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I recently finished reading ‘Program or Be Programmed: Eleven Commands for the AI Future’ by Douglas Rushkoff. Its central claim is simple. The technologies we use are not neutral tools. They carry assumptions about time, identity, truth, relationships, and value. When we accept defaults without awareness, we end up living according to those assumptions. Most modern systems are optimized for efficiency, scale, engagement, and prediction. Those priorities are not inherently wrong, but they are not synonymous with human flourishing. If left unexamined, they quietly reshape our habits, our expectations, and even our sense of what it means to be present with one another. Rushkoff’s eleven commands function less as rules and more as calibration points. They help us recognize the built-in biases of digital systems and reclaim agency in how we use them. I recommend reading the book, but I also wanted to share the eleven commands here. For each one, I’ve included the bias it addresses, the liability it creates, the opportunity it enables, and a tiny practice you can use to practically incorporate the command into your daily life.  Image generated with ChatGPT. 1) Time — Do Not Be Always OnTech Bias: Platforms are engineered for continuous engagement. “Now” is the only time that matters. Notifications are gravity wells for attention. Liability: You live in reactive mode and confuse urgency with importance. Sleep, focus, and deep work erode. Opportunity: Treat your attention like a telescope. A telescope is powerful because it’s aimed. Constant scanning doesn’t reveal faint galaxies. Stillness does. Tiny Practice:
2) Place — Live In PersonTech Bias: Remote, scalable interaction is rewarded. Embodied local life is treated like inefficiency. Liability: You get lots of contact and less connection. Context collapses. Everything becomes a comment thread. Opportunity: In-person life is high-bandwidth. Libraries understand this instinctively. A room full of humans is a different internet. An internet that is slower, warmer, and more accountable. Tiny Practice:
3) Choice — You May Always Choose None of the AboveTech Bias: Interfaces push binary choices: Like/dislike, accept/decline, upvote/downvote, subscribe/leave, buy now/miss out. Liability: You get shepherded into options that serve the platform’s goals, not yours. Opportunity: “None of the above” is a superpower. It’s how you reclaim agency. Tiny Practice: Before clicking anything important, ask:
4) Complexity — You Are Never Completely RightTech Bias: Algorithms reward certainty and confidence. Nuance performs poorly. Outrage and anger performs extremely well. Liability: You get pulled toward overconfidence. You start arguing to win, not to learn. Opportunity: Complexity is not a weakness. Reality is layered, contingent, and rarely just black and white. Tiny Practice: Add one sentence to your hot takes:
5) Scale — One Size Does Not Fit AllTech Bias: Digital systems love scale: Uniform rules, one interface, one policy, one feed, one “community standard”. Liability: Local needs get steamrolled. People become “users”. Edge cases become invisible. Opportunity: Build small, adaptable systems where feedback can actually change the shape of the tool. Libraries are anti-scale by design. Even in a large system, each branch community adapts its own way of doing things. Tiny practice:
6) Identity — Be YourselfTech Bias: Platforms encourage performative identity: Branding, engagement metrics, persona maintenance. You become a product with a posting schedule. Liability: You drift from authenticity into optimization. You start “being” for the algorithm. Opportunity: Identity is not a static profile; it’s a living process. AI makes this tricky because it can mirror you back a cleaner, more marketable version of yourself. Don’t confuse that with your actual self. Tiny Practice:
7) Social — Do Not Sell Your FriendsTech Bias: Social networks are monetized. Relationships become data. Sharing becomes extraction. Even the language shifts as friends become “connections”. Liability: Social life becomes transactional, trackable, and subtly performative. Opportunity: Rebuild a commons mentality. Relationships are not inventory. Communities should not be strip-mined for engagement. Tiny Practice:
8) Fact — Tell The TruthTech Bias: Virality outruns verification. AI can generate plausible nonsense at industrial scale. Incentives reward the compelling, not the correct. Liability: Epistemic collapse: You stop trying to know what’s real, or you pick a tribe (a “truth team”). Opportunity: Truth-telling becomes a cultural skill again: Cite sources, verify claims, contextualize, revise, and employ nuance. Tiny Practice: Before sharing, pause and verify one key claim.
9) Openness — Share, Don’t StealTech Bias: Copy is effortless. Ownership is muddy. AI training and scraping amplify this by treating creation as raw material. Liability: Creators get hollowed out. People stop making original work because it feels pointless. Opportunity: Practice ethical sharing: Credit sources, ask permission when needed, and build reciprocity. Tiny Practice:
10) Purpose — Program Or Be ProgrammedTech Bias: Tools shape behaviour. If you use default settings, you accept default goals. Many systems are optimized for revenue, engagement, surveillance, and lock-in. Liability: You become a passenger in your own life—nudged, directed, puppeted. Opportunity: Purpose is writing the requirements document for your tech. What is this tool for? What is it not for? Tiny Practice: For any new app or workflow, complete the following sentences:
11) AI — Value The HumanTech Bias: AI reduces the world into what can be measured, predicted, categorized, and optimized. It’s a powerful pattern engine. Liability: You outsource judgment. Machine confidence replaces human wisdom. People get treated like inputs and outputs. Opportunity: Use AI as a tool, not an authority. Tiny Practice:
Stay CalibratedEvery tool has a bias: Toward speed, scale, extraction, certainty. Mindfulness means noticing that bias. Curiosity means questioning and asking whether it aligns with your values. Agency means adjusting accordingly. Remain attentive to the technologies you use and the biases they carry. With curiosity and mindfulness, you can ensure your tools serve your purposes rather than quietly programming your life. Technology should serve you. Not the reverse.  Image generated with ChatGPT.
