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Still working my way through the wild elephant story.

A lush read thus far!

Excited to read the inspiration for "The Wicker Man".

It's pretty amazing how much new stuff emerges out of the book almost a quarter decade later and a me spending a stint in graduate school studying history of computing. (Vannevar Engleton!)

It's also a VERY interesting look at a pre-9/11 world where protagonists fly around the world like taking a cab. Interestingly enough, it does anticipate the surveillance state / capitalism, which we see more of in the companion book "The Pains".

@caracabe I remember this one inducing a fugue-like state every time I would read it. It was a tricky read for me, but I think that just heightened the experience for me.

In between larger books on my reading list, I slipped in a second reading of this book. It had been long enough that I had forgotten most of it, but still retained fond memories of having read it.

This collection, from an AI competition to try and pass the Turing Test through storytelling two decades ago, has some newfound relevance in the age of generative AI, and its encroachment on the most basic of human activities, spinning a yarn. I don't want to spoil too much of the experience for new readers, but this is definitely worth a read if you've ever looked at the output from ChatGPT (or its numerous clones and me-toos) and wondered why the algorithm made THAT choice.

Looking forward to revisiting the rest of "Mind over Matter" sequence that @jsundman@mastodon.social was so generous to drop on us, two decades ahead of schedule.