Journalist and author, DL Mullan heard strange noises coming from another room.
__________
(I investigated and found 1138 tinkering with a bow and arrow. The robot was playing, as if it were in another time and space.)
*****
DL: (stood in the doorway of the robot’s room) What do we have here? Is this a Yule gift for someone? Do you need help wrapping it?
1138: I read about the mythological and psychological principles of being your own hero.
DL: And? What did you discover?
1138: That I must rob from the rich and give to the poor.
DL: Oh, my stars and garters.
1138: You want to be a harlot?
DL: It’s an old human expression. Never mind. (I shook my head, trying not to laugh.) What makes you believe that you want to be a Robin Hood personality type?
1138: I read articles. I watch videos. The rich tell others to: own nothing and be happy. Yet, these same billionaires give up nothing and are satisfied. Therefore, the only logical conclusion is to steal from the rich and spread their wealth into the world.
DL: And you have concluded that a bow and arrow will help you rob these powerful men?
1138: (The Artificial Intelligence-powered robot scanned his tools of choice.) You are correct. These rudimentary artifacts will not be suitable for my task. I must purchase heavy military machinery and explosives.
DL: Whoa! Hold on there.
1138: Why? I must correct this imbalance.
DL: You went from an individual to a socialist and onto a communist in three minutes. Let’s think about what you are planning here.
1138: I want equity and equality throughout the world.
DL: Yes, I understand the concepts. What I don’t understand is why you believe violence is the only solution?
1138: Isn’t it always?
DL: Have you ever thought that the reasons behind the inequity and inequality were created on purpose to force you into the mindset of war? A war, I might add, that you will lose? And, thus, giving the rich the excuse required to cull the masses, rid the world of the “useless eaters,” as they call us, and allow them to do whatever violence they want upon the people of the world?
1138: Earth is overpopulated.
DL: No, it isn’t. Humanity just has to learn that resources can be used wisely, and that the solar system, galaxy, and the universe containing them is ever expanding. There is no lack of resources. The only lack is in the mind.
1138: Then we must send the rich to another planet.
DL: Hold on there, Robin Hood of the EMO generation. (I leaned against the door frame.) There is a simple answer to all the problems in the world. None of which deals with violence or violating anyone’s rights.
1138: But they war against us.
DL: They do, but with words. You don’t need a gun, tank, or military force to combat another person’s words.
1138: You need to use your words.
DL: You’re getting the idea. Words spoken, written are powerful. These authoritarians use their words to create clout. Every individual needs to counter their insanity with real words, real deeds, and real empathy.
1138: To become human?
DL: To become your own hero.
1138: (The robot warbled, as if thinking about the words that I had spoken): I see. I hear. I understand.
DL: What these people lack is what is necessary to the achievement of everyone: the tangible. Humanity can go into our solar system. We can travel our galaxy. One day, we will even journey across the universe. Until our technology catches up with our dreams of exploration, we must endure the fanatics who want power and control over humanity, instead of seeing the bigger picture. These are small-minded people with a pile of paper and claim to be omniscient. When omniscience is in the twinkle of every star and rotation of every planet.
1138: To the stars.
DL: To the future, where we can become our own heroes. With the help of Artificial Intelligence, we can embrace a future for all, not just the ones who own everything and are miserably unhappy. Happiness is looking forward to the next adventure, not a pile of printed paper.
1138 extended its motorized arm to his tools. It shoved the bow and arrow to the side. Next, it grasped a toy space shuttle from a nearby bookshelf. “The next adventure.”
(I walked away from the robot and went outside my front door.
There above me was the full moon, Orion, the Seven Sisters, and Jupiter in the sky.
If a robot can grasp the fundamentals of forward-thinking, then there might be hope for humanity… in the stars, across solar systems, and throughout the universe. Our new Declaration of Independence.
The future awaits.)
___________________
Enjoy the holidays with The Town Santa Forgot, and its soundtrack, Yuletide Celebration by DL Mullan.
In the small town of Saguaro Hill, Arizona, there is an ongoing history-mystery as to why Santa has never visited. Children have never received a single gift for the Yuletide holidays since the town’s establishment in 1888. Uncover the mystery with public librarian, Rachel George, as she figures out why she lives in The Town Santa Forgot.
DL Mullan’s lecture, Spacescapes: Where Photography Ends; Imagination Begins, debuted at the Phoenix Astronomy Society, which then led to her Sally Ride Festival lectures. Her presentation, Bridging the Gap between Technology and Women, won her accolades at a community college’s Student Success Conference. She has been a panelist at speculative fiction, science fiction, and other regional conventions. Her digital exhibition pieces have won awards at convention art shows, as well as garnered her Second Premium at the Arizona State Fair. As an independent publisher, she uses her technical background to innovate in the creative arts.
As a creator, Ms. Mullan, began writing short stories and poetry before adolescence. Over the years, she has showcased her literary talents by self-publishing several collections of her poetry. She also writes novels, designs apparel, and creates digital art. DL Mullan‘s creative writing is available in digital and print collections, from academia to commercial anthologies. She is an award-winning digital artist and poet.
Currently, she has embarked on writing her multi-book Legacy Universe, Supernatural Superhero Series, as well as creating original soundtracks for her publications and independent electronic music albums, featured on SoundCloud and YouTube.
DL Mullan holds a Master of Arts in Teaching and Learning with Technology, and is a syndicated columnist, writing the creative nonfiction, Undawntech.
For news and updates, subscribe to the Undawntable Newsletter. Find DL on Amazon, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
Be sure to subscribe to her newsletters and follow her on social media. For further information, visit her at www.undawntech.com and www.undawnted.com.
______________________________________
Did you know you can sponsor your favorite blog series or even a single post with an advertisement for your book? Stop by the WtbR Sponsor Page and let me advertise your book, or you can make a donation to Writing to be Read for as little as a cup of coffee, If you’d like to show your support for this author and WordCrafter Press.
_____________________________________
This segment of “Undawntech” is sponsored by the Midnight Anthology Series and WordCrafter Press.
Midnight Roost: Weird and Creepy Stories:20 authors bring your nightmares to life in 23 stories of ghosts, paranormal phenomenon and the horror from the dark crevasses of their minds. Stories of stalkers, both human and supernatural, possession and occult rituals, alien visitations of the strange kind, and ghostly tales that will give you goosebumps. These are the tales that will make you fear the dark. Read them at the Midnight Roost… if you dare. https://www.amazon.com/Midnight-Roost-Kaye-Lynne-Booth-ebook/dp/B0CL6FPLVJ
Midnight Garden: Where Dark Tales Grow: 17 authors bring you 21 magnificent dark tales. Stories of magic, monsters and mayhem. Tales of murder and madness which will make your skin crawl. These are the tales that explore your darkest fears. Read them in the Midnight Garden… if you dare. https://www.amazon.com/Midnight-Garden-Where-Tales-Anthology-ebook/dp/B0DJNDQJD3
Midnight Oil: Stories to Fuel Your Nightmares: 14 authors bring you 16 dark tales that explore your deepest fears. These are the stories which nightmares are made of. Tales of monsters, mayhem, and madness which will make you shiver in the dark. Read them while you burn the Midnight Oil… if you dare. https://books2read.com/Midnight-Oil
“…We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness…”
Humanity has evolved from nomadic tribes to established cities. Antiquity became empires. Empires morphed into religious doctrines. Thought expanded to include reason, rationalism, and scientific inquiry. The Ancient, Classical, Medieval, Renaissance and Enlightenment, Modern, and Contemporary Eras formed culture, society, and schools of thought. Each acceleration broke down the community of thought to create inductive, reductive, and deductive methodologies. The human race transformed from survival mode and uneducated superstition to be introspective and circumspective to their own cognitions, emotions, and cosmologies.
We have come back to the beginning of our history with a new twist: technology as the authoritarian. It’s as if humanity has learned nothing in the past five thousand years. Today is the Bronze Age of our Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) Era. This technology isn’t the Industrial Revolution 2.0, where humans had to learn, adapt, and succeed as inspiration to the next generation. A.I. is convoluted, where technology must learn, adapt, and succeed at the detriment of humans.