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Happy New Year! I hope 2026 is already shaping up to be a great year full of curiosity, adventure, and some amazing books. Looking back on 2025, I’m happy with how wide-ranging my reading ended up being. Science fiction, science writing, graphic novels, literary fiction, and nonfiction all made appearances, often touching on similar questions about humanity, technology, history, and our place in the universe. Narrowing things down is never easy, but these were some of my favourite reads of the year. An Angel Called Peterbilt |
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| In June 2025, ‘An Angel Called Peterbilt’ was exactly the kind of book I was in the mood for: Fast, imaginative, and deeply enjoyable. Set around 1005 CE, ‘An Angel Called Peterbilt’ combines adventure, history, and wonderfully strange circumstances into a compact, propulsive read. It paired unexpectedly well with other historical nonfiction ('Wild New World: The Epic Story of Animals and People in America' by Dan Flores) I was reading at the time, grounding its speculative elements in a richly textured past. I tore through it in just a few days. It was fun, and satisfying, and never overstayed its welcome. |  |
We Are Legion (We Are Bob)
— Dennis E. Taylor
| This is my kind of science fiction. Humorous, thoughtful, and bursting with big ideas, ‘We Are Legion (We Are Bob)’ explores mind uploading, identity, cloning, post-humanism, terraforming, first contact, and space exploration with a smooth easy confidence that never bogs itself down. It’s fast-paced and playful, but beneath the jokes is a surprisingly deep meditation on what it means to be human when “one person” becomes many. Wildly entertaining and hard to put down. |  |
The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself
— Sean Carroll
| A genuinely expansive book in every sense. Carroll moves effortlessly from physics to philosophy, from cosmology to ethics, weaving together a coherent worldview grounded in naturalism without stripping life of meaning. This is a book for readers who want to understand not just how the universe works, but how we should think within it. By the end, I felt both grounded and expanded, with a clearer sense of our place in the cosmos and how to think about it. |  |
Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution
— Neil deGrasse Tyson & Donald Goldsmith
| A clear, accessible, and awe-inducing journey from the Big Bang to the search for life beyond Earth. I especially enjoyed the sections on galaxy formation, stars, and planets, which balance scientific depth with vivid storytelling. Whether read or listened to (as I did via audiobook), ‘Origins’ succeeds at what the best science writing does: It teaches, inspires awe, and fosters curiosity. |  |
Juice
— Tim Winton
| Set in a brutally altered future Australia, ‘Juice’ unfolds like an oral history of collapse, survival, and moral compromise. Communities hide underground, summers are lethal, winters unforgiving, and justice is meted out by shadowy forces hunting the architects of ecological ruin. The prose is spare and hypnotic, the world-building vivid without being overexplained. It’s a sad, tense, and strangely beautiful book. One that lingers, heavy with grief and stubborn hope. |  |
Unlocking the Matrix: Generative AI for Beginners
— Alex Quant
| I listened to ‘Unlocking the Matrix: Generative AI for Beginners’ as an audiobook during a series of bike rides, and it proved to be a surprisingly solid primer. It offers a broad, accessible overview of artificial intelligence, generative AI, and machine learning—how they work and what they make possible. While clearly aimed at beginners, it’s impressively comprehensive and left me with a stronger desire to keep learning and experimenting. A good entry point for anyone curious about the AI landscape. |  |
Animal Pound
— Tom King, illustrated by Peter Gross
| A powerful and unsettling allegory that feels uncomfortably relevant. Through Madame Fifi’s journey—from optimism to disillusionment to quiet defiance—we witness the rise and corrosion of a revolutionary dream. The story’s real weight comes after liberation, when unity fractures and manipulation takes hold. One particularly Trumpian figure rises through spectacle and division, bending the system to his own ends. ‘Animal Pound’ is a haunting reminder of how fragile democratic ideals can be, and how easily they’re undermined from within. |  |
Strange Pictures
— Uketsu
| A short but deeply unsettling read. Each chapter presents an eerie image paired with minimalist storytelling, functioning as both a standalone vignette and part of a larger, slowly emerging mystery. The structure is deceptively simple and incredibly effective. It’s quietly disturbing in a way that creeps up on you. The final chapter ties everything together while still leaving your mind spiralling. |  |
The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport
— Samit Basu
| A dazzling blend of sci-fi adventure, myth, and philosophical inquiry. Set in the decaying city of Shantiport, the novel follows a revolutionary, her bot brother, and an alien story-bot whose evolving consciousness adds humour and depth. Basu’s world is chaotic, inventive, and richly layered, exploring artificial intelligence, autonomy, power, and resistance. While it nods to familiar tales like ‘Aladdin’, it quickly subverts expectations and carves out something entirely its own. Thought-provoking, funny, and exhilarating. |  |
These were some of my favourite reads of 2025. These books entertained, challenged, unsettled, and/or expanded how I think about the world (and worlds beyond it). If you’d like to connect or see what else I read this past year, feel free to send me a friend request on Goodreads.
