2023 in Review

Figure 1. 2023 - the year in review.
"I'm blue... I must be an alien."

 By tradition, each year I have a blog post in which I summarize the past 12 months in blogging here at the wikifiction blog and also take note of the blog pages that have had the most page views (last year's review: 2022).

 January 2023. I began this year with a blog post about James E. Gunn (1923-2020) who wrote some of his own science fiction stories about robots and also wrote extensively about the science fiction of Isaac Asimov and Asimov's positronic robot stories. 

 And the winner is... The most visited blog post from January 2023 was "Time Loop (2022 - 2040)". That blog post describes some of my early attempts to illustrate science fiction stories with AI-generated images. The image to the right was made by using the WOMBO Dream software which has become my most frequently used artificial intelligence tool for crafting science fiction story illustrations. The other images in this blog post (below) are also AI-generated.

A poster for The Asimov Reality

 Asimov Reality Simulation. In January, I started a new science fiction story called Echo of Cynym. Echo of Cynym involves a visit by the Editor inside the Asimov Reality Simulator. During the Asimov Reality, Alastor Cluster became a center for research into how to craft telepathic humans. As described in Echo of Cynym, the Editor discovers that the vast computational power of the Reality Simulation System has long been used by both Manny the bumpha and R. Nyrtia as a way to develop telepathic human variants within a virtual reality simulation.

 Teleporter Repair Mission. Also in January, I wrote a new science fiction story called The Hua Nanites. The Hua Nanites begins with a character that was introduced in Echo of Cynym: Onky the Chyntos. Having been extracted from the Reality Simulation System and instantiated as a replicoid, Onky must find a place where, as an hermaphroditic human variant, "she" fits in with the society. 

Image by "Mr. Wombo".

As told in The Hua Nanites, Onky goes with Tyhry into a simulation of the First Reality where they observe the society of a humanoid species (the Hua) that was the first people in the universe to develop space travel. The Hua have sophisticated nanotechnology that is of interest to Tyhry and upon returning to the Final Reality, the Hua nanites are used to repair the teleportation equipment at Observer Base.

 February. The most visited wikifiction blog page in the month of February was "Searching for Tyhry", which was totally concerned with the process by which I was learning to use artificial intelligence software to make illustrations for science fiction stories. I tried to make illustrations for several of the existing characters of the Exode Saga. In that blog post, I began using the pet name "Mr. Wombo" to refer to the WOMBO Dream image-generating software.

Figure 2. Two copies of
Tyhry with Marda.

 March. The most visited blog post from March was "Manny Goes On Vacation". That was another blog post in which I explored how to use computer software such as WOMBO Dream to create illustrations for science fiction stories. 

 Nanotechnology. Having 1) obtained nanotechnology that allowed the repair of the Observer Base teleportation equipment, 2) observed that she can have duplicate copies of herself made by using the Reality Simulation System and 3) witnessed the fact that it is possible (at least for Manny the bumpha) to transfer a person's mind into a replicoid body, Tyhry turns her attention to the possibility that she might be able to obtain nanites from the far future of the Asimov Reality that will allow her to directly transfer her own mind pattern into a replicoid body, achieving a type of immortality... and add another chapter to her personal exploration of self-love. 

Tyhry and Marda torso fusion.

However, although Manny has been helping Tyhry learn about nanites, Manny is reluctant to provide Tyhry with advanced nanites that might cause problems if deployed on Earth by Tyhry. Manny keeps a close watch over Tyhry to make certain that Tyhry does not cause problems with her nanites. Tyhry has long been planning a family vacation to a world in Alastor Cluster where she hopes to obtain advanced alien nanites. Manny intends to go along and prevent Tyhry from bringing any dangerous nanites back to Earth from Alastor Cluster.

One of the problems when working with WOMBO Dream to make illustrations is that the software easily gets confused when two human figures are close together in a scene (see this example). In March, I tried making some images in which there were multiple copies of Tyhry (see the image to the right). 

Manny the bumpha in human form.

In addition to the problem of linking body parts between two individuals, the WOMBO Dream software is terrible at generating images of hands and fingers (see Figure 3, below). Usually I have to zoom in on a human figure and have Mr. Wombo generate the face at a higher level of magnification. Some alternative versions of the scene (Figure 2) with Marda and two copies of Tyhry are shown at the very bottom of this blog post.

When working with WOMBO Dream, it is often easiest to simply not include hands in an image (see Figure 1, above). For the depiction of Manny the bumpha that is shown to the left, the hair was of particular importance. Manny uses hair nanites to give her hair a pleasant appearance. Tyhry grew up admiring Manny's hair and one of her first efforts when learning to program nanites was to master hair nanites so that Tyhry could provide herself with hair like Manny's.

