Tag: daily prompt

Artificial Intelligence – Thoughts of an Aircraft

Science and Techology

This challenge made me think of an ultra-short story I wrote a while back about an aircraft that was controlled by an AI and was wondering what they wanted to do with their life.

Anyone interested can read that story here:  Thoughts Of An Aircraft

Considering that any computer or group of computers with enough interconnections could possibly “wake up,” and our brains are nothing but biological computers, some say the internet might wake up someday.  Some say it already has.  I still say hello sometimes, in the Google search box.  Sometimes… it almost seems as if I get an answer.

I play a lot with the idea of created intelligence.  Once I wrote a short-short story about a group of seven nodes of a single AI, each node consisting of an android body but sharing a common, highly advanced program.  They had been bought by an eccentric gentleman to see if he could convince them to wake up by treating them if they were collectively alive.

The very questions of human existence are locked up in this type of discussion – what does it really mean to be not just a living being, but a person?  Where does self awareness start?  My cat is self aware.  How complex does a system really have to be before it wakes up?

Also, as we develop prosthetic body parts, which we are already doing – artificial hearts, cochlear implants, soon artificial eyes, and currently even brain controlled prosthetic limbs, will that make us any less human?  Or is it just an extension of our mastery of tool use?

I’ll close here with a joke.  I’m not quoting it exactly here, and I think it came from the William Gibson novel Neuromancer, though I can’t exactly recall.

A powerful AI was created to solve Japan’s rice growing crisis.  Scientists wrote the finest code, run on the best computer that could be built.  All data that could be gathered about soil quality, weather, rainfall estimates, and plant growth rates was loaded into the computer’s memory.  Finally they turned it on.

They knew they had created a true Artificial Intelligence when the program woke up, chewed over the data, and finally said “Screw you, Jack, I don’t eat rice!”

 

 

via Daily Prompt: Artificial

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/artificial/

 

 

From Subdued to Superb

Tips for Artists

via Daily Prompt: Subdued

 

I love taking pictures of the moon, and I finally have a camera that will do it, however the photos are often grainy.  What’s an amateur lunar photographer to do, especially on an evening when there’s obstructions in the way, but that moon coming up over the city is so beautiful?

Photoshop?

Not for me – I use GIMP, the free art program.

Through judicious use of the clonestamp, fuzzy select, gaussian blur, and layers features this subdued image was totally rehabbed.  Clone stamping near parts of the sky got rid of the power line, selecting just the moon itself then putting it on another layer so we could blur the rest got rid of all those speckles, and a simple “white balance”operation cleared up much of the atmospheric haze on the moon itself.

Here’s a better view.

original shopped moon 1000.JPG

shopped - I can't see the pixels 1000.JPG

 

Don’t be (quite so) careful

Personal Growth

via Daily Prompt: Careful

I was a very careful child.

“Be careful!”  “Don’t drop it!”  “Don’t cut yourself!”

I think I’ve only cut myself once, and that was by accident, when I was carving my best friend’s name into a piece of wood.    I almost never drop things. I’ve never broken a bone.  I’ve never hit another car in traffic.  You could say I’m careful.

But I’m also rather neurotic, ruled by fear, and terrified of taking risks.  I’m overweight because I didn’t run, jump and play enough – in part, I was afraid of getting hurt.  I was careful.  I listened to people too much when I was young.  I didn’t develop a healthy sense of rebellion either.  I learned the fine art of sneaking instead.  “Be careful” turned into “don’t appear to do,” or “don’t try at all.”

Sometimes we need to give ourselves permission to make mistakes.  We need to try new, audacious things.  Stretch outside of the other-made prison of careful.  Take risks.  Move past fear so we can see the other side – then instead of careful, be mindful.

Mindfulness means we think about what we do, we look at it, but we weigh the risks and sometimes we decide a risk is worth it.  It’s being careful in a new way.  The way I did it as a child, it was fear motivated.

“Whatifwhatifwhatif?”

That consumed my young life.

“Well, so what?”

The mistake might not be so bad and the result not the end of the world.

