The garbage within was damp enough not to catch fire, but she doubted the neighbors would appreciate the added smell. Still, better that than let the blast hit pedestrians, vehicles, or an inhabited building. "Funny, I didn't think meeting with unhappy retirement fund managers would be very terror inducing." She dove and curved past Firefist to lead him around the corner. Traffic had stopped, and people were fleeing for cover. "Maybe if you're narcoleptic..."
A fuzzy pic of a human holding up a large cut rock bookend
A grey kitty sleeping on a shelf with a white crochet chibi dinosaur standing watch over her.
George Orr, from the 1980 film adaption of "The Lathe of Heaven"
Four crocheted chibi dinosaurs debate where to have lunch.
"You like to put me on a pedestal. One so high that it's hard to breathe, sometimes. But what you do to her... She could wear a t-shirt with 'Terrible Role Model' printed on it, and you'd say 'That's so cool; I wish I were more like you.'"
Text Excerpt from The Maker's Ark, Chapter 19: "They were. They..." Flicker had to stop for a moment as the memories came rushing back. "I wasn't able to watch their part. I still regret that, but I was strung out from throwing five million rocks and missing a lot of skin and radioactive and freaked because I thought Doc and the Volunteer were dead and Stella was dead and I'd just killed over fifty thousand people and my arm was hamburger from RSI and I needed to heal. So I couldn't stay. But I'm very proud of them."
Text: "And finally Doc got a message through, telling me I needed to punch a hole through to the ionosphere with rocks, because the Volunteer was on suborbital coming in as fast as he ever had and needed me to get the air out of way so he didn't kill anyone with his shockwave on arrival. So I went up to a place called Fukushima and made a pathway for him, so he could keep a bunch of nuclear reactors from melting down, then went back to ripping apart buildings. Until I got another message from Doc telling me I needed to let them go and start taking the edge off the tsunami."
Far Side Cartoon: "It's Bob all right... But look at those vacuous eyes, that stupid grin on his face--he's been domesticated, I tell you."
Cover art for Jo Walton's The King's Name. Sulien ap Gwien is talking over her shoulder to a one-eyed god with a staff and raven. He is clearly not her top priority at the moment.
Logician, mathematician, puzzlemaker, author, and magician Raymond Smullyan
Example of 'Tombstoning'; Two adjacent newspaper headlines that combine in an unintended way: "Out with a bang" and "Suicide bombing kills 51"
Inigo Montoya, Vizzini, and Fezzig from the Princess Bride.
Apollo 13 Oxygen tank number 2, showing heater and thermostat unit
"I'm fine," said Journeyman. "I just--" "You are not fine," said Flicker. "You could keep going if you were in mortal danger, but you aren't. You made it back, I'm here, and you're safe. Your limbic system is just still in fight or flight because of lag. It's a pain. Happens to me all the time coming down from patrol. But in a couple minutes your body is going to be like 'whoa, shit'. "So lie down, try to calm down, I'll help you rehydrate, and maybe you can stop setting off the medical monitors and won't have the shakes for as long. "You're safe now, partner." She met his eyes. "Okay?" Journeyman started a laugh, then coughed. "...Okay. Thanks." "No problem. You've helped me with this so many times, I'm not sure why it isn't obvious to you." "Heh." Another cough. "Hardest things to see are in the mirror."
James Dean in a jacket, t-shirt, and wrinkled jeans, leaning against a wall. He is not wearing glasses.
A posting punch card from Skyzoo, showing the time od day and day of week of my Bluesky interactions for the last 21 days.
Panel from an xkcd comic with Cueball saying "It is impossible to know and a sin to ask!""
Still from an interview of Bluesky CEO Jay Graber with CNBC. Jay looks poised and slightly archvillainish.
The original dril "Walk bacwards into Hell" tweet from 2012
A screenshot of Dril's pinned post on Twitter, from November 13, giving links to his Bluesky and Instagram accounts, with the words: "before this web site becomes 100% AI swamp water you can follow my ass on here, or here Thank you ."
An orange full moon near the horizon with a series of pivoting bright lines across the surface, with the brightest one ending near the center in a lens flare.
Quote from Roger Zelazny's "This Immortal": "My mind spun for a second before it drifted, and in that second I knew that of all pleasures—a drink of cold water when you are thirsty, liquor when you are not, sex, a cigarette after many days without one—there is none of them can compare with sleep. Sleep is best...."