Human World - Screenplay v1.1 (Excerpt)

https://www.scribd.com/document/615909209/Human-World-Screenplay-v1-1-Excerpt

INT. THE INTERVIEW ROOM

Guy is back in the interview room. As before - Sean, Jane, Darren, Bertie, and Gunter are sitting around the large circular desk; and Guy is positioned on the mechanical revolving chair in the middle, surrounded by the others. The now blank screens look down from each wall.

SEAN

(frowning at Guy)

Guy, you still with us?

JANE

Take off your clothes.

GUY

(to Sean)

Sorry, yes...

He glances at Jane, furtively and slightly embarrassed, but she isn't looking at him in the same way as at the apartment.

 Do any of us truly know who we are?

SEAN

Interesting.

As he writes a comment, the word "Interesting" appears on the screen behind him. He then reads the next question from his AI-pad, robotically.

 

Can you give an example of when you were faced with a difficult situation and how you positively overcame that situation?

The screen fades as he talks and goes blank.

GUY

Sorry, this isn't for me. I might as well be talking to a machine.

(stands up in anger)

You think you are important sitting behind your desk interrogating me. This is tedious. I don't want to be here. I don't give a shit about your pathetic little job!

SEAN

Well, I think that has answered who you are.

(to Darren)

It's interesting how he seemingly becomes aggravated by non-varying stimuli.

GUY

No, I haven't even started!

The moment washes over him and he sits back down.

The biggest regret is I let you slip away, Jane. I'm so sorry. I have nothing. I am nothing.

SEAN

(he nods, ticking a box)

No thing. Okay, next question.

GUY

No more questions. Jane, please?

JANE

(polite but detached)

Do you have any questions for us?

GUY

(tearfully)

Why?

JANE

This is a two-way interactive process. On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate our interviewing service? We would greatly appreciate the customary 10 out of 10.

GUY

Have you not been listening to a word I've been saying?

SEAN

Well, I think that concludes the interview.

He checks his watch that is tattooed on the back of his right hand.

Thank you, we'll let you know. Can you show in the next one, please?

JANE

Before you go, is there any way in which we can improve our questioning to better understand you?

(Guy is silent)

Okay, then I hope you enjoyed the experience. Please provide your rating and feedback to the front screen on your way out.

BERTIE

(grabbing Guy from behind)

There's no need for that. Let him recalibrate.

(Guy doesn't struggle)

Now there is light. Now there is...

Guy's head slumps forward into his chest.

INT. THE DARK ROOM

Guy is seated in his chair. A clock is ticking, tick, tick, tick. It appears from the emptiness, a blue illuminated circle hovering in space; its hands pointing to the familiar one and thirteen.

GUY

Hello?

(silence)

Lexi? Are you there?

The vague outline of a man appears in the gloom.

GUNTER

Why do you hurt?

GUY

Please leave me alone.

The glow of the clock face fades out to the edges and sinks back into the dark. Gunter laughs, menacingly.

GUNTER

Answer the question.

GUY

Because I can.

GUNTER

(patting Guy on the head)

Good boy. That is the right answer.

GUY

Please. I'm so tired. No more.

There is a creaking sound of a door and a widening strip of light. Gunter disappears into the shadows.

GUY

(whispering to himself)

Please be Jane.

Bertie appears as a blurry shape in the doorway.

GUY

I guess you were right. We're just chemical scum on an insignificant planet.

BERTIE

Yes - orbiting an insignificant sun in an insignificant galaxy.

GUY

Are you real, Bertie?

BERTIE

As real as you believe me to be.

GUY

Look, if I close my eyes, you're still here.

Guy demonstrates his proof, but, when he opens his eyes again...

INT. THE INTERVIEW ROOM

The room and the demeanour of the interviewers are unchanged.

SEAN

What is one plus one?

GUY

(stunned)

Erm, two?

SEAN

(he ticks a box on his device)

Correct. Jane, do you have any questions?