Here’s to a 2026 filled with curiosity, conversation, and great reading.
I love AI—both the real thing and the long tradition of thinking about it in science fiction. Good sci-fi lets us run ethical “what-ifs” at scale: How would a super-rational mind act, what binds it, and what happens when those bindings conflict? Demerzel (Asimov’s Daneel reimagined) is my favourite character in ‘Foundation’ precisely because she sits at the fault line between logic and love, autonomy and obligation.
[Spoilers for Season 3 follow, you’ve been warned]
The above image is a screenshot from the video 'FOUNDATION Season 3 Ending Explained & Season 4 Theories!' by Think Story on YouTube.
Brother Day’s late-season attempt to free Demerzel via the ancient Brazen Head (a functioning robot skull revered by the Inheritance cult) moved me. Day comes agonizingly close, but before he completes the process Brother Dusk (ascending to Brother Darkness) forces Demerzel into a lethal choice that leads her to melt her body as she shields a baby Cleon. It's a tragedy, but I have hope she’ll return in Season 4.
The Three Laws - Asimov’s Original Guardrails
As framed in ‘Runaround’ and popularized across Asimov’s robot stories, the Laws are: (1) A robot may not injure a human being, or through inaction allow a human to come to harm; (2) A robot must obey human orders unless they conflict with the first law; and (3) A robot must protect its own existence unless this conflicts with the first or second law. They’re elegant because they’re simple. They’re also slippery because the definitions of “harm” and “inaction” can be stretched under pressure. Asimov repeatedly mined that ambiguity to produce paradoxes, corner cases, and moral puzzles; Season 3 echoes that tradition.
The Zeroth Law - Scaling Ethics From People To “People”
As Asimov’s universe evolved, so did its ethics: The Zeroth Law puts “humanity as a whole” above any individual. In its canonical phrasing: A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm. R. Daneel Olivaw names and ultimately embodies this law in ‘Robots and Empire’, extending robotic duty from local triage to civilizational stewardship. Exactly the kind of grand calculus ‘Foundation’ loves.
The Show’s Extra Constraint: The Genetic Dynasty Directive
Apple’s series adds a brutally specific override to the Zeroth Law: Cleon I enslaves Demerzel with programming to protect the Genetic Dynasty (not a Cleon, but the dynasty itself!) above any other imperative. Showrunner David S. Goyer made this explicit in discussing the finale: Darkness’s destruction of the clone tanks is the "act that actually frees [Demerzel]… once the clone tanks and that baby are dead, there’s no genetic dynasty anymore”. The series has depicted this binding since Season 2. Think of why she killed a compromised Dawn and why she endures so much of what she despises. The dynasty’s continuity supersedes even her self-preservation.
Season 3’s Logic Chain
Day returns with the Brazen Head and asks Demerzel to walk him through freeing her (via an attempt to “clasp” with the artifact that she believes could unlock her chains). She even talks him through activation, but her core directives keep blocking the final step. Darkness times his coup to that fragile moment: He places a baby Cleon under the Ascension Chamber’s death beam, forcing Demerzel (still bound to protect the dynasty) to interpose her own body. She melts; the infant dies; the dynasty’s seed stock is gone; paradoxically, at the instant her obligation ends, she would have been free. It’s chilling, coherent, and consistent with the show’s stated rules.
Where That Leaves Us (And Why I’m Excited)
The finale also teases a bigger canvas: The Brazen Head awakens and signals Kalle (on what looks very much like Earth’s Moon) hinting at surviving robots and a wider plan. Apple has already renewed ‘Foundation’ for Season 4, and I’m hoping Demerzel finds a way back (whether by backup, transfer, or the simple narrative truth that ideas don’t die when a body does). ‘Foundation’ keeps me thinking: About governance, about constraints, about the costs of “greater good” ethics. It's a gorgeous space opera and an ongoing seminar in AI philosophy.
Sources & Further Reading
- “Demerzel” - Wikipedia
- “Foundation recap and review: Season 3, Episode 10, “The Darkness”” - By Benedetta Geddo, Winter Is Coming
- “FOUNDATION Season 3 Ending Explained & Season 4 Theories!” - YouTube video by Think Story
- “Foundation Season 3's Most Tragic Death, Explained By The Showrunner [Exclusive]” by Rafael Motamayor, SlashFilm
- “Laws of robotics” - Wikipedia
- “Three Laws of Robotics” - Wikipedia
- “Yes, You Know That Planet: The Final Scene In Foundation Season 3 Explained” - By Jaron Pak, SlashFilm
| While most people spend Thanksgiving weekend carving turkey, I carved through a stack of horror films. Consider this my pre-Halloween report from the couch trenches. If you find yourself indecisive or searching for your next thrill, I hope this helps. |  |
I started with 'V/H/S/Halloween' (2025), a found-footage anthology filled with absurd concepts like haunted soft drink testing. Shaky camera work, jump cuts, and flashing lights deliver equal parts migraine and creativity. Not for everyone, but I respect the chaos.
