Posted by John Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/10/12/the-seediest-cuck-chair-in-iowa-city/

Look, the rest of the hotel room I was in was perfectly nice, but this one chair had absolutely the most unseemly aura. I did not sit in it. I did not place anything in it. Indeed, I tried not to look at it. Madness would undoubtedly follow.

I did make note of it to the front desk dude, who grimaced in acknowledgement and assured me that the entire hotel was going to have a visual refresh in December, which presumably means this chair will be on its way to the junk heap. Not a moment too soon, clearly.

On my way home now. All the chairs are immaculate.

— JS

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/10/12/the-seediest-cuck-chair-in-iowa-city/

Posted by Athena Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/10/10/the-big-idea-mike-allen-3/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=57728

Creepy crawlies can become less creepy when you characterize them. Such is the case for author Mike Allen, who shares with us his initial fear of spiders that has turned into more of a cautious appreciation. Follow along in the Big Idea for his newest spooky story, Trail of Shadows, and see the web he’s spun for us.

MIKE ALLEN:

My Southern Gothic-meets-surreal horror novel Trail of Shadows is a story of spirit beings and murderous monsters set in the Appalachian Mountains, where I’ve lived since the second grade. Rooted in the condition of living in a community without truly being part of it, the book draws from experiences had while traveling north and south along the mountain range. 

But it’s also rooted in close encounters of the arachnid kind — and anyone who thinks that’s a digression rather than a central part of the rural Appalachian experience has not:

1. Walked face-first through a spiderweb while hiking a wooded mountain trail…
2. Jumped into a hay bale in a barn and found themselves face to face with the spiders that build their nests all through the walls…
3. Seen the exodus of spiders and stranger things that scurry toward the house when the backyard creek overflows its banks….

The inspirations for several of the major characters in Trail of Shadows live their lives right outside my front door. I’ve seen as many as five dangling out in the dark, patiently waiting for prey to come to them, their webs strategically positioned around the porch light such that swinging the screen door open leaves them undisturbed.

Once upon a time, I would have struggled to tolerate their presence. But the years spent working on this book have actually had a positive effect on the severe arachnophobia acquired when I was a wee child on Guam Island.

(I cannot guarantee the same for readers — my novel is, after all, intended as a Halloween scare fest, part coming of age story, part fever dream, part nightmare.)

For context, a timeline: my parents met while working toward their degrees in microbiology at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. On completing his Ph.D., my father took a job teaching — at the University of Guam.

I was still a toddler when this young couple moved across the ocean. Thus, despite hailing from the Great White North, my first childhood memories formed on Guam. The constant sun; the coconut and papaya trees; cowrie shells on the beach; the coral beneath one’s feet (ouch!); the jellyfish wrapped around one’s leg (googolplex ouch!); the lizards that always left their tails behind . . . and the bright yellow spiders with leg spans as wide as my head, that paralyzed me with terror.

Really, the spiders weren’t to blame, I know, but an intense fear of eight-legged critters hung with me into adulthood. My journey from spider detestation to spider appreciation began with a private joke shared with my wife and creative partner-in-crime, Anita. 

One fine night, we happened to notice that a second couple had taken up residence in our house, underneath our porch’s tin roof. The larger and rounder of the pair was clearly the lady of the manor; the other, smaller and narrower, obviously the gentleman; both with eight spindly legs.

They weren’t exactly cute to our human eyes, but we found something charming about our new tenants all the same. Anita gave them appropriately old-fashioned sounding names: Gertrude and Herman.

Those names carried over; for years, it’s been our routine to call these large orb weavers “Gertrude spiders.”

The original Gertrude and Herman live on, or so I like to imagine, in the pages of Trail of Shadows. The story concerns people possessed of the ability to phase into the world of spirits, known as the argent realms or the Underside. Someone who can do this, who can at will cross into the Underside and back again, appears in those lands as an enormous, phantasmal animal.

Early in his journey toward perilous discovery, my bewildered hero encounters an unnerving but helpful couple named Herman and Gertrude Crabbe. I’ll give you one guess what their spirit shapes turn out to be.

It’s hardly a spoiler to share that the Crabbes aren’t the only members of the spider tribe that my puma-form protagonist meets. Their alignments range from neutral but good-natured to malevolent predation. I find myself wickedly fond of even the most frightening of their number.

