Theodore Sturgeon and AI

 Theodore Sturgeon and AI

In 1957, the science fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon was challenged by a critic who said that "90% of science fiction is crud." Sturgeon did not dispute the critic's conjecture but expanded it, noting that "90% of science fiction is crud, but then, 90% of everything is crud." This thought is now widely referred to as "Sturgeon's Law".

Sturgeon wrote various non-cruddy things including novels, short stories, a couple of Star Trek episodes, as well as ghost-writing the Ellery Queen novel THE PLAYER ON THE OTHER SIDE. In addition to his work, he was friends with Kurt Vonnegut and Vonnegut based a recurring character in his novels, an obscure science fiction writer named Kilgore Trout, on Sturgeon. Today, Kilgore Trout is more remembered than Theodore Sturgeon. So it goes.

Sturgeon's Law is still remembered and quoted and I think it contains a powerful caution for today's world, a world where the captains of industry assure us that AI will make everything so much better. I have my doubts.

An important thing to remember about AI is that is Artificial Intelligence. We tend to gloss over the first word and believe the second one. We want to believe that code had understanding and insight, but it is an illusion of intelligence. It is pattern recognition and feedback loops processing huge data sets. AI can do amazing things, like scan millions of mammograms and detect previously unrecognized correlations, literally saving lives through early cancer detection. But that is not intelligence.

Now the AI hypsters and true believers (and even the best AI can't distinguish between the two) will tell you that they are very close to achieving AGI (Artificial General Intelligence). AGI will know everything about everything because it has read everything, looked at everything, and found the patterns we puny humans have missed. It no longer matters that is artificial because it is supremely intelligent. I still have my doubts.

Because 90% of everything is crud, these large general data sets contain a lot of crud. And now we have hit the point where much of what is in these data sets has been skimmed from the Internet and as any child can now tell you, the Internet is not exactly a great source of reliable information. But wait, it gets worse. The internet is now being flooded with AI crud, the stuff that mimics good information. And that is being skimmed and fed back into the models. See the problem? We've built a crud concentrator.

This isn't a theoretical future problem. It is already happening. AI companies that have been using AI to write more of their code, are finding more and more examples of "hallucinations", the AI industry's clever rebranding of what we used to call errors, bugs, or lies. In several high-profile instances, next generation AI code has had to be rolled back when it proved to be less reliable than the previous version. And AI is unfortunately quite good at writing code that is inscrutable to humans. So now we have huge code bases that neither computers nor humans understand. That doesn't seem like a secure foundation for the future. It is the kind of thing science fiction writers have been warning us about for decades. I think it is time for us to listen.

A few words, a few birds, and no frogs

 

Independent Bookstore Day at Foxes & Fireflies

Saturday, April 25th 2026

Independent Bookstore Day at Foxes & Fireflies

Today is Independent Bookstore Day and when Christine and I hiked over to Foxes & Fireflies, we found the place was packed with bookish folks. It was actually a bit too crowded for relaxed browsing, but it is certainly good to see the store doing well. Maria and Dave, the store's owners, confirmed to me that this is their busiest day of the year. In the year and half since the store opened, they've expanded their inventory and their open hours and soon they may outgrow their current, very cool space.

Foxes & Fireflies is a Superior success story. Our small city still has a local paper (Christine & I subscribe to the electronic version) and Maria Lockwood is a reporter there. A couple of years ago she was doing a story on Superior's small business incubator program which is based out of an ornate old building on Tower Avenue that used to be the local post office. The incubator provides space and mentorship to folks who want to start a business. Uffda Kombucha started in the basement of the old post office and has since moved to a larger space a few blocks north on Tower.

In the course of doing her story, Maria enrolled in the program and she, Dave, and their daughters decided to pursue the dream that became the Foxes & Fireflies bookstore. The store is currently housed in what had been the lobby of the old post office. Maria and Dave still have their "real" jobs but somehow between the two of them and their daughters they now manage to be open 7 days a week.

Foxes & Fireflies has both new and used books for sale and some of the used books are books I've traded in. Today, I traded three in, bought a book of poetry, got an amazing book of old maps for free, and also bought a sticker for Christine which really sums up our lives. The sticker reads "I don't have my ducks in a row... I have squirrels and they are everywhere."

The map book contains pictures of the antique map collection of retired journalist Willy Stern, who lives in a cabin on the shores of Lake Nebagamon. Stern provided wonderful, wry commentary on each of the maps. I read the book this afternoon and I learned and laughed a lot. A lot of the old map makers invented islands in Lake Superior to please their sponsors and many of the map makers copied each other so some fictions got propagated for centuries. And then there are the interesting omissions. As an ex-Duluthian and recently minted Superior chauvinist I was amused by a pair of 1899 coffee trading cards that on maps of both Wisconsin and Minnesota named Superior but not Duluth.