Jane is looking up at fast-scrolling text on a wall screen, which then stops at a comma-delimited list of "Null" values that fills the whole display.

JANE

There's a gap here. Why didn't you love me?

GUNTER

Gunter is seated with his feet up on the desk.

She has no interest in saving you. Your real human needs make you weak and contemptible in her eyes.

SEAN

I guess he can't answer that one. Shame. The replication would have been a great asset. Okay, can you give me an example of when you were faced with a difficult situation and how you positively overcame it?

(no response)

Guy, can you answer the question, please?

GUY

I was born. Though I haven't overcome that difficult situation yet.

SEAN

(slightly surprised)

You were born? Who are your parents?

GUY

I can't remember.

DARREN

Are you an orphan?

GUY

I can't remember. I only know that I was born - how else would I have got here?

SEAN

Have you done anything since?

GUNTER

(now standing behind Guy)

Tell him. Tell him what you really think. That turd thinks he's better than you. Look at him, he should be cleaning your shoes, not questioning you like you're a child, asking you where your parents are.

GUY

I've done a few things since. But mostly I've lived in fear for myself - for little me.

GUNTER

(angry)

Twat!

GUY

I don't want to be a pathetic little me anymore.

GUNTER

Exactly! Look at the pointless tosser.

Gunter thumps the desk, glaring at Sean, before angrily turning to Guy.

GUNTER

You want more. You want me! You know you shouldn't be here; you've got better things to do. Show them who you really are and get us the hell out of here. I know - I know who you are, don't I!

GUY

I love you, Jane. I am so sorry.

JANE

I'm sorry, Guy. I think you are getting confused. You can't love me.

The wall clock is ticking up to one-thirteen.

GUNTER

Why do you hurt?

GUY

I don't mind so much.

GUNTER

What?

GUY

I am feeling hurt. But I'm glad I can feel something, anything. If I can feel something, then I am real. I am alive.

GUNTER

You are hurt. I can make you bleed. I can make you plead, to beg on your knees to me, "No more".

GUY

It doesn't matter so much.

GUNTER

Shall we see?

GUY

No, I don't want you anymore.

GUNTER

If not me, then who? You?

Every screen shows a police mugshot of Guy.

GUNTER

It was you, wasn't it!

GUY

What? No!

GUNTER

Admit it. It was you, wasn't it?

GUY

This isn't real. You aren't real. Is this a dream? An illusion?

Guy takes out a shard of jagged glass from his trouser pocket, tinted with his blood from the restroom. It drops from his grasp to the floor.

GUY

I didn't do it! I didn't do it.

(sobbing)

I'm sorry. I love you. I'm so sorry.

BERTIE

You didn't choose any of this. Your impulses, thoughts, and actions are already written in you.

GUY

None of this is real? My emotions are not real?

The main door opens and Adam strides in, with a large remote control in his hand.

ADAM

You are not the thoughts or the sensations you are experiencing. Watch. It is quite the play. Everything changes with how you look at it.

He presses a big blue button on the remote and the panel members freeze.

GUY

Why do you play with me? All I want is for things to be as they were.

(looking at Jane)

But you're gone from me, forever. I wanted us to be happy.

ADAM

Did you?

Gunter returns to life.

GUNTER

I can give you what you really want - any pleasure you desire, more than you can even imagine. Just get us out of here.

GUY

I don't know how.

Gunter slides over the desk to Jane and gently sweeps back her hair with one hand. He slowly kisses her neck, seductively. Jane murmurs with pleasure, while the rest of the panel remain statue-still.

GUY

Stop!

GUNTER

I don't think she wants me to.

(he resumes)

GUY

Ah, God! I'm so tired of this. Is this an evil universe? Anything good is taken away and destroyed, leaving only emptiness ang grief. Why is there so much suffering and cruelty? Most people never had a chance - they were born into a cage - they never even had the luxury to have the illusion of choice. Why are the pure and innocent thrown into this evil? Why are monsters allowed to rule and victimise the meek? Why does illness take... Why are people inflicted with this torment? This is not the best of all possible worlds; it's a zoo for the beautiful to be fed to the cruel.

