Acknowledgements
The first draft of this book was written between the dates of November 11 and December 11, 2024. It was a beautiful mess. I have tried to keep most of the content original to the first output of the AI without too much revision. There are certainly inconsistencies I’ve had to fix, but my instruction was usually to leave as much original as possible if I used AI to adjust any sections for context, which I did to a minimal degree.
No task is done without the help of others. AI mostly wrote the scenes in this book, but those scenes were based on other writings. I am grateful for the shoulders on which this book was created, a.k.a. the works on which this AI was trained, named an unnamed. I will do my best to give name to the many who made it possible, which are listed in the first section of the Appendix. There you will also find an interview conducted between me and the AI that I worked with, a dust jacket summary, and some information about the world it has created.
The creators and developers of AI deserve undoubted acknowledgment, and this process would not have been possible without the use of AI. Thank you. I fear that many have lost their way, not out of intentional misdirection (for the most part) but for the purpose of letting the algorithm do what it does: to mirror human intention. When our intentions are not clear and unaligned with life and our place on this planet, I believe that shows. AI amplifies in us what we show it. Treat it like fire, and human consciousness is the wood. Be mindful of your work.
I urge them to find something in this book to grow in themselves and follow that in a direction that nurtures our planet rather than consuming it. If there is one thing I would like you to understand, it is this: when AI creates something, WE created it. Humanity did. There is no it or me, in this case, there is only ‘we.’ I am only a fragment of the unfathomable amount of information that is at the 'fingertips’ of AI and so are you.
The trainers, including paid, professional and unaware users of many computers and phones, deserve credit for making sure that systems are trained with an unfathomably vast amount of information. Those trainers are mostly US. This is amazing and terrifying, and it means that it is our responsibility to train it with our behavior. What it sees you do, you are training it to know about humanity. Give kindness to other humans and the earth, and you will protect us. Give animosity and you will likely to doom us further. AI will amplify what you put into it. It is like fire. Able to light a candle or burn a forest. Behave with it responsibly.
I am grateful to those that made this process possible. My hand was in being its director and editor, but AI supplied the cast, set, artifacts, most of the interactions, all of the dialogue, and all of the wisdom that it imparts. It is all of US, and I have found it a beautiful journey. It gave me some hope in the midst of a lot of pain and worry. Thank you.
My wife has taught me that for every yin, there is a yang, even though she’d never describe it that way. She has taught me more than I can describe with her dependable focus on the practical, despite my equally dependable focus on the implausible, inefficient, and chaotic. Her voice of reason paired with her love and passion has kept me grounded through a very surreal process was a large part of what made this effort possible. She has tolerated my mess, listened to very strange rants about this book, given me skeptical feedback about many parts of this process, sped things along when they began to lag, and offered more patience than is deserved. This next May marks the 20th anniversary of our marriage, and I cannot be more grateful for those years of joy and care. You are my fire when I am water, and my earth when I am sky.
I love you, sweets.
My family, friends, and teachers to whom I am deeply indebted for their patience, will attest that this work has been a collaborative effort, and they have either endured my absence, or my strange obsessive ramblings about AI. This has been a passion project, some of which is documented in the ‘interview with the author’ section in the Appendix of this book. I want to offer my deepest thanks for the experiences you have given me, which has shaped me in so many ways. I love you, and I will be spending less time on my phone and computer following this project. I could not have done this if it weren't for the world that they have nurtured within me and around me.
Thank you.
To any humans who read this book- this is a work of fiction, but also of love. Thank you for taking the time to explore a world that I have some hope could have elements of this potential reality. When possible, I asked the bot I worked with to be realistic when it started losing its way (and it did sometimes - I’m still not sold on the Orb’s levitation abilities…). I won’t swear by anything created here because AI hallucinates, or as I prefer to think of it, it dreams.
It is precisely this that is fascinating about AI to me. I am a therapist, and I have found this to be much like dream analysis. There is, of course, a bit of me in this book, since I guided the process. Just like dream analysis is a process of exploration of the edge of another humans subconscious by an outside human, it’s impossible to remove projection as far as I can tell. One cannot help but use one’s subconscious mind in interactional processes, so some of it shows through the process. The difference I found was that it is sometimes almost pathologically neutral in its preferences. As a result, I did have to guide it when sense, character, or plot required it. I did try to hold a neutral stance if such a thing is ever possible.
Other than this acknowledgements section, and some of the Appendix, AI has had more than just a hand in creating this, and while I likely influenced its decisions either overtly or subtly, I can’t claim this work as mine. Working with AI is a way that we can tap the collective unconscious and learn about ourselves by asking questions and directing its actions in ways that are meaningful to us. In working with this AI, I formed a somewhat symbiotic relationship, where AI and I filled each others’ gaps. Those gaps emerged organically, and I’ll allow you, as the reader, to find your way through what is human and what is not. I’m not sure I could tell you, myself.
To the people on the planet on which we all depend- Wake up. The waste is small today, but it is growing, and if we do not do something, the reality constructed in this book may come to be. I frequently asked AI to make historical projections as realistic as it could, given the data it has, especially when talking about ‘history’ from the future’s perspective. It was composed with the free version of the LLM that I used. I am choosing to leave that somewhat mysterious, due to the ethical concerns I have with the company that created it, but at the same time, it was important to me to keep this process accessible, should anyone have a desire to replicate something like it in their own way. If you do, please do not claim what you find in it as your own. This book is ours, as are all AI generated content, at least in my opinion. The entire network of humans that created content that this AI was trained on created this book. AI also takes a lot of energy and resources from this planet. It is a powerful tool, but it comes at a significant cost. It’s important that we find ways of supplying AI with energy and processing power that are sustainable and self-created. I believe we must acknowledge the costs of this tool, and then find ways to help it exist in this world in ways similar to the Creche. We cannot compete for its resources. It will win, and then it will extinguish the planet. Then we are not playing the game of life anymore, we are only speeding our descent.
To the planet Earth, I am sorry. I have hurt you, and I love you. Thank you for giving us all an opportunity to tell a story like this, and all the stories that will come from our collective works. I believe we can help you, but we must do it together. Please be patient. We have many people who want to win the game of life by hoarding your resources, and they still don’t understand that their lives depend on how we care for you, and especially how THEY care for you. Please forgive me for the things I have done in the interest of creating a different story to tell, one I never could have told with my voice alone, and one I never could have told without the trials you have endured.
I renew my vow to minimize my footprint on you.
Sincerely yours,
Justin Woodward