Mid Season 16 Production Update (Patreon)

Hi folks, thank you so much for being here! It's your support that allows me to expand the world of LT and write more complex, nuanced stories. Sincerely, Thank you.

Big productions changes have been happening behind the scenes. Since 16.6, I've been testing out a new way of organising my writing:
Previously, I had one file per episode. This Obsidian Markdown file contained the 4-act script, a writing and publishing checklist with things I often forgot (such as "Have you capitalised Earth"!), and my project metadata, with such keys as: Publishing date, patreon early date, and the in-world date, or in this season's case, the exact SECOND the episode takes place!

This all remains in my new system, but I have split up the episode into the 4 acts, plus an act 0 introduction. This allows me to visualise the structure like this:

I know right? PRETTY!

I am testing out this format for a single reason:
I want to be able to, when writing each act, know what the principal character (say, Seth, or EMMA) was doing the LAST time we heard from them in a previous episode, and what they will be doing in the NEXT planned episode they are in.
Previously, this required flipping back and forth between episodes and my main season plan file.

(I plan the whole season up-front, down to the Act level of detail, you can see this in the titles of the above files).

This new format allows me to visualise, WITHOUT LEAVING THE FILE, a single character's arc through the season using obsidian's feature called Backlinks.
It also, and this was a later realisation, allows me to visualise callbacks to previous episodes or even seasons using the same method.

Note that in today's episode, 16.7, act 2 featured C0, and in the graph, this is visualised as a cyan arrow leading all the way back to 12.11, the C0 special!

Interesting, right?
I'm not yet sure if it is GOOD, but it's certainly interesting!

16.4

I think I was despairing of how many messenger apps I have on my phone when I wrote this season.
This episode's Tower of Babel analogy, where you can only speak to someone who uses the same radio modulation or encoding as you, is a real problem in amateur radio, and, of course, on the internet.
My friends on Telegram can't speak to those on Signal, or WhatsApp, or Discord, or iMessage or any of the other apps we all use regularly. (iMessage isn't much of a problem for me, as iPhones are not as ubiquitous outside the usa.)
Yes, they each have their advantages and disadvantages, but this siloing of users is deliberate and harmful to us, and makes me sad.

Personally, I have chosen Telegram for general chat, where the convenience of a normal API outweigh E2E security, and Signal for organising protests.
(this has been your reminder that The Collapse is not inevitable, it's being caused by a small number of people, and those people have names and addresses)

In other news: I accidentally wrote some techno for the SIGNAL track this episode!
This was genuinely unintentional, I started off building an normal ambient track (I'm planning an ambient album, can you tell), but the kick drum just... happened!
Happy accidents!
I blame Klangophinics

16.5

I feel I must apologise publicly to the patron who suggested the character of TASSI for this episode.
As I hope you know, a perk of supporting me here, is proposing a character to me, and if it fits after workshopping, I put them on the list to integrate into future stories! It's a really fun way to make an impact on the show, and I love the challenge of writing outside my comfort zone that this often entails.

HOWEVER, after a character is handed over, it's mine. I must, to write the stories that I want to write and I hope you want to hear, be allowed to take your OC in any creative direction I like. And sometimes, heck, OFTEN, that means being mean to them.
Every writing guide will tell you the same: You must TEST your characters, as it's only under extreme circumstances that they show us who they are.

This episode's 'torture' analogy for LLMs came to me as I was reading a distressing but fascinating article about how useless torture is as a way of getting accurate data: The poor person will say anything, just to have something to answer! And it dawned on me that is horrifyingly similar to how LLMs behave under the stress of interrogation. Mistakes, contradictions, and 'hallucinations' (the actual AI term for it) all look rather too similar for comfort.

I'm very proud of the section, I even made a special video clip of the whole scene as a public LT trailer, but it's certainly on the extreme end for my cosy hopepunk story.

ANYWAY: This episode's SIGNAL was so fun to make!

I coded this one - using strudel.cc, a javascript in-browser livecoding environment.
It's so good, try it RIGHT NOW!
Once I discovered that it integrated text-to-speech right inside the code, I knew I had to do a Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace cover.
I've covered this before, using a recording by the late, great John Perry Barlow, author of the Declaration, put to music.
But this time I used a French-language TTS voice, in the style of "Encore Une Fois", a 90s dance hit (kids, ask your parents!), and though it's very silly, I'm delighted with it.

Expect more coded music using strudel.cc!

16.6

It's been fascinating learning about different religions and belief systems while researching the show.
In this episode, Arctica elaborated on The Vault Coven's shared Quaker framework, despite each woman having their own personal faith or belief system.

It's quite common for Quakers to blend other compatible beliefs into their lives, or for folks following a non-Christian religion to adopt some Quaker aspects.
I have heard it's like that for some Jews, too - the dual cultural/religious aspects allow flexibility. I shall continue to learn more about both these topics, and would welcome hearing from folks with more experience, I hope I'm not too far wrong.

16.7

Peter's relapse, perhaps we could have seen coming.

His Future Storms aren't exactly a drug or alcohol metaphor, but rather a demonstration that we can get addicted to harmful ways of thinking or behaviours.
And while it's sometimes possible to stop these behaviours entirely, they are always waiting for you to come back, a comfortable, well-trod path.
Friend and occasional SIGNAL collaborator John Callaghan write a beautiful song about this that you really should hear: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0cKq2-PMxA

EMMA's welcome into the international community of AIs was SO fun to write!
Having a global chat room connecting the AIs in LT is extremely exciting. Really, this whole 10-second season celebrates this fact!
When I was considering the ramifications of the Relay to the world, this was the biggest effect that jumped out at me, so the setting of this season was easy to figure out!

I think that's all from me!
Is there anything you'd like to know more about? I'll be able to talk more about plot in the final update, of course, and ESPECIALLY in the season finale.
SUNDAY THE 4TH OF AUGUST!

Thanks so much again folks, talk soon <3