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Accumulating Cringe Theory (or, why It Sucks Growing Old)

June 5, 2023

If you think you’re about to read some grand existentialist revelation, let me stop you right there – or redirect you to Giacomo Leopardi. Accumulating Cringe Theory might sound fancy, but it’s just something I came up with in the middle of the night while trying to fall back asleep.

To be fair to my brain, the “what if” behind it was intriguing. The basic premise is: If we are embarrassed by our past behavior – think of the silly things you said as a teenager – doesn’t it follow that the older we get, the wider the expanse of this past?

In other words, as we get older and have more of a past to recall (often in a flawed manner), doesn’t it mean we have more embarrassing moments, too? I decided to call this accumulating cringe theory just to have a name for it. Is there anything valuable to discuss there? I’m finding out myself as I’m typing this very post.

Perhaps this not-to-be-taken-too-seriously cringe theory of mine could contain a clause for doing embarrassing stuff when you’re old

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AI Tools for Writers: Make Your Life Easier, Keep Your Art Intact

May 29, 2023

Writing

affect, art, creativity, fiction, literature, programming, society, writing

The popularization of artificial intelligence (AI) tools is arguably one of the most important things to have happened in terms of the internet and IT in recent years. We’ve already seen how AI can help programmers, and we’ve also seen the pitfalls of improper AI use. So let’s make it specific for writers and see what kinds of AI tools writers can use – and this will be a case of “it’s not what you think”.

You might recall a post where I explained how AI can write really well but it’s utterly lousy at producing art. This is a crucial detail to keep in mind here: AI can’t do your job for you. AI can’t produce art; currently it can barely produce something emulating it (though this might change in the near future).

In any case, if your goal is to write fiction that actually has something to express, completely eradicate from your mind the idea that you can delegate this job to AI. You can’t rely on AI for anything that is “client-facing”. In other words, you can’t rely on AI for writing.

Instead, I will focus on ways and AI tools writers can use to make their life easier, tickle their imagination, and produce literature that is affective.

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Are Narrative Worlds Real? Reflections on Metaphysics

May 22, 2023

Literature, Philosophy

creativity, fiction, literature, metaphysics, philosophy, reality

As a child, whenever I got emotionally affected watching a film or reading a story, my folks would try to console me saying “It’s not real, don’t worry”. That didn’t help at all. To me, narrative worlds were real, more real than reality itself. After all, fiction and reality are not antonyms.

When we talk about the reality of imaginary worlds – narrative worlds, in our case – the discussion seems moot. “Of course narrative worlds are not real”, any random observer would likely utter with – not misplaced – confidence.

After all, when you follow the characters of a video game, you can always save your progress and restore if something goes wrong. Similarly, when you read about a lonely female programmer plagued by indecision, her life never leaves the confines of the novel. You can’t meet that woman, her actions don’t dictate yours and can’t change the world.

Or… can they?

narrative worlds real — Are photos real? Even if they are made “traditionally”, using light passing through a lens (rather than being e.g. a computer render), where do we draw the line between “too much post-production” blurring (no pun intended) the lines between being real and being imaginary? Establishing the reality of narrative worlds faces similar puzzles

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