Future (im)perfect
Does that headline make you... tense?
Hello, targets of marketing interns everywhere, hope you are having a nice Sunday.
Some things I spent a ridiculous amount of productive time thinking about this week:
Hey infant, can I buy you a potable? My good friend Fiona (who also happens to be a terrific writer and life coach) sent me this bizarre article about pickup lines composed by various AIs. I have a fascination with all things near-future (and a novel seeking an agent that is set in one possible near future, by the way—LMK if you are an agent) — I got distracted by the idea of a “Roxanne app” that would take your mate’s features/interests and create conversation starters from them. These loving prompts could pop up on, say an Apple Watch, if your device was close by and set to accept conversation. “Ask M how her brothers are doing” or “Find out what M is reading today” or if connected to your shopping habits, “M is likely to wear a new skirt this week, try to look up.”
You’ve got a call holding. Is it just me, or have robocallers suddenly discovered that putting fake names on their fake numbers is weaseling them through our antirobo software? I think unsolicited calls are the work of the devil (FYI) and automating robocalls is beyond evil. But this week a robocall was placed by a fake-person (actor) pretending to be from a company. While the copy was clearly scripted, the script was trying its damndest to be human. “Hey there, M, it’s Sandy! You know, from (company I don’t use) and well, I’m just calling to remind you that you haven’t called me back yet—I’m…hold on a second Mike, I’m on the phone…sorry about that. I’m free this Tuesday at 2 or Friday between 10 and 12 if you wanted to reschedule? Have a great day!” — How do I know it was fake? Got the identical message on a different line and never had an appointment with anyone from this company I don’t use.
(if you’re into humanlike robots you have to see this comparison of six of them - enjoy your nightmares.)
Bonus question for creative types: What is a better word for “beyond evil”?
War/trauma: Speaking of beyond evil, I watched an Oscar-nominated short documentary about a French resistance fighter visiting a Nazi camp for the first time in her life (her brother died there). At one point the young researcher defended her need to see/hear all the stories by saying “we have to preserve the memory” to which the 99 year old replied “I have spent my whole life trying to forget.”
That dichotomy — a (first-person) need to move past a trauma vs. a (second-person) need to make the trauma real to protect (third-person) future generations from similar traumas is the core of many of our current social dilemmas.
I thought about this a lot.
Scam alert: an email purporting to be from a VP at Bliss Point Media (both the person and their media company exist, but upon emailing the company’s “info@” address, I was told it was a phishing scam which the AI marketing firm was freaking out about (seems like poetic justice to me). The email asks writers and poets to speak at a conference, offering $1500 for two days of work. What raised my hackles, besides being offered money without having to beg? They wanted to immediately send out expensive video equipment, a monitor and a microphone in addition to pay. Obviously a scam.
They should have skipped the monitor and offered to send a ring light. Amateurs.
Government Business: if you got a grant application deadline reminder that said there would be no competitive panel review for this year’s art grant, and then restated the looming application deadline, what would you think?
I made the assumption that in 2021, we were to expect some form of review other than a competitive panel. There would be no competitive panel review. Got it.
I was 99% of the way through the application before a program officer informed me that it meant that no new grants would be awarded.
THIS COMING WEEK:
My interview by Andrew Cotto of Bookish has been rescheduled. It turns out that the second vaccine shot can knock you out, and so we are going to do the interview Tuesday. (My second shot isn’t until April 29th. I have a lot of productive days before then.)
Tuesday April 13 is also the date of our next Pen Parentis Literary salon. It’s on Love and Loss. Tune in at 7pm Eastern time, and see how I do with balancing my love of riotous laughter and flighty candor with a topic that serious. Bring popcorn, in case I crash and burn. RSVP through this link if you are interested in the LiveCast. It’s free, but the nonprofit could use your donation.
FROM BEFORE:
If you don’t know me all that well, here’s a recent (with vintage teenageM photos!) interview that discusses one facet of my ridiculously busy life. If you like that and want to see me on video, I did this Facebook Live interview with Katherine R. Lewis.
And of course, here’s the link to find out more about my book, about parenting and productivity if you’re curious.
Final thought:
I spend more time re-editing autocorrect than I would editing my own typing.
Thanks for reading & have a great week.
—M.