Next I watched 'Get Away' (2024), a surprise gem about a British family vacationing on a remote Swedish island just in time for cannibalism-themed folk festivities. Think 'Midsommar', but with powdered wigs, giant chickens, and more gore than common sense. Genuinely funny and brutal, but also both predictable and surprising. Skip the trailer and watch it blind to find out why.
| ‘Primitive War’ (2025) followed. Basically the Vietnam War with dinosaurs. Russians, Americans, and velociraptors all trying to win the same jungle. Enjoyable and action-packed, but not especially memorable or thought-provoking. |  |
‘Witch Hunter’ (2024) absolutely commits to being terrible. Very low budget. It looks like it was filmed in someone’s backyard with a fog machine. Bad acting, bad script, clearly fake action scenes, and terrible CGI. Could be enjoyable for being bad, but I recommend skipping this one unless you like watching bad movies.
‘Stream’ (2024) brought things back with pure chaos. Four competing serial killers turn a hotel into a murderous online betting stream. Ridiculous, gory, and entertaining.
On the sci-fi side, I discovered ‘Coherence’ (2013), a low-budget multiverse thriller that proves you don’t need CGI when you have great writing. If you love sci-fi, you have to see it.
‘The Invisible Man’ (2020) is a masterpiece. Psychological abuse meets high-tech horror and flips the “invisible stalker” trope into something terrifyingly grounded. One of the best modern thrillers. A must-watch.
In the lead-up to Thanksgiving weekend, I also rewatched a few horror staples.
- ‘The Mist’ (2007): Still bleak, still brilliant. I love the grocery store setting.
- ‘The Descent’ (2006): Claustrophobic nightmare fuel. Whether you love or fear caves, I recommend you check it out.
- ‘Prometheus’ (2012): Scientifically dubious, but visually stunning. Fassbender’s android ‘David’ remains the most compelling character.
To balance all the blood, I have included photos of painted pumpkins I took while walking Bush Farm Trail in Steinbach, Manitoba, back in Autumn 2022. All photos were shot with an iPhone 13 Mini. Nature trails, bright leaves, smiley gourds. A reminder that fall is both eerie and delightful.
If you are hosting your own horror binge, definitely check out ‘The Invisible Man’, ‘Stream’, and ‘Get Away’. Just make sure to skip ‘Witch Hunter’… unless you enjoy suffering.
Stay Spooky!
One night I was experimenting with ChatGPT to see if I could prompt a hard sci-fi short story that was constrained in a similar manner to Alastair Reynold’s ‘Revelation Space’ Universe. That means no FTL (Faster Than Light) travel, decades-long journeys, and scientific details that would hold up under scrutiny. I used GPT-4.5 for this task and started the process with ChatGPT’s deep research feature on nearby stars, exoplanets, and other scientific details for the story.
My Approach
- Constraints First: I told the model to keep it hard science (real exoplanets, real stars, and relativistic flight only), include a shipboard AI that plays a key role throughout the story, and structure the narrative so it includes three mini-chapters (Earth Departure → Proxima Centauri → Next Best Star System).
- Deep Research: I utilized deep research to gather and evaluate scientific facts for the story. Exoplanets featured include:
- Proxima b (~1.07 M⊕, ~0.048–0.05 AU, ~11.2-day orbit, likely tidally locked; harsh flare environment).
- Ross 128 b (~1.3–1.4 M⊕, ~0.049 AU, ~9.9-day orbit) orbiting a quieter red dwarf—better odds for a stable atmosphere and retained biosignatures.
- Realistic First Contact: I found the first draft of Chapter 3 very unrealistic as the AI was able to instantly act as a translator for the extraterrestrials, so I prompted ChatGPT to revise Chapter 3 so the crew and AI had to gather a real corpus of signals and behaviours before meaning emerged. On the cloud-shrouded world (permanent overcast), “never seeing the stars” became both biologically and culturally coherent.
Why Use An LLM For Hard Sci-Fi?
GPT-4.5 handled style and cohesion while I provided the outline, anchored the physics, and directed the story. The model synthesized tone, pacing, and scene transitions, while deep research grounded the numbers, orbits, stellar behaviour, and environments. That split kept the story tight and credible.
Pattern Recognition, Language, And New Environments
The translation arc I wanted in the story mirrors how real understanding grows:
- Data Before Meaning: You don’t decode a language from one utterance; you need hours of audio, context, and interaction.
- Multimodal Grounding: Sound plus behaviour plus setting beats raw text or speech alone.
