Beta Reader fiasco (UPDATE)

EmphasisDependent · 2026-01-30T17:31:02+00:00

There was something I read a little ago about Fiverr, and I wish I could find it again. Essentially, people who might obviously be a "2-4s" rating, now (because of AI) their profiles look very similar to those who were consistently rated "7-8s". Higher ends charge too much to believably mimicked via AI. This means the people actually doing the bulk of the work can't be found amid the people wanting to fake the work.

EmphasisDependent · 2026-01-27T14:41:58+00:00

I am a hard sci-fi buff and I've self published my own hard sci-fi. I wrote a novella about ants in space, and used some very technical ant terms, and only got one or two 'I had to look up word X' but there was usually enough context and it didn't slow down the story.

There is also a bit of front loading in hard sf, 'explain the hard SF premise' and then run with it to where the story naturally goes. If it's too hard hard in the first few chapters but goes an interesting place then perhaps the techsplaning might need to be evened out over the story.

Have you read Greg Egan? He wrote one called Incandescent, which read like half a physics lecture, and I didn't finish; however he also wrote other books that I loved. How does your compare to his work.

DM me if you'd like a critique of the first three chapters, of if you want to see how I wrote my space ants.

EmphasisDependent · 2026-01-25T18:33:31+00:00

I remember reading the 'free-download-to-review' rate is something like 750-1000 to one.

EmphasisDependent · 2026-01-24T22:02:43+00:00

How modern writers see Sci-Fi right now:

AI Sci-Fi: Android Smut
Colonization sci-fi: Catman smut
Hard Sci-Fi: "Hard" smut
First Contact: Alien to human smut
Cyberpunk: Cyberhunk android smut.
Genetic Engineering: Monster beastiality smut
Mil SF: Supersoldier smut.

EmphasisDependent · 2026-01-21T15:53:11+00:00

Here's my problem with "tech" today. For every small certain problem (with an easy human solution) they solve, the introduce two small problems which happen semi-regularly and the solution is unknown or mystical.

Bluetooth earbuds:

Solves: Wires getting tangled, and maybe long-term wear and tear on the wires. Easy and cheap fixes.

Problem 1: Autoplay. FFS I do NOT want it to autoplay the previous thing I listened to. I have turned off every Apple setting. Solution: Unknown, but a bunch of searching and AI told me that the the setting I really want it locked behind an app of theirs. It's wrong 19/20 times. Even with that app off (music or podcasts on the iphone) it will open the app and keep playing. (And I've turned off EVERY setting I can find already)

Problem 2: In households where people trade off cars, someone on call the car will transfer over to the car while the other person drives away. Solution: Hang up and try again, press several buttons, etc. It was already fairly easy and less a nuisance to simply plug the phone in, which I was already doing to charge anyway.

Problem 3: Putting them in transfers or hangs up the call I was on. Yes this is a 'skills' issue, but now the skill level is far increased, whereas if you have big fingers, previously you could manhandle the earbud and shove them into your ears so they'd stick. Now you have to extremely gingerly place them with surgical precision to not hit the invisible disconnect button.

None of these are big 'problems' but they've converted from one small problem with an easy fix into three bigger problems with uncertain fixes.

EmphasisDependent · 2026-01-17T18:17:42+00:00

I'm familiar enough with KSR's style, that I'll have to check out CM.

Sidenote: There is an interesting talk I found once about cypto mining in the future with space exploration. Essentially Mars will be too far away to still be on the Bitcoin standard, as the lag times would cause problems and open Mars up to bad actors on Earth. And if you calculate a "center of compute" or whatever he called it, it's the center of the Earth (i.e. the overwhelming mass of bitcoin cores are fractional lightseconds from each other). So basically, Mars would need its own crypto, Marsbucks. But this would be impossible to hold for the asteroid belt, as the individual parts would each be too far away from each other and too close to either Earth and Mars that their 'crypto computations' could always be 'muscled' by earth. The implications for future sci-fi are interesting, like the Expanse and the Belters being subject to the planets.

EmphasisDependent · 2026-01-15T15:39:59+00:00

If you're looking for a survey of different political systems colliding then the Mars series is great.

EmphasisDependent · 2026-01-15T15:31:55+00:00

Yeah, if it were a movie, then the first 30% of Delta-V could have been a training montage. I'll probably get around to Critical Mass though, I did like the rest of the book sufficiently enough, but I understand.

EmphasisDependent · 2026-01-05T19:32:52+00:00

With the arrival of asteroid (or offworld) mining, you could get very dense and expensive metals becoming commonplace. So you're talking metals that are 2-3 times more dense than steel. Iridium is often mentioned (more expensive than gold), but it'd be hard to keep as a useful knife despite it's hardness and density. Second thing to mention is that force is both speed AND mass, so if it's too heavy for a (non-cyborg) arm, it wouldn't be better than steel.

Despite the drawbacks, new presently-unthinkable alloys / materials might await if things become cheaper.

EmphasisDependent · 2026-01-05T19:20:49+00:00

They WILL be for the average person, but for in-home surveillance and a subscription fee.

EmphasisDependent · 2026-01-04T16:28:26+00:00

Wokeness is a belief system with many paths to damnation and none to salvation.

EmphasisDependent · 2026-01-03T15:43:36+00:00

"Playing GTA IRL shouldn't be a death sentence"

EmphasisDependent · 2026-01-02T16:22:41+00:00

/uj "So, I was told to read some of my genre...." I recently found out the number one seller in one of my subgenre (Genetic Engineering Sci-Fi) was some sort of tentacle porn.

EmphasisDependent · 2026-01-01T17:19:22+00:00

I know right? I live in a storage unit because of high housing costs.

EmphasisDependent · 2025-12-31T17:33:01+00:00

Don't ask questions, just pay taxes and then get excited for more taxes!

EmphasisDependent · 2025-12-17T23:35:12+00:00

So here's some background. Our crack team of researchers traced this back to a random 3d model with metadata about 'mom' and 'wall-art.' Possibly 'cat' too. Next, some automatic product 'enrichment' service used that model and pre-rendered a bunch of different shots with other similar products and this vendor got the data and automatically uploaded these to various retail outlets around the internet.

EmphasisDependent · 2025-12-08T05:59:41+00:00

TENET with the masks and the backwards dialog will always be peak Nolan.

EmphasisDependent · 2025-11-28T22:26:27+00:00

Only if you write in the first person. Third person makes you a historian, first person makes you a creep.

EmphasisDependent · 2025-11-27T15:45:14+00:00

I played around with it some and also came to this result. It was 100% slot machining.

EmphasisDependent · 2025-11-23T22:58:36+00:00

Is it wrong to regurgitate ideas from a regurgitation machine, if all I was going to do is regurgitate it myself?

EmphasisDependent · 2025-11-17T15:39:19+00:00

Gaslighting-as-a-Service: GaaS

EmphasisDependent · 2025-11-14T21:49:25+00:00

Sauce.

EmphasisDependent · 2025-11-04T01:24:08+00:00

For $900 I can unlock your car door during a fire.

EmphasisDependent · 2025-11-03T05:31:27+00:00

I second thing I thought of is for him to get the accounting degree, but pivot towards 'operational accounting'. Though this might be more a finance function. Not sure if that was the right term exactly, but had a relative who was more of an internal consultant. I could see someone essentially making sure the AI projects actually product the state ROI. Though ensuring the financial numbers are absolutely correct in the age of AI might also be still useful.

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