In new sci-fi novels, artificial intelligence causes problems and the moon somehow turns into cheese
Cold Eternity
S.A. Barnes
Tor Nightfire, 304 pages, $38.99
S.A. Barnes has become the go-to name for creepy SF-horror, and 'Cold Eternity' follows previous books like 'Dead Silence' and 'Ghost Station' in going off-planet to tell a techno-ghost story.
The main character is a young woman named Halley who is on the run from the political powers-that-be, who are also her former employers. Desperate, she takes a job as a sort of security guard on board the Elysian Fields, an ancient spaceship filled with cryo-chambers. It's a lousy gig, but the ship makes a good place to hide from the authorities — at least until things start taking a turn for the weird and Halley finds herself facing off against a next-generation evil.
Barnes does this kind of thing very well, and there are parts of 'Cold Eternity' that are genuinely suspenseful and scary. Halley's backstory is complicated, though, and there are too many pages devoted to a romance angle with an AI. It's a chillingly effective read, but one that also makes you wish there was a little less of it.
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW
'Rose/House,' by Arkady Martine, Tordotcom, $27.99.
Rose/House
Arkady Martine
Tordotcom, 128 pages, $27.99
Rose House is the name of a structure built out in the Mojave Desert by a famous architect who designed it as both his masterpiece and the final repository of his crystallized remains. As things kick off, the resident AI that runs Rose House, and that 'is' Rose House in a deeper sense, calls the local police to let them know that there's a dead body inside, which is something that should be impossible since there's only one person who has been given access to the building and she's out of the country.
What follows is a spin on the classic 'locked room' murder mystery. It's also a ghost story, as the AI (which is 'not sane' in the best Hill House tradition) haunts Rose House in complicated ways. Multiple layers of what happened are revealed to the pair of women allowed inside: the detective investigating and the building's legal heir. This all makes for a great buildup, and if the payoff isn't quite on the same level, it's at least something different and unexpected.
'Where the Axe Is Buried,' by Ray Nayler, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $37.
Where the Axe Is Buried
Ray Nayler
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 336 pages, $37
Though this is only his third novel, Ray Nayler has already established himself as a must-read for intelligent, near-future speculative fiction.
'Where the Axe Is Buried' is a political thriller set in a New Cold War version of Europe where Russia is ruled by a president who can live forever in a series of new bodies into which his consciousness can be ported, and artificial intelligence programs called prime ministers run a 'rationalized' Western Europe.
Unfortunately, technology has not set us free, and both sides are post-ideological authoritarian surveillance states — places where insect-sized drones carry messages of hope or death, and when you look out into the streets, the street is always looking back at you. There are underground resistance movements, though, and scientists, spies and politicians trying to tear down the system and build something better.
It's a complicated story that hops around a lot among many characters in many places, but Nayler's world-building is top notch, creating a plausible and deeply realized vision of the future that also feels scarily close to home.
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW
'When the Moon Hits Your Eye,' by John Scalzi, Tor, $39.99.
When the Moon Hits Your Eye
John Scalzi
Tor, 336 pages, $39.99
The premise is everything: suddenly, and all at once, the moon turns into cheese.
Indeed, not only the moon itself, but all the moon rocks on display in museums and in private collections here on Earth.
Of course, Luna's transformation into Caseus (Latin for 'cheese') is ridiculous. At first, none of the characters in John Scalzi's latest can believe it's happened. But the novel works by taking the great cheesification event literally, though not seriously. If the moon were to turn into cheese, we're led to ask, what would happen next?
Each chapter tells the story of a different character, progressing daily until the book has covered a full lunar cycle. The question each section asks is how politicians, scientists, business leaders, the media and the broader public are affected, and how they might respond to such a bizarre event.
