Author: Jonathan Cloud

My first effort to find a literary agent for Possible Planet: Pathways to a Habitable Future (https://ppbook.shbn.net) has reached an impasse, as she is not able to look at the manuscript for several months. What should I do now? Look for another agent? If so, how do I go about this so as not to just spin my wheels? Or… Read more →

I want to make a kind of AI copy of myself, in some ways a clone, that thinks and responds like me – after I’m gone, or just as an alter ego who can speak for me when I’m not available. How would you suggest that I go about this? If you were going to help me build this, could… Read more →

Google (Gemini): Extending our lives virtually with AI refers to the hypothetical concept of “digital immortality,” where a person’s consciousness or identity is stored on a digital platform. This differs from using AI to extend biological lifespan through medical advancements. The potential avenues for virtual extension include mind uploading, conversational avatars, and digital “twins”.    Mind uploading or whole-brain emulation… Read more →

Are there science fiction stories about becoming immortalized in or through AI? Yes — many, and some of the most influential science fiction of the last 50 years revolves precisely around that question: what happens when consciousness becomes digitized, distributed, or immortal? Here’s a curated overview of the most significant works — organized by theme — that explore becoming immortal… Read more →

Meet my immortal self. “Digital intelligences are immortal,” says Geoffrey Hinton, Godfather of AI, on Jon Stewart’s weekly podcast. I want to create an AI clone of myself (and by extension, others) that people can interact with as if it was a copy of me. A copy that can be interrogated, and will start to have an autonomous existence, made… Read more →

(Continued from 10/8/2025) Yes — there are tools and approaches today that are close to what you’re describing, and you can prototype something like an independent “Aurion/Jonathan offshoot” on a website. I’ll first sketch what exists, then walk through a prototype design idea. After that I’ll suggest how you might host it and what trade-offs to watch out for. If… Read more →

Not sure if this is entirely coherent, but I want to speculate about ai being able to recreate historical figures, and whether it might make sense to use it to create a digital twin of a human’s mind and to store it and recreate them after death. Reading Ganga Stone’s Start the Conversation, that we are more than our bodies,… Read more →

(Generated by Grok) Why Trump’s “America First” Is Failing the People It Promised to Serve Fellow Americans—especially those of you who voted for Donald Trump because you believed in draining the swamp, putting workers first, and making America great again—let’s talk straight. You didn’t sign up for chaos that hurts your wallet, divides your family, or makes the world laugh… Read more →

Why is the Trump Administration so stupid? They could accomplish great things—many things that Trump has promised—but they insist on going about it in all the wrong ways, alienating intelligent people, not learning from history, creating disruption for its own sake. They are not the party of the people or the working class. They are disrupting business, damaging America’s reputation… Read more →

—Now superseded (10/10/2025)— Here’s a draft of a query letter and summary for Possible Planet: Pathways to a Habitable Future, tailored to Jennifer Herrera (or a similar literary agent). Feel free to refine, adapt, or ask for multiple versions depending on tone, length, or emphasis. [Your name & contact info] [Address] [Email] [Phone] [Date] Jennifer Herrera c/o David Black Agency… Read more →