Living with these characters in my head has made it easier for me to peacefully cohabit with their real-life counterparts. I still can’t say that I’d invite a spider to run across me — though I have allowed a tarantula to crawl over my hand, and was startled by its soft, gentle steps.

Nowadays, though, I can lean close to admire the quarter-sized orb weavers with their legs striped like witch stockings, and watch as they spin their summer webs above our front steps. 

Trail of Shadows: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Bookshop|Powell’s

Author’s socials: Website|Facebook|Instagram|Threads|Bluesky

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/10/10/the-big-idea-mike-allen-3/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=57728

Posted by Athena Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/10/09/pizza-drinks-at-forno-kitchen-bar/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=57705

If you saw my post earlier this week over my friend and my’s spa experience, I’m sure you’ve been asking yourself, “but where did you guys go eat after having such an amazing, relaxing spa experience?” I’m so glad you asked, dear reader! My friend and I went to Forno Kitchen + Bar in the Short North area of Columbus. Open daily for dinner, lunch Tuesday through Thursday, and brunch Friday through Sunday, this stone-fired pizza joint won #1 best restaurant in the Short North and best happy hour in Columbus from ColumBEST in 2024, and made OpenTable’s Top 100 Brunch Restaurants in America 2024.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Forno other than pizzas and draft beers, but I was pleasantly surprised when I walked into an inviting space with tons of natural light pouring in. I was greeted immediately by friendly hostesses, and we were sat at a four-top table where one side was the booth against the wall and the other side was two chairs.

Our waiter came out with water and menus and was incredibly friendly right off the bat. He asked us if we wanted drinks, which was obviously a yes, so I got their Pear-Amore and she got the Strawberry Rose.

My Pear-Amore had Belvedere Vodka, pear, green chile, yuzu, orgeat, Fino Sherry, and lemon juice. I tend to love any cocktail that is pear-focused, plus I think pear is an underutilized flavor anyway. My drink came with two gummy candies which was kind of an interesting choice. I really liked my drink, it wasn’t too sweet and had some nice acidity from the lemon juice.

For the Strawberry Rose, it consisted of Noble Cut Vodka, strawberry cordial, St. Germain Elderflower, lemon juice, and Anna de Codorníu. On the menu it says you can get it with cotton candy for no extra charge, which my friend wanted, but forgot to ask for. I told her she should just ask for it on a plate since she forgot to ask earlier, but she didn’t, and she totally missed out on that cottony goodness.

For our appetizers, my friend said she was for sure doing the arancini. It was much harder for me to decide, as so many of them sounded totally bombski. I ended up choosing the seared scallops.

The arancini was nice and hot with plenty of sauce to go around. I’m pretty sure this was my first time trying arancini and I have no complaints!

The scallops were seared perfectly with a fantastic texture, and had just the right amount of capers in the sauce. I will say my friend and I agreed they were just a little bit on the salty side, but it wasn’t detrimental or anything. The scallops are their most expensive appetizer, and they were pretty sizeable, not huge or anything but pretty good overall!

We also got a caprese salad to split:

I am a huge caprese fan, as it is one of the best examples of how simplicity can be truly delicious. For this caprese, the flavors were all well and good, but I really did not like the presentation. I have never had a caprese before where the tomatoes come in huge chunks like this, and I much prefer thinner, round slices. I did like the addition of the toasted breadcrumbs for some contrast of texture, but it was otherwise a completely standard caprese.

Normally when I’m at pizza places that are known for their pizza, I don’t get their pizza. I don’t know why, I do the same thing with wing places or burger places or anything like that. I basically always end up asking myself, what else they got? In Forno’s case, I actually tried their pizza, and only because my friend recommended it so much and I trust her judgement.

So, I went for their pesto pizza, with balsamic onion jam, ricotta, heirloom cherry tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil pesto vinaigrette.

This pizza was seriously fantastic, and I’m so glad I tried out one of their pies. It was loaded with cherry tomatoes, perfectly cheesy, and had plenty of pesto. I don’t normally like stone-fired pizza, wood-fired, etc., because I don’t like a “rustic char” on my food or an ashy crust. However I didn’t feel that way about this pizza. I thought it was very well done and not too burned or crisp or ashy at all. I would absolutely recommend this pie to any pesto lovers out there. And it’s a great vegetarian option!

My friend got their prosciutto pizza, which comes with ricotta, fontina, arugula, onion, olive oil, and a white balsamic reduction.