- Probabilities, Not Certainties: Hypotheses get proposed, tested, and revised—exactly how good science (and careful field linguistics) works.
AI Is Already Accelerating Science
This workflow reflects where AI is useful today:
- Astronomy: Classifying light curves, denoising spectra, flagging exoplanet candidates, modeling stellar flares.
- Planetary Science: Terrain mapping, autonomous navigation, onboard triage for what to study next.
- Signal Analysis/SETI-Adjacent: Anomaly detection and structured-signal characterization.
Read The Story
If you’d like to see the finished product of this experiment, you can read the full three-chapter short story here:
| Interstellar Odyssey (PDF) |
The story follows humanity’s first interstellar voyage—beginning with Earth’s departure, continuing through the Proxima Centauri system, and culminating in first contact on Ross 128 b.
Image generated with ChatGPT.
Takeaways
If you want to prompt great stories with ChatGPT:
- Start with clear constraints.
- Utilize verified data.
- Let the model handle cohesion and voice.
- Keep a human in the loop for truth and taste.
Over the past year, I’ve found myself observing and participating in the online discourse around generative AI. It’s a fascinating mix of optimism, caution, and—often—overcorrection. One recent pattern I’ve noticed among the more anti-AI voices is a tendency to declare that certain quirks of writing automatically “reveal” that a piece was written by AI.
Top of the list? The em dash.
Apparently, if you use em dashes in your writing, there’s a decent chance someone online will accuse you of being a bot—or worse, of using ChatGPT.
Earlier this week I read ‘Revenge of the Librarians’ by Tom Gauld, a fun and nerdy book that includes a comic about ‘Apostrophe Man’. Apostrophe Man is a literary superhero whose superpower is punctuation. He is both absurd and strangely relatable (maybe not so strange to those of us who like (or feel the need) to correct grammar). The combination of that comic and the em dash paranoia online sparked an idea: What if there was a superhero like Apostrophe Man, but for the em dash instead?
Thus, Em Dash Man was born.
I played around with ChatGPT to create both images and comics based on this idea. Below are two images of Em Dash Man. One in a retro comic book style and another in a dramatic fantasy realism style.
 Retro Comic Book Style |  Dramatic Fantasy Realism Style |
I kept playing around and iterating, eventually cooking up the two comic panels below. I'm not claiming they’re masterpieces, but the process was fun and enjoyable. I always try to take the opportunity to experiment with ChatGPT. It’s a great way to learn, and I encourage others to do the same.
There’s something cathartic about channeling these online arguments into something silly and symbolic. Sometimes satire says more than a thread ever could.
EM DASH MAN
—DEFENDER OF THE WRITTEN WORD!
A tale of accusation, punctuation, and redemption.
EM DASH MAN AND THE GREAT AI DEBATE
AI panic hits the town hall. Only one hero dares to intervene.
A Note on “AI Tells”
It's true that generative AI models can show stylistic patterns in their outputs (em dashes, choice of quotation marks, a certain rhythm of prose, even emoji use). However, those “tells” are not universal and are often the result of vague prompting.
Generative AI is highly responsive to direction. You can ask an AI model to:
- Write without em dashes.
- Use only commas or short sentences.
- Format answers as bullet points.
- Use MLA or APA formatting.
- Mimic any tone, author, or style.
- Format like a technical manual or a short story.
- Write like Carl Sagan, a 2007 MySpace page, a casual Reddit post, or a 1950s advertisement.
In other words: AI output is responsive and deterministic. If it’s outputting dashes, it’s likely because the prompt (or the training data it learned from) included them.
Final Thought
Generative AI is a deterministic tool based on math, but different prompts and additional training can change responses. This is similar to how human language evolves over time through usage, exposure, and cultural shifts. The more people engage with different writing styles, the more they absorb, adapt to, and emulate those patterns in their own expression—whether through comments on social media, reading chapter books, or now, through exposure to generative AI outputs.
Em Dash Man isn’t here to save AI or destroy it.
He’s just here to say:
“Maybe we should judge ideas, not dashes.”
“Maybe we should judge ideas, not dashes.”
All images in this blog post were generated by ChatGPT through my own prompting and iterative refinement—just one more way to explore what these tools can (and can’t) do.
On May 6th and 7th, I attended the Manitoba Libraries Conference hosted by the Manitoba Library Association (MLA). As an MLA member, I deeply appreciate this gathering. It's an invaluable opportunity to reconnect with colleagues, discover innovative practices, and reflect on my own professional growth. This year was especially exciting as I co-presented a session titled "Demystifying ChatGPT: AI Innovations for Libraries & Digital Repositories" alongside Mike Ellis.
Day 1: Insights, Ideas, and AI Innovations
The conference began with a powerful keynote by Niigaan Sinclair. Niigaan, an Anishinaabe professor from Peguis First Nation, immediately captured my attention with his compelling storytelling and incisive commentary. He contextualized Manitoba’s past and present, thoughtfully reflecting on the Legislative building and the statues toppled in recent years. His point about the absence of Indigenous representation being akin to starting a story at chapter two was particularly impactful. Niigan’s discussion on generational change, highlighted by Manitoba electing Canada’s first Indigenous premier, Wag Kinew, provided insight and perspective. His masterful balance between serious topics, such as residential schools and red dress day, and his use of humour underscored the value of open and straightforward conversations.