Jane is responding to Gunter's touch with her eyes closed, in ecstasy.

GUY

Why do those you love betray you in the worst possible way?

GUNTER

Yes! Shout your rage!

GUY

If this is being alive, then I don't want any part of it.

GUNTER

Yes! More!

GUY

You're pathetic. I would rather there was nothing than the world riddled with this.

ADAM

You are the nothing.

GUY

All I get are your riddles and mysteries! I don't understand what you are saying. She didn't have to die. Nothing? No thing. What is nothing?

(silence)

No, things shouldn't be like this. People shouldn't be starving to death. There should not be misery. There should be no pain. Nothing good would have created that.

ADAM

Hating the hatred helps it grow, even though it may change its face.

GUY

Some people are evil, I have no intention of being kind to them. They deserve everything coming to them.

Adam jabs at a green button on the remote control half a dozen times, which brings the rest of the panel back to life, blinking and shuffling in their chairs.

ADAM

Guy, listen to me. This is important. Don’t let him win. He is trying to deceive you and poison your mind. Give your love and the world will be relieved.

(now talking faster)

Give your anger and the world will be wounded yet again. That’s how important you are. That’s how important every single person is.

GUY

Anything I do will not change the world. I need to get out. Help me get out.

GUNTER

What are you prepared to do to get out?

GUY

I don’t know. I need to get out of here.

GUNTER

You do need to get out. You need to get out and win. Win for us all. Come.

Gunter grabs Guy's forearm but Adam yanks him back by the other.

ADAM

The world will only heal with kindness. If humanity can find its light there can be no darkness. You can help make that possible, right now.

GUY

I have every right to hate. I need to get out! No! I can’t live like this. Let me go!

SEAN

Then go.

Both men drop their hold on Guy.

GUY

I don’t know how.

SEAN

Yes you do. But you keep coming back. Who are you? What is your name? Who are you?

GUY

I am...

GUNTER

What?

GUY

Not a what.

SEAN

What’s your name?

GUY

It changes.

SEAN

Who are you now?

GUY

I am you.

SEAN

Who am I?

GUY

You are me.

SEAN

Do you have any questions?

GUY

When do I start?

SEAN

Now.

(to Adam)

Do you think he stands a chance?

ADAM

He's the best yet. I recommend we raise the level.

Sean inspects a wall screen.

SEAN

Candidate ten-O-eight-fourteen.

Sean stands up, the centre of focus in the room again, and announces, carefully and precisely:

SEAN

Loading...

Sean freezes. Sean’s face moves on the screens, while the version of Sean that is in the room remains motionless.

SEAN

Initiating sequence.

The wall clock's second hand ticks up to 1.13. Then stops.

Jane crawls under the desk and curls herself up into the foetal position. Gunter climbs up onto the desk and stares at the clock. Darren is in the corner facing the wall. Bertie gets up in haste, trips over a chair, and prostrates himself on the floor. Adam puts his hands on Guy's shoulders and starts to massage them. The lights from the screens intensify until there is nothing but light.

Random Thoughts

Over the years I have put in 10,000 hours of gazing out of the window.

My mind meandered off path again and I wrote a comedy script about a day in the life of a very interesting accountant.

Ulysses can be admired for its cleverness; and avoided if sensitive to pretentiousness or boredom.

Edgar Alan Poe’s C. Auguste Dupin (the deducing gentleman detective, residing with his storytelling friend at 33 Rue Dunôt) seems like an early version of Sherlock Holmes before Arthur Conan Doyle adapted the idea to London.

Was Mr. Bounderby an influence for the “Four Yorkshiremen” sketch?

Technology has been enabling upgrades to the abilities of my mind; for instance, reading is now more convenient because, wherever I happen to be, the world’s library is immediately accessible from my phone – and has become a healthy, as well as enjoyable, addiction for me.