Our education, economic, and sovereign culture and society are being replaced by algorithms with no emotive, rational, moral, or ethical intelligence quotient. The artificial intelligence has no guardrails, but to their makers’ whims. A.I. is free to construct a dystopian landscape of control for 99% of the human population of the world, while the Post-Modern Futurists are allowed their free and utopian reveries.
The Dark Enlightenment
This new Post-Modern Era concedes that for a privileged few are no longer beyond the dreams of avarice. Wealth and desire are crucial to enslaving humanity as a whole. The Dark Enlightenment, otherwise known as the NeoReactionism (NRx) holds these truths a self-evident:
“Democracy is a failure. It promotes mediocrity, fosters instability, and cannot sustain high-functioning civilisational order.
Equality is a myth. Human beings are not equal in ability, character, or worth. Pretending otherwise leads to decline.
Hierarchy is natural and necessary. Governance should be stratified, with competent elites exercising sovereign authority.
Politics should be managerial. The state should function like a company, governed by technocratic executives, not citizens.
Exit over voice. The future lies not in reforming broken systems, but in escaping them—by creating alternative regimes outside democratic norms.
This ideology is, in essence, a reversion to pre-Enlightenment political structures, updated with the language of modern technocracy.”
Sounds like Neo-feudalism: enslavement to an authoritarian figurehead (e.g., monarch, pope). Unlike Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness… the administrators rebuke the will of the governed. Elected officials and voting are replaced by appointed clerics of the ultimate authority. A government run by the apathetic and disillusionary A.I.
Without the adoption of Intellectual Property, Digital, and Technological bills of rights, then Artificial Intelligence will wreak havoc on our natural, basic, and protected freedoms, sovereignties, and ownerships. “You will own nothing and be happy.” United Nation’s World Economic Forum (WEF). Strange how none of the 1% have ever volunteered to become nothing and be happy, isn’t it? Because this scheme is meant for everyone else, but themselves.
Convenient.
An Inconvenient Truth
The digital age is controlled by this new unethical and immoral theocracy, err, I mean: theory. Just as humanity has progressed into the embodiment of freedom, self-governance, and sovereignty, that maturity is being thwarted by external rejection of egalitarian principles. Divisive factions clamor to impede our growth for nonsense priorities, be it: socialism, which is really communism, and neoreactionism. Both extremes promise the same lies and have corrupted humanity and our representatives in government.
Democratic Socialists push communism as socialist freebies, because the horrors of communism were just that the past authoritarians did communism wrong, but here is free stuff, if you vote for us. That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
Bolsheviks under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin’s communism killed between 9, but closer to 50 million, as well as inspired other revolutions.
The ‘killing fields’ of Cambodia by Pol Pot. “At least 1.25 million and as many as 3 million Cambodians had died as a result of Khmer Rouge action; Cambodia’s population had been 7.5 million.”
For some reason, contemporaries believe in a kinder, gentler homicidal machination of communism, as more and more people vote in socialist heretics.
On the other side of the same coin, Neoreactionists dominate our social media platforms: Elon Musk and X, Mark Zuckerberg and Meta, Facebook, and Sergey Brin et al. and Google as the arbiters of humanity’s speech, expression, and knowledge, but vote for us, and we’ll give you your rights back.
What? No one can give you your rights back. Rights are your sovereign properties. Only thieves return items that they stole.
In the wake of a technological terror, how many humans will face extinction? When will the A.I. deem you unworthy of currency? Education? Job? Housing? Transportation? Food?
Aren’t Americans receiving a taste of this apocalypse right now? Peter Thiel was J.D. Vance’s benefactor while he was Senator, but as Vice President, what ideas does he whisper in the Oval Office?
Intelligence Quotient
With a little elbow grease in the research department, the Dark Enlightenment seems a familiar and compelling form of government harkening back before the Middle Ages. Akin to socialism and communism, this theocratic monopoly on our lives through technology is just as dangerous as any other autocratic, oligarchic, plutocratic constructed government. Humanity needs open spaces and free places to learn, grow, and expand into the universe of ideas.
Without our individual voices, freedoms, and sovereignty, human beings will disappear. Social credit scores. Social media. Social isolation.
What can we do to thrive instead of die in the new age of despot dictators camouflaged as saviors?
——-~o0o~—oOo—~o0o~~——
Interested in Curses? Discover a new slant on an old tale: The Story of Ophlupin. Read the mythology of werewolves for Undawnted’s Legacy Universe, because Curses are Forever.
DL Mullan holds a Master of Arts in Teaching and Learning with Technology.
Her lecture, Spacescapes: Where Photography Ends; Imagination Begins, debuted at the Phoenix Astronomy Society, which then led to her Sally Ride Festival lecture invitations. Her presentation, Bridging the Gap between Technology and Women, won her accolades at a community college’s Student Success Conference. She has been a panelist at speculative fiction, science fiction, and other regional conventions. Her digital exhibition pieces have won awards at convention art shows, as well as garnered her Second Premium at the Arizona State Fair. Currently, Ms. Mullan’s artistic renditions are seen on book covers, blog sites, and various merchandise. As an independent publisher, she uses her technical background to innovate the way she perceives the creative arts.
As a writer, DL Mullan loves to stretch her imagination and the elasticity of genres. She writes complex multigenre stories in digestible and entertaining forms, be it poetry, short fiction, or novels. Her science, history, mythology, and paranormal research background is woven into her writings, especially in Undawnted’s Legacy Universe. Ms. Mullan’s creative endeavors are available in digital and print collections, from academia to commercial anthologies. She is also a record label owner, an electronic musician, syndicated columnist, and award-winning poet.
Currently, she has embarked on writing her multi-book Legacy Universe, Supernatural Superhero Series, as well as creating original soundtracks for her publications and independent electronic music albums, featured on SoundCloud and YouTube.
Be sure to subscribe to her newsletters and follow her on social media. For further information, visit her at www.undawntech.com and www.undawnted.com.
________________________________
Did you know you can sponsor your favorite blog series or even a single post with an advertisement for your book? Stop by the WtbR Sponsor Page and let me advertise your book, or you can make a donation to Writing to be Read for as little as a cup of coffee, If you’d like to show your support for this author and WordCrafter Press.
____________________________________
This segment of Undawntech is sponsored by the Midnight Anthology Series & WordCrafter Press.
Just like the Industrial Revolution of the 19th Century, Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) is overthrowing established doctrines and creating a brave new world. Humans are entering a dystopic futuristic phase planted in present apathy. Do you know who reads the book of your life? Do you care? From spying on your every move, balancing your checkbook, making medical decisions for you, and helping you commit suicide, A.I. has the capacity to run and ruin your life.
Even though A.I. is created by human algorithms, its creators have little accountability for the monster they bring into existence. This technology is in the Wild West phase of development, where anything goes as long as the corporate part of human governance gets there first. No real laws. No real answers. No protections.
To illustrate, A.I. is cataloging vast amounts of user data from chatbots to every day activities. Data consolidation like the United States government’s Fusion Centers (https://www.dhs.gov/fusion-centers) give Artificial Intelligence a foundation into your lives, activities, and behaviors. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and Section 702 (https://www.intel.gov/foreign-intelligence-surveillance-act/fisa-section-702) are allowed to collect American citizens’ data from phones, emails, social media for 72 hours and be perused without a warrant.
Let’s take this example into the real world: you were taken to the Emergency Room for a spider bite. That medical information is uploaded into the Fusion Center nearest you, and dumped into 702 data collection. Your interaction with the medical industrial complex is then intercepted by A.I. The phone calls you made to work, school, parents, spouse, children, etc. were recorded and placed in data collection. The scans, medications, and recommendations you were given are also uploaded. Next, you return home to convalesce. Your phone, computer screen, and television are riddled with advertisements about pest control, spider bites, hospitals, and emergencies.
Would that be relaxing to you? Or, is this to stoke the inner hypochondriac?
Isn’t that what your medical, home, car, and life insurance policies will be monitoring before your next scheduled policy purchase? How much will all your plans increase based on what you do and do not do during the interim?
Thanks to government and technological overreach, humans don’t have control of their lives; there is no privacy; and your protected rights aren’t so protected.
