Exterminating Angel Press

Creative Solutions for Practical Idealists.

Todblog

EAP Editor/Publisher Natters on About This and That.

Getting Conscious. We hope.

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What triggers consciousness?

That’s the question on my mind just now. I’ve been following the whole debate about Artificial Intelligence, about whether or not it is heading for a conscious state—and whether that consciousness will make it a threat to humankind.

So when I think on it, I want to take it back a step. When we say ‘threat to humankind’, exactly what do we mean by human?

Contributors this issue explore that question. Kicking off, is my own contribution, “Rebel, Rebel,” which originally appeared in the anthology “UbiquiCity,” edited by the very human Tod Foley. My young heroine heads in a very different direction than the hero of the movie “Ex Machina,” and feels very differently about Artificial Intelligence. AI is her friend. Humans? It depends on how conscious they are.

Unconsciousness in humans can, of course, lead to hilarity, as in Charles Holdefer’s “Second Thoughts.” If you can read it without laughing out loud, you may not be fully conscious yourself. I personally have always wanted a piece for EAP that stars Nancy Pelosi coming to get someone’s guns.

And Bruce Thompson continues to be a thoughtful consciousness, asking what triggers connection, in “Mousetraps.” Jim Meirose joins us for the first time, and I can’t get “The Great Maestro Takes on Gage” out of my mind, like the words I haven’t consciously listened to in a song.

“For Those That Have No Existence,” by EAP regulars Ronnie Pontiac and Tamra Lucid, looks at the root of all evil—and it may not come as a surprise to anyone that we have to be open to our own errors to become fully human.

Also, as Marie Davis and Margaret Hultz always argue, this time in “Kitchen Truths,” we have to be open to alternatives.

Then there are the poets. Man, we had a lot of great poets step up this issue. “A Perfect Stump,” by Brendan Hamilton. Chris Farago’s “Moon” and “Moon, Revisted”. EAP’s poetry editor, Marissa Bell Toffoli, and her “Door.” John Grey’s “On That Short City Walk.”

And then there’s Benjamin White, whose subject is always human. “Triggers.”

What does it mean to be human? That’s the real question.

What do you think?

Welcome back.

Vision.

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We’re back after a summer where events in our world have moved quicker than they have in my lifetime. It’s clear that we are in an endgame of some kind for the culture, that the present administration, much of the political class, and many of our fellows are looking backwards for ‘solutions’ rather than forwards. […]

A Technicolor Stumble into Spring.

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“Coloring” turned up some wild contributions this issue, and I bet it will surprise exactly no one that most of them were poetry. When you consider poetry is feeling and colors are…well, yeah. Anyway, we have contributions from two of our favorite EAP contributors, Chris Farago with #267 (we love counting with him), and C.S. […]

EAP’s Existential Glass of 2018 is Half Full.

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Here are EAP’s New Year’s resolutions: 1.) to be kinder to all 2.) to be more aware of what is happening, even when it is something that makes it difficult to be kind to a loved one or admired group and/or person. Or even to an unadmired group and/or etc. 3.) to support others in […]

The Ashland Literary Arts Festival: You Know It Makes Sense.

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It’s been a nuts summer around EAP World Headquarters, what with the sudden development of the (former) Ashland Literary Festival being turned over to us at the Southern Oregon Literary Alliance and Cascadia Publishers, transforming itself into the Ashland Literary Arts Festival. When the infrastructure was offered us by SOU’s Hannon Library, here in beautiful […]

What Happens Next.

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This remains one of my favorite of our EAP themes, this one this summer, so do have a look at what inspired it, the intense Stripped and Despoiled, by Charles S. Kraszewski. Also there’s Into the Underworld and Beyond, where Bruce Thompson takes issue with Joseph Campbell (and why not?), as well as the (as […]

Welcome Now, Welcome Spring.

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Really, the first thing you should do on reading this: click through to Judith Arcana’s poem, “You Don’t Know,” if you want to know what should be known about a woman’s—a person’s—right to their own life, and to the decisions made about that life…even when it includes the potential life of another. The buck has […]

Looking Back to Look Forward.

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Happy 2017. I know a lot of us put a pillow over our head and howled during 2016…but after that, I sincerely hope, we decorously put the pillow aside, ran fingers through our collective hair, and got up, determined to move forward as kindly and creatively as our collective DNA allows. So with that in […]

In Memory of David Budbill.

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We talk a lot about what it means to be human, here at EAP—and on The Arcadia Project Facebook page, too. And there was much to meditate upon when we heard last week of the death of the poet David Budbill, who has written so much and so eloquently on our animal species’ painful attempts […]

The World We Want.

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Our world is changing. I don’t think there is any doubt anywhere about that. So the obvious question is: what do we want it to change to? The Arcadia Project on Facebook has some interesting conversations going about that very question, and two of the articles in this issue come directly from there. Tamra Spivey […]