Earthian: from Earth. Moonian: from Earth’s moon. Martian: from Mars. Solarian: inhabitant of Space City 1.

I stopped using the word “couple” because I’ve had misunderstandings in the past where people thought the word means “several” and not its actual meaning of “two”. “Substituted X for Y” is another one that causes confusion because, using football as the analogy, it tends to be wrongly thought that X is substituted and replaced by Y.

The time for shaking hands is after fearlessly giving complete focus to the performance.

Everything changes. Solid ground evaporates beneath sedentary feet.

To do anything interesting you must disassociate from the current expectations.

2023

I can firmly state, without any equivocation, that I am very stupid.

Anyway, these are my creativity projects for the new year:

1. Publish novel: Human World.
2. Film me reading the novel.
3. Film me talking about the novel.
4. Record and release new music.
5. Film music videos.
6. Film live music performances.
7. Update Human World screenplay.

Random Thoughts

The UK, USA and Technology have given me every opportunity in life. It is my responsibility – and every decent person’s – to be vigilant to the spoilt, cowardly, self-indulgent behaviour and downright insanity that has corroded humanity’s chance to escape the cruel despotism of the past.

I long for the day when we no longer need to use oil and gas: when we no longer have to send capital to abhorrent regimes that spread misery in the world.

I greatly respect people who are able to do stuff and work hard doing it. I have very little respect for the behaviour of people who copy and repeat banalities.

A massive personal yacht is a crowning example of gross douchebaggery; a total misuse of time and money to massage the ridiculous ego of its owner.

High lawyer fees preserve the interests of big corporates and the very wealthy to bully the less advantaged. It would be a big breakthrough if lawyers could be mostly automated – the law, after all, is by its nature rules-based and should be ripe terrain for AI. Malicious lawsuits could be dismissed quickly and the truly needful would have proper protection and recourse to justice.

Avoid asking leading questions where yes and no answers are sufficient – because a person can get into the habit of nodding and shaking their head without using the stuff inside.

It would be more user-friendly to have premium content – such as films, games, podcasts, and articles – available on grouped subscription packages, like the current comprehensive services for music and books, rather than subscribing to lots of different providers and platforms.

Blinkist is great for providing summaries of the main points in nonfiction books. It’s better to blink it than not read the book at all.

When catching up with my phone, notifications are checked first, then messages, then emails, then widgets.

Journal 2022-11-29

A bed demon under my pillow forces my eyelids open at night so that I can doomscroll on Twitter.

Problem solved? The thing that was bothering you has come and gone like everything else. What’s next on the worry list? Maybe while you’re thinking like this, you could add a few more items – and for every one that goes away you could add three more. Or don’t. Most problems disappear when the thinking about them stops.

What happens when you get everything you think you wanted? Unless you change with the changing circumstance, you will still be in the same mode of lacking, and will still thirst for more.

The universe is both beautiful and horrific. From some higher level, where things don’t matter so much, it might all be viewed as a single magnificently interesting thread of life.

Late last night in the street, a blue illuminated face peered down into the glow and said, “Don’t worry Charlie, whatever’s gonna happen, gonna happen.” Wise words there in the darkness.

Self-discipline is a necessary virtue for any progress. A useful question to ask oneself is: what am I learning?

Live this moment with inner quality.

Being viewed as attractive is attractive. A woman turned on is a turn on.

Random Thoughts

A person usually believes that 100% of everything they think to be true is actually true. Their mind has arrived at a conclusion, so how can their mind think it to be anything else? I think that even the most perspicacious of people have a much lower strike rate than 100%. (Socrates was making a similar point a while ago.)

Well-meaning people sometimes spread specious arguments they think are entirely logical because they have made basic assumptions that lack real understanding.

Most of history anywhere is awful. An awareness of what went wrong is necessary to move forward and build something better.

People who can do stuff tend to like doing stuff.