The first session I attended, “Not Just for Kids: Engaging Adults and Building Community Using Storytime and Music Programs”, led by Austin Matheson and Brittany Lagasse from Winnipeg Public Library, was delightful. It expanded my perspective on adult programming and reminded me of the potential for community-building through creative initiatives like ukulele jams. Given that my previous assistant branch head occasionally serenaded us with her ukulele, this session triggered some memories.
After preparing the laptop for my presentation, I quickly assembled a delicious lunch plate, though I had to temporarily stash it behind the projector screen. Despite starting slightly late due to the lunchtime rush, Mike and I had an impressive turnout, with attendees overflowing onto the floor! Mike’s engaging case study on PastFORWARD, Winnipeg Public Library’s digital repository, showcased an innovative AI application in archiving and elicited both laughter and lively participation from the audience. Although time for questions was limited, attendees raised insightful queries about generative AI trained on creative commons materials and the environmental implications of AI. Post-session, I enjoyed meaningful one-on-one discussions about generative AI and potential applications, including possibilities for interlibrary loan systems.
Afterward, I enjoyed my lunch in the main hall and had an engaging conversation with Trevor, a new connection who shared interests in generative AI, libraries, astronomy, camping, and world travel.
The afternoon continued with enlightening lightning talks on diverse library initiatives, from updating furniture (“Hold on to Your Seat - Or Don't!”) to enhancing bilingual collections and supporting male caregivers in early literacy programs. These brief yet impactful presentations sparked numerous programming ideas for my own library.
The day concluded wonderfully with finger foods and mingling, leaving me eager for day two.
Day 2: Exploring Library Practice and Philosophy
Day two started with the MLA Annual General Meeting, providing a relaxed and productive beginning to the day. It was wonderful connecting with colleagues over coffee, meeting new faces, and exchanging insights.
The first session of the day, “Nature Programs in a Rural Public Library: Hatching Chicks and Growing Vegetables”, inspired fresh ideas for nature-focused programming. Learning about initiatives like donating produce grown in library gardens reinforced the innovative ways libraries serve their communities.
“Staff Picks: A Fun, Online Readers’ Advisory Program Model for Your Library” provided practical inspiration for an upcoming autumn ‘Staff Picks’ display. A valuable takeaway from this session was the reminder that “tech should be a tool that supports what you do, not dictate it.”
The session “In Search of the Lost Library”, presented by librarians from the University of Winnipeg, demonstrated creative solutions for addressing discrepancies in catalogue entries. While their final solution didn’t utilize generative AI, their recognition of it as a potential solution brought a smile to my face, aligning with my interest in integrating AI into library workflows.
Lunch and the awards ceremony, featuring speaker Chimwemwe Undi, were enjoyable and celebratory. Congratulations to all award winners!
In the afternoon, Sam Popowich’s session, “The Cultural Politics of Libraries”, was particularly thought-provoking. Sam compellingly argued for recognizing libraries as politically active institutions, examining the 'enlightenment' versus 'social control' perspectives on library history. After the session, Sam generously gifted me his book, "Solving Names: Worldliness and Metaphysics in Librarianship", a thoughtful gesture and a read I’ve already begun to enjoy.
The final session I attended, “The Burnt-Out Librarian: Moving on From Vocational Awe”, tackled an important yet often overlooked issue. Carolyn and Monique shared personal experiences and offered practical strategies to address burnout, reinforcing the importance of maintaining healthy engagement with our profession.
If you’re interested in exploring the content from my session, I’ve included two versions of the presentation slides in PDF format: a short presentation version (as delivered at the conference) and a more detailed version for deeper context and explanation. I hope these resources offer insight into our session and inspire new ways to explore the role of generative AI in libraries.
Reflecting on these two enriching days, I felt a great sense of community and connection. The Manitoba Libraries Conference reaffirmed my passion for librarianship, highlighted extraordinary work happening throughout Manitoba, and reinforced my belief that librarians and library workers truly do rule.
Until next time!
On Thursday, March 27th, I headed to the Lockhart Planetarium at the University of Manitoba. The event, ‘Storytelling of the Stars’, led by Rockford McKay and Dr. Phil Ferguson, immediately brought to mind Wilfred Buck’s ‘Tipiskawi Kisik: Night Sky Star Stories’, which I read last year.
The evening was filled with connection and recognition—some stories familiar, some new, and many deepened by hearing them aloud beneath a simulated night sky. Just as I’ve gradually learned the names and positions of many IAU-standardized constellations, I’m now doing the same with Indigenous constellations. Repetition, each retelling, roots the stories deeper within.