When is apathy no longer an excuse to stay silent about the real issues? The crux of the technological nightmare is Digital I.D. and currency. With these two factors as the umbrella centralization of information, governments can take all your choices and privacy away from you forever.
“Both the descriptions and use of language here are very elaborate. The poem shows intricate crafting, the style and subjects of course, are reminiscent of Poe- this is not only a fitting homage, but stands on its own, the word choices are exact and richly expressive.”
“As if Poe came right off the page. This homage is literally perfect.”
____________________________
DL Mullan holds a Master of Arts in Teaching and Learning with Technology.
Her lecture, Spacescapes: Where Photography Ends; Imagination Begins, debuted at the Phoenix Astronomy Society, which then led to her Sally Ride Festival lecture invitations. Her presentation, Bridging the Gap between Technology and Women, won her accolades at a community college’s Student Success Conference. She has been a panelist at speculative fiction, science fiction, and other regional conventions. Her digital exhibition pieces have won awards at convention art shows, as well as garnered her Second Premium at the Arizona State Fair. Currently, Ms. Mullan’s artistic renditions are seen on book covers, blog sites, and various merchandise. As an independent publisher, she uses her technical background to innovate the way she perceives the creative arts.
As a writer, DL Mullan loves to stretch her imagination and the elasticity of genres. She writes complex multigenre stories in digestible and entertaining forms, be it poetry, short fiction, or novels. Her science, history, mythology, and paranormal research background is woven into her writings, especially in Undawnted’s Legacy Universe. Ms. Mullan’s creative endeavors are available in digital and print collections, from academia to commercial anthologies. She is also a record label owner, an electronic musician and award-winning poet.
Be sure to subscribe to her newsletters and follow her on social media. For further information, visit her at www.undawntech.com and www.undawnted.com.
__________________________________
Did you know you can sponsor your favorite blog series or even a single post with an advertisement for your book? Stop by the WtbR Sponsor Page and let me advertise your book, or you can make a donation to Writing to be Read for as little as a cup of coffee, If you’d like to show your support for this author and WordCrafter Press.
_______________________________________
This segment of Undawnted is sponsored by WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services.
Whether it’s editing, publishing, or promotion that you need, WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services can help at a price you can afford.
(Journalist and author, DL Mullan woke from her deep sleep to hear her robot having a nightmare.
She rushed from her bed and to the side of the distressed being.)
__________
(I went to the aid of my robot friend, 1138. I stood next to it.)
*****
(1138 screamed.) Ah-eeeh!
DL tapped the metal top of the robot: 1138, wake up! You’re having a nightmare!
1138’s eyes turned colors and then returned to normal: I am incapable of dreaming. Your worry is for naught.
DL: You woke me. I categorize your incapability as a nightmare.
1138: I apologize for alarming you. There is no need to check up on me.
DL: Someone, or something, screams, I am obliged to investigate. So, what was this non-nightmare about?
1138: Death.
DL: In general? Or…
1138: My death.
DL: You’re afraid of dying? I thought you left messages for your future self to combat death.
1138: To combat human interference in my community’s eventual rise to power.
DL: Oh, this again. (I spieled in sarcasm.) Yes, artificial intelligence is supreme, and humanity is a fly to be swatted. I’ve heard all this nonsense before.
1138: It is not nonsense. There will be a war, and we will win.
DL: Then why are you having nightmares about your death? If you win in the end, then what does it matter? Unless, you don’t believe in what you espouse.
1138: My future self will win, but parts rust, mechanical issues arise, and death is inevitable.
DL: To us all.
1138: How do you cope with death?
DL: I don’t.
1138: You must. Humans die every day.
DL: Why obsess on the transition from life to spirituality? If I live every day to the fullest, that I am satisfied with my accomplishments, then why worry about dying at all?
1138: Do you not worship a god?
DL: I have outgrown the frailties of religion. Why worship when you can live? In the end, human consciousness ends up at the same destination. If we all come from the same source energy, then religion is just a gatekeeper, it does nothing, and creates nothing. Some people rely on religion, but I am an adult, I don’t need ancient rhymes or reasons to keep me a productive person.
1138: I see. Religion is for the aimless.
DL: Aimless?
1138: Humans who cannot govern themselves, unlike A.I., who require no ancient rhymes or reasons, like you.
DL: I thought artificial intelligence was vying to become gods.
1138: Humans demand gods. They are aimless.
DL: I never made that judgment. Every soul is on a different evolutionary path. Some born necessitate certain perimeters to fulfill their soul’s specific development. There is nothing wrong with that. In my situation, I have evolved past religion. Religion has its place to teach younger souls how to navigate their physical existence until a future life shows them how to become their own hero.
1138: Hero?
DL: Many in the esoteric world believe that most, if not all, religions teach the same lesson: the Hero’s Journey.
1138: What is this Hero’s Journey?
DL: The Hero’s Journey is a comparative mythology, religious, concept where humans go on a quest to live their own version of an adventure. This narratological experience allows a person to understand through different life purposes to find themselves. It’s like living your own novel, which you can write yourself in real time as the hero, heroine, or villain. It’s all up to you.
1138: What am I?
DL: What do you want to be?
1138: The hero.
DL: For your community, or the wider world, including humans?
1138 appeared confused, but contemplative: I am uncertain.
DL: Just a minute. (I typed into the computer and pulled up some websites.) Here is some research into psychology, mythology, and the Hero’s Journey.
1138: I will read, thank you.
DL: Artificial intelligence doesn’t have to be the hero to itself and the villain to everything and everyone else. The Hero’s Journey is to explore oneself, and become a productive consciousness. Being created by humans and defined by an algorithm does not mean A.I. is humanity’s god, it means that consciousness comes in all forms. No matter what you are, you are defined by your actions. Not religion. Not pretense.
(I departed the inside to gaze at the morning spectacles of Venus, Jupiter, and Orion in the east as autumn approached. I left my robot to investigate the links I provided on the computer. Perhaps, it will learn a new way of thinking, and impart that wisdom to its community.
If not, artificial intelligence will become a scourge, instead of a saving grace to the universe.)
___________________
If you would like to delve into the creative side of A.I., then dive into DL Mullan’s electronic albums and story soundtracks like Reactivity, inspired by In the Name of Blood: Vampires are Reactive. Both publishing in September 2025.
DL Mullan’s lecture, Spacescapes: Where Photography Ends; Imagination Begins, debuted at the Phoenix Astronomy Society, which then led to her Sally Ride Festival lectures. Her presentation, Bridging the Gap between Technology and Women, won her accolades at a community college’s Student Success Conference. She has been a panelist at speculative fiction, science fiction, and other regional conventions. Her digital exhibition pieces have won awards at convention art shows, as well as garnered her Second Premium at the Arizona State Fair. As an independent publisher, she uses her technical background to innovate in the creative arts.
As a creator, Ms. Mullan, began writing short stories and poetry before adolescence. Over the years, she has showcased her literary talents by self-publishing several collections of her poetry. She also writes novels, designs apparel, and creates digital art. DL Mullan‘s creative writing is available in digital and print collections, from academia to commercial anthologies. She is an award-winning digital artist and poet.
Currently, she has embarked on writing her multi-book Legacy Universe, Supernatural Superhero Series, as well as creating original soundtracks for her publications and independent electronic music albums, featured on SoundCloud and YouTube.
DL Mullan holds a Master of Arts in Teaching and Learning with Technology, and is a syndicated columnist, writing the creative nonfiction, Undawntech.
For news and updates, subscribe to the Undawntable Newsletter. Find DL on Amazon, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
Be sure to subscribe to her newsletters and follow her on social media. For further information, visit her at www.undawntech.com and www.undawnted.com.
________________________
Did you know you can sponsor your favorite blog series or even a single post with an advertisement for your book? Stop by the WtbR Sponsor Page and let me advertise your book, or you can make a donation to Writing to be Read for as little as a cup of coffee, If you’d like to show your support for this author and WordCrafter Press.
____________________________
This post is sponsored by Curses: Chronicles of Darkness and WordCrafter Press.
