Ep. 5: Fiction in the age of AI / Time travel to 1989

The whole reason for my podcast and my substack is to once more explore writing: both fiction and non-fiction. However, since I left high school, and until last year, I had put creative writing to the side unless it was to create campaigns for Dungeons and Dragons.When I was in highschool I was always writing, both in school and outside school. Sadly, in my family's many moves, most of that writing has been lost. When I was 8 and living in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, I distinctly remember writing a 20-chapter Famous Five novel of my own. I was very much into Enid Blyton and especially the Famous Five.During a visit to my now 85-year-old mother last year, she handed me several file folders. They contained, to my horror, all of my report cards from every class along with some other curiousities. In 1989, when I was 14, the South China Morning Post in Hongkong where we were then living, ran a Short Story Competition. I sincerely have no recollection of entering it, but somehow my entry came third and was published. I had forgotten this until I saw the printed entry tucked into the file folders. Today, I'm actually going to read that out in this podcast. I can absolutely understand how cringy this will be. There's nothing like reading teenage fiction.But before making your ears bleed I want to delve into the topic of fiction in the age of generative AI. In Episodes 2 and 3 I discussed how AI was changing the face of coding and technology creation, but what about the other creative arts?Fiction in the age of AIRead the written version of “Fiction in the age of AI”The Nervous Nineties: Voyage through darkness into the black whirlpoolRead the written version of my short story: “The Nervous Nineties: Voyage through darkness into the black whirlpool”Thanks for listening to Tales under the cat tree! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tales.dups.ca