A Stable Diffusion glitch

 kw: observations, generated images, simulated intelligence, hallucinations

While creating an image to illustrate the prior post, an image was presented that had an odd-looking hand holding a distorted microphone. I was using Playground's Stable Diffusion engine. Even though Playground has a stock of "negative prompts" (stuff to avoid) including "deformed", "distorted", "poorly drawn hands", "missing fingers", this peculiar item still showed up. But it was just one out of 28 images produced, so the percentage isn't awful.

This is about 15% of the total image.

8 quicker stories, and one passed over

 kw: story reviews, science fiction, fantasy, anthologies, ragpickers, faithfulness, obsession, cryptozoology, scams, fantastical maladies, hallucinations, exobiology

The next set of stories (in The Best of World SF, Volume 1, edited by Lavie Tidhar), which eventually totaled nine, were a bit shorter than those that went before, and I had a little more time to read today. I also focused more on the ideas, since most of these were less lyrical.

"DUMP" by Cristina Jurado, translated by Steve Redwood. Large trash dumps, particularly in Third World countries, have residents who scrounge useful stuff. This story's trash dump is bigger than most cities, with hierarchies of ragpickers. One has her life turned around in an unexpected way.

"Rue Chair" by Gerardo Horacio Porcayo. The story started dark and got darker. A few sentences in I skipped the rest. There are places I am unwilling to be taken.

"His Master's Voice" by Hannu Rajaniemi. Multiple levels of flashback keep the reader off balance, as a pet dog and cat learn (fast) the technologies needed to rescue their Master, who happens to be either a cloned person or the cloner, I couldn't tell for certain.

"Benjamin Schneider's Little Greys" by Nir Yaniv, translated by Lavie Tidhar. Sometimes hypochondria is a mask for real maladies. This one happens to be contagious, and very mysterious.

"The Cryptid" by Emil Hjörvar Peterson. Here a Cryptid is a possible cryptic creature, not verified, as distinguished from a Wonderbeast, a verified being, possibly from another dimension.

"The Bank of Burkina Faso" by Ekaterina Sedia. We know the ploy, "My deceased uncle left a large sum in Bank X, which can only be accessed with the help of a non-National such as yourself." What if two people have such stories, focused on the same Bank X, and the stories are true, and they meet and join forces? In this case it requires teaching stray dogs to dream.

"An Incomplete Guide to Understanding the Rose Petal Infestation Associated With Ever Typhoid Patients in the Tropicool IcyLand Urban Indian Slum" by Kuzhali Manickavel. One must let go and swim through sentences of utter unreality, couched in medical terms.

"The Old Man with the Third Hand" by Kofi Nyameye. Is the protagonist real and her imaginary friend a figment, or is it the other way around? This has a happier ending than I at first expected.

"The Green" by Lauren Beukes. The planet is remote, the plants and animals exponentially deadlier than any to be encountered on Earth. Yet harvesting them has become a necessity for the miraculous products to be found therein. How to cope?

Some good and interesting ideas. Others, I have yet to discern. All (but one) worth the reading. There are but three stories left in the book, but one is another novella (85 pp).