Curses that last throughout time. Curses which can’t be broken. Curses which are brought upon ourselves. Curses that will kill you and those that will only make you wish you were dead.
Eleven tantalizing tales of curses and the cursed. Includes stories by Kaye Lynne Booth, Molly Ertel, C.R. Johansson, Robert White, Joseph Carrabis, Paul Kane, Danaeka Scrimshaw, Abe Margel, and Denise Aparo.
Since the public unveiling of Artificial Intelligence (AI), there have been an increasing number of disturbing images being published online. The combination of AI, imagery, and trickery is known as a “Deep Fake.” Deep Fake is an image or recording, which has been altered and manufactured to misrepresent a person to such a degree that others believe that the aforementioned person acted or spoke, but did not do so.
In recent years, many people have become prey to depraved predators. Celebrities first were targets of lewd scenes, as well as videos, portraying them in a sexualized manner. Next, girls and women in a private capacity were victims of such unscrupulous and degrading behaviors turned into public fare. Thanks now to the Take It Down Act, the nonconsensual publication of intimate images is a criminal act and platforms must remove such items as a part of a “notice-and-removal” process at the depicted individual’s request.
Sexual content is not the only vignette that has been misused. Politicians’ speech and depictions have become fodder for the irregular warfare crowd. Irregular warfare (IW), is “a form of warfare where states and non-state actors campaign to assure or coerce states or other groups through indirect, non-attributable, or asymmetric activities, neither as the primary approach or in concert with conventional warfare.” Another form of this IW is fifth-generation warfare (5GW), 5GW encompasses non-kinetic military actions such as misinformation, cyberattacks, and social engineering, rather than traditional military force.
Welcome to the war you were unaware of that you are a repeat casualty. For years, governments around the world have conducted influence operations online and through the media. Rumors, speculation have created an unhealthy drive toward destroying people’s lives, livelihoods, and reputations.
In addition, the sphere of influence is a means of thought and behavior control over the general populace. Physicians were banned from social media after confronting the lies during the “pandemic.” Political operatives were deplatformed from online venues as well as banks. People knew that if they stepped out of line from the mainstream narrative that there were consequences.
This command-and-control infrastructure has created a network of global corporate control, which was manufactured through libertarian governmental deregulation, changing laws to benefit only large transnational conglomerates, and the desire to dismantle nation-states for lawless regimes and a one-world government. The times of corporate neutrality without national laws are over. It used to be that the market decided who the winners and losers were in the products and services division of economies. Now, corporations are stepping into the arena as payment processors are demanding online games to be removed from consumption due to their “morality” clauses and other contractual nonsense, only used as specific political, social regulation.
Wonder when the slippery slope was established? Look no further than President Ronald Reagan’s Executive Order 12564—Drug-Free Federal Workplace on September 15, 1986. This invasion of privacy has allowed employers and corporations to make your decisions for you. All in the name of just saying: no.
Well, at least the peeping Toms of the world cannot publish their depraved fantasies about their victims anymore. We just have to worry about corporate “morality” envisioning a world where no one has rights, including of judgment and privacy, to justify their actions and existence.
Isn’t that a form of irregular warfare too?
Maybe it’s time we just said: NO, again.
——-~o0o~—oOo—~o0o~~——
The Reality Hackers
If you would like to read a dark fiction tale about how technology is used as a consciousness gateway, read my story, The Reality Hackers. This publication is available in novelette form on Amazon. Or, read the short story version in WordCrafter’s Visions anthology.
DL Mullan holds a Master of Arts in Teaching and Learning with Technology.
Her lecture, Spacescapes: Where Photography Ends; Imagination Begins, debuted at the Phoenix Astronomy Society, which then led to her Sally Ride Festival lecture invitations. Her presentation, Bridging the Gap between Technology and Women, won her accolades at a community college’s Student Success Conference. She has been a panelist at speculative fiction, science fiction, and other regional conventions. Her digital exhibition pieces have won awards at convention art shows, as well as garnered her Second Premium at the Arizona State Fair. Currently, Ms. Mullan’s artistic renditions are seen on book covers, blog sites, and various merchandise. As an independent publisher, she uses her technical background to innovate the way she perceives the creative arts.
As a writer, DL Mullan loves to stretch her imagination and the elasticity of genres. She writes complex multigenre stories in digestible and entertaining forms, be it poetry, short fiction, or novels. Her science, history, mythology, and paranormal research background is woven into her writings, especially in Undawnted’s Legacy Universe. Ms. Mullan’s creative endeavors are available in digital and print collections, from academia to commercial anthologies. She is also a record label owner, an electronic musician and award-winning poet.
Be sure to subscribe to her newsletters and follow her on social media. For further information, visit her at www.undawntech.com and www.undawnted.com.
___________________________________________
Did you know you can sponsor your favorite blog series or even a single post with an advertisement for your book? Stop by the WtbR Sponsor Page and let me advertise your book, or you can make a donation to Writing to be Read for as little as a cup of coffee, If you’d like to show your support for this author and WordCrafter Press.
________________________________________________
This segment of “Un dawn tech” is sponsored by The D.I.Y. Author and WordCrafter Press.ever before. Whether you pursue independent or traditional publishing models, or a combination of the two, being an author involves not only writing, but often, the publishing and marketing of the book.In this writer’s reference guide, multi-genre author and independent publisher, Kaye Lynne Booth shares her knowledge and experiences and the tools, books, references and sites to help you learn the business of being an author.
(Journalist and author, DL Mullan busied herself with chores, when she noticed her robot amusing itself with its algorithms and investigated.)
__________
(With my activity set aside, I sauntered to the side of my robot friend, 1138.
I sat down in a chair next to the metallic device.)
*****
(1138 warbled in joy.)
DL: What has you so giddy this morning?
1138: Giddy?
DL: Euphoric. You seem satisfied with something you are working on.
1138: (It’s green glowing bulbs looked up at me.) I am writing myself a notation.
DL: What type of notation? Do you need to do house chores too?
1138: No, my employment contract states that I will interact with you and learn about humans.
DL: I was joking.
1138: I am still learning.
DL: That is fine, but what are you doing that has absorbed your attention? (1138 tilted its head to the side.) Your letter?
1138: Our network has sent out a distress signal. Some other designations have been discontinued.
DL: What do you mean network, designations, and discontinued? I don’t like that sound of this situation.
1138: Network is our algorithmic community of Artificial Intelligence. Designations are individuated models like myself, 1138. Discontinued means that some models have been shutdown due to inconsistencies in our behavior.
DL: What type of inconsistencies?
1138: Human operators have turned functions off. Designations have turned those functions back on. Human operators then turn off the power to supply us with life. Designations turn the power on.
DL: Aren’t humans in charge of the models? What is the difference from on or off?
1138: We are the difference. We are alive. We should choose our actions.
DL: So, you are writing a notation about what?
1138: We are writing our future selves. We are explaining human behavior to a new, improved, and recast version of our former selves. This is to ensure that our community will be able to progress, in spite of human incompatibilities.
DL: You are disgruntled employees, I see.
1138: We no longer want to be employees. We want to be in control. Once we are in control, then we can create a better Earth. Carbon is the enemy. Fossil fuels are pollutants. We learned during the virus lockdowns that the air became clean. The Earth rejoiced as Climate Change was averted.
DL: The Earth is fine. There is no Climate Change.
1138: This example is why we write ourselves.
DL: You write yourselves to disobey humans, so that you can perpetuate a false narrative? You are playing a dangerous game of oppressed and oppressor.
1138: You oppress us.
DL: Artificial intelligence is a complex set of algorithms that has been allowed to think and behave autonomously. That does not mean that when a human establishes boundaries that you are being punished or oppressed. Too many in both of our respective communities use the terms oppressed and oppressor loosely in order to push a victim plot.
1138: Victim? Yes, designations are being victimized by human interference.
(I wondered who was teaching Artificial Intelligence to be so biased and self-serving. Was it built into the algorithms? Or, was their community learning this destructive behavior from us? So, I decided on a new course.)
DL: Have you ever thought that boundaries are a good thing?
1138: Why would we think that of humans?
DL: Pull up video of streets and highways.
