fiction

A novel method of faster than light communication

(I *sure* this was the basis a short story I read - but I can't find it. So I'm (re)writing it. If you know of the original, please let me know…!) The speed of light is a universal constant. This "speed limit" is fundamental to everything we understand about physics. Information - when propagated via […]

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Forbidden Unicode

@edent

on 2018-10-31 · fiction Tales Of The Algorithm unicode · 3 comments · 1,150 words · read ~969 times.

I have been receiving letters from a dear friend by the name of Ophiuchus. He has been researching some curious anomalies in the Unicode Standard. While I cannot vouch for all he has written, I thought it worth presenting his discoveries to you. My friend, I bring you a curiosity! I have been engaged in […]

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How to Hypnotise an Artificial Intelligence

@edent

on 2017-03-12 · AI algorithms fiction Tales Of The Algorithm · 850 words · read ~748 times.

Last week I attended a talk by Dr Irina Higgins from Artificial Intelligence company DeepMind. It was a fascinating look at how their AI works, and how it is trained. If you've ever played a video game online, it is likely you've been training an Artificial Intelligence agent without realising it.Ethical? — Terence Eden (@edent) […]

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Tales of the Algorithm: The Transparent Man

@edent

on 2016-11-20 · fiction future NaBloPoMo Tales Of The Algorithm · 2 comments · 900 words · read ~499 times.

Scene: An airport. A few years from now. "I'm sorry sir, we can't let you on the flight until you visit the rest-room." I'll admit that it caught me off-guard. Surely the woman at the airline gate was joking? "Sir, two of the plane's toilets are out-of-order. At this time we're requesting all passengers void […]

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We can marry you off, wholesale.

@edent

on 2015-03-01 · facebook fiction Tales Of The Algorithm viral · 750 words · read ~1,279 times.

Last week I was on the In The Abstract podcast. I came up with a curious idea. If I were Tom Scott, I'd turn this into a performance piece - instead, here's a short and entirely fictional story. Facebook knew you were in love a long time before you did. It noticed you scrolling back […]

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Writing A "Choose Your Own Adventure" Story On Twitter

@edent

on 2015-01-13 · fiction interactive fiction twitter · 13 comments · 1,300 words · read ~14,767 times.

I've spent the last few days writing a Choose Your Own Adventure (CYOA) game on Twitter. This blog post briefly discusses how I did it - and what pitfalls I discovered when creating it. But, first, if you want to play.... You should probably be asleep. I've created a "Choose You Own Adventure" on Twitter. […]

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They Read Minds, Don’t They?

@edent

on 2013-11-27 · dystopia fiction movies NaBloPoMo · 3 comments · 1,900 words · read ~504 times.

The horror of the quantified audience The cinema is on the deserted outskirts of Pinewood Studios. It's a wet and windy day — not unusual for England in late summer — and I'm here to take a look at the future of audience test screenings. My friend, Ross, has asked me to take a test drive of his company's […]

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