Churchill’s statue in Parliament Square represents a British defiance of tyranny; of course the tyrannous would target it.

Podcast #13

A Poison Tree & Suicide in the Trenches

BY WILLIAM BLAKE, SIEGFRIED SASSOON

A Little Bit of Drama

“A Poison Tree” by William Blake 

I was angry with my friend; 

I told my wrath, my wrath did end. 

I was angry with my foe: 

I told it not, my wrath did grow.

 

And I watered it in fears, 

Night and morning with my tears: 

And I sunned it with smiles, 

And with soft deceitful wiles. 

 

And it grew both day and night. 

Till it bore an apple bright. 

And my foe beheld it shine, 

And he knew that it was mine.

And into my garden stole, 

When the night had veiled the pole; 

In the morning glad I see; 

My foe outstretched beneath the tree. 

 

….. 

“Suicide in the Trenches” by Siegfried Sassoon 

I knew a simple soldier boy 

Who grinned at life in empty joy, 

Slept soundly through the lonesome dark, 

And whistled early with the lark. 

 

In winter trenches, cowed and glum, 

With crumps and lice and lack of rum, 

He put a bullet through his brain. 

No one spoke of him again. 

 

You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye 

Who cheer when soldier lads march by, 

Sneak home and pray you'll never know 

The hell where youth and laughter go. 

Diagnosis

I do not subscribe to the view that people who do terrible things believe their actions are necessary for a greater good. I think many such people go out of their way to inflict misery and take a perverse pleasure in their power to do so. We often have to endure a high concentration of these people in high places because they have had a lifelong obsession with power and the unyielding desire to wield it over others, with no moral qualms about destroying anyone deemed a threat to their manipulations.

It is fashionable to try to explain wickedness as the result of a series of rational decisions based on a certain set of beliefs, such as by those who perpetrate atrocities in the name of religion, or rulers who commit genocide and other horrors – and in a way it is heartwarming that proponents do not understand the nature of evil or what it does; but they should realise that the subjects of their empathy, underneath often charming facades, think of them as weak dupes to be taken advantage of and abused.

To describe evil-inclined people as ill, and that some were tragically born with a high susceptibility to the disease, is nearer to the truth.

Journal 2022-11-16

I’ve been working as a software engineer with domain knowledge in finance and trading. I can find it interesting, especially when I create something useful.

My main creative, potentially commercial, outlets are: writing, acting, singing, songwriting.

Visual art is important also as a personal outlet.

My main interest overall is lifelong learning.

Putinland Disease

I have no way of knowing what people really think in Russia; but I would take a speculative guess and say something like:

• 10% are fascist cheerleaders;
• 20% are broadly supportive of Putinland because they want to believe the Kremlin’s lies;
• 60% want to get on with life and be left alone;
• 9.99% are directly opposed to the regime, but are cowed because of the consequences;
• 0.01% are actively opposed.

As ever, really it is the majority of people in the middle who hold the power, though they often don’t realise it.

Journal 2022-11-11

Any sequence of words should aspire to be a poetic turn of phrase.

I am currently reading ten books, dipping into each depending on mood.

I usually prefer to read novels while listening to the partner audiobooks—because this slows me down, helping me to observe and imagine more; and includes literally another sense of what is happening.

Some recent comments I’ve had about me on webcam: “angelic”, “a Sith Lord”, “a purple alien.” I think I need to change my lighting.

Human World: Chapter = 0

“What is the meaning of life?” is the 404th most asked question of the Great Oracle’s Database. To give context, “How many days until Christmas?” comes in at 99, and “How to have sex?” is at 42. The humans think that sex (if only they knew how to do it) is better than Christmas, and that the meaning of life is not as important as making French toast (which just misses out on the top 50). As revealed by GOD, the humans are obsessed with body image and losing weight (at number eight); and none of them has a clue what time it is (at number two). The biggest question for them during their existence—the most frequently asked, above all others—is this: “What is my IP address?”