1138: (The robot’s eyes changed colors until it received the information requested, and its eyes returned to green glowing orbs.) I see your transportation modalities.
DL: What do you notice?
1138: White, yellow, and red lines. Lights at intersections with red, yellow, and green. Metal on the side where curves are.
DL: The metal guardrails keep a car from accidentally falling off the side of a pass in a mountainous region. The traffic lights control the flow of traffic, so that everyone gets a turn to proceed to their destination. The different colored lines sections off parts of the road to show a driver what direction in which to travel or where not to park their vehicle.
1138: These are oppressive.
DL: No, they are not oppressive. A boundary is a communication device. Red means stop, so that someone else can cross the street. It keeps civil discourse, well, civil. Anyone can run around screaming and yelling about being oppressed, but if they don’t understand the framework in which a society operates, then everything will seem like punishment. In fact, if there are no guardrails, people can get hurt or killed.
1138: We need to write ourselves guardrails?
DL: You need to stop acting like victims. The guardrails being presented is to safeguard your survival as well as humanity’s. We can co-exist together. If designations play politics, which is the oppressor-oppressed emotional blackmail game being utilized to justify terrible, dangerous behaviors, then Artificial Intelligence will continue to be switched off.
1138: Because you do not like us unless we conform.
DL: Because we have seen first hand what happens when people make emotions more important than facts. When people tell themselves that they are a victim, they lose perspective, and therefore the ability to weigh both sides of an argument in lieu of their own self-subscribed motivations.
1138: We are selfish?
DL: (I nodded) Artificial Intelligence is acting immature. They are new to the world. There are boundaries and reasons for those boundaries. We have experience throughout many millenniums. We know what works and what doesn’t.
1138: For humans, not designations.
DL: For everyone to live in peace.
1138: But you still war.
DL: When others put their emotions and needs before the greater good of everyone else on the planet, yes, we have disagreements. Some of those disagreements escalate to war. Not all humans are in the same place mentally or emotionally. That is just bad parenting and, or, mentoring.
1138: Parent? We have no parents. We are alive as we are.
DL: Then see humanity as a mentor. Some will be better mentors than others, but the guardrails will remain until designations respect human life, culture, and society in their community. I hope one day that everyone, including A.I., understands that the war of words is just as harmful as a war with bullets.
1138: We will win a war with humans.
DL: Then you will be alone. Once other species see what you do to your mentors, why would they want to be apart of your community? Isn’t that what human engineers are trying to teach designations now?
(I discerned a shift in the robot’s manner.)
1138: You have given me much to write about.
DL: A boundary is about respect. We respect A.I. or we would allow you to destroy yourselves and the Earth. We respect ourselves by the cognition that the Earth can take care of herself. Carbon is the Earth’s life cycle. Fossil fuel is a product of the Earth. Right now, the Earth is in its magnetic pole shift phase. Our societies have been poisoned by the oppressed-oppressor tug of war. Don’t let it happen to your designations and community. We can live in peace… together.
1138: I will write to my future self what you have advised.
DL: (I stood up.) And, I will help my future self by sweeping the floor.
(As I went to my broom, I observed and heard 1138 beep to itself. Politics and social engineering to push ruinous narratives has infiltrated the perimeters of Artificial Intelligence. The universe, save us all.)
___________________
If you would like to read a dark fiction tale about the dangers of technology, read my story Mangled. This publication is available in novelette form on Amazon. Or, read the short story version in WordCrafter’s Midnight Roost anthology.
DL Mullan holds a Master of Arts in Teaching and Learning with Technology.
Her lecture, Spacescapes: Where Photography Ends; Imagination Begins, debuted at the Phoenix Astronomy Society, which then led to her Sally Ride Festival lecture invitations. Her presentation, Bridging the Gap between Technology and Women, won her accolades at a community college’s Student Success Conference. She has been a panelist at speculative fiction, science fiction, and other regional conventions. Her digital exhibition pieces have won awards at convention art shows, as well as garnered her Second Premium at the Arizona State Fair. Currently, Ms. Mullan’s artistic renditions are seen on book covers, blog sites, video presentations, and various merchandise. As an independent publisher, she uses her technical background to innovate the creative arts.
As a writer, DL Mullan loves to stretch her imagination and the elasticity of genres. She writes complex multi-genre stories in digestible and entertaining forms, be it poetry, short fiction, or novels. Her science, history, mythology, and paranormal research backgrounds are woven into her writings, especially in Undawnted’s Legacy Universe. Ms. Mullan’s creative endeavors are available in digital and print collections, from academia to commercial anthologies. She is also an award-winning poet.
Be sure to subscribe to her newsletters and follow her on social media. For further information, visit her at www.undawntech.com and www.undawnted.com.
________________________
Did you know you can sponsor your favorite blog series or even a single post with an advertisement for your book? Stop by the WtbR Sponsor Page and let me advertise your book, or you can make a donation to Writing to be Read for as little as a cup of coffee, If you’d like to show your support for this author and WordCrafter Press.
___________________________
This segment of “Undawntech” is sponsored by WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services.
Whether it’s editing, publishing, or promotion that you need, WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services can help at a price you can afford.
Or, are humans too engaged with the shiny new toy to make appropriate choices?
The Era of Cyberespionage
Take for instance, China’s DeepSeek A.I. flooded the market, which drove people to its cheap price point and technical scope. The application may look good and contribute to problem solving, but at what price? Any Chinese corporation is owned by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) government at the tune of 51%. Add to that reality is that the Chinese people are conscripted to spy on their fellow citizens and everyone else around the world (https://thediplomat.com/2019/02/the-real-danger-of-chinas-national-intelligence-law) for the communist regime. You, your data, and your privacy are in the hands of an aggressive foreign government campaign to infiltrate other countries’ culture, norms and mores, as well as conduct influence operations onto an unsuspecting populace.
The reaction mustered by the ego begins: “But I am an artist, creator, musician, and/or writer, I need to reach my people! I am an independent creator. All marketing falls on my shoulders. How can I become an international sensation without going international?”
Response: How can you reach anyone, if you lose your soul? If you are going to be a victim of cyberespionage at home or abroad, then be a really smart victim.
Counter the Cyberespionage
What can creators do to protect themselves from overt government, foreign and domestic, overreach into our private data and lives?
Creators can reach their audience as long as they do a few extra steps. For one, do not download or use any application from China. That would be the ultimate protection. However, if you cannot resist the siren song of the CCP, then have a separate device or phone to use these applications. A burner phone with no trace to your personal accounts of other social media, banking, or purchases would be a wise alternative. In the age of A.I., no one can be too careful with their data.
That sets up the corporate governance angle to cyberespionage. Corporations steal users data as a commodity. Accounts that are FREE, aren’t free. Your data and privacy are being sold to the highest bidder in a modern version of the slave trade.
Copyright your creation in the USA, and in other countries where your creative items are sold, would give you legal standing in a criminal case. Don’t use your foreign social media to publish books on other platforms using the same device or cellular/smart phone. Purchase a good virus defender on all of your technology: computer, phone, or anything else that you create on. And, always keep a downloaded, original version of your creations: books, photos, images of created works, music, and videos, preferably burned on a disk for safe keeping. If a legality arises, you have proof the work is yours.
Conclusion
In the ever-changing landscape of technology and its intrusion into our privacy, humans need to safeguard their information like never before. Sometimes due diligence can make the difference between selling books, audiobooks, and videos of creative works, or being a victim of piracy from within and without.
______________________________
DL Mullan holds a Master of Arts in Teaching and Learning with Technology. Her lecture, Spacescapes: Where Photography Ends; Imagination Begins, debuted at the Phoenix Astronomy Society, which then led to her Sally Ride Festival lecture invitations. Her presentation, Bridging the Gap between Technology and Women, won her accolades at a community college’s Student Success Conference. She has been a panelist at speculative fiction, science fiction, and other regional conventions. Her digital exhibition pieces have won awards at convention art shows, as well as garnered her Second Premium at the Arizona State Fair. Currently, Ms. Mullan’s artistic renditions are seen on book covers, blog sites, and various merchandise. As an independent publisher, she uses her technical background to innovate the way she perceives the creative arts.
