Poem: "With Mortal Flesh and Iron Will"

[ysabetwordsmith]

This is the fourth perk poem for the  2011 Winterfaire.  (Double back to read the first three, " All in the Family," " Gallery of Souls," and " Wipeout," which are now complete.) All of these activities will unlock a verse each time someone does one of them

Comments

[fayanora]

Hmm... the description of the poem series mixed with my ever-present desire to see stories about good AIs, and brought me back to one series I have where humans and AIs get along pretty well, and now I've got an idea for a story wherein aliens invade Earth and get their asses handed to them in combat by humanity's AI friends.

Go for it!

[ysabetwordsmith]

You should totally write that.

Hmm, it reminds me of a short story I once read, told from the viewpoint of a starship AI and written in computer time -- the whole thing took just a few seconds in meat time. Wish I could remember the title.

Anyhow, if you want stories about heroic AIs, just watch for an opportunity in my Poetry Fishbowl. There's a whole batch of heroic themes coming up.

Re: Go for it!

[fayanora]

Cool!

Re: Go for it!

[fayanora]

I think my favorite example of good AIs (if they can be called that) in fiction is the planet of the mobiles in the Young Wizard series. The planet itself gained something approaching sentience all on its own, but didn't really come into its own until Dairine showed up and began communicating with it. Then she taught it wizardry and the surface exploded with independent sentient units the planet made from its own substance. What was coolest was, they turned down the Lone Power's offer! They totally gave the Lone Power the finger, and survived the encounter. Which is just frakking awesome.

[lb_lee]

I LIKE this. Admittedly, cyborgs are one of our pet favorites, and CLUNKY machinery too. Both together is freaking awesome, and a nice twist on the whole "evil robots conquer the world" trope.

Like! :D

Thank you!

[ysabetwordsmith]

>>I LIKE this.<<

I'm happy to hear that. Chime on the " Let's Talk About Ebooks of My Poetry" discussion and you can unlock the last verse.

>>Admittedly, cyborgs are one of our pet favorites, and CLUNKY machinery too. Both together is freaking awesome, and a nice twist on the whole "evil robots conquer the world" trope.<<

Heh ... yeah, this series was like: "You will be assimilated. Resistance is fut--AUGH! NO! Let go of that, you fuzzy vermin. I NEED that! HELP!"

There are two more poems in The Clockwork War, "Confusion to the Enemy" and "In the Line of Duty."

I also have an unrelated poem about a cyborg in contemporary times, who has accrued what mechanical and cyber support items he can find available, only nobody accepts that those are part of him. It's a horrible situation, and inspired by a true story.

Re: Thank you!

[lb_lee]

A question. I know you have a lot of tags, but they seem more organized by your writing genre rather than the name of the series. I'd love to read more of your Clockwork War stories, but there isn't a tag for it. I realize with the amount of writing you've got on your LJ that keeping track of it must be a pretty monumental task, but do you have a sort of... 'Table of Contents' around somewhere? So I can easily find what writing you have up and what is still needing funding?

--Rogan

Re: Thank you!

[ysabetwordsmith]

I don't put the series in tags because there are a LOT of them by now, and more coming all the time. What I've done is create a Serial Poetry page

Thank you!

[ysabetwordsmith]

I'm happy to hear that.

[fayanora]

Oh so awesome!

[rix_scaedu]

There are now obviously tank driving courses and tank driving courses. The instructors will have to revise their methods. :)