{"id":1549,"date":"2024-04-02T22:33:31","date_gmt":"2024-04-02T22:33:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zeppscommentaries.online\/?p=1549"},"modified":"2024-04-02T22:33:31","modified_gmt":"2024-04-02T22:33:31","slug":"ai-in-the-trenches-generative-vs-creative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zeppscommentaries.online\/?p=1549","title":{"rendered":"AI in the Trenches — Generative vs Creative"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bryan Zepp Jamieson<\/p>\n

April 2nd, 2024<\/p>\n

Peter Cawdron is one of the most prolific writers around. Since 2011, he\u2019s written 27 novels with the common theme of First Contact, and with two exceptions, all are stand-alone works, each with its own world, cast of characters, and aliens. Quite often the premise is based on the outline of a science fiction classic (\u201cGhosts,\u201d the exploration of a seemingly dormant extrastellar object, borrows the premise from Arthur C. Clarke\u2019s \u201cRendezvous with Rama\u201d but, like all of Cawdron\u2019s novels, is a wholly original take.) He also has at least 12 other novels, plus several compilations of short fiction, and has edited several anthologies. By any metric, it\u2019s an extraordinarily prodigious output. In a review of his next-to-latest offering, \u201cThe Artifact\u201d I remarked that he made Stephen King look like George RR Martin.<\/p>\n

You might think that with a production load like that, Cawdron is just another by-the-numbers potboiler hack. You couldn\u2019t be more wrong.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/a> His latest is a novel that gives a nod to \u201cAnatomy of Courage: The Classic WWI Study of the Psychological Effects of War\u201d written by Winston S. Churchill\u2019s personal doctor, Sir Charles Watson, Lord Moran<\/a>. Cawdron\u2019s novel depicts the brutality, ugliness and futility of trench warfare. I\u2019ll be reviewing it on zeppjamiesonfiction.com later this week for anyone interested. Like his previous half-dozen books, this one is superior.<\/p>\n

Cawdron always has an afterword to his novels which is worth reading. He\u2019ll discuss the scientific theory underlying that particular story, explain how it was influenced by a classic work of hard SF, and discuss the political and social elements. He\u2019ll often assert a personal note about his own thoughts and feelings as he wrote the story. They make for engaging sequelae.<\/p>\n

In his \u201cAnatomy of Courage,\u201d he noted that based on the quality of his past half dozen novels, all written in a year, some people were gossiping online that he was using AI \u2013 artificial intelligence \u2013 to write the books, that he couldn\u2019t have possibly done all that quality work by himself.<\/p>\n

Well, it\u2019s the internet. People talk shit. But any self-respecting writer would be at the very least irritated by that. Cawdron noted that he had written several really good books in an amazingly short time, and with most people I would take his umbrage as a humblebrag. (\u201cPlease don\u2019t hate me because I\u2019m beautiful\u201d). But he HAS done exactly that. He does go on to explain the recent boost in his output, but that\u2019s his story to tell, and if you want to know it, then buy the book. It\u2019s on Amazon and Goodreads.<\/p>\n

The allegations are utter crap, and I\u2019ll tell you why I\u2019m convinced of that.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve written a lot in my time. Two novels, a couple of dozen short stories, about 1500 eclectic columns, and about 300 reviews. Writing the novels in particular gives me a certain insight into the writing process of another writer. I\u2019m pretty good, I think, at spotting moments where, usually in the first draft, a writer is struck by a stray thought, leans back, considers, and then with a grin, starts writing or revising. First drafts tend to have a lot of those. (There\u2019s a dictum: write the first draft for yourself, the second for your readers, and hope what remains survives the copy editors.)<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll give you an example of how it works. Your character, and let\u2019s risk a lawsuit from Neal Stephenson and call him \u201cHiro Protagonist,\u201d is standing in a park. What kind of park? Well, a city park. Does it have grass? Trees? A lake? Is there a breeze? Does the sun shine, turning ripples into a disco ball? Are there kids playing? Two old farts playing chess in a pagoda? What else?<\/p>\n

Well, pigeons. Don\u2019t most parks have pigeons?<\/p>\n

I have a picture my dad took of me when I was seven. I was standing in Trafalgar Square in London, attired in my prep school uniform, and I have my right arm out in front of me, bent at the elbow. On my forearm is a big, well fed pigeon who is eyeing a piece of bread in my left hand with proprietary interest. The expression on my face (\u201cHe\u2019s rather \u2026 large \u2026 isn\u2019t he?\u201d) is a mixture of fascination and intimidation. Presumably I gave the bird the bread without losing any fingers and we both flew away peacefully.<\/p>\n

That infuses a vision of what a couple of pigeons are doing in my park. They\u2019re squabbling over a bit of popcorn.<\/p>\n

That process leads to a throwaway line in the story. \u201cNear the end of the bench, a pair of pigeons had a lively debate over a kernel of popcorn. The larger one flicked his head lightning fast and flew off with his meal, leaving the other to squall in frustration and give Hiro an appealing, appraising glance.\u201d<\/p>\n

That little bit of color is something no AI can manage. Tell an AI to write a scene about a man standing in a park waiting for someone, and the AI might mention the park bench, the trees, the grass, maybe something about the other people. Depends how good at plagiarism it is.<\/p>\n

But that bit about the pigeons is something no AI can do. It might mention pigeons if it\u2019s exceptionally well trained, but that little drama about the popcorn, the slight hint of aggression and menace between the birds, that comes from a human mind sharing a human experience.<\/p>\n

If you write a lot, you come to be very familiar with that process, and you learn to spot it in the writings of others, especially those whose writing you want to learn from. Cawdron\u2019s books, backed by meticulous research, affinity for solid detail and depending from a vivid imagination, are replete with such.<\/p>\n

AI can do a lot, for better or for worse, but the deterministic chaos of the human mind, with its emotion, volition, confusion and empathy, cannot be duplicated in code. AI might be good enough to confuse a casual reader, but it will rarely fool a constant reader, let alone a writer who can guess what went into seemingly unimportant passages that provide color and tone and humanity to a story, making a decent story great.<\/p>\n

They may make AIs generative. But they can\u2019t make them mimic human creativity.<\/p>\n

It won\u2019t hurt to learn to look for the trade secrets behind the words. You\u2019ll appreciate the works of someone like Cawdron more, and it will make you a bit better, intellectually and in the ability to discern what is human…and what is not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bryan Zepp Jamieson April 2nd, 2024 Peter Cawdron is one of the most prolific writers around. Since 2011, he\u2019s written 27 novels with the common theme of First Contact, and with two exceptions, all are stand-alone works, each with its own world, cast of characters, and aliens. Quite often the premise is based on the … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “AI in the Trenches — Generative vs Creative”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[468,2,3,1],"tags":[1779,1893,1778,1891,1888,1889,198,1894,1892,1890],"class_list":["post-1549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","category-humor","category-personalmisc","category-uncategorized","tag-ai","tag-anatomy-of-courage","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-color","tag-creativity","tag-generative","tag-humor-2","tag-lord-moran","tag-peter-cawdron","tag-writing"],"yoast_head":"\nAI in the Trenches -- Generative vs Creative · Zepp's Commentaries<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/zeppscommentaries.online\/?p=1549\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"AI in the Trenches -- Generative vs Creative · Zepp's Commentaries\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bryan Zepp Jamieson April 2nd, 2024 Peter Cawdron is one of the most prolific writers around. 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