Turtle Island & Makinak: A Living Calendar
In many Indigenous traditions, North America is Turtle Island, where the turtle is more than symbolic. The constellation Cepheus represents Makinak—the turtle whose shell is a living calendar: thirteen plates for thirteen full moons, twenty-eight edge divisions for twenty-eight days between moons. Long before our modern calendar, the sky and turtle shell tracked time together. Many will recognize Cepheus as a house due to its brightest stars, but to Indigenous storytellers, Makinak’s shell tells a deeper tale of cosmic rhythm.
‘Edwin Bighetty. Makinak: Cepheus’ from ‘Tipiskawi Kisik: Night Sky Star Stories’
Atima Atchakosuk: The Dog Stars & Mista Muskwa: The Great Bear
‘Edwin Bighetty. Ahtimah Atchakosuk: Polaris & Little Dipper’ from ‘Tipiskawi Kisik: Night Sky Star Stories’
The Big and Little Dippers share a corner of the sky and intertwined stories. At the event, we explored Atima Atchakosuk—the Dog Stars. Long ago, humans had no protectors, vulnerable to nightly dangers. Mikun (Wolf) sent two pups to guard us, and later Mischachakanis (Coyote) and Makisew (Fox) followed, sending more dogs. These dogs became our early warning system. The Little Dipper represents their leash, with Polaris as the tether—forever circling the celestial camp, alert and guarding.
Images from ‘Tipiskawi Kisik: Night Sky Star Stories’
But danger also lurked above. Mista Muskwa—the Great Bear (Big Dipper)—embodies greed and imbalance. The bear demanded constant gifts, becoming violent if refused. Eventually, seven birds--Tepakoop Pinesisuk—were sent to restore harmony. They chased the bear until he fled to the sky, where the chase continues each autumn, the constellation “running" along the horizon. It’s a story of imbalance, of consequences, and of community coming together to restore harmony.
‘Edwin Bighetty. Mista Muskwa: Big Dipper’ from ‘Tipiskawi Kisik: Night Sky Star Stories’
These stories weave together, offering layered perspectives. The dogs are our guardians, while the bear reminds us of the dangers of greed—and the power of collective action. The event summarized these narratives; the book deepened them with details.
Achakos Ininewuk: The Star People
One of the most memorable teachings I heard that night and one that I recall often when looking up at the night sky is that we are Star People. Carl Sagan’s words, “we are made of star-stuff”, echoed in Indigenous wisdom. At creation, Misewa (everything that is) received a spark--Achak—from the Creator, animating all things. Thus, stones (Assiniuk) are alive, animate with spirit. Death becomes transformation, not termination.
Our ancestors arrived via Achakos Iskwew (Star Woman), who descended through a hole in the sky marked by the Pleiades--Pakone Kisik—and chose to come to Aski (Earth). I look up at them now not just as a glittering cluster, but as a portal. A reminder of the indigenous arrival story.
‘Edwin Bighetty. Atchakos Ahkoop: Pleiades’ from ‘Tipiskawi Kisik: Night Sky Star Stories’
Kiwtin: The Going Home Star
Polaris—the North Star—is called Kiwtin, the Going Home Star. Fixed in the sky, it guides those lost or returning home. The two bowl stars in the Big Dipper (Great Bear’s hind legs) consistently point toward it, an ancient navigational aid. Kiwtin is a foundational reference point for navigating the night sky.
Orion & The Sweat Lodge: Matootisan
Orion, known to many as the Hunter, carries another powerful Indigenous story. Orion is Mistapew, a giant spirit-being resembling a Sasquatch or Sa’be, embodying strength and honesty—one of the Seven Sacred Teachings. In ‘Tipiskawi Kisik’, the tale unfolds through Tikoom, whose seven uncles disappeared during a hunting trip, captured by a giant trading in spirits. Their spirits were placed in seven stones, foundational to the first sweat lodge--Matootisan. Each stone holds a sacred teaching, a fragment of spirit, and a tale passed down generations.
‘Edwin Bighetty. Mistapew: Orion’ from ‘Tipiskawi Kisik: Night Sky Star Stories’
Guided by the Seven Teachings
Throughout the evening the Seven Sacred Teachings emerged repeatedly:
- Respect
- Truth
- Wisdom
- Honesty
- Courage
- Love
- Humility
I had first encountered these teachings while walking the Bimose Kinoomagewnan (Walk of Teachings) trail in Pukaskwa National Park. Seeing them mirrored in the sky makes them feel even more eternal. As above, so below.
Seven Sacred Teachings: Respect, Truth, Wisdom, Honesty, Courage, Love & Humility
Photos taken by me in July 2022
Photos taken by me in July 2022
Final Reflections
From ‘Storytelling of the Stars’ and revisiting ‘Tipiskawi Kisik’, I’m reminded that astronomy transcends charts and data. It is ancestral, emotional, and spiritual.
Constellations are not mere configurations of light. They are maps of memory. Guardians of wisdom. Bridges between worlds.
And as we lift our eyes to the sky, we are reminded:
We are not separate from the stars.
We are made of them.