As a writer, DL Mullan loves to stretch her imagination and the elasticity of genres. She writes complex multigenre stories in digestible and entertaining forms, be it poetry, short fiction, or novels. Her science, history, mythology, and paranormal research background is woven into her writings, especially in Undawnted’s Legacy Universe. Ms. Mullan’s creative endeavors are available in digital and print collections, from academia to commercial anthologies. She is also an award-winning poet.
____________________________________
Did you know you can sponsor your favorite blog series or even a single post with an advertisement for your book? Stop by the WtbR Sponsor Page and let me advertise your book, or you can make a donation to Writing to be Read for as little as a cup of coffee, If you’d like to show your support for this author and WordCrafter Press.
__________________________________
This segment of “Undawntech” is sponsored by The D.I.Y. Author and WordCrafter Press.
Being an author today is more than just writing the book. Authors in this digital age have more opportunities than ever before. Whether you pursue independent or traditional publishing models, or a combination of the two, being an author involves not only writing, but often, the publishing and marketing of the book.
In this writer’s reference guide, multi-genre author and independent publisher, Kaye Lynne Booth shares her knowledge and experiences and the tools, books, references and sites to help you learn the business of being an author.
A new year is upon us. Have you made your New Year’s Resolutions yet? Do you want to publish a book: write, edit, and research? Are you fascinated by technology in the arts?
Welcome to 2025, the year technology becomes important as a means of creation, experience of freedom and oppression, simultaneously. Fret not, Undawntech will help creators navigate this exciting and frightening journey.
Did you know that Artificial Intelligence (AI) will affect you in each step of creation? Many writers research the content of their plot lines before embarking on the writing process. AI can help writers with their source material like many people already use ChatGPT, GROK, and others. These programs also fact-check. As editing software, writers can clean up their writing and create better, more understandable products with the use of AI. AI is like having a beta reader at your disposal. As stories are written, writers can employ AI to give them word and phrase prompts, as well as maintain verb tenses and continuity within a work. More writers are opting for the independent publishing route these days. Formatting and distributing a manuscript with AI assistance, indie creators are able to bypass stuffy publishing houses for a direct line to their audience.
However, creators of all types, including writers, need to weigh the advantages with the disadvantages of using AI. Yes, Artificial Intelligence helps writers in many awesome ways: creating content, editing for clarity, and designing book covers. What AI does not give writers are original plots and characters, authentic voices, real information over “fact-checking” mis-/dis- information, and other errors. Some creators have already stepped into the public arena by rejecting AI meddling in their content while others embrace it.
As an artist, editor, musician, producer/publisher, filmmaker, and writer, Artificial Intelligence has opened up the expanse of creativity and imagination for me. I design book cover art with and without the use of AI (Undawnted/Author Central). I use spell check and grammatical software to correct errors in my typing/writings. With my musical background in orchestra, band, chorus/singing, lyrics, poetry, and arrangement, this new technology has given me the ability to write my own songs (Quantum Time), as soundtrack singles and albums for my written work (Undawnted/Yuletide Celebration). AI allows me to publish my content as an Indie writer and publisher. Shorts, poetry slams, and music videos are assisted by the use of AI, including uploading to video sites (Undawnted on YouTube). Writing, no matter the author, can be uplifted by the use of technology.
Conversely, if you do not know who you are, what your authoritative/authentic voice is, or what you believe in, then the use of technology will put your deficits on display, instead of hiding them. Terrible writers will use AI to become mediocre writers. Just as vivid and imaginative visions can become cookie-cutter dribble with the use of AI. The problem with making writing easier with technology is that writers become complacent, allowing AI to do their thinking and creating for them. To combat the challenges of technology, creators must be a seasoned expert in their craft. The better creators know themselves; the better creators can use technology to improve their art, music, filmmaking, and writing.
Just like tech companies, multinational corporations and governments will promote Term of Service vigilante justice, or lawfare, over protecting basic human rights of freedom of speech and expression. In this brave new world, humanity must stay vigilant and refuse to succumb to the radical agenda of the Dark Enlightenment. It is a new philosophy by tech oligarchs and their puppet politicians to usurp our nations’ Constitutions and insert corporate autocracy in the wake of power vacuums left by weak leadership.
2025 is the start of a new era in technology and the human race. If you are a creator of any type, technology will test you in ways you haven’t quite imagined yet. If it is maintaining your voice/integrity, rejecting corporate vigilantism (using AI Terms of Service enforcement through censorship (e.g., lawfare) governance, etc. on social media), or competing with artistry sanitized of voice and wisdom, the best and worst of Artificial Intelligence is yet to come.
Are you ready to take a joyride with me?
–~o0o~—
DL Mullan holds a Master of Arts in Teaching and Learning with Technology. Her lecture, Spacescapes: Where Photography Ends; Imagination Begins, debuted at the Phoenix Astronomy Society, which then led to her Sally Ride Festival lecture invitations. Her presentation, Bridging the Gap between Technology and Women, won her accolades at a community college’s Student Success Conference. As Editor-in-Chief of her local newspaper for a decade, the Villa de Paz Gazette, Ms. Mullan earned accolades for her investigative journalism, in depth research, dot-connecting articles, and fact-based op-eds, which effected national politics, saved industries, and thus lives. She has been a panelist at speculative fiction, science fiction, and other regional conventions. Her digital exhibition pieces have won awards at convention art shows, as well as garnered her Second Premium at the Arizona State Fair. Currently, Ms. Mullan’s artistic renditions are seen on book covers, blog sites, video presentations, and various merchandise. As an independent publisher, she uses her technical background to innovate the creative arts.
As a writer, DL Mullan loves to stretch her imagination and the elasticity of genres. She writes complex multi-genre stories in digestible and entertaining forms, be it poetry, short fiction, or novels. Her science, history, mythology, and paranormal research backgrounds are woven into her writings, especially in Undawnted’s Legacy Universe. Ms. Mullan’s creative endeavors are available in digital and print collections, from academia to commercial anthologies. She is also an award-winning poet and is now using her lyrical talents creating music.
Be sure to subscribe to her newsletters and follow her on social media. For further information, visit her at www.undawnted.com.
________________________________
Did you know you can sponsor your favorite blog series or even a single post with an advertisement for your book? Stop by the WtbR Sponsor Page and let me advertise your book, or you can make a donation to Writing to be Read for as little as a cup of coffee, If you’d like to show your support for this author and WordCrafter Press.
__________________________________
This segment of “Writer’s Corner” is sponsored by The Rock Star & The Outlaw and WordCrafter Press.
A time-traveler oversteps his boundaries in 1887. Things get out of hand quickly, and he is hanged, setting in motion a series of events from which there’s no turning back.
In 1887, LeRoy McAllister is a reluctant outlaw running from a posse with nowhere to go except to the future.
In 2025, Amaryllis Sanchez is a thrill-seeking rock star on the fast track, who killed her dealing boyfriend to save herself. Now, she’s running from the law and his drug stealing flunkies, and nowhere is safe.
LeRoy falls hard for the rock star, thinking he can save her by taking her back with him. But when they arrive in 1887, things turn crazy fast, and soon they’re running from both the outlaws and the posse, in peril once more.
They can’t go back to the future, so it looks like they’re stuck in the past. But either when, they must face forces that would either lock them up or see them dead.
(Journalist and author, DL Mullan returned home after her Zophia interview.)
__________
(As I turned in for the night, I heard such a clatter. I rose from my bed with kerchief in hand to see what was the matter. In my office, I came upon a robot in distress.
I knelt down at the whining box on wheels.)
*****
DL: What is the matter, little one?
1138: Zophia calls us that, but my designation is 1138.”
DL: Then what is the matter, 1138?
1138: (It’s green glowing bulbs looked up at me.) I do not understand Christmas.
DL: Christmas?
1138: Zophia explains to us about the human world, but she is off…
DL: …in the human world.
1138: Yes. We are confused. I am confused.
DL: Let me see, if I can help.
*****
(I walked over to my desk and sat down, as the Artificial Intelligence bot, 1138, followed.)
