Amo Ergo Sum

1. The court holds Google responsible for statements made by its AI, considering them Google's statements (search engines have limited liability for results in their engine as they're the words of other sites/companies/people), meaning when their AI lies/hallucinates they're liable for the defamation/harm resulting from those statements.

2. Google's defense that customers are generally aware of the lack of reliability and are responsible for fact checking was dismissed. As the court pointed out, that would "significantly diminish" AI Search's stated purpose and it can't be distinguished from Google's business practices/statements as a search tool.

3. Studies have found about 91% of Google's everyday AI responses are accurate, leaving millions of searches per HOUR with potential liability for falsehoods. 56% of correct responses weren't supported by the sources the AI listed. Both of which mean Google is now liable for a LOT more AI "errors."

4. Google was held liable for 80% of court costs in this case and this precedent is expected to reverberate around the world. This is a massive shift from the 3rd-party search provider role Google has previously played and it comes right as they've tied ALL searches to their AI search.

Last time I reached out, I asked you if writing got less ‘soul sucking’.

You were right! It did. I’ve got a 107k near future sci-fi manuscript that I’m querying. Though I’m noticing that some agents also want a synopsis.

Would you happen to have any tips on what milestones a synopsis should hit, or any general tips on querying itself? I’ve been trolling QT and PM, trying to cross reference them, but I’m also thinking I just query everyone who’s open to sci-fi.

No worries if not! Hope you’re well and hanging in there,

Thanks,

Melanie

Hey there! Hanging in as best I can.

Meanwhile, first of all, re: queries: I am absolutely the wrong person to be asking about this, as (looking backwards over a longish list of novels) I don't believe I've ever queried... not the way we usually mean it these days: as a "cold" inquiry to someone who has no idea who you are before you turn up (as it were) in their inbox.

See, the problem is that—jeez, sort of forty-five years ago now? possibly more?—my agent came looking for me (on the recommendation of my first book's editor), rather than the other way around. And once you've got an agent, they're the one who handles further queries for you, to editors and publishers and so forth. So unfortunately I have zero useful data to contribute on the subject. And as a seriously outlying outlier in this regard, I should probably be referred to as Spiders DD, who should definitely not be included in the dataset. 😏

As for synopsis milestones: I think these are going to depend heavily on two things: (a) What the work in question is like, in terms of subject, length, and tone, and (b) who you're pitching to. (By which I mean, what editor personally. Regardless of how it may look, you're not really pitching to a publisher: you're pitching to a person.) With this in mind, if the person has any kind of online presence, I'd want to look at that with some care and see how their public tone presents itself: then reflect that tone somewhat in the synopsis, and work to complement it.

In the case of the synopsis proper, since it's an already-completed MS we're discussing here, I'd be tempted to turn my usual outlining technique on its head and analyze the MS for the most important things that had to happen for the story to complete itself satisfactorily. I would maybe pick a couple of these from the beginning of the story, a couple from the middle, and a couple from the end; then interlace these as tightly as possible with a similar number and arrangement of emotional / character beats. Then write it up, edit carefully for tightness (because a synopsis so long and leisurely that it puts your editor-to-be to sleep is probably not what you want...), smooth out the "voice" of the synopsis—as with outlines, I would routinely keep a synopsis's tone fairly cool/calm, so as not to upstage the story content—and send it off.

Again: it's ages since I've had to do any such thing... so as regards the suggestions above, look around for the table salt and add what seems to be necessary. Also: keep hunting around online for websites run by agents or editors who have standing to discuss this usefully and meaningfully. (When I finally open up the FicFoundry.com writing-advice website that I’ve been slowly pulling together over the couple of years, I hope to gather together in one place at least some of the resources that people now most often suggest as useful for new novelists getting into the querying end of things.)

First your fave dominates an event - duh, obviously, she's the best. Then during the part of the show where the announcer is like "anybody in the audience want to challenge her for a fat stack of cash", somebody actually does. (Obviously a tourist.) It's some kid wearing like a beginner outfit from a McDojo... and he actually wins?And gets the cash! And then the event just ends!?

You're buzzing. It's clear that this is like a storyline or something. You can't wait for next week's show. Except that there isn't one, because - as you find out through the gossip mill - your fave was actually the local billionaires' daughter who was competing in secret. And also kayfabe might not exist. And now she's gone and the billionaire is blaming a demigod (who's back from the dead? I guess?) for kidnapping her.

