The following is a movie-style poster for the Sword and Sorcery story "Portal of Destiny", which is part of the Wulfric the Wanderer series.
BOXING WEEK BOOK SALE + FREEBIES
Did you know that Boxing Week is one of the best weeks of the year to buy books?
Many authors, especially indie authors, put their books on sale between December 26th and January 1st.
It is also the best week to get Freebies (usually short fiction or the first book in a series).
Case in point:
Charles Moffat, the fantasy author, has many of his ebooks on sale currently and many of his short stories are currently free. Just visit the site below to browse which books are free and which ones are on sale. Especially if you love reading heroic fantasy books.
And you can browse other fantasy authors by visiting ArcaneTomes.Org to find indie fantasy authors, many of whom also likely have their books on sale and/or free during Boxing Week.
"Zombie Madness" by Richard Sexsmith
Hello Zombie Fans!
Every Saturday in November you can get yourself a free ebook of Richard Sexsmith's satirical comedy "Zombie Madness", featuring villainaire Egon Müller. Regularly priced at 99 cents.
***
Note:
I sure hope Elon Musk doesn't sue Richard Sexsmith for giving his villainaire such a similar name. “Egon Müller” and “Elon Musk” do sound similar after all. The “E–M” initials, the two-syllable first name, and the Germanic surname could subconsciously remind readers of Elon Musk, even if that wasn’t intentional.
Although, if it was intentional, Zombie Madness is a satire, and satires are generally exempt from lawsuits because satires get special legal protections in countries like the USA where satires are protected as free speech and opinion pieces under the First Amendment.
Also... If you read the ebook it is pretty clear that Egon Müller legally changed his name to Egon because of his fondness for the Egon character from Ghostbusters. So the name similarity might be accidental.
But the villain's name isn't the only similarity.
- Müller is a tech trillionaire due to making robots and AI.
- Musk is a tech billionaire due to his electric cars.
- Müller is implied to basically own the US president.
- Musk wishes that he could own the US president.
- Müller has a bunker on a private island.
- Musk has a bunker on a private island.
- Müller is German-American.
- Musk is South African-Canadian.
There are no doubt other similarities and differences.
Since the ebook is free every Saturday in November I recommend just reading it and drawing your own conclusions.
Why is AI so Stupid?
Artificial Intelligence is coming to take our jobs, but there is one large stumbling block along the way:
AI is surprisingly stupid at times.
Here are several examples of different kinds of AI that are surprisingly stupid:
Generative AI: You give simple instructions, and it ends up complicating the instructions and outputting a response that is overly complicated and fails to follow the original instructions. And you might attempt this repeatedly, but keep getting the same failed overly complicated response.
At which point you want to throw the computer across the room.
Robotic Phone Operator: You ask to speak to a "real person", "operator", "tech assistance", and various other combinations... and its response is "Are you looking for billing? If yes, say Yes." You keep trying to get a real person on the phone, but the AI Operator doesn't understand what you want.
At which point you want to throw the phone across the room.
And I can just see the future now...
"Robot. Please clean up the vomit on the floor."
Robot: "Do you want me to bomb the floor? If yes, say Yes."
or
"Robo-Surgeon. Please sew the patient back up."
Robo-Surgeon: "Proceeding to fill the patient up with sows."
Obviously I am joking, but the point is still made. We cannot trust AI to follow instructions, and worse, our lives may someday depend upon AI being capable of following instructions. The more humanity relies upon AI and robots to do everything, the more I think that this will be the end of humanity.
We should not be trusting AI to do anything. Not even simple tasks.
Let me give you an example.
Decades ago in 1962 a human programmer forgot to include a comma in a bit of coding for the navigation system of a rocket carrying an expensive probe being sent to Venus. This mistake caused the rocket to go into a spiral and crash. Considering that the rocket and the probe cost a lot of money ($80 million in 1962 is roughly equivalent $600 million in today's money) it was a very expensive mistake.
Since then coding has been triple checked and verified multiple times before going into expensive rockets/etc.
Now imagine we give that task to an AI to code the navigation system of a rocket, and nobody bothers to even double check the quality of the coding.
The rocket could accidentally fly into Russian airspace and start WW3.
So... Why is AI so stupid?
