Addendum

Just because something doesn't get much current discussion doesn't mean it can't curse you. This is general life advice.

Ancient Fashion

People used to talk about pyramids all the time. They wouldn't shut up. Then they stopped, but then they started again, but now nobody talks about pyramids. Don't be fooled, though. They still visit the silly things. From this I conclude the popularity of pyramids is perennial. The lesson here is that fashion applies to fashion itself; pyramids are fashionable, but talking about how fashionable they are is not. Sometimes Stonehenge is on top, sometimes this, sometimes that. As for the significance, I dunno. Keep it in mind. Someday the rewards could be staggering.

It's Time to Start Remaking Books

Movies are remade all the time. You might think that has something to do with the medium, but way back when, everybody wrote his own version of the Argo's travels or King Arthur's rise and fall. What changed? Nothing that can't be changed back, especially when we revise those darn intellectual property laws in the interests of mankind's survival.

Advent of the Skelemancer

"Allow me to state that, while I did not and do not object to this invitation, I do object to calling him 'the Skelemancer" for the simple act of having a skeleton walk around while on fire, as though that were some defining deed. Mobile skeletons are a common trick."
"Speaking respectfully, when did you try to set fire to bone before, and how long did that fire last, presuming you succeeded?"
"Oh. I was distracted by the less important part, and I rescind my criticism."
The Learned Fellows of Trijna resumed waiting for their guest in complete serenity. Neither the state nor the wait lasted long, for when Jumo i Zuza entered, the man who lately had gained a reputation as the Skelemancer, he had with him a companion startling even to those who thought themselves informed.
"Is that a crystal skeleton? What beast provided the materials?"
"Does this chill I feel have a physical element, or is it nothing but awe which causes it?"
"Learned fellows! I begin the lecture now. This is a human skeleton to which I applied the principle of hardening! I have proved to my satisfaction that this world consists of substrates and processes. Our system of elements is jumbled with some of each, but by experimentation we will reduce it to sanity. I have applied flame, a process, to bone, and replaced water with bone as the substrate for the hardening action which produces ice. And next . . ."
"Surely you do not intend to apply the motion of air to produce farting skeletons! What of dignity?"
Jumo i Zuza raised his arms. "There is no dignity in ignorance."
"This title of Skelemance, if anything, is insufficient for this man, a true Skelosopher!"
Finis

Forget YA, It's Time for Junior Versions

With the power of AI, we can easily have cyber-scholiasts produce commentary for our fantasy and science fiction so that never again will a reader have to struggle with subtext. The only question is whether the AI commentary should be more or less expensive. On the one hand, it's an extra feature. On the other hand, the unadorned versions will now be premium items which make the reader feel smarter, an eight-dollar value at least.

Addendum

Specifically, all intellectual property will be protected for twelve years except for Pac-Man, which is protected in perpuity and the penalty for infringement is exile from the solar system. Twelve years is a highly scientific number which reminds us of clocks, which are ticking as we wait for a space monster.

The Biggest Potential Disaster

What happens when most of us have moved to an array of space colonies spread throughout the solar system and then a big space monster comes through and chomps us all up like Pac-Man? The only solution I can see is to have Bandai Namco sue the menace, and for that to happen we might have to change our intellectual property laws.

Linguistic Shifts

Does anything whizz nowadays? I have the impression things used to whizz constantly, but now they hardly ever whizz. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places.

On Vanity

If a kingdom minted coins that have a picture of a dragon on them, does that make dragons more or less likely to want them? Or no change? This is the principle question the writer must ask when deciding the nature of dragons in the setting.

One Horsepower

The only two things keeping horses alive are rich people and racing. Once we have cheetahs genetically engineered to have a little staying power and congenial personalities, it's all over.