So, how come that means no show this week or possibly ever? Well, the billionaire hired the promoter (and a random McDojo sensei) to go after the demigod to get back his daughter (your fave wrestler!) and the guy just... packed up his entire promotion and left.

Some months later the war that's been going on since your great-grandfathers days ends. You go to a peace parade. And there she is: Toph Beifong, the Blind Bandit, giving the new Fire Lord a noogie.

i enjoy the idea of an illustrated book of shorter stories. Tales from Grinny Island or something like that, similar Beatrix Potter's story compilations.

also gitm is one of my favorite stories i've ever had the pleasure of reading, thank you so much for sharing it!

I honestly don't know! GITM is going to take at least a decade to complete. I would like to set original fiction within the universe I have created, even if it turns out to be impossible to 'naturalise' GITM in a way that would make it publishable. I have done so much world building around the Sight and the second plane and the civil war and the cassette futurism setting that there are a ton of things that will likely never be touched in Ghost in the Machine at all. Definitely I would like to write more within this setting.

Imo GitM wouldn't be too hard to make legally distinct. It's an original exploration of themes inspired by fnaf sb, not a one to one recreation of an existing plot. The tweaks that would need to be made wouldn't break the story.

Fitting it into the format of a traditionally published book would be the hard part I think. There's no way anyone is going to squeeze this incredibly long freeform project into the box of a tidy 100k-ish per book series without mangling it.

I think that might mean GitM would need to be a self-published ebook kind of deal instead of a big publisher hardback book series, but hey that's the wonders of modern technology and all. If you have a story that doesn't fit the traditional format, you can just publish it yourself now.

- you’re magical, oh yeah also magic is real, a wizard told you to go learn all types of magic and you did

- there are ancient entities living in the mines and sewers beneath your feet, and they ARE fighting, just fyi

- there’s an ongoing war happening, that is probably why the economy is the way that it is btw

- animals can talk…just occasionally

- you’re haunted by the ghost of your grandfather, but rarely

- there are tiny creatures that will fix things for you in the night but only if you meet their hyper specific demands. also they’re scared of you

- Yoba is an alien (?)

- also the local shopkeeper’s daughter isn’t his she’s the wizard’s and a townswoman named Emily is a psychic, in case you were curious

I missed the 1 year mark in May but I've always wanted to do a mock cover/poster kinda deal for the comic

Here's the alternative without the words

but it's an entirely new level of tragic when somebody you've actually spoken to gets turned into a bot account. it's like peeking at a zombie apocalypse through the window and realizing one of the shambling corpses was your friend.

and then the zombie catches sight of you, lurches up to your window, and shouts through the glass that they accidentally reported your account to tumblr and you'll be deactivated unless you click this link.

if you get something like this ↑ they're gonna follow up by instructing you to contact tumblr support on discord and give you contact info; or they're gonna link a website that looks sort of like tumblr support and say you have to email them; or any variety of "you must now contact tumblr, here is how you contact tumblr."

whatever they send you, it Does Not lead to tumblr. it leads to the master zombie that bit them and inducted them into the ranks of the undead, and will bite you the second they have your email and password. i might be confusing zombies and vampires. anyway,

it's easier to fall for these messages because the blog doesn't LOOK like a bot blog, because it ISN'T a bot blog. it's a normal person's blog that got accessed by a bot, meaning the blog's content CLEARLY looks like a real active user when you click on it. and yes—it might even be a blog you already know. sometimes bots like this go down a blog's DMs or reblogs and message people they've previously interacted with.

unauthorized fucking thing!!!!!!

(warning: loud chirping throughout)

the first osprey is the father, the one that comes later is the mother.

ospreys are not eagles, they're ospreys

ospreys only eat fish, that's why they don't register this starling as possible food

the starling got home safely

the starling was not trying to eat the eggs, it was mostly curious and you can see it trying to hop under the osprey every time the osprey tries to sit down again--this is because the starling is still a baby and has the instinct to get under an adult for warmth, even though it mostly has its feathers. this scares the osprey because that is a Foreign Creature near its eggs.

at the end of the video you can see the ospreys starting to turn the eggs. birds do this so the yolk and/or embryo don't stick to the shell of the egg, which is bad for the egg's health.

If you can correctly identify what type of dog Zorro is, you get a prize*