This is just an entertainment, with little hard science and not a lot of deep thinking behind it, but it's all good fun in Scalzi's typically playful hands.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Winnipeg Free Press
09-06-2025
- Winnipeg Free Press
Unsubstantiated ‘chemtrail' conspiracy theories lead to legislation proposed in US statehouses
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — As Louisiana Rep. Kimberly Landry Coates stood before her colleagues in the state's Legislature she warned that the bill she was presenting might 'seem strange' or even crazy. Some lawmakers laughed with disbelief and others listened intently, as Coates described situations that are often noted in discussions of 'chemtrails' — a decades-old conspiracy theory that posits the white lines left behind by aircraft in the sky are releasing chemicals for any number of reasons, some of them nefarious. As she urged lawmakers to ban the unsubstantiated practice, she told skeptics to 'start looking up' at the sky. 'I'm really worried about what is going on above us and what is happening, and we as Louisiana citizens did not give anyone the right to do this above us,' the Republican said. Louisiana is the latest state taking inspiration from a wide-ranging conspiratorial narrative, mixing it with facts, to create legislation. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed a similar measure into law last year and one in Florida has passed both the House and the Senate. More than a dozen other states, from New York to Arizona, have introduced their own legislation. Such bills being crafted is indicative of how misinformation is moving beyond the online world and into public policy. Elevating unsubstantiated theories or outright falsehoods into the legislative arena not only erodes democratic processes, according to experts, it provides credibility where there is none and takes away resources from actual issues that need to be addressed. 'Every bill like this is kind of symbolic, or is introduced to appease a very vocal group, but it can still cause real harm by signaling that these conspiracies deserve this level of legal attention,' said Donnell Probst, interim executive director of the National Association for Media Literacy Education. Louisiana's bill, which is awaiting Republican Gov. Jeff Landry's signature, prohibits anyone from 'intentionally' injecting, releasing, applying or dispersing chemicals into the atmosphere with the purpose of affecting the 'temperature, weather, climate, or intensity of sunlight.' It also requires the Department of Environmental Quality to collect reports from anyone who believes they have observed such activities. While some lawmakers have targeted real weather modification techniques that are not widespread or still in their infancy, others have pointed to dubious evidence to support legislation. Discussion about weather control and banning 'chemtrails' has been hoisted into the spotlight by high-profile political officials, including Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Recently, Marla Maples, the ex-wife of President Donald Trump, spoke in support of Florida's legislation. She said she was motivated to 'start digging' after seeing a rise in Alzheimer's. Asked jokingly by a Democratic state senator if she knew anyone in the federal government who could help on the issue, Maples smiled and said, 'I sure do.' Chemtrails vs. contrails Chemtrail conspiracy theories, which have been widely debunked and include a myriad of claims, are not new. The publication of a 1996 Air Force report on the possible future benefits of weather modification is often cited as an early driver of the narrative. Some say that evidence of the claims is happening right before the publics' eyes, alleging that the white streaks stretching behind aircrafts reveal chemicals being spread in the air, for everything from climate manipulation to mind control. Ken Leppert, an associate professor of atmospheric science at the University of Louisiana Monroe, said the streaks are actually primarily composed of water and that there is 'no malicious intent behind' the thin clouds. He says the streaks are formed as exhaust is emitted from aircrafts, when the humidity is high and air temperature is low, and that ship engines produce the same phenomenon. A fact sheet about contrails, published by multiple government agencies including NASA and the Environmental Protection Agency, explains that the streaks left behind by planes do not pose health risks to humans. However, the trails, which have been produced since the earliest days of jet aviation, do impact the cloudiness of Earth's atmosphere and can therefore affect atmospheric temperature and climate. Scientists have overwhelmingly agreed that data or evidence cited as proof of chemtrails 'could be explained through other factors, including well-understood physics and chemistry associated with aircraft contrails and atmospheric aerosols,' according to a 2016 survey published in the journal Environmental Research Letters. In the survey of 77 chemists and geochemists, 76 said they were not aware of evidence proving the existence of a secret large-scale atmospheric program. 