Mistakes can be recoverable.    In the meantime, that scary trip you wanted to take but were afraid to?  Take it.  That exercise class that’s a little too vigorous?  Do it.  Be mindful, and fear won’t rule you.  Sometimes being a little less careful can lead to learning.

 

Depersonalize, and everyone wins the argument

Personal Growth

via Daily Prompt: Argument

I get myself into trouble when I personalize.   This happens when someone disagrees with me about an idea, and I think it’s about me, not the idea.  I start thinking they are attacking me instead of trying to find a solution to something that’s outside both of us.

This has a terrible effect – fights, hurt feelings, raised voices, strained relationships, long periods of moping, and more.  This habit has nearly destroyed me at times.

There’s a way out and through, though.  A discussion of any tough topic doesn’t have end in hurt feelings, no one needs to feel attacked.  The secret is a shift in mindset.

The best way to discuss something is to use arguments, rather than have them.  Think of the discussion as two people working together to solve a common problem.  There isn’t anything personal about it, nobody’s good or bad, the object is for you to work together to find the right answer.

The next time someone disagrees with me, or says something I find difficult to accept, I’m going to shift my focus from myself to the idea.  Thinking logically is the antidote to all the ruin that can happen if I personalize.

 

 

 

10 ways to add value to your blog

Tips for Self Publishing, Tips for Writers

via Daily Prompt: Value

If you add value to your writing,  your readers will be more likely to come back.  My favorite blogs, the ones I bookmark and come back to again and again, offer me fantastic value and relevance in my life.  I want to be like them.  So when I post, I like to think “what makes me want to read a blog?  What is valuable to me?”  And then I try to give that to my readers.

A good blog is like a conversation in that both participants benefit from it.  Both reader and writer find it valuable.  The writer, because they share their messages and ideas, and the reader, because they learn something, are amused, or have their thoughts expanded or provoked.  So when you write, always try to create a connection.

10 ways to add value to your blog:

 

Relate personal experiences

When writing about your own experiences, think “how can I relate this to others?”  Doing that can create a connection, help people feel they aren’t alone.

Share your knowledge

You might think everyone knows about a certain subject.  However, you might have a perspective or know a particular little tip that no one else does.  You can share that.

Be bold

When writing, dare to go a little outside the norm.  Use an active voice, write thoughtfully, and always be honest with yourself and your reader.

Know your audience

I see this all over the net, but what does it really mean?  Take a look at the blogs of people following you.  See what they write about, what they are interested in.  This can help you see what you can offer them, and also give them some extra clicks and views.

Read, read, read

To be a great writer, you must read.  That will give you more to write about as you ponder the ideas you see in the books and articles you explore.

Research

When writing an article about a particular subject, think “Is there something I can offer that other bloggers/writers haven’t?  Is there a connection I can make here that they didn’t?”  Then include that.  It will really add value and freshness to your blog.

Write intentionally

Even with a daily prompt, or a daily check-in post, think “will my readers be elevated, informed, or entertained by reading this post?”  Sometimes all it takes is a little more detail, a few different wording choices to make this answer “yes.”

Be positive

Even if you write about difficult or negative subjects, keep positivity in mind.  Offer solutions if possible.  Encourage your reader.  Look for the lesson in your work, and gently point toward it without being preachy.  This can be a delicate balance but it can be done, with practice.

Delete if needed

Sometimes, a post just doesn’t turn out the way you wanted.  It’s perfectly okay to go back and delete it later if it doesn’t serve the theme of your blog.  You can archive it of course, for later reworking, but you don’t have to keep it up.

Edit, edit, edit

Take an extra look at your posting before you submit.  Give it a thorough check for spelling and grammar issues.  Simply doing this will create a better product, and add value to your work.  It also shows you care about your ideas and your readers.

 

If you add value to your blog, and think about these principles as you write, you will have more readers who keep coming back to read your work!

 

 

Mental Quests as well as Physical

Personal Growth, Photography

via Photo Challenge: Quest

 

For me, quests have always been twofold.  Mental, and physical.  My cover photo represents my quest for images, for seeing deeper, for finding new things to write about.  This picture, below, is of the biggest prickly pear cactus I’ve ever seen – and I found it in a back alley of my neighborhood!