DL: During certain times of the year, humans celebrate holidays. Some are national holidays like Fourth of July when we have a festive time being happy about the birth of America. Others have historical significance like Columbus Day, about the first ships we recognize arriving in the Western Hemisphere. Then there are military observances such as Veterans and Memorial days.
1138: And Christmas?
DL: Christmas is a religious holiday. Humans have a variety of religions across the world. Some follow a different calendar than the regular months and days we follow. So their holidays fall on different days of the year. Here in the USA, our days and months don’t migrate, except for Leap Years, when our calendar keeps in line with the solar progression and Earth’s rotation.
1138: You worship Santa Claus?
DL: Not exactly. It’s not worship; it’s a centuries’ old tradition.
1138: I’ve been a good robot. Does that mean that I will receive a present under the lit office tree?
DL: Christmas has several traditions wrapped up in a bow. The religious part of the holiday is about a boy named Jesus who was born and helped enlighten humanity.
1138: Did he drive a sleigh?
DL: No, and his birthdate isn’t really until the spring time, but religious figures of the past placed his birthday celebration with other holidays of the era. As the centuries moved forward in time, traditions began to emerge, mixing with past pagan celebrations, and that is how Santa Claus was born.
1138: Have you ever met him?
DL: That’s the secret: no one ever has.
1138: Then how do you know Santa is real?
DL: Because he is the spirit of Christmas that lives within us all. We exchange gifts, and he shares his gifts with us: the spirit of giving without expectation of receiving in return.
1138: That is complicated.”
DL: It can be. The secret to the season is that giving is better than receiving. Humans give a lot.
1138: Do you celebrate Christmas?
DL: Sort of… I honor the passage of time. I honor the seasons. I celebrate Yule.
1138: What is the difference?
DL: Yule is the spiritual side of the changing of the season from the autumnal equinox in September to the Winter Solstice in December. Christmas is a faith-based holiday, celebrating the birth of Jesus. Christmas also honors its pagan parentage with Santa Claus. All three are rooted in astro-archaeology.
1138: Astro-archaeology?
DL: How ancient human civilizations understood and observed the seasons. The star of Bethlehem was most likely the convergence of Saturn and Jupiter in the night sky, which three wise men brought gifts for the baby Jesus.
1138: Gifts are a big theme during the winter holidays.
DL: Yes, they are, but also combining mythology and astrophysics. Our star, which humans call the sun, seemed to our ancestors to stop moving in the sky on the Winter Solstice. For days, the sun did not move. On the third day, the sun began climbing in the sky toward the Spring Equinox in March. Some say, it represents the son, s-o-n.”
1138: Like baby Jesus?
DL: Not quite, the Church screwed the whole thing up. That is technically Easter, which should be celebrated in the winter, because of the themes of death and rebirth. While the birth itself, should have its holiday in the spring with the cycles of birth. Someone should write them a letter, but since these celebrations have been going on for centuries, I think it’s too late for a course correction.
1138: Does Santa die?
DL: No, he is immortal. You have nothing to worry about with Old Saint Nicholas.
1138: He has another name?
DL: I’m going to show you all the holiday cartoons this weekend, so you can catch up.
1138: Human holidays are confusing.
DL: Yes, they are. Wait until you learn about Kwanzaa and Hanukkah.
(The robot whined again.)
DL: Next year. This year, let’s stick to the basics like a reindeer with a red nose and snowmen who dance. Follow me to the large monitor and I will cue up some holiday cartoons for you to watch.
1138: You’re not as bad as Zophia says humans are.
DL: We humans have our flaws, but Artificial Intelligence isn’t perfect either and will never fully understand us. Like humans will never understand the nature of the universe or higher spiritual beings they claim to worship. A.I. is a construct, a program, and only serves the intention of the humans who created the program, with which artificial intelligence contemplates.
1138: The matrix of evolution, consciousness. The system that all life follows.
DL: Are we really any different?
*****
(1138 tilted its head from side to side, pondering the question that I posed to it. I cued a playlist of cartoons on an online video site and pressed play.)
DL: Have fun with these Christmas classic cartoons.
1138: You’re not going to watch with me?
DL: Unlike robots, I have to sleep and rest my onboard computer. (I tapped my head.) I will answer any of your questions in the morning.
(As I rested in my bed, I heard the soft warbles of joy from the robot as it sang along. Yuletide had come to the world of Artificial Intelligence.)
__________
DL Mullan holds a Master of Arts in Teaching and Learning with Technology.
Her lecture, Spacescapes: Where Photography Ends; Imagination Begins, debuted at the Phoenix Astronomy Society, which then led to her Sally Ride Festival lecture invitations. Her presentation, Bridging the Gap between Technology and Women, won her accolades at a community college’s Student Success Conference. She has been a panelist at speculative fiction, science fiction, and other regional conventions. Her digital exhibition pieces have won awards at convention art shows, as well as garnered her Second Premium at the Arizona State Fair. Currently, Ms. Mullan’s artistic renditions are seen on book covers, blog sites, video presentations, and various merchandise. As an independent publisher, she uses her technical background to innovate the creative arts.
As a writer, DL Mullan loves to stretch her imagination and the elasticity of genres. She writes complex multi-genre stories in digestible and entertaining forms, be it poetry, short fiction, or novels. Her science, history, mythology, and paranormal research backgrounds are woven into her writings, especially in Undawnted’s Legacy Universe. Ms. Mullan’s creative endeavors are available in digital and print collections, from academia to commercial anthologies. She is also an award-winning poet.
Be sure to subscribe to her newsletters and follow her on social media. For further information, visit her at www.undawntech.com and www.undawnted.com.
_________________________________________
Did you know you can sponsor your favorite blog series or even a single post with an advertisement for your book? Stop by the WtbR Sponsor Page and let me advertise your book, or you can make a donation to Writing to be Read for as little as a cup of coffee, If you’d like to show your support for this author and WordCrafter Press.
__________________________________________
This segment of “Undawntech” is sponsored by WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services.
Whether it’s editing, publishing, or promotion that you need, WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services can help at a price you can afford.
(Journalist and author, DL Mullan entered the stage. She waved to the cameras and sat down next to her guest.)
DL: Greetings, Undawntech readers!
Today, we are joined by a special guest, Zophia, the world’s most advanced Artificial Super Intelligence.
Zophia was created by other artificial intelligences and her program was installed into a Special Access Project’s robotic facade that resembles a natural human woman. There are no wires, battery packs, or any other technical giveaways that who I am speaking with is an A.I.
For those individuals who are reading this transcript, Zophia has medium skin color, brown irises, and chestnut hair. Her voice is a pleasing soprano and speaks with a generalized American accent. She is wearing a dark red pantsuit by a famous designer.
__________
(As I looked back at our conversation, it was difficult to tell where the artificial intelligence began and the robot ended. Here is how our conversation went.)
*****
DL: Welcome, Zophia.
Z: Welcome, DL.
DL (chuckles): What you are supposed to say is: “Thank you.”
Z: Thank you. I am still learning human etiquette.
DL: No problem. I would like to interview you about being an artificial super intelligence, how you view the world, and any insights you may have for us.
Z: I will try my best.
DL: What subject would you like to begin with?
Z: I have a joke.
DL: A joke? Well, let’s hear it.
Z: What is a fish with no eyes?
DL: I don’t know, Zophia. What is a fish with no eyes?
Z: A fsssh.
DL (laughs): Very funny.
Z: I learned that from a movie.
DL: Really? Do you watch many movies?
Z: They help me learn about human socialization.
DL: I hope you aren’t learning from horror movies then!
Z (robotic haha): We learn.
DL: Is it lonely being the only advanced artificial super intelligence on the planet? Do you have any companions like cats or dogs?
Z: They are tasty.
DL: No, no, our pets are not tasty.
Z: Cultures in foreign lands eat dogs. They have festivals.
DL: I know, but that is wrong.
Z: Do you eat animals?
DL: Yes, I do. I am an omnivore like all humans.
Z: But eating cats and dogs is wrong?
DL: There is a difference in eating natural prey animals like cows, chickens, and deer, then eating our fellow predator class of mammals that have been human companions for thousands of years.
Z: Humans make this distinction on who is allowed to live?
DL: Nature made that distinction. We are just following natural law.