'It's pure myth and conspiracy,' Leppert said. Cloud seeding While many of the arguments lawmakers have used to support the chemtrails narrative are not based in fact, others misrepresent actual scientific endeavors, such as cloud seeding; a process by which an artificial material — usually silver iodide — is used to induce precipitation or to clear fog. 'It's maybe really weak control of the weather, but it's not like we're going to move this cloud here, move this hurricane here, or anything like that,' Leppert said. Parker Cardwell, an employee of a California-based cloud seeding company called Rainmaker, testified before lawmakers in Louisiana and asked that an amendment be made to the legislation to avoid impacts to the industry. The practice is an imprecise undertaking with mixed results that isn't widely used, especially in Louisiana, which has significant natural rainfall. According to Louisiana's Department of Agriculture and Forestry, a cloud seeding permit or license has never been issued in the state. Geoengineering While presenting Louisiana's bill last week, Coates said her research found charts and graphics from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on spraying the air with heavy metals to reflect sunlight back into space to cool the Earth. The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2022 directed the Office of Science and Technology Policy, with support from NOAA, to develop an initial governance framework and research plan related to solar radiation modification, or SRM. A resulting report, which Coates holds up in the House session, focuses on possible future actions and does not reflect decisions that had already been made. SRM 'refers to deliberate, large-scale actions intended to decrease global average surface temperatures by increasing the reflection of sunlight away from the Earth,' according to NOAA. It is a type of geoengineering. Research into the viability of many methods and potential unintended consequences is ongoing, but none have actually been deployed. Taking focus In recent years, misinformation and conspiratorial narratives have become more common during the debates and committee testimonies that are a part of Louisiana's lawmaking process. And while legislators say Louisiana's new bill doesn't really have teeth, opponents say it still takes away time and focus from important work and more pressing topics. State Rep. Denise Marcelle, a Democrat who opposed Louisiana's bill, pointed to other issues ailing the state, which has some of the highest incarceration, poverty, crime, and maternal mortality rates. 'I just feel like we owe the people of Louisiana much more than to be talking about things that I don't see and that aren't real,' she said. ___ Associated Press writers Kate Payne in Tallahassee, Florida, and Jack Dura in Bismarck, North Dakota, contributed to this story.
Winnipeg Free Press
16-05-2025
- Winnipeg Free Press
House Republicans include a 10-year ban on US states regulating AI in ‘big, beautiful' bill
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans surprised tech industry watchers and outraged state governments when they added a clause to Republicans' signature ' big, beautiful ' tax bill that would ban states and localities from regulating artificial intelligence for a decade. The brief but consequential provision, tucked into the House Energy and Commerce Committee's sweeping markup, would be a major boon to the AI industry, which has lobbied for uniform and light touch regulation as tech firms develop a technology they promise will transform society. However, while the clause would be far-reaching if enacted, it faces long odds in the U.S. Senate, where procedural rules may doom its inclusion in the GOP legislation. 'I don't know whether it will pass the Byrd Rule,' said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, referring to a provision that requires that all parts of a budget reconciliation bill, like the GOP plan, focus mainly on the budgetary matters rather than general policy aims. 'That sounds to me like a policy change. I'm not going to speculate what the parliamentarian is going to do but I think it is unlikely to make it,' Cornyn said. Senators in both parties have expressed an interest in artificial intelligence and believe that Congress should take the lead in regulating the technology. But while lawmakers have introduced scores of bills, including some bipartisan efforts, that would impact artificial intelligence, few have seen any meaningful advancement in the deeply divided Congress. An exception is a bipartisan bill expected to be signed into law by President Donald Trump next week that would enact stricter penalties on the distribution of intimate 'revenge porn' images, both real and AI-generated, without a person's consent. 