Mostly fact. Essay. 700 words, 4-minute read. Parcel Post By Ray Tabler I’m a firm believer that a writer of fiction will struggle to outdo real life in terms of unlikely incidents. As the old saying goes, fact is stranger than fiction, because fiction has to make sense. For example,…
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Don’t Quit Your Day Job (encore)
A little meditation on working (and playing) for a living. Essay. 1000 words, 5-minute read. This is an essay I first posted in March of 2024, the prehistory of my time on Substack. I think it’s still relevant today. Don’t Quit Your Day Job By Ray Tabler Lately, I find…
Ghostwriting
With “real” ghosts. Essay. 1000 words, 5-minute read. Ghostwriting By Ray Tabler The famous physicist Richard Feynman maintained that the entire universe consists of nothing more than interacting fields of various types. According to Feynman matter, the stuff that makes up you and me and everything else, is simply particularly…
Tears in the Rain
Laughing at fate. Essay. 600 words, 3-minute read. Tears in the Rain By Ray Tabler I am a hopeless optimist. Anyone who has read my books will note that. As my mother told me, there’s a silver lining to every cloud, no matter how darn deep you have to dig…
Art Literature & AI
Change is in our wheelhouse. Essay. 1400 words, 7-minute read. Art Literature & AI By Ray Tabler AI, or large language models, are scaring a lot of people. Understandably so. A good portion of the unease around what we are stuck calling AI stems from the dishonest manner in which…
Licking the Yogurt Lid
Efficient character revelation. Essay. 800 words, 4-minute read. Licking the Yogurt Lid By Ray Tabler Recently, I had a dentist appointment. Because I’ve had both knees replaced, that means I need to choke down 4 horse-pill-sized capsules of amoxicillin an hour before the procedure. Bacteria shook loose from my teeth…
Functional Immortality
Not dying young. Essay. 1100 words, 6-minute read. Functional Immortality By Ray Tabler Who wants to live forever? I might be talked into giving it a whirl. I suspect many of us would. A well-trod path of science fiction explores the benefits, costs, and consequences of long, long life. In…
Dying for Dirt
Manifest destiny. Essay. 800 words, 4-minute read. Dying for Dirt By Ray Tabler Did you know that Michigan and Ohio once fought a short, low-grade war over the city of Toledo? Some Michiganders joke that Ohio lost the Toledo War of 1835. Some Ohioans point out that if they’d lost…
Star Trek and Recursive Prognostication
Sci-Fi signposts. Essay. 1000 words, 5-minute read. Star Trek and Recursive Prognostication By Ray Tabler There’s an episode of the original Star Trek TV show, titled Court Martial, wherein captain Kirk is on trial for dereliction of duty leading to murder, specifically causing the death of another Star Fleet officer….
The Curse of the Muse
Or a blessing. Essay. 800 words, 4-minute read. The Curse of the Muse By Ray Tabler Have you ever had a snatch of music lodged in your head all day? An earworm, it’s called. Achy Breaky Heart. Who let the Dogs Out? The Macarena. Dare we mention, Baby Shark? Something…