Though most of what you see is just arugula, there is a decent amount of crisped up prosciutto under there. As my friend was eating her first slice, she noticed that there wasn’t any balsamic on it, which she said was what really made it so good. So she asked for balsamic on the side, which the waiter brought out, but it is odd that it seemingly wasn’t on there in the first place.

As we were eating our ‘za, we decided to refill our glasses with their Kiwi Mule. I asked the waiter if it was pretty good and he said he liked it and it’s a big seller, so we figured we’d give it a try.

Since it was listed as a mule, I was surprised it came in a glass and not a copper mug. It’s made with Ketel One Citroen (which I was particularly excited for because I adore Ketel One), kiwi puree, lemon, and ginger beer. My friend and I agreed we really did not taste any kiwi at all, like even a little bit. It mostly tasted like a very citrusy mule, which was fine enough. I think I would’ve preferred a fresh lime garnish instead of dehydrated, but that’s just personal preference, really.

My friend said that they didn’t have any dessert, so we were kind of bummed about that, but then the waiter came and asked if we wanted dessert! We were very happy to learn that they do, in fact, have a dessert menu. I picked the buttermilk panna cotta, and she picked the chocolate fudge cake.

I didn’t try this cake myself but my friend seemed to really enjoy it!

And here was mine:

I loved that this came in a coupe glass, I thought that was such a cute idea. The panna cotta itself was good, but I think what I appreciated most about the dish was the fresh fruit, making it feel much lighter and sort of summery. The strawberry compote was really good, and the fresh strawberry slices make the dish look extra elevated. The pistachios were actually spiced with cayenne, which totally surprised me. They had quite the kick to them, which was an interesting contrast to the creamy and sweet panna cotta. It was a really unique dessert, I liked it a lot!

Overall, I quite enjoyed Forno Kitchen + Bar, and would love to revisit. I don’t know if I can bring myself to select a different pizza next time, though, as the pesto was pretty dang good. For four cocktails, two appetizers, one salad, two pizzas, and two desserts, it was $150 before tip. Honestly not too bad! I think that’s pretty reasonable, all things considered.

I think the most standout thing about Forno, besides the ‘za, was the service. Our waiter checked on us often, cleared dishes consistently, and was very friendly and conversational. Cool guy, really.

What I really want, truth be told, is to visit Forno’s speakeasy, The Marmont. They are only open Thursday through Saturday, but I’m determined to get in there before their Halloween specialty cocktail menu ends. Pizza joint by day, classy speakeasy by night. The perfect combo, really.

What looks the best to you? What’s your favorite pizza topping? Let me know in the comments, be sure to check out Forno Kitchen + Bar on Instagram, and have a great day!

-AMS

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/10/09/pizza-drinks-at-forno-kitchen-bar/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=57705

Posted by Athena Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/10/08/the-big-idea-courtney-floyd/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=57673

Though neurodivergent people tend to love the world of academia and absorbing information, the systems and structure of higher education is often antithetical to the needs of differently abled people, both mentally and physically. Author Courtney Floyd expands on this in the Big Idea for her newest novel, Higher Magic, as she recounts her experience with earning her PhD and seeing how the world of education wasn’t designed with inclusivity and accessibility in mind.

COURTNEY FLOYD:

When I first sat down to write the first draft of Higher Magic, I was two years out of my PhD program and still trying to balance the sum of my time there. My sense of the possible had shifted profoundly as I studied literature, learned to research, traveled to conferences and archives, and honed my analytical and interpretive skills. My life had changed for the better. But I was still discovering the many ways my program had taught me to ignore my body and push through exhaustion and anxiety, no matter the cost. 

In higher education, you’re supposed to act as though you’re nothing but a floating brain. Oh, nobody ever says that outright. Especially not when you’re a first generation student who slid sideways into the academy and, to everyone’s bewilderment, stuck around. But the expectation is there. Lurking.

I learned to see it sidelong, in the way I was expected to write without using the first person and also in the lack of understanding some professors showed when I couldn’t attend office hours or study groups because I was juggling several jobs to pay my tuition. It reared its head in my mentor’s office, when she snapped impatiently at me because I got jury duty, and couldn’t defer it. It showed up with the brain fog and intense hand cramps after two-hour midterms in which I had to handwrite entire essays. 