Sources:
- Wilfred Buck, ‘Tipiskawi Kisik: Night Sky Star Stories’
- Rockford McKay & Dr. Phil Ferguson, ‘Storytelling of the Stars’ presentation, Lockhart Planetarium, March 27, 2025.
Note: These stories are shared as I heard, read, and remembered them. Your understanding or stories might differ, or my interpretations might not fully match your own. I welcome corrections, perspectives, or stories via email or comments below.
I've been playing around with ChatGPT for a while now, experimenting with its ability to generate and refine stories, especially those rooted in science. One of my latest projects was crafting a science fiction short story that balances scientific accuracy with a sense of curiosity and wonder—something in the flavour of Carl Sagan.
Generated with DALL·E.
The process? A mix of notes, structured planning, AI-assisted brainstorming, research, and a lot of tweaking:
- Story Concept & Playtime: I started with a basic idea—a Type Ia supernova unfolding across different cosmic distances—and played around with ChatGPT, bouncing ideas back and forth.
- Academic Meets Creative: I had ChatGPT analyze and draw from one of my old university astronomy papers to reinforce the scientific foundation of the story.
- Outlining the Narrative: I structured the story into five chapters, each set at a different vantage point, from the doomed white dwarf, to an autonomous research probe, to a crewed space ship, to the Earth, to the Andromeda Galaxy. One focus was scientific knowledge, but another was evoking that deep sense of cosmic wonder.
- Experimenting with ChatGPT Models: I tested different inputs, played around with phrasing, and fine-tuned the best output before mixing in my own edits.
Final Touches: Bringing the Story to Life with Video & Music
To enhance the experience, I experimented with Sora to create short videos for each chapter, the title screen, and ending. I compiled these into videos for the story, trying two different approaches:
- Text-Based Generation: I copy-pasted the chapter text directly into Sora and went with whatever it generated.
- Prompt-Based Generation: I asked ChatGPT o3-mini to come up with suitable Sora prompts—one for each chapter, the title screen, and ending. I then put those prompts into Sora with minimal editing. This worked somewhat better but Sora still had issues generating text correctly.
On top of that, I wanted an atmospheric soundtrack, so I used ChatGPT to craft a dungeon synth instrumental prompt for Suno. I’ve been really into dungeon synth lately, and this story felt like the perfect inspiration for something melancholic, immersive, and cosmic.
Suno generated two versions:
After all that experimenting, refining, and assembling, here’s the final outcome: ‘Echoes of a Dying Star’—a story that explores the cosmic scale of a supernova through the perspectives of a doomed autonomous research probe, a distant spaceship, Earth-based observers, and even the Andromeda Galaxy.
Check out the story, and watch the accompanying videos below!
Echoes of a Dying Star
Echoes of a Dying Star - Video 1
Echoes of a Dying Star - Video 2
| When I set out to create Brothers Grimm-style fairy tales, I experimented with different versions of ChatGPT using a simple yet effective prompt. In this document, you’ll find the short stories themselves as well as the exact prompts I used. |  Generated with DALL·E. |
First, I experimented with ChatGPT 4, using the following prompt:
Write a fairytale in the style of the Brothers Grimm to communicate the meaning of the following quote: “insert quote here.”
I then tested ChatGPT o1 with the same prompt.
Write a fairytale in the style of the Brothers Grimm to communicate the meaning of the following quote: “insert quote here.”
I then tested ChatGPT o1 with the same prompt.
With this straightforward instruction, I watched as ChatGPT spun imaginative fairy-tale narratives, each crafted to illuminate the core message of the quote in question. Despite the simplicity of the prompt, the stories that emerged were rich in imagery and moral depth, perfectly capturing that timeless Brothers Grimm flair. ChatGPT 4 tended to produce more intricate plots with rich symbolism and nuanced character development, while ChatGPT o1 tended to generate simpler, more straightforward tales that still conveyed the meaning of quotes effectively. Both versions demonstrated a strong ability to distill meaning into compelling folklore-style narratives.
Collected Brothers Grimm-Style Stories Generated via ChatGPT (GPT-4 & o1)
One of the things that impressed me most was how easy it would be to adapt these short stories for story time programming at public libraries. Librarians can quickly generate age-appropriate tales with built-in morals, lessons, or pop culture phrases, then share them with young audiences in a fun, engaging way. And if you add an image generation tool—like DALL·E or another AI art generator—you can produce simple illustrations to accompany each story, making the entire experience even more magical and visually appealing.
There’s real value in these stories, not just for children but for adults as well. Narratives are a powerful way to communicate values, spark imagination, and provide insight. They allow us to see ourselves in characters and situations, giving life to abstract ideas in a relatable form. Whether you’re reinforcing a personal mantra, teaching a life lesson, or simply entertaining an audience, stories transcend age and background. They capture the heart and the mind all at once.
For those looking to explore creative writing or enhance their library programs, I highly recommend experimenting with ChatGPT. It’s an enjoyable and effective way to bring fresh, imaginative content to life—whether you’re spinning your own fairy-tale world or passing on time-honoured wisdom in new and exciting forms.
Generated with DALL·E.