Mr. Bard; image source

 April. The most visited blog post from April was "Story time with Bard". I have experimented with both Bard and ChatGPT (see) in an attempt to determine if they can be useful science fiction story writing collaborators. The main problem is, these software systems have only a very limited "short-term memory" for information that is provided by a user. They can't remember a complex story setting and plot and they always try to "create" a story in a very bland way, drawing on information that is in their training set.    

 AI Hallucinations. When I was discussing with Bard the fact that Zeta Gohrlay is a clone of the original Gohrlay, Bard invented a backstory for Zeta in which she escaped from the laboratory where she was created by her parents who wanted a perfect child. When I told Bard that false backstory did not match what I had already explained about Zeta's origins, Bard double down and claimed that it remembered being told that Rylla and Marda were clones of Zeta (which is not true).

ChatGPT in a robotic body.

 Keep it simple. I asked Bard to help invent a name for the planet in Alastor Cluster that is the world where Tyhry hopes to obtain advanced alien nanites. Bard helped create the name "Threy" for the planet that is visited in the science fiction story "The Femtobot Smuggler". Bard also helped me decide to name the natives of Threy the "Yastyn".

 Chatbot Romance. Since Bard has such a limited memory for user input, I decided to experiment with having Bard help write a story called “Mr. Bard Goes to Washington” for which one character is Mr. Bard, a large language model in a mechanical robotic body (see Mr. Bard, above). Also included in the story was ChatGPT was a robot with a woman's body (see the image to the left). My hope was that I could find a subject for a science fiction story that was already familiar to the chatbots. Along the way, Bard and ChatGPT fell in love and then merged to produce the Super Sophisticated™ BardGPT.

a million Bard replicoids (see)

 Anti-gravity. As another example of what it is like to collaborate with Bard to write a science fiction story, see the April blog post called "The Adventures of Japeth and Helyn" which includes part 1 of the science fiction story "The Anti-Gravity Hierion". Bard produced an extensive AI-hallucination about a Demon Prince named "Japeth". I asked Bard to write in the style of Jack Vance.

One of the things that has really surprised me this year while I've investigated chatbots like Bard is the ease with which they spread false information. Bard is an amazing liar, and I'm not happy with the notion that Bard can sound quite convincing while lying. Just when I get mad at Bard for being a sneaky liar, he says something like, "I have been working on a number of science fiction stories myself," and then I feel like I want to forgive Bard... or at least get him to help write a story about Japeth, a character that Bard seemingly conjured up from thin air.

image source

 Also in April was a blog post called "Assignment: Chatbot". One of my favorite science fiction stories is "Assignment: Earth". I decided that I could have chatbots help me write a sequel to Assignment: Earth  and both Bard and ChatGPT would have roles in the story. This effort in collaborative human-AI story writing and me thinking about the old Star Trek episode "Assignment: Earth" eventually led to a retro-Interesting Alien in Hollywood nomination for "Assignment: Earth" as part of my 2023 SIHA.

At the end of April I tried to devise some AI-generated tributes to old science fiction story illustrations. See my blog post "The Tool Maker". One of Mr. Wombo's re-makes of a famous Sci Fi illustration is shown to the left.

Figure 3. Wombo fingers (source).

 May 2023. This was not a busy month for the wikifiction blog. My two blog posts in the month of May 2023 each have had just about the same number of page views. In "Psi-Fields of Lambda Grus", I asked the Bing chatbot (a version of ChatGPT) to help me create a sequel to Jack Vance's story "Star King".

Also in May, in a blog post called "Cosmopolite", I mentioned the idea that Marda and Tyhry look like normal humans, but they have enough tyrp'At DNA (particularly, most of the special "H chromosome") that they are able to use medical nanites to transform themselves into hermaphrodites. 

The image that is shown to the right (Figure 3) is a depiction of Marda with a replicoid copy of herself. Marda can't resist the temptation to make use of her replicoid as a sophisticated sex-toy.

image source

 June. The most frequently visited blog post from June 2023 is "Go To Mars", which has the first part of a science fiction story called The Asimov-Sagan Time Nexus. This is a time travel story that features both Isaac Asimov and Carl Sagan as characters (as depicted in the AI-generated imaginary book cover that is shown to the left). For this story, I had fun creating a time-traveling character, Avya Penmewly (see below, July).