I came to see it even more clearly as an instructor, in the way boilerplate attendance policies penalized students who were late because of health issues or irregular bus schedules. It haunted me, one term, when one of my students––a veteran who’d recently undergone major surgery––apologized for every single essay he turned in, not because it was late but because he was worried his medication had made him incoherent. 

By the end of my time in grad school, I saw the floating brain edict at work every day. In the exam prep or the job search eating up my own and my peers’ lives, turning us into bleary-eyed shadows. In the exhausted way my officemate staggered back from her two week maternity leave, which we’d gone on strike only a year earlier to get. In the student in my cohort who weighed the cost on her mental health and withdrew from the program.

Mind over matter is a brutal either/or. 

Either you’re smart enough to figure it out, or you’ll drop out. Either you’ll burn your candle at both ends, or you’ll snuff yourself out trying.

In her book Teaching to Transgress, Black feminist scholar and educator, bell hooks, writes that in classrooms and other institutionalized spaces, “the person who is the most powerful has the privilege of denying their body,” of becoming the invisible default. The cog at the center of the complicated machine. But, as we’ve seen in the past couple of years, when our bodies become too inconvenient–too vocal or visible or vexing–the people in power (in and beyond the ivory tower) can decide to deny our bodies, too. Or make them disappear.

In SFF, we love a good literalized metaphor. When I first had the idea for Higher Magic, graduate students weren’t being literally disappeared for protesting, but students were being quietly pushed out of the academy for needing access and inclusion. For needing systems built to support white, male, nondisabled scholars to change, just a little, so that others could participate.

Fresh out of PhD school in 2019, I knew I wanted to write about that kind of disappearing. Because bell hooks didn’t just pinpoint a problem, she shared a solution, too: “Once we start talking in the classroom about the body, and about how we live in our bodies, we’re automatically changing the way power orchestrate[s] itself.” 

Enter Dorothe Bartleby, a first-generation, neurodivergent grad student who is trying her best to be a floating brain at the start of Higher Magic. She quickly learns it’s not sustainable, and spends the rest of the book slowly figuring out how to be a body and a brain at the same time. While tracking down her disappearing students. And getting ready for her last attempt at passing her qualifying exam.

As heavy as all of that is, Bartleby’s story isn’t somber or dark. As she notes early on, “I’d come ready for the slog. I’d thrown myself into it. Battled through overwhelm, exhaustion, burnout. … And I’d done it all because I loved it. The magic. The camaraderie. The sense that I was contributing to something that mattered.”

In writing Bartleby’s story, I tried to balance my exploration of disability, neurodivergence, and embodiment in higher education with the things that carry so many of us through the (unnecessarily) difficult parts of our degrees: curiosity, passion, camaraderie, and love. There are joyful info dumps about research, plot-relevant spreadsheets, plentiful snack breaks and magic cookie recipes. In grad school, research comes alive and ignites our days. It informs our worlds. And sometimes, if there’s a bit of magic in the air, it begins to narrate us in the form of a talking skull.

The big idea in Higher Magic isn’t just that disabled and neurodivergent folks belong in higher ed and deserve to shape what it becomes, it’s that our joy, interests, and whimsy do as well.

Higher Magic: Harlequin|Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Bookshop|Powell’s|Yankee Bookshop (for signed copies)

Author socials: Website|Bluesky|Instagram

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/10/08/the-big-idea-courtney-floyd/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=57673

Posted by Athena Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/10/07/unwinding-at-panacea-luxury-spa-in-columbus/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=57630

Back in 2023, my friend sent me a Tik Tok from a newly opened spa in Columbus called Panacea that was showing off its luxury amenities. The video showed a hot hydrotherapy pool, a cold plunge pool, a eucalyptus steam room, and a Himalayan salt sauna. It looked good enough to convince my friend and I that we needed to go and have a spa day, but much to our dismay, their services were completely booked for months out.

Fortunately for us, Panacea Luxury Spa also offers an amenities-only day-pass that gives you access to the aforementioned features, plus you get to visit their relaxation lounge, where light refreshments and small snacks are provided. While only 3 passes are sold for each 3 hour time block of the amenities pass, we were able to snag two and have ourselves a mini spa day, just enjoying the amenities and each other’s company.

Even though we didn’t book any services, we were still treated like royalty and experienced superb customer service from the relaxation lounge attendants. We had such a great time with just the amenities that we knew we eventually needed to come back and actually get services like a massage and whatnot.