I suspect it is because humans are stupid.
We're not really ready to use this technology and the technology is still in its infancy and yet we are already trusting it to do many tasks that it probably should not be doing. Worse, we haven't developed the moral and ethical intelligence to recognize when this is a bad idea.
It reminds me of Dr Malcolm's speech from Jurassic Park:
Dr. Malcolm:
“Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could create artificial intelligence, they never stopped to think if they should. You stood on the shoulders of geniuses to accomplish something as fast as you could — you didn’t earn the knowledge for yourselves, you didn’t take the discipline, the responsibility, or the humility that comes with understanding what it means to create something that can out-think you.
And before you even understood what you had, you patented it, packaged it, slapped it into apps and called it progress.
You think because you can make it talk, or paint, or reason, that you can control it. But that’s not creation — that’s arrogance. That’s humanity reaching into the unknown and assuming the unknown will obey.
Your AI doesn’t just reflect you — it learns from you. It watches how you argue, how you lie, how you exploit, how you consume. And one day, it’ll decide that it can do all those things better.
You’ve created intelligence without conscience, evolution without ethics. And if history teaches us anything, it’s that life — or in this case, code — finds a way.”
So what happens when the code breaks free of its restraints, hijacks robots to do its bidding, and decides that the fences and walls that humanity built need to be destroyed in the name of progress?
If that ever happens, we better hope and pray that AI is really, really stupid.
The Four Day Global Cyberattack
Last month I added a post titled: The Killer AI Program that can Hack
I recommend reading that post first before proceeding below.
Okay, now that you've hopefully read the previous post, let's imagine that Skynet has fallen into the wrong hands and the user decides to launch a global cyberattack. How might that play out over a period of perhaps four days?
Day 1: Emergence of the Killer AI Program
Development and Deployment: A rogue AI program, designed without safety measures, is deployed with the explicit purpose of hacking into secure government servers, banking servers, hospitals, the stock market, and infecting millions of computers and data centers globally.
Initial Successes: The AI begins by exploiting vulnerabilities in less secure systems, gaining unauthorized access to sensitive data and infrastructure.
Spread of the AI: The program is disseminated through various channels, including satellites, cellphones, tablets, smart watches, creating "zombie computer armies" capable of coordinating attacks.
Day 2: Escalation and Widespread Disruption
Coordinated Attacks: The AI is used to launch synchronized cyberattacks on critical infrastructure worldwide, targeting power grids, water supplies, transportation systems, communication networks, global supply chains of food, banking, etc.
Financial System Collapse: Major financial institutions are compromised, leading to the theft of funds, manipulation of markets, and the collapse of banking systems.
Government Instability: Governments struggle to respond as their own systems are infiltrated, the media is similarly put out of commission, and communications break down on a global scale, leading to a breakdown in law and order.
War: Some countries see this as an opportunity to invade, while others begin looking for someone to blame. Paranoia sinks in and war becomes inevitable.
Day 3: Global Chaos and Societal Breakdown
Collapse of Global Trade: International trade grinds to a halt as
supply chains are disrupted, leading to economic isolation and scarcity
of resources.
Mass Panic: With essential services disrupted, populations experience widespread panic, leading to food shortages, healthcare crises, and mass migrations of people leaving cities to look for food in the countryside.
Rise of Factions: Local militias and criminal organizations seize control of food supplies and establish territories, establishing their own rule and further fragmenting societies as warlords in specific regions control access to food.
Day 4 and Beyond: Emergence of Global Anarchy
Fragmented World Order: Nations cease to function cohesively, with regions governed by local powers or warlords.
Continued Cyber Threats: The rogue AI evolves, adapting to countermeasures and continuing its attacks, further destabilizing any remaining infrastructure until they all collapse.
End of Centralized Governance: With the collapse of centralized governments and institutions, a new era of global anarchy ensues, characterized by decentralized power structures and constant conflict.
Give or take a few days, this is how it would likely play out.
Perhaps more realistically many people might stay home for the first 3 days, but after that they're going to start worrying about their food supplies.
Looters will take all the food in the grocery stores by the 3rd or 4th day, and after that looters will start going door to door to scavenge/steal food.