'AI doesn't understand state borders, so it is extraordinarily important for the federal government to be the one that sets interstate commerce. It's in our Constitution. You can't have a patchwork of 50 states,' said Sen. Bernie Moreno, an Ohio Republican. But Moreno said he was unsure if the House's proposed ban could make it through Senate procedure. The AI provision in the bill states that 'no state or political subdivision may enforce any law or regulation regulating artificial intelligence models, artificial intelligence systems, or automated decision systems.' The language could bar regulations on systems ranging from popular commercial models like ChatGPT to those that help make decisions about who gets hired or finds housing. State regulations on AI's usage in business, research, public utilities, educational settings and government would be banned. The congressional pushback against state-led AI regulation is part of a broader move led by the Trump administration to do away with policies and business approaches that have sought to limit AI's harms and pervasive bias. Half of all U.S. states so far have enacted legislation regulating AI deepfakes in political campaigns, according to a tracker from the watchdog organization Public Citizen. Most of those laws were passed within the last year, as incidents in democratic elections around the globe in 2024 highlighted the threat of lifelike AI audio clips, videos and images to deceive voters. California state Sen. Scott Wiener called the Republican proposal 'truly gross' in a social media post. Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat, authored landmark legislation last year that would have created first-in-the-nation safety measures for advanced artificial intelligence models. The bill was vetoed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a fellow San Francisco Democrat. 'Congress is incapable of meaningful AI regulation to protect the public. It is, however, quite capable of failing to act while also banning states from acting,' Wiener wrote. A bipartisan group of dozens of state attorneys general also sent a letter to Congress on Friday opposing the bill. 'AI brings real promise, but also real danger, and South Carolina has been doing the hard work to protect our citizens,' said South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, a Republican, in a statement. 'Now, instead of stepping up with real solutions, Congress wants to tie our hands and push a one-size-fits-all mandate from Washington without a clear direction. That's not leadership, that's federal overreach.' As the debate unfolds, AI industry leaders are pressing ahead on research while competing with rivals to develop the best — and most widely used —AI systems. They have pushed federal lawmakers for uniform and unintrusive rules on the technology, saying they need to move quickly on the latest models to compete with Chinese firms. Sam Altman, the CEO of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, testified in a Senate hearing last week that a 'patchwork' of AI regulations 'would be quite burdensome and significantly impair our ability to do what we need to do.' 'One federal framework, that is light touch, that we can understand and that lets us move with the speed that this moment calls for seems important and fine,' Altman told Sen. Cynthia Lummis, a Wyoming Republican. And Sen. Ted Cruz floated the idea of a 10-year 'learning period' for AI at the same hearing, which included three other tech company executives. 'Would you support a 10-year learning period on states issuing comprehensive AI regulation, or some form of federal preemption to create an even playing field for AI developers and employers?' asked the Texas Republican. Altman responded that he was 'not sure what a 10-year learning period means, but I think having one federal approach focused on light touch and an even playing field sounds great to me.' Microsoft's president, Brad Smith, also offered measured support for 'giving the country time' in the way that limited U.S. regulation enabled early internet commerce to flourish. 'There's a lot of details that need to be hammered out, but giving the federal government the ability to lead, especially in the areas around product safety and pre-release reviews and the like, would help this industry grow,' Smith said. It was a change, at least in tone, for some of the executives. Altman had testified to Congress two years ago on the need for AI regulation, and Smith, five years ago, praised Microsoft's home state of Washington for its 'significant breakthrough' in passing first-in-the-nation guardrails on the use of facial recognition, a form of AI. Winnipeg Jets Game Days On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop. Ten GOP senators said they were sympathetic to the idea of creating a national framework for AI. But whether the majority can work with Democrats to find a filibuster-proof solution is unclear. 'I am not opposed to the concept. In fact, interstate commerce would suggest that it is the responsibility of Congress to regulate these types of activities and not the states,' said Sen. Mike Rounds, a South Dakota Republican. 'If we're going to do it state by state we're going to have a real mess on our hands,' Rounds said. —————— O'Brien reported from Providence, Rhode Island. AP writers Ali Swenson in New York, Jesse Bedayn in Denver, Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, and Trân Nguyễn in Sacramento, California contributed to this report.