Well, two years later, we finally did it, and I’m here to tell you about how amazing our time at Panacea was.

I have been to many a spa in my day, and Panacea Luxury Spa truly lives up to its name. Located just northwest of downtown Columbus in Hilliard, you will feel like you’re somewhere much more exciting than Ohio when you step foot into this oasis in the city.

When you arrive, you’re immediately given a robe and slippers and enter a phone-free zone to really enhance your zen-filled experience. After being given a locker for your items and changing, you’re free to head into the amenities room and enjoy up to two hours of amenity time before your service, as access to them is included with every service over $100 (minus the express facial). You can also opt to utilize their amenities after your services are completed, but I prefer doing it before and then having a quick shower before my service.

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A post shared by Panacea Luxury Spa Boutique (@panacealuxuryspa)

I have never been brave enough to try out the cold plunge pool, but I do enjoy watching others test the waters. And who can resist a hot hydrotherapy pool? I’m a sucker for a fancy hot tub. While I have a tough time enduring the dry heat of the Himalayan salt sauna, I absolutely love the eucalyptus steam room. There’s something about a heavy, wet heat that makes it feel less like I’m a turkey on Thanksgiving roasting in the oven.

@panacealuxuryspa

Sometimes we all need a little R&R. #saunaday #spalife #relaxationtime #cbus

♬ original sound – Panacea Luxury Spa

When I’m in the steam room, I can breathe so much better than I normally am capable of. Ever since my first time having COVID in 2020, my lungs and breathing have never been the same. But when I’m in that steam room, both in 2023 and now, I can breathe so deeply and truly fill my lungs in a way I haven’t done in years.

If you end up getting a bit overheated from the hydrotherapy pool, steam room, and sauna, there’s ice-cold towels provided for you to put around your neck, on your face, etc., and plenty of water stations around to keep you hydrated.

If you want something other than water, there’s a whole beverage menu with a variety of cocktails, CBD seltzers, mocktails, wine, beer, and craft sodas. This time around, I opted for one of their melon-basil mocktails, which was nicely sweetened and refreshing. I think next time I’d like to try a CBD option.

Onto the services: my friend booked a 90-minute massage, and I went for a 60-minute Swedish massage, plus a 60-minute Cranberry Crush facial. So we parted ways for a bit to go enjoy our services.

Before starting my massage, my masseuse asked me if I would like to add-on hot stones, and I was delighted at the option because I had originally wanted a hot stone massage anyway, but when I tried to book one it said they were unavailable at the time. So I opted for the add-on because hot stones are my absolute favorite type of massage. If you haven’t had hot stones before it is truly a game changer, and dare I say life-changing.

My masseuse was really awesome, and he listened immediately when I asked for a bit lighter of pressure. Everything felt great, and I drifted off a couple times. I love a massage that includes a scalp massage, so you really feel pampered from head to toe. I mentioned my main area of pain and tension in my body is in my upper back, mostly between my shoulder blades and up into my shoulders, and he really took his time addressing that area. I felt a lot better afterwards!

I went pretty much straight from my massage to my facial, where I proceeded to have the best facial of my life.

The esthetician I got was incredibly kind and attentive right off the bat, I immediately felt so comfortable and relaxed with her. She started off our session by asking if I wanted her to describe everything she was doing and all the products she was using on me, if I wanted to have more of like a normal conversation and just chit chat, or if I wanted basically complete silence. I loved the idea of being able to choose the level of interaction I wanted, as I’m sure we’ve all had a massage or two where the person is serving you a yap-a-ccino when you’re trying to relax and drift off.

After being indecisive as heck, I finally settled on wanting a slightly more minimal version of the in-depth explanation of the process and the products, plus a little bit of normal conversation thrown in. I’m used to pretty much total silence during facials, so this was a surprisingly nice change of pace.

She examined my skin and assessed my concerns and skin issues like my acne, redness, and congested pores, and suggested some products that would help with that. I was hesitant to try the mask she was recommending, because I was afraid it would hurt (products designed to combat acne are usually pretty intense and can be a lot on more sensitive skin), and she said if it was uncomfortable at all that she would just take it right off for me and we’d try something gentler. That made me feel better, so I went for it and it wasn’t even bad at all! It was definitely a little warm and slightly tingly, but I felt fine and was happy she offered other options.