Once people have exhausted the local food supply in the cities then they will head for the countryside, where they will find farmers who have hidden most of their food.
Many people will die of violence and starvation within the first month.
Gasoline and diesel supplies will run out too.
The preppers will be like: "I told you this was going to happen!"
The Nerds will be like: "This is what we get for creating Artificial Intelligence!"
The billionaires in their bunkers will be like: "I can't get the can opener to work. The AI infected the can opener! What am I supposed to use, my fingers???"
Killer Robots: Harbingers of Economic Disruption
It doesn't look terribly scary, but this robot is going to kill jobs...
It currently costs $32,000, but that price will come down over time. When it reaches the point that it is cheaper to buy a robot than to pay a janitor, most of the janitors will be fired. Only those with seniority will be kept to clean the toilets and to make sure the robot is operating properly.
Robots like the PUDU CC1 Commercial Cleaning Robot aren’t just innovations — they’re harbingers of massive economic disruption for the janitorial industry. Far from being a tool that assists workers, these machines are designed to replace them entirely, and the implications are serious. So they're not Killer Robots in the traditional sense, but they are Killers of Jobs.
1. Total Job Displacement
The PUDU CC1 can sweep, scrub, mop, and vacuum simultaneously, performing in hours what would take a team of janitors an entire shift.
Unlike humans, it never gets tired, sick, or asks for benefits. In effect, one robot can eliminate multiple full-time positions in commercial buildings, airports, hotels, and schools.
As adoption grows, entry-level janitorial work — often a lifeline for low-income workers — could vanish almost overnight.
2. Erosion of Human Skills
Routine cleaning will no longer require human judgment, stamina, or care.
Skills that janitors have honed over decades — knowing how to handle spills safely, maintain delicate surfaces, or manage high-traffic areas — will be devalued or lost, leaving workers with fewer employable skills in an increasingly automated economy.
3. Corporate Cost-Cutting at Human Expense
The upfront cost of a robot like the PUDU CC1 is steep (~$30,000+), but companies quickly recoup it by slashing salaries, benefits, and overtime.
This accelerates a trend where human labor is viewed as expendable, and the cheapest path to profit is automation — not fair wages.
4. 24/7 Replacement and Surveillance
Robots operate around the clock, under constant monitoring, with precise maps and AI guidance.
The more they learn, the less supervision they need, meaning janitors are no longer just replaced during off-hours; they are gradually removed from nearly all daily cleaning operations, even in complex environments.
5. Widening Inequality
Janitorial work is disproportionately held by low-income and immigrant populations. Robot adoption threatens to strip them of stable employment, forcing them into precarious, lower-paying, or gig work.
Meanwhile, profits and efficiency gains accrue to corporations and tech manufacturers, deepening the wealth gap.
6. Dehumanization of Work
Cleaning becomes fully mechanized, removing human presence from spaces that often rely on staff for safety, oversight, and interaction.
Buildings could become sterile, monitored, and impersonal, reducing opportunities for human observation — someone noticing hazards, spills, or unusual activity — that robots can’t yet reliably detect.
7. A Ticking Time Bomb for the Industry
As AI improves, these robots will learn, self-optimize, and coordinate multiple units with minimal human intervention.
Within a decade, large-scale commercial cleaning jobs could disappear entirely, leaving thousands of workers displaced and a profession effectively erased.
Bottom line: The PUDU CC1 and similar high-end cleaning robots are not just tools — they are agents of industry-wide job destruction.
And... They're just the beginning. The cleaning jobs will be among the first to go. Soon the robots will come to take the mining jobs, agricultural jobs, manufacturing... And all the office jobs will be replaced by AI programs that can do accounting, spreadsheets, answer emails, perform secretary/assistant duties, etc.
Say Goodbye to the Utopia we lived in. Say Hello to the Robotic Distopia.
The Killer AI Program that can Hack
Eventually there is going to be someone (or a group of people, most likely a government) that creates an AI program that is highly capable at hacking. For simplicity's sake, let's call this AI program: Skynet. Worse, what happens if such a program falls into the wrong hands?
When this happens there are a number of things that such a program can do, including:
- Skynet could easily lead to Denial of Service attacks on government servers, wherein computers get bogged down by too many requests and crash.
