The NBA has had a tanking problem for a while. Tanking is when teams deliberately try to lose games in order to improve their odds of receiving a top pick in the draft lottery. You can’t really blame teams for tanking, as a top pick is often the best way to attain a potential superstar and improve your roster. Tanking has worked for teams in the past, like the 76ers (Joel Embiid) and Thunder (Durant, Westbrook, Harden), and most recently the Spurs (Victor Wembanyama). The NBA has changed the lottery odds to try to address the tanking issue, but that is not enough. My previous proposal of abolishing the draft would completely solve this problem, but that is something the NBA is unlikely to do anytime soon. Luckily there is another option: relegation.
One of the potential applications of AI text generators such as ChatGPT is creating a chatbot based on people who have died so that users can speak to those “people” after they are gone. This could be done with famous figures from history or personal loved ones. Such “grief tech,” as it is called, is already being created: HereAfter, You Only Virtual, Character.ai, and MindBank are just a few examples. There are currently apps where living users answer questions now to help create an AI chatbot clone of themselves that others can speak to after they die.
Theoretically, if a person has enough textual data to input into the model (from books, journals, social media posts, emails, and text messages), then the AI trained on that data can anticipate what that person is likely to say given any prompt (which is essentially how all LLMs work). The chatbot will learn to write in the style of the deceased person based on their personal data. Using continually updated data from the internet, the “deadbot” can comment on current events, making it seem as though the person is still alive. Users can learn what the deceased person would think about things that have happened in the world since they passed away. Or they can ask the chatbot all the questions they wish they had asked while the person was still alive. At least that is what the chatbot’s creators will claim their AI can do. But this is a false hope, a facade. AI cannot predict what a deceased human being would think or say years or decades later. You cannot create an accurate chatbot based on the data of the dead.
Every society is built on myths. Myths are stories and legends about the history of that society. Those myths shape the culture in the present. Societal elites and nobles with money and power propagate myths that they want the culture to adopt. The elites create (or fund the creation of) stories to mythologize themselves to maintain and increase their wealth and power in the future.
People often say that if you want to include a didactic message in your fiction story, then you should just write an essay. Which is true—but not because essays are better, or because art can’t have a message. But messages should be put in essays rather than art, more due to the audience of the medium than the medium itself.
“It is a sad truth, but we have lost the faculty of giving lovely names to things. Names are everything.” — Oscar Wilde
One of my favorite parts of writing a piece of fiction is coming up with the title. I agree with Oscar Wilde: Naming a work of art is an art in itself and should always be treated as such. The name that is given to a work of art is massively influential on how that work is received. As a result, I spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about the titles of my books (and the names of my characters, but that’s a topic for another day).
I have been wanting to read Jung for a while after hearing so much about his work second-hand through podcasts, blogs, and books. Jung has been highly influential on so many writers, thinkers, and artists I admire—and I can see why. His symbolic and mythological approach to psychology is sorely needed in our overly reductionist materialistic world. This book serves as a great introduction to Jung’s work. It features one chapter by Jung himself while the rest are written by his associates. The book also features lots of images to help illustrate the points about symbols because visual symbols are so powerful. Jung writes about the unconscious and the role of the artist:
Zero HP Lovecraft (@0x49fa98) is an anonymous internet poster I originally discovered around 2016 when I was looking at the accounts Naval Ravikant (@naval) followed on Twitter. His name and bio (horrorist) intrigued me, so I read his short story, “The Gig Economy,” which was like a modern cyberpunk take on “The Call of Cthulhu.”
I instantly became a fan and read all of Zero’s stories as they originally came out on his WordPress site (now on Substack), and later assembled in this collection. I had been meaning to re-visit the stories because they deserve (and often require) re-reading. His fiction is like a combination of the cosmic horror of H.P. Lovecraft with the dense philosophical speculation of Jorge Luis Borges and the mind-bending science fiction of Ted Chiang.
I released my list of the best horror movies I watched this past year, and the best older movies, now it’s time for my list of the best newer movies (released within the decade) that I watched in 2024. As always, check JustWatch to see where the movies may be currently streaming.
Tier 1: Cinematic Masterpieces
Burning (2018) directed by Lee Chang-dong I didn’t know anything about this movie beforehand, other than it was South Korean and highly acclaimed. So it was fascinating to watch while having no idea where it would go—because the film goes to some wildly unexpected places by the end. I don’t want to say what it’s about because any spoilers would detract from the viewing experience, but the only film I can remotely compare it to is The Talented Mr. Ripley.
Dream Scenario (2023) Directed by Kristoffer Borgli In this super surreal movie, some random guy (Nic Cage) starts showing up in people’s dreams around the world. It has a very Charlie Kaufman-esque tone, sort of like a mix between Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Being John Malkovich. In fact, Dream Scenario might be better than anything Kaufman himself has done since Eternal Sunshine.
With 2024 winding down, it is time for my 9th annual list of the best movies at least a decade old that I watched this past year. Once again, the list is somewhat random and arbitrary, based on the movies I just so happen to choose to watch (or re-watch) over the course of the past year. (In case you missed it, I made a separate list for the best horror movies I watched in 2024.) As always, check JustWatch.com to see where the following films may be currently streaming.
My annual list of the best movies 10 years or older (and the list for newer movies I’ve seen) was growing long this year—partially because I watched so many horror movies in October1—so I decided to take the horror movies from those lists to create a new compilation of every horror movie I watched this year. (The films are separated into five tiers and listed alphabetically within each tier.)
I’d been wanting to see this film for a while because it is within one of my favorite subgenres of folk horror. The Wicker Man is one of the original movies of that sub-genre and the best, inspiring later films likeMidsommar. A police officer goes to a secluded Scottish island in search of a missing girl, but the townspeople act oddly with weird customs. He comes to learn they are part of a pagan cult, and the girl was possibly part of a ritual sacrifice. The final twist (which I will not spoil) is iconic. What is most impressive is how they were able to make a chilling horror film without any darkness or blood (most of the film takes place in broad daylight).
T.Z. Barry 