IMG_0033

There are other quests in life.  The quest for health, the quest for fitness, the quest for wholeness.

When I was young, my quests often happened on a TV screen.  I loved playing a game called Ultima: Quest of the Avatar. Conceived by Richard Garriott, it was innovative for its time. I played the version made for Nintendo. In a way it was like a really primitive version of Fable – in the free-roaming world of Britannia, you could complete your goals in whatever order you liked. Your choices directly affected your chances at success. As in life, this game allowed you to cheat – at a penalty – but ultimately you could only succeed by following the rules laid out in the game.

Britannia was a great place to adventure, full of dusty castles and ancient keeps, deep forests and wide oceans, with several cities and towns and eight dank dungeons. There was even a hot-air balloon you could control with Wind spells!

I may have mentioned before that I wrote an ebook about this game. I’m revisiting the subject because it’s been rather relevant to me of late. I really liked Ultima because it provided a very solid system of morality, neglecting nothing, and yet it wasn’t religious at all. There were no gods mentioned, no worship.

There were shrines and meditation was mentioned, as was magic, but no one made themselves subservient to anyone. The player might check how they were doing with Hawkwind the Sage, but otherwise they didn’t compare themselves to anyone else – they strove only to beat their own personal best.

Honesty, Courage, Compassion, Sacrifice, Honor, Spirituality, and Humility were the Eight Virtues. There was a system of colors, and different in game tasks that improved each of those virtues. There was also a network of dungeons to travel through in your Quest, as well as different cities and towns to discover.

One theme that I truly enjoyed was the idea that you, the player, were transported into that world – that once you mastered the Virtues you might carry them into your own life and be a hero there as well. A theme of the game was “the Quest of the Avatar is Forever.” Even now that I’ve been spoiled by awesome graphics and epic storylines, I still occasionally pine for that game.

One of the themes that I found most valuable is the idea that Virtue is something only achieved after hard work and long practice. There are no magic pills or instant philosophies. The journey is the adventure. At the end the final boss battle is a fight with a dark form… of yourself. If that isn’t a great philosophy for life, I don’t know what is! What was the reward after Quest’s end? Gold? Gems? Fame? Only a book… but one that contained ultimate knowledge. I can’t imagine a better treasure.

If you want to read more, check out my books page.

An ad-free Mindflight will bring us together

Tips for Self Publishing

via Daily Prompt: Together

Every week I try to think of a way to make Mindflight better.  I’ve removed boring posts, improved the art on this blog, tightened up my prose, tried to figure out entries that would help and entertain.

Now we’ve gone ad free.  Though I might still make discreet suggestions about some really good product that people might love, that’s never going to be more than a simple link, easy to ignore.  I will have no popup ads, no WordPress ads.

No ads means no chance for adware or malware to be transmitted to your computer.   No ads means no sad pleas to shut down Adblockers.

By banishing ads from this blog, I want to serve my readers more fully and create just a little more ad free online space without auto playing sounds, videos, popups or distractions.

This content is going to stay free for anyone to read.  I’m really happy to be able to do it.  I think that we, as creators, can really do something awesome – together.  Therefore, comments and suggestions are always welcome.

I hope you’ll enjoy going ad free as much as I do!

Living Radically

Personal Growth

via Daily Prompt: Radical

The word Radical can have many meanings but one of them is to completely change the nature of something.

If you were to live radically, you would be changing your nature.

What would you do, if you could do anything?

What kind of person would you be?

Would you be wealthier, for example?  More generous?  Kinder?

A radical shift in attitude happens in small steps.  It’s a transformation.  A butterfly does a lot of walking and eating and growing before it finally forms a chrysalis and emerges with wings.  It’s not an instant transformation.

Successful people aren’t born that way.  They usually work very hard, and that means constant effort – even if it’s not hard, it is steady.  People born to wealth need to work to keep it.  A radical shift means a thousand small changes, a few a day.  Eventually you wake up…

…and you’re the person you wanted to be.