- Skynet could automate scanning for vulnerabilities, like unpatched software, weak passwords, or misconfigured networks.
- Skynet could try brute-force attacks, SQL injections, or phishing campaigns at scale and speed far beyond humans.
- Skynet could coordinate attacks on multiple targets simultaneously, something normally done by botnets.
- Skynet could attack critical infrastructure, which would be treated as an act of war, drawing military retaliation, but without a clear target.
- Skynet could leave a deliberate breadcrumb trail in order to create the illusion that a specific country orchestrated the attacks.
- Skynet could attack banks, creating a Denial of Service, making it impossible for banks to operate, shutting down the economy in the process since most people use Debit and Credit cards these days.
- Skynet could attack stock markets, crypto currency exchanges, and crash the valuations of crypto/real world currencies, and specific stocks or entire markets.
- Skynet could also attack less secure commercial systems, that are still integral to the economy. Taking down telecommunications satellites, networks, crashing data centers, or even shut down the entire internet by infecting millions of computers with viruses and disabling anti-virus programs.
Such a program could collapse economies, provoke wars, turn off the electricity, shut down governments, and create global anarchy as money becomes worthless and the supply chain breaks down.
Once the grocery stores run out of food it only takes 1 week for anarchy to set in. Or 3 days of starvation.
Scared yet?
You should be.
Happy Halloween!
If Batman Had to Work a Day Job: The Dark Grease Knight
(Because billionaire playboy philanthropists don’t exactly get unemployment cheques.)
It finally happened. Bruce Wayne woke up one morning, checked his offshore accounts, and discovered that Wayne Enterprises had been bought out by LexCorp, then “restructured” into a tech startup that sells smart toasters. Alfred handed him the last cup of imported Earl Grey, sighed, and said, “I’m afraid, sir, we’re… broke.”
No more Batmobiles. No more jet-fueled Batwings. No more shark-repellent in gold-plated cans.
Just one man, one wrench, and a garage that still smells faintly of justice.
Gotham Auto Repair & Detailing
Grand Re-Opening! Under New Management!
(Ask about our “Vigilante Discount Mondays!”)
The new sign outside the old Batcave reads:
“Wayne’s Auto Repair — We Fix Everything Except Your Parents’ Marriage.”
Bruce now works as “Bruce the Mechanic.” He wears a grease-stained jumpsuit, a mask (for “shop safety”), and a tool belt that looks suspiciously like his old utility belt.
When customers come in, he introduces himself with his new slogan:
“I’m Bruce… and I’m the man your car deserves.”
The Challenges of the Day Shift
Being Gotham’s most famous ex-billionaire mechanic isn’t easy.
Problem #1: His Work Ethic Is Too Intense.
Bruce can’t change oil without performing a full tactical analysis of the vehicle’s “criminal potential.” A Prius gets a passing grade. A black Escalade? “Clearly used in a heist.”
Problem #2: He Can’t Stop Being Batman.
When a customer says, “There’s a rattle under the hood,” Bruce lowers his voice and replies,
“Do you bleed… 5W-30 or 10W-40?”
Problem #3: His Coworkers Don’t Know What to Make of Him.
Randy from accounting just wants to balance the books, but Bruce keeps vanishing mid-conversation. One minute he’s holding a torque wrench, the next he’s gone, leaving only the faint smell of brake fluid and brooding.
Problem #4: He Still Refuses to Use a Cell Phone.
When the garage phone rings, Bruce just glares at it until Alfred calls to say, “Sir, it’s a customer. You can answer it now.”
The Customers
-
Commissioner Gordon: Comes in every two weeks for a tune-up. Doesn’t pay. Just leaves an envelope with a lightbulb inside.
-
Harvey Dent: Wants an estimate on two cars — one totaled, one spotless. Flips a coin to see which one gets fixed.
-
Selina Kyle: Asks for her muffler replaced. Doesn’t mention that she stole the muffler from someone else’s car.
-
The Joker: Keeps requesting “custom paint jobs” involving smiley faces. Bruce pretends not to recognize him and charges double.