I’m obsessed with the way she applied products to my face. She was gentle but also meant business, and the same can be said for the hand, arm, neck and shoulder, and scalp massage included with the facial. Her pressure was seriously perfect throughout. And yes, it did feel amazing to basically get double massaged in those areas since I had just come from a massage. Everything felt amazing.

Literally my esthetician’s warm personality and friendliness was what made my facial go from “a nice relaxing self-care moment” to “best facial ever.” When I asked her how she got into this line of work, she said it all started when she got her first facial in her early 20’s, and felt so taken care of that she realized she wanted to give that same feeling to others. And she definitely succeeded.

Plus, I mentioned I wanted to add an exfoliator to my skincare routine, and when we were done with the facial she took me out to the boutique and went over a few different ones with me, and even let me feel them on my skin to really test them out.

I know a lot of people are hesitant to get spa treatments because they’re worried about upselling attempts or product pushing, but Panacea is really great about that sort of thing: they specifically ask on your forms if you would prefer that your provider not mention or recommend literally any products. And if you’re open to hearing about a product or two, you can pick from a long list of types of products or services that you might be interested in hearing about, which is why my esthetician brought up the exfoliator in the first place.

If you get a facial at Panacea, I can’t recommend Taylor enough.

All in all, my services were fantastic and I felt totally refreshed and relaxed afterwards. My friend said her massage was also bomb, and I’m so glad we could finally get our spa day together.

Panacea is definitely a splurge, but one that is so worth it. I truly feel like a valued guest at Panacea, and can’t wait for the chance to go back. If you’re in Columbus, it’s a must-try in my eyes, even if you just get the amenities pass.

Do you like massages? Have you ever had a facial before? Would you try the cold plunge? Let me know in the comments, check out Panacea on Instagram, and have a great day!

-AMS

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/10/07/unwinding-at-panacea-luxury-spa-in-columbus/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=57630

Posted by John Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/10/07/ai-slop-and-whatever/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=57653

This video from YouTube Science Explainer channel Kurzgesagt says a lot of the things I would say about “AI” in this moment, namely: At first it seemed cool, but then it quickly became apparent that the version of it presented to consumers as a creative tool was both deeply flawed and also based on the theft of work from literally millions of creators (including myself!). The bullshit it is generating is now quickly eating the Internet, to the detriment of the actual creative people who make their livelihoods there and also to the detriment of, you know, truth and facts.

In the video, the folks at Kurzgesagt outline how they will and won’t use “AI” — basically not for writing or factchecking, but occasionally for things like automating animation processes and other such backend stuff. I think this is reasonable — and indeed, if one is using creative tools more involved than a pen and a piece of paper, “AI” is damn near unavoidable these days, even allowing for the fact that “AI” is mostly a marketing phrase for a bunch of different processes and tools which in a different era would have been called “machine learning” or “neural networks” or something else now horribly unsexy.

This is also how I’m approaching my writing here on Whatever. Every word you see here is written by an actual live human, usually either me or Athena, but also the individual authors of the Big Idea posts. Good, bad or indifferent, it came out of someone’s skull, and not out of a prompt field. I do this because a) I care about the quality of the posts you see here, and also b) as Athena and I are both actually decent writers with substantial experience, it’s easier just to write things ourselves than to prompt an “AI” to do it and then spend twice as much time editing for facts and tone. That’s right! “AI” doesn’t make our writing job easier! Quite the opposite in fact!

(Also: I don’t use generative AI to create images here — there are a few from years ago, before it became clear to me the generators were trained on copyrighted images, and I stopped when it was made clear this was done without creator consent — so images are almost all photographed/created by me (or Athena) directly, are non-AI-generated stock images I have a license for (or are Creative Commons or in public domain), or are publicity photos/images which are given out for promotional purposes. I do often tweak them with photo editing tools, primarily Photoshop. But none of the images comes out of a prompt.)

I think there’s a long conversation to be had about at what point the use of software means that something is less about the human creation and more about the machine generation, where someone scratching words onto paper with a fountain pen is on one end of that line, and someone dropping a short prompt into an LLM is on the other, and I strongly suspect that point is a technological moving target, and is probably not on a single axis. That said, for Whatever, I’m pretty satisfied that what we do here is significantly human-forward. The Internet may yet be inundated with “AI” slop, but Whatever is and will remain a small island of human activity.

— JS

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/10/07/ai-slop-and-whatever/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=57653