The top search term to reach my blog in the past 365 days is “butt“.
And it’s not even close.
(We’re talking by a factor of 5 here)
Announcements
MIRI Intelligence in Fiction prize winner!
I am excited to announce that I am one of the winners of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute “Intelligence in Fiction” prize!
The prize is given to:
…people who write thoughtful and compelling stories about artificial general intelligence, intelligence amplification, or the AI alignment problem. We’re looking to appreciate and publicize authors who help readers understand intelligence in the sense of general problem-solving ability, as opposed to thinking of intelligence as a parlor trick for memorizing digits of pi, and who help readers intuit that non-human minds can have all sorts of different non-human preferences while still possessing instrumental intelligence.
And the best part is, you can read my winning story, “Human in the Loop” for free!
I wrote this story while I was working on code related to autonomous vehicles. Technically, a lot of the problems are eminently solvable. But what about the ethical problems?
If an automated vehicle had a crash, say, and someone dies, who is responsible? The “driver” who was behind the wheel at the time? The manufacturer who perhaps installed faulty software? The regulatory agency who allowed these vehicles on the road? The software developer who wrote the algorithm? What about in the case of emergent behavior; actions that were not explicitly programmed by anybody but instead emerged organically from an artificial neural network?
I was also frustrated by misunderstandings related to what exactly neural networks are (“My CPU is a neural-net processor; a learning computer.”), and wanted to set the record straight on that.
I am very happy that the people at MIRI enjoyed this one (and that my science was sufficiently rigorous!). It’s so great to find such a perfect audience for a piece of fiction, and this is about as perfect of a fit as you can get.
Condo, no more
As of this morning, we are no longer the owners of our condo!!
To some degree, it is bittersweet to sell your first house. So many memories over the last 10 years, not the least of which was the birth of our children. All three slept in that bedroom! I think of Christmas mornings, family gatherings, birthdays…
As the last few weeks have wound down, every time I had to go over to the condo, it was very emotional. Would this be the last time I was ever there? There is so much muscle memory involved: turning the car from the alley to the parking space, the proper way to turn the key in the lock, which wall the light switch is on. It all felt deeply personal.
On the other hand, these last few months have been fairly stressful: having the first offer fall through, watching the savings account go down and down, waiting not-so-patiently for an offer, waiting for some disaster and to have everything fall apart (which happened with the first offer we got, and made us extremely paranoid after).
At this point I feel nothing but relief that it’s all over!
We’ve been in the new house for long enough that we are “moved in”, and each day puts the condo farther and farther in the rearview mirror. And of course, the new house is just about the most amazing place I could ever imagine living in. Still, there is always some part of me that is sad when a chapter of my life closes.
Onward, to new chapters!
BASFF 2017 Notable Story!
I am very pleased to announce that my story, “O What Freedom, This Great Steel Cage” has made the list of Notable Stories in The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2017!
It’s not EXACTLY the same as being chosen as one of the year’s best, but it does mean the editors thought that my story was one of the best 40 science fiction stories produced in 2016.
In fact, as I am writing this, I am realizing that my story is the only story from Analog that made the list. I…literally cannot even process that. It makes my knees weak.
Holy.
Cow.
Free Fiction by me: “Ten Things Sunil and I Forgot to Prepare for, When Preparing for the Apocalypse”
Good news everybody! My story “Ten Things Sunil and I Forgot to Prepare for, When Preparing for the Apocalypse” had previously appeared in Intergalactic Medicine Show, but you could only read it if you paid for a subscription.
However!
For a limited time only, the issue, including my story, is free to read online! If you missed this one the first time around, don’t miss it. Act now, supplies are limited*
* Must be a legal resident of a participating country. Must be in possession of eyes and the ability to read. Shane Halbach is not liable for any injuries caused by the awesomeness of this story. Ask your doctor if reading awesome free fiction is right for you.
Shane Halbach 