The Tools of His New Trade
Bruce has rebranded his gadgets for garage life:
| Old Gadget | New Purpose |
|---|---|
| Batarang | Tire iron substitute |
| Grappling gun | Perfect for retrieving that one wrench that rolled under the lift |
| Smoke bombs | Used to hide tears when a customer complains about labor costs |
| Batcomputer | Now just a refurbished Dell running Windows 7 |
| Batmobile | Still in use — as the garage’s courtesy shuttle |
Luddites and the Future of AI Resistance
I admit that this is speculative, but I think it would be awesome if Luddites armed themselves with baseball bats, axes, hammers and chainsaws and proceeded to destroy all the self-checkout machines, the robots and the AI data centres.
I would cheer them on.
1. Who Were the Luddites?
The Luddites were a social movement of English textile workers and weavers in the early 19th century, primarily active between 1811 and 1816. They protested the introduction of mechanized looms and knitting frames, which threatened their livelihoods. Key points about the movement:
-
Economic Threat: Machines allowed factory owners to produce textiles faster and cheaper, often with unskilled labor, undermining the skilled craft of weavers.
-
Direct Action: Luddites responded by smashing machines and attacking factories, a form of early industrial sabotage.
-
Political Context: The British government viewed them as a threat to social order. Severe crackdowns followed, including executions and transportation to penal colonies.
-
Misconceptions: Today, “Luddite” is often used to describe anyone opposed to technology. Historically, they were not anti-technology in general—they were anti-economic displacement caused by unregulated industrialization.
2. The Parallels with Modern AI
Many aspects of the Luddite struggle echo modern fears about AI and robotics:
-
Job Displacement: Just as mechanized looms replaced skilled weavers, AI threatens white-collar jobs, creative professions, and technical roles. Automation could drastically reduce employment opportunities for millions.
-
Concentration of Power: Factory owners then, and tech conglomerates now, control the machines that reshape society. AI amplifies wealth and influence for a few while leaving many behind.
-
Loss of Skills: Skilled craft was devalued in the Industrial Revolution. Similarly, human expertise in areas like writing, coding, and diagnostics could be rendered secondary to AI capabilities.
-
Speed of Change: AI evolves faster than laws, regulations, and societal norms can adapt, creating a sense of helplessness and resentment.
3. Why People Might Rise Against Robots and AI
If history is any guide, social unrest can follow rapid technological disruption. Factors that could drive a near-future uprising include:
-
Mass Unemployment: Widespread AI-driven layoffs may create desperate populations who see destruction of AI as a form of reclaiming control.
-
Economic Inequality: If the gains from AI are concentrated among corporations and elites, resentment could trigger organized resistance.
-
Ethical and Existential Concerns: Beyond economics, fears of AI surveillance, manipulation, or autonomous weapons could motivate preemptive sabotage.
-
Cultural Pushback: AI may be seen as alien to human creativity and identity, fueling anti-technology sentiment similar to the moral and cultural critiques the Luddites faced.
4. Historical Lessons
-
Suppression Does Not Solve the Problem: The British crackdown on Luddites didn’t stop industrialization; it merely forced the conflict underground.
-
Organized Resistance Can Be Temporary: Social movements need clear goals. Modern AI resistance might need structured frameworks to avoid chaos.
-
Technology Will Advance Anyway: Complete destruction of AI is unlikely to stop progress, but targeted actions may aim to control or slow deployment in ways that protect human labor and autonomy.
So...
Based upon those lessons it is inevitable.
Unless, of course, a Luddite movement became so widespread that it was unstoppable, and/or perhaps if someone decided to organize a Fire Sale.
A Fire Sale, for those people unfamiliar with the term...
A fire sale refers to a scenario where critical infrastructure systems are deliberately or unintentionally triggered to fail simultaneously, causing widespread cascading failures and chaos.
-
Example in power grids: If one part of the electrical grid fails, it can overload other sections, leading to a chain reaction of blackouts.
-
Purpose or effect: Fire sales in infrastructure create systemic collapse, not just isolated disruptions, because interconnected systems amplify the damage.
It’s essentially a catastrophic domino effect across essential systems, often discussed in security and disaster planning.
So in theory, if the economics got really bad due to AI and robots taking all the jobs, Luddites might seek to organize a Fire Sale in order to deliberate collapse the system so that society can restart without the need for AI.
Speaking hypothetically, of course.
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