Why Domino?

Issue Nine

Thanks Y'all

Sunday Night's Parties

Fashion Notes: Best Hat

Pretty Confused, After All These Years

Art, People and Chili

All Knowledge Hypothesis Founders
in Subterranean Investigation

Why Domino?

WSFS Business Completed Saturday

Remembering the Alamo in SF

The title character in Algis Budry's novel Michaelmas is a near-future very electronic news reporter, and Domino is his AI companion/ assistant -- apparently the only AI in existence. With a personal AI gophering and snooping the net that only you know exists, you can really scoop! Domino evolved out of blue boxing (phone phreaking) and system hacking over a couple of decades until there were so many routines and agents that the whole mess became self-aware a la Marvin Minsky's Society of Mind. Since the book is probably close to twenty years old (and I haven't read it in a few years), some of the tech details are slightly off, but the essentials hold up remarkably well.

So when I saw the little credit in the daily zine, "Titles in honor of Michael Moorcock and Algis Budrys," and turned it over from the great big sword and saw the circuit board spelling out "Domino", I recognized it immediately and with delight.