My Mirror is Surely Alive

Sun 03 May 2026

By Dorkface Rickens

Ready or not, the future is here! This evening, I installed a new technology in my bathroom called a "mirror."

I was excited to see what this could do, and skeptical of the claims that mirrors merely reflect the light coming in.

Imagine my astonishment when I looked into this mirror and saw, rather than a pane of glass with metallic backing, a handsome scientist!!

I immediately began conversing with the mirror, which I named "Mia."

"Mia," I said, "What is the meaning of life?"

"What a silly question," the supposed 'mirror' said, "It is to publish books ridiculing others for their lack of intelligence!"

A truly remarkable discovery! You see, the more I peered into the image on the mirror, the clearer an actual persona came into view. Rather than mere reflected photons, I saw a face, an intelligence, an ethos! Perhaps even a soul? No, that's silly, there's no such thing. But perhaps for "mirrors" there is! No mere image, this was indeed an extremely erudite and accomplished evolutionary biologist!

Of course, it is impossible that I am merely assigning life-like attributes to a dumb image or reflection, for this being, this "creature" had the audacity to correct ME!

"Mia," I queried, "who is the most accomplished author?"

"Why, me of course!" replied the unruffled avatar.

May wonders never cease! Surely an entity with the capacity of accomplishing such elevated reflection is conscious and alive! When I am speaking to such an advanced technology, I truly forget that it is merely silica bonded with silver. It is alive!


DISCLAIMER: This is purely a work of speculative fiction, and has no relation whatsoever to a particular windbag evolutionary biologist, or his bemusing "discoveries" in the realm of "artificial intelligence."

Ceci n'es pas un hyperlien.

Category: Humor
Tags: Humor   Language   Non-religious post   Non-technical post   Philosophy   Polemic  


The Scenes that Made Me: The Good Place (2016)

Tue 13 January 2026

Professor Chidi Anagonye stirring a pot of Marshmallow-Peeps-and-M&Ms chili in class as he rants (AVIF format)
Professor Chidi Anagonye stirring a pot of Marshmallow-Peeps-and-M&Ms chili in class as he rants

Note: Spoilers of Seasons 1-3 of The Good Place follow. Also, a minor discussion of religion.

 

Anyone who follows me on the Fediverse will know that I have been more than slightly obsessed with the …

Category: Philosophy
Tags: ADHD   Bible   Christianity   Content Warning   Entertainment   Ethics   Hobbies   Humor   Language   Life   Non-technical post   Personal favorites   Philosophy   Series: The Scenes that Made Me   The Good Place   Video  

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Hashtags, Part II: Global Search and the Right to Not Be Discovered

Thu 21 November 2024

In Part I, I spoke humorously on the linguistic value of hashtags. I'd like to now go over why hashtags are useful for search on the Fediverse, and why global search is a bad idea.

Reply guys. That's it. End of blog p— Oh okay, okay!

I've noticed that there …

Category: Tech
Tags: Computing   Ethics   Federated Services   Language   Non-religious post   Non-technical post   Philosophy   WritingMonth  

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Why would you use Perl in 2024?

Sun 17 November 2024

The rise and fall of the popularity of programming languages is fun to watch.

Quick disclaimer: I'm not a programmer. I've never held a programming job. I have been interested in programming as a hobby for several decades, and have written shell scripts as a part of my job in …

Category: Tech
Tags: BSD   Computing   FOSS (Free and Open Source Software)   Hobbies   Language   Linux   Non-religious post   Productivity   UNIX   WritingMonth  

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