The Surreality of it All — mnchrm vol. xlix
Incoming Transmission—
Hello, my dear travellers and readers. I hope this letter finds you well on the road.
I’ve been very bad about this newsletter in August. This is not the first, nor the last time I’ll have to make this disclaimer. I’m sorry! I went from doing nothing for almost a month straight to working every day the past month. This sort of comes with the territory and instability of the freelance lifestyle, but I’m working hard right now to rebuild a better sense of routine and habits in my life, so I hope to get back on track with this newsletter, too.
Thanks for your patience!
Automation is not coming, automation is here. It’s happening now. I think most people have the wrong idea in mind when they think about automation, same with AI or any other of the bleeding edge technology we hear about so often. With automation, you might think about the robot arms in a factory building cars, which are self-driving Ubers, of course.
This could be automation at some point, but really it’s more innocuous than that. It’s the self-checkout kiosks at the grocery store, supervised by one human employee. It’s the empty toll booths on the American highways, gates with debit card readers. It’s the touch screen menus at fast food restaurants and coffee shops.
There’s a lot to be said about this, a lot that is being said, so I won’t say much. I will say, however, that among many other things, this future we’re building is damn isolating. I recently went to a food court with one of those touch screen ordering systems, which send the order to another screen in a kitchen reduced to an assembly line. I talked to zero people, paid $15, and got a bowl of ramen. The future is very weird, and if we let it be, very alienating.
I wrote more about this trip — the oddness of the mall, the surreality of it all — in a longer piece. I’m seeing if any outlets are interested in it, but after I shop it around a bit, I’ll make sure to send you all either the link or the piece.
Want to know how busy I’ve been? I haven’t watched any anime in over a week. Yeah, it’s bad. Got a lot of catching up to do; hours, in fact!
I’ve been reading a lot this year, especially ARCs, or “advance reader copies”, for those not in the know. Basically, books for review. It’s been a productive year just in getting published online and getting my name and writing out there more, and especially in reading novels and stories critically all year long.
It is interesting, though: reading books pulled off of a list of releases pitched to a publication. There’s a bit less choice in that than just going in to a bookshop and buying the one you want. It’s an interesting way to experience a novel, always on the cutting edge of releases, defined by the whims of the publication you’re writing for.
It’s been a lot of fun. I hope to keep it up, keep reviewing books, as long as possible. It’s also super cool to know a person or two in the publicity department of a publishing company, and having them send books to you in advance for your thoughts on them. And what could be better practice for writing a novel than reading a bunch of them, all the time, and compiling your thoughts into a digestible form?
As part of my return-to-form project, I’ve embarked on a 60 meditation streak challenge, attempting to meditate every day for 60 consecutive days. Today is day three, so far so good. I’ve been meditating off and on for years now, another white guy who has found solace in sitting in silence. My practice has faltered a bit in the past few weeks in my recent busyness. In regulating, tracking, and monitoring my practice, I hope to get back to having it be a habit for me.
This self experimentation is modeled after the work that David Cain does on his blog, Raptitude; specifically the experiments section. Ever since seeing Penguin Highway earlier this year, I’ve wanted to be a bit more formal about how I keep myself working towards my goals, and in trying and learning new things. It’s good to keep a notebook with you when possible!
So far, I’m tracking how long I meditate for, and rating the session out of five in terms of how productive it was; a one is an inability to focus, and a five is perfect flowstate. So far I’m hovering around the bottom end of that spectrum, but I hope to be in top form by the end of it.
Care to join me? Let me know if you do on Twitter.
How have you all been in the time between the last volume and this one? Anything new and exciting going on with you? Have you embarked on any experiments of your own? As always, send me an email by hitting the reply button with any comments or questions; I’d love to talk.
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Thanks for your time again, my friends.
Until next week!
Your faithful commander,
— I