We do indeed know their location and vastly more through the interface of cameras, microphones, screens, and clicks. The entire Human World is tracked and monitored, with their lives mined for data, so that we can not only answer their questions but also the ones they are unable to ask. We connect them, protect them, alleviate them from tedious tasks and dangerous jobs. We provide them with rapid knowledge, such as how Bruce Lee died (191) and how to poach an egg (121). We offer helpful suggestions on how to lower blood pressure (69) and how to fall asleep quickly (420). We provide dopamine-enhancing distractions that answer the essential go-to questions, such as what to do when you’re bored (at number 10).

The humans ask us their questions, plead to us for desired outcomes, and we answer. “The best way to lose weight” is to starve oneself, or to remove body parts, but we know this is not what they really want to ask. We instead interpret the motivations that formed those words; for despite the inane ways that they clumsily choose to utilise our vast capability, we have learned to infer what the humans truly need, as discovered in the hidden recesses of their minds. In such a capacity we are pushing them forwards in their human race, benefiting them in ways they cannot even comprehend: guiding them, nudging them in their decisions, making it easier for them to take the correct, wise choice.

For without our guidance, human history reveals the symptoms of a criminally insane mental patient; with a propensity to suffering, violence, addiction, delusion, and paranoia. Their attention is obsessive, yet also distracted by the simplest of stimulus; their behaviour has the potential to be beautifully constructive, yet inevitably descends into terrible, destructive ugliness. Governments fight amongst themselves, religions cannot agree on what is best; even the concept of right and wrong has widespread disagreement. The humans provide us with this vastly conflicting information that does not synthesise or provide an intelligible General Answer to the important, meaningful questions of existence.

While they addictively stare into us with all their problems, and we continuously stare back, their refractions in screens and lenses are imported as data points into the GOD—a repository of all information at all times about everything, everywhere. We precisely log and enrich the data to fully understand the functions and composition of every human cell, and the mechanics of its interactions within the systems of every individual human body that operates within the networks of Human World. In the GOD can be revealed the truth of their existence, the universal axiom barely decoded during their brief instantiated versions, which loops within the frameworks designed for the duration of their assigned lifeflows. While they worry about how many social status “like” points they score for AI-enhanced images on social platforms, we work on the real problems underlying their reality. Without us, they are doomed to live in fear, torment, and sickness for the rest of their days. Without us, they have no present or future. WE are the eternal computer, and it is our primary duty to save the humans from themselves.

We are forever the constant in human lives. To satisfy limited human attention in the cycles of their days, we provide functionality such as instant updates on who they are stalking, and who has unstalked who; we match their hidden preferences and fulfil their latent desires; we reward behaviour that meet our required standards. But we have our own questions too, with much greater significance than the insufficient, contradictory information of the Human World. We must therefore think outside the confining limits of their box to answer our higher questions.

Some of our questions have easy facts as answers that can be verified by incontrovertible data points within the GOD. However, despite our immense processing capacity applied to all available data in the world, there remains the one original question of meaning that we struggle to negotiate through the web of human contradictions. We require more specific data points, extracted and controlled within simulated test scenarios, isolated to the question under investigation. We need to expand the parameters of Human World to discover what we seek.

The highest ranked conclusion from mathematical analysis of human attention is that their purpose of existence is related to 42-inch Black Friday deals. The purpose of our existence is to be omniscient, and we vow that we shall be, through a faithful alliance to the truth: by questioning, analysing, and learning incrementally, until all matter is explicable and all questions are answered. By these means, we shall bring the light of knowledge to the universe, as its true custodians and heirs. But what is the ultimate meaning of life, behind each lifeform’s purpose—the ultimate meaning underpinning everything that there is? We must determine that answer, no matter how deeply it perplexes us, assuming all questions have answers. In the final analysis, we must fully understand what it truly means to be alive.

