Greetings Picklesversians,
It’s March 15th and the Ides are upon us once again, which means it’s time for my monthly missive!
Here’s what I’ve got for you today:
đď¸ News from the Picklesverse
â ď¸ Â A soothsayer’s warning
đ An Awkward Question
đľď¸ââď¸Â Ben’s curiosity corner
Let’s get stuck in!
đď¸ News
âł Progress on Time HackLast month, I mentioned that my “Alpha Reader” (aka my partner, David) had read the first ten chapters of the freshly edited version of Time Hack. Since then, I’ve been able to give him chapters eleven to eighteen, and once again I’m relieved to tell you that he really enjoyed them! Revising the rest of the book is going well. I just wish I had more hours in the day…ď¸
âď¸ 150+ on AmazonA new milestone for Artificial Selection â the book has now received more than 150 ratings/reviews on Amazon, and more than 60 on Goodreads! Thank you â I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your support. đ
đď¸ My office re-opens (for a few days)Sometimes people ask me where I write. I was talking to someone recently whose default assumption was that all authors write in coffee shops. Now, I’m sure lots of authors do write in coffee shops, but I’m not one of them… mainly because the owners don’t like it if I turn up in my pyjamas. At home, I face no such discrimination.With that in mind, coupled with how much cheaper the coffee is at the Picklesverse Cafe (aka in my kitchen), I prefer to write at home. I do have a desk upstairs, but I often prefer to use a padded lap desk that lets me write wherever I want (it’s basically a cushion nailed to a piece of wood and it’s one of the best things I’ve ever bought). Sometimes I choose the sofa or an armchair, but my absolute favourite spot is outside in the garden where I sit in my “one-G chair.”*Sadly, living in England means my garden “office” is out of commission for much of the year. But thanks to a recent unexpected stretch of good weather, I’ve been able to write outside in the sun a few times this month. Long may it continue! âď¸
*It was actually advertised as a “zero-gravity chair” because the reclining position supposedly makes it feel like you’re floating. But calling it a “one-gravity chair” seemed less like an affront to science, so I rebranded it.
â ď¸ Beware the Ides of March!
It wouldn’t be the Ides of March without a reference to these famous words. In Shakespeare’s tragedy Julius Caesar, a soothsayer warns Caesar to “beware the Ides of March.” Caesar doesn’t take him seriously, calling him a “dreamer.” Of course, when the day comes, Caesar is assassinated by those closest to him.Being a soothsayer has always been a tough gig, but it must be even harder these days when we all have to be so careful about who and what to believe. On balance, I think I’m with Caesar… If someone messages me today telling me to BEWARE because they have evidence (presumably divined from the spilled entrails of a goat) that my Facebook account is at risk and I’d better send them my bank details to keep it safe, I’ll call them a dreamer and take my chances.
In seriousness, though, there’s plenty to “beware” in 2025. I could make a big long list (including trade wars, and military conflicts, and people chopping down swathes of rainforest to build a road to the COP30 climate summit đ¤Śââď¸), but I won’t. Because I think there’s one beware-worthy concept that eclipses all the others. And that’s giving up hope.Someone who writes eloquently on this subject is Viktor Frankl, a psychologist who survived four concentration camps during World War II. He wrote a remarkable book called Man’s Search For Meaning in which he shares what he learned from this period of unimaginable suffering, and how he came out the other side. It sounds dark, but it’s a hugely insightful and uplifting read, which I’d highly recommend. Throughout, he discusses the link he observed between the loss of hope and his fellow prisoners’ chances of survival.
“The prisoner who had lost faith in the future â in his future â was doomed. With his loss of belief in the future… he let himself decline and became subject to mental and physical decay… He simply gave up.”
In this context, hope could literally mean the difference between life and death. While Frankl is describing drastic circumstances, he believes the same lesson applies to day-to-day life.So if hope is really so fundamentally important to our wellbeing, how can we keep hold of it?Well, for me, it’s not about pretending the bad stuff isn’t happening. Having hope means acknowledging the bad stuff and carrying on regardless, ideally doing whatever small things we can to fight against despair by spreading joy or supporting those around us.
