Responsible Ai for War

 As with Military Intelligence,  Responsible AI for War is an oxymoron.

As demonstrated in the US/Israeli attack on Iran, the use of today's AI technology is fraught with problems. The NY Times reported that the precision weapons had hit a girls' primary school. This had been a (possibly) legitmate target 15 years ago when it was used by the IGRC, but that was completely out-of-date intel. As with early careless use of misinformation, when the US bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, the old adage Garbage in Garbage out, clearly now applies to the state-of-the-art in the AI world - you would be sued for using such unreliable and unpredictable systems in medicine or finance (or even just self driving cars), but in armed conflict, colateral damage and friendly fire just go with the territory.

Of course, there's a whole moral philosophical debate about ethics of autonomous weapons, but right now, empirically, they are just bad, as a matter of objectively verifiable fact.

The Raskolnikov

The Raskolnikov is a new type of weapon. Not so new in fact. Known in some past of the world as the Rascal, and in others as the Russian (after its unfortunate adoption in very dangerous game), the Raskolnikov is a double edged sword. 

The Raskolnikov is the leveller. Everyone should have one. Or no-one. Nothing in-between is fair or just.

The Raskolnikov is the push-me-pull-you, the palindrome, the lottery ticket from heaven and hell, all wrapped up in one.

You may choose fire the Raskolnikov, but remember it may choose to fire you. With exquisite justice, the Raskolnikov is the god-with-dice of weapons. It can slay the target or the shooter. It does so with complete and uniform randomness. Home invaders may snatch the weapon from your hands, and find themselves at the wrong end of the barrel, because both ends are equally deadly. The assailant on the metro or in the war is no more likely to gain an advantage. This is the Ultimate Leveller. Why burn a candle at both ends, when you can blow off the bloody front and back door? Accept no substitutes.

Q-Bikes

 After E-Bikes, Q-Bikes. Very simple idea - you take the front (powered) wheel off of another e-bike, and swap it for your rear wheel, but put it on backwards.

Then when you start moving, it will act as n electricity generator.

So you entangle the rear and front wheel conductors and there you go - no need for pedals or batteries.

Once we've solved the decoherence problems, it will even be safe...

The Angels and Demons of Our Better Selves

 Two things struck me, and only one of them was the ground.

I was finishing the last in Philip Pullman's Dust books and wondering about demons - surely if yours was a mayfly or a tadpole, then your life would be very short. What if it was a goldfish and it forgot you.

But why didn't he use more imagination about what kinds of creatures demons could be? Why not an Oxtopus, which could be worn as camoflage (harry potter invisibility cloak) or watched like a TV? Why not a Bee Swarm or an Amoeba? What about an entire Mycorrhizal network? or a parasitic worm? Dull really. What if your demon was a murmuration? or one of these seaslugs

Then I was thinking about DIY - having fallen off my bike (easier than riding it) I was reading about things to do to fix your knees. I like fixing stuff - i was delighted with myself fairly recently for replacing the circuit board in our lovely old Henry Hoover - with the help of very nice instructional videos online, plus the fantastic Henry Hoover companies extrremely customer friendly replacement part pricing, i just had to undo four bolts, slide out the old board, unplug it, plug in the new one, and the Hoover sprung into life like new - less than £10 and 10 minutes instead of £160 for a whole new machine.

Wouldn't it be cool if human parts were as easy to replace? Having had eye surgery (and cataracts) i have plastic lenses in my eye, but they aren't adpative, so i don't really get "accommodation". Having earing loss, I have hearing aids (thank you NHS for very nice up-to-date oticon in-ear gadgets) but still, not quite the whole facility back to spanking new. 

And some new knees would be a treat right now, but I hear that even going down on bended aforesaid joints, will still find you waiting many months before the surgeons are ready. If only we could do DiY on ourselves as easily as on our household widgets!

overworld building stories

not enough people writing about the world take as big a picture view as these writers do.

here's my eco-spec reading list as of 3.1.2026. additions or criticisms welcome as welcome as weather.

here be funghi bigger than countries, global networks that bring planetary motion into question, radioactive dogs, and octopi. and the odd human. and synth.

the overstory, by richard powers

circular motion by alex foster

when there are wolves again, by ej swift

the ministry of the future, by kim stanley robinson

all the birds in the sky, by charlie jane anders

the mountain in the sea, by ray nayler

hopeland, by ian mcdonald

venemous lumpsucker, by ned beauman

the calcutta chromosome, by amitav ghosh

for good measure, honoruable mention to the windup girl, by paolo bacigalupi

if you are reading these in the england, then read rain by melissa harrison, purely for atmosphere.

or william gibson's agency series...if only because of its subtle allusion to the "jackpot"