Stephen L. Nowland

Australian fantasy & scifi author, game designer, traditional artist & general creative wizard-type person. Avid follower of world politics.

[Stephen L. Nowland @stephennowland]

Receiving the first print copies of a completed novel is always satisfying. If you're into sci-fi thats written by a human, check out my latest work! Thanks to @jacana for the beautiful human-produced cover art. Go humans! #novel #scifi #AuthorLife

[Stephen L. Nowland @stephennowland]

@AnaKasparian Pretty sure it's both.

[Leke @nonamme145]

I think reading books does this too

[Dee 💫 @deebayleaf]

Gen Alpha has already started roasting Gen Z. 😂😂😂😂😂

[Stephen L. Nowland @stephennowland]

@Jacanarts It looks amazing, so happy with the result ❤️

[Stephen L. Nowland @stephennowland]

@SenMarkKelly Next he'll order them to pull out the reactors and run them on coal.

[Boze Herrington, Library Owl 😴🧙‍♀️ @SketchesbyBoze]

There’s a scene from the 1960 film version of The Time Machine that has been haunting my dreams of late.

In the film, the Time Traveller (Rod Taylor) has traveled almost a million years into the future, expecting that when he arrived he would find an advanced civilisation marked by the pursuit of learning. Instead, he finds the Eloi, a race of simple creatures in togas who are bred like cattle, and eaten, by the subterranean Morlocks.

In the film’s most harrowing scene, he’s taken by one of the Eloi to a centuries-old library housing the last books in existence, which crumble to dust in his hands.

“What have you done?” the Time Traveller demands, as the dreams of centuries turn to ash. “Thousands of years of building and rebuilding, creating and recreating! A million years, the sensitive men dying for their dreams, for what? So you can swim, and dance, and play.”

In the last couple weeks I see a lot of men on this platform arguing with a straight face that we should let AI generate our writing for us, that it’s the future, that there’s no fighting it. And I need you all to know that THIS is the ultimate end of a world in which everyone has machines write for them. There will be no more thinking, no more creative expression, no more art or literature. It’s what C. S. Lewis called “the abolition of man.” We will be no different from cattle and our libraries will turn to dust.

When ease and entertainment become the highest good, it’s not shocking that people will find clever ways to avoid work and study. But nor should it be surprising when the ultimate fate of the Eloi becomes our own.

[Stephen L. Nowland @stephennowland]

@RonniSalt Barnaby twerking is not the image I needed in my brain just now.

[Culture Crave 🍿 @CultureCrave]

Australia is planning some of the world's toughest AI regulations

• Water usage will be limited

• AI data centers will be required to become net producers of energy

• AI companies can't train on Australian creators' work without their permission

• Proposals expected to be introduced as legislation in 2027

“Australian writers, musicians, artists and journalists must retain ownership and control of their work. Our laws will spell that out, plain as day ... anything less is theft"

[DROID @droidbuilds]

"Cut AI prices by 90%."
“Great, they all forgot how to code”
"Raise prices by 1000%."

[Rod Emmerson @rodemmerson]

In today’s NZ Herald

[Stephen L. Nowland @stephennowland]

@reinventionfail @RonniSalt Clearly it's necessary for correct grammar, how could anyone object 😉

[Stephen L. Nowland @stephennowland]

@Puppieslover The lovers, the dreamers, and meeee

[Stephen L. Nowland @stephennowland]

@RonFilipkowski This news isn't as shocking as you might think.

[Stephen L. Nowland @stephennowland]

@tibbinz Perfect.

[Definitely Not Tim @tibbinz]

Honestly still think this is the best looking Australian flag design that anyone’s ever put forward and I don’t see how it could be improved

[Jeremiah Johnson 🌐 @JeremiahDJohns]

Fun drama I was not aware of:

Apparently there are a lot of fantasy authors who despise George RR Martin - because he abandoned the Game of Thrones series, left it unfinished, and now readers largely won't start new fantasy series bc they don't trust the author to finish it.

[𝐍𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐚𝐬 𝐖𝐨𝐥𝐟 @TheNicholasWolf]

This is actually a serious issue for fantasy writers as well. A few years back I was pitching a seven book dark fantasy series to agents, and the most common question they asked was “is the series finished?” Despite having THREE BOOKS finished, every agent passed on it because “these days publishers aren’t likely to take chances on a long series that isn’t mostly completed.”

Though no one ever explicitly said why, the implied blame for this newfound hesitancy rested on George R.R. Martin’s shoulders.

[Stephen L. Nowland @stephennowland]

@cenkuygur But that would be impolite of her.