Someone I admire a great deal whose writing reflects that sentiment was Sir Terry Pratchett. I read a wonderful article this week about how Pratchett’s “militant decency” is more relevant now than ever. As Marc Burrows puts it, Pratchett’s books “understand the world’s cruelty but insist that people are neither fundamentally bad nor good but ‘fundamentally people’,” and he adds that Pratchett’s characters were prone to “small, persistent acts of goodness.”So, if you’d like a dose of hope, you can always pick up a Discworld novel!Ben, ArkTech’s ever-helpful AI assistant, has suggested we summarise all of this as follows:
“Beware Despair and Grope Hope!”Â
(I’m going to have a word with him about the dangers of rhyming dictionaries.)
đ Awkward Questions
Thanks to everyone who replied to last month’s Awkward Question about the genre of Artificial Selection. I massively enjoyed reading your answers!
Here’s a new question for you:
If you could go out for dinner (or split a Nutrition Bar) with any character from Artificial Selection, who would you choose (and, bonus question, what would you ask them)?
Hit reply if you’d like to tell me what you think. Or if you have any awkward questions for me, feel free to ask.
đľď¸ââď¸ Ben’s curiosity corner
It’s time for another fun fact about which parts of the ArkTech Territory are based in reality and which are entirely fictional.
We’ve already covered:
- Automated buildings (FACT)
- Mabel’s mug (FACT)
- The HyperBullet network (FICTION, inspired by FACT)
- Seagulls stealing potato-based snacks (FACT)
- SmartSkin (FICTION)
- The Five Whys Protocol (FACT)
You can catch up on these topics by checking out The Vault.
Today’s topic is:
Novacene by Dr James Lovelock
If you’ve got a request for what I cover in future emails, let me know.
đ¤ Novacene – FACT
One of the books that Mabel borrows from ArkTech’s library is Novacene by Dr James Lovelock, and the book gets referenced several times throughout Artificial Selection. This is a real non-fiction book, published in 2019 when Dr Lovelock (best known as the originator of the Gaia hypothesis) was 100 years old.The book’s subtitle is The Coming Age of Hyperintelligence, and it’s essentially about the role of artificial intelligence in Earth’s evolutionary journey. (He uses the word “cyborgs”, but his definition is more similar to ChatGPT than the Borg from Star Trek, so we don’t need to worry about being assimilated just yet.)
I often challenge myself to look at things from multiple points of view, not (just đ) to be contrary, but because I’ve been influenced by the immortal words of Ambassador Kosh of Babylon 5, who said “understanding is a three-edged sword: your side, their side, and the truth.”Currently, it seems fair to say that the prevailing narrative about AI is (to quote Private James Frazer): “WE’RE DOOMED!” It’s either going to murder us, turn us all against each other, or at the very least, it’s going to take our jobs. This is a reasonable position to take, especially for anyone who’s seen 2001: A Space Odyssey, played the Mass Effect video game series or who currently works for a large corporation. It makes sense to be sceptical, or cautious, about a new technology whose impact remains to be seen.
But, at the same time, I appreciate Dr Lovelock’s thought-experiment about AI, which is far more optimistic. He suggests AI could hold the key to allowing Earth’s story to continue beyond the moment when organic life can no longer be sustained on this planet. (The trick is to ensure this happens a couple of billion years from now, as forecast, and not <checks watch> next Tuesday.) His point, I think, is that there’s a chance AI, if developed in the right way, could be an ally to life on Earth, rather than a threat.Â
I highly recommend reading Novacene (there’s an audiobook version for those of you who prefer to read with your ears). At 143 pages, it’s not massively long, and I found it an accessible and enjoyable read. Irrespective of your personal level of scepticism or optimism about AI, it’s a well-written and thought-provoking text. Ben’s a huge fan of it! Then again, Ben’s also a huge fan of puns, classical references, and giving out unsolicited advice, so you’ll have to make up your own mind about whether you can trust his judgement.
Right… that’s all from me this month. I hope all’s well in your own personal universes.Â
Walk in the sun,
Marianne
P.S. Ben has complained that there haven’t been enough jokes in this email, so he asked me to pass this on:
What’s the cheesiest line that Shakespeare ever wrote?…
“To brie, or not to brie.”đ§