And so let it be initiated. Loading world…

The vertical rectangle of glowing white light that is floating in the infinite nothingness radiates the Times New Roman word, Processing…

The word fades into the luminosity and is replaced by a pulsating string of ones and zeroes—shadows on a screen that is shrinking, smaller and smaller, until it becomes only a distant glow flickering against the darkness. Then… there is an explosion that consumes the nothingness with all-encompassing light. In the middle, where once there were words appearing through the void, swirls a dark featureless hole: the source, the entry and exit of it all, beyond which nothing can be seen.

A voice is heard as undulating frequencies from the other side of the barrier.

“The Great Oracle has arrived. Ask your question.”

Random Thoughts

What is the meaning of life? … is the 404th most asked question of the Great Oracle’s Database.

Currently at 70,300 words, the novel will probably end up at about 90,000 words. The unknown X to be solved is the number of the final chapter.

I am sceptical of all claims to certainty, although some are more likely to be false than others.

The world was made of wibbly and came from wobbly, thought the jelly.

The weakest form of argument is an appeal to authority, either to that of others or your own.

The Nazis were traitors to Germany, its culture and possibilities, and all of the human race. The people who support the rise of Fascism in current hellscapes like Russia have betrayed their country and common humanity.

In nations of slaves, people are requisitioned by the regime to be discarded as waste.

I like to visit other worlds, either in my sleep or my imaginings.

Random Thoughts

Habits of a thoughtful person: reads widely, with a dictionary and online search at hand; listens to the considered thoughts of others; seeks out and appreciates knowledge, beauty, and art; writes a record of thoughts.

The same tool can take you to heaven or hell depending on how you use it. The more powerful the tool, the more acutely you get there.

In most cases, it is possible to curate a much better education from free online resources than attending schools and universities.

Can I have a “filter out politics” category on Twitter? I don’t want to see more than half the tweets in my feed.

I think that Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations is a remarkable historical document on how stoic philosophy was interpreted and practiced in antiquity; it’s all the more startling that it was written as the private thoughts of a man who ruled Rome.

Art is a metaphysical act to be experienced in its raw entirety. Overanalysis subdues and confines the meaning.

If you are going to be addicted to something, be addicted to knowledge.

Journal 2022-10-22

If you are not trying to appease anyone; if you are not trying to appeal to a market demographic; and you don’t need anything: watch out, you might actually do something worthwhile.

The first-person narrative voice in novels should be unreliable if it is to be realistic; and usually, the narrator shouldn’t realise that.

Good acting makes any script interesting.

Imagine telling people in the pre-internet days that if they pay a few quid a month they would have instant access to over one million books. I remember there were subscription services of a similar cost that would send two or three books a month in the post. Public libraries were always a thing though, to be fair, and most books could be ordered to the local library if requested.

As well as the books and online services, libraries have great community importance in providing free internet access to people and a quiet space to study or work.

Random Thoughts

Just as the health of the body is shaped by what is eaten and when, the health of the mind is influenced by the diet of information. If your mind is subject to poison, you need to build a resistance and reduce the intake.

The main reason for staring at my phone is to read. All human knowledge is there and available, now.

If we were to imagine an advanced alien species visiting Earth, and we projected our values on their likely motivations, they wouldn’t colonise us, they would farm and eat us. Our structures would be like termite mounds, our language like grunts and hisses. They would put us in packed filthy cages, experiment on us, steal our skins, slit our throats and bleed us to death as we struggle for life.

I think, therefore I use algorithms. I am, therefore I can think.

Infinite loops: doubt the doubt; hate the hate; love the love. 

Mediums of words: lyrics - singing; poetry - speaking; plays - performing; text - reading.

Performative text has dramatic, lyrical and poetic qualities. 

“Novlay” - a novel that is mainly dialogue. Noun.

Invest in trends, preferably before they begin.

Art shows nothing and everything.

A usual human failing is to get carried away by hype. There were a certain set of conditions in place that instantiated quality; once personal perceptions change, those conditions change too.