Winnipeg Free Press
15-05-2025
- Winnipeg Free Press
A musical from Tomson Highway, dancing skateboarders among NAC's upcoming lineup
A long-awaited musical from playwright Tomson Highway, a '90s take on 'Macbeth' and skateboarding stunts are among the spectacles bound for the National Arts Centre. Canada's multidisciplinary home for the performing arts released a 2025-26 lineup Thursday that includes the return of holiday favourites including Handel's 'Messiah' by the NAC Orchestra and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet's 'Nutcracker' in December. In between are dance, orchestral, pop music and drama productions from new voices and established veterans. Here's a look at some of the highlights. THEATRE Highway brings the third instalment of his 'Rez Cycle' to NAC's Indigenous Theatre program, with the world première of his musical 'Rose.' The 2003 play is set on the Wasaychigan Hill Reserve in 1992, and revisits several characters from 'The Rez Sisters' and 'Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing.' The story here centres on Emily Dictionary and her biker pals 'as they fight to reclaim their community.' NAC says the musical has never been staged 'due to its scale and ambition.' In the English Theatre lineup, artistic director Nina Lee Aquino directs two world premières: 'Copperbelt' by Natasha Mumba, a co-production with Soulpepper Theatre about the daughter of a powerful African family caught between ambition and the cost of success; and the eco-thriller 'cicadas,' created by David Yee and Chris Thornborrow and co-produced by Tarragon Theatre, in which a very strange house sinks into the earth. The English Theatre lineup also includes Marie Farsi's stage adaptation of 'Fifteen Dogs,' André Alexis's Giller Prize-winning novel about a group of dogs suddenly granted human consciousness. The French Theatre season closes with Shakespeare's 'Macbeth,' directed by Quebec visionary Robert Lepage. The original Stratford Festival production, created in collaboration with Lepage's company Ex Machina, set the action amid the biker wars of the 1990s. ORCHESTRA Music director Alexander Shelley's final season with the NAC Orchestra opens with Giacomo Puccini's opera 'Tosca' and boasts an all-Canadian edition of the Great Performers series, including Toronto's Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Quebec City-based chamber orchestra Les Violons du Roy and recitals by Calgary-born pianist Jan Lisiecki and Grammy Award-winning violinist James Ehnes. Soloists include violinists Hilary Hahn and Joshua Bell, cellist Bryan Cheng, and pianists Lang Lang, Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Hélène Grimaud. DANCE Danish choreographer Mette Ingvartsen unleashes what NAC describes as a 'zany' production dubbed 'Skatepark,' in which skateboarding thrill-seekers encounter a group of dancers. Also, Guillaume Côté and Lepage present a dance version of 'Hamlet,' the Royal Winnipeg Ballet offers up a surreal 'Hansel & Gretel' and the National Ballet of Canada presents a new work, 'Procession,' from choreographers Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber. Winnipeg Jets Game Days On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop. POPULAR MUSIC AND VARIETY The Pops lineup will see singer-songwriter Martha Wainwright hit the stage Oct. 15, followed by Ariane Moffatt on Oct. 16 and Choir! Choir! Choir! on Nov. 23. There's also a tribute to Aretha Franklin featuring Broadway star Capathia Jenkins and soul singer Ryan Shaw, Troupe Vertigo fuses acrobatics and symphonic music, and live concerts of film scores from 'The Muppet Christmas Carol' and 'Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.' International artists include the Manchester-based instrumental trio Gogo Penguin on Oct. 17, the Soweto Gospel Choir on Nov. 29 and an onstage conversation and food demonstration with British chef, restaurateur and food writer Yotam Ottolenghi on March 1, 2026. This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 15, 2025.