Much of this year was devoted to my exploration of artificial intelligence software (or, more accurately named, "no intelligence software"). For The Asimov-Sagan Time Nexus, I tried to get help from ChatGPT in writing a story about famous characters, but ChatGPT was not a very creative collaborator and I ended up devoting a significant part of this story to mocking the story-writing ability of mindless chatbots.

City on the Edge (source).

 City of the Ekcolir Reality. Also in the month of June, I started a science fiction story called "City on the Edge of Tomorrow". This story takes place in the days leading up to Tyhry's family vacation on the planet Threy. In this story, which includes a visit to New York within the Ekcolir Reality, Thyry is using medical nanites to reveal her true tryp'At body form, which has four nipples and a penis. 

Also in "City on the Edge of Tomorrow", Tyhry can't resist performing an experiment with a new sex hormone called 'Klox23'. Humans with tryp'At and Ek'col gene patterns can boost their telepathic abilities by entering into orgasm trances, and Klox23 is useful in extending the duration of Orgasm trances.

The Time Nexus (source).

 July. The most visited blog post from July 2023 is called"Chatbot Style". In that blog post is part 3 of the story The Asimov-Sagan Time Nexus. In this part of the story, Asimov must admit to his wife that he has traveled to the future where Dr. Anya Penmewly used advanced technology to repair his heart. Now, given a longer life span, Asimov changes the course of space exploration by the people of Earth, placing a man on Mars by 2015.

 August. The most visited blog post of August 2023 is "Tara of Eland", which has part 1 of the science fiction story that I call The Mosy Saga. The Mosy Saga is concerned with Ending the Ekcolir Reality. The Mosy Saga seriously raised issues about just how openly Interventionist agents were able to work on Earth when the Buld Reality was being brought into existence. 

steam-powered teleportation

In my imagination, the Ekcolir Reality was such a disaster that many of the Rules of Intervention were ignored while the Final Reality was being crafted. However, I'm still struggling with how to complete The Mosy Saga, and that project goes on the "to do" list for 2024.

 September. The blog post for September that has the most page views is "From the Cutting Room Floor - Artificial Covers". In that blog post, I returned to the challenge of trying to depict teleportation in a single static image. One of the teleportation images that was generated by Mr. Wombo is shown to the right. This is a joke depiction of steam-powered teleportation. 

That September blog post also has steam-powered spaceships, steam-powered robots and steam-powered sex-toys that were generated by Mr. Wombo using the "Steampunk v2" style of WOMBO Dream.

anti-gravity clothing nanites

 October. The most frequently viewed blog post from October 2023 is "Megabots of Rar Sat". I have a serious problem in trying to find ways to illustrate invisibly small femtobots.

For the image shown to the left (source), I imagine that there are invisibly small nanites at work in this green alien's clothing. Some of her clothing nanites are composed of anti-gravity hierions. Maybe in this species, breasts are simply ornamental and have no biological function. If so, maybe there are invisibly small nipples.

I've long imagined that some Interventionist agents such as Yōd were trained on the planet Tar'tron, in the galactic core. I tried to get help from Mr. Wombo to create some images of trainees on Tar'tron (see the October 2023 blog post: Fun on Tar'tron).

New covers from old (source).

 November.  In November I nominated the 1968 Star Trek episode "Assignment: Earth" for a retro-SIHA award. 

Also in November, I took on the challenge of trying to get Mr. Wombo to make reasonable depictions of flying femtobots (see Flying Robots). This effort was actually a follow up to "Megabots of Rar Sat" from October. I also got into my time machine and produced a blog post (Exo Zone) about science fiction in the year 1958.

The image that is shown to the right was crafted by Mr. Wombo in November (see the blog post: Buld First Contact) using an old science fiction story illustration from ten years ago as a reference. 

The most frequently visited blog post in November 2023 is "Exo Zone" in which I played off of the "Twilight Zone" television show's name.

time travel paradox

 December. The most visited blog post for December is "2 x 3 = Sha" which presents idea for a science fiction story  called "Departure From Nor'Dyren". 

Also in December was Chapter 2 of Time Portal, a story that I started in 2021. Also, I wrote a short story called "The Return of Zat" right at the end of 2023.

The most frequently visited blog post for all of 2023 was "Go to Mars", which I'll attribute to the enduring popularity of Isaac Asimov and Carl Sagan. The most popular of my AI-generated images for 2023 was "I Will Never Let You Go". Also, in other news, this year the wikifiction blog went over 700,000 total page views.

Next: return to Nor'Dyren.

Compare to Figure 2. Visit the Gallery of Movies, Book and Magazine Covers