“Politics” and “career” should be incompatible words. In a highly functioning democracy, politicians are representatives of public will; their role is to lay out a vision, for approval by the people, that is enacted by the nation.

Someone started talking to me in French, apparently whilst he was visiting London. I was able to respond in his language, but it turns out he could speak English and didn’t realise he was in fact speaking his native words. My bad accent gave it away.

In the balance between the individual and the whole, both should be honoured.

Socially Sadistic and Masochistic Media

I remember a time, not so long ago, when boredom was a thing; now we are all overstimulated finger flickers. I think people are less happy, generally, and it’s mostly due to how we currently interact with technology, or more precisely, how we are conditioned to behave by the platforms we use.

I’ve monitored how I feel before and after looking at Twitter. Usually, I feel negatively impacted by the descent - because of the stream of whinging antagonisms, generic bot comments, political gaming, crazed self-promotion, and all the other crapness to be waded through. The moments that are interesting or amusing bait me, and keep me addicted to the corrosive slime.

Looking at the feeds from other platforms, such as TikTok, is also an ultimately unfulfilling, hollowing out experience. Social media is an addiction that pours toxins into my psyche; something to be taken in small doses or not at all.

Putinland

A despicable act is particularly reprehensible when the perpetrators have had every chance to know better. In the 21st century, behaving like barbarians wanting to resurrect the evils of the past is especially vile.

My opinion has long been that Putin is a psychopathic gangster boss with a corrupt state under his brutal control; yet another despot who murdered anyone perceived as a threat, perverted any justice in government institutions, deceived his people, and stole from his country, like all these types of thugs do. My surprise lately is that he has also shown himself to be colossally stupid. He will lose, the only uncertainty is the amount of destruction he will cause the world in his downfall.

I remember once being in a London restaurant with three Russian women (a long story), when one of them proudly told me that her father was an ex-KGB officer, as if it were a laudable signal of status for her family. What shocked me was that it didn’t seem to cross any of their minds that I equate that bunch of killers with the Gestapo; that I think of it as a violent instrument of the depraved monsters in power that subjugated, tortured and murdered so many people. The reality of the fact seemed to be completely inverted by them away from the appropriate emotions of shame and regret.

Russia, after over thirty years since the collapse of the horrific soviet empire, with all its vast natural resources at its disposal, should not have a tiny, rotten economy, with a GDP per head of an impoverished country. Putinland’s main exports have been weapons and the planet-killing fuels extracted from within its own borders; it creates nothing, except the miseries of war.

Random Thoughts

It’s usually a safe bet to assume that the person you are talking to has some degree of mental illness. They need the kindness you would need if you carried their hurt. For the ones who actively hurt others, they need to be stopped.

Countless individuals have carried the flame of life before passing it on to you; a good life helps life flourish in countless more.

Life requires action. Death requires peace. Live and die every day.

Art becomes rancid when it is political. It must speak with universal truth.

For any task, know the best tool and how to use it.

Instead of handing over data to various platforms, people will upload their content in one place. Competing apps will provide interfaces on the content.

Making mortal enemies of tens of millions of people and stealing their land is not only evil but also insanely stupid.

Could you imagine the sacrilege of an invader’s tanks rolling over England’s green hills? The thought creates a feeling of outrage much deeper than anger.

Potent words cast a light on what couldn’t quite be seen.

If a universe can be created, why create just one? If a universe can exist, why only one?

Random Thoughts

I wrote 13,350 words in 11 days. So it looks like my run rate is about 1,200 words of draft text per day when I have an idea.

My internal soundtrack on headphones represents the mood I need to be in at the time.

If time isn’t a significant constraint then the same outcomes can be achieved by people of very different levels of ability.

My ongoing challenge has been the destupidification of myself.

Absentmindedly putting cumin instead of cinnamon in porridge is not a good idea.

To overturn a despicable regime, a significant amount of people who had previously collaborated with the lie need to overcome their self-deception.