I'm a NeoLuddite

Apple recently released a new laptop, the Neo, at the surprisingly low price of $599 ($499 if you are a student) and it is, by most accounts, a wonderful machine. If I was in the market for a new laptop, I would be giving serious consideration to getting a Neo, but I'm the guy who types most of his pages on old typewriters, takes pictures of those pages and blasts them out to the internet. Yes, I do have a laptop that works just fine, an old Chromebook that I bought for $35 from eBay that I have running the Raspberry Pi desktop on top of a Debian Linux operating system. I was a nerd before most folks knew what nerds were, so I don't need Apple or AI doing my thinking for me.

But Apple's Neo got me thinking about a tool I used to have, a unique laptop that was also called the Neo. I had one when we lived in Eugene, but I got rid of it in the great purge before we moved to Superior. But it a handy little device and I realized I kind of missed it, so I found another one on eBay and bought it. I'm typing on it now.

The AlphaSmart Neo weighs two pound and runs for months on 3 AA batteries. It has a simple monochrome LCD screen and a pretty comfortable keyboard. It is basically designed to create and edit text and that's it. No web browsing, email, or other distractions. You can have eight different text files active and swap between them quickly with a single keystroke. It does have a built-in spell check that you can add words to and a thesaurus function that I pretty much don't use.

But the neat trick that the Neo does is that when I connect it to my phone or computer via a USB cable, the other device sees the Neo as a keyboard. It is far easier to type on the Neo than it is on my phone. Mostly what I do is compose a document on my Neo, spell check it and fiddle with it until I like it. Then on my computer or phone I open up whatever app is going to receive the document and hit the SEND key on the Neo. The Neo then blasts the whole document across the wire and the app just thinks I'm a darn fast typer.

I do have a Linux app that lets me send files back to the Neo if needed, but mostly I use the Neo for text creation. I don't have to bother with an AC adapter for it because the batteries last virtually forever. The screen is actually great outdoors, easier to see in sunlight than any modern color screen.

I'll still keep typing on my typewriters, I think the printed page discipline is good for me and I get to play around with my stamps, but I'm rolling the Neo into my writing routines. The Neo is definitely handy for creating longer texts.

I've been called a Luddite, but my skepticism of technology comes from a pretty decent understanding of technology and using the tools that work best for me. I guess you could say I'm a NeoLuddite.

A Very Bookish Day

 Thursday, April 23, 2026

Kent Peterson, Superior WI USA

Christine and I share a belief that it is best not to pack our days too tight with obligations, something that has become easier now that both of us are retired. Today, as I head out the door after breakfast, the only thing on my schedule is meeting up with my lovely wife at the public library a bit after 11:00 AM when her Tai Chi class gets out. I like to wander just to see what the day has in store for me.

Today turns out to be rich in books. I had begun the day by rereading Hemingway's excellent short story, A DAY'S WAIT. I first read that tale more than half a century ago and it has stuck in my brain ever since. I have been on a bit of a Hemingway binge lately and on this morning's ramble, still thinking about Hemingway, I stop at a Little Free Library over near the college and am delighted to find two more Hemingway books, THE SUN ALSO RISES and A MOVEABLE FEAST. As I am extracting those two volumes, another book literally falls at my feet, a slim book called THE WHORE'S CHILD AND OTHER STORIES by Richard Russo. Russo is one of those fellows on my vast, disorganized mental list titled "I've heard good things", so I add not only the Hemingway books but also the Russo to my backpack.

Superior is an extremely bookish town, I think our long winters may have something to do with it. We have dozens of Little Free Libraries, a terrific independent bookstore, an excellent public library, and also a wonderful college library at our local University of Wisconsin campus. As a Superior resident, I am welcome to use the Jim Dan Hill college library, so I stop in there, settle into one of their comfy chairs, and read the title story in the Russo book. It is one hell of a good story.

As I'm leaving the library to go to the other library, I see by the checkout desk a whole bunch of freebie things celebrating National Library Week which I guess is now. I also learn that today is World Book Day and since I'm already well into the spirit of the day/week I take home a nice notebook, a button that says "READING IS MY SPORT" and a tote bag that declares "YES. I REALLY DO NEED ALL THESE BOOKS."

I get to the public library a bit before Christine, verify that they have a bunch of Richard Russo books to lend and then find a copy of the Russo novel STRAIGHT MAN in the Friends Corner of the library. The Friends Corner is a great, by-donation place to get books. This is my lucky day and I donate a buck and take the Russo. I do check out a book from the library, but it's not another Russo title, it's a book called LIVING IN THE PRESENT WITH JOHN PRINE and it caught my eye.

I still have some time before Christine gets out of class, so I settle into another comfy chair and start LIVING IN THE PRESENT WITH JOHN PRINE. I'm settled nicely into the book when a librarian comes over, presents me with an "I caught you reading!" Coupon that she tells me can be traded for a prize at the front desk. It's like getting a major award just for doing what comes naturally! I go to the desk and trade the coupon for a Superior Public Library coffee mug.

When Christine gets out of class we head over to the 2540 Coffee House where I fill her in on my very bookish morning. Once again we marvel at our great fortune to live in such a bookish town.

Earth Day in Superior, 2026

 

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