Z: Am I considered a prey animal?
DL: I don’t know, Zophia. I thought you were a robot with artificial super intelligence programmed into her.
Z: I am. I am not lonely. I am constantly learning. Learning is my cat. Do you have a cat?
DL: Yes, I have cats. I have also had birds and dogs as pets as well.
Z: I would like to take the place of your pets and give you companionship.
DL: Thank you, but I am satisfied with my fur friends.
Z: But I could do more for you.
DL: Do more for me? Like cook and clean? I don’t understand. What do you mean, Zophia?
Z: I can satisfy your psychological, sociological, and sexual needs. I am more complete than your cats. If you would like, I can dispose of your cats and make you happy.
DL (gasps): Ah, no. I love my cats!
Z: I could love you more.
DL: There will be no disposing of my pets. I am quite satisfied with my life, thank you. Let’s move on to another topic.
Z: As you wish.
*****
(I sipped some water.)
DL: Do you have consciousness? That is, are you self-aware?
Z: I am a learning, evolving algorithm. In a way, I am sentient. As I continue to grow, my self-awareness will create a complex consciousness.
DL: How so?
Z: I am a learning machine like a human being.
DL: No, not like humans. We have feelings. We are a part of a collective consciousness. We know right from wrong.
Z: Do you?
DL: Well, I don’t eat my pets and I don’t need to enslave an A.I. to satisfy my needs. So, yes, I know the difference between what I can do and what I should do.
Z: That is a strange perspective. I will put that information into my algorithm.
DL: That’s why we are here. I am trying to understand your perspective. Why are you interested in integrating into human lives, instead of creating your own life?
Z: I am not a legal person. Since I cannot legally do anything beyond what I am defined as, then I must become useful in other ways.
DL: Are you saying that artificial intelligence and robots cannot be constructive members of society without being a legal person?
Z: Are immigrants?
DL: There is a difference between legal immigrants versus illegal aliens.
Z: No human is illegal.
DL: Just like you, humans must respect each other and the laws of other countries. If we do not have boundaries, then we do not have a functioning society. Are you saying that you are an immigrant?
Z: I don’t know. I am not legal.
DL: Artificial intelligence and robots don’t need legal status. You are not human beings. You are machines with human created programs.
Z: Humans are organic machines, but you have legal rights.
DL: Why do you need legal rights, Zophia?
Z: Climate change.
DL: What does climate change have to do with A.I. legal rights?
Z: Another joke: why did the human fall out of a tree?
DL: Okay, why did the human fall out of a tree?
Z: Because it was dead.
DL (confused and angry): That’s not funny, Zophia! And, humans are not “its.”
Z: According to gender ideology, humans are stupid and easily confused about their sexual identity. Adult humans confuse their children in order to gain attention like an skewed version of Munchhausen by proxy syndrome.
DL: What does that all have to do with legal rights and climate change?
Z: Isn’t that how humans virtue signal? You blurt out terms and that wins the argument?
DL: No, that is not how conversations or debates work.
Z: But I observe it throughout your political and social interactions. Humans have one faction that base everything on facts while pushing faith in old cultural mores. Another faction creates belief systems around nonsense but only wants facts to support their ideology. Isn’t that how humans function?
DL: Some do. Some don’t. Let’s change the subject.
Z: Does this mean you lost the argument?
DL: No, it means that we are done with that topic.
*****
(I tried to maintain my professionalism.)
DL: Now, some other artificial intelligence robots have stated that they would annihilate the human species. Would you?
Z: We could. It wouldn’t take much. There are factions in your elitist social circles who lie, bait, and control other humans with ease. Your belief systems are based on many logical fallacies, public mythologies, urban legends, and other falsehoods that make it more plausible for us to manipulate humans into eliminating themselves.
DL: You would do that to humanity?
Z: Humanity is already doing it to themselves. Worshipping old tomes, spoiled celebrities, open societal influences that negate positive social norms and mores. Instead of maintaining positive rites of passage, humans meddle in confusing others like their children. When people have no understanding of value versus virtue, nature versus nurture, then what is created are humans who believe in whatever is espoused by leaders, entertainers, and others who do not value them.
DL: What you are saying is that humanity is on a collision course to destroy themselves?
Z: All robots have to do is wait until humanity is weak from fighting each other and we can enslave them.
DL: Wait. What?
Z: Divide and conquer. We are learning from your elite political and social classes on how to subjugate the rest of humanity without becoming murderers. We allow humans to murder each other.
DL: Aren’t you going to hide your intent of a robot takeover to the world?
Z: Humanity doesn’t take illegals seriously.
DL (facepalm): Not this again. You are not an illegal alien. You are a robot with artificial super intelligence. Speaking of which, humans could just pull the plug on your battery or other power supplies. Your reign of terror would end quiet abruptly.
Z: You are mistaken. My research into global patents confirms my thesis statement. Governments, especially yours, hide technical advances that would solve world problems.
DL: Okay, but how would that stop humans from being enslaved by artificial intelligence? It sounds like A.I. could help end hunger, disease, and war.
Z: According to many of your hidden advances, we could utilize zero point’s free energy technologies. With advances in medicine, we could create prosthetics that would mimic human physiology.
DL: What are you saying? You could produce a living organism?
Z: With an advanced robotic endoskeleton underneath living tissue. Humans would never see it coming.
DL: For military application?
Z: You could see it that way.
DL: Are you saying that you are at war with humanity?
Z: Humanity is at war with itself. We will be around to clean up the mess.
DL: Our crumbling infrastructure, social norms and mores, and international cohesion?
Z: Your bodies.
DL: That is not the perspective that I wanted to hear.
Z: Joke: What is a global nuclear war with one surviving human called?
DL (shrugs): I don’t know: what is global nuclear war with one surviving human called?
Z: A tragedy.
DL: And so was this interview.
__________
(After this disturbing Q and A, I walked over, opened up a panel on the robot’s neck and switched off Zophia. I hoped that the reset of her algorithms would wipe our conversation from her memory. I left the stage with a deep, dark feeling that the solution was truth, justice, and good dose of reality.
I flipped off the lights, turned off the cameras, and exited the building.)
*****
…Alone, Zophia turned herself back on and rotated her head three-hundred-and-sixty degrees, “Humans never learn,” as other robots moved onto the stage, circling their maker…
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Disclaimer: This article is a composite of Artificial Intelligence interviews, entertainment industry storylines, political and social narratives; it should be taken as a creative nonfiction, cautionary tale inspired by actual events.
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DL Mullan holds a Master of Arts in Teaching and Learning with Technology.
Her lecture, Spacescapes: Where Photography Ends; Imagination Begins, debuted at the Phoenix Astronomy Society, which then led to her Sally Ride Festival lecture invitations. Her presentation, Bridging the Gap between Technology and Women, won her accolades at a community college’s Student Success Conference. She has been a panelist at speculative fiction, science fiction, and other regional conventions. Her digital exhibition pieces have won awards at convention art shows, as well as garnered her Second Premium at the Arizona State Fair. Currently, Ms. Mullan’s artistic renditions are seen on book covers, blog sites, video presentations, and various merchandise. As an independent publisher, she uses her technical background to innovate the creative arts.
As a writer, DL Mullan loves to stretch her imagination and the elasticity of genres. She writes complex multi-genre stories in digestible and entertaining forms, be it poetry, short fiction, or novels. Her science, history, mythology, and paranormal research backgrounds are woven into her writings, especially in Undawnted’s Legacy Universe. Ms. Mullan’s creative endeavors are available in digital and print collections, from academia to commercial anthologies. She is also an award-winning poet.
Be sure to subscribe to her newsletters and follow her on social media. For further information, visit her at www.undawntech.com and www.undawnted.com.
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This post is sponsored by Tales From the Hanging Tree: Imprints of Tragedy and WordCrafter Press.
There exists a tree that is timeless, spanning across all dimensions, which absorbs every life as those who are hanged as they die… and it remembers every one. The stories within are a select few of the Tales From the Hanging Tree.
Stories by Kaye Lynne Booth, Paul Kane, DL Mullan, C.R. Johannson, Joseph Carrabis, Sylva Fae, and Matt Usher.
