I am a science fiction fan.
There are discussions about whether science fiction writers are geniuses because they so often correctly predict the future, or if CEOs and inventors are just lazy because they copy ideas from science fiction writers. I don’t know which is true; perhaps both are. Regardless, my academic writing is indebted to the brilliant work of science fiction creators who, unfortunately, often appear to be brilliant when predicting what will happen next.
I am not anti-AI, nor am I pro-AI. My position is that AI has the potential to be a big help to people… but only if it is used to make life better for them. AI is potentially harmful if it is used to hurt people, or used to maximize profit margins by replacing human labor. Because this is the stance I take, my work often overlaps with many of the great science fiction writers.
What kind of science fiction do I like? Almost all of it.
Dune is an amazing work, but I need to be in the right mood for it. Most of the time, I am only in the mood for the more fun version of Dune: Star Wars.
I like all the Star Wars movies and many of the Disney+ series. I think The Acolyte is the only series I started but did not finish. My favorite Star Wars movie is usually The Empire Strikes Back, and I typically rank Rogue One as the best film. As of this writing, I have not started Andor. Similar to Dune, I think I need to be in the right mood for that. Sometimes I just want fun.
I like watching sports. But I made a promise to myself that when Peyton Manning retired from football, I would cut back on my sports watching so I could spend more time with my family. I have been very good keeping that commitment to limit my sports time. Now I typically only watch a few of the big college football games and occasionally an NFL game on Sunday. For many years, I could easily watch sports eight or more hours a day ranging from baseball, to football, to golf and even tennis… multiple days a week. Now, I doubt I watch eight hours of sports in a month.
I have never been a video game fanatic, but I do enjoy them. I am from an age before mobile games. While I am not nostalgic for the 1980s like Ready Player One, that is the time period when I started playing video games. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, one of my favorite abilities was to do was walk into any pizza place or business that had an old Pac-Man arcade machine and set the high score with my first quarter … just like in Ready Player One.
Author’s Note: A quarter is a small, flat, circular, metal object that represented money.
