Science Fiction Tried to Warn Us about AI. Or Did It?, by Tom Gammarino Essay [email protected] Wed, 03/01/2023 - 03:46 Photo by NASA / Unsplash “All our AI Frankenstein stories,” the author writes, “warn us that AI will destroy us, but far louder than that, they promise that the future is going to be mind-blowing and epic.” Will we heed the warnings? Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is the literary work that most clearly established the conventions of science fiction as we know it. Not only did the 1818 novel pioneer the archetype of the mad scientist, it also established one of the genre’s most important cultural roles: to warn us about ways humans, through our hubris, might create the very beings that eventually undo us. In subtitling the novel The Modern Prometheus, Shelley harked back to the Titan who stole fire from the gods and was punished by having his regenerating liver devoured every day by an eagle (since the liver was the seat of the emotions for the Greeks, we might as well translate it as “heart”). Inspired by the experiments of Luigi Galvani, who used electric current to stimulate the leg of a dissected frog, and his nephew Giovanni Aldini, who ran a similar experiment on a hanged criminal, Shelley had her mad scientist play God by endowing a patchwork of human remains with the spark of life. Two centuries later, the resulting monstrosity serves as a stand-in for any of our runaway technologies — the internal... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2023-03-01 09:46:57 UTC ]
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Karl Sabbagh says small publishers face with huge obstacles with selling books and even letting anyone know they exist; plus a descendant of Dr Miles Marley sets the record straightWith reference to your leader on literary fiction (28 December), as a small publisher we are faced with huge... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-12-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Stories should come from all parts of society – not just from the well heeled and the middle classLiterary fiction, you might think, is in wonderful health. Book festivals, from Edinburgh and Wigtown in Scotland, to Hay-on-Wye in Wales, to Cheltenham and Bath in England, are flourishing. There... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-12-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Merle Nygate has won the inaugural Little, Brown Award for crime fiction at the University of East Anglia (UEA). Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-12-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Ahead of special events for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction's half-century anniversary, the foundation releases a desk diary with covers of winning titles. The post The UK’s Man Booker Prize for Fiction Observes Its 50th Anniversary in 2018 appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2017-12-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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As a new report reveals the dire financial straits being faced by literary novelists, we investigate how these bleak conditions arose and what can be done to help the writers, regarded by some as thoroughbreds and by others as ghosts of Christmas past. We also catch up with Edward St Aubyn, one... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-12-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Harry Potter publisher Bloomsbury warns UK’s exclusive English rights across EU will end, with firms fighting US companies in an open marketThe next generation of British authors could struggle to land a book deal after Brexit, according to the publisher who launched Harry Potter writer JK... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-12-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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'Overall the books selling well' in the UK 'are not literary,' Arts Council England's commissioned report from the Canelo team announces. The post Arts Council England’s Alarm for Literary Fiction: ‘The Problem Is a Real One’ appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2017-12-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Arts Council England has pledged to engage with more bookshops, fund more writers and lobby the government to provide tax relief to independent publishers following a report finding that “the general trend for literary fiction is a negative one”. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-12-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Arts Council England’s report into the crisis in literary fiction should serve as a "wake up call" to the industry which needs to "radically rethink" how it presents the genre, the chief executive of Curtis Brown has warned. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-12-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Competition from smartphones and readers sticking to well-known writers means novelists are suffering. We must find ways better ways to enable themFinally it’s official: literary fiction is in crisis, and writers across the land are burning the midnight oil in their garrets, teaching or slogging... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-12-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Arts Council England report has set the internet ablaze – but are sales of literary fiction in decline because of snobbery, bad writing or Candy Crush?News: Literary fiction in crisis as sales drop dramaticallyArts Council England has sounded the alarm for literary fiction with a report... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-12-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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New figures show that fewer UK writers earn enough to live on, as ACE blames falling sales of literary fiction on the recession and the rise of smartphonesThe image of the impoverished writer scratching out their masterwork in a freezing garret remains as true today as it was a century ago,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-12-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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HarperCollins Children’s Books has snapped up World Book Day illustrator Sophy Henn’s first fiction series as part of a three-book contract in a “significant pre-emptive deal”. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-12-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The MIT press publishes a rich list of trade nonfiction for general readers hungry for knowledge (Sponsored) Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2017-12-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hindi pulp fiction writer Surender Mohan Pathak has been made 'the Agatha Christie of India' by HarperCollins India's Minakshi Thakur, now at Westland. The post The Rise of Surender Mohan Pathak: HarperCollins India Wins Big With Hindi Pulp Fiction appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2017-12-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bloomsbury crime imprint Raven Books has signed its first non-fiction title - an exploration of death through the eyes of the professionals who deal with it every day. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-12-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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BBC Radio 4's "Today" programme editor Sarah Sands has been unveiled as the chair of the judges for the 2018 Women’s Prize for Fiction. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-12-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Educational publishers should be focusing on technology that can actively help improve teaching and learning, Hodder Education m.d Liz Tribe has told The Bookseller's FutureBook conference. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-12-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Christopher Bollen has won the 25th annual Literary Review Bad Sex in Fiction Award for The Destroyers (Harper). Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-12-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Shares in Daily Mail & General Trust slumped the most since 2001 after giving investors news they didn't want to hear: 2018 will essentially be a lost year.The publisher of the Daily Mail newspaper said fiscal 2018 will be a "year of transition," warning of weakness across its businesses, a... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2017-11-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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